Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.186 Jonathan VS Nightmare Horse

As the girls were recovering from their fight with the Giant Orc, I summoned Cosmo Queen to act as my practice partner. No, I’m not going to fight her. I’m not that crazy. Just some space magic practice. Getting that skill will be immensely useful, so I can level it up with Level Up! I also summoned Gemini Elf and Aqua Madoor after Paulina requested some earth and water attribute monsters that could teach her.

I guess I should also add a small mention here. The reason I last time went inside the factory to practice was to limit the steps needed to do magic. Normally, magic has two steps. Some might say three, but one of them isn’t actually necessary. 

You need to have the correct mental image of what the spell will do and you have to do the correct mana control for it. Normally, the mana control part is done by the chant, but you can do it completely without a chant. But of course the mana control is massively more difficult without the chant.

I guess if I put it into terms that a person living in the 21st century would understand, it is like a program. If you use a chant, you have a programming code you use, and the mana inside of you follows the programming code. It sorts out your mana pulses correctly, and all you have to do is let them out. The chant also buys you time to send out all of those mana pulses, as each needs their own clean ‘channel’. This is why mana circuits inside your body need to be sufficiently advanced before you can use high tier spells. You just don’t have enough channels to send out more advanced spells, if you don’t have multiple channels for the mana to move through. I guess you could compare it to using a dial-up internet connection to try to surf the web these days. It would just take too long for anything to happen.

Anyway, back to the chantless variants. So if a chanted spell is like using a programming code, chantless magic is like coding in binary. You have to really know what you are doing. You have to control each mana pulse that you send out, which order you send them out in, how strong they are, etc. If you make a mistake, it can drastically alter the power, target location, timing and other things of the spell.

And as to why everything is easier in the factory, well simply put, inside the factory I don’t have to worry about mana control at all. As long as I have the correct mental image, the spell will activate. Then when I have that part correct, I can come back here and try to do it while having to actually control the mana.

Of course the problem was that I didn’t actually manage to do any space magic spells inside the factory, only factory shenanigans. So I was still going in with potentially the wrong mental image, but better to try and fail than not try at all. And the chants do help with the imagination, as well as fixing small problems with the spell.

After they had fully recovered, Alice practiced with Mana and I summoned Vampire Grace for Ria. She actually asked for a fire magic teacher, but I said that would only happen after her blood magic is true blood magic. I promised Lua that I would make sure Ria learns true blood magic, and I’m planning on keeping that promise.

Our magic practice kept up till lunch. Our lunch was chicken. Well cockatrice. And it was amazing. Probably the best chicken I’ve ever eaten. It had just been cut into thin strips and cooked over a fire and then some sauce was drizzled on top. Our sides were some rice and boiled vegetables. 

Remind me to pick up some vegetables so I can cook stuff that isn’t just meat with Mystik Wok. I really need a better lineup of plant-type monsters. The only one I would even consider eating is Mystic Tomato.

After lunch, we returned to the practice grounds with a few more people this time. Angelina, Jonathan and two maids came there. Mateo, Angelina’s husband, also joined up on the way, as he wanted to see his son fight one of my monsters. Jonathan’s instructor, a magic swordsman in his early 30s, was also there. He was actually part of the knight order, but his current orders were to act as an instructor for Jonathan.

I had spent the lunch searching my collection for something interesting and I found a few things. First I was thinking of Mighty Guard as it has lower attack than Winged Minion, but has a lot more defense, but then I noticed something that might be better.

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“Nightmare Horse.” I summoned the monster.

It might be weaker than Winged Minion, but its effect is better. Direct attacking allows it to ignore certain defensive abilities and spells, like the flame wall Jonathan used last time. It can still be stopped by omni-directional barriers, but things like wall spells can’t stop it. Nightmare Horse is also a bit faster than Winged Minion, so that will add to the difficulty. But I guess Winged Minion could fly, so … 

“An undead horse?” 

“Something like that. It is a bit weaker than what Jonathan fought last time, but it has other things that might make it more difficult to fight.” I answered Mateo.

“What did he fight last time? It was a monster of some kind, right?”

“Yeah. A winged imp.” I think that is this world’s equivalent to Winged Minion.

