The newbie’s gambit Part V

“Flying Dash!”

Without any delay, Joke immediately counterattacked. He decided to use the skill that came with this knight where he could pay two mana units to dodge an enemy’s attack once. As a result, the knight steered its horse, avoiding the exploding flame just in time.

“Now, stab that cloak to its end!”

He commanded immediately. He was sure that the attack combo that was now controlling the battle had to rely heavily on that Mage Candle. If he could destroy that half, he would gain the upperhand in this battle.

“Candle Switch!”

That bot was already waiting for the right moment for the enemy to plunge in for an attack. It immediately activated its skill for the Mage Candle to switch position with a pillar candle—a trick that lured the knight to ride into its death.

“Skill Card: Flash Lighting!”

Joke was already waiting for this moment as well. He immediately activated another Skill Card in his hands —a card that would cause his knight to dash to the other side and instantly change its target. The figure of the knight suddenly changed its direction with lightning speed, straight at the Mage Candle!

“Cross of Alternating Reality!”

The mischievous bot, in turn, had to come up with a way to counter this attack once again, and the card that it chose to deploy this time was…

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Cross of Alternating Reality

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♦♦♦♦

Turn white into black, damage points into life points, and life points into damage points.

*can only be used once*

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Once the command was uttered, a black cross plunged into the ground behind that bot, spreading bright lights throughout the battle arena almost at the exact same moment his knight was about to pierce its lance into the body of that Mage Candle. But instead of putting that shabby cloaked ghost to its end, his attack turned out to be adding life points to that scoundrel instead!

“The hell?”

Joke cried out in surprise.

Based on his knight’s attack power, it was enough to kill that shabby cloaked ghost in a single hit. But aside from that loony being absolutely unharmed, it also darted away, dodging the attack while gaining a doubled amount of life points.

And what was worse was to be barging into the enemy’s zone at this current moment.

“Granite Blossom!”

As soon as that bot used its new Skill Card, every pillar candle dashed forward at Joke’s knight, surrounding it and slamming on it from all directions, rendering it immobile.

In the blink of an eye, those five candles shone brightly, causing Joke’s jaw to drop open at the realization of what was about to be happening.

“Hey. Hey, wait...”

Joke cried frantically, trying to find another card to save him from this dire situation.

But it seemed to be too late. Both his “Flying Dash” skill for dodging attacks—which was still in its cooldown—and his other cards that might be of some help all required an amount of mana too high for him to afford at this moment.

Bammm!!!!

The instant Joke uttered those words, those candles exploded into pieces, causing Joke to be taken back by the flames which seemed very realistic.

The body of his Ballade Knight suddenly exploded into vapor, while those gigantic candles started to function again. It emitted a beam of green light, shooting straight at the irksome bot that was standing behind it while firing a red beam at him at the same time, causing him to raise his hands to block it defensively.

Once the Candle Token was destroyed, its effects would be triggered immediately.

“Darn it, there is such a way to reduce the opponent’s LP?”

All Joke could do was complain about a look of astonishment. Maybe it was because currently his life point had been reduced to 29 units, while his enemy had not yet issued out an attack, not even once. It was all himself who rammed straight against the wall, continuously hurting himself.

“What the hell are these bots?”

The young man curled his lips frustratedly. As it was his first time at a duel, there were a lot of things going out of his control, causing him to struggle in dealing with it. On the contrary, this bot knew exactly how to handle him and could also manage its mana excellently.

“I hope this is not the game’s easiest bot, or else I’m sure not suitable for this game.”

.

.

“That’s one seriously annoying deck, making a fool out of the other with that control.”

Murmurs from the spectators outside started to quiet down as this newbie, who seemed to be handling it well at first, was now at a complete disadvantage. Although it was amazing to get to know each half’s skills or improvise his ways with the cards, his cards were way too incapable and inefficiently used—leading to his current obvious disadvantage.

“A warrior deck won’t stand a chance against a meta deck like this.”

“Of course. That’s just a simple tester deck. There’s not a single rare card to withstand the opponent. They even got the Cross of Alternating Reality—that’s just way too brutal. That card cost hundreds of thousands!”

“And that Mage Candle also came with the ability that allows its user to recover their mana at a faster rate. Plus, every time one of those damn candles exploded, each of them will add one unit of mana to its users. The person who came up with this deck is seriously wicked. This is almost a deck that fuels constant mana.”

“That’s rough. That newbie won’t stand a chance.”

The guys gathering were starting to fold their arms and shake their heads at the gap between the new beginner’s skills and the maximum-level bot’s. They had almost forgotten that this was indeed a battle between a player who was on his first try and a deck belonging to a Singaporean champion. An AI that had already learned the moves from an expert summoner, of course, was naturally on a whole other level.

“This doesn't seem good. I say we should cancel the battle quickly before he becomes discouraged.”

Rin turned to speak to Boe who was in charge of this Duel Zone. The man standing next to her with his arms folded looked inside room number six indecisively. Deep down, he wanted the battle to go on because his instinct as someone who had long been in this industry was telling him that there was something to it.

“Agreed. This guy will be discouraged if this goes on.”

Anyway, this young man was in fact just a beginner who had held those cards for the first time. Nevertheless, for him to withstand a champion’s deck to even this point proved him more than capable. With those thoughts, Boe decided to use his MasterCard to end the duel inside room number six.

If it was not for someone’s thin hand placing on his shoulder, stopping him.

He immediately stopped his actions. And when he turned to see who was stopping him, the young man raised his eyebrows.

“Ma’am?”

“Calm down. I think it won’t hurt to let this boy fight for a little longer, right?”

Madame Fon, the woman who owned the Butterfly store, appeared with a smile. She stood with her arms crossed, staring at the new beginner with something hidden behind her smile which caused Rin, the person in charge of this new beginner, to narrow down her eyes.

“Is it a good idea to leave him like that?” Rin asked.

“No one knows. I just wanted to watch.”

The madame shopkeeper’s answer caused everyone to curl their lips. It was typical for a person to not be able to make sense of this madame’s reasoning, but she seemed to be behind something this time.

“He won’t make it, ma’am. I say we better cancel this duel. What if he got destroyed by the bot to the point he doesn't want to continue playing AOS?”