“Brian.” As soon as I returned to the party, Lua came to me. “Paulina and… Mariina are about to have a match. Come. Let’s go watch.” Lua said, as she basically dragged me towards the training grounds.
“... wow. Really? What happened?”
“Well, miss Mariina was already agitated because of something and then miss Paulina went to ask for a match. They said a lot of … bad things to each other, and now they are having a match to see who is stronger. Alice asked if I could come and get you as well, but I wasn’t sure I could because … well, the person who took you.”
“... yeah. Well, let’s go then. I do want to see it.” I agreed and took Lua’s hand.
As we arrived at the training grounds, I noticed that a lot of the people who were taking part in the backyard party were also there. I guess plenty of people were excited to see this side attraction. Myself included.
Sadly, Lua and I arrived late and some spells were already flying back and forth. But honestly speaking, as it seemed like Paulina and Mariina were still operating with just low power spells, I turned my attention to something else.
As the fight inside got more serious, Paulina switched from just earth magic to using both earth and water, while Mariina still seemed to be taking it quite easily. Mariina’s magic just was faster and more accurate. She hasn’t even summoned a golem yet.
“Water mist!” I heard Paulina trigger a spell, which she also used in her fight against Chirstina. It enveloped the battlefield in a thick mist, making it nearly impossible to see. “Now, Freeze!” She then called out.
That must have been another spell, as all of the water in the air quickly froze and clung to everything, including Mariina. While she wasn’t covered in ice or anything, she definitely had a fine layer of ice across her body. And the ground around her feet was also frozen, making it quite slippery.
Mariina quickly broke and shook off the ice that had formed on her body, but because of the slippery surface, it looked like she was hesitating to move too much. And Paulina didn’t let that opportunity to pass, quick casting multiple spells towards her sister. She alternated between ball and spear style spells, likely expecting her sister to put up a defensive wall, like Mariina did. While the ball spells didn’t do too much damage to the thick earth wall, the spears were doing damage to it, and it would soon crumble.
But none of it really mattered. Everyone watching knew how the fight would end.
Because as Mariina was hiding behind the wall, the earth to the side of the training grounds had risen and formed into a golem. And said human sized earth golem was now approaching Paulina. And because Paulina was fully focused on keeping her barrage of spells going, there is no way she would have noticed the earth golem, which her sister seemed to have cast without any chant at all. The only thing I noticed regarding the golem spell was the soft glow of the gem at the top of her staff.
After getting to Paulina, the golem punched her in the left shoulder area. I was honestly expecting a punch to the head, but maybe Mariina is holding back.
The punch was still more than enough to knock Paulina off of her game, and her feet. The golem pushed on, taking a hold on the downed girl and ending the match.
“Stop!” Came a call from one of the Sawyer sisters, Cressida. The two others must have asked her to be their referee.
Paulina was already on the ground, so the call didn’t really make her do anything, but Mariina called off her golem and it moved to stand next to her.
After that, a maid who had been standing by quickly went and helped Paulina. I think she was using some light magic, but I’m not the best at recognizing that stuff. Paulina didn’t seem too badly hurt, so that will hopefully heal her up. And if it doesn’t, there is always my giant arsenal of healing spell cards.
“... I thought that I could win…” I heard Paulina mutter, as she was getting healed.
“You aren’t there yet.” Mariina said. “You still focus too much on offense. Especially when you see an opening. You don’t think about your opponents counters at all.” She lectured her younger sister. “But you didn’t do too bad. You actually managed to make me use a golem.”
“... did I … really do good?”
“Of course.” Mariina confirmed. “The power of your magic, the casting speed and even accuracy. You did great on all of those. I think you might be at a great witch level now. That is a huge improvement for just two years.”
“... thanks. But I still couldn’t beat you…”
“Don’t forget. I study under a sage. I’m not just sitting around.” Mariina said, somewhat bragging.
“... I just thought the practice I did with Brian would have been enough…”
“Oh? You trained with him? How strong is he?”
“Strong enough to beat you.” Paulina answered.
That caused Mariina’s eyes to sharpen a bit, and she scanned the audience, probably searching for me.
Yeah. I can see where this is going.
“So, how do you want to run this match?” I asked Mariina. “I can do it as a summoner, or I can summon a water spirit and act more like a mage.” I offered.
“Which one are you more comfortable with? I want to face you at your strongest. No excuses if you lose, alright?” Mariina said.
