The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　In his duel with the orcs' "Behemoth Royal Family," he relied on his powerful "Shadow Concealment" technique to outmaneuver the Behemoth without leaving a trace.

　When dueling with him, the most important thing to guard against is this "Shadow Concealment Technique," and the second most important thing is the curse.

　However, Dark's understanding of "Shadow Concealment" was deeper than that of ordinary people, so he naturally knew how to deal with it.

　After facing Chloe Artemis, he immediately began building a new deck.

　As a dark-type spell, "Shadow Spell" is most afraid of light-type spells.

　The light was strong enough to illuminate the entire venue, leaving no shadows.

　Without a shadow, the "Shadow Stalking" technique becomes completely ineffective. However, in actual combat, it's impossible to create an environment devoid of light and shadow so simply.

　As a mage, Chloe has countless ways to create shadows. Even without "Shadow Stalking," he is an incredibly fast and powerful assassin, and a duelist of exceptionally high magical skill!

　"Shadow Spell" is just a secondary spell he practices in addition to his magical techniques; it's a skill that comes as an extra bonus.

　Besides that, most of his other spells require the assistance of magic cards to be cast.

　Chloe's current achievements are a result of a combination of strong talent and relentless hard work.

　But he was too young to have enough time to learn two completely different systems.

　Therefore, besides magic, he was only proficient in "Shadow Concealment" and (magical combat techniques).

　"Magic Combat Techniques" are secret techniques developed by the Elven race based on the human concept of "Qi," and only a very few Elves can master them.

　They infuse magic into a part of the body, enhancing it as if it had been blessed with a buff spell, thus strengthening its physical body.

　Basically, it can replace the blessing of "qi" to humans.

　Furthermore, depending on the magic attribute, magic combat skills can also grant elves additional resistance to magic of the corresponding attribute.

　However, using "Magic Battle Techniques" cannot awaken "Momentum," as it lacks a higher stage of advancement.

　However, Chloe, who possesses "Shadow Stalking" and "Magic Combat Techniques," is already quite troublesome.

　He's the type who doesn't act unless he's absolutely sure of killing. Against this type of opponent, a conservative duelist would naturally prioritize defense.

　As for Dark Dimon, yes, he's the conservative duelist! In any case, it's never a bad thing to be cautious.

　Dark completes his deck construction and inserts it into the Duel Disk, waiting for his opponent to finish constructing their deck.

　Although Chloe Artemis was tough on the surface, she took it very seriously.

　He understood Dark Dimon's strengths more deeply than the other academy's contestants.

　Because "Elf Princess" Lucia Artemis always boasted about this person in front of the elven contestants.

　They were initially skeptical, but after witnessing Dark's performance on the dueling stage, they realized that the princess had not exaggerated at all. This person was already so terrifying even under the constraints of the dueling rules.

　How strong would it be in actual combat?

　Just by listening to the princess's description, Chloe felt that he was simply invincible and impossible to defeat.

　Only under the constraints of the dueling rules could he possibly duel him and win.

　The biggest limitation of magic duels for mages is that everything must start from the "battle phase".

　In a real battle, no mage would wait until the opponent appears before summoning a magical spirit.

　The personal magical spirit that has been summoned long ago has set up a strange ritual that will send anyone who bares their fangs at the mage to their doom!

　As for mages like Dark Demon, they can only duel him under limited dueling rules while he is still developing.

　If I'm lucky enough to win, I might boast to others later, "I'm a duelist who has defeated XXXX!"

　In short, while there's still a chance, we should make a big move!

　After completing the construction, Chloe Artemis suddenly tightened her mind and stopped thinking about those off-field matters.

　The outcome of a duel sometimes hinges on a single thought. Focusing your attention is the only way to victory.

　He looked across and saw that Dark was already waiting, so he nodded. Then the duel entered "Preparation Phase 1", and after the automatic shuffling ended, it entered "Preparation Phase 2".

