Blue-Eyes White Dragon, summon!
The dragon's presence swept across the land, the storm it whipped up seemed like the sky itself was venting its fury. Sand and stones flew within the dueling arena, as if even dust particles were cleaned out by the furious wind, making way for the Dragon-Type King's appearance.
The white dragon slowly descended, its flapping wings stirring up a hurricane. It elongated its neck, raised its head, and emitted a sky-shaking roar that even the dense clouds seemed to retreat from in fear.
That is the pressure of the White Dragon.
Perhaps only by standing in the arena and facing the White Dragon personally, Youyu could truly experience this trembling feeling transmitted through the virtual image.
That's not a pressure that ordinary monsters can compare to.
The power of monster spirits cannot simply be judged by attack power or practical value. Blue-Eyes White Dragon is the best example, although it's merely a 3000 attack white board, the pressure it exerts often creates an illusion of facing a divine beast.
"Hahaha! Bow before the power of the Blue-Eyes!" The president continued to boast, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon's attack! Burst Stream of Destruction!"
The silver-white dragon opened its mouth, powerful surging energy brewing within.
A burst energy sphere with a lightning trajectory blasted out, instantly swallowing Sparking Man's body. Like a white light shattering all darkness, it crushed Sparking Man's body and majestically charged towards the other end of the night.
Youyu instinctively raised his arm in front of him, his body stepping back half a step under the impact.
[Youyu, LP 3850 → LP 3450]
"Hey, worthy of being the White Bride." He chuckled to himself, "The feeling really is different."
"Set a set card, then turn ends." Kaiba clenched his fist, "Come on, if you can defeat my Blue-Eyes White Dragon, try it!"
Youyu straightened his stance again.
"Draw card!"
With an attack power of 3000 points, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, "Any opponent can be crushed, and its destructive power is immeasurable" (card description).
Who the heck can withstand that?
Thus, Youyu decided to learn from the president, if in doubt, start with a Pot of Greed to calm nerves...
"Pot of Greed activated!" Youyu continued to play the Forbidden Card, "Draw two cards from the deck!"
He glanced at the drawn cards, suddenly feeling the urge to laugh.
"Then the second 'Pot of Greed', drawing two more cards from the deck!"
Any player who has played cards should know, the most satisfying thing in the world is drawing Pot of Greed after Pot of Greed...
Just like now, Youyu was in such a state.
"Then I'm going, president!" Youyu exclaimed, "The monster I'm going to summon first... 'Skilled Black Mage'!"
The magician in the long black robe appeared in the arena with the light and shadow effects of the hologram. He wore a top hat, holding a black magic staff, tightly wrapped in the robe, shadows covering half of his face, making it difficult to see his true appearance.
Kaiba frowned slightly.
A magician?
Turns out this kid's deck isn't entirely the "Elemental Hero" series?
And magician... tends to make President Kaiba have some special associations.
"Next is Magic Card - Fusion Recovery!" Youyu played the next card, "Returning the Magic Card - Polymerization in the graveyard, and the Elemental Hero Sparkman sent to the graveyard as fusion material back to the hand."
Kaiba folded his arms, watching him operate.
Fusion Recovery... still planning to use fusion for attack?
He noticed the "Skilled Black Mage" on Youyu's field, at that moment the first of the three spell counters on its staff lit up.
"Next is Magic Card 'E - Emergency Call'! Choose a Hero Monster from the deck and add it to hand... what I want to add to hand is, 'Elemental Hero Featherman'!"
Youyu sent the magic card to the graveyard area of the Duel Disc, found Featherman from the deck, and added it to his hand.
Kaiba noticed another spell counter on the staff of "Skilled Black Mage" lit up.
Youyu immediately inserted the next card into the Duel Disc: "Magic Card - Polymerization activated, fusing Elemental Hero Sparkman in hand, and the wind attribute Elemental Hero Featherman!
Fusion Summon! Elemental Hero Great Tornado!"
