113 Arrival! The Overlord of the Dragon Clan—the Five Divine Dragons! The Five Emperor Dragons!

“By the effect of the Spell Card ‘Stray Lambs,’ I Special Summon two ‘Lamb Tokens’ to my field!”

Two little lambs appeared on Tristan’s field—one white and one pink, one small and one large.

Stray Lambs was a Spell Card with an effect roughly similar to that of the Quick-Play Spell “Scapegoat,” which had Spell Speed 2. During the turn either card was activated, monsters could not be Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned by any means other than that card’s effect.

By using Stray Lambs now, Tristan clearly had no intention of summoning any ordinary monsters during his opening turn. He planned to rely on the two Lamb Tokens in Defense Position and hold out until his next turn.

“I’ll keep one card in my hand and Set the other four!”

Tristan Set four cards in one breath, bringing his opening turn to an end.

“My turn. Draw!”

Four face-down cards… practically rivaling Rishid’s field!

“First, I activate the Spell Card ‘Localized Hurricane’! Return all Set cards on your field to the Deck!”

Whether the opponent had Trap Cards or not, opening with a Hurricane was never a bad thing.

“I activate the Counter Trap ‘Solemn Judgment’! I negate the activation of Hurricane and destroy it! In exchange, you, the opponent, draw one card.”

Since the Duel Disk and Duel Cards were products of this virtual world created by Noah, the activation of Solemn Judgment did not produce the strange visual phenomenon that had occurred when Pandora used it against Yugi in their previous Duel.

Seeing the monster added to his hand thanks to Solemn Judgment, the corners of Yugi’s mouth lifted. Thanks to Tristan’s activation of the Counter Trap, he had obtained one turn early a card that, despite being a Dragon-Type monster, could still be counted among the “Heroes”!

“I Normal Summon ‘Keeper of Dragon Magic’ in Attack Position!”

Clad in sky-blue dragon armor and wielding a deep-blue dragon lance, the guardian that supported OCG’s “Red Dad”—Keeper of Dragon Magic—had arrived!

“When Keeper of Dragon Magic is successfully Summoned, I can discard one card from my hand to add one Normal Spell Card with ‘Fusion’ in its name from my Deck to my hand.”

Discarding Blade Edge, clad in golden armor, Yugi added the most ordinary “Polymerization” from his Deck to his hand.

“Next, I activate Keeper of Dragon Magic’s second effect! I reveal one Fusion Monster Card to my opponent, then revive from my Graveyard one Fusion Material Monster whose name is specifically listed on that Fusion Monster.”

Among the Elemental HERO Fusion Monsters that specifically listed Blade Edge as a Fusion Material, there were only two. Since Tristan currently had two Lamb Tokens in Defense Position, Yugi made his choice after a brief comparison.

“I reveal the Fusion Monster ‘Elemental HERO Wildedge’ to you. That allows me to use Keeper of Dragon Magic’s effect to revive the ‘Elemental HERO Blade Edge’ I discarded earlier to activate its first effect!”

Blade Edge had three common methods of appearing on the field.

The first was to use Necroshade’s effect in the Graveyard and Summon him without a Tribute.

The second was to revive him from the Graveyard, just as with Keeper of Dragon Magic’s second effect.

The third was to fuse him directly from the hand, causing him to flash into existence on the field.

“Spell Card ‘Polymerization’! I fuse the ‘Elemental HERO Wildheart’ in my hand with the face-down Defense Position ‘Elemental HERO Blade Edge’ on my field!”

Although Blade Edge had been revived by Keeper of Dragon Magic in face-down Defense Position, Yugi had announced the monster’s name before reviving it. Thus, even while face-down, it still fulfilled the requirements to be used as Fusion Material.

“Fusion Summon—Elemental HERO Wildedge!”

A massive warrior with Wildheart’s body as its foundation emerged. Blade Edge’s power became golden armor, clinging to Wildheart’s body for protection, while the blades on Blade Edge’s arms merged into Wildheart’s great sword. The weapon grew until it was nearly as large as Wildheart’s entire body!

“Under ‘Fusion Quick-Play,’ we battle! Wildedge, attack that white Lamb Token!”

“Haah!”

