"In the name of Ma Li Bond, Magic Guide Summon!"
She stacked the three equipment cards together, and astonishingly began summoning three Magic Guide Cards at once—something that should have been absolutely impossible!
But these three Magic Guide Cards seemed to be linked to one another.
The moment the chant began, a chain of magic power threaded through the upper-right corners of the three Magic Guide Cards, forming a linking chain.
Merely summoning the "Beast King Belt" among them automatically activated the "Beast King Greaves" and "Beast King Bracers" as well.
But the consequence of this was a compounding of the summoning time.
It took roughly eight seconds before Ma Li finally summoned all three Magic Guide Cards simultaneously.
And at this moment within the dueling field, her Magic Guide Spirits had been killed off one after another, leaving only a single "Berserker Tiger" and one other Magic Guide Spirit cradling a Magic Sphere in its arms.
Once the "Berserker Tiger" was broken through, she would have no way to turn the tide.
"The hour has come—Beast King Armament!"
Amid a thunderous shout, Ma Li Bond abruptly raised the three Magic Guide Cards high.
Beams of light burst forth from the faces of the Magic Guide Cards and fell upon the "Berserker Tiger's" arms, legs, and waist.
The three pieces of "equipment" instantly chained together.
From the "Beast King Belt" a sheet of light-membrane extended outward, connecting to the "Beast King Greaves" and "Beast King Bracers" as one.
When the radiance subsided, everything below the "Berserker Tiger's" neck had been covered in armor.
Fully equipped!
...
Forming a single "armament" out of three pieces of "equipment"—this was Ma Li Bond's secret technique.
Having donned the "Beast King Armament," the "Berserker Tiger," facing the encircling Magic Guide Spirits, suddenly flung open its arms and let out a roar. From the tiger's maw that surfaced upon the "Beast King Belt," a tiger-shaped Beast King's Roar projectile instantly erupted.
The enormous roar projectile blasted away every Magic Guide Spirit closing in to surround it in a single instant.
The bipedal flying dragon that took the "Beast King's Roar projectile" head-on was even shattered to pieces on the spot!
"Berserk!"
At Ma Li's loud command, the "Berserker Tiger" activated its Ultimate Move—"Berserk."
Its eyes were veiled in crimson, and like a starving tiger it pounced upon Elsie Kevin's Magic Guide Spirits.
After that, the entire field became utterly the "Berserker Tiger's" hunting ground.
...
"The match is over! After a battle that can only be called fierce, contestant Ma Li Bond has astonishingly succeeded in reversing the situation and locking in victory. Perhaps this is the very charm of dueling!"
"The victor—second-year Noble House, Ma Li Bond!"
...
Amid the cheers, the referee declared Ma Li Bond's victory.
And only after watching the entire exhilarating duel did Dark turn to look at Pandora, blinking. "Senior, it seems I've won."
"That's right, you've won." Pandora leaned in slightly and breathed out, "A bet's a bet, and a loser pays up—what do you need me to help you with?"
Dark then revealed a gentle smile. "In that case, may I be invited to take part in your experiment?"
Pandora laughed quite happily. "Of course you may."
...
Riding high on the spring breeze with hooves flying swift, in a single day I view all the blossoms of Chang'an.
...
After the second duel of the junior group's first round concluded, it was once again the senior group's turn.
This time in the senior group, the much-anticipated "Dark Night Baron" Noah Sharp finally took the stage, and his opponent was a fifth-year student who had earlier summoned a Light Cage in the qualifier battle royale to trap his "Crimson-Ridge Black Dragon."
The brilliance of the clash between the two surpassed even the previous two matches, and the "Dark Night Baron" at last summoned a full nine-star colossal dragon on the official arena—the "Crimson-Ridge Black Dragon"!
That "Crimson-Ridge Black Dragon," standing over ten meters tall, drew excited cries from the audience the very instant it appeared.
No matter the place, people always held an extra measure of awe and affection for that creature called the "dragon."
In the war between humans and the Demon race, countless colossal dragons took part.
Some belonged to the Demon race, and were called demon dragons by humans.
While those belonging to the human Holy Church also bore the name of holy dragons.
