Chapter 31. Decks
I sighed from how close they both were in terms of strength, and glanced over at Blair to see that she was sighing with relief as well. “Well, I guess he never got the card that could have ended this duel way earlier, but he still pulled through.” I shrugged as I stood up from my seat and stretched. “What card did he need to win?” Blair was curious about what this magical card I was talking about.
I smirked as I finished stretching. “It’s his deck, I can’t disclose what cards he has.” Blair stood up beside me and punched my shoulder lightly. I scoffed at her while rubbing my arm. “Just ask him about how he beat Chazz.” I yawned and began walking away from my seat. “Alright… I’m going to sleep first. I’ll see you later.”
However Blair quickly caught up to me to keep talking. “You just slept in class!” I shrugged my shoulders at her. “Maybe I’ll take a walk around campus then.” I wasn’t that tired now that Blair had mentioned it, but there wasn’t much to do here. I kept walking, and made my way to the halls, another set of footsteps following behind. I looked back to see Blair nervously keeping pace behind me. She noticed my staring, and pulled her hat a little further down to hide her face. “Can… I walk with you?”
I shrugged my shoulders at her, though she didn’t see. “Sure, why not?” I didn’t mind having her with me. I already had plenty of company, but I didn’t want her to be alone with no other friends she was comfortable with. She perked up with a happy expression and began to quickly catch up and walk beside me. “So… How did you like watching your first real duel at the academy?” I asked to strike up conversation as we left the school building.
“It was awesome!! I had seen plenty of material, and studied tons of cards and effects. But this reminded me of that match I first saw with Zane!” I nodded and she continued on. “This was different kinda though.” I looked down at her with slight confusion. “Different how?” “Well… Zane was able to keep most of his life points… Nobody could even touch him… But this was so close with both Jayden and Bastion.”
I stretched my arms as we both made it outside, and looked at the slowly descending sun. “Well, that’s just how they duel.” Blair looked up at me with interest filling her gaze. “What do you mean?” I scratched the back of my head while thinking how to really describe Jayden’s personality. “Zane is the type to stay back, and strike when he feels safe. He likes to know he has the upper hand, and won't be exposed if something happens. He strikes quick and fast with strong damaging monsters, before the opponent can try to retaliate.”
Blair nodded in understanding before I continued on while we were both walking through some of the forest paths. “Jayden is the type that wants the duel to last as long as he can. He enjoys the back and forth with each person showing the best their deck has to offer. He likes his heroes, and how even when they might be weak alone, they are strong when together. Zane likes to beat down his opponents fast, and each monster, being strong enough on its own to accomplish that. When they do fuze, it's all the more dangerous.”
Blair nodded solemnly just remembering her match with Zane, and how badly she was beaten before Rakki’s pep talk. She then began to wonder what Rakki had thought about her dueling style. He had seen her low, but also her strong points of that battle. She looked up to see Rakki giving a rare calm smile as he looked at the smaller floating duel spirits, flying around the trees. She lost herself for a moment just taking the scene in, before Rakki noticed her gaze.
Blair jumped a bit, and hid her face under her cap. “Umm…” She gulped, and began to change the conversation to cover her embarrassment. “What about me…? What kind of style do I have?” She waited in silence that felt it would last a lifetime, as her mind whirled with thoughts of how Rakki might view her. “Hmm…” He thought a bit while making his pondering noises he sometimes let out without knowing.
I gave some thought into what style I had seen that night. I finally just started to speak what was going through my mind, not knowing exactly what I thought at the moment. “You use your opponent’s monsters against them, but hurt yourself whenever you do. Your deck is self-sacrificial, trying to gain something while killing yourself in the process. You have no cards I saw to heal yourself, or prevent damage you might take, but just ways to buff your maiden’s attack. You’ve built your entire deck surrounding one monster that, if she is destroyed, then your house of cards will be too.”
After that mouthful, I looked down to see Blair concealing her face from me to hide what I might see, but I could tell. I let out a weak chuckle to help her feel better while quickly wrapping my arms around to cradle her head into my sternum while I pat her back a bit mechanically. “Don’t cry…” I said in the most cheerful voice I could. I was never good at helping others with emotions so I always avoided it, but this was my fault. Blair sniffled while not saying a word. “Sorry I went too far with your weaknesses… It’s a nice deck, just needs work… You can’t make a perfect deck on your first few attempts…”
Blair sniffled again before quietly speaking in my chest, burrowing herself deeper to hide. “Really... ?” I scoffed while I rubbed her back. “Yes! Jayden took years for his deck, and Zane…! I actually think Zane got that strong deck from a master that wanted him to have it… Who knows how many years it took for that random guy to make it though.” Blair chuckled a bit while nodding her buried head. I slowly let her go while sighing from relief. I didn’t want whoever her rich parents were, to hunt me down.
Blair looked up at me with reddened, puffy eyes. She wiped her eyes with one last sniffle. “What about you?” I was caught off guard from her question, and looked at her determined eyes, begging for answers. “How long did it take for your deck?” Sudden memories of my younger school days flashed in my mind. All the days at school. Trading, playing, and betting for cards. The long nights in my room, trying to craft the best decks that I could with my low funds, and bad cards.
Middle school was the height of popularity with this game, and it continued on throughout some early years of Highschool. I would beg my parents for any card packs that I could pick from the boxes at the store, praying for some kind of good card that would help me win at least one game. I was always the worst duelist at school. I only grabbed bad cards, partly from my bad supply, and partly from my bad luck. Although I guess that went hand in hand. The longer it went on… The more cynical I became about anything, and everything. It didn’t matter if I did have good cards in the end, I already tested that plenty of times when others made fun of me by making me play their decks against them. My horrid luck refused to let me enjoy the rush of a close duel.
“Rakki!!” I was startled from my name being called, and snapped my vision to Blair, as well as a few spirits that were watching me. Blair looked at me worriedly, and I frowned in response. “Are you ok?” I sighed and shook my head about worrying her over a children's card game between kids. “I’m fine… Just thought back to my first decks…” I then glanced at the deck with all of my new friends attached to my arm. I could feel that they all had an idea of what I was remembering, judging from all the solemn feelings they had.
I shook my head one last time to shake my thoughts away. “I’ve tinkered with a lot of decks, but this one also kinda fell in my lap like Zane’s. I just added some of my friends, and now I have my own, one of a kind deck.” Blair nodded slowly while she kept staring at me. She held a lot of thoughts in her gaze, and I wasn’t going to try to unpack it all. I looked up to see that the sky was much darker than I had noticed. “It’s getting late. I think we should start heading back.” I said with a yawn while leading the way back.
Blair quickly caught up. She was silent, despite all the questions running through her mind at the moment. Questions like, ‘What is your deck?’ ‘What were your first decks like?’ ‘Did someone give you this deck you use now?’, and the last one that she was too scared to ask, even in her mind. She had seen one grotesque blackened arm on Rakki’s shoulder for just a second that gave her chills. It almost appeared to be reaching from the underworld to drag anything it could below. She was so shocked, she called out to Rakki, but when he came to, it was already gone.