Chapter 43
"Don't think this is over, Rowan! You've locked down Water Dragon again, but my offensive is already past the point of no return!"
Bastion's resolve only sharpened. He raised his left wrist and gestured toward his Duel Disk.
A faint glow had already begun pulsing from the Graveyard slot.
"That black dragon-shaped monster you discarded with Graceful Charity on the first turn..." Rowan raised an eyebrow, watching the light build.
He already knew.
"Exactly. Carboneddon -- discarded in turn one using Graceful Charity's effect!" Bastion smiled again, confidence restored.
"I spent nearly three full turns setting this up."
"Carboneddon's Graveyard effect: when ten or more cards exist in the Graveyard, I can banish it to Special Summon one Hyozanryu from my hand or deck!"
"ROAR!"
Diamond-bright light erupted from Bastion's Graveyard slot. An enormous crystalline shape materialized on the field -- and then split open, rays of light bursting outward as a great silver-white horned dragon tore free from within it, scales glittering like cut gemstones as it let out a piercing cry.
[Hyozanryu] [Level 7 / LIGHT] [ATK 2100 / DEF 2800]
"He was planning for both at once!" Jaden stared, genuinely stunned.
"That Graceful Charity discard wasn't just to set up Water Dragon -- Carboneddon was the whole other chain running underneath it! That's incredible!"
"This could be trouble for him..." Alexis frowned and turned toward Rowan's side of the field with a hint of concern she didn't quite manage to hide.
What are you going to do now, Rowan?
She looked.
He didn't look troubled in the slightest.
"I noticed Carboneddon going into your Graveyard from the very beginning," Rowan said, a calm smile at the edge of his mouth.
"Did you really think I wouldn't have something ready for it?"
"Don't tell me...!" The shift was immediate.
Bastion's expression changed. So did Crowler's. So did every student watching nearby -- every head turning toward the one remaining set card on Rowan's field, sitting beside the Fiendish Chain that had just re-bound Water Dragon.
Rowan confirmed it without another word. He raised his hand.
"Activate face-down -- Trap Card, Floodgate Trap Hole!"
"When the opponent successfully Summons, Flip Summons, or Special Summons a monster -- that monster is turned face-down in Defense Position, and its battle position cannot be changed for as long as it remains on the field."
Hyozanryu's furious roar cut through the air for barely a second before the ground swallowed it.
The great dragon folded back into its crystalline shell with a helpless shriek, and the shell itself sank downward with a heavy thud, becoming a face-down card that sat motionless on the field.
Sealed in. Completely silent.
"..."
The expression on Bastion's face defied description.
But the twitch at the corner of his mouth, and the hollow stillness behind his eyes, said everything about what was happening inside him.
He'd been broken.
Completely and utterly broken.
[Ding -- Bastion Misawa's Emotion Value +800!]
Cold sweat beaded on foreheads across the observation area.
Every student watching turned to look at Rowan's bright, easy smile, and arrived at the exact same thought at the exact same moment.
How is he smiling like that?
Dueling this person felt like being sent to prison.
Alexis pressed a hand over her face.
It hit her suddenly -- Rowan had probably been going easy on her last night.
Genuinely easy. She was almost grateful she'd conceded when she had.
Syrus and Jaden both took a slow step backward, their expressions twitching in unison.
Even Jaden -- Jaden, who was devoted to dueling the way most people were devoted to breathing -- felt the thought of challenging Rowan himself begin to quietly waver inside him.
Did he really want to walk into that?
"Bastion," Crowler called out weakly from the field's edge, raising one tentative hand, "if you're feeling unwell, it's perfectly acceptable to pause the practical session and visit the nurse's office..."
"No."
Bastion snapped back to himself. He looked at Rowan with an expression that had gone very serious, very still.
"This is a trial I needed. A kind of duel I've never had to calculate for before."
"Come at me with everything you have, Rowan. My turn -- end!"
"Since you put it that way, let me give you a little gift. A proper way to get acquainted."
"My turn -- draw!"
To guarantee he pulled exactly the card he was after, Rowan laid his hand on his deck -- and quietly activated the once-per-duel ability granted by his state of absolute calm.
A mirror-still mind. A certainty that cut through chance.
"That feeling again...!" Something stirred in Jaden.
A few others felt it too -- Zane, standing somewhere in the distance, and one or two more.
Even Professor Banner in the Slifer Red corner paused and blinked, momentarily caught off guard.
Was that the force of a duelist's will at its peak...?
"Receive this gift of friendship, Bastion."
Rowan revealed the card he'd just drawn, a smooth motion with a smile to match.
"I Tribute Water Dragon and Hyozanryu from your field, and Special Summon to your field the soul of this deck -- my ace monster, Lava Golem!"
The two monsters on Bastion's field let out one final, indignant howl each.
Water Dragon, bound and struggling in its chains. The crystalline dragon, sealed and silent beneath its card.
Both collapsed into motes of light and vanished.
From the space they left behind, something else rose.
With a deep, reverberating rumble, a massive humanoid figure of living magma erupted from the ground -- and took shape behind Bastion.
"L... Lava Golem?!" Bastion spun around in alarm.
Before he could process what he was seeing, a dark cage on a chain descended from the Golem's chest and clanged shut directly around him.
Hold on -- you're calling THIS making friends?!
The color drained from Bastion's face entirely.