But the dragon race itself was without allegiance, a neutral race.
So people's loathing for demon dragons was rarely directed at the dragon race itself.
...
This duel, in the end, still concluded with the victory of the "Dark Night Baron" Noah Sharp.
After this duel ended, the competition came to a temporary pause—both contestants and spectators needed to eat.
And within each of the branch halls, a wide variety of Easter-themed delicacies and souvenirs were provided for the audience.
This, naturally, was the peak time for "egg-cracking."
Based on this morning's performances, people had developed strong fondness for certain Magic Guide Spirits, and so they wanted to crack open their favorite models from the Easter eggs.
The various model eggs were practically snapped up clean, the atmosphere extremely lively.
...
Meanwhile, at St. Marian's Academy.
The professors and students also rose and left their seats, launching a large-scale march toward the Canteen.
After all, it was Easter.
Although no celebratory banquet would be held in the banquet hall, the Canteen's food today would of course be more sumptuous.
Dark released DemiDevimon from the "[Curse Cage]" and had it go call on Diana and Rose, while he and Pandora slowly walked out of the dueling hall along with the crowd.
Not long after, led by DemiDevimon, Diana and Rose found Dark and Pandora.
It wasn't the first time the four of them had been together, so they cheerfully headed off to the Canteen.
Dark had originally thought of going to Traveler Street for a good meal, but as expected he couldn't bear to give up the eggs handed out in the Canteen at noon.
Even though those eggs might only yield a 10-credit voucher, what they enjoyed was the process of cracking eggs—or so every person who'd failed at their gacha rolls would say.
"I wonder what'll be in the eggs at noon?"
Diana excitedly held up the hexagonal gemstone she'd obtained during the competition, holding it up to the sun.
Sunlight shone into the gem, making the little black shadow within stir slightly, as though it were about to come alive.
Even though Diana couldn't identify the origin of this gem at the moment, she could more or less tell that it had to be worth a great deal.
"That's nice."
Rose looked at the gem in Diana's hand, a little envious.
Diana pointed at the egg in Rose's bag and asked curiously, "Why haven't you cracked yours open yet?"
Rose blinked, then said, "I thought about it, and it's not bad to just take it home like this. You see, if I open it, then the model inside is decided.
But if I never open it, then there are infinite possibilities inside. That's the same as me owning all the eggs."
Diana: "??"
"All right, stop teasing her." Dark laughed and tapped Diana on the head, saying, "Think hard about what to eat next, so we can settle it quickly in a bit."
...
The four entered the Canteen and queued up in order.
When their turn came, each of them collected one egg.
Of course, they didn't forget to grab DemiDevimon's share either.
And so the four of them and one pet carried their trays to an empty table and sat down, ready to crack their eggs.
Joy shared is better than joy alone.
Most of the students in the Canteen were enjoying the fun of egg-cracking.
Good-natured ridicule and sour-grapes congratulations were everywhere.
DemiDevimon's eyes rolled around in a circle, and then it impatiently smashed the egg clutched in its claws.
This morning, it had been the last to crack open its egg; now it was determined to be first!
"Crack!"
Yellow liquid flowed out of the broken egg.
An extremely intense sourness immediately surged into the air.
DemiDevimon was sent flying on the spot by the blast, flapping its wings to hover in midair.
"Is this lemon juice?" Dark covered his nose and asked curiously.
Diana sniffed, but said, "Nope—it's Envy Bird saliva. I hear it's ten times more sour than lemon juice."
Pandora said with a smile, "Let's clean it up."
Dark then summoned the "Trash Slime."
Once materialized, the Trash Slime rubbed against his finger, then slid over to that puddle of Envy Bird saliva and, with a "slurp," absorbed it all.
Dark played with the Trash Slime for a while before withdrawing it back into its Magic Guide Card.
By this time, the other three at the table had all cracked open their eggs.
Diana peeled off the shell and swallowed it in one gulp; only when she bit into it did it burst with a mouthful of juice—it was chicken broth!
Rose, meanwhile, picked a piece of chocolate out of the yolk inside her egg, and she was rather pleased too.
