23

👍︎︎︎︎♒︎︎︎︎♋︎︎︎︎◻︎︎︎︎⧫︎︎︎︎♏︎︎︎︎❒︎︎︎︎ 📄︎︎🗏︎🖳︎︎ ☞︎❒︎♓︎♏︎■︎♎︎●︎⍓︎ 👎︎◆︎♏︎●︎

"So, when would you like to duel?" Hunter asked.

"Is now a good time? If not, we can do it tomorrow." Micahael/The Puppeteer responded,

"Now would be a great time actually, but the real issue isn't time but place."

"I know of a place," The Puppeteer responded with a smile, "I'm pretty sure they'll welcome me." He turned to Thor and Ben, "Let's go guys. To The Hound's Howl!"

The group began to leisurely walk towards The Hound's Howl, Micahael told Hunter about the few events that had happened in his 3 days on Gaia and Hunter told him what was happening in his own life not knowing of the shadow following behind them.

"Lucky you to have found a girlfriend after 850 years," Micahael said, "I'm just hoping mine comes back."

"Oh right, ♌︎︎♐︎︎♒︎︎🙵♋︎︎," Hunter responded, "She was one of the top 100 so I'm pretty sure she would be one of the greats. In fact, didn't she rank higher than you?"

"Yeah… She did… Although you can't blame me for that one. You've seen my luck during my matches. Plus Control/Swarm wasn't too good against the meta at the time."

"Blame whatever you want." Hunter replied with a smirk, "anyway, are we close? We've been walking for a bit now."

"Yeah we are. Just about here… I think." He took a left turn. "Yup! Right here!"

"So it's a tavern… I expected more of a... designated place."

"Well what better place to play a card game than a tavern? Plus I'm not sure about you, but I sure am hungry."

The crew opened the newly fixed doors of the tavern. The people in the tavern ignored them until one person shouted out, "Yo! Isn't that the guy who saved the tavern?" to which everyone else looked and shouted, "Ay, it's the guy who saved the tavern!"

"Seems like you've already got a reputation in this town, huh, Micahael?" Hunter said, nudging him in the ribcage.

"Yeah… let's not worry about that now. We've got a duel to do."

Hunter and Micahael both sat down at a nearby table and Thor while Ben sat at another.

"Oi, you're the guy who saved me, ain't cha?" The gruff man said as he walked up towards them, "What can I get for ya?"

"We're actually here to have a friendly duel if that's fine with you." Micahael responded.

"Fine, by me. Ya saved the entire tavern. You're welcome to do as ya please."

Micahael/The Puppeteer turned towards Hunter, "You ready?"

"Been ready."

"Then let's go."

They drew their cards and got ready to play. The coin was flipped and Micahael called heads. And the coin resulted in tails.

"Guess that means I go first then." Hunter said, "I play Mini-Marksman. Mini-Marksman (2/1) can choose one category of Unit that will receive double the damage when attacked by Mini-Marksman and I choose Fish! Then I play Flame Sprite (2/1) which deals 1 Fire damage when played and that hits you directly. I end my turn."

"Already attacking directly Hunter? Some things never change. I play Mild Storm which deals 1 damage to all Non-Water Units on the field killing both of yours. I then play Common Stickman (1/1) and end my turn."

"Wow! Sensei's really good isn't he?" Ben asked Thor enthusiastically.

"Not necessarily. Hunter runs an Aggro/Control deck which has an advantage against Micahael's Control/Swarm deck. The only reason that he has board advantage now is because Hunter couldn't attack last turn." Thor responded.

"You're right that some things never change," Hunter said, "Your playstyle is still the same as back then. I play 2 more Mini-Marksmen (2/1) which one chooses Stick, while the other chooses Fish. I play the Truth, Fire Up which gives both Mini-Marksmen an extra attack this turn. Now I play Rock Wall (0/3). I attack with my Mini-Marksmen and destroy your Common Stickman and deal 6 damage directly to you. Your move.

"I draw my card. I play Quadrilateral Fish Swarm and activate its ability. Now I have 4 Quadrilateral Fish on my field which lets me play the Truth, All In! All In powers up all 4 the Quadrilateral Fish by 1 attack when against another Unit and makes them Invulnerable. I then attack with all the Fish destroying both your cards and dealing 2 damage to you."

