Luck, skill, strategy, and memory. Four words that every card game has. Once the deck hits the table, and all players take their seats, that's when the fun begins. Poker, bridge, blackjack, uno, etc. All with their own rules on how the game is played, and how the player should engage. However, none of them were as unique as the game before us.
Seer, the Fallen Clairvoyant GRD2 - ATK: 16/DEF: 11
Two decks on opposite sides of the table, one each thinned down to a considerable amount. Mats lay flat against the wooden furniture, each containing five slots totaling to a max of ten. Multiple cards rested flat on each individual slot between two players. Their focus didn't waver, but they had one goal in mind. Defeat their opponent no matter what.
"Sorry to tell you, but I plan on winning this. I release my grade one Flammable Mage Tamir in order to summon grade two Scinara, the red hot nova."
A card was placed onto the game mat, a picture of a red-haired woman holding a wooden staff that curved at the top to form a hand which held a flame. The white magicians hat covered the top half of her face so her eyes couldn't be seen, but the white cape attached to her shoulders seemed to flow with the growing fire trying to surround her form from top to bottom. It was easy to tell that she was strong, but hard to gauge the strength she possessed without engaging her in combat. That wouldn't be the case for long though.
Pyromaniac Dragon GRD1 - ATK: 13/DEF: 4
Scinara, the Red Hot Nova GRD2 - ATK: 20/DEF: 17
"Scinara huh? She's gonna be trouble."
"You bet she is. Especially since I'm gonna activate her ability. By sending one card from my hand to the cemetery, I can add the equipment magic Nova Assistance to my hand."
The turn player began to do as stated, placing one of the cards from his hand onto a stack of cards located at the top right corner of their player mat. Once done, they put down the remaining cards in their hand onto the table flipped before grabbing their deck of cards. Each individual card was spread out evenly, eyes glancing over each one in the stack before the spell Nova Assistance was spotted. The duelist pushed the card up from the stack before pushing his deck together, and then removing the selected spell from the pile. Then they shuffled the stack a few times before placing the entire deck onto the mat.
"Now I'll equip Scinara with nova assistance. As long as I control another grade two or higher fire attribute monster, she's unaffected by other cards and their effects unless they target fire monsters."
"Unfortunately for me, I don't have a card on the field that can target fire monsters."
"Meaning there's nothing you can do to stop her from attacking. That's why I'm gonna attack your Clairvoyant with Scinara. Since she can't be affected by cards that don't target fire monsters, you have no way of stopping her."
"Unless I activate Seer's ability during your turn to play a trap or magic card from the top of my deck to defend myself."
"You really believe that you can top deck a card that'll shield you from damage?"
"It never hurts to try. I activate Seer's effect which allows me to play the top card of my deck during my opponent's turn. If the conditions are right, I can activate that card's effect as long as it is a trap or magic card."
Two fingers were placed on top of the player's deck. Slowly, they drew a card and let their thumb go under to grip the front. Slowly, the card was lifted up to their vision, blue eyes reading over what was obtained. Then a smirk carved itself onto their lips.
"I play the trap, Shield and Resolve. For the rest of this turn my Seer can't be destroyed by battle, and I don't take any damage as long as I control her."
"Which makes my attack useless. Fine, it's your move. I'll just wait until my next turn to win."
"That's if I give you a next turn, and I don't plan on doing so." The moment those words were declared, a card was drawn. "Ash, watch this."
"... Huh?" Then the now revealed Ashton lifted his head, brown eyes glancing over to his best friend that called his name, Saber.
"Dude, were you really studying during the entire match?" Saber questioned, deadpanning at Ashton who simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Someone's gotta make sure you pass this class. Who better than your best friend that actually cares about your grade?"
"That's harsh man."
"Sure buddy. Whatever floats your boat."
"Well forget the notes, and watch the rest of this match."
"Sorry, not interested. Grades come first in this place."
"I'll buy you whatever you want for lunch."
"So, what did I miss during this match?"
"Really?" Ashton's eyes caught Saber's expression, seeing a hint of nervousness in his form. "My wallet is getting you to pay attention to the match?"
"Hey man, you can never go starving when your best friend's offering. That's what I always say."
"I hate the fact that I let you keep that quote. Anyway, check out the board."
Doing as told, Ashton let his eyes roam over the play mats to get a good look at what was currently on the field. To his left was Saber's ever so famous Seer, the Fallen Clairvoyant alone filling up a monster zone to let everyone know it was occupying space. On the right side of the play mats where Saber's opponent was, he noticed two monsters in attack position, and the equipment spell attached to Scinara. Not too bad, but one monster with sixteen attack points wasn't gonna beat either monster his opponent controlled.
"This turn, I'm gonna win against his ace monster."
"With hopes and dreams? Seems like a bit of a stretch man." Ashton stated, getting a chuckle from the Saber's opponent sitting across the table.
