Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (6 page)

Like I’m going to lose to someone like her
. Ash drew his card. “Alright! I play “Archangel Lancelot” and combine him with “Holy Dragon of Light”. Together, their strength can match your Devil Flame Master’s.”

“Match, but not
beat
,” Hakusho said. “Ash goes on the defensive!”

“I got ya right where I want ya!” said Aralia. “You better say your prayers!” She drew a card. “And speaking of prayers, I’ll start my turn by playing “Prayer Circle”.”

What
? thought Ash.
Why
?
That’s so….random
!

“Another bold choice in strategy by Raley,” the announcer said. “But at this point, we’re not quite sure what she’s going for here. Let’s watch and see what the next phase of her plan is.”

“Why would you play
that
card?” Ash asked. He was utterly baffled at her lack of strategy.

“Prayer Circle powers up my army, why
wouldn’t
I play it?” Aralia smiled and raised her eyebrow. “You’re just stalling now cuz you know I’m about to crush you. I’ll attack with my Devil Flame Master and destroy you!”

“Okay, but…” Ash tried to warn her.

“And Raley makes another baffling choice to attack!” the announcer said. “Doesn’t she know that her Prayer Circle card only boosts the attack strength of
angel type
cards?”

“What gives?” Aralia asked, confused. “My guy just got stronger, right?”

“No, your card made
my
combatant stronger,” Ash told her. “Strong enough that he destroyed your combatant just now when you attacked. Sorry. But that’s what you get for putting cards that don’t make any sense together in your deck.”

Aralia took another hit to her KP. It was significantly less than it could have been if Ash had attacked her directly, and for that reason she remained in the game. Her kingdom points would be depleted no matter what though unless she could pull off some sort of strategy.

But as it turned out, Aralia’s deck of Devil’s Duel cards was unique, in that it was absolutely useless. After accepting Marni’s task, Aralia was given access to the storeroom to build her deck. She had every card in existence at her disposal, over a thousand to pick from. Marni had suggested she stick with one of the pre-made decks. Aralia followed that advice, but came up with an idea to make it even better.

She went through the entire pre-made deck she selected and removed any cards she deemed “too weak” and replaced them with the most powerful combatant cards she could find. Only now did she realize this wasn’t as helpful as she once thought.

She began to think she should have put a little more effort into reading that rulebook.

Ash drew a new card. He frowned. “I’m starting to think you might not fully grasp the rules of the game,” he said to Aralia. “I mean, you didn’t know about combatant abilities, or type matchups, or really even how to fight. I feel kinda bad about doing this…”

Ash turned to his friend Aura on the bench for guidance. Aura stood up and shouted “Take her down Ash! I need that prize money!”

Ash shrugged. “Sorry Raley, I hate to do this, but I have to beat you now.”

“What?” said Aralia. “No way!”

“
Yes way
. Study that rulebook and build a new deck. Maybe we can have a rematch some day.” Ash grinned as he laid a card down on the table. “Anyway, I play the crush card “Archangel Anarchy” and you’re dead.”

“And Ash wins!” Hakusho shouted. The crowd went ballistic.

Aralia looked around, confused. “Wait, what?” she said. “I
lost
? How!”

“Ash’s card cost him half his kingdom points, but it dealt way more damage to Raley than she could handle! With no more kingdom points, Raley loses!”

“I lost… right away…” Aralia screamed, slamming her fists down on the table. “
Crap
!”

Now Marni would never take her.

Ash stood up feeling terrible about his win. He went to shake her hand but the distracted girl walked right past him in a daze.

She paused, looked over her shoulder and bid Ash farewell.

“It was… nice meeting you,” she said, her voice sounding far off. “Sorry about the mugging.”

“It was very memorable,” Ash replied with a shrug.

Aralia disappeared into the crowd as Hakusho the referee changed up the roster. Ash advanced, and after a few more games it was Aura’s turn.

Aura joined his opponent at the game table. He felt a blinding jealousy come over him at Ash’s luck to have played against a cute girl in his first game while Aura got stuck playing against a pudgy boy. Though he was far less skilled at the game than most of the other competitors, Ash and Aura had spent days preparing Aura’s deck strategy. They stayed up late at night holding practice duels to test their decks. Aura’s strategy worked, and he knew it backwards and forwards.

His opponent started the game. “I play “Unique-Horn Butternut”,” he said. His card depicted a colorful pony-like unicorn demon.”

Oh great
, Aura thought.
He’s a bro-nique
!

“I’ll also play this kingdom card, “Fluffy Cloud Palace”, and end my turn.”

