86: Beat the small one and the big one will come

Following the direction Shi Li pointed, Zhong Xin saw a flying shadow in the sky.

“It’s a flying demon.”

He identified it at a glance.

Flying demons, due to their flexible high mobility, are a type of demon that is less favored by card players.

This is because they can avoid card players' attacks by flying, keeping the initiative firmly in their own hands.

Similar to them are the burrowing and aquatic demons.

It was unclear if the demon had spotted the two of them, but it was rapidly flying towards their location.

“Let’s just wait here and see.”

Zhong Xin knew that on such a plain, even if they wanted to run, they couldn’t outrun a flying demon.

So, after it flew closer, they were finally able to see its appearance clearly.

This was a demon with an appearance similar to a pterosaur, with feathers on its wings and four eyes distributed on its sides.

It didn't have a bird's beak; its mouth was like an alligator’s.

“Croak! Croak!”

“What a terrible sound.”

Hearing its frog-like croak, Shi Li couldn't help but complain.

Whoosh!

But the next second, this fellow spat out a mark that landed on Zhong Xin.

This was merely a LV4 Two-Star Demon.

It had a total of 4 cards, and the card faces were relatively simple.

[Alligator-Mouthed Winged Beast]

Chasing Wind, Atk 30, 100/100, 0/30

[Flight Space - Passive]: Alligator-Mouthed Winged Beast gains 1 additional card slot.

[Glide Attack - 30 Energy]: Alligator-Mouthed Winged Beast performs 1 Movement and attacks 1 target (T3).

Its traits were quite rare, causing its original 3+1 card slots to forcibly become two columns of 6+2.

But the boss card didn't even have an attack/health advantage; its stats were just as ordinary as regular cards.

“It’s simply too weak to withstand a single blow.”

Zhong Xin smiled slightly and casually laid down his most commonly used preset deck.

Although the skill of moving to dodge enemy attacks while simultaneously launching your own attacks seemed powerful, the problem was that the warm-up time for the [Glide Attack] skill was too long, requiring a full 3 rounds.

Furthermore, the opponent’s cards were arranged in a single column, so even if the front card moved from the current column to the adjacent one, the cards behind it would still take damage.

Therefore, the traits of this Winged Beast could only be described as flashy but impractical.

In just five minutes, the card game smoothly concluded.

And this time, there was no need for Gather; the demon directly dropped 1 Two-Star material card.

“I didn’t expect it to be so generous.”

Zhong Xin gladly accepted it.

“Zhong Captain, here it comes again.”

However, before he could be happy for a few seconds, Shi Li patted his shoulder.

Zhong Xin looked up and saw that another flying demon was indeed approaching.

From its shape, it should also be a Winged Beast.

“Boom! Boom!”

Only this time, the Winged Beast’s cry seemed a little different.

“It seems… a big one is coming!”

Shi Li's eyesight was better, and he could already vaguely see the tag above its head.

A few more seconds passed, and the tag became clearly visible.

“★ ☆ ☆ - LV7”

“Hmm?!”

Zhong Xin's expression changed, and then he instinctively raised his hand to cast [Detect].

An elite LV7 Three-Star Demon was no joke.

[Great Crocodile-mouthed Wyvern]

Chasing Wind, Atk 300, 1000/1000, 0/50

[Flight Space - Passive]: Great Crocodile-mouthed Wyvern gains 6 additional card slots and has [Iron Body] effect.

[Displacement Expert - Passive]: Great Crocodile-mouthed Wyvern gains 60 Healing each displacement round (T5).

[Glide Attack - 10 Energy]: Great Crocodile-mouthed Wyvern performs 1 Movement and attacks 1 target (T3).

Along with the deck, the opponent's card slot layout was also displayed.

Unlike other demon card slot layouts, this fellow's card slots were actually arranged in a single row.

All card slots were arranged side by side, forming a horizontal line.

“Not good! It’s a single-target elite monster!”

Zhong Xin’s face instantly fell.

“Single-target elite monster?”

Shi Li was a little slow to react at first.

A so-called single-target elite monster means that it doesn't occupy multiple slots like a giant card.

However, in terms of stats, it combines the values of 7 cards into one.

Otherwise, if this [Great Crocodile-mouthed Wyvern] had a full 7 cards, even a Diamond-ranked card player would probably be unable to defeat it.

And by the time Shi Li understood, Zhong Xin had already pulled him and turned to run.

“No time to explain! Run!”

And Zhong Xin had already pulled out a [Escape] item card, ready to crush it and escape the exotic at any moment.

This demon was absolutely impossible for even him to defeat.

Now, the only option was to try to use the surrounding large rocks as cover and see if they could escape.

“Boom boom!”

But this Winged Beast was larger in size and flew faster.

They had only run a few steps when it was already close to catching up.

“It’s no use, use [Escape]!”

Zhong Xin's palm, holding the item card, tightened slightly.

However, out of duty, he would not initiate [Escape] before Shi Li did.

The next second, he was surprised to see Shi Li stop, and then cast a card player mark towards the demon.

Whoosh!

The two of them were not in a team, so this action fully represented Shi Li initiating a card game with the demon by himself.

“You?!”

Zhong Xin's eyes widened, not expecting him to be so impulsive.

Hum...

As the card game formed, the demon's card face quickly appeared.

As they expected, the opponent only had 1 card.

But in Zhong Xin's eyes, the problem lay precisely with this 1 card.

A natural LV7 Three-Star Demon already came with 7 card slots.

Adding the extra card slots provided by its traits, that entire line of card slots reached an exaggerated 14 slots.

The Great Winged Beast occupied 1 slot, and then had 13 more slots for it to Movement freely.

“I know you have cards that counter giant creatures, but even so, you won’t be its opponent.

This demon is absolutely not something that can be dealt with by ordinary means; it’s completely different from the Winged Beast just now!”

Zhong Xin believed that Shi Li’s proactive attack this time was ultimately careless, so he quickly explained to him.

“Because its displacement energy cost is only 10 points, after the first round of warm-up, it can enter an infinite movement loop.

It will evade your attacks by Moving while simultaneously retaliating.

Plus, it also has powerful sustained recovery abilities; if you can’t instantly kill it within 2 or 3 rounds, there’s no chance of winning.

But the most crucial thing is that it has the [Iron Body] effect, so it’s impossible to force a kill with hard crowd control tactics!”

Zhong Xin stated why he knew he couldn’t win just by looking at the demon's card face once.

However, what he didn’t know was that during the Jiangnan University tryout, Shi Li had encountered a very similar demon.

It was a large earthworm that could also Movement and attack while regenerating health.

And this Great Winged Beast could be entirely seen as an upgraded, higher-tier version of that earthworm.

At that time, Shi Li had already considered if there was a better way to deal with this type of demon.

So, under Zhong Xin’s gaze, he began to reveal his cards one by one.

… …

… …