Genevieve’s card flickered and changed.
[Shield of the Gambit]
>For the next round, you may negate one effect of your choice<
"...I’ll take it". Genevieve muttered.
Satisfied, the Jester snapped his fingers. The ga board vanished, and the next card burned with golden light.
"Final round!" He grinned, gesticulating wildly with his hands. "The Chaos Gauntlet!"
He jumped excitedly on the platform. "Get ready to be skeedadled!"
Without hesitation, it started.
BZZZ!
The world collapsed into a battlefield of pure insanity. Instantly, the laws of physics beca a aningless nursery rhy in this realm.
The world went mad.
Gravity inverted at random intervals. Ti stuttered, looping certain attacks. Enemies appeared and disappeared in an instant. Reality itself twisted, creating unpredictable terrain.
That was not all though. For the first ti since he started this crazy test, the Jester finally descended into battle himself.
Wielding an impossible number of weapons; daggers, swords, playing cards that beca guillotines in mid-air, he seed unstoppable.
He was everywhere at once, teleporting unpredictably.
He didn’t attack imdiately though, joking and mocking the players, trolling their helplessness in the face of overwhelming strength.
This seed like a normal design but Noah knew. ’They did this to make the situation a bit fair to challengers, huh?’
It gave challengers a breather, a few seconds more to think and plan.
In the grand sche of things, it ant little since few teams in the world could clear this quest. Coincidentally though, Noah’s team was part of the 0.1% teams in the world that had a chance of clearing this quest.
And yes, in that little ti, coming clutch again for his team, Noah revealed his plan to his teammates. He already devised a counter-strategy.
With a grin, he started it. "Follow my lead!"
Noah synchronized the team’s movents to adapt, treating the fight like an unpredictable rhythm battle. In a fight against a Jester, try not to outsmart him.
Rather, try to be crazier than him.
It was crazy, but this was the crazy strategy that Noah took.
His teammates didn’t hesitate though despite how crazy his plan sounded.
Following his plan, Caleb created temporal disruptions, using the glitches in ti to predict the next shift.
Genevieve blocked a ga-breaking effect with her Gambit Shield, while Aria as the tip of the spear like always hunted for the Jester’s real form, using her aggression to keep him from controlling the battlefield.
As for Benjamin, he literally rode one of the glitches like a surfboard, yelling. "CHAOS IS MY ELENT!"
Afterall, he literally had the Jester’s favor.
With 5 extrely skilled players taking on the Jester, the indomitable Jester no longer seed as indomitable, seeming foolish instead.
Noah out-crazed the Jester!
And then, the final blow ca when Noah tapped into Aetherforge’s resonance, severing the Jester’s dinsional tethers and forcing him back into his core form.
One decisive strike.
BAM!
Ga over.
The Jester laughed as he faded.
"You win... this ti. But oh, what a show you gave !"
The quest system lit up with a notification the next mont.
[Congratulations! You and your team have completed the quest, The Chaos Gambit!]
[Skill Points 5]
[For managing to entertain the Jester, you have received 5 additional skill points!]
[Title Unlocked: Gambit Master]
[Unique Reward: Jester’s Coin]
>A single-use item that forces a reroll on any random effect<
As the world settled, the team just stood in silence.
But then Benjamin laughed. "Hehe, what a quest, I love it!"
Genevieve glared at him.
He coughed. "Well, that was absolute madness".
Aria huffed. "I hate that clown".
Noah just smirked, looking at them. "Next quest?"
...
London, England, Club Echelon building...
It was already night when the 4 players of Club Echelon completed the new skill points quest with their captain.
And so, when Noah asked ’next quest?’ the first thing Aria did was look outside. And then she looked at the others.
Benjamin reacted first, pumping a fist excitedly. "All-nighter! Co on guys, let’s do an all-nighter!"
Aria looked at Caleb who shrugged. "I’m also in the mood".
She looked at Genevieve who nodded.
"That’s it then" But Aria stood up. "You guys should go ahead; I need to go speak with my boyfriend first. I’ll et you guys soon".
Groans quickly filled the room but Aria ignored them, walking off.
...
Aria left to her personal quarters in the gigantic club building.
She sighed as she leaned back against her bed, the dim glow of her personal gaming setup still casting shadows across the room. The clock read past midnight, and she knew she should’ve called earlier.
Still, she pressed the call button.
A few rings later, Gabriel’s voice ca through, warm and teasing.
"Wow, a call from the elusive Aria Belmont?" He joked. "What did I do to earn this honor?"
Aria groaned. "Don’t start. I already feel bad".
"Oh? Should I get a notebook and mark the date? Aria Belmont feels bad?" he chuckled, but there was sothing in his voice, sothing softer. "What’s up, babe?"
Aria opened her mouth to speak, but then she paused.
Her face changed. "Benjamin!" She growled. "You better leave that place before I resu my boxing practice with your face!"
There was a crashing sound outside her door.
"Ouch!"
And then the sound of soone scurrying away.
Only after a few seconds did Aria focus back on her call.
She hesitated for a second, gripping the phone tighter. "I just... I know I haven’t been around much. I know our initial agreent was to play from ho, but...," she sighed, not knowing how to continue.
"I’m either at the club, grinding in the ga, or sleeping like the dead. I haven’t even been over in days".
Gabriel exhaled. "Yeah, I noticed".
Silence stretched between them, not heavy, but not exactly comfortable either.
Aria ran a hand through her hair. "I don’t want you to think I don’t care. I do. It’s just... this whole thing with Club Echelon is big, Gabriel".
She took a deep breath. "It’s real. And I want to give it everything I’ve got".
Gabriel was quiet for a mont, and she worried she’d said sothing wrong. The almighty Aria feeling this way in itself was a shocker.
How the mighty have fallen.
Love could humble even the most valiant of heroes.
Gabriel finally answered, and it wasn’t what she expected.
"I get it".
She blinked. "You do?"
He chuckled. "Aria, I know you. Have you forgotten how I t you? You were raging over losing to club Phoenix Rising". He chuckled. "And I know you started dating at first so you could abuse to get back at Gabriel, Dain Ironvalor’s controller since we shared the sa na".
"Uhh...," Aria coughed awkwardly.
Gabriel chuckled. "I know you Aria," he repeated. "You don’t do things halfway. When you commit, you commit".
"I wouldn’t be dating you if I didn’t love that about you".
A breath she hadn’t realized she was holding escaped her. "So, you’re not mad?"
"Nah. But I do miss you".
That hit harder than she expected.
"...I miss you too".
More silence. This ti, it was softer, like a blanket instead of a weight.
Then Gabriel humd. "So, what if I just joined?"
"Huh?"
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