“... no. No you don’t.” I simply said. At my strongest, three three-headed dragons with 4500 attack would be staring you down. You don’t want to face that. “But you want me to be a summoner then. I can do that.”
“Yes. Just summon anything you want. I’ll take it down.” Mariina said. I’m not sure if she is just confident, or if she can actually do it, but we will find out.
“Sure.” I agreed.
So, summoning something against her. The first choice will be easy. I don’t know how strong Mariina really is, but ever since I first saw her golem, I wanted to test it out against one of my own.
“Giant Soldier of Stone.” I said to summon my monster.
Spoiler
Now, don’t think I’m taking it easy on her just because I summoned a level 3 normal monster. Giant Soldier of Stone is legitimately strong. And with 2000 defense, it should be quite durable, so I, well Laura, can get a good estimate on Mariina’s real power. Depending on how this goes, I can adjust my next monster(s). If this one is too weak, I’ll just summon something a lot stronger.
“An earth golem. That’s an interesting summon.” Mariina said, as she looked at my monster.
“I thought it would be appropriate, considering my opponent.” I said back. “And it's a rock golem, not earth golem.”
Giant Soldier of stone was right about 10 meters tall. Quite large for a level 3 monster, but I guess he does have ‘giant’ in his name. And I wouldn’t call a ten meter tall golem ‘giant’. Large, but not giant. But maybe it is ‘gigantic’ for a rock golem. … okay, probably not.
“Well, if you want your golem to fight mine, I’ll oblige.” She said, as the gem at the end of her staff began to glow again.
As it did, the ground before her shifted a bit, taking a small humanoid shape. That humanoid then quickly grew in size to match my stone soldier. Interestingly, the second growth of the golem didn’t seem to suck up any of the earth from the field, instead looking like more earth was created from nowhere. But I guess that is magic for you.
“A golem off. I guess I should keep our audience safe in that case.” I said, as I got a card out of the collection. “Wall of Revealing Light.” I activated the trap card using 2000 HP. Not that I actually had to pay that cost, as Health Conscious negated it.
Spoiler
Oh, in case you were wondering, I can activate Wall of Revealing Light with any amount of HP, as long as it is less than my max HP. So I could use it with 3170 HP, then Health Conscious would just say no to having to actually pay the HP. And I would have quite the sturdy wall.
2000 should be more than enough for this, and this is my first out of factory test, so I don’t want to go overboard. But luckily it went just fine, and a transparent barrier which glowed a bit formed around our golems, leaving everyone except the two golems outside. That was another advantage of this spell. Like with Swords of Revealing Light, I could control the exact dimensions of the to be made wall. As long as I was able to see the entire area I wanted to cover with the spell. Or trap, in this case. And if Laura made the target area instead, we could make it in places I can't actually see, as long as Laura has sufficient map data of the area. Well, we do still have to be close-by, but you get the point.
“It's just a barrier to keep us and everyone else safe.” I explained to Mariina. “It won’t actually interfere with the golems at all.”
“... interesting. That should be good for me. I can have my golem go all out.” Mariina said.
“... wow. That golem is strong.” I said, as I watched Giant Soldier of Stone break apart into specks of light.
Yeah. My golem lost. It actually was quite an even match up, but Mariina’s golem had a huge advantage over mine. Well, let’s go over the advantage mine had first.
Giant Soldier of Stone was strong, the swords it wielded caused massive damage to the opposing golem. And it was sturdier than Mariina’s golem. Now you might ask, if you are the one that can take more hits, and land super powerful hits, how do you lose?
The answer is twofold. Mariina’s golem was a bit faster and it could regenerate. Even if GSoS cut off its arm or something, it would quickly regenerate the missing appendage.
So with my hits being basically negated by the regeneration speed, and the speed at which the opposing golem moved preventing me from landing a critical blow, it was only a matter of time until my golem lost.
“Why, thank you.” Mariina responded to my earlier comment. “Yours wasn’t bad either. It was as sturdy as anything.”
“So, what now? Want to call it here, or should I summon another monster?” I asked her.
Mariina took a good hold of her staff and looked at the magic stone at the end of it. It glowed softly, as if the staff itself was responding to her thoughts.
“I think I have mana for one more round.” She answered.
“Oh? Are you low? I have something for that.” I offered.