Drawing the enormous sword from his back, Wildedge leapt through the air and landed before Tristan. Facing such an adorably harmless monster, he brought the blade down without the slightest hesitation!

As Tristan struggled against the smoke and dust from the explosion, Yugi continued speaking.

“Wildedge’s effect allows it to attack every monster your opponent controls once!”

“What?!”

“Go! Infinity Edge Slicer!”

Wildedge did not return after his first attack. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the remaining large pink lamb.

The little creature looked up at him with a pitiful expression, but Wildedge showed no hesitation. He raised his sword and prepared to bring it straight down.

“I activate the Counter Trap ‘Negate Attack’!”

Seeing that his last line of defense was about to be destroyed, Tristan hurriedly activated his second Counter Trap. It saved the little lamb while forcibly ending Yugi’s Battle Phase.

I knew it!

He had chosen not to summon an ordinary monster, instead placing two Lamb Tokens with zero Defense Points on the field. There had to be a Spell or Trap Card prepared to counter attacks. Otherwise, if they encountered an enemy monster capable of piercing Defense Position, a single blow would probably cost him nearly half his Life Points.

With the Battle Phase forcibly ended, Wildedge could no longer attack. It performed a backflip and returned to Yugi’s side of the field.

At that moment, another card was activated on Tristan’s side.

“Quick-Play Spell ‘Scapegoat’! Just like Stray Lambs, it Special Summons four ‘Sheep Tokens’ to my field in Defense Position!”

In an instant, Tristan’s entire Monster Zone was packed. Of course, every one of those monsters was merely a Token—weak defensive fodder without any real ability to resist.

Five sheep-like Tokens… and two face-down cards remaining…

Looking at the arrangement on Tristan’s field, Yugi connected it to the ace monster belonging to the five men—the Five-Headed Dragon. After a moment’s thought, he understood what they had been preparing from the very beginning.

Unfortunately, the only card in his hand this turn that could affect the opponent’s back row had been the “Localized Hurricane” at the start. Now that Hurricane had been negated, Yugi was powerless to destroy those cards, even though he understood what Tristan intended to do.

“I Set two more cards and end my turn.”

“My turn. Draw!”

“I Set one card, then activate the most powerful hand-replenishing Spell Card—‘Card of Sanctity’!”

The only card Tristan had kept in his hand during the previous turn was the powerful hand-replenishing Spell Card. As for why he had not used it when he had only one card in hand while Yugi’s hand was full—well, had everyone forgotten that the five of them were “entertainment duelists”?

Of course, this referred to the five men’s dueling techniques and strength. Compared with a powerful duelist like Yugi, they were merely just competent. To give an example, they were roughly equivalent to the contestants in the preliminary rounds of this citywide tournament who were eliminated after obtaining only two or three Puzzle Pieces.

The anime portrayed them as forcing Yugi and Joey to use every trick they had, but what was the actual strength of the two protagonists’ Decks in that series?

Compared with the “Dark Magician” and “Red-Eyes” Decks that Pegasus had given Yugi and Yugi had given Joey as a token of friendship, the difference was enormous!

A pile of random cards and a true archetype Deck could both be powerful in Yugi’s hands, but an archetype Deck was unquestionably stronger!

But enough digression. Back to the Duel.

After replenishing his hand in one generous sweep, Tristan activated his three Set Cards in succession.

“Continuous Trap ‘DNA Surgery’! I change all five Tokens on my field from their original Beast Type into the Dragon Type I designate!”

The five little sheep retained their colors, but their bodies underwent a dramatic transformation in the hands of the demonic doctors performing the DNA Surgery.

Their adorable heads slowly thrust forward, forming squinting dragon faces. A pair of cute little wings sprouted from the centers of their bodies, while their thick wool gradually changed into hard dragon scales that reflected the light.

And so, the five Lamb Tokens became five Baby Dragon Tokens.

Just as I thought!

Looking at the five adorable young dragons on the opposing field and listening to Serenity and Téa cry out in alarm behind him, Yugi silently confirmed that his prediction had been correct.

Five-Headed Dragon—a powerful Fusion Monster that required five Dragon-Type monsters to Summon!

Since its Fusion Materials required five monsters, using Scapegoat and Stray Lambs over two separate turns had effortlessly solved the problem of gathering enough materials.

