Cards of Remnant

Chapter 28: I Burn - Part 1

"Age before beauty," Yang bowed her head. "So unless you're secretly a stud under that Grimm mask…"

Banesaw sneered at her, his Grimm mask vibrating over his completely hidden face, but he nonetheless slammed a monster down on his hulking duel disk. "I Normal Summon Labyrinth Heavy Tank in attack mode!"

A cheer went up from the lower tier of the stands, the faunus contingent of the audience howling for their champion as an enormous blue tank manifested before him, the huge machine bearing a truly unhinged amount of red drills (ATK 2400/DEF 2400).

"Level Seven with over two thousand attack points? Impressive," Yang glibly remarked. "I take it there's a drawback of some kind?"

"Can't attack the turn it's Normal Summoned. Not really a problem on the first turn," Banesaw shot back. "I activate its special ability! Once per turn, during my Main Phase, my tank can drill into my hand, deck, and banished cards, and place one of a certain three monsters in my Spell and Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card."

Labyrinth Heavy Tank's numerous crimson drills span and a card flew from its masked master's deck and into his duel disk. A coffin bearing an ancient Mistralian character manifested behind the machine, the circle forming the background colored in bright yellow.

"Monsters in the back row," Yang noted. It seemed Blake's Pendulum Monsters weren't the only practical application of the tricks the faunus had learned from their mistreatment in the Great War.

"Then I activate the field spell Labyrinth Wall Shadow!" Banesaw roared, his duel disk opening up as he smashed the card into its field zone, the aura reflectors lighting up.

All throughout the cage and the hardlight dust barrier running within it, thick walls of stone sprouted up from the floor. Yang's view of her towering opponent was obscured by a winding maze of stout weathered bricks, the blonde completely surrounded by his field spell and the cage bars.

"As long as Labyrinth Wall Shadow is out, monsters can't attack the turn they're summoned unless their original level is five or above," Banesaw's voice echoed through the walls, Yang's eyes flicking about trying to track where he might be. But all she ever caught was the whisper of a shadow zipping across the edge of the maze, just beyond the sight of her violet eyes. "It also has the same effect as my Labyrinth Heavy Tank. So I'll activate it to put another of those three monsters into my Spell and Trap Card Zone!"

A pillar of water shot up from the floor of the maze, reaching as high as the cage's enormous ceiling before falling back down on the opposite side from Yang. She had a feeling there was another coffin sitting by her opponent.

"I lay two cards face down and end my turn!" Banesaw shouted. "Think you can back up your bravado, human?"

"Easily. Draw!" Yang replied, ripping a card from the top of Ember Celica. She grinned wide and bright when she saw it.

Banesaw wasn't the first person to call her cocky. She preferred to think of herself as confident. After all, it wasn't just bravado if she really was as good as she thought she was. And despite her bluster, she was far from a hothead when it came to dueling.

Well, she wasn't just a hothead. She wouldn't have lasted a minute under her dad's training regimen if she was. She dueled with all instinct during a match, but beforehand, she studied her opponent and plotted counters for their go-to strategies, as she had with Pyrrha prior to their exhibition duel. And ever since her team had told her about the White Fang's reliance on Polymerization, she'd been researching ways to shut it down. And the card she'd just drawn was the counter she'd landed on.