“No reason to use a mana potion for a practice fight.”
“Nah. Nothing like that.” I said, as I got a card out of storage. “Pitch-Black Power Stone.”
Spoiler
After the small black stone with the Triforce symbol on it appeared in my hand, I took a hold of it with telekinesis and levitated it over to Mariina. As soon as it got close, she reached her arm out and took a hold of the stone.
“Pass some mana through it, and it will let out some mana to replenish yours.” I instructed.
Mariina did as instructed and the look on her face quickly changed.
“What? What kind of stone is this?” She questioned, as she got another charge of mana out of the stone.
“A mana recovery kind.” I answered. “So, are you good to go?” I asked.
“Well, I’m almost full again, so yes.” She answered.
“Alright. I’ll summon the next monster then.” I said, as I traded the grayed out trap card for my next monster. “Granmarg the Rock Monarch.”
Spoiler
I decided to go with another Rock monster. And a golem type monster. It just felt appropriate.
Now Granmarg might be less defensive than Giant Soldier of Stone, but it has a ton more power. 2400 compared to 1300. That is a big difference. Granmarg was also basically the same size as GSoS, just a bit bulkier.
“... another golem, huh. And here I was expecting something a bit more abnormal.” Mariina said.
Are golems a common type of summon? I didn’t know that. Well, either way.
“If you can take this down, I can summon something abnormal.” I promised. Well, it would actually just be another golem but still.
“Oh? I’ll make sure you keep that word.” Mariina said, as she put more mana into her staff, at least based on the glow of the magic stone on it.
Our second round ended like the first. I lost. I honestly didn’t expect it, but yeah. Mariina is strong.
My main flaw with the second round was Granmarg’s defense. It just couldn’t take hits like GSoS could. And while it wasn’t a problem at first, eventually it became a problem.
At first, Granmarg could use its powerful attacks to almost completely annihilate Mariina’s golem, but it seems that as long as she has mana, she can regenerate her golem. And I did just give her three grands worth of mana, so she didn’t seem to be running out.
Still, her golem was on the backfoot, just because of how powerful Granmarg was, but Mariina herself began using spells as well, causing Granmarg damage and slowing him down. While Mariina couldn’t use spells that had to be launched, like stone spears, because of the barrier, she could still use spells that affected the ground itself like Stone Spire and Earth Crush. And with those spells destroying Granmarg’s legs, Mariina bought enough time for her golem to regenerate and pummel my golem to death.
“So, what comes next? You did say this next one will be something abnormal, right?” Mariina asked. She had used the third charge of the Pitch-Black Power Stone to recover some of her mana, but I don’t think she is anywhere near full.
“Yeah. I did. Get ready, because this guy will end this match.” I said, and that wasn’t just talk. Based on the two previous fights, there is no way Mariina can take on this monster. “My next golem coming up. Ancient Gear Golem!”
Spoiler
Yes. One of my newest monsters. Straight from the Machine Re-Volt structure deck. The legendary Ancient Gear Golem. Oh wait, it was only legendary in the Yugioh anime. Well, whatever.
Ancient Gear Golem was large. Right about 15 meters tall. And unlike my rock golems, he was made of steel and iron. A huge monster running on gears.
“So, what do you think?” I asked Mariina. “Is this abnormal enough for you?”
“... well, first time I’m seeing something like that summoned. A metal golem. I think we can take it.” She said, as the gem on her staff glowed again. Her golem grew in size, getting to the size of fifteen meters tall to match my Ancient Gear Golem.
I didn’t know it could do that, so maybe she was holding back earlier. But I still don’t think that will change much. The power difference should be large enough.
“Ready?” I asked her.
“Let’s go.” She responded, and her golem moved, but I wasn’t about to give it time to strike.
“Ancient Gear Golem attack, Mechanized Meleé!” I called out to my monster.
It wound up its massive fist, before striking the opposing golem. That one punch was enough to break apart the entire top half of Mariina’s golem, leaving only its legs standing with no torso. And the attack didn’t stop there. Probably because of my Gear Golem’s piercing ability, a phantom fist kept going from its arm, aimed straight at Mariina. I don’t know how much strength that punch was carrying, but considering that Granmarg could destroy a good chunk of her golem, that piercing damage was likely in the ballpark of 500 damage or so.
