Chapter 6 : Guler the swindler (part 2)

The man that was dared by Onyx has been tagged by Alam and the game continues.

"So what will you dare this time?" Guler asked with a slightly innocent smile.

"..."

Onyx stayed passive and his gaze went blank.

"Alright, I'll let you some time to admit your defeat." He softly chuckled while preparing for the next game.

While Erec was witnessing the scene, cold sweat was flowing down his forehead as he was analyzing the whole scene.

Tu Tu turu tutututu.....Tu turu tutututu...Bip!

Erec had totally forgotten about his phone who was still in his trouser's pocket.

All the afraid prisoners suddenly sported dumbfounded gazes toward the origin of that mysterious sound.

'oh f**k My alarm,' Erec quickly switched it off and smiled nervously To all the interrogative starings.

Accidentally his phone fell on the ground. Erec's first reflex was To quickly pick it up To avoid any damages since the floor was wet, but inexplicably, the phone started charging.

Erec was taken aback by this sudden plot twist, he checked the surroundings of the phone, took a fragment of the rock which was lining the room, and even tasted the substance lying on the ground to verify his theory.

Once done, he sighed with a relieved expression, 'So it's like that, isn't it ?...' The time-traveler activated the Bluetooth, the wifi, and mobile data, even though he knew that there wasn't even the slightest chance of having a signal.

"I, Erec Pendragon, volunteer to be the next to be the 'currency'." He sat right next to Onyx and told him out loud. "Since my life is in play, I don't mind giving my lucky charm" He smiled at him and his eyes flickered, while his hand put the phone inside of Onyx's pant's pocket.

"Alright, I'll dare the same boy," said Guler who was suspicious since both of them are mages.

"..."

"So? another chess game? or poker?" asked the gambler.

"The dice," Onyx answered frostily without even glancing at him.

"Hoho, now you want a game that only depends on luck, you're really difficult To pinpoint," Guler spoke in an almost friendly tone. "We'll play a simple game, there will be 5 rounds, we'll throw the dice in turn, and will bet either on even numbers or odd numbers. The winner is the one who has the most points."

'I really pity them, they think naively that they have a chance To win... I can throw and predict the outcome accurately 47 times out of 50.' Guler laughed inwardly as he was sure of his victory.

Guler took the dice, he was focused as he threw it toward Onyx, it seemed that every movement done by the dice was expected by him.

"I dare on the even numbers." Guler slightly smiled and spoke in a confident tone.

"I'll dare on the odd ones," replied Onyx.

While the dice was turning, Erec was drowned in his mind thinking about what strategy to adopt. 'Since he knows that we know that he somehow is sure about the results, he would expect us to dare on the same things, but he would also expect us to think about that and bet on the wrong numbers...Aah, it's a vicious circle, the best thing to do is to play brainlessly...'

As expected the dice slowed up until it was falling with the number 6 on top of it, but at the last moment, the small area behind the cube seemed to be dug a short instance flicking the cube to topple backward, and instead fall on the 3.

"Imp...impossible, you cheated!" Guler shouted dumbfounded. "You must've used Air magic!"

"Have you sensed any Shin manipulation?" Onyx asked.

Neither Erec nor Guler has sensed anything, yet the dice abnormally toppled as if it was moved by hands, which dumbfounded both.

Alam Guler was a gambling addict, he is an inner cold-blooded and a talented cheater. Over and over the years he played thousands of games and won all of them, forging undestroyable self-esteem and learning how to manipulate his opponents' feelings through injecting sensitive nervous messages with his lightning mastery.

Even if the radiations coming from the phone disturbed his accurate lightning manipulation, he still has his experience and overdeveloped senses.

He was sure that the dice was falling on the 6, he missed uncountable throws but he would always guess the result.

But the disadvantage of a confidence built on continuous victories, is that the first loss destroys it all.

The bright eyes of this black-haired middle-aged man gradually faded as his face blemished.

His jerky breathing and his trembling limbs witnessed his mood swing.

