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

　"Roar!"

　After a full half minute of punching, Mad Tiger roared and unleashed his final punch, gathering all his strength.

　As the punch was thrown, it seemed as if a giant tiger was pouncing on its prey from behind, its long arm moving forward together with it.

　The lion was sent flying backward by the punch.

　"The center of gravity shifts downwards."

　After flying backwards for several meters, the lion beast took a step back, lowered its center of gravity, dragged itself for half a meter, and finally landed on solid ground.

　It was panting heavily, its forearms trembling uncontrollably, having expended a great deal of energy.

　"How about it?"

　Ma Li smiled slightly, quite satisfied with her battle pet's performance.

　She was indeed quite proud to have trained a magical spirit with an intelligence of 2.0 to this level.

　But after her initial triumph, she felt a slight pang of regret.

　Before the "bond" was formed, Berserker Tiger still lacked some autonomy and was far less promising than Dark's Leomon.

　Faced with Marie's provocation, Dark simply pondered and asked, "Leomon, have you learned it yet?"

　The lion nodded slightly, and its hands gradually began to move.

　Then it slowly walked towards the Berserker Tiger, and when it got close, it suddenly sped up.

　One step, two steps, three steps, each step increasing in intensity.

　By the third step, its momentum had surged, and the defeat it had suffered earlier was completely over.

　The roar that erupted from its throat was calm and restrained.

　With his right arm slightly pulled back, he took the final step, instantly recalling the stance of the wrestling eagle man striking the wooden dummy, and fused it with the "Mad Tiger Fist" of the Berserker Tiger, unleashing his own Lion Fist!

　Its punching trajectory is traceable, but its punching power is greater and its speed is faster.

　A memory that seemed to have been rooted deep in the brain since birth quietly surfaced.

　This makes its punches faster, stronger, and more flexible.

　The Berserker Tiger went from calmly parrying the initial attacks to barely managing to hold on, and finally completely lost its defense in just half a minute.

　But the lion's expression grew even brighter, and with a final roar, it blurted out: "Beast King Fist!"

　In an instant, a lion-shaped energy wave was released from his right fist, piercing through the Berserker Tiger's defense and sending it flying backward.

　Unlike the Lion Beast, which was sent flying backward, the Berserker Tiger's body almost disintegrated.

　Its magic power was clearly depleted; it seemed that it would dissipate into specks of light with just a gust of wind.

　The Leomon, having unleashed the "Beast King Fist," had reached the peak of its aura, and its previously somewhat lacking kingly presence had become even stronger.

　It stood there with its fist raised, the lion's mane flowing backward, still basking in the afterglow of that punch.

　……

　A thunderous applause erupted.

　……

　"you win."

　Marie raised the magic card with a hint of envy and retrieved the Berserker Tiger from the air back into the card.

　Then she raised her hand and gave Dark and Leo a thumbs up.

　"very nice."

　"Thank you."

　Dak nodded slightly and turned to look at the lion beast.

　The battle with Senior Ma Li wasn't a real duel; the berserk tiger clearly had a finishing move yet to be used.

　But after this debut battle, Leomon has clearly made a leap in growth.

　Next, it should be able to better engage in combat.

　Dark reached out and pulled out two "Energy Potions," summoned them, and tossed them to Leomon.

　After taking two energy potions, Leomon quickly regained full health.

　Only then did Dak look back at the big screen.

　However, it was discovered that he, who was originally ranked sixth, and senior student Ma Li, who was ranked seventh, had both fallen out of the top eight.

　"There's still time."

　He wasn't in a hurry. He reached out and grabbed the "single sword sheath," then murmured "weaponize," and tossed the "single sword sheath," which had closed its eyes again, to Leomon.

　Read the full text for free here

　Leomon raised his hand to catch the "single sword sheath" and turned his gaze to the battlefield.

　The fierce competition in the preliminary rounds is still in full swing.

　Next up is its home turf.

　……

　Dark observed this chaotic preliminary round for a full twenty minutes and noticed that the third-year students were all very restrained, not summoning overly powerful magical spirits, and rarely using any underhanded tactics.

　Ritual cards and spell cards.

　The highest-star magical spirits that have appeared so far, which are only a few six-star magical spirits, are still within the second tier.

　The five-star "Lionmon" has already secured a place among them.

　What's more, it's equipped with a "holy sword"!

