Skeleton Knight's heart was surging with stormy waves.
This guy took such a fierce impact, yet not only did he shrug it off, he actually looks like he's still studying and absorbing the experience of his Dark Dash.
He quickly recalled every Duelist within the range of what he knew. Skeleton Knight considered himself fairly well connected among the strong, including quite a few with iron wills.
At the end of the day, Dark Dash Duels are a ritual that only people with unwavering resolve—or who chase thrills—have the guts to challenge. A slight misstep and you might be completely ruined even before your Life Points hit zero. So experts in Dark Dash are all ready to die, courage beyond measure.
Yet even so, in Skeleton Knight's memory, it was the first time he'd seen someone this calm and composed.
He even briefly had the thought that the damage the opponent just took was something he deliberately let through, just so he could experience and learn the impact pattern of his Dark Dash.
No, that's too absurd. To act this recklessly in a life-or-death Dash… that's not just contempt for your opponent, it's a silent disregard for your own life.
Has he really not worried at all that he might lose?
"Well? Is your turn over?" Yugen asked.
"Ugh…"
Skeleton Knight shook his head, forcing himself not to dwell on those unsettling thoughts.
"My turn's over."
Skeleton Knight said.
"Your turn's done? Then it's my turn. Draw."
Yugen drew a card, and at the same time another streak of golden light shot from the graveyard zone of his D-Wheel.
"Then in the Standby Phase, since my back row currently has no Magic or Trap Cards, the Monster Effect of 'Yellow Springs Frog' in my graveyard activates again.
This card can be Special Summoned to the field during my own Standby Phase."
Yugen snapped his fingers.
"Return to the field, Yellow Springs Frog."
The little golden-skinned frog came back to the field, beating its wings, a halo over its head.
[Yellow Springs Frog, Defense Power 100]
Then Yugen glanced over his hand, and suddenly let out a mysterious light chuckle.
"You actually dare look down on the power of 'Frogs'… Heh, then I'll carve it into your body so you remember clearly just what kind of weight a World Champion title carries."
Skeleton Knight was blank: "Huh?"
Did this guy just say something about… champion?
Yugen of course didn't bother explaining further and said, "When you have a Level 3 or lower Water Attribute Monster on your own field, you can Special Summon this card from the graveyard by discarding one card from your hand.
I discard one card from my hand to revive this card from the graveyard—
—Electronic Fishman Gunner!"
Yugen pitched a card from his hand to the graveyard. At the side of his racing D-Wheel, a transparent blue whirl of water opened up. Steel battle armor burst out of the splashing water, a water-spraying gun in its hands, with blue pipes extending all the way into the cockpit at the center of the mecha.
But there was no seat or pilot in that cockpit—or rather, the "pilot" looked like a fish. The entire cockpit was its fish tank, gurgling with bubbles.
[Electronic Fishman Gunner, Attack Power 100]
Just a Level One Adjusted Monster with only 100 Attack Power, yet it still earned itself a spot on the Forbidden Card list. Back when the Frog Card Deck took the World Championship, this guy was absolutely a major factor.
"And the card I discarded to revive the Fish People just now was the Magic Card 'Card of Compensation'." Yugen said. "When Card of Compensation is discarded from the hand, I draw two more cards from my Card Deck."
Yugen drew two more cards.
"Next, I release 'Yellow Springs Frog'!" Yugen said. "Upper-level Summon!
Level 5, Death Frog!"
The tiny Angel frog dissolved into light dots, releasing a multicolored summoning vortex. In an instant, that vortex overflowed with azure water, forming a whirl of currents. A large blue frog leapt out from within, hopping along beside Yugen's D-Wheel.
[Death Frog, Attack Power 1900]
"An Upper-level Summon, huh." Skeleton Knight snorted. "After saying all that big talk, it's still just a Frog with 1900 Attack Power…"
Skeleton Knight's thoughts moved, his eyes flicking toward the Fishman Gunman at the side.
"That thing is an Adjusted Monster… masaka (don't tell me)!?"
"Exactly."
Yugen raised his right arm.
"When Electronic Fishman Gunner is used as Synchro Material, all the other materials must also be Water Attribute Monsters. Death Frog is Water Attribute, satisfying the Gunman's self-restriction,
so I take the Level One Adjusted Monster 'Electronic Fishman Gunner' and the Level 5 'Death Frog' to Star-Tune!"
Yes, this perfect synergy between Electronic Fishman Gunner and the Frog series was precisely why they formed the core of the World Champion build.
Fishman Gunman can only revive itself when there's a Water Attribute Monster on the field, and it can only Star-Tune together with Water Attribute Monsters.
Death Frog is the only Upper-Level Monster in the Frog Card Deck, and can be easily fetched using the deck's internal system—there are a thousand ways to bring it out effortlessly.
Fishman Gunman is Level One, Death Frog is Level 5.
Six-Star Synchro, Water Attribute… it's practically as if these three card series were fated at the design stage to link perfectly into the environment's most powerful, most brutal Synchro Monster of that format.
"Frigid stars gather upon the blade's tip, the winter lance that pierces the sky! Synchro Summon—
—Level 6, Ice Barrier Dragon - Light Spear Dragon!!!"
The Synchro Aura exploded into a blizzard, frost-white cold waves radiating out and engulfing the altar. Tens of thousands of hexagonal ice crystals poured down from the dome, congealing into an inverted forest of ice, with spiderweb-like ice-blue erosion marks instantly crawling across the track.
Absolute cold surged and churned within the Synchro Aura as a holy ice-blue dragon shattered the ice and broke out from the current. Layered crystal scales flashed on and off in the snowstorm, each scale's edge sheathed in dagger-like icicles. Its long dragon neck was streaked like glacial fissures with dark-blue energy lines, and the jutting ice spines along its spine glowed alternately with pale blue phosphorescence in time with its breaths.
Ice Barrier Dragon - Light Spear Dragon, summoned!
[Ice Barrier Dragon - Light Spear Dragon, Attack Power 2300]
The blizzard unleashed by the Synchro, the sheer momentum of freezing the altar at first left Skeleton Knight quite shaken. But once he saw Light Spear Dragon appear, his heart relaxed a bit.
"Heh, I was wondering what terrifying Monster was coming out—its Attack Power is only 2300… Well, figures. Just a Six-Star Synchro, and it thinks it can beat my Netherworld Dragon?"
Despite his words, in his heart he instinctively felt danger radiating from this dragon.
What is it exactly…
But soon enough, Yugen dispelled his doubts.
"Ice Barrier Dragon - Light Spear Dragon's effect activates." Yugen said. "By discarding any number of cards from my hand to the graveyard, I can choose that same number of cards on the field and return them to their owners' hands."
Skeleton Knight: "!!!"