“I see… But would this horse really be weaker than a winged imp?”

“It should be. It's just a horse. How strong can a horse be?”

“A well grown horse can be very strong.”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m just corrupted by all of my actually strong summons. I look at something like a horse and think, ‘that is nothing compared to a dragon’.”

“I can see that being the case.”

“Fire, Barrage of arrows, attack my enemy, Fire Arrow Barrage!” Jonathan chanted his first spell to start the fight.

I had let him have the first move, so my horse was ordered to only move after Jonathan had let his first spell fly. This was actually a trap that Mateo suggested. Some people would see my horse as an easy stationary target and use a powerful single target spell at it, not expecting it to dodge. Of course the target would then dodge as it saw the attack coming and you would have wasted all of that mana and effort.

But Jonathan hadn’t fallen for that trap and had instead used a barrage style spell, shooting multiple fire arrows towards my horse.

Of course Nightmare Horse didn’t stand still and let the arrows hit him. As soon as the arrows had appeared, it began to gallop to the left. The arrows, while not seeking or anything, were corrected so that they could have hit the running horse, but any time any of them got anywhere close to him, he would take a small sidestep or jump lightly to avoid the arrows.

After all of the arrows hit the ground, Nightmare Horse turned and beelined towards Jonathan. Jonathan, for his part, seemed to have predicted that, as he had already chanted his next spell and activated it.

“Fire, make a wall to protect me, Fire Wall!”

A wall of flames appeared between Jonathan and my horse, but my horse didn’t stop or even turn. It just kept galloping right at the flames.

And then it ran right through the fire and flames. I, of course, already knew it could do that, but everyone else seemed surprised. I guess normally horses are afraid of fire and would not charge through it.

Nightmare Horse then tackled Jonathan, causing him to fall to the ground. After a few more seconds of galloping, my horse came to a stop at a good distance from the downed Jonathan.

I was honestly expecting some calls from the viewers, but everyone stayed quiet as we looked on. We watched as Jonathan pushed himself up from the ground and got back on his feet. During that time Nightmare Horse just waited, as I had Laura command it to not attack until Jonathan is back up. 

Jonathan, for his part, didn’t look too badly injured. He had some road rash on his hands from hitting the ground, but he didn’t have any obvious life threatening injuries. I guess his leather jacket did a good job taking most of the impact.

I waited until Jonathan was fully up and seemed ready to keep going, before I gave my horse the permission to move again. And as no one said stop, the fight was still on.

Jonathan also changed his battle strategy. Instead of just holding a staff, he moved his staff to just his left hand, so he could draw out his sword and wield it in his right.

“Fire, surround me with orbs of fire, Fire Orbs!” Jonathan chanted his next spell.

A dozen or so fireballs appeared around him and began to orbit him, a few meters away from him, at a decent speed. 

“Fire, form a ball and strike my enemy, Fire ball!” Jonathan then chanted the next spell and launched it at Nightmare Horse.

My horse for his part just jumped a bit to the left and dodged the attack, before charging in at Jonathan, not even caring about the orbiting fire orbs.

“Fire, surround my blade, Fire Blade!” After Jonathan chanted that spell, his sword was engulfed in fire. He then dropped his staff to the ground, so he could grab his sword with both hands.

Nightmare Horse didn’t stop its charge, but just kept going, ready to tackle Jonathan to the ground again. It charged through the fire orbs, taking some damage from them. 

Jonathan brought his sword down, striking the horse just before it made contact with him. The slash looked good to me and made contact with the horse, cutting in deep. The fire surrounding the sword added to the damage and my horse began to break apart. But it didn’t break into light before it had time to hit Jonathan and they both fell to the ground, with my horse vanishing a few seconds afterwards.

“You sure he won’t need extra healing? I can summon some fairies to heal him.” I offered. 

Jonathan had already gotten some first aid by one of the maids, but there was still plenty of road rash all over his body.

“No. He will heal.” Mateo said. “He can’t expect to always get perfect healing. In an actual battle, he would have to be able to operate with just the minimal amount of healing he already received. And those scrapes won’t leave scars so this is fine.”

“Ah. Okay. If you say so.”

With the practice match done, Mateo, Angelina, Jonathan and the rest of that crew left the practice grounds.

