"Amazoness Archer, Normal Summon."
Gloria immediately summoned the newly drawn Monster Card.
Then, a female archer, unlike the other muscular Amazoness fighters with her fair skin and slender figure, stood on the field.
Amazoness Archer, LV 4, Earth Attribute, Warrior-Type, ATK 1400.
Tenjo Hikari raised an eyebrow.
Wow...
Forbidden Card.
Gloria, with her hands on her hips, looked at Tenjo Hikari and sneered, "This card isn't your regular Amazoness Archer."
She extended her hand forward, formed a "V" sign with her index and middle fingers, and said, "Amazoness Archer can sacrifice two monsters on the field to deal 1200 damage to the opponent!"
"What!?" Manjome exclaimed.
If their Life Points were still at the starting 8000, they could take a couple of hits.
But now they only had 4100 Life Points left!
"Heh, thank you for the sacrifices you've offered us—" She looked at Manjome, "Go, Archer, shoot those annoying small fry at the opponent!"
Oh no!
Manjome cursed silently.
Ojama Tokens cannot be used as Tribute for Tribute Summon.
But—
They could be released for effects without a problem!
Ojama Black, sipping tea, and Ojama Green, reading a comic book, were grabbed by Amazoness Archer, hung onto an arrow, and shot out immediately.
The two Ojama creatures were shot at Manjome's face in a cathartic release from Gloria, but the arrow diverted halfway and headed towards Tenjo Hikari. Hikari raised his right hand, catching it effortlessly as the arrowhead dissipated before him.
Boy's Group, LP: 4100→2900
"Oh! What an impressive move." Grace clapped her hands gently at her side.
"Heh, without such skills, the professor wouldn't have sent us here in the first place," Gloria said, "But—what about the second arrow!"
"Activate Amazoness Archer's effect again, sacrificing herself and an Ojama Token to inflict another 1200 damage on you!"
The Amazoness Archer emitted a red glow, grabbed Ojama Yellow, and shot another arrow at the opponents, sacrificing herself on the battlefield before dealing damage to Tenjo Hikari and the others.
Boy's Group, LP: 2900→1700.
"Bypassing combat and opting for direct effect damage, huh?" Mitsuzawa Daichi furrowed his brows and nodded, "While it's not the best choice, under the circumstances where Thousand-Eyes Restrict can't be destroyed, this tactic is quite decent."
"Moreover, those two guys still have over ten thousand Life Points," Asuka also massaged her brow, "With 15600 Life Points, attacking solely with Thousand-Eyes Restrict might take five entire turns, especially with Amazoness Hot Spring in play. If they find a way to summon an Amazoness during battle, they won't need to endure battle damage at all."
"The Ace Monster is controlled, so they opt for direct damage, huh?"
"With the field empty, there's no need to worry at all..."
"How are these transfer students from the United States Branch so formidable?"
Listening to the surrounding discussions, Gloria showed no response.
For her, dueling against stronger and more powerful duelists was the most interesting thing in the world, anything else was simply boring.
She glanced at her hand.
Grace's Set Card was a Trap Card, Queen's Choice, which can be activated when an Amazoness Monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle, allowing the Special Summon of a LV 4 or lower Amazoness directly from the Deck.
However, because the monsters on the field were destroyed, it couldn't be used.
Normally, keeping Amazoness Archer and finding a way to protect her, allowing Grace to deal more damage in the next turn, would be the optimal choice, but they had to guard against Thousand-Eyes Restrict on the opponent's field.
If Amazoness Archer were devoured, it would be entirely dangerous.
However...
For now, they could let go.
With only 2800 ATK, it didn't matter how long they took.
Because...
She took The Warrior Returning Alive from her hand and placed it in the Set Zone, nodding at Grace. Grace saw this and nodded appreciatively.
"End the turn!"
"It's your turn, hurry and attack, hurry and finish!" Gloria said to Manjome.
"I'm really being looked down on, huh." Manjome shook his head.
He drew a card from the Deck, glanced at it, and looked at his opponents, "You are Fusion Duelists, from the United States Branch, right?"
"Everyone should already know this."
"You've come here not only by Professor Akuma's directive, but you probably also want to see a higher, deeper layer of Fusion." Manjome put the card into his hand, shaking his head, "From the start of your duel, you've been constantly talking about witnessing Fusion as if I didn't exist."
"Oh dear, are you feeling embarrassed, Manjome?" Grace said with a gentle smile, "Sorry, but there are things we're more interested in, it's not that you're not charming or anything."
