Chapter 121: The Game That Seized the First Blood of Seahorse!

“Quick-Play Spell ‘Secret Ritual of Dark Magic’ activated!”

As the card was placed upright, the duel field manifested the ritual instruments of the Dark Magic clan—two golden staffs resembling ancient scepters, each seemingly a millennium old.

Above these golden staffs appeared a circle inscribed with arcane dark magic runes, merging into a swirling summoning array.

This spectacle signified the activation of ‘Secret Ritual of Dark Magic,’ representing the card’s dual effect: both ritual summoning and fusion summoning.

“Secret Ritual of Dark Magic has two effects—one related to ritual summoning, the other to fusion summoning,” the duelist explained as they sent one of the remaining two cards in their hand, along with the Queen Knight lying face-down on the duel disk, straight to the graveyard.

The moment both monsters were sent to the graveyard, the scene on the field shifted—the golden staffs symbolizing the ritual summoning vanished, leaving only the fusion summoning array swirling above.

“Fusion Summon—Dark Magician Knight!”

A majestic purple steed bore upon its back a formidable magic knight wielding twin spiral guns.

“Dark Magician Knight requires my ace monster, ‘Dark Magician,’ and a Warrior-type monster as fusion materials.”

“Just now, I used the Quick-Play Spell ‘Secret Ritual of Dark Magic’ to send the ‘Dark Magician’ from my hand and the ‘Queen Knight’ on the field to the graveyard as fusion materials.”

‘Secret Ritual of Dark Magic’ is a Quick-Play Spell card with Spell Speed 2, whose effect perfectly bypasses the usual restriction that fusion monsters of Level 7 or higher cannot attack during the turn they are summoned.

“An attack power of 2800 is still no match for my Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Game on!”

The Quick-Play Spell ‘Secret Ritual of Dark Magic,’ which can be activated during the opponent’s turn for both ritual and fusion summoning, completely exceeded Kaiba’s expectations.

Yet, upon seeing the opponent’s 2800 attack points, Kaiba remained confident. As long as it couldn’t surpass his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, even using Quick-Play Spells to avoid monster destruction and summon new monsters was futile.

“Don’t be so sure, Kaiba. I haven’t even told you its effect yet,” the duelist interrupted once more.

“The attack power of Dark Magician Knight increases according to the total number of Spell and Trap cards on both players’ fields and in their graveyards.”

At that moment, neither side had any face-down cards on the field, so Dark Magician Knight could not draw power from the field. But do not forget—it can absorb the strength of cards already used in the graveyard!

“I have six Spell and Trap cards in my graveyard,” the duelist declared.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the residual energies of those six cards—comprising the Normal Spells ‘Polymerization’ and ‘Angel’s Grace,’ the Quick-Play Spells ‘Semi-Lock’ and ‘Fusion Dissolution,’ the just-activated ‘Secret Ritual of Dark Magic,’ and the Normal Trap ‘Fusion Preparation’—rose from the graveyard and were absorbed by Dark Magician Knight, empowering it.

“In your graveyard, Kaiba, there are ‘Pot of Greed,’ which lets you draw two cards, and ‘Bottomless Trap Hole,’ which failed to destroy the Heavenly Knight.”

“Therefore, Dark Magician Knight’s final attack power is—”

Far surpassing the might of Blue-Eyes White Dragon!

“Tch!”

Kaiba’s two cards in hand were neither Quick-Play Spells that could increase his monsters’ strength nor ones that could weaken the opponent’s monsters. Gritting his teeth, he set one card face-down and ended his turn.

“My turn. Draw!”

“I activate ‘Pot of Greed’ to draw two cards... Then I activate the Spell ‘Earthquake’! All face-up monsters on the field change to Defense Position!”

The violent tremors rippled through the entire field; even the mighty Blue-Eyes White Dragon was forced to lower its body and assume a defensive stance.

“I switch Dark Magician Knight to Attack Position. Also, because I activated two Spell cards this turn and you have a face-down card on your field, his attack power increases by another 300 points!”

Just 100 points short of becoming a top-tier monster rivaling the colossal God Machine in pure strength!

“Dark Magician Knight! Attack Kaiba’s XZ-Cannon! Dark Magic Spiral Blast!!”

For his first assault, the duelist targeted Kaiba’s fusion monster XZ-Cannon, primarily because its effect was overwhelmingly powerful—so long as Kaiba had cards in hand, it could destroy any of the opponent’s backrow cards without limit!

Even the duelist himself could not guarantee that every card Kaiba set was one that could be activated at will without timing restrictions, so eliminating this fusion monster early was crucial.

“Game↑! Just as you declared your attack, my face-down card ‘Destiny Voyage’ activates successfully!”

As Dark Magician Knight galloped across the field, raising its spiral twin guns to pierce the steel frame of the XZ-Cannon, a vortex connecting to another dimension suddenly appeared. Before the spiral guns could strike, the XZ-Cannon was whisked away into the swirling portal.

Dark Magician Knight: ?

Where did it go... no, where’s the iron frame? How could such a massive cannon just vanish?

“Destiny Voyage negates the opponent’s monster’s attack once and temporarily removes my targeted monster from play until the next Standby Phase.”

Kaiba’s lips curled into a smile as he explained his card’s effect, but moments later, his eyes widened in shock— the XZ-Cannon, which had been sent to another dimension to avoid the attack, had returned to his field!

“W-what’s going on?”

Looking at the XZ-Cannon back on his side, Kaiba was utterly baffled. Hadn’t the trap card successfully removed it? How could it reappear now?

“Kaiba→! Who told you your trap card activated successfully?”

“What?”

Kaiba’s confusion deepened. There was no face-down card on the field this turn, and besides trap cards, the only cards that could be activated during the Battle Phase were Quick-Play Spells with Spell Speed 2. In his experience, he had never seen any Quick-Play Spell that could negate the activation of a trap card.

“Dark Magician Knight has another effect—when a Spell, Trap, or Monster effect targeting a card on the field is activated, I can discard one card to negate and destroy that effect!”

“Bang!”

With a shot fired, empowered by the cost paid, Dark Magician Knight pierced Kaiba’s trap card. Then, under Kaiba’s resentful gaze, it spiraled its twin guns to destroy the XZ-Cannon, inflicting piercing damage despite its defense posture.

“Dark Magician Knight’s final effect: when attacking a Defense Position monster, if its attack exceeds that monster’s defense, it inflicts damage to the opponent equal to the difference!”

With that, the duelist became the first to draw blood in this match, breaking the deadlock that had kept both players’ life points locked.

“My turn ends here.”