ALL NOVEL CH.495 Adventuring Tournament, finals, actually this time
A few days after the terrorist attack, it was time for the actual finals. And the bronze match as well, but the main thing is the finals.
During those few days, we found out who the group of adventurers were. They were apparently the same group who caused issues during the preliminaries. Both the party that was actually competing and the party that was helping them.
After the prelims, they had been imprisoned, but they had been let loose, and a prison guard was missing. That missing guard is suspected of letting them loose.
Sadly we didn’t have any information about the group of people the adventurers met up with later, but we do know that the missing prison guard was not amongst them.
But back to the tournament finals.
Because of how terribly the last pre-game show went, this time, there wasn’t going to be any. Which is a shame, because I’m sure Cailie would have agreed to another song, if they just asked.
But they didn’t ask, so the bronze match it is. Death Blade against Hunters Eyes.
The two teams took their positions on the stage, and Ula had returned as the annoncer. It was a bit of a shame to see that the colosseum didn’t have quite as many people as it did for the first and second rounds, but I suppose people were scared away by what happened, or maybe they just couldn’t take more time off of work.
As a reminder, Hunters Eyes is a three member party, with two lizard-folk who dual wield swords, as well as a wolf-folk member who mainly uses some sort of werewolf skill.
Death Blade on the other hand had a spearman, a guy who dual wielded axes, a guardian, an archer, and a mage.
The match started, and Hunters Eyes went on the offensive. The werewolf quickly changed into his werewolf form and used Flickering Step to get past the Death Blade frontline before the Death Blade guardian had time to taunt them.
And before he could, the two dual wielding lizard-folk were upon the frontline of Death Blade, so the frontline couldn’t just turn and help their backline fighters.
This left the mage and the archer to fend for themselves against a much more physically capable fighter, who was naturally faster than them. The two backline did put up a really good defense, with the archer holding off the werewolf, while the mage gave them support.
While that was going on, the Death Blade frontline tried to deal with the two lizard-folk. But the lizard-folk were both faster and more skilled than the Death Blade members, so even with the numbers advantage, they could just barely hold their own against the higher leveled opponent.
Then the werewolf finally managed to deal with the Death Blade archer, throwing them off the arena, and from there, it became a cascade of ring outs. Next went the Death Blade mage, again thrown off by the werewolf, which turned the fight into a 3v3.
And with the werewolf coming from behind, quickly disarming the Death Blade axe wielder, and then pinning him down, the fight was over.
Death Blade surrendered, and Hunters Eyes won their bronze medals.
And so, it was time for the finals. The Unicorns vs. Card Beasts.
The Unicorns seemed ready to stop the Card Beasts signature ‘full monster release’, but sadly, I don’t think it will work. Because Unika told me they had a different strategy for the final round and asked if I approved.
I naturally did, because while I did ask Unika that they not use the cards as a be.all and end-all solution, they haven’t used a single card for the entire duration of the tournament.
But hey. I’m not going to take Unika’s thunder, and I’ll let her take care of this part.
[Unika POV]
As soon as the match started, and with the Unicorns expecting a full monster release, I instead raised my left arm, holding a card and called out the name of the card.
“Swords of Revealing Light!”
With the swords raining down in a circle around the Unicorns, they weren’t sure if they should dodge, or stay in the sword circle. And by the time they seemed to realize that they probably shouldn’t stay, it was too late and they got frozen in place.
This time I paid more attention, because during the preliminaries, I assumed the Swords of Revealing Light left our opponents totally unable to move, but Brian told us they could still move their eyes, and could both hear and see what was happening.
The audience seemed surprised by what happened, and that the Unicorns were subdued that quickly, but as Ula was about to call the match, since the Unicorns couldn’t respond, I stopped her, saying that this was just to buy a bit of time.
I quickly glanced at Einar and Eline, and they knew what to do. They summoned their two Sphinxes, Sphinx Teleia and Andro Sphinx.
But those monsters won’t be staying on the field, as they will act as the tributes for my strongest monster.
“Oh Planetary Beast that rules over eighth planet
Accept these tributes and gain their power
Leave your planetary body behind, and step forth on this galactic stage
Tyrant Neptune!”
Brian gave me this monster, because in his opinion, it fit my deck. Because my deck brings wild monsters under my control, I could then tribute them to summon The Tyrant Neptune.
But I can also do what I just did, and use Einar and Eline’s strongest monsters as the tributes, more than combining their power and making one monster that is much better than the sum of its parts.
With our ultimate monster summoned, I lifted the Swords of Revealing Light, releasing our opponents.
I then called out to them.
“This is The Tyrant Neptune, the ultimate power of the Card Beasts! If you can take it down, we will surrender!” I told them.