Aura drew a card, feeling nervous at the thought of losing to this guy. He got a valuable card and could start using his strategy right away.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” he said. “First I play the kingdom card “Murky Depths”. This covers my side of the battlefield in deep water.”

The bro-nique scoffed. “Hah! Why would you want to do that?”

“Murky Depths also hides any aquatic combatants I play,” Aura said with a smirk. “And I’ll lay one combatant down right now. The only way you can find out what it is is by attacking. Go ahead; give it a shot!”

The bro-nique began his turn by playing another card. “I’ll use the crush card “Unique-Horn Laser” to give Butternut a nice attack boost,” he said. “That should make her plenty strong to attack whatever your stupid water is hiding. I attack!”

“
Tsk-tsk-tsk
,” said Aura clicking his tongue. “Your little pony just dived into my murky depths, which was a bad move on your part.” Aura flipped over his unknown combatant card. “I’ve got this combatant called “Net Squid”, you see. It’s a demon card that traps enemy combatants underwater and paralyzes them for a turn.”

“My Unique-Horn was still stronger though, so your Net Squid dies!” the bro-nique said, beaming.

“True, but its my turn again and I have a new combatant to play. By the way,
your
combatant is still floating helpless in the water. I’m going to attack and destroy it right now with
this
.” Aura showed the card to the ref, who nodded her head in agreement. “Thanks sugar,” Aura said with a wink.

“No fair!” the bro-nique. “I don’t even get to see it?”

“Afraid not,” Aura said. “Thank the murky depths for that.”

“All I have to do is not attack you until I can get rid of that stupid water card,” the bro-nique said. He played the next few turns defensively, avoiding attacking as both he and Aura built up their kingdoms some more.

When at last the battlefield was filled with combatants, Aura’s opponent felt confident testing the waters. He commanded one of his weaker Unique-Horn cards to attack Aura’s combatants knowing it was just a sacrifice. The card he specified to attack turned out to be called “Tiger Shark”, another powerful aquatic demon. The bro-nique’s monster was destroyed easily.

By now the bro-nique’s KP was running low. He continued to wait it out, looking for a specific card that could clear up all the water on the battlefield. Aura had another strategy, however. Using a combatant called “Reverse Fisherman” Aura could select one of his opponent’s combatant cards and pull it into the water, forcing an attack.

Using this strategy Aura easily won the game on his next turn. He jumped to his feet and threw his hands up in triumph while the bro-nique collected his cards, choking back tears for his fallen equestrians.

Aura’s friends and family rejoiced in his victory, cheering for their black sheep boy while he blew kisses to the ladies in the stands. In her private suit, Marni squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. The sight of the death toucher advancing didn’t sit well with her. She would have to use every tool at her disposal if she was to stop him and the human from winning any more.

But Marni still had a secret weapon in reserve, giving her a confident edge.

Chapter Three: Lorin

“Ladies and gentlemen, after an exhilarating afternoon of competitive card-based combat, we’ve at long last reached the semi-finals of the tournament!”

The energetic referee Hakusho paused for the crowd’s wild applause.

“And what a line-up we’ve got in store! These four players have all demonstrated superior skill in defeating their opponents today. I’ve got to say, I don’t think I could have dreamt of a more distinguished group of finalists. We’re going to take a ten-minute intermission for our finalists to prepare their decks one last time, so feel free to go get some snacks from our concession area or browse the card store and casino. Just remember to be back in your seat in ten minutes: Marni Narnya will have an exciting announcement to make. You won’t want to miss all the action of the Devil’s Duel finals!”

With that short message the crowded stands drained as the spectators moved about the gaming hall. Ash rose from his seat with doubts in his mind and turned to Aura.

“We should go take a look at our decks again,” he said. “This ‘exciting announcement’ of Marni’s makes me nervous.”

The boys had just watched Marni’s faithful bodyguard Lorin destroy her last opponent, securing her own spot in the finals. She would be Aura’s next opponent, and the boy was nowhere near as skilled or prepared. It was Ash’s job to make sure he was.

What Aura lacked in skill, Ash was forced to make up for in strategy and clever card combinations. The murky depths strategy he’d hooked his friend up with had worked thus far, but probably wouldn’t anymore. Not against the creator’s number one cunning crony, who’d been watching all his matches too.

Aura kept his head down and moved silently, following Ash into the competitor’s antechamber. The two sat in silence while Ash meticulously scoured his collection of cards looking for anything that might prove useful. He watched enough of Lorin’s games to know that she didn’t stick to any one particular strategy. Each match she used different decks consisting of the most overpowered cards that currently existed in Devil’s Duel, always changing her strategy from game to game so no one would quite know how to prepare for a match against her.

