Tania shut down.
She'd finally gotten to activate her soul card "Amazoness Arena," and never in her life had she wanted so badly to use its effect.
Just once. Even once would have been enough.
Winning or losing the duel no longer mattered. She just wanted to trigger Amazoness Arena once—give her that one chance to plant a fist into that infuriatingly punchable face.
For a moment, she felt that if she could just throw that one punch, this duel—her whole life—would be complete.
But this guy wouldn't even give her that one punch.
The spectators below, eager for drama, who by now included no small number of duelists that Tania had hammered in the past, broke into cheers seeing her eat humble pie.
Others, though, felt a stab of sympathy.
Slip for a moment into Tania's viewpoint and you can't help feeling your own fists clench.
Especially since most here were underground "Dark Duelists." Imagine being in a life-or-death Shadow Duel against an opponent like this—an entire game without either side's monsters even touching, just getting bounced back, back, and back again until you're dead before you know it.
All that strength with nowhere to use it—no wonder you'd go to hell with your eyes open, unwilling to rest.
Kira stowed his Duel Disk and walked forward at an easy pace.
He didn't think he'd gone too far. He only felt this Shadow Riders executive wasn't much to write home about.
This isn't how you play Amazoness.
This isn't how you fight with it.
A deck that can be so much fun, and she'd forced it into some hot-blooded slugfest build that lives to trade punches. You can't expect every opponent to be as cooperative as Jaden, happily calling out fists to slug it out with you.
Honestly, Kira felt he hadn't even gotten started.
He hadn't used the final full-field bounce on Pharaonic Guardian yet. And he hadn't even used its other hidden effect—if Pharaonic Guardian Sphinx is destroyed by the opponent, you can drop a 5-star Rock-Type monster from your deck in face-down Defense Position.
A 5-star Rock-Type? Obviously the original "Guardian Sphinx."
So even if the opponent finally, after great effort, removed Pharaonic Guardian, they'd just stare wide-eyed to find that after killing one, there's another, and they still can't escape next turn's full-field bounce—prompting a deep crisis of faith.
Though it looked like Tania didn't last that long before she was simply done.
Kira felt he hadn't even flexed, and the other side was already lying down.
"Looks like I won."
He glanced around at the crowd off the stage.
"About that wager we mentioned—shall we find somewhere private to discuss it?"
Propping herself up on a knee, Tania stood and gave a dull nod.
They hopped off the stage and slipped out of sight to a quiet spot.
The white-furred Amazoness tiger followed behind them, padding along.
"Your friend?"
Kira flicked a glance at the tiger.
The tiger bared its fangs and let out a warning roar.
But a white radiance flared as a surge of magic rippled out from Kira. The Silent Magician didn't appear, but her presence flowed through Kira as a medium, an invisible pressure settling over the tiger.
A smart tiger knows when not to take a loss. Realizing it was outmatched, the white tiger shrank its head, lowered its voice, and gave another little rumble.
As if to say: just saying hello—what are you getting so fierce about?
Fine, I'll lie down then.
"Quiet."
Tania ordered. The white tiger grumbled, shut its eyes, and pretended to nap, keeping silent.
"You won. I concede."
Tania glared coldly at Kira.
"But I've thought about it, and I'm not going to marry you. I admit you're a very strong duelist, but if I had to duel someone like you every day, I'm afraid it would shorten my lifespan."
It was strange. Tania had suffered from duel addiction for years. It was always flaring up, as if she'd been born to duel and nothing else. Yet she had no capable man around her; she burned with that itch day and night, ravenous.
That was why she had left the Spirit Dimension she came from for this world—the Duelist Dimension.
An organization called "Shadow Riders" approached her and saw her potential. Their leader offered simple terms: join them, fight for them, and she would meet the powerful duelists she'd dreamed of facing.
Dueling was the meaning of her life; the battle itself was the best reward.
Strangely, Tania felt she may actually have found the kind of strong man she'd been searching for all along.
Found him—and suddenly, she didn't feel like dueling anymore.
The gnawing addiction that had tormented her for so many years seemed… cured.
So when she looked at the man in front of her now, her expression was complicated.
She didn't know whether to resent him or be grateful.
"The Shadow Riders' master?"
Tania frowned.
"If you're looking for him, you'll probably be disappointed. I can't help much."
"Oh?" Kira asked. "How so?"
"The master of the Shadow Riders never shows up in person."
She shook her head.
"Even the other Shadow Riders members aren't very familiar with each other.
We each do our own thing. Even when the organization assigns missions, we usually act alone.
We only get together occasionally when the master calls a meeting. Even then, there isn't much communication. We don't really know each other."
"Have you ever seen this master?"
"Yes… and no," Tania said.
"What do you mean?"
"He never shows himself."
"Even at full assemblies, the leader only participates as a hologram," she said. "He looks strange—a huge silhouette with dark red eyes, and whenever he speaks, it's like he's talking through a curtain of water.
We all suspect he might not be human."
Kira understood.
He knew that was most likely Kagemaru's life-support system.
Earlier on, Kagemaru's every appearance was a hazy silhouette as if seen through a veil of water—mysterious and dramatic. Later, you realize it's not that deep.
It was because the old man was on death's door; leaving the life-support pod would mean keeling over fast.
"So if you're looking for him, sorry—I probably can't help. But I might have a lead on another of the Shadow Riders.
I know a guy who calls himself a pharaoh… I don't know if it's true. He's always putting on airs. I might know where you can find him."