On the tournament stage, the Aether Spirits of the Trailblazer and Silver Wolf were already locked in an intense, heated battle.
Pei Guang: "Aurumaton Gatekeeper! Summon goldfish! Goldfish, initiate self-destruct attacks on the enemy!"
Silver Wolf: "Counterattack! Counterattack! Hit that Aurumaton Gatekeeper—wait, no! Hit the Cannoneer—ugh, can't…"
If it were anyone else, Silver Wolf wouldn't have been thrown into such chaos, but this time Pei Guang had brought out the infamously scummy Aurumaton Gatekeeper perpetual-motion combo.
He'd summoned goldfish first, then used his skill to summon more, followed by the Cannoneer's ultimate to summon even more.
With six goldfish attacking simultaneously and triggering the Cannoneer's follow-up attacks, even though Silver Wolf had removed turn limits through her adjustments, the setup still demanded intense micromanagement.
Silver Wolf had thought Pei Guang might use the Aurumaton Gatekeeper-goldfish combo, but only after it was actually deployed did she realize how nasty it was. The worst part wasn't the fire-breathing goldfish: their damage was minimal, just applying debuffs that didn't even stack.
Overall, manageable.
What really made it unbearable was that Silvermane Cannoneer. Now she finally understood why people joked, "Give the Reignbow Arbiter a Silvermane Cannoneer and They'll shoot down every Abomination of Abundance."
With that attack frequency and not-insignificant damage from follow-ups, anyone would be overwhelmed.
She wanted to use something to take out the Cannoneer, but as the Aurumaton Gatekeeper kept summoning more goldfish, her Aether Spirits couldn't even break through.
As the fight fully escalated, with more and more goldfish filling the field, Silver Wolf's Aether Spirits were completely surrounded.
If she killed the goldfish, they'd explode on approach and hurt her own units. If she didn't, the goldfish would auto-attack, which counted as attacks from Aurumaton Gatekeeper, triggering the Cannoneer to fire endlessly, even without being directly ordered by Pei Guang.
At that point, the Silvermane Cannoneer might as well have been hacked, squatting in place and shelling the field nonstop like a living mortar. It was a total and utter dominance through mechanics, numbers, and raw stats.
Her team had originally relied on a Refresh Loop tactic, using high damage from Trampler and Reaver to chain ultimates and burst damage. But now, the goldfish were getting one-shotted—but when they exploded in proximity, it just meant she was nuking herself.
Looking at Pei Guang's lineup, Silver Wolf crunched the numbers: if this were turn-based, she would've gotten completely shut down by the goldfish and Cannoneer.
Compared to that, at least she got a few counterattacks in under the free-command system—it was thrilling, in its own way.
As time passed, her Trampler finally had its last drop of HP drained by the Silvermane Cannoneer. When the Trampler fell, the host excitedly announced:
"The winner of this match is… the Trailblazer!!!"
With the host's declaration of victory, Silver Wolf puffed up in frustration. "Ugh! I lost again. Congrats, you guys win."
Thinking back to what Pei Guang said before the match, Silver Wolf felt he should've reworded it. All that's in her head now isn't Aurumaton Gatekeeper's summoned goldfish, but the Cannoneer's "hehe!" laugh during follow-up attacks… that sound was just too cursed.
March 7th gave a smug little grin. "Hehe~ Who would've thought the legendary Silver Wolf would lose to Ah Guang again~? Hey, Silver Wolf~ you didn't have any secret tricks prepared~?" Her eyes twinkled playfully.
Silver Wolf retorted, "You don't have to act so surprised~ Breaking the rules of the game is the same as stripping it of all its fun!"
Stelle said, "I get it! Ah Guang always says true players never stoop to dirty tricks in competitive games."
Silver Wolf: "Exactly! Hmph! If I ever see someone cheating in a competitive game, I'll hand them a permanent ban gift pack: hardware ban, ID ban, full account wipe!"
Then she turned to look at Pei Guang. "Still, playing with you is pretty fun. It feels like your understanding of games isn't even on the same plane as mine."
Pei Guang quipped back, "Well, who cares if we're not from the same plane? Even if we weren't, so what? Right now, we're all just players enjoying this game together. Looks like you've still got more matches coming up, so we'll head back to the waiting area for now. See you later~"
Pei Guang and his group returned to the player waiting area.
After some friendly chats with familiar faces who'd come to watch the match live, it was soon their turn to compete again. This time, their opponent was Giovanni, who brought out none other than an Ice Chub!
This match was intense: a clash of player tactics and the wisdom of the Masked Fool. But it was clear that Pei Guang's strategies and understanding of the game had reached a higher level.
Even so, Giovanni still managed to take down two of Pei Guang's Aether Spirits—an achievement none of the previous three challengers had reached.
As for the fine details? When asked, Giovanni simply said that such things could only be felt, not explained. This time, he followed the player's pace so perfectly just to savor that fleeting joy: he was living his aesthetic of elation.
Some observers might've had ways to monitor this battle between the player and the Masked Fool, but if all they could see was the outcome without witnessing the process, and couldn't even begin to describe or illustrate what happened… then that idea alone was delightful.
Of course, Giovanni himself didn't have such powers. As for who did? No one knew.
Pei Guang and the others had no idea what was going on beyond the game.
For players, anything outside of guides and fellow enthusiasts was irrelevant. What truly mattered to a real player was only: is the game fun? Do I want to play it? How do I want to play it?
Aetherium Wars was incredibly fun for Pei Guang, and the feeling of winning side-by-side brought genuine smiles to both Stelle and March 7th. Even Piggy Hero was so satisfied that it wiggled its butt proudly as it walked ahead of them.
However, after the match ended and they returned to the waiting area, they saw an unexpected person.
When March 7th saw who it was, her eyes widened in excitement. "Himeko? What are you doing here?"
That's right: the person who had arrived was none other than Himeko herself.
Seeing March 7th's surprised expression, Himeko smiled.
"That last match was really intense. When you landed the final blow, even Welt stood up from his seat in excitement. Although I usually keep a cautious stance toward company products, being in this cheerful atmosphere really got my nerves fired up. I imagine for you all, this journey has just begun. Keep moving forward, and I'm sure you'll discover unexpected surprises."
The "surprise" she mentioned was none other than Pom-Pom! Recently, Dan Heng, Welt, and Himeko had helped Pom-Pom put together a full Aether spirit team. And under Himeko's request, Pom-Pom used a legal set of spirits to defeat the former champion, Topaz.
Now, with Pei Guang's team set to face Topaz, they'd get the chance to really play against Pom-Pom.
Even though Pom-Pom always says things like "whatever" on the surface, Himeko had been observing closely these past few days and knew Pom-Pom was really looking forward to playing with Pei Guang and the others after the finals.