Chapter 29
"Damn it."
A cold suspicion was already forming in Alexis's chest. This deck, whatever it was, had the exact same energy as last night's Dark Magician OTK that had driven Chazz to the edge of his sanity.
The same category. The same species of wrong.
She noticed it the moment Rowan glanced at the card he had just drawn.
The corner of his mouth moved, barely. The same quiet, unhurried expression he had worn last night while walking Chazz through his own execution, one card at a time.
"Allow me to send you a very powerful eight-star monster, Alexis-senpai."
He held up the drawn card.
"Using the two monsters on your field as tribute, I Summon Lava Golem to your field, in attack position."
"Lava Golem?!"
Alexis and both of her friends went rigid. The refusal on their faces was immediate and instinctive.
But the light was already rising from their side of the field.
Etoile Cyber and the trapped Blade Skater dissolved in silence, consumed as offerings, expressions blank as they vanished.
Then something broke the surface of the lake behind their boat.
A vast, humanoid silhouette of molten rock rose from the water and kept rising, and kept rising, until it blotted out the sky behind them.
The girls on the boat stared upward.
A heavy iron cage dropped from chains anchored to the creature's chest and crashed down over their small vessel, sealing it inside.
The boat was still on the water. The lake was still around them.
But they were now enclosed, caged, with a house-sized Lava Golem looming directly at their backs, holding the cage aloft on chains of blackened molten iron.
Jasmine and Mindy grabbed each other.
Lava Golem Level 8 / FIRE ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500
"Wait, why did Rowan give Alexis-senpai a 3000 ATK monster?!"
Syrus stared across the water in total confusion. "And she clearly doesn't want it?!"
Jaden looked equally lost.
Chumley, who had been quiet through most of this, stepped in.
"Lava Golem can only be Special Summoned to the opponent's field, using two of their monsters as tribute. And every Standby Phase, it deals 1000 damage to whoever controls it."
Jaden and Syrus went very still.
"...So when her turn starts..."
"Immediately. 1000 damage. Right away."
A drop of cold sweat traced down both their faces simultaneously.
Now the cage made psychological sense too.
Monsters eaten, 1000 damage ticking every round, and the duelist literally enclosed inside the thing's reach.
It wasn't just a card effect. It was a jail cell.
Rowan had mentioned the word before, Jaden dimly recalled.
Now he understood what it meant.
"Lava Golem is a double-edged blade," Alexis said, jaw set, forcing composure back into her expression.
"It deals damage to me, but I can still use it to attack you on my next turn. Don't forget that."
Her smile was tight. Deliberate.
"Of course." Rowan returned it easily.
"Which is why I have something on my field that handles Lava Golem just fine."
Alexis looked.
The cloaked figure of Obnoxious Celtic Guardian crouched in half-guard on the card silhouette before Rowan. Slim. Modest.
Only 1200 DEF to show for itself, looking almost laughably small against a 3000 ATK behemoth.
Then the memory snapped into place for all three of them at once.
Cannot be destroyed in battle by any monster with 1900 or more ATK.
Against Lava Golem's 3000, that effect was not just relevant. It was absolute.
Three thousand, thirty thousand, infinite points of attack power, it made no difference at all.
Obnoxious Celtic Guardian would simply not go down. Sitting there. Immovable.
The card's reputation in Rowan's previous life as "the swordsman nobody's whole family can get past" had been thoroughly earned.
"He planned this from the very first turn," Jaden said, eyes lighting up as the full chain clicked together in his mind.
"He set Obnoxious Celtic Guardian first specifically to create an unbreakable wall against Lava Golem. That's incredible!"
The familiar impulse to challenge Rowan himself came rushing back.
"Don't get overconfident," Alexis said.
A short breath through her nose, and then she smiled again, differently this time. Her hand moved to her deck.
"My turn. Draw!"
"At this moment," Rowan said, "Lava Golem's effect activates. Its controller takes 1000 damage."
The chains connecting the cage to the creature's chest pulsed red.
Chunks of molten rock rained down around the inside of the cage, scattering heat and impact in all directions.
Alexis instinctively raised an arm to shield herself, wincing as the warmth pressed in.
Her life points fell.
Alexis: 3500 LP... 2500 LP.
The damage was real enough to feel but left no real injury.
What Alexis felt most clearly, standing upright again in the cage with lava fragments cooling around her feet, was the absolute certainty on her face.
She pointed at Obnoxious Celtic Guardian.
"If a simple Obnoxious Celtic Guardian is all that's standing in my way, then I'll take this duel with the Lava Golem you so kindly sent over. Lava Golem, attack Obnoxious Celtic Guardian! Lava Burst!"
The creature reared back and launched a massive fireball across the lake. It howled as it went.
"Why is she attacking when she knows the effect?!" Syrus and the others watched in confusion.
The blue protective shimmer activated immediately around Obnoxious Celtic Guardian as the fireball closed in, its effect triggering on contact.
Alexis was already smiling.
"Chain. Activating Counter Trap from my back row." One of her three set cards flipped.
"Solemn Strike!"