Not that it ever reached her, as my Wall of Revealing Light blocked the attack. Thankfully I had put it up earlier. I’m assuming that Mariina has more than 500 HP, considering how powerful she is, but taking something like 500 damage to the face would still hurt a ton.
“...” Mariina was speechless, as her knees gave out from underneath her and she fell to the ground. I guess having a massive phantom fist coming at you will do that.
After our match, Cressida helped her sister recover. Mariina was physically just fine, other than being almost out of mana, but her mental state did take a literal punch.
Because of our fight, a lot of the nobles wanted to talk to me more, so that took up basically my entire afternoon. Some of it was … not so pleasant, but I had been given my title and duties by the second Prince, so they couldn't actually force me into anything. Some did try to talk me into taking their daughters as my fiancé/wife, but with Lua by my side, I could somewhat fight them off.
But still, dealing with nobles is a lot more exhausting than dealing with monsters. Monsters I can just punch. Or have my summoned monsters punch. Can't really do that with nobles, unless I want to get in trouble. And trouble is bad. Unless causing it was fun enough where that makes up for the trouble I get into.
The backyard ‘party’ went on for most of the afternoon, with only the food changing in the middle. And in the evening, we all went inside to enjoy a huge feast. It was a multicourse meal, not a buffet, making it a first for me. I thought these kinds of parties would always be buffet style, but I was wrong. Lua was of course by my side, but Ria was working as a maid, bringing the food out. I don’t know if she planned it with the other maids, but she was the one who always brought the food to Lua and I. I really did appreciate it, planned or not. Small things make all the difference.
After dinner, I spoke a bit with Christina about nothing in particular. She is just easy to talk to about things I can’t really speak about with anyone else. Including Lua, as she might have been a part of what we talked about.
Before going to bed, I also made sure to check up on the sword. You know, the one to make up for the one I broke. The blade was complete, along with the grip and the pommel. The guard was still being made, along with the scabbard, but it would be ready by tomorrow. I really have to thank my monsters again already. They really are putting in all the work, while I just party around.
Well, it will sadly have to wait. Tomorrow will be another busy day of socializing, so that will take a lot out of me. Thus far, everything has gone relatively fine, so I think everything will be fine tomorrow as well.
Well, either way. Good night for now.
“Brian.” As soon as I returned to the party, Lua came to me. “Paulina and… Mariina are about to have a match. Come. Let’s go watch.” Lua said, as she basically dragged me towards the training grounds.
“... wow. Really? What happened?”
“Well, miss Mariina was already agitated because of something and then miss Paulina went to ask for a match. They said a lot of … bad things to each other, and now they are having a match to see who is stronger. Alice asked if I could come and get you as well, but I wasn’t sure I could because … well, the person who took you.”
“... yeah. Well, let’s go then. I do want to see it.” I agreed and took Lua’s hand.
As we arrived at the training grounds, I noticed that a lot of the people who were taking part in the backyard party were also there. I guess plenty of people were excited to see this side attraction. Myself included.
Sadly, Lua and I arrived late and some spells were already flying back and forth. But honestly speaking, as it seemed like Paulina and Mariina were still operating with just low power spells, I turned my attention to something else.
As the fight inside got more serious, Paulina switched from just earth magic to using both earth and water, while Mariina still seemed to be taking it quite easily. Mariina’s magic just was faster and more accurate. She hasn’t even summoned a golem yet.
“Water mist!” I heard Paulina trigger a spell, which she also used in her fight against Chirstina. It enveloped the battlefield in a thick mist, making it nearly impossible to see. “Now, Freeze!” She then called out.
That must have been another spell, as all of the water in the air quickly froze and clung to everything, including Mariina. While she wasn’t covered in ice or anything, she definitely had a fine layer of ice across her body. And the ground around her feet was also frozen, making it quite slippery.
Mariina quickly broke and shook off the ice that had formed on her body, but because of the slippery surface, it looked like she was hesitating to move too much. And Paulina didn’t let that opportunity to pass, quick casting multiple spells towards her sister. She alternated between ball and spear style spells, likely expecting her sister to put up a defensive wall, like Mariina did. While the ball spells didn’t do too much damage to the thick earth wall, the spears were doing damage to it, and it would soon crumble.
But none of it really mattered. Everyone watching knew how the fight would end.