　Both players draw cards simultaneously.

　Dark glanced at the magic card in his hand, then smiled slightly and began to think quickly.

　v

　[Flying Spell]

　【Misty Terrain (Elysium)】[Eevee!] [Coffin] [Angemon]

　This starting hand consists of five cards: one spell card, one special attack card, one three-star Magician Spirit card, and two six-star cards.

　Magical Spirit Card.

　Looking at the individual card strength, it's actually not that bad.

　But overall, it gives a very bad feeling.

　After all, you can't sacrifice and summon any six-star magical spirit if you only have one three-star magical spirit.

　However, "Eevee: Eevee" can be replaced with "Baton Pass" to create a new three-star Spellbinder.

　However, after doing so, "Eevee" will return to your hand and you will need to summon it again to complete the six-star tribute.

　Furthermore, this deck is not a "Blue-Eyes" deck, and because the cooldowns of some of the Spellcards used in the previous duel have not yet come off, it is not entirely a "Elysium" deck either.

　This is a deck that blends light and darkness, pride and extremes. It puts the duelist's "luck" to the test.

　Dark's mind raced, and thirty seconds passed in the blink of an eye.

　However, he didn't start with the only one that can be normally summoned, "Eevee," but with the "Flying Charm"!

　"Flying Spell!"

　This was merely a general-purpose spell card. However, it was a key card that Dark had deliberately included. Unexpectedly, he drew it in just the first turn. After drawing it, he immediately began summoning.

　"In the name of Darkdemon, I summon the magic spell—'Flight Spell'!" The next moment, his feet left the ground, and he flew into the sky.

　As he took off, the director projected his duel with Chloe Artemis onto the roof of the Blue Restaurant.

　Putting aside the fact that Dark himself has always been a key player to watch, Chloe Artemis is also the captain of the senior group at the Elf Magic Academy.

　This duel is sure to attract a great deal of attention.

　In fact, when their projections appeared on the roof of the Blue Restaurant, the audience outside immediately erupted in cheers.

　Although Chloe Artemis is the captain of the senior group, no one questions Dark's ability to duel with senior group members nowadays because Dark is a junior group member.

　With his absolute strength and terrifying record, he overturned people's perceptions.

　What audiences want to see now is him defeating older students time and time again.

　Of course, supporters of the Elven Magic Academy are an exception. Oh, not entirely.

　In the circular area, Lucia Artemis, who was clearly an elf princess, was cheering for Dark, which made the team leader next to her frown repeatedly.

　...

　At this very moment, Chloe Artemis had already vanished into the shadows.

　They were in the middle of the street, where the buildings and facilities on both sides cast countless shadows under the sunlight.

　The shadows intersected within the dueling area, covering almost the entire region.

　This is a natural field skill for him.

　As soon as the duel began, he immediately used "Shadow Stalking" to slip into the shadows and stealthily head towards Dark's location.

　But when he peeked out from the shadows, Dark had already flown into the sky, leaving him nowhere to go.

　—That's right, the simplest way to deal with Shadow Step is to fly! This is a more direct and effective method than shining a strong light on it.

　Those who are proficient in "Shadow Concealment" can connect shadows with each other using shadows.

　This allows him to move quickly between two shadows that are not connected.

　Therefore, simply blocking the shadow is ineffective.

　However, "shadow manipulation" has a characteristic that is difficult to detect if one does not understand it well.

　That is, it can only manipulate the shadow to move on the same surface! Therefore, it cannot directly cross ravines, nor can it reach things in the sky.

　Dark chose to switch to "Flying Spell" at the start precisely because of this. He successfully caused Chloe Artemis's attack to miss. Then, almost simultaneously, both sides launched their next round of summoning. Dark was already calculating the cooldowns.

　Chloe Artemis immediately switched tactics after the surprise attack failed. "Flight" was indeed a difficult problem for "Shadow Stalking".