No telling what she’d pull out in the next match, the only one that mattered.

While he looked for cards to empower Aura’s deck, Ash took notice of his friend’s sullen mood. The death toucher slumped low in his chair, one hand supporting his head with his elbow on the chair’s armrest. His expression was blank. It wasn’t often that Aura didn’t get overly excited about a meeting with a beautiful woman. Ash knew something had to be up.

“What’s wrong?”

Aura moved his eyes to look at Ash. “You think Marni’s announcement is gonna be about me?”

Ash scoffed and went back to his cards. “No. Why would it be?”

“You don’t know Marni like I know her,” Aura replied, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “She’s always thinking one step ahead. I know she’s just dying to boot us from this thing, she’s probably got something
really
nasty planned for me.”

“You just think she’s out to get you because of some old debts.”

“No, you don’t get it,” Aura protested. “I grew up on the streets with Marni. I watched her beat every enemy, take advantage of every situation in her crummy life to rise from the gutters and launch this successful gaming parlor. That woman is ruthless as a demon when it comes to getting what she wants. What she wants
now
is to make sure I lose.”

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Ash replied absent-mindedly, dedicating most of his brainpower to overhauling Aura’s deck so his friend could maybe win. “Promise me you won’t cause a scene out there, okay?”

“She
is
out to get me. Trust me. If you knew the whole story, you’d know exactly why.”

“Uh huh.” Ash rolled his eyes. “Remember to not cause a scene.”

They spent the entire break sitting in the competitor’s antechamber, Ash rambling off various card strategies and uses that Aura was supposed to memorize. The death toucher sat quietly with his head down, looking like he might vomit from nerves alone. When the break was up, they heard the announcer shouting through her megaphone in the gaming arena.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our intermission is about to come to an end! Will all competitors please report to the gaming arena? Our first semi-final match is about to start. But first, a message from Marni!”

Ash and Aura hauled ass into the gaming arena and took their seats as Marni strode confidently to the edge of her private box in the stands. She raised a megaphone to her pierced lips and made her declaration.

“Thank you all for coming out today to support Devil’s Duel. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this all possible. You’ve made my wildest dreams come true, so I’ll make sure to pay you all back.” She smiled, seducing the room with her beauty.

The crowd burst into spontaneous applause. Grown men shouted “we love you Marni!” and other such compliments.

“That’s why I’m announcing a brand new line of Devil’s Duel cards, freshly minted and available to everyone in the lobby. Devil’s Duel is a game that’s constantly evolving, and so new cards will always become available as often as I can think them up.”

Marni had the crowd eating from her hand and eager to hear more.

“Of these new one hundred cards, about half of them are some of the strongest cards in the game. Competitor Lorin will be sporting some of my personal favorites in her deck. Now: who wants to see some new cards?”

Marni backed down to the cries of excitement from the crowd as Hakusho took center stage. “Up first! Lorin versus Aura!” she cried, armed with her trusty megaphone.

“New
cards?” Ash said to himself. “How is that fair?”

“
It’s not
.”

Aura’s brow furrowed, his arms crossed in agitation as he climbed the stairs up to the stage where the main gaming table sat. On the other side, Lorin was likewise climbing the stairs.

“Good luck,” Ash called out to his friend.

The two competitors met in the middle of the stage, standing at opposite ends of the large rectangular table below the giant reflecting mirror-ball hanging from the ceiling.

“Aura.” Lorin nodded her head, showing no emotion or interest.

“
Ms. Backstabber
,” Aura replied, mocking her courteous nod.

The two took their seats and started shuffling their decks.

“I’m sorry to see you still hold such a grudge against me,” she said, setting her deck down and drawing the starting hand. “I thought since we were adults now, we could move past whatever happened back then.”

“Easy for
you
to say,” Aura replied through gritted teeth as he looked over the cards he drew. There were some ‘new faces’ in his hand that had him a little confused already. “You got everything you ever wanted. All of this.
Including Marni
.”

Their low banter could not be heard by anyone but them over the general chatter of excitement still coursing through the stands. Aura was not afraid to speak openly here.

“She picked me,” Lorin replied with a casual shrug. “Get over it.”

“I can’t! Why would she go with
you
over me? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“If the competitors are ready,” came Hakusho’s amplified voice rising above all the other noise. “Lorin goes first. Best of luck to you both!”

“
Best of luck to us both
!?” Aura exploded, jumping up from his seat. “Don’t make me laugh! She’s armed with the latest overpowered cards directly from the creator and all I’ve got is whatever Ash could afford on our crummy salary! Don’t act like this is a fair match, because it’s not fair at all!”

