Thanks to an unprinted, totally made-up effect, a sprawling, winding maze now stood before Aisha and Kevin. "So what if you turned the envir
Thanks to an unprinted, totally made-up effect, a sprawling, winding maze now stood before Aisha and Kevin.
"So what if you turned the environment into a maze?"
Kevin, never having seen such blatant high-level improvisational nonsense, was momentarily too stunned to process that he'd been conned.
"You can't ask that, Kevin! By asking, you're acknowledging their BS!"
Miles had just started to warn him—too late.
"Great question!"
Seizing on Kevin's momentary mental slip, the Paradox Brothers launched into their forced rule explanation.
"Because of the maze, any monsters summoned by either side must first enter the maze and meet inside before they can battle. And to directly attack players, you must first fully clear the maze."
Compared to a normal Duel Monster Card battle, this maze duel added full-on dungeon RPG mechanics.
Every fight would now unfold inside an unknown terrain maze.
"I end my first turn."
After establishing their made-up [Labyrinth Wall] effect, unable to make additional summons, the Paradox Brothers ended their turn.
In Tag Duel rules, both Duelists on a team shared 4000 Life Points, and turns alternated between players.
After Para ended his turn, the duel field lights in front of Aisha lit up.
Meaning the duel order was now: Para → Aisha → Dox → Kevin, alternating in that sequence.
"A duel inside a maze, huh? Fine... My turn, draw!"
With no choice but to accept the opponent's made-up rule, Miles drew a card to begin.
As he did, the Paradox Brothers continued explaining.
"If you want to have your monsters move through the maze, you have to summon them in Attack Position. Monsters summoned in Defense Position can't move inside the maze."
Aisha asked, "What should we do, Miles? Only Attack Position monsters can move... Doesn't that completely shut down our usual defense tactics?!"
Normally, no matter who went first or second, Miles's Duel opening would always be the same: Set 1 monster, Set 1 backrow, end turn. Total time: three seconds.
Of course, even in this maze duel, Miles could still stall—just plant a wall at the maze entrance in Defense Position and wait for the enemy to come.
But playing like that alone would be fine for him. With Kevin's personality? No way would he go for that kind of passive play.
In a Tag Duel, syncing with your partner's playstyle and working together was key to winning.
So Miles made a bold decision.
Even if it was just a lowly vanilla, he would summon in Attack Position and charge into the maze!
Showing determination, Miles guided Aisha's slender fingers to rotate the card and slap it down onto the Duel Table.
"I Normal Summon—Mokey Mokey!"
[Mokey Mokey] Level 1│LIGHT│Fairy│300 ATK
Like a brave little tofu block charging into the unknown, Mokey Mokey, scaled down to maze size, flapped its angelic ear-like wings and materialized at the maze entrance on the Duel Arena.
"As long as I summon in Attack Position, I can advance, right? Then charge forward, Mokey Mokey!"
The Paradox Brothers added another rule:
"In the maze, a monster's maximum movement per turn equals its Level. Each Star represents how many spaces it can move per turn."
"Huh?" Miles blinked, empty-eyed. "Star Level... equals... spaces?"
Already having ordered Mokey Mokey to charge, Miles now wore the same blank, awkward expression as the floating tofu angel itself.
Miles's dramatic first-turn charge... resulted in a grand total of one step.
Flapping its tiny wings, Mokey Mokey floated from the maze entrance doorway... to just behind the door... and stopped.
"So... Star Level equals steps allowed... If I'm using Mokey Mokey... it'll take me till next century to clear the maze!"
One space per turn. Eyeballing the maze's scale, even going in a straight line with no wrong turns, it would take at least 50 steps to reach the exit.
Trying to clear the maze with 1-Star monsters? Miles would deck out before that happened.
"I Set 1 card, end turn."
Slapping one card facedown on the Duel Table, Miles ended his extremely embarrassing first maze crawl.
But not going deep wasn't all bad.
At least Mokey Mokey was still safe at the maze entrance. Even in Attack Position, the enemy would have a hard time reaching it in one go.
"My turn, draw!"
Switching turns, Dox drew and began.
"I activate the Equip Spell Card—Magical Labyrinth!"
He slapped the Equip Spell onto the Duel Table.
"By equipping [Magical Labyrinth] to [Labyrinth Wall], I can Special Summon [Wall Shadow] from my Deck!"
[Wall Shadow] Level 7 │ DARK │ Warrior │ ATK: 1600 │ DEF: 3000
[Can only be Special Summoned by the effect of "Magical Labyrinth"]
A black shadow zipped across the field, diving into the maze walls faster than Miles could blink.
"Of course, it's not written on the card, but [Wall Shadow] can move freely within [Labyrinth Wall], appearing anywhere in the maze to attack monsters."
In an instant, the shadow darted through the maze walls and appeared right next to Mokey Mokey at the entrance.
An ugly silhouette with terrifying claws lunged from the wall, slicing down with a flash—turning the floating tofu angel into minced chunks.
[Aisha & Kevin, LP: 4000 → 2700]
"End turn!"
Getting blindsided by that across-the-map, made-up effect, Miles could only seethe at how his hard-earned single step had been wasted.
"One more BS ruling from you guys and I swear I'll stuff your bald heads where the sun doesn't shine!"
Hearing this threat from the frail-looking white-haired girl before them, the Paradox Brothers threw back their heads and laughed in perfect sync.
"Hmhmhahaha! Feeling our true power now? Little miss, don't be too shocked when I tell you this: Back in the day, we pushed two Duel Kings to the brink!"
"Duel Kings? Never heard of them."
In Kevin's understanding, there was no such title as "Duel King" on the Spirit Continent.
"Who cares about kings! I'll grow alongside my destined rival and become the strongest in this academy. Then I'll be king!"
Throwing his card onto the Duel Table, Kevin, burning with team spirit for once, was more fired up than ever.
"I'll handle the level-based maze breakthrough, Aisha Carlos! You support me! I activate the Spell Card [Ancient Rules] to Special Summon—"
"Red-Eyes Black Dragon!!"
...
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