Just as one wave subsides, another rises!

"Don't rush! The banished 'Fortune Lady Licht' has an effect that activates!"

With an upward curve of her lips, Carly reached toward her deck zone, drew a card from the middle layer, and placed it on the left grid adjacent to the spot where the banished Licht originally stood.

"When Licht's card-printing effect causes her to leave the field, she can summon a companion slumbering within the deck! And now is the time for my second 'Fortune Lady' to take the stage!"

"Come forth! The lady representing great fortune in fire—Fortune Lady Firty!"

Flames blazed as a young woman with a pink physique clad in a purplish outfit appeared, wielding a fiery staff in her hand.

"Firty's level is two, and her own power increases by 200 points for each level she gains."

"At the same time, the effect of the specially summoned Firty activates! When this card is successfully Special Summoned in Attack Position by the effect of a 'Fortune Lady' card, you can select one face-up monster on your opponent's field and destroy it!"

As Carly's opponent, the masked man only had one monster on his field: "Malefic Cyber End Dragon". The target for destruction went without saying.

"Along with destroying the monster, it inflicts damage to the opponent equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster!"

"Malefic Cyber End Dragon" had 4000 ATK, and a duelist's starting LP was also 4000. If this damage went through, the duel would end in a remarkably sloppy fashion!

At the same time, Carly would secure the first and only "OTK victory" of her dueling career!

However, having dared to challenge her and opening with a monster capable of outputting the highest attack power of any ordinary deck to attack her, would the masked man just sit back and watch himself lose in such a miserable way?

The answer was—

"At this instant, I discard the 'Junk Kuriboh' from my hand to the graveyard! The effect damage from monsters, spells, and traps is negated, and the card inflicting the damage is destroyed!"

It was a gray, spherical mechanical body with two large Phillips-head screws on either side of its head, blue cone-shaped decorations on top, behind, and along the sides of its body, and yellow markings on its face quite similar to Yusei's.

Junk Kuriboh—a member of the "Kuriboh" family, owned by Yusei Fudo in the manga, corresponding to the "Kuriboh deity" of each era's protagonist.

Yugi's Kuriboh from the DM era was the classic big brother who blocked combat damage once, while Jaden's Winged Kuriboh from the GX era possessed two small white angelic wings and could fend off any subsequent combat damage after being destroyed on the field.

As for Yugi—wait, no, what kind of Kuriboh didn't he have? In his own words, "As long as the era allows, I'll carry at least one of every kind of Kuriboh in my deck!"

Unlike the previous two big brothers who guarded against battle damage, Junk Kuriboh guarded against all effect damage!

"Boom!"

As Junk Kuriboh self-destructed to block the damage, Carly's hard-summoned Firty was miserably sent packing!

Why miserable?

Because the Special Summon effect of "Fortune Lady Firty" processes "destroying the monster" and "inflicting damage" simultaneously. If the subsequent damage was negated and destroyed by "Junk Kuriboh", it meant the preceding effect of "destroying one face-up monster on the opponent's field" could not be applied either.

Thus, Firty had merely been traded for a hand-trap Junk Kuriboh, failing to resolve the biggest immediate problem: the attacking "Malefic Cyber End Dragon"!

"At the instant Firty was destroyed, the Trap Card 'Fortune Inheritance' activates! During the Standby Phase of my next turn, I can Special Summon up to two 'Fortune Lady' monsters from my hand!"

With six cards in her opening hand—three "Fortune Lady" monsters and three Trap cards—she only needed to stall until her next turn to summon the ace monsters of her "Fortune Lady" archetype!

"And then what? You still have to face the 4000 damage from 'Malefic Cyber End Dragon'!"

She thought Carly's played card was something special, but it turned out to be just a trap card to facilitate her next turn's plays. Yet under the current circumstances, if she couldn't block the Malefic End Dragon's attack, where would the next turn come from for her to make any plays? She must be daydreaming!

"I said, don't rush!"

Clearly holding the disadvantage, Carly maintained a leisurely and unhurried demeanor, as if the 4000 damage from the Malefic End Dragon was destined never to hit her.

"Since the attack of 'Malefic Cyber End Dragon' was changed to a direct attack, I activate the second effect of the Continuous Trap Card 'Dimensional Prison' that I started with! I send this face-up card from the field to the graveyard."

"At the same time, its final power calls back the monster it banished!"

As Dimensional Prison left the field, the banished Lady of Light, Licht, flew out from the dimensional vortex gate and returned to Carly's side of the field in Defense Position.

"Since it's not a negation of battle, then bear the piercing defense damage of 'Malefic Cyber End Dragon'!"

