Yu-Gi-Oh! The Pitfall Hero

The purple frog wearing a graduation cap—[Magic Frog]—raised its head and pushed the green frog with a samurai sword hanging at its waist—[Pure Frog]—out of the graveyard, making it appear in front of Princess Rose along with the [Ghost Frog] on the field.

As Princess Rose finished speaking, the two frogs of the same level were also enveloped in light and plunged into the supermassive vortex that appeared in front of them.

Purple and yellow light intersected in the vortex, and from that emerged a dazzling pure white light that illuminated the surrounding space.

"...Appear! Tier 2—[Frog Pancake]!!!"

Like overlapping mirror cakes (flat, round, stacked rice cakes offered to gods during the Japanese New Year), two white frogs, one large and one small, appeared before everyone's eyes accompanied by light.

Two golden orbs, representing the excess material, rotated around its body at a regular speed, like satellites orbiting a planet.

Although the pancake frog looks cute and honest, hidden beneath that adorable exterior is a chilling killing intent that is not easily detected!

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【Frog Pancake】

(Aquatic/Water/Tier 2/Attack: 2200/Defense: 0)

Xyz/Effect: 2 Level 2 Aqua monsters

①: During your or your opponent's Standby Phase, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to activate this effect. Special Summon 1 "Frog" monster from your Deck.

②: Once per turn, when your opponent activates a monster's effect, Spell Card, or Trap Card, you can send 1 Aqua Monster from your hand or field to the Graveyard to activate this effect. Negate that activation and destroy it. After that, you can Set the destroyed card on your field.

③: If this card is sent to the Graveyard, you can target 1 WATER monster in your Graveyard; add that monster to your hand.

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"...It really is a pancake frog!"

Looking at the white monster in front of him, Yusei couldn't help but press his head down.

At this moment, he couldn't help but recall the fear of being dominated by the [Thunder Spirit Frog] deck...

Not only do they negate the effects of your activated cards, but they also directly set them to their own field, which is utterly inhumane...

And the most annoying thing is that even if you go to great lengths to get rid of the Frog, it can bounce back to the Extra Deck using its effect, and then come out again to annoy you the next turn...

That's pretty shameless.

"Huh? A frog, a Tier 2 Xyz Monster? I find this monster strangely kind of cute!"

"...Yes, yes, this frog is clearly different from the previous ones. How should I put it...it looks just like the mirror cakes I ate during Chinese New Year~"

"Ah~ I really want to pick it up and prprprpr~~~~"

Looking at the adorable and deceptively cute appearance of the pancake frog, some students in the audience who had never seen this monster before couldn't help but make such comments.

Clearly, these pampered young masters and ladies, unlike Yusei, did not experience the dark period ruled by the pancake frogs.

If they had ever been bullied by a frog, they wouldn't have said such thoughtless things.

"If it's just a [Frog Pancake]..."

Thinking about his strategy for the next round, Yusei reached out and touched his chin.

His gaze toward the pancake frog also carried a hint of consideration.

The existence of the Continuous Spell Card "Water Stage" prevents "Pancake Frog" from being destroyed by battle against monsters other than WATER, and it also possesses the noble three-color KO effect...

In this case……

"...It's not over yet! Next, I'll Normal Summon [Little Gray-Blue Slime] and activate its effect to send the same card from the Graveyard before reviving it!"

Just as Yusei was pondering a countermeasure, Princess Rose, satisfied with the comments coming from the audience, curled the corners of her lips and reached out to stick one of her cards onto the deck of the Duel Disk.

She hasn't performed a normal summon this turn. Before this, she had been using the effect of [Ghost Frog] to accumulate resources in the graveyard. So, strictly speaking, this is when she can be considered to be making a regular play.

As Princess Rose finished speaking, Silver Slytherin, a member of the [Grey-Blue] deck specializing in Minotaur-like behavior, appeared on her field accompanied by a burst of light.

The monster, now activated, reached out and pulled its brother of the same name from the graveyard, then stood together beside the pancake frog.

"I have two 2-star aquatic monsters. I'll stack these two [Little Gray-Blue Slime] together to perform a second Xyz Summon!"

"...Appear! The second [Frog Pancake]!"

The familiar pure white light, and that familiar honest appearance.

As the Rose Princess whispered like a demon, the second white monster appeared before her.

Like guardians on either side, the two pancake frogs firmly protected Princess Rose behind them.

"...Holy crap, have you completely lost your humanity?"

Looking at the hellish scene before him, which resembled a replica of a famous movie, Yusei couldn't help but swear.

Princess Rose may look gentle and delicate, but she's surprisingly ruthless when it comes to playing cards...

Goodness, I was fooled by your appearance!

Judging by your appearance alone, I would have thought you were the kind of duelist who used animal decks to scratch the hero!

"That's it, my story is over."

Nodding in satisfaction at her achievement, Princess Rose then waved her hand to end her turn: "...Turn over."

"Two Xyz Monsters right off the bat. As expected of the duelist chosen by Lord Saiou, he's got some skills!"

