Chapter 174: Dark Demon's First Round
[Card name: Golden Beast]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ✪✪✪]
[Race: Mech-type]
[Attribute: Steel]
[Magic energy: 1000]
[Attack: 1300]
[Defense:1500]
[Ultimate: Golden Devour]
...
Golden Beast was an ancient mech-type magical spirit, conceptually a product of forgotten technology. It was mostly similar to a golem, but unlike a golem, its entire body was a mechanical creation.
Strictly speaking, even though the names were the same, the Golden Beast made by magic technology and the real Golden Beast were not the same because the Golden beast made by magic technology did not have a "Mechanical Core".
"Mechanical Core" was the heart of all ancient mech-type magical spirits.
The only Mechanical Core left in the world was being kept in a certain museum.
The Golden Beast created by magical technology replaced its mechanical core with the special life mechanism of a magic card, which made it different from the real Golden Beast.
Emma's Golden Beast was a defensive magical spirit based on its card stats, but its attack power should not be underestimated.
Its ultimate [Golden Devour] was even more amazing!
...
Under the command of Emma, Golden Beast stretched its limbs and rushed to the red player's summoning area.
Immediately after, Dark began to cast the second Normal Summoning Spell!
Not long after Golden Beast started running, Dark had already completed his summoning.
A ray of white light emerged from the second magic card in his hand.
Under Dark's deliberate guidance, this white light landed on Shuckle's carapace.
Then it revealed itself.
It was actually [Trash Slime]!
...
Previously, Dak had always instinctively used [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee], a relatively strong magical spirit, as a reference point when assessing the abilities of magical spirits. To the extent that, after discovering [Shuckle]'s weakness, he instinctively believed that it would be challenging for it to protect the one-star magical spirit he needed to use as a sacrifice.
That idea itself was correct.
But if [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee] was replaced by [Trash Slime]...
Shuckle was completely able to protect Trash slime!
Because if Trash Slime shrank its body, it could become even smaller than an apple!
And then as long as the Trash Slime was hidden in the carapace of Shuckle, it would be completely safe!
….
After all, it was a real duel, not just playing cards in a game. Breaking through the conventional card-playing mindset would reveal many points that could be utilized...
….
So under Dark's command, Trash Slime got into Shuckle's carapace.
This "powerful" combination of becoming one directly stunned the audience, professors, Golden beast, and Emma on the player's platform!
So much so that the Golden Beast actually stopped running.
Its eyes widened in bewilderment, desperately trying to figure out a way to carry out its master's command with an intelligence level of 2.0.
The results were self-explanatory.
If it could figure it out, it would not have an intelligence level of 2.0!
...
Since the sacrifice summoning couldn't be stopped, Emma drew a magic card from her hand, and immediately gave the Golden Beast a new order: "Bypass that Shuckle and attack the Magic Ball directly!"
Golden Beast, who received the master's new order, immediately raised its head and roared to boost its morale. It jumped forward suddenly and started running again!
But Shuckle had been summoned directly in front of the Magic Ball.
The Shuckle in normal posture was 0.6 meters high.
The initial location of the Magic Ball was at a height of 1 meter from the ground.
It only needed to extend the neck as much as possible, or support its body with its tentacles, then it could reach the Magic Ball.
However, the diameter of the Magic Ball was 0.3 meters, which was equal to the height of little Eevee, and it would be even bigger with the life barrier of the Magic Ball activated!
So touching the Magic Ball was just the beginning. It would take more effort to get it down.
The "levitation feature" of Magic Ball was based on applying a "psychic force" to itself, anchoring it at a specific position in the air.
To move it would be to fight against this force.
Fortunately, the power of the psychic force was not big.
Even without using the [Power Trick], Shuckle was able to get the Magic Ball down and hid the ball behind itself.
This action technically could not be considered as hiding the ball as it was defenceless from the sides.
But Golden Beast could be lured to approach Shuckle.
And Shuckle could pinpoint the time and punch Golden Beast hard!
This punch probably wouldn't take out Golden Beast, but it would buy time.
The magic energy value of the Magic Ball life barrier was 1000.
The peak power of the 3-star magical spirit was 1500 normally.
After the [Power Split], there would only be 750 left, so Magic Ball's life barrier could withstand a single blow without breaking.
This would buy more time.
And if that was still not enough.
Shuckle could even throw the Magic Ball hard into the air!
This Golden Beast wouldn't be able to fly, would it?
...
Shuckle's eyes glowed with psychic power, and when the Golden Beast approached, it immediately used [Power Split].
