Chapter 620: Dark Demon Di Mont’s Ruthless Crush (4k)
The autumn sun slanted down, casting a bright orange glow on the stage of the duel.
The spectators continued to cheer like a surging tide, while students whispered among themselves in the ring.
On the red side platform, Dark Demon Di Mont was placing his reorganized deck into the card slot. The bright sunlight illuminated his face, and his emerald eyes gleamed like amber.
The “Silver Cup” required contestants to participate in at least ten “scoring matches,” which was also a requirement set by Professor Jones for his students.
Therefore, even if Dark did not plan to participate in the quarterfinals, he still had to meet Professor Jones’s requirement and complete these ten “scoring matches.”
In fact, he had received the new schedule last Tuesday.
Perhaps because he had applied for a delay in the schedule last week, the Dueling Club combined two weeks of matches into one.
So he needed to complete the remaining five “scoring matches” over the weekend.
This wasn’t too difficult for him.
The matches were spread over three days, with each match having more than an hour interval between them, which was very considerate.
After activating the spellboard, Dark looked up at the opponent’s platform.
The contestant on the blue side platform was Lentsen from the Noble Academy.
This meant that this was an internal conflict within the Noble Academy.
Dark and Lentsen had a decent relationship—enough to exchange a few words.
However, he hadn’t paid much attention to Lentsen’s performance, vaguely remembering it as being above average.
In any case, this duel could be slightly relaxed but couldn’t be taken lightly.
“Hey, Dark.” Lentsen greeted when he saw Dark look up.
He appeared nervous, with sweat beads even forming on his spotted nose.
His friend Xi Woert was loudly cheering for him in the audience section of the ring, making him even more anxious.
Dark looked at Lentsen and asked, “What’s wrong, Lentsen?”
Lentsen opened his mouth and said, “N-nothing, let’s start the duel!”
Dark nodded slightly and smiled. “Then let’s begin.”
Lentsen originally wanted to hint at Dark to go easy, at least leaving him some face, but ultimately decided against it.
As a member of the Noble Academy, showing weakness at this moment would lead to ridicule.
He took a deep breath and decided to give it his all!
No matter the outcome, he couldn’t show any weakness.
…
Second-year students from the Noble Academy sat in the ring watching the duel, all looking relaxed.
Since it was an internal conflict within the Noble Academy, there weren’t any conflicting factions.
Moreover, they couldn’t imagine where Dark’s weakness lay…
The highlight of this duel probably lay in how long his opponent could hold out.
Even Xi Woert, who was energetically cheering, likely thought so.
Diana and Rose were even playfully fighting each other.
…
“BEEP—”
Amidst this warm atmosphere, the referee suddenly blew her whistle.
Both contestants entered the “Standby Phase.”
Then the spellboard automatically shuffled the cards.
Next, a thirty-second countdown appeared in the projection above the field.
Both contestants simultaneously drew their cards!
…
Without much ado, Dark quickly drew five mana spirit cards and placed them in his left hand.
Then he slightly lowered his head to examine his hand.
[War Horn]
[Trash Slime]
[Greed III]
[Lion Beast]
[Little Cubone]
Due to the strong protests from the mana spirits, Dark didn’t build his deck around “Bliss” or “Pride” this time.
He put most of the mana spirits into his deck, along with a newly crafted item card, totaling forty mana spirit cards.
But this didn’t mean that this forty-card deck would be weaker than a twenty-card deck.
Fewer mana spirit cards in the deck meant the biggest advantage was reducing unexpected outcomes.
At the same time, it also weakened the error tolerance rate.
Once the deck strategy was countered, it was hard to turn things around.
In fact, twenty mana spirit cards were indeed fewer, and a forty-card deck was reasonable for official mana duels.
Of course, in this duel, the difference between twenty and forty cards wasn’t significant.
Dark looked at the mana spirit cards in his hand, and multiple tactics immediately flashed through his mind.
“I never expected to draw the ‘War Horn’ in the first round.”
Dark smiled.
“Let’s not look at this item card. Among these five cards, there are two three-star mana spirit cards that can be summoned right away.”