"I draw. I play the truth, The Great Equalizer. I can take control of 2 of your Quadrilateral Fish causing All In to be destroyed. The Great Equalizer also causes both of us to draw cards until we both have 4 cards in our hand. I now play the card Mini-Machine Gunner (1/3). Mini-Machine Gunner can attack 3 times every time it attacks. I set a counter card and attack all your Units dealing a total of 3 damage to you leaving you at 20 hp."

"I draw a card. I play the Truth All Decked Out. By not being able to play any other cards this turn and removing from play a number of cards from the top of my deck I can summon a 1/1 token of the element of the card removed from play and I choose 10." Micahael showed Hunter the 10 cards that were removed from play and summoned tokens respective to their element. I now attack with all the tokens on the field!"

"I activate the Counter Truth, Fire Rain which deals 1 Fire damage to all your Units unless you have more than 5 Units in which it deals 2. Clearing your entire field."

"Damn…"

"It's my turn now and I play Gun Smith (1/2) which allows me to search my deck for a Gun Equip card that I can directly play as long as it costs 3 or less and I choose Spud-Gun which I equip to Mini-Machine Gunner. Spud-Gun gives it 1 extra Nature elemental damage and an extra 1 normal damage whenever it attacks. I now play Water Bullets which allows me to sacrifice up to 3 Water Units in order for one of my Gun Units to have an extra attack for each Unit sacrificed for this turn only. So now my Mini Machine Gunner can attack 5 times. I now play Sapping Roots. I deal 3 damage in order to heal 3 health. I set a counter card and attack with my remaining Units leaving you at 1hp. You're good as done Micahael."

"I'm not so sure about that one Hantre, I draw. I play The Final Gamble. If my opponent is at full health and I'm at 1hp, I can flip a coin and if it's heads I win. Tails and I lose. Here goes!"

"I activate my Counter card. Baby Spark. It deals 1 damage." Hunter shrugged, "I guess I win."

"Aw. At least let's see what the outcome would've been."

"Knowing you, you would've probably lost anyway. Go for it." Micahael/The Puppeteer flipped the coin only for it to land on tails. "Told you."

"Damn shame."

"That was fun," Hunter said as he got up to leave, "Take this. It'll help you pronounce your name and mine."

"But I lost."

"I can't just not tell you your name. Plus, I'm not teaching the language, only how to say both our names so that you can greet others as well as me. Take care!"

"I'll see you around… uh… Hunta."

"Keep working on it. And yeah, see you around."

Hunter walked out and stretched a bit. He walked down a dark alleyway where he met up with the shadowy figure who had been following them before.

"So what's the news?" the figure said in a raspy voice.

"Relatively harmless for the time being. Still a good person and since we only need the box of his we can keep him alive." Hunter looked up at the clouds. "850 years… in that length of time it seems that things should've changed drastically, yet they seem to be the same." He turned back towards the figure. "Let's head back. The boss is waiting for our report." They then immediately disappeared.

"Well that sucks." Micahael said as he faced Thor and Ben, "Had the deck type disadvantage and got pretty unlucky."

"You still did really good though!" Ben said, "You could've won that game!"

"Yeah," Thor agreed, "It seems that you still pulled the strings behind that game. Planning that he'd be able to heal himself and then leaving you at 1 health. Suffice to say, you're called The Puppeteer for a reason."

"Yup. The Puppeteer is the one who moves the strings that move the puppets, however every once in a while, the strings of those puppets get tangled and the show flops. Well I think you guys should all head home. I guess we'll meet again in 2 days?"

"And where are you going to stay?" Thor asked, "you've slept in a jail cell and my house the past two days."

"I-um-uh."

"You're staying at my house then." Thor said interrupting The Puppeteer's thought process, "can't have you dying on me now can I?"

"I guess you're right."

"Can I join you guys?" Ben asked, "I have a lesson tomorrow and I want to start it as soon as possible."

"Fine," Thor reluctantly agreed, "the space is going to be a little tight."

"Fine by me and I believe fine by him too." Micahael responded, "alright guys, let's go home."

Chapter 23: Friendly Duel END