"Who are you?"
Joey watched the silver-haired woman warily. Her hair was as silver as fresh snow, and her deep eyes were like frozen glaciers—her gaze sharp and frightening.
"Me? My name is Elinor."
She slowly raised her duel disk. Even her disk looked different from the standard model—it was an ice-blue, crystal-like device, almost transparent.
"I'm here for you, Joey.
I won't allow you to become a hindrance to the Professor again."
Joey wasn't the sharpest, but he'd guessed most of it.
"So you're the underling of the bastard who kicked me to another world?" Joey frowned, "He's back again?"
"Heh, no. The Professor isn't here, and he doesn't know I came." Elinor sneered. "You're just a mortal—not worth the Professor's personal attention.
But I'll prove to the Professor that I'm stronger than Reggie."
"What she couldn't do, I can."
"What she couldn't resolve for the Professor, I'll settle."
"If by 'problem' you mean me, you'll be disappointed," Joey declared. "Joey the Great is famously difficult! I'm not going down that easy."
"Spirited. But no matter how strong your fighting spirit, it'll be frozen before me."
"DUEL!" x2
[Joey, LP 4000]
[Elinor, LP 4000]
"I'll go first. Draw!" Elinor announced. "I summon 'Cold Enchanter' in attack position!"
A magician in ice-blue robes, as if forged from snow, wielded a staff like a shard of ice, marked with a snowflake pattern.
[Cold Enchanter, ATK 1600]
"Next, I activate the field spell 'Absolute Zero Barrier!'"
The field was instantly encased in ice, cold air swirling, ice barriers rising all around.
But aside from the visual effect, Joey saw no change in the ATK of Elinor's monster or anything else.
Elinor didn't explain further.
"I set one card and end my turn."
"Alright, my turn! Draw!"
Joey drew a card and, without hesitation, played one.
"I activate the spell card 'Cup of Ace'!
Toss a coin—if it's heads, I draw two cards. If tails, you draw two."
"Tch, the guy who uses Cup of Ace as a Pot of Greed, just as the rumors say," muttered Elinor.
Joey: "..."
"Ahem."
He wanted to argue, but opening with Cup of Ace really made any denial sound hollow, so he just coughed awkwardly.
"Alright, flipping the coin!"
A golden coin with the Eye of Horus appeared, spinning through the air several times before landing.
"Heads! I draw two cards!"
The gambler's luck holds up.
He then quickly played three cards from his hand.
"Next, I activate the spell 'Polymerization'!
Fusion materials: a Level 6 Fiend-Type Normal Monster and a 'Red-Eyes' Normal Monster!
I fuse 'Summoned Skull' and 'Red-Eyes Black Dragon' from my hand!
When the power of the Black Dragon meets the Fiend, a terrifying soul awakens—appear!
—Archfiend Black Skull Dragon, come forth!"
Summoned Skull and Red-Eyes Black Dragon were sucked into the vortex of fusion. Twin red lights burst from the dark storm, golden lightning and crimson black flames tearing through chaos, forming the demonic dragon!
[Archfiend Black Skull Dragon, ATK 3200]
"Archfiend Black Skull Dragon is a powerful attacker. I'm in a hurry, so let's finish this in one go!"
Joey was on a roll.
"Archfiend's attack—huh!?"
But he immediately noticed something was wrong.
His dragon didn't move at all, as if it hadn't even heard his command.
He looked over and saw, to his shock, that the dragon had been frozen solid—an ice sculpture, even the black flames on it frozen in the block of ice.
"Fusion Summons don't work against me," Elinor said coldly.
"I activated my set card—Quick-Play Spell 'Cold Fusion!'"
"What?" Joey gasped.
"'Cold Fusion,' as the name suggests, can only be activated when the opponent Fusion Summons," Elinor explained. "The Fusion Monster summoned is frozen and destroyed.
Then, the monsters used as fusion materials are Special Summoned to your field, and each gets an 'Ice Counter.'"
Clearly, this is a deck-exclusive spell card, targeting Fusion monsters.
Ice Counters are used by Alexis Rhodes's deck in the GX manga. All the monsters she used in the manga were printed as real cards, plus some new ones exclusive to the card game.
But none of her spells or traps were ever printed—they're manga-only.
Like this "Cold Fusion."
"So, Archfiend Black Skull Dragon is destroyed!"
The massive demonic dragon shattered, splitting back into Summoned Skull and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, both covered in frost.
"Monsters Special Summoned by 'Cold Fusion' each get an Ice Counter," Elinor said.
[Red-Eyes Black Dragon, ATK 2400]
[Summoned Skull, ATK 2500]
If this were the real card game, her Cold Enchanter would gain ATK for each Ice Counter on the field. But in the manga version, it didn't have that effect.
In the manga, Cold Enchanter's effect was: discard a card to place an Ice Counter on a monster and prevent it from changing position.
"Tch, but even after splitting the fusion, my monsters' ATK is higher than your Cold Enchanter. I can hit even harder now."
Joey waved his hand.
"Attack!
First, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, attack 'Cold Enchanter'!"
But still no movement.
"What now?"
Joey stared in disbelief, only to see that his monsters were already trapped behind an icy barrier, both frozen and unable to move.
"The field spell 'Absolute Zero Barrier' causes all monsters with Ice Counters to lose 500 ATK and prevents them from attacking!"
[Red-Eyes Black Dragon, ATK 2400 → 1900]
[Summoned Skull, ATK 2500 → 2000]
Joey: "!"