All drawn together in a single point by the power of the black hole card, the Sunless Drones fused together.
Sofia tried to find a way to salvage the round, but there was no way her twenty small destroyer skulls could do anything against the amalgam violently taking form in the middle of the arena.
She sent a skull to attack, and it died before it could even reach the forming creature, impaled by a black spike.
It can already defend itself…
[Tri-Headed Sunless Amalgam - Lv. ???]
Yeah I think this one is my loss.
Nevertheless, Sofia controlled the skulls, making them spread around in the underwater arena.
Let’s at least use this opportunity to study this new type of amalgam.
Finally the amalgam was fully-formed, unlike the twin-headed one which had two bulbous heads on a stumpy slug-like bopdy, this one looked a lot more like a giant black three-headed snake.
Five skulls attacked from different directions just as the creature was done forming. Like the first one, they were all impaled by black spikes stabbing out from the amalgam’s body.
One more skull had been hiding behind one of those, in what should be a dead-angle from Everelle’s point of view, but another spike formed right away to destroy it.
Is that an automatic defense skill?
The skulls can’t even get close…
“Attack!” Everelle commanded from her side.
The amalgam swam around in the arena, black lances separating from its body as it moved. The skulls were too slow to avoid the lances, and they died one by one. Sofia was unable to do anything except to watch.
It only took a few seconds for the whole choir to be reduced to bone shards.
[Duelists Sofia and Bookie have no fighters left in the Arena.]
[Dungeon Master Everelle wins the second round.]
Sofia’s Sunless effigy flinched like Everelle’s one did before, and with the sound of a clock ticking, it’s health went down.
[9/10]
“That’s already one of your summons down. I expected more from you.”
“It’s just the beginning. I will just summon Pareth and you’ll be down a summon too.”
“Ohoh? Well I would like to see that.”
“Let me just draw my cards first.”
“Yes, let’s draw!”
Everelle started to draw her cards while she threw her orb to recall her summon. Sofia pretended to start drawing but she was really focused on Everelle’s orb.
The orb flew to the very bottom of the arena and came back to Everelle’s hand after seemingly absorbing nothing, while the huge snake-like amalgam disappeared as its mana dispersed, leaving nothing behind.
So this is where it hid. This sludge is just like Bookie, it can use strong summons but is by itself quite weak. I just couldn’t find its main body after it split into the drones.
I’ll get it next time.
Now the cards.
This time Everelle drew three cards while Sofia drew five to add to the showdown and null cards she still held.
[SKILL CARD - Allows for one cast of the ‘Angel’s bolt’ skill]
[Double-down - Can only be used before the fighters are allowed to move, the loser of this round will lose two health points]
[Shadowy Arena - Turns the arena into a pitch-black battlefield until another arena card is used.]
[NULL CARD - Better luck next time :p]
[Unlimited power! - Give your current fighter ‘infinite’ mana for the next thirty seconds.]
[NULL CARD - Better luck next time :p]
[Showdown - Fighters can no longer exit the arena this round.]
Hmmm having to discard four of those kind of hurts. Well, the two nulls can go, but after that… I think I have a plan… Too bad for the double-down but I need the three others.
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[Please select your fighter for round 3]
Sofia and Everelle both grabbed their own orb, and when the system coundown rung, they threw.
The orbs sunk in the waters of the arena, and they released their summons in a flash of light.
On Everelle’s side, what appeared was a very angular Sunless shaped like a ten-sided polyhedron.
[Orb power 4 - 25 000 Mana - lv. 299 Sunless Bulwark]
Defensive summon. Did she think this would hold for ten seconds against Pareth? She bought the bluff?
On Sofia’s side, there were two small shining dots of light, one white, one black.
“Sprite?” Everelle asked.
“That’s right. Aren’t they cute?”
Orb 6 : 6 Card draws - 200 Mana Capacity
Just then, the round started.
“I’m going to play a card!” Sofia said right away.
“Already?!”
“I cast [Shadow Arena]!”
The battle had not even started and it was already stopped, the fighters frozen in place as the arena’s water was quickly emptied.
“The shadow arena to hide your shadow sprite, I have to admit that it’s a good play, but you still can’t do anything against the bulwark, Sofia.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, I know that my sprites can never take down your thing.”
