Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Every mountain peak and valley in sight is a symbol of death.
With each breath, I felt the sand and dust mixed with the stench of blood—the smell of fear.
O'Brien didn't know which direction he was running in, how far he had gone, or how long he had been running. All he knew was that his mind was no longer capable of holding any other emotions. The ever-present fear of death was relentlessly whipping him from behind, driving him to run for his life.

The breathing rhythm that had been ingrained in his muscle memory was completely shattered by the overwhelming terror of the phantom, the bloody smell in his breath being proof of this. In his fear, O'Brien even went so far as to "hyperbreath," causing his vision to go black and him to stumble and fall to the ground before finally stopping his escape.

O'Brien, sprawled on the ground, was covered in sweat. It took him a while to catch his breath, then he laboriously rolled over, facing the sky and panting heavily. After a long pause, he sat up and looked in the direction he had come from: "I escaped?"

(Fear - O'Brien Exclusive)

"Ugh—ha, ha, ha!" Just looking at the direction he had come from and recalling the face of the Jaden in his armor, O'Brien couldn't help but gag from the extreme fear in his heart. He even wished he could wrap himself in a blanket and hide under the table, relying on the "human-demon non-interference in the bed rule" to save his life.

That air of despair, that terrifying atmosphere—he had tasted death on the battlefield before, but the sensory stimulation that the Jade Emperor brought to O'Brien was ten or even nine times stronger!
Absolutely invincible, absolutely insurmountable. I doubt even the card spirit named [Yubel], who caused so much trouble for Duel Academy, would be a match for the Overlord.

(Yubel: Thanks for the invitation, I've been completely crushed and am currently on the run)
Do duelists truly exist in this world capable of defeating a tyrant? O'Brien didn't know just how strong those legendary duelists were, but perhaps even Kobayashi Hayato—otherwise, look, Kobayashi Hayato hadn't even reached this world.

Jim was his comrade-in-arms, but out of fear of death, O'Brien refused Jim's dying wish and ran away in order to survive.
"Overlord... He's terrifying."

"Do you even need to tell me? Lord Overlord is the strongest, invincible, and supreme being in the world!" Suddenly, a voice interrupted O'Brien's words. He subconsciously turned his head to look and couldn't help but reveal a look of fear in his eyes.

【Guardian-Bao】Floats his greatsword in the air as if it were a witch's broom or something, and sits on it, looking at O'Brien on the ground with great interest. He said, "You're really good. At least among the people I've seen, there aren't many who can run away better than you. I thought you would have given up halfway, but you've managed to run all the way to this place."

"But—that's enough! You made a fool of yourself in front of Lord Overlord, affecting his mood. You will pay for this sin with your life!"

The thought of O'Brien avoiding a duel without even answering Jaden's question, thus wasting Jaden's interest in a duel, filled [Guardian-Bao] with a deep sense of empathy and anger.

Holding the greatsword upside down, it plummeted from the sky and slashed down at O'Brien. O'Brien, whose mind was dominated by fear and whose body was controlled by exhaustion, stared wide-eyed but simply sat on the ground, motionless, facing the attack that came from the sky!
Just then, a male voice rang out: "—Stop it, [D·hero Defender]!"

Before the greatsword slashed down, a sturdy stone golem was thrown from a distance, which stood right in front of [Guardian-Bao]. Its crossed arms actually managed to completely block the powerful slash!

Not only that, the guy who threw out that iron wall stone golem—a burly, muscular man dressed like some kind of rugby player—also rushed out, his elbow thrusters blasting out, and punched [Guardian-Bao] flying!
"Well done, [D·hero Dunk Kill]!" the male voice in the distance said.

"Who's in the way!" Balancing himself in mid-air and stopping his retreat, [Guardian-Bao] glared at the direction from which the voice had come. To be honest, he felt he was having a really bad day. Ever since Jim and O'Brien came to Overlord City, he had been getting thwarted. His pursuit of O'Brien was partly fueled by that old grudge, and now this guy had come to cause trouble again.

"Since you have asked so sincerely, we will mercifully tell you."

Despite his busy schedule, Ed Phoenix appeared calmly, his suit still pristine white, and addressed the Guardian-Bao in the air.

He paused, then looked at Caesar Liang beside him, signaling him to continue his lines. However, it was clear that Hell Caesar had no interest in playing along with Ed, so in the end Ed had no choice but to continue reciting all his lines by himself.

"A cute and charming hero who is dedicated to preventing the world from being destroyed and protecting the safety of his comrades; upholding justice and destiny."

