The battle between Axel and Eugene had begun. Axel had thought this would be a simple win for him. He didn’t consider that the Beastman fanatic would put up a real fight. He was quickly proven wrong, his feet stuck in ice being the evidence.

At the audience chambers, many of the onlookers had looks of concern. No longer cheering for Axel, they all started to whisper to each other.

“Did that loser really corner Axel like that?”

“It seems like it, when I saw that his mana crystal was a deck case, I thought it would be a joke.”

One of them even looked at Ryuze, who was managing to hold his own with the Wrath Demon. “Even his familiar is putting up a fight. I thought Terminus demons were supposed to be stronger than Dragonoids!”

Indeed, Ryuze was managing to dodge and counter the black demon’s hellfire blasts, though with his own fire abilities being useless against him the Dragonoid was stuck with his bladed weapons instead. Though with the constant barrages he was forced to keep his distance. At this rate they would be stuck in a stand still and Ryuze doubted he would be able to outlast the skull faced demon.

“I just need one moment…. Just one moment….”

Meanwhile, Eugene had positioned himself back. Even though he had Axel pinned at the moment, he didn’t believe it would last long. He wanted to take the moment to step back and use it to draw a new card as soon as the timer had reset, leaving him with 4 cards in hand.

He had to act fast, as he noticed the ice keeping Axel in place was beginning to crack. He needed to readjust his hand. He had one more Recycle available so used it to hopefully improve his available cards. But just as he was checking out his new cards the ice completely breaks as Axel frees himself and comes barging towards Eugene, anger starting to build up.

“Don’t start getting cocky now! I was going easy on you!!” Axel stated as he brings his guitar in hand. With his guitar pick mana crystal in his fingertips he begins to strum at the guitar, as an echo sound vibrates from it and towards Eugene.

Unfortunately for him, the echo attack was coming in too fast, and Eugene was forced to face a blast of sound directed at his body as he found himself being pushed back. The loud sound being too much as Eugene covered his ears to drown out the noise. This gave Axel the moment he needed as he swung his metal guitar right into Eugene’s stomach.

The impact of what amounts to a metal back was too much for the man as he fell to the ground on his knees. He was wrecked with pain; this was a lot for Eugene to deal with and while it failed in comparison to the pain, he felt from Ripley’s attack this was still a lot for him to handle.

Axel walked closer to Eugene, guitar in hand and ready to be strummed again. “I’m going to put you in your place.”

The man then begins playing his guitar again, the power of it’s sound was weaker than before but lasted longer. It managed to pierce at Eugene’s ears, forcing him to cover his ears in pain. He was wide open for another attack from his metal guitar, but Axel continued to play it. It was clear his intent was to torture the poor man more.

“Come on, is this all you got!? ~”

Eugene struggled through the pain, reaching towards his cards in front of him. His hand trembling as the sounds of the guitar continued to invade his hearing. It seems Axel was too focused on his performance to see what Eugene was doing as he finally managed to reach his Recycle card and activate it.

He needed to use it, cause his current hand was not what he needed. He replaced the remaining 3 cards in his hand and had to hope for even a little luck…

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It was hard to focus but… Eugene managed to take a look at his current hand and was thankful for getting what he needed. Without much time to think he immediately threw it towards Ryuze.

“Ryuze Catch!!”

Upon hearing his summoner call out to him, the Dragonoid understood and held his hand out to the flying card, it immediately transformed and wrapped around his claws, equipping him with another pair of Frost Breaker, just as planned.

Earlier, Ryuze and Eugene were discussing on the topic of possibly dealing with the hellfire. They both concluded they would need to use Frost Breaker in order to have a fighting chance against both their opponents. But the chances of drawing two of them was low, so Eugene had decided to have as much Recycle added as possible, the only problem was deciding who would get it first. Eugene decided to follow Ryuze’s opinion and chose to have himself have it first. After all, Ryuze would be able to handle himself longer and Eugene needed to be able to defend himself.

Back to the present Axel noticed what Eugene was doing and seemed confused but continued with his performance. “I don’t get why you did that but it’s pointless. You should probably focus on yourself first. You still can’t handle my-”

Eugene quickly grabbed another card and activated Barrier, a futuristic looking bubble surrounded him and protecting him from the blast of music. This gave Eugene a moment to calm himself, but he had to act fast. Barrier only lasted for 5 seconds, and this would be the only time he could act.

He punched on the ground below him, creating a wall of ice between the two summoners. Axel could only laugh upon seeing what he was doing. “Ha, think that’s enough to protect you from my music?!~”

Choosing to ignore him Eugene then activated the last of the cards in his hand Strength Booster and used it on himself. He was going to need the extra strength for his next move as he quickly aimed his fist at the ice wall which had started to crack from the sounds of Axel’s guitar.

The Barrier had ended just as he moved his fist though and he could feel the sharp pain of music blasting at his ears again but forced himself to concentrate just long enough for him to shatter the ice wall, shattering it and sending the shards of ice to fly past through the bombarding sounds and right towards Axel.

“What th-” Axel didn’t have much time to react as he’s showered in a rain of ice shards. Many of which hit him all over, the impact forced him to drop his guitar and stop his music.

Eugene shook his head as he could still feel his ears ringing as he reorganized himself. He instinctively drew a singular card but didn’t pay attention to what he got, right now he needed to stop Axel before he could play his sound blasts again!

He dashed towards Axel, the Speed Booster still in effect allowed him to run faster before Axel tried to grab his guitar in a panic only for Eugene to punch it further away from him.

On the other side Ryuze, now equipped with the means to fight back against his opponent’s hellfire. Copying his summoner’s previous actions he himself created an ice wall as it protected him from the barrage of hellfire. But that wasn’t the only thing he was going to do. He palmed his fist, creating a long icicle into his hand.

He held it in his hand like a blade as he unfurled his wings as he took off into the air. His demon opponent changed his flaming hair’s direction towards Ryuze, firing multiple hellfire shots. But the Dragonoid after some time managed to understand the pattern of his attack and dodged most of them while countering the rest with his homemade ice blade as he flew closer to his target, as it slowly started to melt.

Ryuze then threw the half-melted icicle which took the Wrath demon by surprise, taking its attention away from the Dragonoid as it blasted the ice away. Using this momentary distraction, Ryuze swooped down to the ground as he prepared for an icicle uppercut right at the demon’s gut and forcing it back and causing ice to form at his stomach.

But he wasn’t done yet, he continued his attack with his focus at the location he had targeted. Each punch causes more ice to form and spread around its body and slows its movement. Ryuze wasn’t going to give it a chance and run the risk of the hellfire of hitting him or his summoner.

Seeing its movement’s slowed the Dragonoid took the opportunity and grabbed it by the tips of its hair, freezing it in place and blocking out its access to its flame hair. This seemed to infuriate the Wrath Demon and to everyone’s surprise it started to talk. Its voice a deep intimidating man voice as he spoke loudly.

“Now you’ve done it!! No one messes with my hair and gets away with it!! Axel, let’s go with THAT!”

Axel responded with a wicked smile, “You got it Androcles! Let’s show them our Duet!!”

The Wrath Demon whose name was Androcles ignored the Ryuze and jumped to grab his summoner’s guitar and handed it to him. Who then started to strum it, but the tune was different. Instead of the loud booming sound he was using to cripple Eugene earlier, this time the sound was a lot more focused with Androcles in front as his hair began to shake and move.

“Now let’s finish this with an encore!!”