Hearing that the subsequent effect of the Continuous Trap Card "Dimensional Prison" triggered upon an opponent's monster's direct attack, the masked man's brow twitched slightly beneath his mask.

Just when he thought Dimensional Prison was being sent to the graveyard by her own hand to cancel the Malefic End Dragon's attack, he hadn't expected it to resummon the monster banished when the card was first activated.

Hoh, well played!

Without knowing the effect of "Malefic Cyber End Dragon", regardless of your monster's battle position, as long as its ATK or DEF value didn't exceed 4000, it would chunk a significant portion of your Life Points!

"A monster that is easily Special Summoned and possesses a massive 4000 ATK also has a 'piercing defense' effect?!"

Hearing that the Malefic End Dragon possessed piercing defense, Carly's eyes widened in shock.

Are you kidding me?! You can Special Summon it just by sending the corresponding extra deck monster to the graveyard, and with such an easy summoning condition, having 4000 attack points was one thing, but now it even carried the "piercing defense" effect that low-defense monsters feared the most?! Damn it, do they even let people duel happily anymore?!

At that moment, Carly's mood was extremely volatile! If she weren't a girl, she would have wanted to open her mouth and hurl a stream of colorful profanities right at the masked man behind her!

But it didn't matter! She still had a set card!

"Trap Card 'Wall of Thorns' activates!"

Watching her Licht get destroyed by battle and the piercing damage about to land on her, Carly activated her final set card. A transparent barrier materialized, blocking the piercing damage of the Malefic End Dragon.

"During damage calculation when I take battle damage, in order to reduce that battle damage to 0, I must send cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard to offset it! For every 500 points of battle damage, I must discard one card from my deck."

4000 - 200 = 3800 battle damage. 3800 ÷ 500 = 7.6 cards. Furthermore, the effect of "Wall of Thorns" required discarding a card even if the damage was less than 500! Therefore, to negate this battle damage, Carly had to discard eight cards from the top of her deck!

As eight cards moved from her main deck into the graveyard, the piercing damage of the Malefic End Dragon shrank smaller and smaller until it completely dissipated with the entry of the final card!

"Tch! I didn't expect it to be this card!"

Looking at the "Wall of Thorns" gradually turning into particles and entering the graveyard, the masked man clicked his tongue in annoyance.

As long as there were enough cards in the deck, one could negate damage while simultaneously dumping cards into their own graveyard. If he were facing a deck centered around a "mill-to-graveyard" strategy, the masked man would practically be playing into his opponent's hands!

"I set three cards and end my turn!"

Only one "Malefic" monster could be face-up on the field at a time, leaving no room for a second companion to survive, so he had no choice but to set cards and end his turn.

"Hoo!"

Hearing the "End Turn" declaration from the masked man, Carly, who was riding ahead, finally let out a sigh of relief. During that very turn, she felt as though she had been repeatedly jumping back and forth across the threshold between "Hell" and "Earth"!

Dimensional Prison banished Licht and summoned Firty, and just when she thought blowing up the Malefic End Dragon would end the game in one turn and secure the first "OTK victory" of her life, her opponent dropped the hand-trap monster Junk Kuriboh! It negated the damage, preserved the Malefic End Dragon, and destroyed Firty!

Just as she used Dimensional Prison's subsequent effect to summon back Licht, thinking she could rely on defense to weather a wave of battle, the masked man on the opposite side informed her that the Malefic End Dragon—a monster combining "easy deployment" and "high attack"—also possessed a "piercing defense" effect!

This sequence of events left Carly completely dumbfounded! If she hadn't remembered her set card and activated it in time, her Life Points would have dropped to an extremely perilous level—200 LP!

Why had she set "Wall of Thorns"? Aside from their primary combat effects, her "Fortune Lady" monsters relied entirely on their own levels for their stat numbers! Once their levels were reduced or their effects negated, their ATK and DEF, marked as "?" on their cards, would become meaningless "0" on the field!

In a desperate situation where even a wall wouldn't hold, Carly had placed three copies of Wall of Thorns in her deck! It could mill the graveyard, block damage, and trigger the effect activation of the "Fortune Lady" series' sole Tuner monster! It could truly be called a "divine card."

She also had quite a few other damage-blocking cards of this type tucked away in her deck.

"My turn, draw!"

Having survived the masked man's turn, Carly finally welcomed her second turn!

*Click!*

The two duelists' Speed Counters increased by one at this exact moment.

"Because of the effect of the Trap Card 'Fortune Inheritance' from last turn, during the Standby Phase, I can Special Summon up to two 'Fortune Lady' monsters from my hand!"