Because as Mariina was hiding behind the wall, the earth to the side of the training grounds had risen and formed into a golem. And said human sized earth golem was now approaching Paulina. And because Paulina was fully focused on keeping her barrage of spells going, there is no way she would have noticed the earth golem, which her sister seemed to have cast without any chant at all. The only thing I noticed regarding the golem spell was the soft glow of the gem at the top of her staff.
After getting to Paulina, the golem punched her in the left shoulder area. I was honestly expecting a punch to the head, but maybe Mariina is holding back.
The punch was still more than enough to knock Paulina off of her game, and her feet. The golem pushed on, taking a hold on the downed girl and ending the match.
“Stop!” Came a call from one of the Sawyer sisters, Cressida. The two others must have asked her to be their referee.
Paulina was already on the ground, so the call didn’t really make her do anything, but Mariina called off her golem and it moved to stand next to her.
After that, a maid who had been standing by quickly went and helped Paulina. I think she was using some light magic, but I’m not the best at recognizing that stuff. Paulina didn’t seem too badly hurt, so that will hopefully heal her up. And if it doesn’t, there is always my giant arsenal of healing spell cards.
“... I thought that I could win…” I heard Paulina mutter, as she was getting healed.
“You aren’t there yet.” Mariina said. “You still focus too much on offense. Especially when you see an opening. You don’t think about your opponents counters at all.” She lectured her younger sister. “But you didn’t do too bad. You actually managed to make me use a golem.”
“... did I … really do good?”
“Of course.” Mariina confirmed. “The power of your magic, the casting speed and even accuracy. You did great on all of those. I think you might be at a great witch level now. That is a huge improvement for just two years.”
“... thanks. But I still couldn’t beat you…”
“Don’t forget. I study under a sage. I’m not just sitting around.” Mariina said, somewhat bragging.
“... I just thought the practice I did with Brian would have been enough…”
“Oh? You trained with him? How strong is he?”
“Strong enough to beat you.” Paulina answered.
That caused Mariina’s eyes to sharpen a bit, and she scanned the audience, probably searching for me.
Yeah. I can see where this is going.
“So, how do you want to run this match?” I asked Mariina. “I can do it as a summoner, or I can summon a water spirit and act more like a mage.” I offered.
“Which one are you more comfortable with? I want to face you at your strongest. No excuses if you lose, alright?” Mariina said.
“... no. No you don’t.” I simply said. At my strongest, three three-headed dragons with 4500 attack would be staring you down. You don’t want to face that. “But you want me to be a summoner then. I can do that.”
“Yes. Just summon anything you want. I’ll take it down.” Mariina said. I’m not sure if she is just confident, or if she can actually do it, but we will find out.
“Sure.” I agreed.
So, summoning something against her. The first choice will be easy. I don’t know how strong Mariina really is, but ever since I first saw her golem, I wanted to test it out against one of my own.
“Giant Soldier of Stone.” I said to summon my monster.
Spoiler
Now, don’t think I’m taking it easy on her just because I summoned a level 3 normal monster. Giant Soldier of Stone is legitimately strong. And with 2000 defense, it should be quite durable, so I, well Laura, can get a good estimate on Mariina’s real power. Depending on how this goes, I can adjust my next monster(s). If this one is too weak, I’ll just summon something a lot stronger.
“An earth golem. That’s an interesting summon.” Mariina said, as she looked at my monster.
“I thought it would be appropriate, considering my opponent.” I said back. “And it's a rock golem, not earth golem.”
Giant Soldier of stone was right about 10 meters tall. Quite large for a level 3 monster, but I guess he does have ‘giant’ in his name. And I wouldn’t call a ten meter tall golem ‘giant’. Large, but not giant. But maybe it is ‘gigantic’ for a rock golem. … okay, probably not.
“Well, if you want your golem to fight mine, I’ll oblige.” She said, as the gem at the end of her staff began to glow again.
As it did, the ground before her shifted a bit, taking a small humanoid shape. That humanoid then quickly grew in size to match my stone soldier. Interestingly, the second growth of the golem didn’t seem to suck up any of the earth from the field, instead looking like more earth was created from nowhere. But I guess that is magic for you.
“A golem off. I guess I should keep our audience safe in that case.” I said, as I got a card out of the collection. “Wall of Revealing Light.” I activated the trap card using 2000 HP. Not that I actually had to pay that cost, as Health Conscious negated it.