"No—what I mean is, your Fusion is too narrow-minded!"
!?
The two sisters were taken aback by Manjome's words and simultaneously looked at him, truly examining him for the first time.
What is this boy, who only got the chance to appear by winning rock-paper-scissors, talking about?
"What you underestimate is not me! You underestimate Tenjo, you underestimate our Fusion Department!" Manjome raised his head high, "Who do you think is standing before you?
Don't assume that because I won with rock-paper-scissors, our decks are unrelated!
Tenjo's fusion is far ahead of you!"
He squinted his eyes: "Fusion has never been limited to mere [Polymerization] Spell Cards, Tenjo has been saying all year that the mutual assistance with friends is fusion, collaboration with teammates is fusion, understanding each other's decks is also fusion!"
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Gloria furrowed her brow.
"Hmm..." Grace, being smarter, was contemplating Manjome's words.
"My turn." Manjome directly activated the Set Card, "Take a good look, at the [Fusion] you haven't seen at the branch school!"
"Activate Set Card!"
"Continuous Spell Card XYZ Unity!"
"What is this?" Everyone gasped upon seeing the Continuous Spell Card on Manjome's field.
Because it was simple —
This was the card Tenjo Hikari had set!
He hadn't set a defensive card, but left Manjome a Continuous Spell Card!
"Why not use it in your own turn if it's Continuous?"
"By the way, XYZ… isn't that Manjome's card?"
Many began to discuss.
Manjome smirked: "Who told you... there are no [Light·Machine-Type] Fusion Monsters in Tenjo's deck?"
!?
Yes —
Just because Tenjo Hikari hadn't used it, doesn't mean he doesn't have it!
"But, why set the Continuous Spell Card?" Gloria was still puzzled.
"You'll know soon enough — Activating the effect of XYZ Unity! Return 1 Fusion Monster on your field to the Extra Deck to activate! Select up to two of your banished monsters from [X-Head Cannon], [Y-Dragon Head], [Z-Metal Tank] for Special Summon!"
!
It's another form of "De-Fusion"!
The XYZ series cards, though called "Unity," are actually a method of banishing monsters and Special Summoning Fusion Monsters from the Extra Deck.
"Ah —" Grace reacted.
"Return the Thousand-Eyes Restrict on the field to the Extra Deck! Special Summon the banished X-Head Cannon and Z-Metal Tank!"
The evil god of the thousand eyes closed its eyes and left the field, and the Amazoness Empress was finally liberated, returning to the Tyler Sisters' Graveyard.
And two robots have already appeared on Manjome's field!
X-Head Cannon, LV 4, Light Attribute, Machine-Type, ATK 1800.
Z-Metal Tank, LV 4, Light Attribute, Machine-Type, ATK 1500.
"Tenjo anticipated your strategy long ago!" Manjome swung his hand, as if a fierce wind was howling, causing the two sisters to instinctively retreat, "Unable to fight, you choose effect damage, so you would preserve the Thousand-Eyes Restrict, attacking us slowly… haha, too naive!
Such things are openly visible and completely not secretive to Tenjo Hikari, who understands all fusion!"
Grace instinctively covered her body with her hands.
Gloria then realized in shock: "So, not activating the Continuous Spell was to trick us into an empty field… there's actually such a Duelist!?"
"It's not over yet! I'll fuse Head Cannon and Metal Tank!"
The two monsters automatically fused on the field, transforming into a new monster: "Special Summon, XZ-Tank Cannon!"
XZ-Tank Cannon, LV 6, Light Attribute, Machine-Type, ATK 2400.
Manjome smirked: "The uniqueness of the VtoZ series cards is their ability to fuse with one another!"
"Similarly, XZ has effects slightly inferior to XYZ, but nearly equivalent!
Discard one hand card, destroy one set Spell or Trap Card on the field!
I discard two cards, destroying both of your cards!"
Instantly, two set cards were destroyed by XZ's cannon rounds.
"Then comes the effect of Gem-Knight Fusion in the Graveyard, banishing a Gem-Knight card in the Graveyard to add it to the hand, I banish Gem-Knight Tourmaline and add it to the hand. Following this, it's the effect of Brilliant Fusion — discard one Spell Card, until the opponent's End Phase, have that Gem-Knight monster on the field regain its original ATK and DEF values!"
"I discard Gem-Knight Fusion."
Gem-Knight Prismaura, ATK: 0→2450.
"Battle, attack the opponent with two monsters!"
Tyler Sisters LP: 15600→10750.