Konichiwa minna-san! Welcome to another exciting episode of my adventure in our very own Hive's Astral Wars. Like I said, previously, I've cleared all the easy stages. The ones left are the moderate stages filled with annoying bosses and conditions, and the bosses. I faced two bosses back-to-back with my Daily keys this time. Join me as I recount my epic battles!

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First Battle: Vorin the Vengeful

Hypercharge seems to be everywhere, from moderate bosses to hard, and let me tell you this; It's a very annoying condition, only below reinforcement. Hypercharge gives the opponent extra battery at the start of the match, and it might not even be just one. Imagine dominating the field with your mechs, only for your opponent to clear the field with The Absolute Clone. You're like, "Okayyy, two can play at that game, I also have my own Absolute Clone". But when you try to summon yours, you find out you're two batteries short! Arghhh!!! It's very annoying. At that point, if you don't have another counter in hand, it's game over. In contrast, Initiative gives your opponent extra cards to start with. That's easily manageable. Anyway, this duel wasn't hard, so it didn't last that long.

As we can see, I started first, with a good hand. Thanks to the conditions, Vorin started with an extra battery and card.

Gecko can be a very annoying card to deal with at the start of any battle. It gives two extra but weak geckos with protect. If you don't have burn or other destructive programs to take them out fast, the battle becomes a slugfest. Luckily, I had the great Catbo Meowkins in had to deal with one. Then the mech already on the field for the second. Things were still looking great.

5 turns in and things weren't looking that great lol. The enemy used this evil card, 'The transcendent One' to great effect. Activating the 'Void' effect of the card once per turn makes your opponent discard one card from their hand randomly. Now this was very bad for me as I was adopting a minimalist strategy of saving cards in my hand while managing a few cards on the field. I couldn't even attack as my mechs were paralyzed. Void was effectively countering me. It discarded key cards from my hand. I'd have lost hope if not for two things: 1) I nerfed the range of most of the enemy mech to 1 so they couldn't attack me directly. 2) I was using the yueyue battleship power to draw an extra card each turn. All that, plus I still had an almost full HP. There was still hope!

3 more turns in, and I was still in the game, albeit with a lower HP. BUT! My opponent also had a lower HP to boot. Vorin summoning more mechs with only 1 range helped, but it was the crucial mistake of not destroying my phoenix that sealed the deal. I equipped my Phoenix with my favourite equip card, 'Axe of fury', which would enable my Phoenix attack twice! Plus, I used another mech to buff it's attack by 2. Now, my phoenix will deal a whooping 12 damage alone! combined with other mech and yeah, you know the drill...

I emerged victorious.

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Second Battle: Brogan the Brutal

We all know what hypercharge does by now, but Overflux? That's another annoying condition. It means your opponent starts with extra core energy(HP), automatically turning the battle to one of attrition, where you have to slowly shave off their HP.

I still started first with a good hand. But here's the evil part; Brogan's HP was doubled! Plus, it was using a deck designed to frustrate you and prolong the battle even more. I didn't have a choice though, I still had to win.

I was ready to deal some serious damage on my third turn. Unfortunately, I was forced to destroy the dastardly serpent equipped with an aegis that gives it protect. Even without the protect, I'd have still destroyed it as serpent is one of the most dangerous low-battery mech in the game. With one attack, it can take out even the most mighty mech in the game, so far it deals damage. Kinda like using Venom lol. A true serpent indeed.

Turn 7 and I'd shaved their HP by almost half. I had this game in the bag! But Brogan, being the cornered animal it was, had one final trump card. A last desperate ploy. A final hurrah. It summoned the evil Konig dragon. A beast so powerful my mechs quaked with fear. Even worse, my powerful Dino was nerfed to 1 might (from 8), and I didn't have any counter in hand.

I gambled by summoning Ashes snake directly under the evil dragon, expecting it to attack my ashes snake and one other card as it could attack twice. But no, the worst-case scenario happened; It attacked me directly.. TWICE!! I was down to 2 HP😭

There was a silver lining though. Brogan also gambled but did a gross miscalculation. It had 18HP and I could deal a total of 16 damage with my mechs on the field. It would've won if and only if it survived my turn. Unfortunately for Brogan, I also had the Molten Rocks program on hand which deals 5 damage directly to my opponent, and I was nothing if not Brutal! So I did what I did best.

I won!!! 😤
This battle was really close. Kinda like I was fighting @hurax lol.

This brings an end to this episode of my adventure. I'll be back with more dear fans. Until then, stay safe!

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