“Whether it’s the ‘Trash Slime’ or the ‘Little Cubone,’ both can use ‘Greed III’ to evolve.”
“There are currently two routes. One is to summon ‘Little Cubone’ first, then directly use ‘Greed III’ to evolve it into ‘Cubone.'”
“The other is to summon ‘Trash Slime’ first, then use ‘Greed III’ to evolve it into ‘Greed Slime II,’ and then split it to offer sacrifices, summoning ‘Lion Beast.'”
Dark pondered for a moment and made his choice.
The thirty-second countdown passed in an instant.
Both contestants began their normal summoning simultaneously.
“In the name of Dark Di Mont, mana summon — ‘Trash Slime’!”
Although summoning ‘Cubone’ was faster and more direct, Dark still chose to summon ‘Trash Slime’ first.
Mainly because the opponent’s normal summoning speed was indeed not fast enough.
He wasn’t worried about summoning ‘Trash Slime’ being instantly destroyed.
And although ‘Cubone’ was powerful, its ultimate skill was purely ground-based, with “Stomp” and “Earthquake” unable to deal any damage to airborne units.
Moreover, ‘Cubone’s’ movement speed was really slow.
As a parent, Dark also needed to pay attention to the mental health of the mana spirits.
‘Trash Slime’ needed a stage to prove itself more than ‘Little Cubone.’
He needed to boost its confidence.
This duel was just right for this purpose.
…
As expected.
When Dark completed his initial summon, Lentsen was still struggling to perform a normal summon.
Even when Dark began his second normal summon, Lentsen was still struggling…
There was a considerable gap in hard skills between the two in terms of mana technology, which was difficult to make up for with mana cards or strategies.
Red-side summoning zone.
When ‘Trash Slime’ appeared in the summoning light, it immediately widened its eyes and realized it was the first to appear on the red side!
For it, this was an unprecedented honor.
It almost thought its owner had gone mad.
But when the light of ‘Greed III’ shone down, it calmed down.
At this moment, a mana spirit was already manifesting in the blue-side summoning zone.
‘Trash Slime’ felt the power of ‘Greed’ pouring into its body, and its confidence grew stronger.
Finally, it evolved into a second-tier mana spirit — ‘Greed Slime II’ in the bluish-purple light!
[Card Name: Greed Slime II]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ????]
[Race: Elemental]
[Attribute: Grass]
[Magic Power: 3000]
[Attack: 0]
[Defense: 2000]
[Ultimate Skills: Greedy by Nature, Split to Form, Photosynthesis]
Then, according to the predetermined strategy, it swallowed the red mana guidance ball into its body!
With 2000 points of defense, it was sufficient to help it withstand most damage. At least, it would be difficult for Lentsen’s first-tier mana spirit to break its defense.
“Greed Slime, ‘Split to Form,’ five.”
On the red-side platform, after Dark put down the ‘Greed III’ mana card, he calmly said.
“GURU—”
Greed Slime II slightly excitedly called out, then sucked in air, making its already large body even bigger until it formed a larger space inside.
Then, two ‘Greed Slime I’ and one ‘Trash Slime’ split out from its body and rolled inside that space.
Seeing this, Dark couldn’t help but smile.
Splitting out a one-star and a two-star individual directly inside the body was also one of the predetermined strategies, indicating that ‘Greed Slime II’ executed it well.
After the cooldown for the normal summon ended, he began to chant the sacrificial summoning spell.
…
During this process, Lentsen on the blue-side platform naturally couldn’t stand idly by.
After summoning his first mana spirit, he immediately issued an attack command.
The mana spirit that appeared in the blue summoning zone resembled a panther, with a lightning-shaped horn on its head.
Its name was “Thunder Leopard,” and it was Lentsen’s most proud three-star mana spirit.
[Card Name: Thunder Leopard]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ???]
[Race: Bird-Beast]
[Attribute: Electric]
[Magic Power: 1500]
[Attack: 1400]
[Defense: 1200]
[Ultimate Skills: Lightning Speed, Lightning Pulse]
Although “Thunder Leopard” had two ultimate skills, its attack and defense did not reach the peak values of a three-star, but its magic power was abundant, and its ultimate skills were very practical.