He, who was dominating the game, suddenly stumbled to the dominated side and felt apart.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"3-2, I won." Said Onyx confident as if his victory was written in the book of fate.

Guler couldn't stand it anymore, he was on the verge of fainting as he removed the blood seal from William's naked arm.

"If we continue like that, we're just going to waste time, for the card game, I will dare everyone," Onyx spoke with a self-assured smile with hidden intentions.

Erec grinned as he understood where he was heading.

His opponent accepted, he wouldn't be able to handle more games anyway. "I'll play every prisoner too."

"Ayayay... You seem to be bad at maths... I said that I'll dare everyone, including myself." Guler startled and was taken aback by Onyx's speech, "So you must bet an equivalent value."

"R-r-right s...so I will dare every prisoner...including myself..." Guler said with a trembling voice as he opened a deck of cards, each one had a red side with the same motif and another one with the name of the card.

Since standard 52-card decks cards first appeared in the 16th century and spread wider during the following decades, Erec recognized some cards, even if their quality and design were really awful, and the pattern a little bit different.

It contained 14 cards of each suit, 10 cards numbering from the ace to 10, in addition to a jack, a knight, a queen, and a king, But in addition to those classic cards there were 21 other unique cards and a special card, The fool 0, Erec knew later that it acted as a sort of joker. These 22 cards were also used in divination.

The game they were about to begin was known as the Zogaria-suited Tarrock*, It was an exclusive game of this empire.

The game rules are rummy-like, each player gets distributed 10 'normal cards' by an outsider, and a special card from the 22 others**, the winner is the one who gets rid of all his cards with the higher amount.

Here is the similarity to rummy, to get rid of your cards you need to arrange them in sets of three or four, and runs, and of course, there were other combinations similar to poker hands.

The party begins, Erec shuffled the cards 3 times before dividing the deck into two piles, The normal cards, and the special cards. And delivered ten normal cards one-by-one face down to each opponent, before giving them a special card each.

Then the game started and continued for 5 minutes, the pressure seemed intense and Guler was about to crack, Onyx noticed it and tried to finish him off.

"Why don't you play with a hand that lucky, you have a royal straight flush, a full house, and "the world 21" as a special card"

Guler received his sentence as a shield blow in his head, 'Imp-impossible, how did he know? I'm sure no one saw my deck, and why does he seem so confident?! the only stronger hand is the same hand with "the fool 0" as a special card.'

He then laid his cards face down and sat up, "Sorry but I don't feel good I need to have a drink."

His face decomposed when his sight went down, the cards were blue! "W-w-what!" he returned frantically every card that was thrown, his panic only increased.

"I knew it, you cheated!" Guler shouted with a fake relieved face that was hiding his hopeless wince.

"Uh? How did I cheat?" Onyx said with a calm offended face, "Did you insinuate that I, Onyx, a brave knight had cheated?"

"Are you kidding me? I don't know what did you do but the cards turned blue, you obviously changed your cards!"

"What is all that drivel? Poor you, you're rambling..." Onyx mocked with a serious yet innocent gaze.

"Indeed, I distributed a blue card deck," confirmed Erec.

"Corrupted referee!" the heretic screamed in despair.

"That's a heavy accusation you're making right now, Do you have any evidence to support that statement?" replied Erec formally.

the abductor who had bet his life on top of that of all his hostages vanished right away.

***

Onyx stood and walked toward the first enemy who resisted him that much, "Now we'll have to deal with the blood seal..."

"No need to worry, It's a low-grade seal that can be countered by another one," Erec reassured him.

"Anyway, I need to thank you, without your artifact that immunized me against his lightning skill that was manipulating me through electrical messages directly in my nervous system, and your cooperation during the last game, I wouldn't be able to thank you now." Onyx, the highest and strongest knight on earth, bowed to him in a superior yet grateful way.

"Oh there's no need to thank me, it was for my sake too." Onyx smiled back to him, before vanishing into the air.

--------------------------------------------------

*Derived from french-suited tarrock/tarot.

**if you don't get it it's the major arcana from the Famous tarot cards.