Senior Pandora cracked her egg open, and tucked into the yolk was a piece of "sauced-meat-flavored jelly."
Dark hurriedly cracked his own egg open as well.
The result, upon inspection, was yet another perfectly ordinary hard-boiled egg.
"Tragic!"
He knocked his own forehead, then cut the boiled egg in half with a table knife and ate it with the sauce.
The four chatted about the Dueling Festival while they ate.
After the meal, Senior Pandora naturally fell into step with Diana and Rose, while Dark returned to the contestant waiting room to confirm the afternoon's schedule.
"The afternoon matches start at one o'clock? According to the schedule there are still ten matches, five hours, ending at roughly six o'clock sharp."
After mulling it over carefully for a while, Dark returned to the spectator stands and, following DemiDevimon's sense, found Pandora, Diana, and Rose.
With the company of the two junior girls, Pandora was clearly far more talkative.
Ever since the Christmas holiday, her mindset had undergone an obvious change, and she had become more willing to get along with others.
Diana and Rose were both good kids too, and spending time with them was very pleasant.
Thus, when Dark returned here, he suddenly found that he couldn't quite blend into their topic of conversation.
He shook his head, but didn't forcibly insert himself into it.
Up on the stage, a senior well-versed in music was performing a recently famous piano piece—"Huskar on His Deathbed."
The piece itself told the heroic, tragic story of a hero named Huskar who, on the brink of death, pulled off a blood-soaked counter-kill from the verge of defeat.
Its melody, by turns sorrowful and intense, suited a dueling competition extremely well.
As time passed, more and more people returned to the dueling hall.
People found their seats and sat down, excitedly discussing topics related to duels and eggs.
Amid this gradually brewing atmosphere, the one o'clock bell of the afternoon rang out, and Senior Judy, who had changed into a bright-red formal gown, had already stepped onto the stage.
She delivered her opening remarks very skillfully, quickly drawing the well-fed audience into anticipation for the duels, and then cracked open two eggs, took out two number tags, and loudly read out the names of the contestants about to appear next.
The first match of the afternoon.
The junior group's first round, third match.
Third-year, Knight House, Paul Dulles.
——VS
Third-year, Noble House, Stuart Fawn.
...
"A classic showdown between Knight House and Noble House?"
Dark couldn't help but frown slightly. This Stuart Fawn of the Noble House always gave him a rather bad feeling.
"This is a good chance to observe through this duel—perhaps I'll run into him in a later match."
...
The match began on schedule.
Both being third-years, the Knight House's Paul Dulles and the Noble House's Stuart Fawn were clearly old acquaintances.
The instant they took the stage, the two laced their exchange segment with hidden sarcasm, eloquence flowing freely, and the atmosphere was instantly cranked to the max.
In the battle that followed, the two contestants were even more sharply at odds, fighting fiercely, drawing cheers from the entire hall.
In the end, Paul Dulles regrettably lost by the margin of a single move.
Stuart Fawn gave a cold snort and on the spot flung out a torrent of scathing words, mocking him until his face was flushed and his neck thick with anger.
...
After watching this duel, Dark fell somewhat silent, then continued watching the next match.
But the senior group's first round, third match that followed was decided in merely two rounds, staging an unusually brutal show of crushing dominance!
The one crushed to pieces by the field's sole sixth-year student was a girl from the fourth year.
That girl was actually one of the standouts among the fourth-years—otherwise she could never have made it out of the qualifier battle royale.
Yet facing a sixth-year of vastly disparate strength, she had no power to fight back; she barely held on for less than a minute before suffering a crushing on-the-spot defeat, leaving the stage in tears.
But the victor is king, and the loser eats dust.
No one would care about the loser's weeping; everyone's gaze would only gather upon the victor.
Right up until the start of the next match, the shock that sixth-year had caused had not yet dissipated.
And the very next match was the junior group's first round, fourth match.
It was the remaining third-year Noble House student Winnie Skadi, against the likewise third-year Fool's House student Tom Nixon.
"A match without any suspense!"
Winnie Skadi's reputation was enormous within the third- and fourth-year tiers.
