Ten Thousand Blades

The teenager smiled mischievously.

"What's taking so long? Why don't you play your battlefield card?" He said, all the while grinning, showing that he knew exactly why.

"I play "Traitors Gate"!" Yelled James.

Both battlefields materialized, James being slightly comforted with his gate and alley way. But looking at the kid's battlefield, he suddenly felt less then comforted. The kid's battlefield was a desolate plain, dark and foreboding, with dead soldiers laying impaled on swords in the battlefield, most being purely corpses like you would see in a horror movie.

Something told James this kid might not be all right.

Both players drew. James looked at his options. One was useless, but the other was quite a lucky card, and so he played it immediately.

"I call the "Beggar Of Traitors!" When this warrior is called, it allows me to call another warrior card with their timer cut in half! I call "Traitor Amsergen!" When he is called, I can draw another card." James stated, doing as he said.

The beggar appeared in front of James, looking like a sickly homeless man, wearing patched and frayed robes, sitting quietly on the ground. Then, Amsergen appeared. Amsergen was a healthy looking knight in decently kept armor, except with stains on his armor and a dark look in his eye. His timer was cut in half due to the beggar's ability.

"Impressive luck!" The kid shouted, looking excited. Suddenly, the excited look turned into a dark smile.

"Now it's my turn."

The kid held up three cards.

"I call the warriors "Withering Soldier", "Withering Undead" and "Sacrificial Dagger"." The kid shouted.

A soldier who looked half dead with shoddy armor and an almost completely broken sword appeared, an undead zombie with armor that looked even worse then the warrior's appeared, and a bloodstained floating knife appeared.

"I now use the charm "Ten Thousand Blades!" This card is hard to get out, considering I can only use it when I have specifically one warrior more then you do. And, I also must have a "Sword", "Blade", or "Dagger" warrior on my field. Luckily, my "Sacrificial Dagger" works perfectly!"

Suddenly, a white glowing circle appeared under the kid, slowly growing in size, rotating around the kid, who was in the direct center. A timer appeared directly over the kid, signaling a one hour wait time.

James looked at the timer, flabbergasted. He had never seen a card with such a long timer. Even in the news and articles about the longest timed cards, none had a straight hour of wait. The game could very well be over before then. James knew that no matter what, he couldn't let that timer reach zero. Unfortunately, the kid didn't think that way.

"Now, I use "Sacrificial Dagger's" ability, which allows me to kill off one of my warriors, along with the dagger, to literally cut the time of one of my cards in half!" The kid said.

The dagger stabbed "Withering Soldier's" chest. The soldier disappeared. The dagger then went to the "Ten Thousand Blades" card and proceeded to literally cut the timer in half. The dagger then disappeared as well.

The draw timer ended. Both James and the kid drew their cards. Unfortunately for James, both the cards he drew were useless. More luckily for James, the timer for Asmergen also finished, leading Asmergen to start walking to the kid, preparing to do damage.

The kid looked at Asmergen with amusement. He grabbed his newly drawn card gleefully.

"I use the charm "Undying Loyalty!" When this charm is used, as long as I have an undead on my field, I can subjugate one of your warriors for thirteen minutes, not that I'll need that long. I choose your Asmergen. Looks like you've been betrayed, James!" The kid said, smiling like a psychopath.

Asmergen suddenly stops, rigid. Then proceeds to start walking back towards James, getting ready to strike.

"Oh don't worry! I've got you buddy! I use "Withering Undead's" ability! I can sacrifice any warrior on my field, in exchange for shortening any timer on my field by half! I can't use it on my undead, but he can use it on anyone else! So, say goodnight to Asmergen! He's going straight down to the Underworld!" Said the kid happily.

Ghostly hands appeared from the ground, grabbing Asmergen. The hands proceeded to pull Asmergen through the floor, leading him to disappear. Once again, the timer for the "Ten Thousand Blades" was cut in half, leaving it at 10 minutes left.

"Well, isn't this just great? I have the perfect card for that pesky timer. I was gonna let it run on it's own, but due to my lucky draw, I can just use this now!" The kid said, holding up the last card in his hand.

"I use "Blood Tribute!" For me to use this card, I have to sacrifice one of my warriors. Say goodnight undead!" The kid said, pointing to "Withering Undead".

"Withering Undead" disappeared. Suddenly, a contract appeared in front of the kid, with an empty line at the bottom, signifying the spot where a signature would go.

"Now, time for the debt. For every HP I spend, that is another minute off my timer! So, I spend 8 HP for the timer to hit zero!" The kid cheered, doing just that.

The growing white circle suddenly stopped spinning. A single sword flew straight up out of the circle. That single sword was followed by two more, then three. Suddenly, hundreds of pure white swords were flying out of the circle, rotating around the kid as if the swords were a tornado and he was the eye of the storm.

The swords suddenly changed trajectory, heading straight for James, all while still rotating in a circle like a tornado, creating a tube effect for James. James couldn't even bring himself to move at the sight. Then, the first swords started hitting James. For every sword that hit him, he lost one HP each. Alone, that wouldn't be so bad, but if the card was serious about being ten thousand blades, then it would take only 1% of them to hit for him to lose. There was nothing he could do, so he stood and got hit with swords until his HP count hit zero.

The game ended. All James could do was fall to his knees.

The kid walked past James to his apartment. The door to the apartment opened on it's own to let the new owner in. The kid looked at James with a smug smile.

"That was a good game. You lasted longer then most."

James turned to look at the kid. The kid was looking at him with an unreadable expression.

"Maybe next time, I might actually have to try."

The door to James's apartment closed.