Chapter 22: The absolute defense

The hero's attack pierced through the Star Grail Priestess, who had 0 attack points.

"When an attacking monster battles another attacking monster, the battle damage is 2100 points. Looks like I win again, Little Ai."

From childhood until now, every duel between Ilin and Aisha had ended with Ilin's victory.

And it seemed this duel would be no exception.

"Hahaha, pay up, Ilena."

The second-year students who had bet on Aisha losing the duel were all smiles, feeling like they had struck gold.

"Wait a moment," Ilena said, adjusting her wide witch's hat and leaving only a mysterious smile visible.

"What's there to wait for? You're not trying to back out, are you, Ilena?"

"It's not over yet. Just watch~"

Aisha's LP: 2000

"Huh? What's going on? She took that attack head-on, but her life points didn't change at all!"

Seeing the 2000 life points firmly displayed on the field, the second-year students who thought they had won their bets couldn't believe their eyes and rubbed them in disbelief.

Meanwhile, in Aisha's spell and trap zone, another continuous trap card was flipped open by You Ling during the battle between the hero and the priestess.

"—Continuous Trap Card activated: Soul Barrier!"

[Soul Barrier Trap Card Effect: As long as you control a monster, battle damage to the controller of this card becomes 0.]

A faint golden barrier appeared in front of Aisha, a C-grade spell trap card.

Its defensive power couldn't compare to cards like Negate Attack or Mirror Force, which offered substantial defense and counterattacks.

While continuous trap cards that remain on the field seem appealing, Soul Barrier only ensures that Aisha won't take battle damage as long as she controls a monster.

If all her monsters are destroyed and the opponent launches a direct attack, she would still take fatal damage.

"You used this trap card to block the battle damage?" Ilin couldn't help but remark. "I have to admit, Little Ai, you've become much tougher."

Continuing the battle phase, since Sparkman couldn't secure a victory in one blow, the other Elemental Hero, Blazeman, attacked Aisha's second face-down defense position monster.

[Volcanic Rat ★★ Fire]

[Pyro-Type ATK: 500 DEF: 500]

Flipped from its face-down defense position, the cute little red squirrel lost to Blazeman by a mere 100 defense points.

"Squeak squeak! (RNM!)"

[Volcanic Rat] destroyed.

"I'll set one more card and end my turn."

Ilin placed a spell or trap card in her back row and ended her turn.

The moment Ilin ended her turn, Aisha's continuous trap card reacted once more.

"Are you sure it's just about being tougher?" You Ling said. "The combination of Soul Barrier and Human Wave Tactics—you probably haven't realized what it means yet."

Activated during the end phase, the continuous trap card Human Wave Tactics allowed Aisha to special summon a number of weak monsters equal to the number of monsters destroyed this turn.

"Since two of my monsters were destroyed this turn, I can special summon two more monsters from my deck!"

"Ah, what?!" Ilin's eyes widened in shock.

Two usually overlooked C-grade trap cards, when combined, had produced an unexpected chemical reaction.

Ilena, with her witch's hat, smiled mysteriously. "Soul Barrier ensures that Aisha won't take damage as long as she controls a monster. And Human Wave Tactics guarantees that Aisha's field will always have a steady stream of monsters."

"Absolute defense!" the other second-year students exclaimed.

Even after a year and a half of dueling at Fusion Academy, none of the second-year students had ever seen such a strategy.

Ilena added, "After all, this is a tactic only possible with a deck full of weak monsters. It's unique to our dear Little Ai."

Amidst the stunned reactions, You Ling, using Aisha's hand, special summoned two weak monster cards from the deck onto the field.

"Using Human Wave Tactics, I special summon two level 2 or lower normal monsters from my deck—two Yado Karu!"

[Yado Karu ★ Light]

[Fairy-Type ATK: 300 DEF: 100]

Materializing like stacked Tetris blocks, two tofu cubes with question marks on their heads floated on Aisha's field, their eyes seemingly seeing through everything -_-.

Aisha: "Are these the two Yado Karu I summoned yesterday? Both me and Lin-chan used newly summoned monsters. So cool!"

No, actually, one of them was an old Yado Karu, but since they looked exactly the same, it was impossible to tell.

"Using weak monsters to form an impenetrable wall of defense? That's quite troublesome, Little Ai. But there's one thing you might have overlooked."

After a brief moment of surprise, Ilin quickly identified the biggest weakness of this strategy.

"While Human Wave Tactics allows you to infinitely summon level 2 or lower weak monsters, the number of monsters in your deck is limited. Especially in a practical test where you can only use 20 cards, this weakness becomes even more apparent."

As long as Ilin kept attacking and destroying Aisha's weak monsters, there would eventually come a point when Aisha would run out of monsters in her deck.

"Just taking hits won't win you the duel, Little Ai."

"Just taking hits? It seems you haven't realized the gravity of the situation yet, Lin. My turn, draw!"

Starting her turn by drawing a card, as expected, under the guidance of the two Yado Karu, You Ling drew the third Yado Karu from the deck.

"I summon the third Yado Karu from my hand in attack position, and then change the other two Yado Karu on the field to attack position!"

[Yado Karu ATK: 300] × 3

The tofu Tetris blocks stacked once more, and the sight of three Yado Karu floating side by side was both bizarre and comical.

"Setting three Yado Karu with 300 attack points in attack position? No way, Little Ai, are you…"

Although it seemed like a suicidal move, Aisha's confident demeanor made the seemingly harmless tofu blocks appear threatening.

"I won't just take hits. Watch closely—this is the fighting style unique to weak monsters! Level B spell card—Triangle Power!"

"No way!"

None of the spectators could believe it. Who would spend 100 spell points to craft a level B spell card that supports weak monsters?