Alice was about to follow, but I had one more test I needed to run. Alex had given me some information that I needed to research a bit.

“So that is how you do it. Any questions?” I asked Ria after I had explained the entire process to her. I was going to have her summon Spirit of Flames, just to test if that would instantly level up her Card Summoner. The tribute she had for the summon was Flame Dancer.

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“No. I think I got it.” Ria said. “I banish Flame Dancer to summon Spirit of Flames.”

After she said that, a sea of flames appeared before us. The flames then consolidated and formed the body of Spirit of Flames. He was quite large, at least compared to Spirit of Aqua. Spirit of Flames was over two meters tall demon looking thing, with horns on his head and fire surrounding his feet.

I took a look at Ria’s status, but her Card Summoner didn’t level up. At least not instantly. But something else had happened. Her Blood Magic had evolved into True Blood Magic. I guess her training today did it.

“Okay. You can unsummon him now. That didn’t do it. Let’s try another one.” I said to Ria.

“I activate Polymerization. I fuse together Monster Egg and Hinotama Soul to fusion summon Charubin the Fire Knight.” 

I had Ria perform a fusion summon as well. This was actually a double test. Both for the level ups on Card Summoner, but also to test if I had to do a fusion summon for it to count towards my challenge. I thought having Ria do it might count, but it doesn’t appear that it did. And her Card Summoner didn’t level up either.

“... that didn’t work either. Alice, do you want to try summoning some as well? There might be some sort of minimum time requirement before the skill can level up.”

“Yes. I will. What will it be?” Alice asked.

“Well, do you want something powerful or something cute?”

“You’ll let me keep them?”

“Well, I do owe you two cards, don’t I?”

“... cute then. Like that cat you got today.”

“Well, that one isn’t a fusion monster, or monster with a special summon condition, so it won’t do. But I have a cat that is. How about it?”

“Yes.”

“It leveled up!” Alice called out in excitement. I had given her a Fusionist to summon. It was a nice little winged cat, so I thought Alice might like it. It can also speak, so that is an added bonus.

I was a little afraid of the fusion monster coming back to me, as St. Joan didn’t like working with anyone but me, but it appears I was worried for nothing. 

Or more like I was worrying about the wrong thing. It seems like any monster special summoned with a condition, like fusions, rituals, or Spirit of Flames, have a boosted affinity towards the person that summoned them. This is why St. Joan didn’t want to work with Christina. But as Fusionist was summoned by Alice, it was plenty happy to stay with her. I also gave Alice Element Dragon, as she asked for it as her second quest reward. Even if I think Element Dragon would fit Ria better. It does gain power from a fire attribute user, not dark.

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The real giveaway for that were actually the two monsters that Ria summoned. After she returned them to me, they actually contacted Laura in the factory and asked if I would give them back to Ria, so they could serve her. I had no reason to refuse, so Ria got them. They do only have a sleeve, as this was testing if the generation of the sleeve is the trigger for the level up. But I think there is also some kind of minimum summoning time requirement or something else.

I’ll have to have Ria summon her monsters more often from now on. I’ll also have to get some special summon monsters for Lua before tomorrow, so she can get the boost. Perhaps I'll get one of the vampire link monsters for her.

The rest of the day wasn’t super exciting. Alice and I had a little etiquette lesson, well more of a recap. Ria was taken by the maids for some training as well.

I also spent some time in the factory, playing with Fantasia and Tahlia. With Tahlia, I was playing board games like chess and backgammon, losing to her about 80% of the time. I didn't even know she had recreated them.

With Fantasia, we rode dragons in the tower room. It did have those mountains on the outskirts so it was quite nice. I have to say, riding on Blue-Eyes again was super fun. I wish I could do it more, but any time I do it outside, I cause a panic. Guess I’ll just have to do it here.

We even tried to make wings of our own, but that ended with us falling. Apparently, making wings that can carry you isn’t that easy. Perhaps I should just have them for looks and fly with telekinesis. But my telekinesis is not at a level where I can confidently say I won't drop myself, so that will have to wait.

Then after dinner, bath and level ups, it was time for me to go to sleep. For me, it was Inventory, but Alice and Ria both leveled up their Fast Mana Recovery.