Rex Raptor's face darkened even further. That monster had also been an ace of his, and it too had fallen in his very first match, defeated by a Duelist wielding Jinzo.
This felt like a second hit straight to the face. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that composure was everything in a duel, and that trash talk before a match was sometimes part of the game.
He would prove his strength with cards, not words.
"Duel!" both of them called out.
Yugen, LP 4000. Rex Raptor, LP 4000.
The right to choose turn order was decided at random and went to Yugen. He accepted without hesitation and chose to go first.
"I'll go first. Draw."
Yugen quickly drew three cards from his deck. "I set one monster in my front row and set two cards in my back row. My turn ends."
"It's my turn!"
Rex Raptor drew a card and immediately revealed it to the crowd. "Spell Card, Graceful Charity. I draw three cards from my deck, then discard two from my hand." His hand shifted, and without hesitation he pulled out two more cards.
He slapped the first one onto his Duel Disk. "I Special Summon this card, Gilasaurus!" A dinosaur leapt onto the field, its form sharp and fast. "Then the second one, I Special Summon Gilasaurus number two!"
"Oh, Rex Raptor opens with Special Summons right away!" Wataru Komatsu said to the audience. "Gilasaurus has the ability to Special Summon itself directly from the hand, but when it does, each player can choose a monster in their Graveyard and Special Summon it."
"Of course, the choice belongs to the opponent," Takeshi Sasaki added. "And since this is the very first turn, Yugen has no monsters in his Graveyard at all, so that drawback cannot be used."
In the days he had been away from the public eye, Rex Raptor had not been idle. Though people now called him a Legendary Duelist, that title mostly came from the shine of having faced names like Yugi Muto and Katsuya Jonouchi in the past. Back then he had looked down on Jonouchi, yet now he found himself living off the story of having once been beaten by him.
To climb back to the top, he refined his tactics and searched for an approach that best suited dragons and dinosaurs. In the end, he settled on an aggressive suppression style inspired by the most famous dragon tamer of the age, Seto Kaiba. Speed and pressure were the core of this plan.
"Dragons are the strongest creatures," Rex Raptor shouted. "A dragon tamer must crush the opponent with overwhelming force!" He raised his arm. "Battle. First, Gilasaurus attacks that face-down monster!"
The dinosaur charged forward, and Yugen's set monster flipped face up. A compact red machine appeared on the field. "Machina Peacekeeper, Defense 400."
The machine was destroyed with ease, its low defense offering little resistance. Yugen calmly sent it to the Graveyard and said, "I activate Machina Peacekeeper's effect. When this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, I can add one Machina monster from my deck to my hand."
He drew a card and showed it to Rex Raptor. "I add Machina Gearframe, Machina Gearframe, to my hand."
"Machina?" Rex Raptor frowned slightly. This was a series Yugen had never used in earlier matches. "Saving it until the finals means everything before this wasn't even his main deck. That's a lot of confidence."
Still, he did not hesitate. "It doesn't matter," Rex Raptor said loudly. "Under the absolute power of my dinosaurs, there's no difference. Battle continues. Gilasaurus number two attacks directly!"
"Flip the face-down card," Yugen replied. A trap card sprang open in front of him. "Trap Card, Magic Cylinder!"
"What? Magic Cylinder?" Rex Raptor blurted out. Takeshi Sasaki's voice rose with excitement. "That's Magic Cylinder, a signature trap once used in Duel King Yugi Muto's deck. It negates the attack and deals damage equal to the attacking monster's attack points!"
The reflected blast hit Rex Raptor head-on, forcing him to stagger back a step. He clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed but still composed. His Life Points dropped from 4000 to 2600.
"The first damage of the finals goes to Yugen Fujiki!" Wataru Komatsu announced. "No one expected Rex Raptor to take such a heavy hit on turn one. It looks like even Rex Raptor has to get serious now."
Rex Raptor snorted, unconcerned. He had expected traps from the start, and sending low-level monsters first was a calculated risk. Losing one strong trap to a 1400 attack monster was a trade he could accept.
"Battle Phase ends," he continued. "Now I tribute both Gilasaurus to perform a Tribute Summon. From the endless darkness, break free and answer my call. Level seven, Tri-Horned Dragon, appear!"
The two dinosaurs vanished into a swirling vortex, and massive claws and fangs emerged. The giant dragon landed with a heavy step, and the arena shook under the vivid visuals and feedback. "Attack 2850."
"Tri-Horned Dragon!" Wataru Komatsu said. "A fierce opening followed by the summon of such a powerful High-Level Monster. This shows Rex Raptor is fully acknowledging the challenger's strength."
Standing in the storm of his summon, Rex Raptor felt his presence swell. "See this? This is my new dragon. Stronger than the Red-Eyes and the Evil Dragon I lost back then. It's proof that I have risen again!"
Yugen snapped his fingers. "Flip the face-down card. Trap Card, Trap Hole. When your opponent Normal Summons 1 monster with 1000 or more ATK: destroy that monster."
The imposing dragon did not even steady itself before sliding into the pit and vanishing from the field. The arena fell quiet for a moment, with Rex Raptor frozen in his summoning pose, a cold draft making the scene feel strangely empty.
Watching him, Yugen felt a brief and odd sensation. It was the feeling that he had truly done something cruel.
Rex Raptor let out a long breath.
Tri-Horned Dragon had gone down the moment it hit the field, but it was still acceptable. It hurt his mentality a bit, yet everything so far was within what he had expected.
He, Rex Raptor, had seen far worse storms before. Back then, when his Red-Eyes Black Dragon had been turned into a fossil by that punk Joey Wheeler using Time Wizard and a single spin of the wheel, he had endured it. Compared to that, this was nothing.
"But my turn isn't over yet."
Rex Raptor drew another card.
"I activate the Continuous Spell Mirage of Nightmare from my hand. During my opponent's Standby Phase, this card lets me draw until I have four cards in hand. As a side effect, during my own Standby Phase, I must discard the same number of cards I drew."
Yugen showed no change in expression.
As expected of the anime world, he casually played another card that had been banned for ages.
"Next, I set two cards in my back row. Turn end."
It was Yugen's turn to draw. "Then it's my turn. I draw."
"At this moment, the effect of Mirage of Nightmare activates," Rex Raptor said. "I draw four cards from my deck."
The power of a forbidden card was obvious. Rex Raptor's hand, which had been emptied last turn, instantly returned to four cards.
However, Yugen calmly followed up with his own draw. "Spell Card Pot of Greed. I draw two more cards from my deck."
As if he was saying everyone had a few forbidden cards of their own.
After drawing, Yugen continued, "First, I summon the card I searched last turn."
The monster card slapped down onto the monster zone of the Duel Disk with a sharp sound.
"Machina Gearframe, in Attack Position."
Machina Gearframe, ATK 1800.
"Machina Gearframe's effect activates. When this card is successfully summoned, I add one Machina monster from my deck to my hand, except another Machina Gearframe."
"So that's how it is. The Machina Peacekeeper that was destroyed last turn can search Machina Gearframe when it's destroyed, and then Machina Gearframe can search Machina Fortress."