“Lion girl attack!”
“Isn’t her attack, halved?” Clyde said.
“Action card instant, Reckless Rush girl,” Ming said, slamming a card on her mat. “She gains twenty attack. Kill the diviner.”
The loli didn’t move. “What are you doing?”
“Mena cannot be attacked,” Clyde said simply. “Oh, I suppose I should mentioned that Forbidden compass has her linked to my Stage Magician. So yeah.” The young man grinned evilly. Ming’s eyes widened, almost teary.
“You have me in a lockdown, at least for ordinary battles,” Ming said. “I can’t destroy or target you with card effects. So basically your attackers are immortal and indestructible.”
Clyde winked.
“Any more smack to talk?”
“Of course,” Ming said. “My deck is more burn heavy than you think.”
Clyde frowned. This wasn’t going to end well. Burn damage was direct damage inflicted by card effects—a weakness to the Sorcerer’s Creed. At least until he summoned an attacker to negate the effects. “I guess that ends my turn. I’ll burn your lockdown to the ground.”
“I can see why you’re the regional champ,” Clyde said. “Overpowered burn and bullshit direct attacks. Anyway, I draw.”
He made sure to say that in the voice of Yami Yugi.
“Sweet, I’ll play Amina’s dimension.”
[Field Presence- Amina’s Dimension.]
Ming smirked.
“Action card instant, Spell feedback. For playing an action card, you take twenty points of damage. For the rest of the turn, you take five points of damage for every action card or summon you make.”
[Clyde’s LF has dropped to 50.]
The environment shifted into a familiar library of nearly infinite books. Ming stared at the young man smugly as if she’d won.
Fuck…every action card or summon costed five to his life force. What bull shit! Why were these card game manufacturers printing such broken cards?
“With Amina’s dimension on the field, I can show you the full brokenness of this deck,” Clyde said. He placed a card in an attacker spot of his crystal mat. “I summon Elementalist Carter.”
A man dressed in white and red robes appeared next to the stage magician.
[Clyde. SC Elementalist Carter. Power: 24. Defense: 19.]
“He counts as an additional summon by the way thanks to Amina’s dimension.”
A large electrical shock rattled Clyde. He gritted his teeth.
[Clyde’s LF has dropped to 45.]
Ming chuckled.
“Try not to kill yourself. Even additional summons count for my action card.”
“When Carter is summoned, I can add an attacker from my deck to my hand. You probably know who I’m getting.”
Ming’s eyes widened. She looked conflicted on playing her last card in her hand or not. That let Clyde know it was a possible instant capable of disrupting his effect or burning him more.
“I’ll get my deck leader.”
Ming’s eyes went starry. “She’s coming. And I get to take her down. Lion girl’s third effect! Whenever you add a deck leader to your hand by card effect, I get to summon mine for free.”
Her deck spat out her card, which she slammed to the map. “If only Tyrone and the others can see me now. Here she comes! The heroine of the Loli Saga, Lovely-loli Madoki Flower Goddess.”
Roses of different colors suddenly rained from the sky. A giant blue flower burst from the ground. Emerging from it in an over-the-top entrance that only anime could pull off, was a loli dressed in a magical girl costume. Long white hair, glowing green eyes, and a crown of flowers identified her. She hovered above the ground, aura surrounding her.
[Ming. LL Madoki Flower Goddess. Power: 100. Defense: 0]
“A power of one hundred!” Clyde yelled. “How is that even possible?”
Ming laughed. “Are you scared, Clyde? She was a free summon thanks to you.” She giggled. “Here’s a kicker. When she’s summoned, she does burn damage like her sisters.”
“Oh Jesus,” Clyde said sadly.
“Lightning blast!” Ming cheered.
“Why is it always lightning?” Clyde said, recalling the duel with Noona. The lightning struck hard and painfully, bashing the young man to his back.
[Clyde’s LF has dropped to 20.]
[Clyde’s HP has dropped to 400%]
“Are you okay?” Ming said. “I’m sorry for going too far.”
