Chapter 22: The President and the Battle of Wits with the Game

"Turn end."

At this moment, Yugi's field was empty; his only monster had been sent to the graveyard along with the Substitute Dragon Ruler, all due to the effect of "Clay Charge." In this era, when duel rules prohibited monsters from attacking directly, even if Kaiba sat on the field with three Blue-Eyes White Dragons boasting a combined attack power of 11,700, all he could do was glare and declare his turn ended.

"My turn, draw!"

Gulp.

As he drew, Yugi eyed Kaiba’s field warily. A single Blue-Eyes White Dragon would take at least two cards from his current deck to counter. Now, not only were there an unprecedented three dragons gathered, but with the field boost, each one's attack was so high it inspired despair.

He shook his head, banishing distractions, and focused on the card he’d just drawn.

‘Alright!’

Seeing the orange vortex pattern and the green border, Yugi’s heart leapt with joy. Fusion Spell Card, and with two of the three cards in his hand, although he couldn’t deliver a fatal blow to Kaiba at this stage, he could definitely wait until Kaiba summoned his “Ultimate Dragon,” and then let him taste that soul-crushing despair!

As for why he believed Kaiba wouldn’t first break through his monsters before summoning the ultimate form of the Blue-Eyes?

In this era, duelists—especially people like Kaiba—were notorious for their poor plays throughout the entire DM anime! Clearly, he could win in one swift move, but simply to show off, to flaunt his monsters, he’d make moves that modern duelists would deem "bad play," but in this time were considered the ultimate display of supreme power.

"I activate the Spell Card ‘Fusion’ from my hand, fusing ‘Elemental Hero Sparkman’ with ‘Elemental Hero Necroshade!’"

Kaiba: (ㅍ_ㅍ)

Hearing Yugi use his monster cards as fusion material to activate “Fusion,” Kaiba frowned. He was about to point out the mistake, but for some reason, a sudden feeling welled up inside him—"Yugi’s move isn’t wrong at all; in fact, it’s correct."

Emmm.

Since Kaiba himself didn’t comment, the spectators—Game and the others—naturally kept silent. So, amid curious glances, Sparkman, the lightning warrior born of light, and Necroshade, the skeletal warrior born of darkness, both heroes looked up and were immediately drawn into the fusion vortex swirling above, their powers breaking down and re-condensing.

"Fusion Summon! Elemental Hero Dark Shining!"

With Sparkman as the core, his once-blue body now bore Necroshade’s red accents and main black coloring, muscles bulging to reveal a flawless physique. The solar panel-like wings on his back had transformed into layered golden armor with downward-pointing tips. There was another detail: Dark Shining’s facial pattern was not perfectly symmetrical; the left eye bore a scar that was hard to spot without careful observation.

(Elemental Hero Dark Shining, Level 6, Defense: 1000 → 1400)

Dark Shining, a Warrior-type monster, received a 30% boost from the “Grassland” field, and, due to his combined Light and Dark attribute, a further 10% boost from the current nighttime weather. Even with a total 40% increase, his 1400 defense was still nothing compared to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!

"Three cards spent, and after all that, just a weakling monster?"

If not for the earlier “Clay Combo,” which had raised Kaiba’s opinion of Yugi’s strength, in any other circumstance he would have already begun mocking him. Still, even after the shock of the “Clay Combo,” seeing a monster inferior to his Blue-Eyes, Kaiba couldn’t resist calling it a weakling.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!"

Hearing Kaiba call his monster a “weakling,” Yugi’s lips curled in a subtle smirk as he tapped his right finger, tongue clicking in mockery. (Dark Magician’s taunt face.jpg, for reference see the original anime episode 23: “Strongest! Magnificent! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon”).

"The monster I fusion summoned, Dark Shining, may not look impressive compared to your Blue-Eyes, Kaiba, but the ‘weakling’ you call it will effortlessly shatter your strongest dragon!"

Admitting that his monster's stats fell short of Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes, Yugi still announced with absolute confidence that he would crush Kaiba’s "strongest dragon"!

‘Could it be... this fusion monster, Elemental Hero Dark Shining, possesses a truly powerful effect?’

Fusion monsters with effects existed, but were exceedingly rare! At this point in time, most fusion monsters were high-level, high-attack, high-defense vanilla monsters; those with special effects were scarce, second only to Yugi's ace, the "Dark Magician"! (There were only four Blue-Eyes worldwide, and Dark Magician wasn’t much more common.)

‘The strongest dragon... did Yugi also figure it out?’

While Jonouchi and the others wondered about Dark Shining’s effect, Kaiba and Game, both card masters, focused on another phrase in Yugi’s declaration—“Kaiba/my strongest dragon!”

There were three Blue-Eyes on the field now. Even if Dark Shining was a special-effect fusion monster, it couldn't deal with all three at once! Following this logic, the "strongest dragon" Yugi spoke of must be another—no, another dragon!

And this dragon likely referred to the anticipated "Ultimate Fusion Form of Three Blue-Eyes"—Kaiba’s triple fusion!

"My turn ends."

As everyone pondered, Yugi declared his turn finished. Kaiba snapped awake, hurriedly seized his turn, and drew from his deck.

"!"

At a glance, Kaiba couldn't hide his delight!

"Yugi! Tit for tat! Earlier, you let me taste your terrifying ‘Clay Combo’ and nearly ended this duel! Now, I'll show you the new power I've gained through my recent training!"

With that, Kaiba raised the card he'd drawn, then slammed it onto the console.

"With the ‘Fusion’ Spell, I fuse my three Blue-Eyes White Dragons into their ultimate form!"

Jonouchi and the others: ?!!

Fusion of three Blue-Eyes White Dragons... (○o○)