"Ed Phoenix, Hell Caesar!"

"We are the dark heroes traversing the elven world; black holes and a dark tomorrow await us!"

After reciting a long string of lines in one breath, Edward looked smug, then glanced at Marufuji Sho on the other side and winked at him: "The last lines are yours, Marufuji 'senpai'~"

Strictly speaking, Edward is a second-year student at Duel Academy, and Marufuji Sho is his senior.

Compared to Caesar, Marufuji Sho was clearly not as good at saying no, and subconsciously ended with, "I-that's it, meow?"

"Wait! Isn't this line from that meow? Why do I have to say it?!"

"Well, don't take it so seriously. But I really wanted to say those lines, and it felt so good to do it." Edward chuckled, brushing off Marufuji Sho's protest.

Looking at [Guardian-Bao] in the air, he retrieved the two cards he had placed on the Duel Disk and said with a smile, "Anyway, how can protecting our classmates be considered a hindrance?"

"Hmph, one boring guy after another is showing up, it's really annoying." Looking at Edward and Caesar, [Guardian-Bao] frowned. Although it might be considered "judging by appearances," it's true that you can tell whether someone is strong from their appearance. At least two of the three newcomers weren't just some random nobody.

Although the two monsters used by Edward were not of very high level, they were able to cooperate so well with each other. Moreover, summoning two monsters to fight at the same time is quite an impressive combat skill. For ordinary people, using one card at a time is about the limit.

Caesar, standing next to Edward, was even more feared by Guardian-Bao. Just seeing him standing there made Guardian-Bao feel that he was excessively strong, capable of taking on at least ten of the green-haired, bespectacled dwarfs next to him. Moreover, for some reason, Guardian-Bao was reminded of his "Overlord" by his black cloak.

As for the green-haired guy, there's no need to pay him any attention. He looks like a weakling. Right now, while the three of them are facing off, he's getting close to the dark-skinned guy and showing him concern. He's obviously just a nobody, so there's no need to worry about him.

"Are you alright, O'Brien?" Marufuji Sho helped O'Brien up. Although he was curious about why the usually calm and decisive mercenary was now so timid, he knew that now was not the time to worry about that. He helped him back to avoid being caught in the crossfire of the upcoming battle.

However, the tension between the three—or rather, the two people and the elf—was already palpable. Now, seeing O'Brien being helped away by Marufuji Sho, [Guardian-Bao] angrily lunged at the ground: "Don't even think about running away, you piece of shit who once humiliated me and Lord Overlord!"

"Language!" Edward raised an eyebrow, reminding the other to watch their language, but his hands moved swiftly, casting a card and summoning a high-speed monster with wheels on both legs, extremely adept at charging. "Stop him, Flash Star. I mean, [D·hero Charge—]"

However, Edward's movements were a little too slow. The Cyber ​​Dragon that appeared behind Caesar attacked the Guardian-Bao faster than the monster he summoned. A beam of laser from its mouth instantly hit the Guardian-Bao, forcing it to raise its sword to block and preventing it from getting any closer to O'Brien and Marufuji Sho.

"—Evolutionary Flame."

Only after the attack ended did Kaiser Ryo leisurely call out the name of the monster's attack move; it's unclear where he learned this habit from.

He shoved the greatsword away and deflected the beam. Seeing that Obryan had been dragged a considerable distance by Marufuji Sho, [Guardian-Bao] was also somewhat annoyed. However, the next moment, the [D·hero Dashman] summoned by Edward had already approached him and entangled with him, causing him to be completely unable to continue chasing Obryan and Marufuji Sho.

The two monsters, [D·hero Dashman] and [Cyber ​​Dragon], blocked his pursuit from one direction and the other from a distance. [Guardian-Bao] watched helplessly as O'Brien hid behind Edward and Caesar. Enraged, he took a deep breath and suddenly unleashed his power: "Enough! I've had enough of this formality! Do you think that I, the mighty 'Four Heavenly Kings of the Overlord Army,' only possess this level of power?!"

"The power I've been accumulating all along, unleashed!"

As he spoke, [Guardian-Bao] actually turned the greatsword upside down and stabbed it into his own chest, like a white-haired uncle who loves pizza in "Devil May Cry" about to perform a "true demon transformation", and his power also increased instantly!
"Are they really the 'Four Heavenly Kings of the Overlord Army'? I thought they were just some small fry."

