For 40 advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/AutumnXd
"A deep-crimson demon dragon!" Taking in the sight, Luke murmured under his breath.
Compared to the Guilmon of long familiarity, Growlmon X had shed the last of its childishness entirely, evolved into a Digimon of far fiercer, wilder bearing. And owing to the X-Antibody, Growlmon X had likewise accepted and fully enveloped that extraordinary power known as the Digital Hazard, its attack instinct sharpened another degree, the twin blades along its forearms grown even more massive than Luke's memory of them.
"Roar!" With a furious bellow, Growlmon X launched its attack.
The oppressive might rolling off that colossal draconic frame stunned the newly deployed mimic beasts into forgetting their own assault, and in that moment they could only stare, pinned beneath Growlmon X's ferocious pressure.
Growlmon X's species classification remained Digimon, but its body carried a dragon's might all the same. If it ever pushed on to a Mega-stage evolution, it likely wouldn't even need to raise a claw. That savage pressure alone might well be enough to send mimic beasts of this caliber collapsing where they stood.
"A pity that a Mega-grade card isn't something that can be crafted in any short span of time." Luke mused inwardly. "Though with Angewomon's Celestial Arrow in the toolkit, I already have my workaround in place."
As he thought, the information on Growlmon X scrolled past Luke's eyes.
*「 Growlmon X 」*
Race: Digimon, Demon Dragon type
Quality: Perfect
Level: ★★★★★★ (Six-Star)
Skills: Dragon Slash, Plasma Blade, Exhaust Flame, Assault Blade, Lightning Blade
Dragon Slash: Swings its enormous dragon claws in an attack that carries a chance of armor-breaking, easily breaching the defenses of same-level enemies.
Plasma Blade: The blades upon its arms wreathe themselves in dazzling lightning, delivering a cutting attack against the enemy with an added blast effect.
Assault Blade: Using the Plasma Blade as its vessel, releases the destructive energy stored within.
Exhaust Flame: Spews a torrent of scorching flame to engulf the enemy.
Lightning Blade: Further ignites the energy of the Plasma Blades, channeling ruinous power through the twin blades at its elbows to cut the enemy down, cleaving the target in two along a trajectory of lightning!
"Six-Star Perfect. Going by quality alone, it sits just a hair below the current Mana, but where destructive power is concerned, the two of them are likely neck and neck." As he spoke, the mana within Luke's own body climbed another full stair, that being the method of raising a Card Master's strength unique to the updating of Digimon information.
"Master, why do I get the feeling I'm well on my way to becoming a unit of combat measurement?" Off to the side, Dark Magician Girl had caught Luke's assessment, and a mutter escaped her.
"Ah." At that, Luke realized that, sure enough, more or less every time a new card spirit arrived, he instinctively held it up against Dark Magician Girl for comparison, and a touch of sheepishness crept over him.
There was no helping it. Who told her to be the very first card he'd ever crafted?
---
Exhaust Flame!
The mimic beasts pressed their attack, but Growlmon X was hardly going to stand there and take it. Under Luke's and Dark Magician Girl's gazes, a blinding torrent of flame carrying a monstrous heat erupted from Growlmon X's maw, drowning the entire incoming wave of mimic beasts.
"So hot!" Even separated by a good stretch of distance, Dark Magician Girl felt the sweltering heat of it, raising a fair little hand to fan herself while her other hand swept her staff through the air, weaving a barrier to shut out the temperature. She stuck out her tongue. "That destructive power's nearly on par with my Dark Burning Attack."
"The Guilmon line was designed from the ground up to hold top-tier combat power for its level, even enough to rival a level above. Growlmon, as its direct evolution, naturally inherits all of that." Catching Mana's little display, Luke explained. "All the more so given that Growlmon is currently in its X Form on top of it."
By the time his words fell, the mimic beasts swallowed by the Exhaust Flame had already vanished without exception, the whole wave resolved in a single stroke.
"Master, when are you going to raise my level next!" Dark Magician Girl puffed out her cheeks, seized Luke's arm, and set about wheedling him in earnest, though deep in her eyes lurked a genuine thread of worry.
As the first card Luke had ever crafted, Dark Magician Girl had no wish to fall behind, least of all now, when the cards leaving Luke's hands grew stronger with every passing batch. She'd always hoped to remain of use to him.
Luke did craft her external gear from time to time, true, but if her own raw strength couldn't keep pace, Dark Magician Girl feared she'd one day be reduced to a pretty ornament on a shelf, and that was a future she wanted no part of.
"Relax, would you? As if I would ever shortchange you." As her master, how could Luke fail to read the worries turning in the girl's heart? "As for your strengthening, I already have ideas in mind. Give me a little more time, and I promise you won't be disappointed."
Unlike ordinary Card Masters, Luke held himself responsible for every card he crafted. In his eyes, there had never been any such thing as an expired card.
"Mua! I knew it, Master really is the best to me!" With Luke's promise secured, the radiance returned to Dark Magician Girl's face in full, and she leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"You little rascal." Luke shot her a look without any real heat in it. "You're joining the fighting from the next wave on, so don't you dare drop the ball."
"Roger!" Dark Magician Girl snapped off a salute, then flew off toward Growlmon X's side.
"Now, how are things going on Ciel's end?" Drawing back his gaze, Luke linked up Sistermon Ciel's circuit.
---
"Found one!" After the forced battles dispersed, Sistermon Ciel hadn't raised a hand against the enemies she'd previously marked. Weighing the Trial Road's forced-battle rules, those marked targets were better left intact to serve as her master's future opponents. The strength of these new students was hardly anything remarkable anyway, more than enough to guarantee her master would not lose.
So after only a few seconds' consideration, Sistermon Ciel had ultimately changed direction.
The trouble was that the new students who'd survived into the second round were, on the whole, a fair measure stronger than before. And so this time, the moment Sistermon Ciel drew near the core area of the stronghold, she was discovered by its owner, and the attack came down on her at once.
Awakening!
A storm of blows swept in, and sensing that the power woven through them had already reached the Six-Star grade, Sistermon Ciel activated her Awakening skill without a heartbeat's hesitation.
"Boom!" The incoming attack blanketed the ground where she'd stood, but the data sheathing Sistermon Ciel's body scattered outward, and in the next instant, a Ciel matured from girl to woman burst free of it, her figure flickering as she slipped the second volley by the narrowest of margins. The long blade cleared its sheath in her hands, and with a backhanded stroke she swatted aside the third wave. But the exchange had laid her mana fluctuations bare, and her whole figure stood exposed.
"Another examinee's card spirit?" Watching the figure Sistermon Ciel revealed, Chandler Reeves's brows drew into a knot. When he'd first sensed the anomaly, he had assumed it was some mimic fierce beast that had slipped the net. He'd never imagined it would turn out to be another Card Master's card spirit, one that had crept in to a distance this close before being detected at all.
In the same moment, the two card spirits that had launched the attack on Sistermon Ciel likewise revealed themselves.
A Six-Star of Rare quality, the Frostflame Demon Lion!
A Six-Star, the Gale Demon Tiger!
And the two spirits were every bit as startled as their master. Their coordinated, interlocking assault had been broken apart this easily?
"Demon-beast-type card spirits? Attribute-bearing ones, at that. No wonder I was discovered." Sistermon Ciel's eyes swept across the two card spirits before her without a trace of timidity, perfectly calm.