Chapter 13 : A Card Player’s Signature Trick

“Duel?”

Sonia was taken aback, shaking her head like a rattle-drum.

“No, no, Mr. Yide, I can’t win.”

“Besides, with you helping me duel, is it even necessary anymore…?”

“Then do you plan on never dueling your whole life?”

Yide’s words made Sonia’s head-shaking motion pause.

Hyde continued, “Unless you plan to leave all future duels to me, otherwise, you’ll have to face duels sooner or later.”

“But by then, you might not be facing D-rank or E-rank duelists anymore.”

“Are you really ready?”

Hyde wasn’t being alarmist.

On the contrary, this was something that needed to be explained from the beginning.

Unless Sonia intended to rely on him for duels for the rest of her life and never duel without him by her side.

No, even then, the ability to understand duels and analyze the flow of the situation was necessary.

After all, Hyde didn’t want to experience the frustrating situation of “great addiction but poor skill” like Loveland’s again.

“Uh… Mr. Hyde, don’t say such scary things all at once, I’ll agree to it.”

Although she didn’t understand why Hyde suddenly became serious, Sonia vaguely realized that the futures represented by these two choices were very important to her.

So, after a brief hesitation, Sonia quickly agreed to the duel.

However, the girl still couldn’t quite figure it out.

“Even if I agree to duel you, Mr. Hyde, we can’t conjure up a second deck.”

But Hyde chuckled, “Haven’t I already picked one out?”

“Eh?”

Hearing Hyde’s words, Sonia looked at the desktop.

In front of Sonia, besides her own deck, there was another deck that Hyde had just picked out.

Sonia looked at the two piles of cards, feeling a bit absurd.

“Mr. Hyde, you mean…”

She just watched Hyde manipulate his hand, pick up the other selected deck, and wave it.

What he said made Sonia incredulous.

“You use your deck.”

“And I’ll use this one.”

“This deck?”

Sonia couldn’t help but be startled.

She looked at the two decks placed in front of her.

One was her own deck, carefully selected by the two of them last night, with five temporarily printed cards added.

The other was the deck that Hyde had just picked out in a few minutes, the one they had personally rejected last night.

Now, Mr. Hyde was going to use this deck to duel her?

How was that possible?

“Nothing’s impossible.”

Hyde seemed to have guessed what Sonia was thinking and spoke before she could.

And indeed, that was the case.

Looking at the confusion on Sonia’s face, Hyde just smiled.

Picking cards from the trash heap is a traditional skill of card players, after all.

Because Hyde was just a pendant, he couldn’t genuinely duel like a duelist while detached from Sonia.

So their duel could only unfold in a pure card format, and even playing cards required Sonia’s help.

Sonia silently moved her chair forward, getting closer to the desk.

Looking at the pendant hanging opposite the desk, an absurd feeling arose in her heart.

A pendant, using a deck she had discarded, challenged her to a duel.

If Tivia were here, she might take her directly to a doctor to check her brain.

“Just like the duel with Enshir, you go first.”

Hyde’s voice echoed in Sonia’s mind.

Hearing Hyde’s words, Sonia was even more disbelieving: “Mr. Hyde, are you sure?”

“Of course, since it’s a re-enactment, your actions should be as close to the original scene as possible.”

Sonia took a deep breath.

Not only was he using her discarded cards, but he also gave her the first move.

She didn’t know what Hyde wanted to prove to her.

But she knew, with so many advantages, there was no reason for her not to win.

If you think I won’t use this deck, Mr. Hyde, then you’re wrong!

I’ve memorized all your moves in that duel!

It’s on!

With a hint of competitive pride, Sonia placed her hand on the deck and swore.

“I swear by the duel!”

“I swear by the duel.”

“My turn.”

Sonia just glanced, then set a card aside: “I sacrifice Melt, end turn.”

Just like in the duel with Enshir, Sonia didn’t have many good cards to play on turn one.

“Then it’s my turn, draw card.”

“I sacrifice the first card on my left, then summon the third card.”

Sonia followed Hyde’s instructions, then saw a familiar figure appear on the opponent’s field.

Stonetusk Boar ★ (1-star) E-rank

Fire

Beast 1/1

Charge

The familiar little wild boar reappeared.

This card could be said to be an iconic Fire-element card; low-level Fire duelists all carried it, and Sonia herself had it.

So, Sonia wasn’t surprised by its appearance.

“Stonetusk Boar, direct attack, dealing one damage to you.”

Sonia’s HP: 20 → 19

“My turn, draw card.”

Sonia quickly scanned her hand, lost in thought.

Although it was a re-enactment, a hand of cards couldn’t be exactly the same.

This time, she wasn’t as lucky as Yide, drawing Flamewaker and Mana Wyrm on the second turn.

But in their place, she had just drawn Fiery Blood.

This card was also one she had before; it could deal two damage to a minion, and if the minion died, it could deal one more damage to the enemy duelist.

She clearly remembered that Yide had used Burning Rage combined with this card to clear Dancing Jester at the time.

Oh, and Flamecaller was also cleared by this card.

If it weren’t for the damage provided by two Fiery Bloods, Mr. Yide might have even lost then.

Such a powerful card, surely you can’t just play it casually, right?

Thinking this, Sonia made her decision: “I sacrifice Rampant Blaze, end turn!”

Hyde chuckled as if he had guessed something.

“Then it’s my turn.”

“I draw a card, sacrifice the second card on the left, then summon the third card.”

“Stonetusk Boar, attack again.”

Sonia’s HP: 19 → 18

“End turn.”

Sonia took one more damage, but since it wasn’t a formal duel, she wouldn’t feel the impact, so she had the leisure to look at the card Hyde played while being attacked.

Raging Panther ★★ (2-star) E-rank

Fire

Beast 2/3

On the card art, a snarling panther crouched on a treetop, ready to pounce on its prey at any moment.

Three health?

Sonia pursed her lips.

She recognized all the cards in Hyde’s hand.

This Raging Panther was a so-called vanilla card; it had no displayed effect because it genuinely had no effect.

But vanilla didn’t mean it was easy to deal with.

Three health wasn’t within Fiery Blood’s lethal range.

But if she didn’t play a card, it would be equivalent to passing two turns.

What to do?

Should she use Fiery Blood to deal with Stonetusk Boar first?

Sonia hesitated for a moment, then her antenna-like hair swayed left and right, and she chose to give up.

“My turn, draw card.”

She drew a card, then placed a card aside: “I sacrifice Stubborn Struggle, end tur—”

“Didn’t you play Fiery Blood just now? That’s not a smart choice.”

Sonia looked up in surprise.

How did Mr. Hyde know what was in my hand?