Both Golden Beast and Shuckle's attack power instantly became 650.
Then Shuckle used [Power Trick] to switch defense to offense.
Its tentacles suddenly became thicker and larger, and even the outline of muscles appeared on its tentacles!
But the Golden Beast suddenly jumped up, leaping over its head.
"Shuckle!"
Shuckle raised its head sharply, turning it 180° as the Golden Beast jumped over its head. It saw the half-mech-type magical spirit landing on its forefoot extremely smoothly, turning its body with the momentum, and biting into the Magic Ball with its huge mouth at an incredible speed.
"Crack!"
The Golden Beast's sharp teeth pierced through the life barrier of the magic ball, creating obvious cracks on the barrier.
[1000→400]
In a hurry, Shuckle stretched out its tentacles and quickly pulled the Magic Ball out. At the same time, it rolled up another tentacle and slammed it upwards!
"Boom!"
With this attack, the Golden Beast's huge head was knocked backwards!
Its magic energy plummeted!
But with the fully mechanical heavy metal structure, the Golden Beast wasn't sent flying.
Instead, it slammed its paw at Shuckle ferociously!
...
Meanwhile,
Emma completed the second Normal Summoning Spell, and a gold coin with wings appeared in the blue player's summoning area.
Not long after.
Dark's sacrifice summoning was also finally complete.
Shuckle, who was fighting against the Golden Beast, suddenly turned into light, and a pink magical spirit with a ribbon jumped out of the glowing magic circle of sacrifice summoning.
Sylveon's re-appearance caused a stir on the sidelines.
Only Emma's face became slightly ugly.
But she remained calm.
As she pointed her finger forward, the winged gold coin suddenly accelerated, flying across the field like a golden light, heading towards the Golden Beast!
At this time.
Sylveon had just appeared. The moment it looked up, it saw the hideous Golden Beast immediately!
The Golden Beast was two times taller than Sylveon, and the body size difference between them was even bigger.
However, the Golden Beast became nervous upon seeing Sylveon!
After discovering the Golden Beast, Sylveon immediately opened her mouth slightly, singing out a charming tone, "♪♩♫♬~♥~♬♫♩♪…"
Seeing the Golden Beast subconsciously taking a step back, Emma on the blue player's platform suddenly shouted, "Cover your ears!"
As the mechanical twin ears of the Golden Beast immediately closed downward, shielding it from any voice, its already insufficient magical power suddenly halted its decline!
"As I expected!" Seeing this, Emma regained her confidence.
She then immediately followed with another command: "Golden Worm, Infest!"
The winged gold coin that flew in quickly stuck onto the Golden Beast's spine with a "click"!
Then its body sank rapidly, actually merging into the golden shell of Golden Beast.
Immediately afterwards, the Golden Beast raised its head and roared. From both sides of its body, two balls of liquid metal suddenly oozed out, forming the armor that covered its whole body. At the same time, it also formed a pair of golden wings!
The Golden Beast could really fly!
...
[Card name: Golden Worm]
[Type: spirit card]
[Level: ✪]
[Race: mech-type]
[Attribute: Steel]
[Magic energy: 100]
[Attack: 0]
[Defense:100]
[Ultimate:Golden Infest]
...
The Golden Worm with 0 attack power was so fragile that it could be killed with a slap.
But after it used Ultimate [Golden Infest], it could boost the host's magic energy and defense by 300!
More importantly, it could give the host a pair of golden wings, and these wings came with the ultimate——[Feather Arrow]!
...
[Card name: Golden Beast (Golden Infest)]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ✪✪✪]
[Race: Mech-type]
[Attribute: Steel]
[Magic energy: 1300]
[Attack: 1300]
[Defense:1800]
[Ultimate: Golden Devour, Feather Arrow]
...
With the 300 points of magic energy increase, the defense value of the Golden Beast broke through the limit of a regular 3-star magical spirit. In addition, its mobility increased drastically. This made the Golden Beast almost like a 4-star magical spirit!
Its magic energy value that originally bottomed out also returned to a relatively healthy state due to the additional 300 points gained by the Golden Infest.
When the psychic effect of [Power Split] faded away, its threat would skyrocket!
Sylveon immediately stopped singing.
In front of the mech-type magical spirits, the effect of [Cute Charm] would be greatly reduced.
With only 1700 attack power, Sylveon could hardly break the defense of Golden Beast.
Moreover, the compatibility between fairy-type and steel-type was not good.
The only remaining advantage was that Sylveon's defense was a solid 1300, which made it difficult for the Golden Beast to break through Sylveon's defense!
