Chapter Seven: You Tried to Print a Card. rd100=79<80

At the exact moment he activated the Fusion Spell Card, besides Ojamellow on the field, he also had Ojamagreen in his hand and the Ojamablack he had just retrieved from the graveyard.

As he played the Fusion Spell Card, Hayato awkwardly realized something: in the anime of his past life, no matter who activated the Fusion Spell Card, as long as they gathered the fusion materials, they could practically conjure the Fusion Monster card out of thin air.

However, right now, no matter how many times Hayato signaled with his eyes to the fully assembled Ojama trio, none of them showed any reaction at all.

"Eh? Big bro, don't tell me you want us to fuse?"
"Even though the three of us can indeed summon the King~"
"But big bro! You don't even have the card of the King in your hand, ya know!"

Damn it, I'm dumbfounded.

If this were a duel conducted on futuristic Duel Disks or duel stages, bluffing a Fusion Monster into existence might actually be viable, but this was a face-to-face duel. If he pulled out a token and declared it was Ojama King, his opponent definitely wouldn't accept it, right?

And there was another thing Hayato had just remembered—

"Fusion?! Can that pathetic monster really fuse with something decent like Dragon Piper?" Boar-headed Goro looked at the remaining combination of Ojamellow and Dragon Piper on Hayato's field, sinking into deep thought. While two handsome Thunder Dragons could fuse into Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, which looked identical to Two-Mouth Dark Ruler, he honestly couldn't picture the monster combination currently on Hayato's field.

---In the early rules of DM, there seemed to be a restriction stating that "Fusion can only combine monsters that already exist on the field."

Given the circumstances, Hayato had no choice but to awkwardly bluff and patch up his previous terrible play: "Wrong! The one I'm fusing with is not Ojamellow, but Baby Dragon, whom I Normal Summoned this turn!"

Even though Hayato had played the Spell Card first before summoning the monster, Boar-headed Goro didn't question the bizarre sequence, making Hayato let out a sigh of relief while thinking to himself: Thank goodness I still have this card in hand as a backup measure.

"Dragon Piper will ride upon the matured Baby Dragon! I Fusion Summon Windrider Dragon!"

Windrider Dragon
Level 5 | WIND | Dragon / Fusion
ATK 1700 / DEF 1500

"And now, Windrider Dragon will attack your Flame Swordsman!" Sending Baby Dragon and Dragon Piper to the graveyard, Hayato slammed down a monster card and pointed at the Flame Swordsman on Goro's side of the field.

Although Windrider Dragon actually possessed the effect "If the opponent controls only EARTH, FIRE, or WATER monsters, this card can attack the opponent directly," because direct attacks were currently prohibited by the rules of Duel Monsters, Windrider Dragon had essentially become a vanilla Fusion Monster with no special text.

Seeing Hayato launch an attack, Boar-headed Goro sneered, "It's just another 1,700 ATK monster. Do you want to go down with my Flame Swordsman? If you can do it, then bring it on!" In his hand, he possessed monsters that could rival or even surpass Flame Swordsman, but he hadn't summoned them earlier out of caution.

If that Windrider Dragon defeated Flame Swordsman, then on the next turn, he would summon an even stronger monster, attack that trash monster foolishly left in Attack Position, and wipe out his opponent's Life Points in one go.

"Go down together? Oh right, I forgot to explain something to you." Hayato smiled and pointed at Ojama Country on the field. "When there is an Ojama monster on the field, the second effect of Ojama Country activates."

"The Attack and Defense of all monsters on the entire field are completely swapped!"

Windrider Dragon: ATK 1700 -> 1500
Ojamellow: ATK 0 -> 1000
Flame Swordsman: ATK 1700 -> 100

"My Flame Swordsman!" Goro's eyes widened in shock. "At this rate, even that trash monster can—!"

"Windrider Dragon, attack! Smash that monster!"

"Guh-ack!"

With its Attack reduced to a pathetic 100 points, Flame Swordsman was effortlessly destroyed, and Boar-headed Goro's Life Points were heavily slashed by a full 1,400 points.

Goro: 2000 LP -> 600 LP

"End of turn."
Hayato: Hand 3 -> 4 -> 2

Clearly, earlier when facing the attacks of Flame Swordsman, Hayato could only respond in Defense Position and rely on Spell Cards to revive his monsters again and again. Yet in the span of just a single turn, he had managed to organize such a sharp and fierce offensive. Boar-headed Goro was now taking him with absolute seriousness.

"Hey you, just who are you? I've never heard your name before."

"The world is vast enough to accommodate anyone's ambition. As for me, my name is Hayato Kobayashi—just a passing duelist. You better remember it."

Boar-headed Goro nodded solemnly, shedding his previous arrogance and contempt. "Hayato Kobayashi, I'll remember that name. Then—"

"My turn, draw!"

Glancing at the card he had drawn, Goro looked intently at Hayato and said, "I thought you were just some third-rate duelist, but it turns out I've run into a rare master. Then I'll have to get serious too!"

"Activate this Spell Card, and I will summon my very soul!"

Goro slammed the card from his hand onto the disk. It was a Spell Card: The Burger Recipe! This was the first Ritual Spell Hayato had ever witnessed.

"According to the card's effect, I offer monsters from my hand whose total Levels equal 6 or more as Tributes."

Drawing three low-Level normal monster cards from his hand, Goro discarded them to the graveyard as the Tributes for the Ritual Summon and summoned his soul: "Scorching metal tightly pressed against blazing flames—this is the ultimate secret of teppanyaki cuisine! Come forth, Hungry Burger!"

Hungry Burger
Level 6 | DARK | Warrior / Ritual
ATK 2000 / DEF 1850

"Two thousand Attack Points. But because of the effect of Ojama Country, Hungry Burger's Attack and Defense will be swapped," Hayato reminded him.

Hungry Burger: ATK 2000 -> 1850

"Then what about after adding this card?" After expending five card resources from his hand in a classic "five-for-one" play just to summon Hungry Burger to the field, Goro continued his turn. "Activate the Spell Card, Legendary Sword!"

Hungry Burger: ATK 1850 -> 2150

"And finally, my last card in hand! I haven't even performed my Normal Summon yet!" Boar-headed Goro played his final card, a monster card: Giant Soldier of Stone.

Giant Soldier of Stone
Level 3 | EARTH | Rock / Normal
ATK 1300 / DEF 2000

"And now Ojama Country takes effect!" Before Hayato could even speak, Goro proactively utilized the Field Spell's effect.

Giant Soldier of Stone: ATK 1300 -> 2000

"Although that Ojama Country weakens all my other monsters, it vastly enhances the power of Giant Soldier of Stone." Goro waved his hand forward. "Hungry Burger, attack Windrider Dragon! And Giant Soldier of Stone, crush that Ojamellow into pieces!"