Clayman: Master, when will I be able to make an appearance again? (╯︵╰)

“Whoa! I didn’t expect it to be the card ‘Noble Power of the Hano Knight’!”

Seizing the moment while Gaika was swept up by the cosmic whirlwind, Youyi’s sharp eyes caught a glimpse of Gaika’s card image and immediately understood what card it was.

“Noble Power of the Hano Knight?”

Divine Shield—Mirror Force—was Gaika’s own card name. Who was this Hano Knight that the president mentioned? Why claim that this unknown entity possesses noble power?

“Never mind.”

Seeing that Shuzo Otaki didn’t get his reference, Youyi didn’t bother to explain further. Instead, he turned his gaze to his own hand cards, contemplating his next move.

“Magic card ‘Angel’s Charity’: draw three cards, then discard two.”

Using the effect of Angel’s Charity, Youyi discarded the Hero Barrier, which was basically useless now, as he had already decided to help Shuzo Otaki realize the idea in his heart this turn—an OTK!

“Next, the exclusive quick-play magic card of Bubble Man, ‘Bubble Disturbance’! Switch my Bubble Man and your Double-Headed Shark to defense position!”

Bubble Man’s own strength wasn’t very high. Without his exclusive magic card, “Bubble Blaster,” his main role on the field was to activate an effect comparable to the “Pot of Greed,” drawing two additional cards for the owner.

“Tsk!”

Switching to defense meant that the 1000 attack points Shuzo Otaki had painstakingly added using “Jet Engine” were now useless. After all, Double-Headed Shark’s defense was only 1600, so any monster with over 1600 attack could easily send it to the graveyard.

“But the effect of Bubble Disturbance isn’t over yet! Use Bubble Man itself as a tribute, and special summon another Elemental Hero monster from my hand!”

Youyi’s hand was still missing one key Elemental Hero spell card—Fusion!

Therefore, with the special summon of Flame Wingman, its effect activated, searching the Fusion spell from the deck to hand.

“Activate the magic card ‘Hero Mask’ on Flame Wingman. Send ‘Elemental Hero Avian’ from my deck to the graveyard. Until the end of this turn, Flame Wingman’s card name can be treated as Avian.”

On the field, the mask resembling Avian’s head was placed on Flame Wingman’s face. A sudden gust of azure wind blew, and Flame Wingman’s form slowly transformed into Avian, who had been sent to the graveyard.

“At the same time, activate the effect of the deck commander ‘Elemental Hero Heat Lady’! Once per turn, I can add an ‘Elemental Hero’ monster of the opposite gender from Heat Lady from the deck to my hand.”

Heat Lady was obviously female, so the hero to add had to be male. Earlier, Youyi used Hero Mask to turn Flame Wingman into Avian, so the next to add was naturally the eldest brother of the Fantastic Four—the Electrum Hero!

“Next is Heat Lady’s second commander effect! Also once per turn, I can add a fusion-related spell or trap card from the deck to my hand.”

Though just a normal monster, Youyi nonchalantly invoked two powerful support effects highly advantageous for the Hero series!

“Now! Fuse the three monsters—the deck commander ‘Elemental Hero Heat Lady’ on the field, ‘Elemental Hero Avian’ on the field, and ‘Elemental Hero Electrum’ in my hand!”

Avian, Heat Lady, Electrum—these three monsters’ bond and teamwork were something Youyi had already experienced back in the kingdom era during his battle with the Maze Brothers. Back then, he had only the fusion monster Flame Wingman, but now he had unlocked a further evolution from the system—the “Shining Flame Wingman”!

Some might say that Shining Flame Wingman is the fusion of Flame Wingman and Electrum Hero, and Flame Wingman is itself a fusion of Avian and Heat Lady. That means to evolve into the final Shining Flame Wingman, one would need Electrum Hero, Avian, Heat Lady, and two Fusions—a total of five cards!

Yet Youyi summoned Shining Flame Wingman with just one Fusion card. Isn’t that cheating?