Lentsen took a deep breath, gathering his aura.
“Thunder Leopard, use ‘Lightning Speed’ to charge!”
Upon hearing its owner’s command, the Thunder Leopard charged without hesitation.
Blue electricity surged on its limbs, stimulating muscle strength, and its speed skyrocketed in an instant!
The 120-meter field was crossed almost in a blink.
Lentsen seized the opportunity and shouted, “Lightning Pulse!”
Approaching the ‘Greed Slime II’ by a few meters, the Thunder Leopard lowered its head and aimed its sharp horn at the Greed Slime II.
Then, amidst the crackling sound, a dense current pulse shot out from the sharp horn.
The Thunder Leopard’s speed did not decrease at all, and its sharp long horn fiercely pierced into the body of the Greed Slime II.
BOOM!
The Greed Slime II completely withstood the damage from the “Lightning Pulse,” consuming 1000 points of magic power due to “Split to Form”… yet it remained unscathed!
Lentsen on the platform widened his eyes.
The power of “Lightning Pulse” was not weak, and could even be considered very strong.
However, although it wasn’t obvious from the outside, the Greed Slime II was a grass-type…
Grass-type mana spirits had relatively strong immunity to electric-type ultimate skills.
Adding to that, the Greed Slime II’s 2000 points of defense made this powerful ultimate skill fail to break through its defenses!
The next moment,
The Thunder Leopard, which had plunged into the body of the Greed Slime II, was actually bounced back after absorbing all the impact!
Despite the additional force from acceleration, it still failed to break through!
The body structure of the Greed Slime II allowed it to be immune to part of physical impacts.
The Thunder Leopard couldn’t inflict any damage on it.
…
“In the name of Dark Di Mont, offering two ‘Greed Slime I’ and one ‘Trash Slime’ as sacrifices, sacrificial summoning — ‘Lion Beast’!”
As the chanting of the sacrificial summoning spell completed, Dark slightly raised the ‘Lion Beast’ mana card in his hand.
Three white beams shot out from the body of the Greed Slime II, intersecting with the white beams from the ‘Lion Beast’ card in the air.
A huge sacrificial summoning array appeared before everyone’s eyes.
ROAR!
The five-star mana spirit, ‘Lion Beast,’ slowly emerged from this sacrificial summoning.
“Lion Beast, I leave the rest to you.”
After saying this, Dark did not stop but waited for the summoning spell’s cooldown to end, continuing to summon the final mana spirit — ‘Little Cubone’!
The purpose of summoning ‘Little Cubone’ wasn’t out of any cautious consideration, but simply to let it come out and have some fresh air.
KAMON!
After being summoned, ‘Little Cubone’ was clearly very happy.
But when it opened its eyes, it saw that the ‘Lion Beast’ was punching a lightning-entangled panther!
“Beast King Fist!”
The energy wave shaped like a lion struck the ‘Thunder Leopard’ and shattered it!
‘Little Cubone’ looked at the empty opposite field, tilted its head, and then sat down on the ground.
Not sleeping on the spot was already giving Dark quite a bit of face.
…
“Next, let’s try the ‘War Horn’?”
Dark looked at the last card in his hand and couldn’t help smiling.
But Lentsen on the opposite side couldn’t laugh at all.
He now stood on the blue-side platform, feeling like he was in “prison.”
Dark had already performed a sacrificial summoning of a second-tier mana spirit, while he hadn’t even summoned his second mana card.
As the ‘Thunder Leopard’ was killed by the ‘Lion Beast,’ the blue-side mana guidance ball on his field lost its defense.
When he sensed something amiss and tried to control the mana guidance ball to fly and dodge, he suddenly felt another magic force acting on the blue-side mana guidance ball.
From then on, the duel was no longer suspenseful.
Dark released his magic power, forcibly pressing the blue-side mana guidance ball to the ground.
Although Lentsen had a significant distance advantage in controlling the mana guidance ball, he was still successfully suppressed by Dark.
Even before Dark summoned the ‘War Horn,’ the life barrier on the blue-side mana guidance ball was shattered by the ‘Lion Beast’ with two punches.
The blue-side contestant, Lentsen, had no resistance capability at all!
