157 Henshin! Masked HERO!

Attacking the Dark Lady was one thing, since she was after all Yugi's monster. But launching an assault on Malefic Paradox Dragon—though temporarily stolen via card effects—would result in that card returning to Uncle Paradox's embrace as soon as the Battle Phase ended.

The reason for striking without hesitation was most likely... holding some card in hand capable of reviving Paradox Dragon.

Paradox Dragon was the first to be destroyed, and with a roar of release, it entered the graveyard.

Without Paradox Dragon, Yugi's side of the field was left with only the young maiden hero, Dark Lady. Her end would be no different from her companion, Ion Clamping Hero!

'Ah, what... my LP was actually locked at 1?'

Looking at his remaining triple-digit Life Points, Yugi was stunned. After a short while, he figured out why his LP had reached this specific state—Uncle Paradox's attack order was wrong!

Uncle Paradox had chosen to battle and destroy Ion Clamping Hero first, thereby inflicting 1900 points of battle damage. But the problem was that the moment Ion Clamping Hero entered the graveyard, Dark Lady's effect was triggered!

For every "Elemental HERO" monster in his graveyard, her own power would increase by 100 points.

Originally, before the battle began, Dark Lady had 2900 ATK. Now, as Ion Clamping Hero entered the graveyard, her power increased once again, reaching the exact same height as the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!

And it was precisely this 100-point boost that allowed Yugi to barely survive this turn, while simultaneously locking his Life Points down to the flickering flame in the wind!

If Uncle Paradox had attacked Dark Lady first, or attacked Malefic Paradox Dragon and then Dark Lady, Yugi's Life Points would have ended up like this:

4500 - 2900 - 4000 - the other remaining one - 2600 = 4000... wait, the math resulted in 100.

For Yugi, who had no defensive measures whatsoever this turn, those three stages of attacks should have been the final strike to end the duel!

"Life points like a candle in the wind... Hmph! I'll let you live for one more turn!"

Looking at Yugi's minimum triple-digit Life Points, Uncle Paradox let out a soft snort, set a card from his hand, and ended his turn.

"Phew~! That was close! Just 100 more attack points, and Master would have gone down right there!"

"It really was that close! But somehow, I have a feeling that Paradox deliberately left Yugi-kun with 100 Life Points."

Looking at Yugi's mere 100 Life Points and then observing the field of his opponent, Paradox, Yugi Yami felt that those three successive battles just now were not so simple.

"How so?"

"As a qualified duelist, I refuse to believe Paradox failed to calculate the final battle damage! Knowing Dark Lady's effect in advance, he still chose to attack Ion Clamping Hero instead of Dark Lady! Clearly, it was an intentional act to leave Yugi-kun with a glimmer of hope at 100 Life Points!"

Hailing from a ruined future world and wielding a dark deck born from a sinful world, such a Paradox leaving Yugi with 100 Life Points was likely meant to first give Yugi a shred of hope, only to shatter it with a single fatal blow in the subsequent turns! Driving people even deeper into the valley of despair!

"My turn, draw!"

On the field, Yugi also realized the meaning behind these 100 Life Points of his. No matter how bad Uncle Paradox's arithmetic might be, it wouldn't be poor enough to accidentally leave him with 100 LP; that was obviously deliberate on his opponent's part!

Since you, Uncle Paradox, chose not to finish me off in the previous turn, I won't be polite about using the opportunity you've handed me to show you what a dramatic comeback truly looks like!

"From my hand, I activate the Spell Card 'Hero Lives'! When there are no monsters on my side of the field, I pay half of my Life Points to Special Summon one Level 4 or lower 'Elemental HERO' monster from my Deck!"

His Life Points locked down even further!

And every time Hero Lives was used, there was no need to mention which monster Yugi would summon, right?

"Come forth! Elemental HERO Bubbleman!"

As expected! When lacking cards in hand, the best move was to summon the Pot of Greed in human form onto the field.

"Bubbleman's effect: when there are no other cards on my side of the field except him, I draw two cards from my Deck."

His hand size instantly rose to four cards, making a full deployment entirely possible.

"In Attack Position, I summon 'Elemental HERO Solid Soldier'!"

The Earth-attribute armored warrior took the stage once more.

"Next, using Solid Soldier's successful summon effect, I Special Summon the Level 4 HERO monster 'Elemental HERO Shadow Mist' from my hand!"