　But Chloe Artemis had considerable experience dealing with this. If the shadow cannot reach the sky.

　Then let's build a bridge that leads straight to the sky!

　"In the name of Chloe Artemis, a magical summoning—'Thousand Mountains of Needle Shadows'!"

　As Dark flew through the sky and summoned "Eevee: Eevee," Chloe Artemis had already summoned and activated "Thousand Needle Shadows."

　His upper body emerged from the shadows, as if floating in water, and he gathered shadow energy in his right hand, then slammed it hard against the ground.

　From the shadows that covered the ground, countless sharp needles instantly emerged, drilling upwards and forming countless long, thin needle mountains.

　These needle-shaped hills are thin and long, some three to five meters long, some up to ten meters long, varying in size and without any pattern, scattered throughout the area in clusters.

　If Dark were still on the ground, "Thousand Mountains Needle Shadows" would be an extremely terrifying, wide-range attack-type ultimate move.

　Even after he had flown into the sky, he was almost pierced by the needle-like mountain that suddenly rose up beneath his feet.

　Fortunately, he was alert enough to fly even higher in an instant, which narrowly avoided having his foot pierced.

　Even so, those needle mountains are an exaggeration.

　Their shadows, illuminated by the sunlight, intertwined and dangled, creating a hazy, indistinct effect. Chloe slipped into the shadows, moving swiftly, and suddenly emerged from the top of an extremely long needle-like mountain.

　He stood on one foot on the tip of the needle, like a "ninja," which was astonishing.

　And the second magic card in his hand was already activated. "In the name of Chloe Artemis, Magic Summon—[Shadow Bird]"

　"Shadowbird" is also a spell card.

　It can conjure birds from its shadows, causing them to gather into a flock and attack its target.

　The more shadows there are, the more birds there are.

　After Chloe unleashes "Thousand Mountain Needle Shadows," she can summon a terrifying flock of birds that fills the sky in an instant by using "Shadow Bird"!

　At this point, Dark simply used "Eevee" to swap out "Devimon"!

　One of the main reasons for choosing "Devimon" is because it has wings for flight.

　Now he has no choice but to replace "Devimon" first, then summon "Eevee" again, and then use these two magical creatures as sacrifices to summon "Coffin" or "Angemon".

　Summoning the "Coffin of Death" grants an indestructible barrier.

　Summoning "Angemon" grants you a valuable fighting force with the ability to fly.

　He would naturally choose to summon "Coffin of Death".

　But Chloe Artemis's attacks were too fast and too frequent.

　The countless shadow birds that emerged from the shadows instantly wiped out his margin for error.

　His magic flowed into his mind, his thoughts accelerated instantly, and he immediately made an incredibly decisive choice.

　"Devimon, evolve!"

　Clear thoughts and words instantly entered the mind of "Devimon" through "bonds".

　[[Devimon]'s expression turned serious in an instant, but his eyes shone brightly.

　In that instant, immense mental power surged wildly into his body, seemingly endless.

　"Devimon" opened its mind in front of the countless Shadow Birds that swooped down, resonating with Dark's mental power.

　Suddenly, the "divine cause" gathered around, dancing and emitting exciting and surging music.

　A huge beam of light shone out from the center of "Devimon" in both directions.

　The shadow bird that swooped down from below was forcibly broken apart by the beam of light.

　Countless shadow birds that rushed forward also crashed into the pillar of light formed by the light of evolution, exploding as if they had hit a wall.

　Dark burrowed into the pillar of light and, using the protection of the pillar of evolutionary light, completed this wave of defense.

　He had just pulled the "Angemon" magic card from the Duel Disk and then quickly put it into his sleeve as a cover.

　This disguise wasn't particularly clever, but it wasn't easy to expose either. Chloe Artemis, standing on one foot on the tip of a needle, suddenly narrowed his eyes. But his gaze was entirely fixed on "Little Devimon," completely unaware of Dark behind him.