Fairy Tail: My Magic is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck — Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The Magic of the Eighteen Battle Gods

Cluny’s eyes gleamed with feral intensity as he locked onto his target. Chase merely stood there, completely relaxed, the sea breeze tugging at his clothes.

Two dark purple magic circles flared to life over Cluny’s arms, illuminating the deck in a sickly hue. Thick, rolling black mist poured from the complex runes, spiraling down his limbs and enveloping his outstretched hands to form elongated, demonic claws.

Under the glowing illumination of the Swords of Revealing Light hanging in the sky above, the dark talons shimmered with a deadly, light-absorbing sheen. A single casual swipe looked capable of shredding solid steel plating into ribbons.

As the feared leader of a Dark Guild, this was the signature magic that had carved his bloody reputation across the seas. It shared a passing resemblance to Erza’s Requip: The Knight, as both were strictly close-quarters combat styles. However, while Erza pulled physical weapons from a pocket dimension, Cluny achieved his lethal armaments by hyper-compressing violent magic power into a physical state.

“Brat, you’re really starting to annoy me.”

Cluny stuck out his tongue, dragging it perversely across the flat edge of his shadowy claw. “Keeping you alive serves a great purpose, sure. But before I hand you over, I’m going to let you experience something special.”

His rugged, scarred face twisted into a brutal grin. “I’ll show you what a true hell of pain and despair looks like!”

Muscle coiled in his legs. The deck groaned under the sudden pressure before he exploded forward with terrifying speed. A streak of black light tore through the air as the demonic claw carved a vicious arc, arriving inches from Chase’s face in the blink of an eye.

Clang!

Steel shrieked against compressed magic, sending a shower of golden sparks raining across the wooden deck.

Cluny’s jaw tightened. His momentum had slammed into an immovable wall. Deep within his dilated pupils, the unfamiliar reflection of a green-clad warrior took shape.

The swordsman possessed firm, fearless eyes, clad in polished steel armor with a purple cape billowing gently in the turbulent wind.

Cluny’s gaze tracked the longsword currently locked in a fierce grind against his demonic claw, then shifted past the warrior’s shoulder. Chase stood safely behind his new defender, his right hand slightly raised, holding a single glimmering card between his fingertips.

‘Besides that fire-breathing bone dragon and those floating swords of light, his card magic can actually summon a humanoid warrior?!’

Feeling the immense, unyielding weight transmitted through the longsword, a cold sweat broke across the pirate’s neck. Back when he ruled the Deep Mire, he had slaughtered his fair share of Card Mages. He knew their tricks. He knew their weaknesses. No matter how varied or tricky their spells were, the mages themselves were always ridiculously frail.

That was exactly why he had chosen to close the distance at maximum speed for a fatal, crippling strike. He never expected his target to have a physical guardian waiting in the wings.

“I’m leaving the frontline to you, Obnoxious Celtic Guard,” Chase said, his voice entirely devoid of panic.

[Obnoxious Celtic Guard]: Four-star Effect Monster. Possesses skilled swordsmanship, high combat intuition, and an unyielding will.

The elven swordsman offered a slight nod over his shoulder. Turning back to the enemy, he let out a sharp battle cry, gripping his hilt with both hands and shoving forward with explosive force.

Cluny’s boots skidded across the wooden planks as the monstrous strength pushed him back several meters.

Just as the pirate dug his heels in to stabilize, a shadow fell over him. The purple cape fluttered against the moonlit sky. The Obnoxious Celtic Guard had already vaulted into the air, flipping his blade to turn a horizontal slash into a devastating overhead chop, using the sheer inertia of his descent to aim straight for Cluny’s skull.

But Cluny was a battle-hardened veteran of the underworld for a reason. His reaction was instantaneous. He stomped heavily, cracking the deck, and swung his right arm up to catch the descending blade with his dark claw.

Simultaneously, his left arm snapped out from a blind angle, driving straight toward the airborne swordsman’s exposed abdomen.

Pfft—

The razor-sharp dark magic pierced clean through the steel armor, erupting from the Guard’s back in a spray of ethereal light.

Bang!

The fatally wounded warrior shattered into a thousand glowing fragments, scattering into the wind like broken glass.

“Fragile junk.” Cluny scoffed, shaking the residual light from his hand. “If all your little cards are this pathetic, you might as well drop to your knees and start begging right now.”

He rolled his shoulders, taking a slow, menacing step forward. “If you scream nicely enough, maybe I’ll make your suffering a little shorter!”