If the big brother of the HERO family was "Avian", then correspondingly, the big sister of the HERO family was "Shadow Mist"!

The dark-iron-armored young lady with flowing blue hair made her debut appearance, and her arrival signified the staging of an entirely brand-new HERO!

"When Shadow Mist is successfully Special Summoned, I can add one Quick-Play Spell Card with 'Change' in its name from my Deck to my hand."

While Yugi was searching his deck for a card, Jaden on the side had already grown excited:

"A 'Change' Quick-Play Spell... that means the brand-new HERO following Master's 'Elemental HERO' series is about to take the stage!"

Yugi Muto & Seto Kaiba: ???
A brand-new HERO?

"Targeting Bubbleman on the field, I activate the Quick-Play Spell 'Mask Change'! I send Bubbleman to the graveyard to Special Summon the Water-attribute Fusion Monster 'Masked HERO Acid' from my Extra Deck!"

Here it comes! The brand-new HERO Fusion Monsters succeeding "Elemental HERO"—the "Masked HEROes"! A HERO series whose appearance and names took inspiration from "Kamen Rider", one of Japan's three major tokusatsu genres.

Clad in blue armor, wielding a purple gun-like weapon, and bearing a large bronze insignia on his chest, the Masked HERO appeared.

Acid, reporting for duty!

"Acid's effect! When this card is successfully Special Summoned, destroy all Spell and Trap cards on the opponent's field! At the same time, reduce the ATK of all monsters on the opponent's field by 300 points! Strong Acid Corrosion!"

Glancing at Uncle Paradox's field layout, Acid took a brief aim and rapidly pulled the trigger three times. The purple gun-like weapon immediately fired three streams of liquid attack light imbued with powerful corrosive properties.

"At this instant, I activate the Quick-Play Spell 'Malefic Cross'! Until the end of the turn, one 'Malefic' monster in my graveyard is revived to my field, ignoring its summoning conditions!"

"Now! Return to my field, Malefic Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon!"

The monster Uncle Paradox chose to revive was not Malefic Paradox Dragon, which possessed the effect of suppressing the opponent's monsters' power, but rather the Malefic Catapult Cannon—a card that banished two of his own cards to banish all cards on the opponent's field and graveyard, possessing the ability to wipe out the opponent's resources.

He still had uses for Malefic Paradox Dragon, and the effect of "Malefic Cross" required banishing the revived monster during the End Phase. Furthermore, to minimize variables, he needed to banish all of Yugi's field and graveyard resources this turn! Leaving him not a shred of a chance for a comeback!

Following the revival of Malefic Catapult Cannon, Acid immediately pulled the trigger once more, firing a shot at the newly revived Malefic Catapult Cannon as well.

"Huh? Wait! Why hasn't the Field Spell 'Malefic World' been destroyed yet?"

After clearing the backrow and reducing the monsters' ATK, Yugi noticed that the plaza before him was still shrouded in the purple starry galaxy space projected by "Malefic World."

"A card condensed by the entire might of a world that has already perished—how could it possibly be destroyed so easily by a monster effect?!"

Uncle Paradox laughed aloud. How could the power condensed from a world be destroyed so easily? právě because it could not be destroyed, he had felt completely at ease activating it right at the start of the duel! And right up until now, he hadn't even needed to use a single card to protect his Field Spell!

"Tch!"

Seeing that "Malefic World" would not be destroyed by card effects, Yugi clicked his tongue. This version differed once again from the two versions of "Malefic World" he was familiar with! In those versions, they only possessed the power to search for "Malefic" cards, and to protect themselves from effects, they relied on the OCG-original Continuous Spell "Malefic Territory", which granted "Malefic World" immunity to being targeted by card effects.

Having completely resolved Acid's effect, his opponent Uncle Paradox couldn't help but trigger Malefic Catapult Cannon's effect once again:

"By banishing two monsters from my Deck—'Malefic Armed Dragon LV10' and 'Armed Dragon LV10'—from the game, I banish all cards on your field and in your graveyard, President Yugi!"

What was being plundered from Chazz Princeton was not only his ultimate fusion monster "Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon", but also the ultimate monster of the "Armed Dragon" series obtained from the North Academy during his student days: "Armed Dragon LV10"!