Fury winds howled, a black cloud image was projected in mid-air. A funnel-shaped tornado descended with lightning, the storm hero emerged from it, his cape flailing in the wind.
[Elemental Hero Great Tornado, Attack Power 2800]
"Great Tornado's effect!" Youyu waved his arm, "Upon fusion summoning, all of the opponent's monsters' attack and defense points are halved!"
"Blue-Eyes White Dragon's attack power is halved?" Kaiba gently bit his teeth.
[Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Attack Power 3000 → Attack Power 1500]
Meanwhile, the third spell counter on the staff of "Skilled Black Mage" had already been lit.
"You must have noticed too." Youyu smiled lightly, "Skilled Black Mage's special ability, whether it's my side or the opponent's side, each time a Magic Card is activated a 'Spell Counter' is placed.
And when the magician's staff accumulates three counters, his true power will be unleashed.
Here we go! I'll use the 'Skilled Black Mage' with three counters as a tribute, special summon from the deck—
——Dark Magician!"
"What!?" Kaiba was startled.
The magician's figure disappeared from the arena amid a blue glow, a red shadow flew out from Youyu's deck.
Magic power stirred up a vortex like blood mist on the ground, the red silhouette ascended into the sky, an emerald green magic staff agilely spun in its hand, releasing magic power that seemed to divide the space into a realm of magic, rivaling the White Dragon's pressure.
"'Dark Magician'..." Upon seeing this monster, Kaiba was briefly dazed.
Undoubtedly, the president must have thought of his comrade... or rather, his rival Dark Yugi.
Yet he quickly refocused on the ongoing duel.
Even though it's the same card name, this one is clearly not the "Dark Magician" in Yugi's hand.
The Dark Magician in Yugi's hand is the black one, this one is red, the president indicated that he's certainly not colorblind and could tell the difference.
"Dark Magician, attack Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Youyu ordered directly.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon roared fiercely, seemingly wanting to retaliate against the shadow of this rival before it. But now its attack power had been halved by Great Tornado's effect, powerless to retaliate before Dark Magician.
The dark magic impact effortlessly dispelled the light wave spat by the White Dragon. The dragon's body was pierced through, lamenting as it fell, turning into fragmented images and faded away.
[Kaiba Seto, LP 1500 → LP 500]
"Wow, how powerful!" The little companions watching were unsettled again.
"Hey, hey, at this rate this kid might really defeat Kaiba Seto!"
"Even such a Legendary Level monster like Blue-Eyes White Dragon can be defeated?"
"That guy's LP is only 500 left, and we've got over three thousand life points! It's already a one-sided situation!"
But Youyu was not as optimistic as they were.
"Set two cards face-down." Youyu said, "Turn ends."
In the eyes of Youyu and most Yu-Gi-Oh physical card players, LP is actually completely inconsequential.
The health in this game is a highly deceptive thing. Sometimes you see the opponent's life like a candle in the wind, yet you just can't kill them no matter what. Other times even if you have 8000 LP thinking it's all stable, you get killed by the opponent in one turn...
Thus, despite the apparent disparity in life points, Youyu didn't care about this gap at all.
However, he did feel he had gained an absolute advantage, not because of LP, but due to hand resources.
Kaiba's hand had already been used up with not a single card left, according to experience playing physical cards, this situation should basically be a direct surrender.
But considering the opponent is Kaiba himself, Youyu had an ominous premonition...
"My turn, draw!"
Kaiba drew the next card forcefully, and let out a standard three-part laugh.
"Hahaha, indeed, Fate's goddess has favored me once again! I activate Magic Card - Card of Demise! Due to this card's effect, I draw until I refill my hand to five cards! Only after the fifth of my own preparation phases, I must discard all hand cards!" (Anime effect)
Youyu almost spat out old blood.
... This is why it's completely meaningless for players to painstakingly calculate card deficiencies and resource gaps in front of NPCs.
Because the NPCs get to cheat.