The Unicorns took just a second to look at each other, before they turned to face The Tyrant Neptune. Clearly they weren’t going to surrender.
Good. Brian said they might surrender because of how easily Swords subdued them, but luckily they didn’t.
The Unicorns attacked, clearly a practiced maneuver they’ve used before. They came at The Tyrant Neptune with everything they’ve got.
Their assault was merciless, but despite their best efforts, Tyrant Neptune wasn’t taking much damage. It was simply too strong. And it was barely fighting back.
“Tyrant Neptune. Strike back. Neptune Slash!” I commanded, and my monster obeyed. It prepared its giant scythe, surrounding it in a large ball of water, to not hurt our opponents too much, and then swung it forward.
The swing caught three members of The Unicorns, trapping them in the ball of water, only the swordsman being able to dodge the strike.
Then with another swing of the scythe, and an opportune timing in dissipating the ball of water, The Tyrant Neptune sent the three trapped Unicorns out of the arena.
He then turned to the remaining member, and moving at speeds I could just barely see, The Tyrant Neptune used its tail to strike at the swordsman, sending him out of the arena as well.
The audience was quiet, likely taken back by how easily our summoned monster could take down an S-rank party. And they stayed quiet, until the announcer told everyone that we had won.
[Brian POV]
Honestly, a bit of a disappointing match. Like in a way it was good, the Card Beasts got to show off their power, but I was honestly hoping for a bit more from the Unicorns.
They tried the same strategy they used against the hydra in Seaside Paradise dungeon, but it didn’t quite work out against The Tyrant Neptune.
Then again, The Tyrant Neptune did have a statline of 5500/5500, and the Unicorns didn’t have their usual weapons, so it is likely they just really couldn’t harm the superpowered beast. Maybe if they had their usual weapons they may have been able to stand a chance.
I was still more than proud of them. They won the first two matches without using a single card, and now they showed the world why they are called the Card Beasts.
Soon enough, it was time for the award ceremony. And giving out the awards was none other than Wendy herself.
Hunters Eyes were rewarded first, each getting a bronze medal, as well as a bronze statue, depicting a wyvern.
The Unicorns were next, each getting a silver medal and their silver statue depicted an A-rank bird monster. I wasn’t exactly sure which one it was, but it might be a rainstorm bird.
I’d have to look at some of the finer details to know for sure though, as rainstorm and typhoon birds look quite similar when you can’t see their color palette.
Then it was time for the Card Beasts to get their gold medals. They also got a gold statue, one depicting an S-rank false dragon. I guess they went with all winged monsters, going from a wyvern to a bird to a dragon. And yes, false dragons are still not dragons. They are monsters that just look like dragons. There is nothing draconic about them.
After the award ceremony, we were invited to the Adventurers’ guild. And there, Unika and her team were all upgraded to A-rank, while my guild rank was upgraded to S-rank.
I asked why, and Wendy told me that what the Card Beasts did during the tournament basically forced them to upgrade them to A-rank. You can’t have a B-rank party that can just take down an S-rank party like that.
And while she would have loved to give them S-rank, because of stupid rules and red tape, she couldn’t.
But with me, she got the approval of multiple guild masters who watched the exhibition match, and they approved that I was S-rank. And that was me without using my cards.
Next time they need a show of my power, I’ll just summon Ra or something.
Maybe I’ll get better with Reverse Unions and perform one with the Winged Dragon.
… actually, isn’t that what like two of the bad guys do in the anime? Union with Ra because of that point-to-point transfer ability? They basically became a tumor on Ra’s head and claimed themselves to be the Egyptian God.
… Yeah. It didn’t quite work out for them.
But whatever. The Card Beasts won, and it is time to celebrate. So to HomeBase and let’s have ourselves a feast.
… well, after I do one little thing.
“... Sir! You have to understand! We don’t have that sort of money on hand!” The person in charge of paying out the tournament bets exclaimed when I went to get my 1000 gold coins.
“Really? You don’t? Then why did you allow bets that large? Are you running a scam?”
“No! No! No! No!” He repeated. “We … We can pay you … just not in cash.”
“Go ahead.”
“We do have official guild transfer checks!” He quickly said. “Will one of those do?” He asked hopefully.
“... Well, since you leave me no choice. The check will do.” I agreed.
Luckily the check worked just fine and I was able to get the 1000 gold coins registered onto my guild card. I actually forgot that the adventurer’s guild card doubles as a sort of bank card, with which you can deposit and withdraw money from any of the guilds. I never used that feature, so I forgot.
So after getting the money to my card, I split the 1000 gold coins, minus my 10 gold coins, into three, and transferred all of that money to the guild accounts of Unika, Einar and Eline.
Now, time for the feast.