Next came the issue of their Types. As far as Yugi knew, whether in the OCG or the anime, there was only one Set Card capable of changing a monster’s Type:

DNA Surgery!

The demonic doctors had changed the five little sheep into young Dragons, solving the Fusion Material problem for Five-Headed Dragon with ease!

“I fuse the five Dragon-Type Tokens on my field! Here it comes! My strongest monster—Five-Headed Dragon!”

Black clouds gathered overhead as lightning flashed and thunder roared.

Five gigantic dragon heads, each seeming to look down upon all creation from the dawn of antiquity, emerged from the dark clouds!

Their enormous eyes swept across the entire arena, followed by five thunderous roars that scattered the black clouds across the sky.

“F-F-Five thousand Attack Points?!”

Facing that colossal form, towering like a skyscraper, Joey cried out in a trembling voice.

Whether it was Kaiba’s strongest monster, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, or the Egyptian God Yugi had kindly shown him once, Obelisk the Tormentor, neither could withstand this dragon head-on in a simple contest of strength!

“Are you already impressed?”

Tristan suddenly spoke those words.

Everyone who heard him, including Yugi, turned to look at him in unison.

Could it be… that he was capable of Summoning another monster comparable to Five-Headed Dragon?

“Now, open your eyes and watch carefully!”

As he spoke, Tristan pointed toward the card he had Set earlier in order to make the greatest possible use of Card of Sanctity.

“Ritual Spell ‘Ritual of the Evil Dragon’s Resurrection’! I activate it!”

Upon hearing the name of the card Tristan had declared, Yugi’s eyelid twitched, and the corner of his mouth involuntarily jerked.

Ritual of the Evil Dragon’s Resurrection…

It couldn’t be…

“Shushushushushush!”

Five sounds rang out as the five leaders of the five men’s Decks were projected into existence. They appeared in a pentagonal formation before everyone’s eyes.

“At this moment! The Earth-Attribute ‘The Judge’! The Water-Attribute ‘Nightmare Penguin’! The Fire-Attribute ‘Mechanical Commander’! The Wind-Attribute ‘Trickster’! The Dark-Attribute ‘Jinzo—Psychic Shocker’! I offer the five Deck Leader Monsters of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Dark as Ritual Tributes!”

The five monsters stood in a pentagonal formation as a pentagram-shaped magic circle appeared beneath them. The five Deck Leaders transformed directly into their most primal elemental energy, then were drawn together into the ritual magic circle.

“Five-colored elements, gather our resentment and bring forth an existence that will shatter the void! Descend! The supreme overlord who rules over all—Five-God Dragon!”

Five-God Dragon differed from Five-Headed Dragon by only a single word. Although the two were the same monster in both the anime and the OCG, it was obvious that, at this moment, they were two entirely different existences!

From Yugi’s observations, the Fusion version of Five-Headed Dragon—the complete OCG card—looked exactly like the original anime version and the OCG artwork, both in name and appearance. It possessed a massive yellow body and five dragon heads representing the power of the five elements. Overall, its proportions and aesthetics could not compare with Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

Five-God Dragon, on the other hand, was the anime’s Ritual Monster version. Yet its appearance was completely different. Instead, it resembled another monster from Yugi’s memories—Link Dragon!

The “Link Summon” version of Five-Headed Dragon, or perhaps Five-God Dragon!

The heads and body were still somewhat mismatched, but at least this form suited the title of “Overlord of Dragons” far better than the Fusion version.

…

Would any kind reader be kind enough to provide illustrations for Five-Headed Dragon and Five-God Dragon? Ideally, they would match the appearances of the two colossal dragons described by the author.

…

P.S. In the anime, Nightmare Penguin is a Wind-Attribute monster, while the Water-Attribute position is occupied by Warrior of the Deep. However, under the OCG rules, both monsters are Water-Attribute, which would not satisfy the summoning conditions for the Ritual version of Five-God Dragon.

Therefore, the author retained the clearly Water-Attribute Nightmare Penguin and changed Warrior of the Deep into the Wind-Attribute Trickster.

The section in the previous chapter introducing the five Deck Leaders was also adjusted slightly. The changes have little effect on the plot, so everyone may simply take note of them.