Chapter 524

"Then, I activate the Spell Card 'Fire Soul'!" Fujiki You Xuan said, "The opponent player draws one card from their deck to activate it.

Select one Pyro-type monster from your own deck to banish, and inflict damage to the opponent equal to half the ATK of the banished monster."

This was a Spell used by Axel in the original work when dueling Judai, capable of dealing massive damage to the opponent in one go by selecting a high-ATK Pyro monster. Moreover, this card was also included in the physical game very early on.

"Burn damage again?"

Melo frowned.

A battle hadn't even occurred yet; if this effect were to resolve as well, his Life Points could very likely be burned down to a precarious level within this short turn.

A Volcanic deck—is he trying to decide the outcome by burning LP directly?

A flash of insight crossed Melo's mind, as if he suddenly realized why the opponent chose this deck to decide the match.

The common characteristic of Gladiator Beasts is that they "return to the deck after battle and search for new companions from the deck to appear," and then the Gladiator Beasts can trigger various effects when they appear through the call of their companions.

The premise for everything is "after battle."

As long as the monsters of both sides engage in battle, the Gladiator Beast system can operate rapidly, dispatching almost any resource needed to deal with any situation and achieving absolute dominance on the field.

And because the effects of Gladiator Beasts are "activate by returning to the deck," they basically return to the deck instead of going to the Graveyard after attacking, so they also have considerable resistance to banishing effects like Macro Cosmos.

Even those traditional "underworld" cards could be incorporated into Gladiator Beasts, and they were once common in mainstream builds. With first-class operation, efficient resource dispatch, excellent offense and sustainability, great compatibility with heavy backrow, and no fear of mainstream "underworld" lockdowns—they could even incorporate "underworld" systems themselves. "Dimensional Gladiator Beasts" that incorporated banishing systems had also been active as a mainstream deck.

The strength of the archetype, combined with its excellent compatibility with "underworld" systems, is an important reason why it could win the world championship.

But what if the opponent doesn't fight you at all?

"Heh, avoiding battle to defend against Gladiator Beast effects—interesting." Melo chuckled, "The idea is good, but the power of the Gladiator Beasts is more than just this."

"I activate my face-down card, the Counter Trap 'Gladiator Beast War Chariot'!

Return one card with 'Gladiator Beast' in its name from my hand to the deck, and negate the activation of the Spell Card and destroy it!"

The face-down card in the backrow flipped up, and a beam of counter-light shot out, hitting the "Fire Soul" Fujiki You Xuan had activated in his backrow.

"The activation of Fire Soul is negated!"

"Fine then." Fujiki You Xuan didn't mind, "Then I will proceed to activate this Spell—

—the Continuous Spell 'Blaze Accelerator'!"

A massive steel cannon landed on Fujiki You Xuan's field, its long, dangerous-looking barrel pointed directly at Melo's field.

"Blaze Accelerator allows me to destroy one monster on the opponent's field by sending a Pyro-type monster with 500 or less ATK from my hand to the Graveyard."

Fujiki You Xuan revealed a card from his hand, showed it, and then sent it to the Graveyard.

"I send the Pyro-type monster 'Volcanic Shell' with 100 ATK from my hand to the Graveyard.

Ammo loaded, fire!"

The tiny Pyro-type shell, bathed in fire, transformed into cannon ammunition and loaded into the chamber of the Blaze Accelerator. The cannon filled with energy, flames swirled, and the shell transformed into a fireball that blasted straight out, piercing through the thick shield in the Gladiator Beast's hand with unstoppable momentum until the tiger-beast warrior was completely burned into a fireball.

Melo curled his lip.

Of course, he had prepared means in his backrow to defend against battle destruction, but that was limited to battle destruction only. Furthermore, even if he used a Trap to become immune to effect destruction, he still couldn't trigger the Gladiator Beasts' effects—Gladiator Beasts can only return to the deck to trigger effects after engaging in battle.

And Volcanic is precisely a deck focused on destroying cards and burning LP. Moreover, cards represented by Blaze Accelerator, and even that "Fire Soul" from just now, all have the common restriction that "you cannot attack the turn you activate them." It was very clear that there was almost no option for direct combat in this entire deck.

"I activate the effect of Volcanic Shell." Fujiki You Xuan said, "If this card is in the Graveyard, once per turn, I can pay 500 Life Points to add another 'Volcanic Shell' from my deck to my hand."

【Fujiki You Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3500】

The phantom of the Volcanic Shell in the Graveyard appeared, transformed into a ball of fire, and flew into Fujiki You Xuan's deck. The deck loaded in the Duel Disk looked as if it had caught fire, and then a card automatically popped out, which Fujiki You Xuan drew into his hand.

The second Volcanic Shell.

Melo's expression turned even colder.

The effect of the Continuous Spell Blaze Accelerator on Fujiki You Xuan's field is that he can discard a Pyro-type monster with 500 or less ATK from his hand to destroy the opponent's monster. Volcanic Shell satisfies this condition perfectly, and it also has the ability to self-search from the deck. In other words, it's an endless supply of ammunition.

No wonder its name is "Volcanic Shell"—it really is the ammunition of this deck in the literal sense.

Not only that, the effect of Blaze Accelerator does not have a "once per turn" restriction; as long as he has ammunition that meets the conditions in his hand, he can activate it as many times as he wants in a single turn.

In other words, next turn, Fujiki You Xuan can discard the shell in his hand to destroy one of his monsters. Then, use the shell sent to the Graveyard to search for another shell from the deck, and discard the newly searched shell to destroy another one. Next turn, Blaze Accelerator can destroy at least two of his monsters.

!. Read

Relying entirely on card-destruction effects to break the monster defensive line, and then burning the duelist's LP directly...

Melo bared his teeth, feeling a bit tricky for a moment.

This guy, is he really not planning to fight head-on for the entire duel?

"Set one card, turn end." Fujiki You Xuan said.

Melo's eyes narrowed even tighter.

As expected, he didn't even summon a monster.

Melo took a deep breath.

Fine, I'd like to see how long you can keep running away.

"My turn, draw!"

He glanced at his hand and revealed it directly.

"Spell Card 'Magical Mallet'—both players draw three cards from their deck." (Original card)

Melo drew his cards, then waved his hand and played a card from his hand.

"Normal Summon 'Gladiator Beast Laquari'!"

Flames swirled on the field, and the beast-warrior Gladiator Beast appeared in the flames, letting out a roar.

【Gladiator Beast Laquari, ATK 1800】

Laquari was probably one of the cards most wanted in hand in the earliest Gladiator Beast decks released back then. Its base ATK is 1800, and if Special Summoned by a Gladiator Beast's effect, it can rise to 2100.

Because all Gladiator Beasts must "trigger effects after battle," it was one of the key starting points for early Gladiator Beasts as a high-ATK, low-level quality attacker.

"If you don't want to fight, I'll attack until you can't avoid it!" Melo waved his hand, "Gladiator Beast Laquari, direct attack!"

(End of chapter)