Ah! You don’t know, do you? Apart from having a Fusion Recycle card in hand, even without it, Youyi could casually fuse Shining Flame Wingman!

It’s you guys who first created the “deck commander” outside the normal rules. Why can’t I, the president of Phantom Society and the first Duel King, casually fuse three monsters into the strongest form with just one Fusion?

Of course, the main reason is that the Shining Flame Wingman Youyi summoned wasn’t the OCG version from the system but his personally printed version unique to this world.

No need to fuse into Flame Wingman first—once the three Avian materials are gathered, you can fuse directly! Saving a Fusion card!

Naturally, this shortcut comes with a drawback—

“Shining Flame Wingman’s first effect! For every card in our graveyard with ‘Elemental Hero’ in its name, his attack increases by 300 points!”

Blazeman, Avian, Heat Lady, Electrum Hero, Bubble Man, Flame Wingman—a total of six cards bearing the name “Elemental Hero.”

If it were the OCG version of Shining Flame Wingman, his attack would rise another 300 points now due to Flame Wingman being in the graveyard!

Normally, missing that 300 attack boost from Flame Wingman wouldn’t be a big deal, but in a direct clash of attack points or breaking defenses over 4000, those 300 points become crucial!

However, at this moment, Shuzo Otaki was not yet qualified to let Youyi use the OCG version with that extra 300 attack boost!

“Targeting Shining Flame Wingman, activate the magic card ‘H-Heart of Heat’! Until the end of this turn, increase his attack by 500 points and grant piercing battle damage!”

“Gasp!”

Watching Shining Flame Wingman’s power climb steadily until it surpassed Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and was only 200 points shy of matching the ace monsters of the five great duelists, Shuzo Otaki couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.

An astonishing 4800 attack points, and with the magic card’s blessing granting piercing damage—though this attack wouldn’t defeat him, it would still deal a heavy blow!

“Final magic card: ‘Fusion Acceleration’! Go! Attack! Shining Shoot!”

Well, though it’s called a shoot, Shining Flame Wingman, propelled by his wings, closed in on the face-down Double-Headed Shark in the water and delivered a right and left hook combo, striking the shark’s upper and lower jaws.

“That’s as much damage as a direct attack from a Blue-Eyes White Dragon… that really hurts!”

Getting up from the ground and brushing off the ice shards clinging to him, Shuzo Otaki grimaced, baring his teeth.

‘You didn’t manage to OTK me this turn. Next turn will be your death!’

Indeed! On the next turn, Shuzo Otaki planned to use the second effect of his deck commander “Nightmare Penguin” to bounce Shining Flame Wingman back to Youyi’s Extra Deck!

No matter how strong the attack is, bouncing it back directly would leave Youyi helpless!

“Sorry, but you won’t get a next turn!”

As if reading his thoughts, Youyi shattered Shuzo Otaki’s delusion with a single sentence!

“My battle is far from over!”

“But… but you have no other monsters on the field to attack with.”

With only 1000 life points remaining, not too much, but not too little either, Shuzo Otaki was terrified that Youyi might suddenly special summon a monster with over 1000 attack during the battle phase, which would be fatal for his currently empty field.

“It’s not a second monster’s attack, but the effect of Shining Flame Wingman!”

Shining Flame Wingman slowly ascended into the air, rising until his form blocked the virtual sun above Shuzo Otaki’s head.

“Shining Flame Wingman destroys a monster in battle and inflicts damage to that monster’s controller equal to the destroyed monster’s attack points!”

Double-Headed Shark’s attack was already 1200, exceeding Shuzo Otaki’s life points. With his own magic card “Jet Engine” boosting it, the attack soared past 2000!

“Go! Shining Flame Wingman! Shining Flare Wingman!”

Blinding, scorching light comparable to sunlight radiated from Shining Flame Wingman’s entire body, enveloping the entire icy world.

“Ugh—!!!”