Misawa heard Hikaru's words. There was indeed an inexplicable familiarity. But this familiarity vanished from his mind in no time.
For a duelist, once dueling had begun, matters outside the duel could only be a distraction at most.
Dueling was for victory!
And compared to this, the most important thing was that since the dueling tactic was already running, there was no reason to change it on a whim.
Just like even in Hikaru's previous world, if someone chose to go for a top-G combo or OTK, they'd absolutely push through. Stopping halfway was worse than directly choosing to surrender.
"Because a Zombie-Type monster was Special Summoned on my field, Bone Tower's effect activates. Send the top two cards of the opponent's Deck to the Graveyard."
"Then, because a Mayakashi monster was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on my field, Dakki can also revive from the Graveyard."
"Begin, send the top two cards of your Deck to the Graveyard!"
Hikaru raised his brow and made no move. His left hand lightly extended. Cards automatically flew out from Hikaru's Deck, sent to the Graveyard.
"Because Dakki was Special Summoned, I can activate Card of Safe Return's effect, draw a card. At the same time, another Special Summon lets Bone Tower's effect activate again."
Hikaru shrugged, indicating he wasn't stopping Misawa's operation. At the same time, Hikaru's Deck was milled by two more.
Misawa drew a card from the Deck and glanced at it.
Double Summon.
He furrowed his brow slightly.
This was a sign of his memory recovering. Each time he encountered cards from his memory, he'd feel pain. And this Double Summon seemed very meaningful to himself.
During this time, with his memory loss, he'd actually been quite lost. He felt out of step with everything around him. So he often thought of recovering his memories.
But though he'd tried very hard, he still couldn't recover any memories at all.
Now, seeing this card, though slightly painful, this feeling quickly vanished without a sound.
Compared to this, what he focused on more was the duel itself.
"Using Level 3 Oboro-Guruma and Level 2 Dakki on the field, tune!"
"Synchro Summon, Tsuchigumo, the Poisonous Mayakashi!"
Oboro-Guruma split from the middle. A giant, mighty black spider, clad in armor like a general, landed on the field.
Tsuchigumo, the Poisonous Mayakashi. Level 5, EARTH Attribute, Zombie-Type. ATK 2000.
"As expected!"
"As expected, Synchro can continue?"
Yuto and Shay Obsidian weren't surprised. They were just thinking about this tactic.
Dakki's effect didn't seem to be once per turn.
"Bone Tower on the field and Dakki in the Graveyard's effects activate."
As expected, not a once-per-turn effect!
That Dakki could keep reviving, like the legendary nine-tailed fox demon!
Hikaru didn't mind either, just watched with interest as cards flew out from the Deck.
"Looks like there's no way to resolve this at all..."
"What to do? If this continues, most of the deck will be destroyed, right?"
Shay and Yuto discussed in low voices, feeling the scale of victory was tilting dangerously.
"Most?" Hearing their discussion, Misawa in the duel actually had the heart to be distracted. "That won't happen. Because my calculations will not have errors."
"Because of Dakki's revival, I destroy two cards in your Deck again, then draw a card."
Misawa slightly narrowed his eyes, then suddenly drew a card from the Deck. The forceful draw instantly made the entire dueling arena fill with eerie wind, as if real yokai were present.
He glanced at his hand.
"Here it comes."
The corners of his mouth rose.
"Looks like you drew a key card?" Hikaru casually said. "If that's the case, I'll also activate a card's effect."
?!
Hikaru lightly tapped the Graveyard with his right hand: "Among the 2 cards you sent to the Graveyard this time, there was this card."
"Monster Card, Shaddoll Dragon."
Shaddoll.
That series Hikaru had used before?
"When Shaddoll Dragon is sent to the Graveyard by an effect, target 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field to activate. Destroy that card."
"I destroy Card of Safe Return."
As the voice fell, the dragon circled by ominous jewels flew out from the Graveyard, roared, and crashed into Misawa's field. In an instant, the card on his field was shattered.
"Mm..."
Misawa furrowed his brow.
"He destroyed the card used to replenish the hand!"
"Whew, this way, at least Misawa can't freely draw cards anymore."
The audience nodded in succession.
Critical Spell destruction!
Misawa glanced at the card he'd drawn, laughed softly.
"Using monster graveyard-send effects for counterattack? Indeed a wise operation. But too late!"
"Spell Card, Double Summon!"
"After activating this card, I can conduct another Normal Summon!"
"Uh?" Shay Obsidian realized something.
"Could it be..."
"Normal Summon, Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower, the second one!"
Rumble rumble rumble...
The second Bone Tower rose on Misawa's field!
"The second one!?" Atticus Rhodes, who had just wanted to watch Misawa make a fool of himself, changed expression at the sight.
