But the Clockwork Man coldly snorted, "Duel of Fate."

It struck the ground with the bronze scepter, a loud bang erupted, and a card fell from the sky, drawing a circle of light with a radius of nearly a mile on the ground. Brand, moving at fast speed, crashed right into the edge of the circle with a loud bang, and immediately got a head injury.

Brand saw stars, almost fainting, but quickly received a prompt: Duel of Destiny, entering or exiting before victory is decided is prohibited. Though dizzy, he reacted quickly and shouted straightforwardly, "I surrender!"

Unexpectedly, the circle flashed and then completely dimmed.

"That works?" Even the Clockwork Man was taken aback.

"You..." Otarais, who had been observing as a spectator, was instantly exasperated, "You, don’t tell people you know me when you go out in the future, it’s too embarrassing."

Brand’s face turned red as well, but saving his life was more important at this moment. He scrambled out of the circle’s range, while the Clockwork Man called out with a metallic tone, "Fool, the path to the ground is sealed, where do you think you can escape to?" Brand, upon hearing this, realized he had forgotten about this situation, and his heart sank, but he wasn’t someone to easily give up, so he rolled to the side and hid behind a pillar, gasping heavily.

"What do you plan to do?" Otarais asked calmly, having been observing all along.

"What else can I do? Play hide-and-seek with it until Char and the others dig in?"

Otarais gave him a sideways glance, "You might not be as familiar with the terrain as it is, besides its profession is similar to yours, aren’t you worried it might summon some strange creatures, and then even this large place won’t hold a hundred creatures searching together?"

"You’re right," Brand nodded, he was just joking to lighten the mood, otherwise, he’d be extremely tense. He thought for a moment and said, "I can only fight it."

"How do you plan to fight?" Otarais inquired with interest.

"It’s a Travel Mage, so I’ll duel it using Travel Mage tactics. Hmph, though the monster itself is strong, its summons aren’t impressive, once I eliminate them, I can play hide-and-seek with it however I want." Though Brand spoke of fighting, his plan was well-thought-out, even Otarais couldn’t find fault with it and nodded.

Brand quickly took stock of his cards, though he secretly groaned. Honestly, he didn’t have many cards to use, a few were mainstay cards he used in the Trade Wind Ring, the Wind Spirit Spider, Fire Claw Lizard, and Fire Giant Spirit were all in the graveyard, even the Holy Great Angel of grave resurrection lay there quietly, making him curse Andesa.

Then he had Silver Elf Princess Melisha, Highland Wizard Char, Cross-dressing Vampire Medphis, and Rubis Mercenaries still outside, because they hadn’t reached the Reset Stage, they couldn’t be summoned, basically, making up all his primary cards. Besides these, there were not many cards he could play.

Primarily he had six cards (the White Sun Blade had been used), leaving Energy Drain, Side-by-Side Dash, Golden Radiance Battle Banner, Secret Rune Summoner, Graveyard Resurrection, and two Bloodline Cards—Dark Night Lord and Vampire Baron. Other than the Eternal Ball on the field, the rest were tied to resources or Attached Cards, lacking usefulness.

He thought and decided first to summon the Dark Night Lord, a level 35 elite, on par with Melisha. Plus, it was a rare silver card.

His Dark Element Pool was nearly full, having 30 points after leveling up in the Black Forest, and paying a 15-point fee to reveal the card. A cloud of dark dust appeared before him, dispersing to reveal a naked girl inside. The girl’s beauty was other-worldly, though she wasn’t human—a Vampire Girl with skin as fair as snow, black hair shining like obsidian, lips as red as blood, her eyelashes were closed, maintaining a sleeping state, her body perfect in proportion, providing a unique sense of balance, neither overwhelming nor underwhelming.

She soon opened her eyes, her cold red eyes staring at Brand.

She gestured with her hand, gathering black smoke to cover her body, forming a tight black evening gown, tapering downwards to a bell-shaped hem. Brand, astounded, almost blurted out to ask if this beautiful lady was fine fighting in such an outfit.

But she impatiently frowned first, "Tell me, where is the enemy?"

The enemy was, of course, behind him; at this point, the Clockwork Man appeared oblivious to Brand’s actions, commanding over twenty Clockwork Knights, ’clack-clack-clack’, to form a web-like search pattern. It also summoned a gear-constructed mechanical orb floating in mid-air, but Brand couldn’t discern its nature, though assumed it wasn’t beneficial. Pointing in that direction, he told the Vampire Girl, "Those Clockwork Knights, I’ll distract them, you ambush from the side and take out as many as possible, got it?"

"Alright," she simply replied.

"What’s your name?" Brand suddenly asked.

"I am Andreg, family name Detess. Remember, I won’t repeat myself twice." She cast him a cold glance, answering icily.

"This girl is intriguing," Otarais suddenly commented in his mind.

Brand forced a smile.

...(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)