Clyde stood.
“No need to apologize. I know just how fucked up this death game is. Besides, you’re about to be hurting too. Not that I’m happy about it.”
Twenty-five burn damage on the spot for just being summoned. How…did anyone beat her? She was the undefeated regional champ.
The young man sighed, determination swarming into his eyes. An idea formed into the back of his mind.
“It’s time for your undefeated streak to end,” Clyde said.
“Your fake legendary deck won’t end it,” Ming said. “You’ll either kill yourself or die to me at the beginning of your next turn. Lion girl will make sure of that.”
Clyde grinned.
“First, I’ll start by summoning Sorceress Amina. When she’s summoned, cards and effects cannot be activated. Also existing effects are canceled for the rest of the turn. Not that it matters.”
A giant golden book smashed into the center of the battle field. Emerging from golden light was a seriously beautiful woman with long golden hair, golden eyes, and a golden dress. Her glare set on Clyde.
“Well if it isn’t my neglectful, ungrateful, irresponsible,” she marched over to Clyde without finishing her sentence. “What’s your excuse this time?” She raised a hand. “Never mind, I don’t want to hear it. It’s not like I’m lonely or anything. Idiot.” She did a tsundere harrumph. She eyed the loli goddess. “Oh bloody hell, not her.”
“You know her?” Clyde said.
“A pain in the ass magical girl,” Amina said, “but she’s not something I can’t handle. I hope you have a forbidden weapon waiting for me.”
“More than that. Look who’s here.”
Amina examined his field.
“Stage Magician. So you do know how to play this game after all.” She looked at the Loli goddess. “I see. We have to finish this before next turn. Easy enough.”
“She…she’s talking,” Ming said, eyes swirling. “What—what’s going on?”
“Long story,” Clyde said, “but you should know all about the legendary deck. So add attackers are real to your list. I would love to have Evoke Luke in this situation. Blow up the attacks, inflict one hundred. But I suppose I’m still going to do something similar. I will first activate Stage Magician’s effect. I can send him to the graveyard to increase the power of my deck leader by fifty points. She also gains his effects, except the sacrificing part.”
[Clyde. SC Sorceress Amina. Increased. Power: 80. Defense: 27.]
“So what, a measly eighty. It’s not going to help you,” Ming said, grinning. “I’m actually going to win against the legendary deck. I guess it’s only legendary for the talking creatures, not its power.”
“You are a foolish and naïve girl if you believe that,” Amina said.
“I’ll equip Forbidden Staff to Amina, doubling her current attack.”
[Clyde. SC Sorceress Amina. Increased. Power 160. Defense: 27.]
“Oh shit,” Ming said.
“Language Ming,” Natalia said.
Ming spared a micro-glare for the loli-witch.
“Well Ming, let me start showing you the fuckery of my deck,” Clyde said. “Mena’s effect. Once per turn, I can send all cards in the graveyard back into the deck to discard one card from my opponent’s hand. And don’t even think about trying to activate it in response. You can’t.” Ming watched in horror as her last card shuffled itself back into the deck. “But hey, Ming, I have to discard too…at the end of the turn.” He grinned. The dual-eyed girl frowned.
> “You’re a real comedian,” She said sarcastically.
“Hey, were you not just having a ball? The legendary deck is finally going down.” He sighed. “I warned you of how cheap it is. I normal summon Conjurer Xil.”
[SC Conjurer Xil. Power: 18. Defense 24.]
“You’re going to like this one, assuming you’re an admirer of the game and not some win freak,” Clyde said. “First, let’s equip him with the Forbidden Ruby. Xil’s effect allows me to discard one card to destroy one card on the field. If he’s equipped with a magical weapon and Amina is on the field with Amina’s dimension, I can instead exile two cards. Say goodbye to your goddess and lion. Because you know, heart of the cards and other shit that makes no sense, giving me this automatic win.”
“It’s not an automatic win,” Ming said. “You played your broken cards well.” She smiled. “And now I’m defenseless.”
