Chapter 30
"So the set card was Solemn Strike."
Rowan read the situation immediately.
"Solemn Strike's effect," Alexis said, her tone carrying the quiet satisfaction of someone playing their best card, "pays 1500 Life Points to negate a monster's effect and destroy it. I prepared this specifically to counter Royal Magical Library, the core piece of your Dark Magician OTK."
She let that land, then continued.
"Even though the situation has changed, the card still works perfectly. I negate Obnoxious Celtic Guardian's effect and destroy it. After that, Lava Golem loses its original attack target and selects a new one."
A beat.
"Specifically, you. Direct attack."
She held his gaze with absolute certainty, the expression of someone ready to deliver a lesson.
And Alexis's dueling instincts were genuinely sharp. The counter card she had chosen was not something narrow and deck-specific.
It was flexible enough to handle almost any situation, not just the Dark Magician OTK she had originally prepared for.
Even Jaden and Syrus found themselves tensing on Rowan's behalf without meaning to.
Behind Alexis, Jasmine and Mindy finally looked like they were going to get some satisfaction after an evening of steadily climbing blood pressure.
Then Alexis noticed something.
The golden arc of Solemn Strike's energy was already flying across the field toward Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, fractions of a second from impact.
Rowan's face was still perfectly calm. That faint, unbothered smile was still there.
She felt a chill.
"Beautifully played."
He raised his duel disk arm. "Unfortunately."
His last set card flipped.
A castle wall unfurled from the card's image - a king standing at the battlements, proclaiming something to the kingdom below.
"Continuous Trap, Royal Decree. While this card remains on my field, the effects of all other Trap Cards on the field are negated."
Jasmine and Mindy's voices overlapped.
"She paid 1500 LP. And Solemn Strike still does nothing?!"
"The whole situation just flipped!"
Jaden pumped his fist on the spectator boat, grinning.
"Right!"
Syrus followed immediately, eyes bright with the dawn of his own survival.
"Alexis-senpai is already down to 1000 LP after paying that cost. When her next turn starts, Lava Golem deals another 1000 damage automatically. Rowan wins without doing anything!"
"That infuriating..." Alexis pressed her teeth together.
Her two remaining set cards were now useless.
Royal Decree was sitting there negating every trap on the field, and her life points could not survive another standby phase.
There was no time to draw into something that could destroy Royal Decree.
She had no path to remove Lava Golem through the cards she had buried.
She looked at the single card she had drawn this turn.
She thought about it carefully.
Then she placed it on her duel disk.
"Quick-Play Spell from my hand. Emergency Provisions."
A tin-can shaped card image materialized above her field. "I send any number of other Spell and Trap Cards I control to the Graveyard. For each one sent, I gain 1000 LP."
"I send my remaining two set cards to the Graveyard. I gain 2000 Life Points."
The two face-down cards dissolved into light and were absorbed.
Alexis's life points, which had been sitting at a fragile 1000, climbed back up the counter.
Alexis: 1000 LP... 3000 LP.
"She recovered?!" Syrus's jaw dropped.
"That's the Queen of Obelisk Blue for you," Chumley said from beside him, not without admiration.
"Even cornered, she finds a way."
Alexis heard the words. Her expression did not soften.
Because she knew exactly what she had just done.
Emergency Provisions had saved her life points.
It had also cost her the only two cards on her field capable of threatening Rowan.
Sending them away under Royal Decree's suppression, exchanged for survival - it was a desperate measure dressed up as a play.
The cage was still around her. Lava Golem was still behind her.
Obnoxious Celtic Guardian was still crouched and immovable across the water.
No hand. No set cards.
No monsters she could summon that would break through that defense.
Only Lava Golem on her field, a creature she controlled but could never meaningfully aim at anything.
She could already see how the rest of this duel would go.
Watching the damage tick down turn by turn, helpless, with nothing left to work with.
"Turn end."
[Ding! Alexis's Emotion Points +500!]
"My turn. Draw."
Rowan kept his expression neutral as the chime registered internally.
Inside, something was considerably more cheerful.
The lockdown phase had officially begun.
One thousand damage per turn, right on schedule, and nowhere for her to go.