　A hero and a holy sword are a match made in heaven.

　Leomon has never practiced swordsmanship; its talent is based on the existence of "Beast King Fist" and leans towards unarmed combat.

　But when wielding the "single sword sheath," it moved with effortless ease, as if something were guiding it...

　Okay, it's this "as if".

　The "single sword sheath" is, after all, a weaponization of a magical spirit; it possesses consciousness.

　Moreover, this consciousness is clearer and wiser than the consciousness of the holy sword before it was refined.

　When Leo charged into the battlefield wielding the "single sword sheath," it was not a lone warrior charging in, but rather a two-way battle.

　An ordinary five-star magical spirit couldn't withstand the second sword strike from a Leomon with an attack power of 3800.

　Moreover, there are quite a few four-star magical spirits in the arena.

　With its extremely high intelligence, Leomon carried out Dark's orders, trying to stay on the edge and reaping the lives of four-star magical spirits.

　Avoid all unnecessary conflicts.

　When Devimon carried out this command, it was like a flying thief.

　When Leomon carried out this command, he acted like a swordsman.

　Once it started working, Dak Dimon's points began to steadily rise again.

　However, Dark did not place all his hopes for qualifying on Leomon.

　After all, while Leomon is very strong, it is not as agile as Devimon.

　It can neither fly nor use "instant teleportation" to move the battlefield.

　Once surrounded, it's likely to be game over.

　Therefore, outside the arena, Dark had already begun preparing to summon the third magical spirit – "Ditto".

　Use a "Elysium 3" card to upgrade Ditto to four stars, then "transform" it into Winnie's "Ice Maiden".

　Then, a single move, "Blizzard Tornado," is enough to solidify the ranking.

　In short, the current goal is to qualify.

　Although the third-year students seemed more inclined to enjoy the duel and the victory, Dark came with a purpose this time.

　He wanted to get the "access card" that belonged to the winner.

　Use formal channels.

　Instead of using back channels.

　……

　The entire competition did not proceed as smoothly as he had imagined.

　The match is in its third-to-last minute.

　Lionmon had just pulled Dark back to eighth place when a formidable enemy appeared before it.

　The shadow beneath its feet suddenly grinned, then rose from the ground and sneered at it.

　In that instant, the lion, who had little experience with this kind of thing, looked horrified and instinctively retreated.

　But the shadow extended from beneath its feet.

　No matter how it moves, its shadow follows closely behind.

　"Jiejiejie——"

　The shadow's mocking laughter grew increasingly sinister.

　This reminded Leomon of its "Guardians of the Nation"—"Dreammon."

　Of course, the little dream demon always breaks the rules by sneaking out of the magic cards and wandering into other people's dreams, spreading terror everywhere.

　Therefore, its true "Guardians of the Night" is only "Meow Meow".

　The mere thought of the Dream Demon caused Leomon's fear to inexplicably vanish.

　It stopped retreating, raised the "holy sword" in its hand, and calmly thrust the sword at the grinning shadow.

　"Boom."

　Before the sword tip even touched it, the shadow roamed freely.

　Upon contact with the sword tip, it suddenly let out a scream, struggling desperately like a pigeon thrown into a frying pan.

　The outline of the shadow was thus distorted wildly.

　The lion's expression grew increasingly composed.

　He infused magic into the "single sword sheath".

　With a systematic training method for understanding and controlling magic, Dark's magical spirits have basically mastered the method of outputting magic.

　The lion beast is doing very well.

　That moment.

　The "single sword sheath" shone brightly!

　……

　"what--"

　An extremely shrill scream suddenly came from the shadow of the lion beast.

　Under the light of the "Holy Sword," the magical spirit that had burrowed into the shadow could no longer hold on and fled from Leomon's shadow as if burned.

　The dark figure darted out; the full text is available to read for free here.

　It revealed its true form about five or six meters away from the lion beast.

　It turned out to be a ghost-type magical spirit with a vague humanoid shape.

　At this moment, both the teachers and students in the circular area and the tens of thousands of spectators in the stands were drawn to the sudden bright light and piercing screams.

　Even the players on the field didn't notice.

　And Zach Wilson, the commentator in the commentary booth, finally found another focus for his commentary.

　In fact, he also provided guiding commentary during the one-on-one match between Dark and Senior Sister Mary.

　However, the focus then shifted to the other players.