“Game.” Clyde said, signaling for his attackers to end Ming.
“Wow! Awesome! Amazing. Have my babies—I mean what an intense match,” Lily said as she flew around.
After Clyde’s attackers ended the match and Ming finished screaming in pain, Amina pulled him off to the side.
“If you neglect me—”
“I’m sorry,” Clyde said. “There’s a lot of shit going on in this world. Let me explain.”
“Go ahead,” the woman said, standing very close to Clyde. Alice marched over and barged between the two. They faced off, each with condescending smiles on their faces. No…Gin smiles.
Clyde quickly explained the situation to Amina. To his surprise, she understood and once again, seemingly cut him a break.
[Duel completed! Victory! You have defeated a Regional Champion. Normally, her title would be yours, but you aren’t signed up through any official channels and participating in tournaments. You currently have no interest in this. What a pity.]
Clyde yawned.
“Yeah, I’m passing this watch off to someone else.” He whispered to Ming, “I’ll expect my favor paid in full when everyone’s asleep.”
Ming nearly anime-fell forward.
“It’s freaking cold out here,” Kitome said. “I’m out.”
Clyde gave a wave to Lily.
“See you.”
“Good night Lord Stone,” Lily said, bowing. In a flicker of light, she vanished.
[Quest completed. Defeat Ming in a Stone-Tokken duel. Your reward is the spoils of the wager between you and Ming.]
Clyde started walking away fast, Alice chasing him with an evil grin.
“Oh no, she’s trying to get my goodies,” he said playfully.
Everyone laughed.
Episode 58 (Part 2)
That night…
Clyde pulled all of Team Stone into the reserved room for one more meeting. He made eye contact with each member before speaking. This matter could not be put off for the next day.
The young man wondered if he should feel something for killing another student. Then he realized that the entire sorcerer clan was actually consumed by the black Ki. The dark god ate them.
“If you hadn’t heard now, we’re being harassed again by He Who Paints the Night,” Clyde began. “Let’s toss around some ideas on how to deal with him.”
The team lapsed into silence.
“I’m not feeling good about this,” Toru said. “He may be a bit beyond us right now.”
Someone cleared their throat. Clyde turned to the guest, a trickle of sweat rolling down the back of his head. Amina sat cross-legged to his left. The young man was then reminded that the tree of life symbols continued to glow. Before Lily and his Stone-Tokken attackers vanished, one more prompt appeared.
[Due to dragging your ass and not fulfilling your promise to visit her, Amina has been permitted extended stay. Take care of her.]
[Quest. Fulfilling a promise: Visit Amina’s realm. To make up for the prior loss time, the Watchers had granted her an extended stay. You may send her back any time at a cost.]
“If I’m not mistaking, you speak of the dark god, yes?”
“The one and only,” Clyde said. “Asshole of the day.”
The golden-haired woman nodded.
“He’s even known in my world,” Amina said. “Did you know there are some filthy dark card bearers that run decks based on him?” She shook her head.
“Do you know anything about him?” Melody asked.
“His real name…Hmm, I certainly don’t want to speak it while we’re in a town that he touched with his awful black Ki.” Amina said. “Do you have something I can write with?”
Tear handed her a pen and pad. The golden-haired woman wrote, Achilles.
“A—”
Kitome elbowed Seth in the gut. “Don’t say the name, dumbass!”
Clyde nodded.
“So we have a name, but no face. He always does his bidding through seemingly random people.”
“Maybe we should fetch Maki?” Alice suggested.
“No,” Clyde said. “She was possessed, but can’t describe anything further than an overwhelming feeling of power and Black Ki and a voice. We do know that he implants delusions into their heads. Maki believed herself turning into a goddess and Hijo came here for some reason asking for Undine. The dark god even got Hijo…just a college boy, killed. Consumed him like another meal.”
“We’ll really have to be doubly careful with the media,” Natalia said. “I can’t have my beautiful image revealed for the creeps to track me down.”
