“Tsk.”
Mokuba, defeated, retreated from the duel field, his bad mood apparent.
His aim was to crush the game and force his opponent into a miserable end within the Shadow Game.
He saw his duel against Joey as a mere warm-up, a chance to eliminate a fellow duelist in the Shadow Game and cause emotional turmoil within the group.
But Joey never lost a single life point throughout the entire duel, and his life points even increased.
Mokuba never expected to lose without the Shadow Game even taking effect.
However, he was even more irritated by Malik, who was constantly inside his body, "guiding" him during the duel and nagging him endlessly, than by losing to Joey, someone he didn't take seriously.
Due to their partnership, Mokuba had allowed Malik to imbue a part of his own consciousness into Mokuba's body.
But this guy, from the start of the duel to its end, never stopped "guiding" him on how to play, or criticizing him for losing.
“You can’t even beat this ordinary, unremarkable person. Looks like I overestimated your strength.”
Malik, disguised as a harmless young man, stood among Kaiba and the others, his mouth silent, but using the power of the Millennium Rod to send his mockery through Mokuba's mind.
“As if you’re so great. Who lost the Winged Dragon of Ra to Yugi?”
“Hmph, I did that to make the later duels more interesting. Besides, the opponent was the nameless Pharaoh, quite formidable. No matter how you look at it, I'm still stronger than someone who lost to Joey.”
While looking down on Joey, Malik fully embraced the role of a keyboard warrior: "Look at your play, you suck, I could do better. This isn't brain surgery, it's simple."
“Shut your trap, you useless piece of crap! Get out of my head!”
Mokuba, furious and distorted, unleashed the power of the Millennium Wisdom Wheel. Golden light flickered, and he instantly kicked Malik out of the chat channel.
And Mokuba, not satisfied with that, activated the Millennium Wisdom Wheel and launched a physical attack on Malik.
I may be a terrible duelist, but I’m a good fighter!
For Mokuba, losing to Joey, a person without any special abilities, was an embarrassment.
But he wouldn’t be hurt by the Shadow Game, so he could fully attack Malik.
Deep blue lightning crackled around Mokuba's body.
Mokuba used Thunderbolt!
“Wha—!”
Malik clearly didn't expect Mokuba to "betray" him like this and attack.
Desperate, he disregarded the pretense of being the harmless Ram and pulled out the Millennium Rod from his pocket to counterattack.
“The Millennium Rod? Ram, how did you get this? You’re the true Malik, the leader of the Ghouls!”
Joey, who had just won a duel, was taken aback by the sudden turn of events.
Fortunately, he was still standing on the duel platform and was spared from the chaos below.
But Yugi, Tristan, and Kaiba weren’t so lucky. Malik was standing among the crowd to maintain his disguise.
With Mokuba's sudden attack, everyone except Mai, who was standing farther away, was caught in the blast.
Tristan, before he could curse, quickly summoned his "Stand, White Crystal Star!"
The White Crystal Captain appeared in time, using his power to create a White Crystal shield around Tristan and shield his companions as they dodged.
In a moment of urgency, even the Millennium Item Tristan kept in his pocket reacted weakly.
Yugi, on the other hand, had the nameless Pharaoh instantly come online, the Millennium Puzzle glowing as it deflected the residual power of Mokuba’s attack.
Malik, Mokuba's main target, wasn't so lucky.
Mokuba had launched the first attack, and because Malik was trying to maintain his disguise, he hadn’t countered immediately.
This put him at a disadvantage.
Malik and Mokuba were at a stalemate, their powers of darkness equally matched. Neither could defeat the other.
But what Malik didn't expect was that the Millennium Rod would actually betray him.
The Millennium Rod temporarily diverted some of its power to protect Seto Kaiba, who was standing nearby, watching the spectacle.
Why would the Millennium Rod protect Kaiba? Could he be the one on the stone tablet who dueled against the nameless Pharaoh?
These questions swarmed Malik's mind.
Malik's already terrible situation was now even worse.
“You're finished!”
Mokuba cackled, increasing the force of his attack. He was clearly aiming to absorb Malik's dark power to strengthen himself.
“Malik!”
At this critical moment, Rishid, who was resting in the hall below, seemed to sense something and took the elevator up.
He rushed towards Malik, who was about to be overwhelmed, and blocked the attack with lightning speed.
This may have been Rishid’s only shining moment in his entire life.
Mokuba's Thunderbolt struck Rishid, and the effect was overwhelming.
Rishid fell.
“Tch!”
Mokuba, realizing his attack didn’t achieve its purpose and that Yugi and the others were now armed, found it uninteresting.
He snorted, switched back to his normal personality, and collapsed to the ground, the wound on his hand splitting open.
“Mokuba!”
“Rishid!”
Exclaims of shock erupted from Yugi and the others, as well as from Malik.
“Rishid? So he wasn't the leader of the Ghouls. You, with the Millennium Rod, are the true Malik.”
Seeing the situation turn upside down, Joey quickly ran down from the duel platform. But seeing Malik cradling Rishid, he didn’t know what to say.
He just looked at Kaiba and said seriously, “Kaiba, two people have collapsed. Are you really going to continue this tournament?”
“Hmph, don't judge me with your idiotic perspective. Do you think I didn’t consider this?”
Kaiba scoffed. He was close to Malik who was attacked, but he didn't have a scratch on him, protected by the Millennium Rod.
He just thought it was a poorly executed magic trick.
As a god from three thousand years ago and a Pharaoh, Kaiba's importance to the Millennium Rod was above Malik's!
“You want to land the airship and send these two to the hospital? I already anticipated that someone would collapse during such a intense duel. That's why I had an elite medical team and plenty of medicine prepared on the airship.”
Joey was slightly displeased, but since there was a medical team on the airship, he couldn't find anything to criticize.
Tristan wasn't surprised either. The airship was already in the air. Did he expect the CEO to stop dueling?
Never. Not even if the sky fell.
But he was more concerned about Rishid falling, meaning the shackles sealing the dark Malik were gone.
Tristan looked at Malik, who was cradling the unconscious Rishid.
His hair, unconsciously, stood up, becoming a hairstyle that clearly signaled, "I’m good at cards".
His facial expressions were increasingly uncontrollable.