Similarly, Syrus, who'd previously thought nothing of it, couldn't help gasping.
Milling 2 at once versus milling 4 at once were completely different!
Double the mill speed, one Synchro Summon milled 8. Even though Hikaru's deck was full of various Graveyard effects, to bring out those cards' power, there was one prerequisite. That was still having cards!
If this turn, Misawa directly sent Hikaru's entire deck to the Graveyard, next turn, when Hikaru's turn arrived, he'd be judged as losing because he couldn't draw a card!
Grim, quite grim!
If before they'd been watching this duel with the mindset of watching Misawa make a fool, now, they were all tense.
No way.
Could Misawa really win against Hikaru?
"How about it, afraid?"
Hikaru raised his brow: "Milling, huh. Indeed quite impressive. But without resource replenishment, destroying the entire deck is pretty difficult, right?"
Indeed.
Everyone looked at Misawa's field.
No matter how he brought out Bone Tower's effect, monsters had Level upper limits. No matter how hard Misawa tried, Level 12 was the upper limit of Synchro Monsters. At that point, Misawa couldn't continue to Synchro.
By then, Hikaru's turn would come!
"Heh, that's hard to say." Misawa's mouth curved up, confidence overflowing. "Continue Synchro, using Level 5 Tsuchigumo and Level 2 Dakki on the field, tune!"
Whoosh whoosh.
Swift winds raced. A tall masked, winged yokai flew into the sky, looking down at Hikaru.
"Level 7, Tengu, the Winged Mayakashi!"
Tengu, the Winged Mayakashi. Level 7, WIND Attribute, Zombie-Type. ATK 2600.
"Bone Tower's effect activates. Send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard, Dakki's effect in the Graveyard, Special Summon!"
The top of Hikaru's Deck, another four cards flowed away like water. At the same time, on Misawa's field, that undead nine-tailed fox appeared again.
By this revival, no one simply viewed Dakki as a normal card anymore. In their eyes, this card was a genuine nation-destroying yokai!
"Bone Tower's effect, send the top 4 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard..."
"At this instant."
Hikaru lightly raised his hand, stopping Misawa from continuing: "Among the 4 cards I'm sending to the Graveyard, there are cards whose effects will activate."
More?
Misawa slightly furrowed his brow.
"Misawa, as the number of cards you send to the Graveyard increases, in my deck, the cards that can't trigger graveyard-send effects become fewer and fewer."
Hikaru smiled lightly, spread his hands, and calmly said: "At this very moment, among the 4 cards I'm sending to the Graveyard, two will trigger monster effects!"
"Shaddoll Beast, Predaplant Byblisp!"
"Activate their effects. When Byblisp is sent to the Graveyard, add 1 Predaplant monster card from my Deck to my hand. Shaddoll Beast's effect, when this card is sent to the Graveyard by an effect, activate. Draw 1 card from my Deck."
Hearing this, Misawa was clearly stunned: "Search and draw?"
"The deck is already being destroyed. Now adding cards from the deck to the hand?" Yuto, seeing this, also showed some confusion. "This..."
The opponent's goal was to destroy all the cards in your deck. Now you were specifically compressing your own deck, making it easier for the other to continue destroying?
But those dueling weren't them. Though puzzled, they could only watch.
As Hikaru searched, a Predaplant Triantis and a card flew out from the Deck to Hikaru's hand.
Then, Hikaru's Deck, 4 cards were again uniformly transported from the top of the Deck to the Graveyard zone.
Hikaru glanced at those cards.
"Salamandra, the Flying Flame Dragon's effect. When this card is sent to the Graveyard, add 1 Salamandra Spell or Trap Card from my Deck to my hand. I add Salamandra Fusion to my hand."
"Shaddoll Falco's effect, when this card is sent to the Graveyard by an effect, activate. Special Summon this card in Defense Position."
"Though I don't know what you're planning, during my turn, you can't Fusion. No matter what effects your Graveyard-sent cards have, they're ultimately just auxiliary cards." Misawa furrowed his brow. "So no matter what you do, you can't change the current situation."
While saying this, he was also rapidly calculating: "Your starting hand count was 5. My first two destructions were 4+4. This time was also 4+4. You searched and drew cards 3 times. Now you have 8 hand cards.
Looking at your deck's thickness, it's not a 60-card deck. By the look of it, the deck count is around 40, more than 40. Now you've been destroyed 16 cards, hand has 8. Cards remaining in the whole deck are less than 20! Only 16 left!
If you think you only need to hold on until your turn and duel with more hand cards, you're wrong.
Because this turn, I will destroy your entire deck!"
"Using Level 7 Tengu and Level 2 Dakki on the field, tune!"
He can still do more!
Many were shocked.
Losing 8 more cards!?