Clyde rolled his eyes.
“We’ve got to come up with something. He’s after Melody for some reason.”
“Melody is partially dark goddess,” Tear said. “What if he’s…What if he’s trying to produce an heir using Platus’s daughter.”
“That sounds like him,” Amina said. “Impregnate his enemy’s daughter for maximum humiliation.”
Melody frowned. “Why do I have the worst luck?”
“I know,” Natalia said. Clyde had a bad feeling about her next words. “Pervy nii cheater can pop a baby into her first. Problem solved.”
Melody whacked her a dozen times with a nearby paper fan.
“That wouldn’t even be a temporary solution,” Chika said. “I’m pretty sure a god has no problem with making some internal changes to his prey.”
“Prey?” Melody said.
“Nyya, worse than that,” Neko said, yawning. “You’ll be a slave.”
“You should not scare her, nya,” Ako said, yanking her sister’s tail. Neko glared at the other catgirl as she quickly pulled away from her grasps.
Chika shrugged. “Melody aside, he’d still harass us, maybe even start to kill us off.”
“Any suggestions on how to kill a dark god?” Clyde said.
“That would mean bringing him to this plane,” Amina said. “As much as I’m up for seeing that monster slayed, you do not want to invite him to this plane. Even if you somehow win, voluntary invitations will still be detected by the punishment squad.”
“That would be bad, bad news,” Kanako said.
“Let’s just sleep on it,” Clyde said. “Watches do your thing, everyone else, dismissed.”
Clyde felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to Amina.
“And where am I supposed to sleep?”
The young man flinched. He couldn’t risk their relationship or pay whatever cost to prematurely send the woman back to her world. He had to go back with her. Now just wasn’t the time—he was very tired, on an important trip, and an enormous threat loomed over the team.
Clyde noticed all of the woman glaring at him, more than likely expecting the young man to say something like, “You can sleep in my room, herpa derp! Alice and the others won’t mind.”
Hell, Amina and he weren’t that close yet anyway.
“Let’s get her a room,” Clyde said. “She’s going to be traveling with us.”
“Dibs,” Seth whispered to the young man.
Clyde laughed.
“No.”
“She was mine from the beginning,” Clyde said. “My deck leader. So fuck off. I’m not letting you touch her. I don’t even want to begin to imagine what I’d unintentionally feel through our bond.
“Oh come on, it won’t be—I’m kidding. No need to do the eye-glowing thing,” Seth said.
Clyde wasn’t on purpose, but he didn’t tell the blond that.
“Go get some sleep Seth, before I put you on watch.” He patted the man on his shoulder.
“Tear, Noona, do you mind helping Amina out?” Clyde asked.
“Sure,” the women said.
Clyde could not help but feel a little disappointed at not sharing a bed with her. Then again, it would probably be the equivalent of doing a card, right? Maybe not. It wasn’t like Yugi had a relationship with Dark Magician Girl … At least on the surface.
Wednesday. Week 4. Month 2. Year 1. Season: Late autumn. Last week of the month.
[Satovian Universal Calendar: Nova, 46389]
[School: Winter Break. Day 5 of 30.]
[Stone mode: fluttering...? Interesting…]
[Current declared fiancée(s): Melody, Alice, Tear, Harumi, Chika, Natalia.]
[Card bearers in Saeren: 1, Ming.]
[Cook-off opponents in Saeren, North Terravon: 67. Harumi, Advanced Chef Yuki, Liru, Kitome, Alice. The rest are unknown.]
Still half asleep, Clyde rolled into…softness. He opened his eyes to see Harumi asleep. Her fox ears seemed to detect his active thoughts because she woke up.
“Good morning,” he said. It seemed as if Boner-san wanted to greet her too. That didn’t go unnoticed by the kitsune.
“I come in here to spend quality time with my fiancée only to find him asleep,” Harumi said. “Tsk. Tsk. We can’t have that.”
The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #11 a LitRPG [Alice Edition] (ATS) Page 14
