An overwhelming storm was raging inside the Skeleton Knight’s heart.
This guy—after withstanding such a powerful impact—not only seemed unfazed, but actually looked as if he was learning from and absorbing the Skeleton Knight’s dark riding techniques.
He quickly tried to recall all the duelists he knew. Skeleton Knight considered himself fairly familiar with many strong fighters, including some with especially resolute wills.
After all, this type of "Dark Riding" duel was an ordeal meant only for those with unbreakable minds, or those truly seeking a thrill—any misstep could lead to ruin before one’s life points even hit zero. So, every expert proficient in Dark Riding treated death with indifference and displayed extraordinary courage.
Yet even so, in Skeleton Knight’s memory, he’d never encountered anyone who remained so graceful and composed under pressure.
He even briefly entertained the absurd suspicion that his opponent had deliberately let the earlier damage go through purely to experience and study his own dark riding techniques.
No, that was too ridiculous. In a life-and-death riding duel, to act with such reckless disregard... That was not simply looking down on one’s opponent, but completely disregarding the line between life and death.
Was he truly not worried at all about losing?
"What’s wrong? Is your turn over already?" Kira asked.
"Uh..."
The Skeleton Knight shook his head, trying to dispel such unsettling thoughts.
"My turn is over."
"Done? Then, it’s my turn—draw!"
As Kira drew a card, a ray of golden light shot from the "graveyard zone" of his Duel Runner once again.
"Now, in my standby phase, since I have no spell or trap cards set, the effect of my ’Treeborn Frog’ in the graveyard activates. It special summons itself during my standby phase."
Kira snapped his fingers.
"Come on back—Treeborn Frog!"
A tiny, golden-skinned frog with fluttering wings and a glowing halo atop its head reappeared on the field.
[Treeborn Frog—DEF 100]
Kira glanced at his hand and chuckled mysteriously.
"You dare to underestimate the power of ’Frogs’? Fine, I’ll make sure you remember—with your whole body—what ’World Champion quality’ truly means."
Skeleton Knight was confused: "What?"
Did that guy just say something about a champion...?
Kira, of course, didn’t bother explaining. "If I control a Level 3 or lower WATER monster, I can special summon this card from my grave by discarding a card from my hand. I discard one card, and revive this monster from the graveyard—Fishborg Blaster!"
Kira discarded a card to the grave. On the side of his speeding Duel Runner, a swirl of water appeared. A steel-armored soldier leapt out from the spray—his weapon a high-pressure water gun, and a blue pipeline stretched from the weapon to the cockpit, which, rather than having a seat or pilot, looked like a fish tank—with the pilot being a literal fish! The cockpit bubbled with water.
[Fishborg Blaster—ATK 100]
A Level 1 Tuner with just 100 attack points, yet infamous enough to land on the Forbidden List. Back when Frog Decks won the World Championship, this guy definitely played a major role.


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