The lizardman charged forwards, a dark aura coating its spear. As the lizardman lunged prematurely, Dusk jumped up, dodging a line of darkness that pierced the space he was before.

[Wall]

Creating a wall in midair, he kicked on it, flying towards the dark lizardman, who raised its shield to block Dusk. The said person though, simply smiled. With a twist of his body, he turned slightly to the side, and swung his sword on the left ankle of the lizardman.

Of course, in trade, he crashed into the ground, but he quickly rolled up as his enemy staggered, before he managed to take his stance though, the enemy swung at Dusk, forcing him to roll to dodge it.

The lizardman didn’t waste the chance, and before Dusk managed to get up, he stabbed into the ground. A dark lance stabbed out from where Dusk is, but he managed to activate [Blink], and dodged the attack.

As he finally got up, the lizardman spun its spear quickly, and threw it at Dusk like a javelin, but he sidestepped, and dashed forwards. The lizardman summoned its spear back, and stabbed at Dusk, but as he was fully aware of the trick, he managed to dodge it with a quick change in his steps. And he swung again, smashing into the left ankle of the lizardman.

[Haste][Slow]

He used two cards to dodge a kick from the lizardman, and he quickly rolled back. He smiled as the lizardman hissed, and he prepared a card.

The lizardman hissed angrily at Dusk. Its leg is starting to hurt. Somehow, the puny man in front of it managed to do such a powerful blow on the same spot twice. It went into the offensive, and gathered mana in its arms. As the puny man charged again, it stabbed to the ground, covering the nearby area in a field of darkness. It would bind the agile enemy, and it would be his win.

That’s when he realized that the enemy is gone. He frantically turned towards the place he was supposed to guard, but he wasn’t there.

“Up here.”

Dusk kicked on an invisible shield in the air, landing on a shield hovering slightly above the dark ground, and he swung once again on the ankle, before kicking himself away.

The lizardman stabbed multiple times angrily at the puny human in front of him, but a pair of floating shields darted around to parry his attacks.

[Summon: Shield] was the card Dusk had activated. It was among the few new cards he had made, and this summons a pair of invisible shields which he could control as long as he is in contact with the card and as long as there is still mana in the card, which if there is none left, it would start sapping his own mana. Currently, the card is in his sleeve touching his arm directly.

The lizardman charged at him swinging his spear horizontally. Dusk jumped up, taking a chance to attack. But he realized that it had prepared for such an attack, and it clawed Dusk with its other hand.

Dusk quickly sent a shield to block the attack, while jumping away, landing a few metres away on his second shield.

He then realized that the lizardman’s claw is surrounded by the dark aura, and it swung the claw from afar. He instinctively jumped away from the shield, up into the air.

And part of the ground below him exploded, with 5 purplish stripes glowing on the ground. Both his shields were goners, and the card burnt his hand slightly. With little control over himself, the lizardman dashed towards the landing spot, and as Dusk fell, it swung at Dusk.

But Dusk had a card prepared for situations like this.

[Space lock]

The lizardman was stopped for barely a second, but it was enough, and with a smooth movement, Dusk pushed downwards at the spear that was fixed in space, and back flipped safely to the ground. As he landed, he dashed forwards. And with [Haste] activated, he swung again, at the left ankle.

But before he could back off, the leg he just hit swung forwards in an impossible speed, and he was sent flying back into the wall.

[Momentum - -]

With less momentum, it was as if he was pushed into the wall lightly. Sadly, he only had a few of these cards as he mainly dodged. The kick still did its damage though, and Dusk activated a [Minor heal] card.

As the stared at each other, Dusk pulled out another card and dropped it into his sleeve. The lizardman on the other hand, dropped his spear, switching to his claws.

Dusk grimaced. Weapons with short range would be harder to deal with due to his fighting style.

Nevertheless, he raised his sword and charged forwards.

The lizardman raised its shield, and braced itself to block the slash, but suddenly, a white beam was shot from his left, burning his left ankle, and he flinched.

[Summon: Turret] was the card Dusk had dropped into his sleeve. The card creates a floating ball of mana that could shoot concentrated beams of mana at a target.

And following that, he activated his first skill in the battle.

And the feet of the lizardman flew off. Dusk quickly threw a card on the lizardman, and ran, casting a [Barrier] as he reached the closest exit.

The spell activated, and a magic circle appeared in midair. It started drawing itself as it drew mana from both the surroundings and the card.

And then the mana in the card ran out, causing the spell to fail.

But that was in the plans.

After all, the card is called [Mana detonation], which is a rank higher than [Mana ignite].

As it failed, the mana it gathered turned volatile, and exploded in a wave of pure force. But when the smoke cleared, the lizardman stood back up, and howled angrily. Its leg had already regenerated, but there were cracks in its armor. Dusk grimly pulled out a few more cards.

“Haaa… Haa…”

“Gaaa…. Gahhhhhh…”

Initially Dusk was leading the whole battle, but as time passed, his concentration waned, causing him to make a few mistakes. Those few mistakes almost costed his life. His defence, after all, isn’t high, and a few slashes and a tail whip instantly removed all the damage advantage he had.

The tide changed again when the lizardman ran out of mana. Without mana, it couldn’t use its stronger skills, and Dusk rapidly burnt through his cards before it could regenerate enough mana to wipe him.

It would have been Dusk’s loss if it managed to activate but before that happened, Dusk pierced his sword through the heart of the lizardman.

“Next time, I want a healer… And a mage… and a tank…” Dusk muttered as he slumped into the ground.

[Minor heal][Minor heal][Minor heal][Minor heal][Minor heal][Minor heal]

He staggered up and walked towards the lizardman, before pulling out the bloody sword. He then activated his [Summon: Shield], and sat on it. The shield floated, and brought Dusk to one of the entrances of the cave, where he watched the battle silently.

The adventurers are almost wiped at this point. There was barely 50 left. The only person still fighting with full force is a sorceress on a staff, flying around the Minotaur throwing balls of fire on it. The bronze golem was still fighting in the front using two miniature cannon weapons, but the engineer with him was nowhere to be found. As the battle progressed, the bronze golem seemed to slowly overpower the tired Minotaur, it pointed both weapons on the minotaur, and fired a pair of mana shots, piercing into the minotaur.

And the minotaur exploded, a huge chunk of its flesh flying out, as it fell down. The remaining adventurers stared in shock, and started crying as they dropped their weapons, tired.

I wanted to shout at them, but I didn’t have the energy or power to do so. All I could was watch the minotaur stand back up angrily. The bronze golem didn’t drop his weapons, but it seemed like he didn’t have any power left, and didn’t dodge the sweep from the Minotaur.

They did not notice the bronze golem getting swiped away, until it crashed into the ground. The minotaur roared angrily with the huge wound at its side, and the adventurers all froze up. It raised it’s axe, and the adventurers started crying in despair.

And then the minotaur staggered.

And it suddenly flew back.

And it’s head exploded.

3 beams of light flew from the side, and destroyed the weakened minotaur.

Dusk smiled, and disactivated the shield card.

They had done well, but it’s again his turn.

With less than 300 cards, he went down the stairs in the dark lizardman’s room.