The identity of being a descendant of the "Sage of Winter" brought her extra attention.
Although she herself did not take pride in it, the gift bestowed by her lineage was indeed at work.
Winnie Skadi dabbled widely, but was accustomed to using Ice-type Magic Guide Spirits as the core of her deck.
This was related to her own magic-power nature and inheritance.
Her "Ice Maiden" was beautiful and powerful, immensely popular—one of the rare Magic Guide Spirits with a popularity rating of A.
As a result, nearly all the spectators who knew her fairly well believed she was certain to win.
As for Winnie Skadi's opponent, the Fool's House's Tom Nixon—although he had gradually begun to make a name for himself after advancing to the third year, in the end he was no match for Winnie's popularity.
Tom Nixon was born into poverty; his mother was an ordinary woman whose only halfway-decent skill was tailoring.
His father was an unnamed beastman who had long since gone missing for many years.
Before Tom was summoned into the academy, the family of four, including his two younger sisters, could only scrape by on his mother's meager income.
It was only after being summoned into the academy that, relying on the scholarship subsidies the academy provided, his family's conditions greatly improved.
So Tom Nixon was full of gratitude toward the academy.
Relying on his own efforts, he climbed all the way up from being a dead-last laggard at enrollment, and had now finally become a top student among the third-years.
The duel with Winnie Skadi could be said to be a chance for him to prove himself.
So he had made ample preparations for this duel, being extremely earnest and careful.
Winnie Skadi, by contrast, appeared utterly casual.
She was even reluctant to set down the little booklet in her hand after stepping onto the contestant platform.
It was only when the referee blew the whistle that both sides placed their decks on the card table, ready to fight!
...
The result of the battle was unexpected, yet seemed to be within reason.
Winnie Skadi, who in truth had not poured much heart into this match, did not receive a response from her deck.
While Tom Nixon, who had put in enough care, reaped the fruit of victory as he had wished.
...
At this point, the junior group's first round, a total of four matches, had finally come to an end.
The victors, in order, were:
First-year, Noble House, Dark Demon.
Second-year, Noble House, Ma Li Bond.
Third-year, Noble House, Stuart Fawn.
Third-year, Fool's House, Tom Nixon.
...
Of the four who advanced, three were from the Noble House; the only splash of green was the Fool's House's Tom Nixon.
Although there were many other factors at play here—for instance, quite a few top students had no interest in joining in on the fun and simply didn't participate at all...
But even so, the Noble House's dominance among the junior years could be glimpsed in part.
...
The senior group's final first-round duel that followed immediately after also lifted its curtain amid the audience's cheers.
The final result was that one of the fourth-years narrowly won out, defeating a fifth-year student.
Thus, the senior group had one sixth-year, two fifth-years, and one fourth-year advance to the second round.
Among them, the "Dragon-Slaying Warrior" Luke Bechi was a fifth-year student of the Fool's House.
The "Dark Night Baron" Noah Sharp was a fifth-year student of the Knight House.
That sole sixth-year contestant was a student of the Magic House.
The last fourth-year contestant was a student of the Noble House.
...
The entire Easter Dueling Festival thereby entered the second round of the main competition.
"It's finally starting—the second round."
Dark straightened his collar and stood up.
After he had stood, Senior Pandora suddenly placed the Chinchilla Grass and Young Wyvern she'd been holding in her arms onto his seat.
Dark turned back in puzzlement.
Pandora then said with a smile, "You're not coming back anyway, so I'm setting them here."
Dark said helplessly, "The seniors in the second round are all very strong."
Diana leaned over and said with a giggle, "You'll definitely win, right? I've been dying to know what's in the champion's eggs!"
Rose made an "Mm" sound and nodded forcefully.
Dark rubbed his head, and could only say, "I'll do my best."
People really are pretentious—he'd been gunning for the championship from the very start, yet he insisted on waiting for others to bring it up before admitting it.
Dark, treading cheerful steps, walked out of the ring-shaped strip and vanished into the entrance of the contestant passage.
In order to let the audience "remember" who the advancing contestants were, he still had to go up onto the stage and make a round together with the other contestants.
____
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