Seeing Princess Rose's dazzling performance and the undisguised surprise on Yusei's face, Manjoume felt very pleased and immediately forgot his earlier resentment in another dimension.

In his opinion, he would be happy as long as Yusei suffered a setback.

In the best-case scenario, Yusei would be completely helpless against Princess Rose's combo attacks and lose the duel.

"...My turn, draw a card!"

Yusei narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing at the two frog-shaped cards, and then drew a new card from his deck.

With his actions, the round entered its preparation phase.

At the precise moment of Yusei's turn, Princess Rose waved her hand and activated the effects of the monsters on her field: "Wait a minute... At this very moment, I simultaneously activate the effects of the two 'Frog' monsters on my field, removing one Xyz Material from each of them to Special Summon two monsters with 'Frog' in their names from my Deck!"

“……出现吧！【魔知青蛙】（水族/水/2星/攻击力：100/守备力：2000）、【贯青蛙】（水族/水/2星/攻击力：400/守备力：400）！”

531 Sorry, I have a lot of points to cover!

Following Princess Rose's instructions, the two pancake frogs simultaneously opened their mouths and swallowed a ball of light surrounding them in sync.

Then, having gained an excess of energy, they opened their enormous, black hole-like mouths once more, creating a passage to another dimension, and spat out two new frog monsters directly from their mouths.

One of them is the [Magic Frog] (Defense: 2000), which we have seen before and has the ability to taunt the entire field. It is only natural that it is now in a defensive position.

#【+

The other one is smaller in size and has a single horn on its head. Although its attack power is relatively low, it has the ability to directly attack the opponent and destroy one of the opponent's Spell/Trap Cards when it deals damage. This is called "Piercing Frog" (Attack Power: 400).

And just like that, four frog monsters appeared in front of Princess Rose!

Due to the [Magic Frog]'s taunt effect across the entire field, Yusei cannot target other monsters.

The existence of the Continuous Spell Card "Water Stage" ensures that the frogs on Rose Princess's field cannot be destroyed by battle by monsters other than Water-attribute monsters.

Even if Yusei tries to activate removal cards like [Lightning Strike] or [Lightning Vortex], they will be negated and defeated by the effect of [Frog]...

It can be said that Yusei is currently facing a rather dire situation!

"Wow, this princess is amazing... I never imagined she would be so powerful!"

Although Yuki Judai, who was in the audience, was on the opposing side to Princess Rose, he had to admit that Princess Rose's card-playing skills at this moment were indeed worthy of Saiō's expectations.

If her opponent were someone else instead of Yusei, then the outcome of this duel would obviously be predetermined.

With the help of the Double Frog, ordinary duelists don't even have time to get going before they are helplessly defeated by the frustrated Tricolor Yasushi...

"Well, Yusei... these are the princes who have always protected me!"

Princess Rose extended her right hand, pointed to the frogs in front of her, and then smiled as she looked towards Yusei: "...I heard from Lord Saiō that you are also a special being who can see Duel Spirits. In that case, you should also be able to see the true appearances of my princes, right?"

"...Huh? A prince?"

Yusei raised an eyebrow in confusion, and narrowed his eyes as he listened to Princess Rose's words.

In fact, in his eyes, what existed before him was nothing more than a group of ultimate beasts disguised as harmless creatures!

There is no such thing as a prince as Princess Rose described.

Reality is not a fairy tale, and a handsome prince will not turn into an ugly frog.

However, the look of ecstasy on Princess Rose's face was not a lie.

This strange scene made Yuxing wonder if the princess had read too many picture books of "The Frog Prince," to the point that she had become obsessed with the frogs and was now infatuated with them, ultimately imagining them as handsome princes in her mind...

If that's the case, then she's just a pathetic person living in her own fantasy!

"If it were an elf, it should be like this, right?"

Stroking his chin, Yusei mentally summoned his Soul Card Pokémon: "Winged Dragon Ball... cough cough, little ball, come out and check on these guys! See if they're the real princes~"

The small ball here refers to the [Spherical Kuriboh], which was the first card containing a spirit that Tengu Yu gave to Yusei.

In the dark duels of the early days of the wilderness, it provided Yusei with countless acts of assistance.

It's fair to say that without its existence, Yusei, who hadn't yet fully matured, might have disappeared during a dark duel when his enraged opponent resorted to cheating by summoning his fist to launch a direct attack...

"Curry, curry~~~"

With its adorable big, blinking eyes, the Winged Rathalos appeared in its spherical form on Yusei's shoulder.

At this point, it would only be detected by innate spirit users like Jaden Yuki and Manjoume.

Even a powerful figure like Saiou, who was not a spirit user, could not see the specific appearance of the [Spherical Kuriboh].

He could only vaguely sense the existence of Kuriboh through divination, knowing that there was a Duel Spirit protecting Yusei.

"Princess Rose, this is my fairy, come and see!"

Observing the changes in the other person's expression, Yusei pointed to his shoulder.