Spoiler
Oh, in case you were wondering, I can activate Wall of Revealing Light with any amount of HP, as long as it is less than my max HP. So I could use it with 3170 HP, then Health Conscious would just say no to having to actually pay the HP. And I would have quite the sturdy wall.
2000 should be more than enough for this, and this is my first out of factory test, so I don’t want to go overboard. But luckily it went just fine, and a transparent barrier which glowed a bit formed around our golems, leaving everyone except the two golems outside. That was another advantage of this spell. Like with Swords of Revealing Light, I could control the exact dimensions of the to be made wall. As long as I was able to see the entire area I wanted to cover with the spell. Or trap, in this case. And if Laura made the target area instead, we could make it in places I can't actually see, as long as Laura has sufficient map data of the area. Well, we do still have to be close-by, but you get the point.
“It's just a barrier to keep us and everyone else safe.” I explained to Mariina. “It won’t actually interfere with the golems at all.”
“... interesting. That should be good for me. I can have my golem go all out.” Mariina said.
“... wow. That golem is strong.” I said, as I watched Giant Soldier of Stone break apart into specks of light.
Yeah. My golem lost. It actually was quite an even match up, but Mariina’s golem had a huge advantage over mine. Well, let’s go over the advantage mine had first.
Giant Soldier of Stone was strong, the swords it wielded caused massive damage to the opposing golem. And it was sturdier than Mariina’s golem. Now you might ask, if you are the one that can take more hits, and land super powerful hits, how do you lose?
The answer is twofold. Mariina’s golem was a bit faster and it could regenerate. Even if GSoS cut off its arm or something, it would quickly regenerate the missing appendage.
So with my hits being basically negated by the regeneration speed, and the speed at which the opposing golem moved preventing me from landing a critical blow, it was only a matter of time until my golem lost.
“Why, thank you.” Mariina responded to my earlier comment. “Yours wasn’t bad either. It was as sturdy as anything.”
“So, what now? Want to call it here, or should I summon another monster?” I asked her.
Mariina took a good hold of her staff and looked at the magic stone at the end of it. It glowed softly, as if the staff itself was responding to her thoughts.
“I think I have mana for one more round.” She answered.
“Oh? Are you low? I have something for that.” I offered.
“No reason to use a mana potion for a practice fight.”
“Nah. Nothing like that.” I said, as I got a card out of storage. “Pitch-Black Power Stone.”
Spoiler
After the small black stone with the Triforce symbol on it appeared in my hand, I took a hold of it with telekinesis and levitated it over to Mariina. As soon as it got close, she reached her arm out and took a hold of the stone.
“Pass some mana through it, and it will let out some mana to replenish yours.” I instructed.
Mariina did as instructed and the look on her face quickly changed.
“What? What kind of stone is this?” She questioned, as she got another charge of mana out of the stone.
“A mana recovery kind.” I answered. “So, are you good to go?” I asked.
“Well, I’m almost full again, so yes.” She answered.
“Alright. I’ll summon the next monster then.” I said, as I traded the grayed out trap card for my next monster. “Granmarg the Rock Monarch.”
Spoiler
I decided to go with another Rock monster. And a golem type monster. It just felt appropriate.
Now Granmarg might be less defensive than Giant Soldier of Stone, but it has a ton more power. 2400 compared to 1300. That is a big difference. Granmarg was also basically the same size as GSoS, just a bit bulkier.
“... another golem, huh. And here I was expecting something a bit more abnormal.” Mariina said.
Are golems a common type of summon? I didn’t know that. Well, either way.
“If you can take this down, I can summon something abnormal.” I promised. Well, it would actually just be another golem but still.
“Oh? I’ll make sure you keep that word.” Mariina said, as she put more mana into her staff, at least based on the glow of the magic stone on it.
Our second round ended like the first. I lost. I honestly didn’t expect it, but yeah. Mariina is strong.
My main flaw with the second round was Granmarg’s defense. It just couldn’t take hits like GSoS could. And while it wasn’t a problem at first, eventually it became a problem.
At first, Granmarg could use its powerful attacks to almost completely annihilate Mariina’s golem, but it seems that as long as she has mana, she can regenerate her golem. And I did just give her three grands worth of mana, so she didn’t seem to be running out.
