26 The newbie’s gambit Part VIII
“Now, let me see. Is this just a beginner’s luck or your actual natural talent?”
.
.
“Exactly ten.”
Joke muttered as he counted the amount of Candle Tokens the opposition called up onto the battlefield—
—which was the same amount of his item cards that he destroyed and sent to the Graveyard. With ten discarded cards, there were no longer wearable item cards left in his deck. But, this allowed for his mana to recover back to ten full units again. And he still had Oberik at its full potential.
This was more than enough.
“Let’s see if I’m right… Go ahead, Oberik!”
Without waiting any further, Joke commanded his prime warrior to immediately charge off though there were no weapons in its hands or shields to defend against that cloaked ghost’s spells.
“Ultimate skill!”
That command triggered the warrior in a black cloak to slam his large sword onto the ground before violently bursting out energy all over. Every weapon that was destroyed in battle was resurrected. Blue gleams of light gathered midair, merging together to form those weapons before floating around Oberik and locking onto its target, ready to be deployed.
“Warrior’s Graveyard!”
Joke shouted as every single weapon in the area flew into the battlefield with great speed; piercing through every enemy in their path; be it the cloaked ghost, Acid Magician, or even all of the Candle Tokens. And as for Oberik’s ultimate skill…
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Ultimate Skill
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♦♦♦♦♦
Condition: More than ten wearable items residing in the Graveyard
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Warrior’s Graveyard
Atk +10 to Oberik and trigger it to attack every enemy; 3 units of opponent’s LP directly reduced per one target slain with this skill
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Dozens of blades, each with up to ten units of attack damage, struck at every single enemy in its path to the point where none of the opponent’s half could withstand these attacks. But of course, that bot would never allow for the half that was like its principal warrior to be attacked to death in the middle of the battlefield; so, it deployed spells to conjure up a Damage Barrier to protect its Mage Candle.
Nevertheless, all of the other halves—including the additional 11 Candle Tokens—were all catastrophically destroyed.
That, of course, was exactly what it was expecting to happen because the destruction of those candles meant that Joke’s LP would be reduced without having to put in any effort!
Joke was already aware of the part where he might be suffering from a fatal injury resulting from his own attacks this time.
However, that was also part of his plan. So, he then called a card up to his hands, preparing for the next move.
Oberik’s vicious attacks had already destroyed a total of 12 enemies, taking three units of damage point (DP) or a total of 36… This meant that this wicked bot only had 14 units of LP left!
The damage phase had ended; now it was time for the effect phase.
According to the 11 Candle Tokens’ abilities that were destroyed, each candle would fire two units worth of magic spell directly at Joke and also increase two units of the bot’s LP as well!
That would mean that Joke’s previous attack was barely a scratch on the enemy compared to the damage he suffered. It was him, on the other hand, who was hit by those candles’ curses that devoured up to 22 units of his life point!
“I won.”
However, those were the words Joke uttered with a confident smile.
He flicked out the card in his hand in that split second. A large black cross struck onto the ground behind him, ready to put its ability to use in succession!
The card he called upon was the “Cross of Alternating Reality”, a card that could turn black into white and white into black. If there were any damages acted upon, it would instead result in an increase of LP, and vice versa, if there was an increase of LP...
...all would be turned into damages!
Curses beaming out from the 11 Candle Tokens immediately changed color. Green beams shot into Joke’s body, granting him 22 life points, while the red beams that went towards that mischievous bot were converted into 22 units of damage...
That meant that this maximum-level bot’s life points went down to zero.
Victory went to this beginner player!
.
.
“What?... That guy… won?”
“How is that possible”
“What was that combo? I don’t get it!?”
Even though the results had been announced, everyone appeared to be surprised at what had just occurred. All of the men gathering outside of the room started to look at each other with bewilderment because they truly believed that there was no way a new beginner with no experience or knowledge could turn the game around to the point of winning.
Even Rin, who was standing towards the back with Madame Fon, was lost for words for what she just saw.
She thought that there was a possibility for this man to win. But with all of those conditions that were both voluminous and complicated, it was very unlikely for a new beginner who had just handled a card for the first time to see through it...
“Why did he call out the Cross of Alternating Reality?” Rin asked. “Isn’t that a card in his opponent’s deck? There’s definitely no cards of that sort in the tester deck.”
“That’s right.” Madame Fon beamed. “But there are lots of ways to achieve it. That beginner boy used this card before the Candle Token effect got activated.
After saying that, Madame Fon pressed on the glass window to bring up something for everyone to see. An image of a card appeared in front of everybody, causing them all to stare at it in unison.
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Artifact Maker LV30 (Earth)
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♦♦♦♦♦
Race: Crafter
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Resurrect cards from the Graveyard and discard cards from the deck into the Graveyard according to the amount of desired cards to be resurrected then sacrifice this half
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Attack-2
Defense-2
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HP 3,500 (DP-0)
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“Artifact Maker!?”
Everyone shouted out in unison when they discovered the card behind the prior battle’s stratagem.
“What was happening was the boy let that half call out the Cross of Alternating Reality,” Madame Fon said with a smile. “Turning the DPs that he’ll receive into LPs and turning the LPs that the opponent will receive into DPs. Combined with the ultimate skill previously attacked, the deal’s sealed. That was the gem I was hiding in this deck you idiots couldn’t figure out… OTK, that’s what it is.”
All everyone could do was look at each other, agape. They all knew that OTK stood for “One Turn Kill”, or killing the enemy with a single set of consecutive attacks without room for the opposition to intercept. It was indeed a very difficult style to execute because it required the cards in hand to be very well-prepared and for the enemy to open up a weak spot at the right time.
And that was not something a new beginner could have done.
But that did not seem to be the case with this newbie who was looking to the outside of the room once again after the duel system shut down, turning the room into an empty space. At last, Joke seemed to be quite shocked because there were a lot of people gathering in front of his room. He tried to look for a person he knew among the crowd and when he saw Rin standing there, he slightly waved at her.
Stood there was an image of the same confused man she knew—a completely different person from the one who was gloriously battling away just a moment ago.
Seeing that, Madame Fon laughed lightly before nudging Rin.
“I think you should continue with your duties. And, hide those feelings a bit, or you’ll be laughed at by the newbie.”
“Huh?… right, right.”
Rin seemed to have completely forgotten that she still had a quest to look over this newbie. She hurriedly made her way through the crowd, opened room number six’s door that had been unlocked, and went straight to the young man who was now the store’s center of attention.
“Looks like our store’s getting a new troublemaker.”
Boe, the store’s aide-de-camp employee, whispered at Madame Fon, which caused her to let out a laugh.
“Seems to be that way. No wonder Tid told me to take good care of this friend of his.”
She sighed softly after saying that. Her orbs fixated on the beginner boy who was now back with his poker face. She shook her head as she smiled upon seeing that.
“A look like that kind of reminds me of him… This is going to be fun.”
