When Luke approached the men's table who called him, he saw several cards on the furniture.
"The boy was playing with us, but since he left for work, how about you play instead?" The skinny man spoke to the half-wolf.
There were five men at the table, and they were all looking at Luke with considerable interest. This was the first time the half-wolf had been received so positively by strangers in a tavern, which was surprising. In the past, most of the time people kept their distance while they stared at him with looks of fear and anger. There had been a few times when some people had even thrown objects at him, but Luke never gave in to the wishes of the prejudiced, which would be to remove himself from the area, so sometimes, during his reckless adolescence, Luke fought back with his fists.
Before accepting the skinny man's invitation, Luke looked at the other four citizens and questioned:
"Is that all right for you guys0?"
They immediately nodded frantically, with a smile on their faces and their eyes shining. Luke found this behavior strange, yet agreed to sit down to play.
"You've played 'Luck or Fight' in the card version, haven't you?" After taking a long sip of the mead in his mug, one of the men asked.
"I've played with just the basic rules." Luke replied.
"All right, that's better..."
The card version of 'Luck or Fight' could be as simple as the original game of immobilization and, simultaneously, as complex as chess because of the endless possibilities.
Like the original game, the card version does not allow cheating with skills, spells, or charms; in other words, your reasoning, wit, and experience are the decisive factors to emerge victoriously.
The thin man showed the cards from the deck to the half-wolf, who noticed well that there was one card missing from the thirty-card deck, but he didn't say anything because he wanted to see the stranger's intentions.
"Now, I will spread the cards on the table, and you pick seven for yourself and I will pick seven for me." The skinny man instructed and dropped all the cards.
"...All right."
At the same time that Luke was choosing his cards, the other men, who pretended to be playing their own games, tried to distract Luke by bumping into him. However, Luke still said nothing.
When Luke turned forward to look at the cards on the table, the pile of cards to buy was already done, and the skinny man had seven cards in his hand.
The half-wolf's opponent smiled and spoke:
"This kind of game is much more exciting with a bet. Do you have the guts for it?" To complete the initial phase of their plan, the men tried to pressure Luke into accepting with excited looks.
Luke Lange was very glad that his assumption about the men was correct. They had not recognized him as the champion half-beast, but rather as a rich half-beast, because Luke was wearing a great overcoat, in addition to the well-kept horse they saw through the window.
"All right, but how much would you be willing to bet? I don't like to bet small amounts..."
"A hundred silver coins?" The skinny man spoke with a smile on his face, trying not to be intimidating. No matter how stingy the half-beast could be, he definitely had that kind of money to bet that amount.
"The least I can accept is a bet of two thousand silver coins."
"Two thousand silver!?" The other four men at the table exclaimed in surprise, alerting the other people in the room.
The skinny man immediately accepted, both because of the people gathered around and because his overall plan was to win several games of the half-ball.
With his seven cards in hand, Luke was the first to play because he was the outsider. He placed a card on the table, which on its top had drawn the number two, which meant that the card had 2 combat strengths. This card had the drawing of a Kakute, which is a ring used for assassinations.
To start his game also, the skinny man put the Air God card on the table, which equaled 20 combat points. This was the card with the most points in the game, and he hid it in his sleeve beforehand. Their friends nudged him happily, thinking that this amount would be the easiest they had ever won in their lives. The people around the table were impressed by the tactic used by the thin man.
With only seven cards for three rounds, normally, it didn't seem like a wise thing to continue in a round that was started with such a powerful card on the table, except if Luke had a buy-in card in his hands. Just when everyone thought Luke would surrender the first point to his opponent because he was 18 points away, Luke pulled a card from his hand and placed it on the table.
Upon seeing Luke's next card, a woman was impressed. "Oh! A Hawkeye card, that's one of the four cards that allow you to take a card from the shop deck."
"Tsk!" The skinny man clicked his tongue, irritated. 'I thought he would give up that round...'
In addition to the buying skill, Hawkeye had 3 points of combat strength. With that, the round was 20 points for the skinny man, compared to only 5 for the half-wolf. The man, confident in his intuition, declared on his turn:
"I pass..." Both players were holding six cards in their hands, but Luke was the one at a wide disadvantage; it would make no sense for the half-wolf to continue in the round.
At that moment, Luke understood the level of the opponent he was playing against: a piece of shit.
'Even Zack, with his tiny brain, understands that surrendering a round after playing only one card is dumb.' Luke thought internally after drawing the Earth God card, which equaled 16 combat points.
The skinny man could hardly believe his own eyes, and only after losing the round did he understand how dumb he was. Since Luke was the winner of the first round, the bonus from the Hawkeye card allowed him to buy one more card.
In the second round, Luke was again the one to start, but immediately skipped the round, forcing the skinny man to use one card, since if it was a draw, Luke would be the winner for having won the first round.
Outnumbered in the last round, the thin man's defeat was inevitable. The half-wolf destroyed him with a Scorpion combo with Sorcerer, securing a 30 combat point advantage.
In the end, Luke had to settle for only three gold coins, which was all the men had. But Luke was not merciful to the kind of man who tries to win by cheating, so he put the hay and water he bought on the men's tab, as well as taking their deck for himself.
The half-wolf left satisfied and motivated to continue his journey, while the skinny man earned the enmity of his four frustrated friends.
"You said it would be easy because he's a half-wolf!" One of the men exclaimed.
"I know... but I thought that because I played against a half-beast woman with horns last week and won two gold coins from her. I figured the same thing would happen with this guy!" The skinny guy tried to explain himself, with a lot of sweat beading down his forehead.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com