Hearing Caesar's sarcastic words, Edward retorted, "Isn't it a Level 4☆ [Guardian-Bao]? They were using the 'high-level monsters dominate low-level monsters' setting before, so why did they eat up that setting when it came to the 'Four Heavenly Kings of the Overlord Army'?"

"But it seems the opponent is going to use their own effect," Caesar said calmly. "The ability to infinitely increase attack power by destroying monsters... I guess they're going to pile up the attack power of all the monsters they've destroyed over the years, right?"

"So, are you going to use [Cyber ​​Dragon] to see who has higher attack power, Caesar?"

Upon hearing Edward's question, Caesar closed his eyes and said, "I have no interest in that."

"Is that so? Then I'll do it, and I'll borrow your monster while I'm at it." Edward casually summoned a [D3] on the field, then raised the card in his hand high, "Descent, Wagatsumashi!"

"Bloo-D!"

(Hero series underlying logic - cosplay of a flame-winged human)

After [Guardian-Bao] retrieved the power he had sealed within the greatsword, his confidence swelled to an extreme. He saw the monsters summoned by Edward and Caesar suddenly turn into a pool of blood. From then on, a monster rose up, its dragon head stretching out its right arm towards him from afar.

That overly familiar shape made it hard for [Guardian-Bao] not to hallucinate the monster that "Jūdai" had used many times before—[E-hero Flame Wingman]. However, after [E-hero] was completed, the Overlord didn't use those [E-hero] fusion monsters much anymore. Could that monster be a variant of [E-hero Flame Wingman] similar to [E-hero Hellwing]?
"Nothing special, nothing to be afraid of!" Full of confidence, [Guardian-Bao] decisively charged forward, and then—

"Buga—!!??"

In just a moment, he was sent flying by Edward's [D·hero Blood Demon-D] elbow. [Guardian-Bao] looked at his hands in disbelief, not understanding why he had suddenly lost all his power.

"Oh dear, judging from your expression, you seem to be wondering where your power went?" Edward shook his Duel Disk, displaying the [D-Power] card at the top of his deck. "Your attack-boosting effect is just a monster effect after all; it can't withstand my invincible [Bloo-D]! Because [Bloo-D], with the support of [D-Power], has the ability to negate all of the opponent's monster effects!"

If it unleashes its full potential, Guardian-Bao can unleash tens of thousands of attack points in an instant. However, Edward's D·hero Blood Demon-D is extremely effective against Guardian-Bao, whose only notable effect is this. After all, once it loses its attack power boost, its attack power plus the resources from the equipped magic card is only 1300 points, making it essentially a "minor monster with less than 1500 attack points."

"Then next, I will give you—"

Just as Edward was about to press his advantage, [Guardian-Bao] seemed to have made up his mind and suddenly shouted: "Don't be so smug, you rebels! Even if you have temporarily defeated me, there are still three 'Four Heavenly Kings' as strong as me! And above us, the Overlord, is invincible! He will eventually destroy you!"

"I'll let you off the hook today, but I'll come back for what I owe you one day!"

The first half of his statement was quite assertive, like he was giving his last words, but the second half, judging from [Guardian-Bao]'s tone, clearly indicated that he was going to run away!?

Although Edward immediately ordered [D·hero Blood Demon-D] to attack when he realized what was happening, [Guardian-Bao] used all his escape skills and disappeared without a trace in an instant, even taking with him the [Exorcising Greatsword-Twilight] that he had dropped when he was knocked away.

Ed was annoyed that the enemy had escaped due to a momentary lapse in attention. He said, "Tsk, he got away. Were you just going to stand by and watch, Caesar?"

Seeing that Edward was about to take his anger out on him, Caesar wasn't about to let him get away with it: "Me? Didn't you unleash my [Cyber ​​Dragon]?"

"You used to be able to make a lot of fun with [D·hero], so why do you get so carried away when you use [D·hero Blood Demon-D]?"

(A tribute to Edward, the legendary master of special skills in the animation, who in the early stages teased his opponents and played fancy tricks, and in the later stages, all he could think about was slapping my invincible Blood Demon-D away.)
Ed remained silent, his face flushed, and in the end he could only mutter a few laughable excuses like "【D·hero】is a hobby, 【Bloo-d】is a belief".

With the enemy so decisively fleeing and averting the crisis, Marufuji Sho asked O'Brien curiously, "So what exactly happened, O'Brien? When we attacked the Chaos Wizards, wasn't Jim isolated with you? How come we only saw you?"

"And what have you been through? You seem quite different from the person we know." (End of Chapter)