Perhaps he had spent too much time isolated at sea, or perhaps the sheer thrill of breaking a famous Fairy Tail S-Class Mage was getting to his head. He desperately wanted to see the arrogant confidence melt off Chase’s face, replaced by raw, unfiltered panic. He wanted this boy to act exactly like those self-righteous guild mages who took on extermination commissions, only to end up sobbing in pools of their own blood.

Instead of a scream, his answer came as a blinding flash of silver from his blind spot.

Cluny hastily threw his arms up to block. The impact hit him like a runaway carriage. The sheer kinetic force of the longsword sent the pirate captain flying backward, crashing violently through the wooden walls of his own ship’s cabin.

Planks splintered. Support beams snapped. The entire structure collapsed into a cloud of dust and ruin.

“How is that possible?!” Cluny roared, violently shoving a heavy wooden beam off his chest. “I tore you to shreds!”

His wide eyes locked onto the ruins just outside the cabin. The Obnoxious Celtic Guard, who had definitely just been obliterated, stood perfectly intact. The swordsman gripped his blade, his expression completely stoic, offering no explanation.

Silence was his nature.

“If you don’t show some actual firepower, you won’t even be able to scratch his defense, dear Leader Cluny.”

Cluny snapped his head toward the sound of the voice. His blood pressure instantly spiked.

Chase was currently sitting on the pirate captain’s own beast-skin throne, leisurely crossing his legs. Worse, he was gently blowing on a steaming cup of tea he had procured from absolutely nowhere.

As a Dark Guild master and a pirate captain who terrorized an entire ocean sector, Cluny had never been subjected to such blatant disrespect. The veins in his forehead pulsed violently.

Theoretically, Chase knew that as long as the duelist remained standing, the summoned monsters never truly died. However, that didn’t mean he had infinite access to them. If a monster was destroyed in battle, their spirit entered a mandatory slumber period to recover.

Dark Magician Girl, for instance, had taken the full brunt of the Fire Dragon God Ignia’s roar. She had been forced into a deep sleep for three days and three nights before she could manifest again. The exact same rules applied to destroyed Spell and Trap cards.

Naturally, this slumber could be bypassed using specific revival magic, such as [Monster Reborn] or [Premature Burial]. But Chase treated those as absolute trump cards, refusing to burn them on a mere pirate skirmish.

The reason the Obnoxious Celtic Guard could instantly return to the field was entirely due to his inherent monster effect: Cannot be destroyed in battle by an enemy with higher attack power.

Ignoring the pirate’s murderous glare, Chase took a slow sip of his tea. “For example, magic that can spray high-temperature flames might do the trick.”

“Do you really expect me to fall for such obvious bait?” Cluny spat, his face twisting into a terrifying grimace.

Watching the pirate’s reaction, Chase mentally checked a box. Based on the flow of combat and that specific response, this guy definitely didn’t possess flame magic.

Which meant Marshall, that cowardly, scheming client, had deliberately withheld crucial combat data. If the probability of Marshall being the true mastermind behind this ambush was ninety-nine percent a few minutes ago, it had just hit a solid one hundred.

While Chase pondered his next move, a violent gale swept across the splintered deck.

Refusing to accept the reality of the situation, Cluny unleashed his magic power to the absolute limit. His demonic claws extended, tearing through the air as he engaged the silent swordsman in a flurry of high-speed, close-quarters strikes.

Despite the vast difference in power levels among S-Class mages, Cluny was still a master of his craft. His physical speed and destructive output were far beyond what any ordinary mage could track.

The Obnoxious Celtic Guard, bound by the limits of a four-star monster, simply couldn’t keep up with the sheer volume of attacks. He was torn apart in a matter of seconds.

Then, triggering his indestructible effect, he instantly reformed from the light and resumed his defensive stance.

Clang! Slash! Shatter. Reform.

The maddening, endless loop made Cluny grind his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. After a dozen brutal exchanges, the pirate realized he couldn’t find a single opening to bypass the immortal swordsman and strike Chase.

Knowing that a war of attrition would only drain his magic reserves, Cluny ripped the Guard in half one last time and immediately kicked off the deck, launching himself backward to create distance before the warrior could reform again.

“Heh… as expected of Fairy Tail. You lot are nothing but a headache.”

The black mist violently retracted. Cluny voluntarily dispelled the dark magic coating his arms, reaching up to grip the weathered skull necklace resting against his collarbone.

“You’re good, brat. I’ll give you that. Out of all the targets I’ve hunted, you’re the very first one to force my hand like this.”

His fingers dug into the bone. “But this is where your little game ends.”

Crack!

The skull splintered into dust under his grip. Instantly, an ancient, oppressive magic power—completely different from the dark mist—erupted from his body, washing over the ship in a heavy, bone-chilling wave.