“Well, there’s only so much you can expect from the 200 mana summons.”
The arena’s floor rose back up and all the lights in the arena suddenly turned off, leaving them in complete darkness. VPPV being ‘deactivated’ Sofia couldn’t actually see in the dark, for once, but here mana senses still gave a relatively clear picture of the arena. The light sprite was the only thing still visible, its light too weak to spread farther than a few meters.
Bookie complained, “I can’t see anything, Sofia!”
“Don’t worry Bookie, I’m about to fix that. Light sprite, fly up, shadow, just stay hidden!”
Since the Sprites couldn’t be communicated with as easily as the Skeletons, Sofia had to give orders out loud.
“Bulwark, go crush the light sprite first!”
“Do you even need to give oral commands?”
“Of course not but since you’re doing it I wanted to join the fun! It’s already over anyway, the sprites can barely attack in the first place, right?”
“That’s right, they can’t. But I can! I use the skill card for [Angel’s bolt]!”
Immediately, blue lightning started to gather around Sofia’s staff.
“Hmm, I will admit that I’m not sure the bulwark can withstand your spell. But two can play this game! I use the skill card [Sunless Soulwave]!”
While Sofia and Everelle talked back and forth playing with cards, the light sprite was flying fo its life, pursued by the eerie floating Sunless, completely invisible in the darkness. It attacked with abrupt charges, and the Sprite was barely managing to avoid it by flying in a highly irregular pattern above the arena.
Mana started gathering around Everelle in a way that Sofia quickly recognized as the shockwave the twin-headed amalgam had used in the first dungeon.
Crap, I wanted to use [Showdown] to have time to charge the bolt however long I want but at this rate, she’ll kill the sprites before I can even attack.
After five seconds, Everelle released her attack. An explosion of mana spread from Everelle like an ever-inflating bubble.
Shit… It’s to early to retreat and this weak bolt will never be enough…
Sofia sighed as she followed the wave with her mana senses. It hit the light sprite first, and the sprite instantly disappeared.
The Shadow sprite was a lot harder to locate even with her sharp mana senses, so Sofia only knew where the bulwark was.
“Another round for me!”
Sofia finally noticed the shadow sprite, it flung itself from a corner of the arena to the Sunless Bulwark right as the mana shockwave hit the Sunless. Unsurprisingly the Sunless was unharmed.
The mana wave continued to expand until the borders of the arena stopped it from reaching Sofia and Bookie.
Shadow sprite you’re a genius!
The special charactersitic of the shadow sprite was its ability to hide in objects and to lower their defenses. It also worked on monsters, and the Sunless were immune to their own magic. By hiding within the bulwark, the sprite dodged the attack.
Meanwhile, Sofia kept channeling her bolt.
“Hey… This…”
“Just because the sprites are cute you can’t underestimate them! Can your thing even get rid of it?”
“Well… The bulwark is a Sunless specialized in defense, if the name wasn’t obvious enough. It doesn’t exactly have a wide toolkit…”
While she spoke, the Sunless was slowly drifting closer to the arena’s border.
Sofia used the Showdown card.
“Nice distraction but I see what you’re doing.”
“Oh you had the showdown too? Fine. Throw your spell. It probably won’t kill the bulwark anyway, and your sprite is sure to die.”
“Just give me another forty seconds.”
“Wow you’re serious about this, I’m curious to see it. Bulwark, siege mode!”
While Sofia couldn’t see the Sunless creature directly, she could tell its shape was changing. But it looked like it still could not really do anything about the shadow sprite hiding inside it.
Bookie jumped off of the tower Sofia was on, saying that the bolt was melting his bones, while Everelle and Sofia had an idle chat. This round was going to end with a bolt, and nothing else.
“Alright, Everelle, I’m ready! Are you sure you don’t want to use another card now?”
“I’m fine, go ahead.”
Sofia released the explosive bolt. It hit the immobile Sunless Bulwark, and the ambient darkness was completely dispelled, the explosion shone brighter than the morning sun, completely engulfing the arena. The mana-shield separating the arena and the outside cracked from the explosion but did not break.
When the hellish ball of blue fire died down, there was nothing left in the arena.
“Well shit. I guess we have our first draw. Nice fireworks.”
Both of their health counters dropped to [8/10].
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