"See? Your best friend gets it." He began as he grabbed Saber's attention. "Listen to Ash and surrender man. A loss of a few points won't hurt."
"No to everything you just said." Saber rolled his eyes, pushing a hand through his untamed blonde hair before saying "Ash barely even touches the game. A dead man is what I'll be if I take his words seriously during a match."
"Oh? He barely touches the game huh?" The smirk Ashton saw made him shake his head, Saber already knowing what that meant.
"Don't even think about it. I'm trying to get through my college experience spending as little time on this game as possible."
"Damn, that sucks." He said dejectedly, but a strange feeling overtook Ashton with the corner of his lips beginning to curve downward. He held back a scowl.
"Moving on, watch and learn about how I'm going to win this match Ash. My key to victory starts with the magic card Three-Slot Game. Now I can look at the top three cards of my deck, and then add one of them to my hand."
Saber's right hand hovered his stack of cards. With a smirk, he pulled the three from atop the stack before looking them over. A few seconds passed before his eyes glanced over to a specific card out of the three, and he nodded his head as confirmation. He removed the card from the top three pulled, placed the other two back on top of his deck, and then shuffled without delay. However, his smirk didn't fade as he pointed down at his only monster on the board.
"Now I'll activate Seer's special ability. Since I added a revealed card from my deck to my hand, Seer allows me to get back the other cards that I revealed as well. So these two additional cards are mine."
Taking his deck from the slot on the play mat, Saber got to searching his deck. After a moment or two, he finally spotted the two cards he was looking for. Four fingers took hold of each individual card before he pushed all cards in his hand back into a stack. Adding the last two cards to his hand, Saber got to shuffling his deck again before taking a look at the three cards now in his hold.
'A lucky draw into his go to strategy huh?' Ashton thought as he watched Saber closely.
"First, I'll activate the magic card Tyrannical Winds, which destroys all magic cards on the field."
"Tch! Dammit." His opponent clicked his teeth, removing his equip spell from one of the backrow slots before sending it to the stack of used cards no longer in play.
"Then I'll follow up that play with the spell One Man Pathway. Since you control more creatures than I do, all your allies are destroyed."
"Seriously?! Who the hell top decks one man pathway, and tyrannical winds in the same turn?"
"That guy apparently." Ashto replied as he watched Saber's opponent send his monsters to the graveyard.
"Finally, I'll summon the creature needed to win this match. Welcome Drainer, the Fallen Clairvoyant of Strength."
The last card in Saber's hand was quickly placed into the left slot beside Seer. A man clad in a black and white robe could be seen on the front cover, his hood dropped down to keep from hiding his black hair and eyepatch of the same cover over the right eye. The man's right hand had an ominous yellow glow while the left lit up with a purple color that seemed to grow foggy over time. While his physique couldn't be seen behind his attire, one could only imagine how he earned the name "Fallen Clairvoyant of Strength."
Drainer, the Fallen Clairvoyant of Strength GRD1 - ATK: 8/DEF: 4
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but your creature only has eight attack points. Attacking me with both Drainer and Seer will only drop me down to six life, meaning your plan will have basically failed, and then I get to finish you off next turn."
"Unfortunately for you, Drainer's effect will give me all the points I need. During my turn only, Drainer can boost his attack based on what grade of monsters are currently on the field. Grade one lets him double his strength, grade two allows him to triple it, and grade three quadruples his power. Since the highest grade on the field is two, his strength now becomes twenty-four!"
Drainer, the Fallen Clairvoyant of Strength [ATK: 8 x 3 = ATK: 24]
"What the hell?! That means I lost!"
"That's right boy! I attack directly with Drainer and Seer, and end the match. Bet you didn't see that coming, huh Mason?" Saber smirked at the now revealed Mason, watching the latter growl out of annoyance.
"Well, can't say I didn't see this coming." Ashton announced with a roll of his eyes.
"Hold on now, that's bullshit. You managed to top deck three-slot game, and then draw the out. I want a rematch. Best two out of three." Mason declared.
"You're so on. Just be ready to lose again."
Once those words were declared, Mason and Saber immediately got started on clearing their board so they could prepare for the next game. On the other hand, Ashton could only shake his head. He couldn't understand why a card game was so important to neglect your studies, but that's why he loved him. Despite that, Ashton continued jotting down the notes he was preparing for their class tomorrow, not wanting to spend time watching Saber play Mason any further.
… Lucia city—a town known for one reason only. It's the origin for the worldwide card game by the name of C.R.E, otherwise known as Creature Extinction. Beloved by all ages, its popularity only continues to sky rocket as it has already changed the livelihoods of people throughout the town it was birthed in, and is slowly doing more by reforming the rest of the world piece by piece over time. However, none are aware of the danger it actually poses to society as a whole, and Lucia city has become the prime example of what happens when you let a game make decisions for you.
Not like they had much of a choice anyway.