The crowd began to stir with unrest and uncertainty. Much of what the death toucher said made sense. Ash, Amos and even Nora made their voices heard the loudest. The referee cast an uncertain glance up at her boss, as if asking what she should do next.

Marni took to crowd control immediately. “I wouldn’t want to damper this special occasion with any thoughts of unfairness,” she said, casting a condescending glance at Aura. “To restore the fans faith in our decisions, I’ll allow the challenger Aura one concession.”

“Just what the Heaven are you getting at here?” Aura replied, not the least comforted by Marni’s fake sincerity or desperate announcement.

“You don’t like my rules? Then let’s make some addendums. I’ve got an idea you might like. How about this? Every time one of you lands a successful attack on the other’s Kingdom Points, you can declare one article of clothing for the other to remove and discard.”

Aura perked up, now listening intently.

“I call it
the
strip addendum
.” Marni smiled deviously down on the death toucher. “If it becomes popular, I could make it a regular thing…”

“
B-boss
?!” Lorin squealed, not at all pleased with her boss’s latest scheme.

Aura went silent to the tune of the crowd going ballistic. It sounded like even if Aura objected, the crowd was clearly saying
yes
. It got so loud Hakusho had to start shouting through her megaphone to calm everybody down. Surprisingly, it was Aura who got the crowd to quiet down simply by raising his hand. When the room was nearly silent, he spoke.

“
I accept
.” He sat back down at the gaming table. “
Let’s go
,” he said to Lorin with a newfound confidence creeping onto his face.

Of course he’d say yes to that
, thought Ash with a sigh. Of course Marni would know exactly what Aura’s biggest weakness is, and that’s why she would propose such an outrageously inappropriate rule at the last second.

“Glad to see you’ve finally come around,” Lorin said, eyeballing her cards.

“You’re not going to be so glad when you’re
buck naked
and booted out of the tournament,” he said, finally glancing at his cards.

Lorin placed several kingdom cards down in her first turn. Then she set a new combatant card down to start off her army. “Magus: Master of Zeal” was a strong demon combatant with high attack and defense stats. It seemed Aura had run into trouble straight away.

But the death toucher didn’t look perturbed. He laid his kingdom cards with no haste or anxiety, in no rush. A slight smile even crossed his face.

“You know, I had mixed feelings about coming here today. For a while there, I even dreaded the thought of this encounter.”

Aura set his first combatant card. “Mermanatee” was the perfect starter combatant. It didn’t have a very impressive attack stat, but it did possess one of the highest defense stats in the entire game, allowing Aura some time to strengthen his army.

“Is that so?” Lorin asked without looking up for her cards. She hadn’t even looked her opponent in the eyes yet and seemed to be doing all she could to avoid it.

“You definitely have the advantage here. You’re better at the game than me, you have better cards, heck, you’re probably even a little smarter than me too. There’s just one thing
I
have that
you
don’t.”

The two took turns bolstering their defenses and building their kingdoms, playing cards that provided their combatants with stat boosts and bonuses. Lorin continued to play the apathy game, ignoring Aura while she went about her business, her eyes glued to the cards in her hand.

Lorin finally took the bait. “Oh yeah? What’s that?” she asked, unflinching.

Aura stared directly into Lorin’s eyes, his solemn gaze piercing her soul. “
A burning desire to see some boobies
,” he replied with a dangerous grin.

Aura smiled triumphantly and laid down a new kingdom card called “A Great Reef Barrier”. He added a new combatant, “Captain Coral”, then beamed. “Captain Coral gets a stat boost to his attack for every turn he’s on the field with my Great Reef Barrier. Because of that, his attack is now more than your Master of Zeal’s is. So I attack, and Master of Zeal goes
bye-bye
!”

“And Lorin is the first to take a hit to her KP!” Hakusho cried.

Having finally seen something that could pass as action, the crowd exploded. Lorin finally looked bothered, realizing what this meant for her. As the spectators roared, Aura kept his curious eyes locked on his opponent.

“The armor,” Aura said calmly. “
Lose it
.”

Not wanting to waste any more time than necessary, Lorin quickly unstrapped the outer layers of her light armor and shed the first piece to the ground. It hit the floor with a loud
THUD
.

“
So what
?” she replied, picking her cards back up. “You think your
impure thoughts
are going to save you this time? Think again. That was a lucky shot.” Though she tried to play it cool, Aura could see the frustration building. Under the armor she wore a simple thin tunic, the only thing currently separating her underwear from Aura’s eyeballs.