Dark's thoughts turned quickly.
Emma appeared to be using the ultimate of that winged gold coin in public for the first time.
The so-called Golden Worm was a magical spirit that was very similar in function to the armor series item card.
With the Golden Worm's infestation, the Golden Beast now had the strength to fight Sylveon.
Fortunately, Dark had already anticipated the possibility of such a situation.
So he prepared [Gatomon] in the deck that had only five cards!
However, before proceeding with the second sacrifice summoning, there were still a few things to try.
"Moonblast!"
As Dark called out the name of the ultimate, Sylveon's forehead suddenly started to radiate a bright moonlight.
It opened its mouth slightly, gathering the brilliance of moonlight rapidly in its mouth until it became a sphere of light, and then shot it out!
The sphere of light burst open at the moment of flying out, turning into a slightly larger light beam.
Its target was the Magic Ball of the blue player!
Duelers often forgot that breaking the Magic Ball's life barrier was the primary goal of a duel.
But Emma clearly didn't forget!
The Golden Beast had already moved when Sylveon started charging, and by the time [Moonblast] was shot out, it had already fluttered its wings, blocking the path of the light beam!
After blocking the fairy-type magical spirit's ultimate, the Golden Beast stood in the arena completely fine because of its 1800 defense power and the steel type magical spirit's partial immunity to fairy-type magical spirit's skill.
Sylveon frowned slightly and let out a short cry.
Then it lowered its head and rushed towards the Golden Beast in front of it like a gust of wind!
The Golden Beast, which landed from the sky after blocking the [Moonblast], was hit hard by Sylveon in the head before it could fly up!
As its head was not covered by the liquid metal produced by Golden Worm infestation, its head's defense was still the original 1300 - this was another difference between reality and games!!
Because of this, the magic energy value of the Golden Beast plummeted to a point that it was almost killed instantly by Sylveon.
Hurriedly fluttering its wings, it flew into the air, dodging Sylveon's final blow.
After Sylveon missed the finishing blow, it took advantage of the opportunity when the Golden beast was dodging and pounced on the blue player's Magic Ball.
At this very moment, Dark sensed something was not right. He immediately shouted, "Return to defense!"
Sylveon turned around nimbly, like a ballet dancer on the stage, decisively abandoned its goal and followed its master's order to protect the magic ball.
In the air, the Golden Beast flapped its wings vigorously, and from its golden feathered wings, a few feathers suddenly stood upright.
"Feather Arrow!"
Almost in sync with Emma's calling, the Golden Beast shot out golden Feather Arrows!
After the golden light flashed a few times, several Feather Arrows hit the body of Sylveon who acted as the shield to the magic ball!
However, Sylveon with a magic energy value of 1900 just landed lightly, indicating that the attack was merely a drizzle.
Seeing Sylveon shaking off the golden feathers lightly, Emma looked at the stats displayed in the magic card of [Golden Beast], feeling more and more nervous.
After using the Feather Arrows, the Golden Beast had exhausted its magical energy.
The pressure Dark put on her in the duel was unmatched by any other student she battled previously.
However, Dark was still calm when fighting against her.
While waiting for Emma to take countermeasures, he was also waiting for the cooldown of sacrifice summoning to finish.
"Tick!"
The offense and defense battle was so intense that it made people breathless, but only half a minute had passed.
Then the duel progressed to the second round.
Emma started drawing cards.
But the summoning spell of both sides was still on cooldown.
...
At this moment, Sylveon stretched out its ribbons and picked up the two golden feathers on the ground!
Then it squinted its eyes.
Without Dark's command, it violently swung the ribbon and used one of the golden feathers as a projectile.
→ aiming directly at the Golden Beast!
"Woosh!"
The Golden Beast almost subconsciously blocked it with its golden wings
At this time, Sylveon seized the gap and shot the second golden feather at the blue Magic Ball!
"Crack!"
The golden feather carried the power contained in the 1700 attack, and forcibly penetrated the life barrier of the blue player's Magic Ball!
...
Emma looked at the [Golden Treasure Chest] in her hand, her face was very pale.
...
"The battle is over!"
"Winner: Dark Demon."
...
[End Phase]
Dark stretched out his hand and called back his magical spirits.
Sylveon suddenly turned into three rays of light, and one by one, they shot into the three magical spirit cards.
Magic duel was like that.
In the case of a huge disparity in strength, the winner could be determined in just one round!
"Still a little too slow."
Dark glanced at Emma and whispered.
"The most important reason which makes it difficult for first-year students to defeat senior students is always the speed of summoning."