Still, her golem was on the backfoot, just because of how powerful Granmarg was, but Mariina herself began using spells as well, causing Granmarg damage and slowing him down. While Mariina couldn’t use spells that had to be launched, like stone spears, because of the barrier, she could still use spells that affected the ground itself like Stone Spire and Earth Crush. And with those spells destroying Granmarg’s legs, Mariina bought enough time for her golem to regenerate and pummel my golem to death.
“So, what comes next? You did say this next one will be something abnormal, right?” Mariina asked. She had used the third charge of the Pitch-Black Power Stone to recover some of her mana, but I don’t think she is anywhere near full.
“Yeah. I did. Get ready, because this guy will end this match.” I said, and that wasn’t just talk. Based on the two previous fights, there is no way Mariina can take on this monster. “My next golem coming up. Ancient Gear Golem!”
Spoiler
Yes. One of my newest monsters. Straight from the Machine Re-Volt structure deck. The legendary Ancient Gear Golem. Oh wait, it was only legendary in the Yugioh anime. Well, whatever.
Ancient Gear Golem was large. Right about 15 meters tall. And unlike my rock golems, he was made of steel and iron. A huge monster running on gears.
“So, what do you think?” I asked Mariina. “Is this abnormal enough for you?”
“... well, first time I’m seeing something like that summoned. A metal golem. I think we can take it.” She said, as the gem on her staff glowed again. Her golem grew in size, getting to the size of fifteen meters tall to match my Ancient Gear Golem.
I didn’t know it could do that, so maybe she was holding back earlier. But I still don’t think that will change much. The power difference should be large enough.
“Ready?” I asked her.
“Let’s go.” She responded, and her golem moved, but I wasn’t about to give it time to strike.
“Ancient Gear Golem attack, Mechanized Meleé!” I called out to my monster.
It wound up its massive fist, before striking the opposing golem. That one punch was enough to break apart the entire top half of Mariina’s golem, leaving only its legs standing with no torso. And the attack didn’t stop there. Probably because of my Gear Golem’s piercing ability, a phantom fist kept going from its arm, aimed straight at Mariina. I don’t know how much strength that punch was carrying, but considering that Granmarg could destroy a good chunk of her golem, that piercing damage was likely in the ballpark of 500 damage or so.
Not that it ever reached her, as my Wall of Revealing Light blocked the attack. Thankfully I had put it up earlier. I’m assuming that Mariina has more than 500 HP, considering how powerful she is, but taking something like 500 damage to the face would still hurt a ton.
“...” Mariina was speechless, as her knees gave out from underneath her and she fell to the ground. I guess having a massive phantom fist coming at you will do that.
After our match, Cressida helped her sister recover. Mariina was physically just fine, other than being almost out of mana, but her mental state did take a literal punch.
Because of our fight, a lot of the nobles wanted to talk to me more, so that took up basically my entire afternoon. Some of it was … not so pleasant, but I had been given my title and duties by the second Prince, so they couldn't actually force me into anything. Some did try to talk me into taking their daughters as my fiancé/wife, but with Lua by my side, I could somewhat fight them off.
But still, dealing with nobles is a lot more exhausting than dealing with monsters. Monsters I can just punch. Or have my summoned monsters punch. Can't really do that with nobles, unless I want to get in trouble. And trouble is bad. Unless causing it was fun enough where that makes up for the trouble I get into.
The backyard ‘party’ went on for most of the afternoon, with only the food changing in the middle. And in the evening, we all went inside to enjoy a huge feast. It was a multicourse meal, not a buffet, making it a first for me. I thought these kinds of parties would always be buffet style, but I was wrong. Lua was of course by my side, but Ria was working as a maid, bringing the food out. I don’t know if she planned it with the other maids, but she was the one who always brought the food to Lua and I. I really did appreciate it, planned or not. Small things make all the difference.
After dinner, I spoke a bit with Christina about nothing in particular. She is just easy to talk to about things I can’t really speak about with anyone else. Including Lua, as she might have been a part of what we talked about.
Before going to bed, I also made sure to check up on the sword. You know, the one to make up for the one I broke. The blade was complete, along with the grip and the pommel. The guard was still being made, along with the scabbard, but it would be ready by tomorrow. I really have to thank my monsters again already. They really are putting in all the work, while I just party around.
Well, it will sadly have to wait. Tomorrow will be another busy day of socializing, so that will take a lot out of me. Thus far, everything has gone relatively fine, so I think everything will be fine tomorrow as well.
Well, either way. Good night for now.
