Chapter 9: You suck Charlie
Baby
Can you be a little stronger
Baby
Cause I need a little longer
You're a an earthly comfort
Yet so divine, yet so divine
I never see you anymore
"Ok Yang you have to be smart, your next move will make or break the game." Velvet calmly said to the nervous blonde as she looked over her cards.
"Hey, hey I said no help!" I barked from across the table.
"You said no telling her what to do, this is just encouragement." Velvet countered. I grumbled angrily, as she was right.
What had started out as a quick three-person weekend game in the library had turned into the battle of the century as Velvet and I had traded blow after blow, countermeasure after countermeasure and trap after trap while the inexperienced Yang barely held on. In fact, it was only due to Velvet's subtle hints that she had avoided the countless beginner traps I had placed for her.
"Velvet's down to her Commander and Nicks loaded his discard pile, it's all over." one of the many bystanders who had stopped to watch whispered before being shushed by Velvet.
In the beginning of a standard game of Digi-oh a person has five Infantry cards, three Spellcaster cards and one Commander card arranged in a pyramid. The object of the game was to defeat every card on the table, but each faction has special rules to make that as difficult as possible.
For example, Velvet's Polter-byte Assassins have to be defeated in the order of Infantry-Spellcaster-Commander, Yang's Nano-mummies can sacrifice an active card to bring back any one from her discard pile and my Techno-mancers can sacrifice spellcaster slots for bonuses like more infantry cards.
"OK, ok uh...I use Whirling Sandstorm on your Commander!" She decided, rolling a dice. Immediately after seeing the low roll everyone groaned and Velvet hung her head.
"Alrighty, you brought my Hellspawn AI down to 35 health, now I sacrifice a Spellcaster to enact Quantum Mass-resurrection." I said smartly.
The particular tactic I used was called 'revive swarming', at the beginning of the game I had sacrificed a Spellcaster to give myself 5 more Infantry that I could use to replace troops that had died, then over the course of the game I used the Hellspawn AI's special tactic to kill off my own Infantry cards and 'load up' my discard pile. Now that I had enacted Quantum Mass-resurrection all of my discarded cards would be resurrected giving me ten active Infantry cards.
Yang's face paled as I shifted ten Data-zombies back into my pyramid.
"I...I think I forfeit." Yang mumbled. "Besides, we still have to get to our sparring match, Nick."
"Badass." I said as I collected my cards.
"You guys have sparring on the weekend?" Velvet asked as we got up.
"Just a trial match to see if Nicky here is ready to roll with the big boys." Yang teased.
"Don't call me Nicky." I snapped as the girls giggled.
Yang and I were changed into our fighting gear and standing opposite of each other in the arena. Glynda stood at the sidelines and explained the rules.
"Today we will be operating under an extremely modified ruleset to prevent unnecessary harm to Nicholas, no guns or swords are allowed during the fight." Glynda "You have three minutes to bring your opponent's aura into the tournament-legal loss zone."
"Ready...begin."
I adopted a common street fighting stance, one fist tucked in to protect my liver, the other held slightly further out and one leg in front of the other, while Yang adopted a more traditional boxing stance. We began to circle each other waiting for the other to strike first.
"You wanna sweeten the deal?" Yang called out in typical pre-fight macho style.
"Whatcha have in mind." Focusing on how she positioned her feet.
"Loser buys the winner a pack of Digi-oh cards?" She said as she stopped and squared her feet. Her stance was good for delivering strong punches, but it also left her completely vulnerable to kicks, particularly below her waist. It also meant that the best way for me to win was to take the fight to the ground where it would be easier for me to pin her and harder for her to throw solid punches.
"Deal." I smirked, knowing if I played this right had her beat.
As soon as I said that we charged each other. Yang instantly threw a simple but dangerous haymaker. In response I simply leaned back, letting her fist fly by my face and watching her overextend herself. As soon as she was open I brutally snapped the flat of my foot into her thigh.
The move had the exact effect I desired and she was forced onto one knee. Her hands immediately rose to block any kind of low punch, so I shifted my weight to my left foot and slammed my right foot into her exposed chin.
She stumbled to her feet and returned to a fighting stance, shaking her head to dispel her dizziness.
"Damn, you're fast." she commented.
"Scared?" I asked, taunting her.
"You wish." she said as she threw a jab, once again leaving herself exposed. This time her stomach was unguarded, the perfect opening for a liver shot.
I slammed my fist into her stomach and at the same time released a torrent of electricity into her, hoping to weaken her aura. Instead, her whole body lit up yellow then disappeared in a wave of sparks as Yang screamed in pain and collapsed.
"Ah shit, you ok?" I asked as tears formed in the corner of her eyes.
She stumbled to her feet while clutching her side, hissing in pain.
"Yep, how the the fuck did you break my aura so quickly.'' she panted.
"Yeah how the fuck did I do that." I turned to the screen and saw Yang's aura was completely empty. Goodwitch was staring at her tablet in disbelief.
"It was almost full then it just disappeared...Nicholas did you do anything to that punch?" she asked.
"Yeah I put some electricity into it, but that's it." I said.
"Hmm, it seems that your electricity is more powerful than we originally thought." she mused.
"Sooo...am I cleared for fighting?" I asked.
Glynda sighed.
"Oh...why not." she grumbled. "Don't make me regret it."
I walked over to the gang's table with my lunch tray in hand. Even though the dining hall was usually empty during dinner due to students preferring to study, our teams made it a ritual of sorts to eat together.
As I approached I saw a new member had been added to our table, sitting next to my seat was Velvet.
"Ladies and gentleman, the warrior has arrived." Olivia announced, ever since the King Taijitu she mellowed out, but still never missed a chance to wind me up.
"Oh quit it." I rolled my eyes as I sat next to Velvet.
"Hey Velvet." I greeted.
"Hey Nick." she returns.
"So...care to tell us the secret move that's made Yang barely able to move for the past few hours." Blake grinned.
"She can move you dolt, she just enjoys you doting on her and asking her if she's ok." Weiss huffed.
"It's not a secret, just electricity and a punch." I shrugged. "By the way, Ruby, I need help building a weapon."
"Oh my gosh really, what kind, is it gonna be electricity-based, tell me it's going to be electricity-based!" Ruby jumped up from her seat.
"Calm down, I just need to attach this to a handle." I tossed the ADC at Ruby.
She caught it and examined it before tossing it back to me.
"Alright, we'll get started tomorrow" She grinned as she sat down.
"Thanks." I said, picking up my burger.
"Anything for a friend." She dismissed
I took a bite of my burger, content as I sat at a table full of my…
A wave of shock rolled over me as I processed what Ruby had said.
I was sitting with my friends.
I had friends.
"Nick, you ok?" Fred asked. "Something wrong with the burger?"
"No," I smiled. "Nothings wrong dude."
A/N
Two chapters is such a short time? I must be spoiling you guys
Well shits about to kick off now, secret love, secret past and secret secrets
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seeya