Forum:Defender the Magical Knight question

I have three spell counters on my Magical Citadel of Endymion, and I summon my Defender the Magical Knight, then my opponent activates Bottomless Trap hole to destroy and remove my monster from play, I then activate his effect to discard one spell counter from my field card to prevent my monster from being destroyed. My opponent says that I cannot do that since Defender does not have his spell counter yet. Will my monster be removed from play as well?