The spotlights above the track flared to life, and the stands erupted in deafening cheers. Dragan rode his dark D-Wheel slowly into the track, and the moment he took off his goggles to reveal the "Rune Eye" glowing with runic light, a wave of astonished exclamations surged through the audience. At the same time, Yugen's D-Wheel slid onto the starting line from the opposite direction, drawing another burst of heated commotion from the stands.
The two D-Wheels lined up side by side. Dragan shot Yugen a sidelong glance, narrowed his eyes and laughed, "Fujiki Yugen, just what are you?"
"Hm?" Yugen looked at him, speaking in a relaxed tone, "I'm just me."
Dragan shook his head. "We couldn't find any record of your past Duels. A Duelist as strong as you couldn't just pop out of nowhere.
Unbelievable. My 'Rune Eye' tells me you're a dangerous guy, but I still can't see why exactly you're dangerous."
As he spoke, symbols like Northern European runes surfaced again in his iris. That was the "Rune Eye," a power all three members of the Twilight of the Gods Team possessed, just like the Dragon Seals born by the messengers chosen by the Red Dragon.
That eye was the very proof that they were messengers chosen by the gods.
"An opponent even the 'Rune Eye' can't see through... honestly, this is a first for me." Dragan asked, "Who are you? Why did you come to WRGP... or rather, why are you entering alone?"
"Why else? To push my limits." Yugen smiled.
"Is that so..." Dragan still didn't look entirely convinced, but he went on, "I don't know what you're trying to do through this tournament, but give it up.
You're strong, I can see that much. But no matter how strong, there is absolutely no Duelist in this world who can fight to the very end with three gods as opponents. If you really want to use this Duel to measure your limits, then we'll oblige you—today's Duel will make you understand exactly that."
While the two talked, the hover plates on the track had already entered the start countdown.
Both of them twisted the throttle hard, engines revving, their D-Wheels roaring like two beasts bristling at each other, ready to pounce at any moment.
"Riding Duel, Acceleration!" x2
[Yugen, LP4000]
[Dragan, LP4000]
The two D-Wheels shot out at the same time like arrows from the string, turning into twin meteors streaking into the track.
And of course, like always in a Riding Duel, the opponent gets the first turn. Yugen figured a King's gotta have a King's demeanor: let the other side perform first, then take them down from the back foot—that's how a King Duels.
Definitely not because his riding skills aren't good enough to抢 the first turn...
"First turn is mine. Draw!"
Dragan shouted.
"I summon 'Pole Star Beast - Tangris Nier'!"
A vortex of starlight opened up, and a flash of white Lightning burst out from the vortex, landing beside Dragan's D-Wheel. Light and electricity gathered together, taking shape as a white goat that galloped along on one side of his D-Wheel.
[Pole Star Beast - Tangris Nier, Attack Power 1200]
Then Dragan slammed down three cards from his hand all at once.
"I set three cards in my back row and end my turn!"
The mohawk commentator immediately shouted with passion, "Oh, three set cards on the very first turn! Looks like Dragan is laying down a solid iron-wall formation right off the bat, making full preparations. He's not letting their absolute three-on-one advantage make him careless at all!"
Yugen clicked his tongue as well. "Three set cards, that scary, huh?"
The main reason everyone scrambles for the first move is because going first gives you the right to set up your field in advance. For example, you go first and set five cards in the back row, and all five are powerful Traps—then whatever the player going second tries to do, it's a pit with every step, they basically can't move.
Back in early Yu-Gi-Oh!, the main form of first-turn disruption was basically various Traps, so while first turn did have an advantage, it still wasn't that overwhelming.
But as the meta sped up more and more, in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! you don't even need Traps for negation. The first player spends five minutes storytelling, summons a bunch of huge Monsters that can blow up cards and negate any effect during the opponent's turn; the second player only has six cards in hand, while the opponent's board basically has nine negates. You play a card and it gets negated, play another and it gets negated again—you literally can't play the Game at all.
That's also why later the Yu-Gi-Oh! rules changed to "the player going first can't draw a card," because the first-turn advantage really was too big and had to be nerfed. But even missing one card, actual play proved that going first still had an absolute advantage. There was even a period where Yu-Gi-Oh! was evaluated by card geeks as a "rock-paper-scissors game"—the moment the rock-paper-scissors result was decided, the Duel's result was basically decided too.
After all, Yu-Gi-Oh! is a very cruel Game—if one of the two players even gets to play at all, that's already pretty rare. Only the first player has the right to play cards; the second player makes some tea, snacks on sunflower seeds, zones out for a bit, and by the time they come back to their senses it's about time to cheerfully say GG.
Of course, those brutal formats haven't arrived yet; in this era, the player going second can still fight.
"My turn. Draw." Yugen said with a faint smile. "Facing the gods as opponents, huh? That does get me fired up. For this Duel today, I specially prepared the most fitting opponent for the gods."
"Most fitting for the gods?" Dragan raised an eyebrow.
The fact that the other guy liked to keep swapping between all kinds of weird Card Decks was something the Twilight of the Gods Team had looked into ahead of time. Because of that, Yugen's tactics were very hard to study and target.
But after discussing it among themselves, the three members of the Twilight of the Gods Team agreed that it didn't matter. No matter how the opponent changed Card Decks, they would remain unshaken. They had absolute confidence in their gods—any enemy would be crushed, never mind that the opponent was just one person.
So Dragan laughed again when he heard that. "Is that so? Then I'll look forward to it a little. But let me say this first: in this world, there is no such thing as something that can defeat the gods!"
"There are no absolutes in the world of Duels." Yugen said. "I summon 'Stupid Opossum'."
[Stupid Opossum, Attack Power 800]
"Stupid Opossum's effect: during your own Main Phase, if there is a Monster on your opponent's field face-up whose Attack Power is higher than this card's, this card can destroy itself."
Yugen pointed at the opossum that had just appeared.
"Play dead!"
The little opossum took one look at the goat on the opponent's field and immediately sucked in a sharp breath.
Attack Power twelve hundred!
Too scary!
So the opossum instantly rolled its eyes, flopped onto the ground, and lay there with its white belly facing the sky.
I must play dead at once!
Boom!
The opossum self-destructed and burst into a puff of black smoke.
"At this moment, the effect of 'Forest Guardian - Green Baboon' in my hand activates." Yugen said. "When a Beast Race Monster on your own field is destroyed, by paying 1000 Life Points, Green Baboon can be Special Summoned from your hand or Graveyard."
[Yugen, LP4000 → LP 3000]
"Come, Green Baboon!"