"Prepare yourselves, witness this historically famous great yokai!"
"Synchro Summon, Level 9, Yoko, the Graceful Mayakashi!"
Dakki's true body, fully manifested!
Surrounded by flames, Tengu transformed into energy, lighting Dakki's killing stone. With flames rising, a nine-tailed great yokai lightly bowed on the field, stopping beside Misawa.
As it landed, its crimson eyes shone for a moment. In Atticus Rhodes' and Syrus's eyes, Misawa's eyes simultaneously lit up with crimson color.
Tania beside Misawa, seeing this, directly threw a punch at the nine-tailed fox demon. But even with physical ability, as a relatively high-level spirit herself, she couldn't affect Misawa or the fox demon at all.
"So that's it..." Atticus Rhodes roughly understood.
Seemed Misawa's memory loss wasn't nearly that pure.
Legend said the nine-tailed fox demon had the ability to enchant, as well as the power to control others' minds. Likely, what current Misawa truly saw and what actually existed were separated.
Tania beside him, after her attack failed, viciously hammered the wall, startling many staff. They thought they'd seen ghosts.
The local spirits were truly rude!
Yoko, the Graceful Mayakashi. Level 9, FIRE Attribute, Zombie-Type. ATK 2900.
"Bone Tower and Dakki's effects, activate!"
4 cards flew out again.
Seeing Hikaru's deck grow thinner, the audience became more and more serious, more and more tense.
"Hiss... pretty good, as expected of Misawa..." Jaden, watching the broadcast, grew serious in expression.
Indeed, Hikaru's deck was a special deck suited for the Graveyard. Because Hikaru's dueling philosophy was crush, sublimate, and recycle, so using Graveyard cards for operations was very normal and common.
Hikaru also wasn't facing a deck-destruction type duelist for the first time. But this time was different from last time!
Last time, when facing the professional duelist, that duelist's goal was to slowly reduce Hikaru's main deck and Extra Deck, using this to seal Hikaru's deck.
But this time was different.
Misawa's goal was to directly destroy all cards!
Using one turn's time!
If this was completed, even Hikaru likely...
"Oh!" Just as he was worrying, on stage, Hikaru looked at the cards sent to the Graveyard and smiled with great interest.
He turned his head, seemingly talking to someone, making the people watching the broadcast anxious.
Clearly discussing private information with Lady Tierra. Really wanted to hear what they were discussing on site!
Why couldn't the broadcast show spirits!
"Oh, so this card got sent to the Graveyard." Tierra leaned her head over to look. "A bit late."
"If I'd come earlier, there might have been fewer cards sent to the Graveyard."
"Actually it's fine, don't need that many cards." Hikaru casually said.
While chatting, Hikaru had already picked up that card and started activating the effect: "Activate the card effect of Nehshaddoll Genius in the Graveyard!"
What's that?
All the watching audience instinctively had this question.
Nehshaddoll?
Looked like a Shaddoll card, but Hikaru had never used it?
Of course.
Though this card was only a Shaddoll low-level monster, this card belonged to a relatively special type. Even Tierra couldn't directly hand-make it before. Just like how Shaddoll's Helshaddoll Hollow needed Crystron Captain's assistance to create, this card, before Tierra defeated Sophia, she didn't have the ability to create.
But now was different.
Current Tierra was genuinely a revived Creator Star God. Forget this card, as long as it was a DT-related card, she could make it however she wanted.
This was a qualitative leap.
"When this card is sent to the Graveyard by an effect, target 1 Effect Monster on the field to activate. This turn, that Effect Monster cannot activate effects activated on the field."
"I choose the first Bone Tower."
"There's a card like that?"
"Beautiful!"
Syrus couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief.
"There's actually such a hidden card?" Misawa was slightly surprised. "But unfortunately, though this card can prevent Bone Tower from activating its effect, already-activated effects will still resolve. So Genius's effect can't stop this destruction!"
Hikaru nodded, didn't mind much, let the four cards fly out from the Deck.
But after these four cards left Hikaru's deck, a strange black long line bound one Bone Tower, slowly making it lose its color.
Bone Tower's effect was an induced mandatory activation effect, not a continuous effect. So Genius could prevent it from activating effects.
"Regardless, this way, Misawa's thought of destroying all cards can be ended."
"Though he lost 8 more cards, there are still over ten left. To send so many cards to the Graveyard, at least five or six Special Summons are needed."
The odds of winning were very high!
"Sealing one, indeed very impressive." Misawa looked at the powerless Bone Tower on his field and nodded in acknowledgment. "Your deck has over ten more. And my Synchros seem to have reached the limit. That's what you're thinking, right?"
"Don't underestimate my deck too much.
Under my precise calculations, now, you've already lost."
...
STONES ??