Chapter 58: The Fool
Finn lunged at his opponent, but Tarot swiftly dodged out of the way and got out of the church, since he knew fighting in there wouldn’t be advantageous for him now that Chariot was gone.
He still had quite a few cards left, but all his defensive ones were gone. However, throughout the battle so far, he noticed Finn didn’t use any Abilities. Archon said he had the Oculus Angelica, but since he was blind, that pretty much rendered the Angelica useless. More advanced Abilities in the Angelica didn’t require sight, but to reach that advanced stage, one needed to practice using the Angelica first using basic Abilities.
Because of this, Tarot possessed an overwhelming advantage in this fight already. Iris was nowhere to be seen, so it was essentially just a 1v1. Once the sun set, he was planning on using The Moon and The Star cards to finish this fight… but he needed to hold on until then.
Luckily for him, however, Finn suddenly dashed out of the church in a quite predictable manner — making his life a lot easier. Perhaps, he could finish it right here.
“Kid…” Tarot sighed in disappointnt. “Ya walked into yer own death trap.”
Lifting a hand, he suddenly shot out a barrage of purple pellets, using The Hierophant card.
Finn, however, didn’t attempt to dodge. Instead, he rely crossed his arms in an X-shape and blocked the attack head-on.
“Ngh…” He groaned, clenching his teeth.
Tarot blinked a few tis in surprise. “Ya really think ya can hold my entire bloody attack? Heh.”
The man chuckled and amplified the strength of his pellet barrage, completely locking Finn in place. Finn had a purple shield up which caught all of the projectiles, but Tarot knew it wouldn’t hold for long.
At least, he thought it wouldn’t hold for long.
As seconds grew into entire minutes with Finn still holding on sohow, Tarot furrowed his brows and stopped the barrage.
“Aye… what is that bloody shield…?”
Finn rely smiled like a devil.
“… Your death.”
All of a sudden, the thousands of tiny pellets that had gathered on Finn’s shield were shot back towards Tarot at once. His eyes widened in shock as his own attack was turned against him, bombarding him in smoke.
Finn panted heavily and fell to the concrete ground as the last pellet was fired back. Holding all of those projectiles had consud nearly all of his mana, and so may question if this was worth it to win such a aningless fight.
But to Finn, it wasn’t aningless. He had a goal in defeating Tarot — he had sothing he wanted to try. Not for pride, not for glory, but for his own selfish gain.
He did his best to take deep breaths as he watched the smoke before him, waiting patiently for it to disperse. He expected to see the dead body of Tarot, but there was sothing off.
This was a private match — in other words, if Tarot died, the simulation should’ve announced Finn’s victory. Yet…
“Ah… ya got good there, kid, ya got bloody good.”
“…!”
Finn froze as he saw Tarot’s figure erging from the smoke, completely unhard. On his suit, all the various sets of icons had lit up in different colors, and around him was a rainbow glow consisting of all said colors.
“But unluckily for ya… I had one last trick up my sleeve to prevent death. A card that ans new beginnin’s… and the true trump card of a Tarot card deck.”
Finn knew what he was talking about.
“… The Fool.”
“Bloody straight. This is the second ti I’ve been forced to use this card… and I’ve fought countless battles in my lifeti. Yer a good seed, kid. I can see why Bakris chose to save ya. But y’know, that bein’ said…”
Tarot pulled out a thin dagger from his breast pocket and pointed it at Finn, who lay exhausted on the ground, completely out of mana and energy.
“… I still won this fight. Nothin’ to be bloody proud of, I know, but-“
“Are you sure about that?” Finn suddenly interjected, freezing Tarot mid-sentence.
“… What?”
With a soft and dark chuckle, Finn spoke.
“Look behind you.”
Tarot imdiately spun around, but it was too late. He could see the flash of a sniper’s muzzle, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, dead and defeated.
[Battle: End. Victors: Team B.]
Naturally, Iris was the one who fired this killing shot.
She quickly ran over to Finn and helped him up, holding him in her arms.
“Finn! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine… this is a simulation…” Finn muttered, then eyed Tarot’s body. Iris followed his gaze, and she imdiately knew what he wanted to do.
“I see… I don’t think it’ll work, but give it a try.”
Finn slowly placed a hand on Tarot’s arm, hoping to use the Ghost blood to steal the Cardmaster Angelica from him.
In all honesty, he himself didn’t even think this would work either. But still, it was worth the effort — for on the off-chance that it did actually work, it would open up a whole new way to acquire Angelicas from other Hunters without them even knowing.
After several long seconds, Finn still didn’t feel anything. Iris sighed in disappointnt.
“… Nothing, huh?”
But Finn didn’t move his hands. He expected the process to take a bit longer than normal, since the Ghost blood would have an extra step — to transfer the mana data from this virtual world back into his real body.
And indeed, his prediction was on the mark.
A black fog suddenly shrouded Finn and Tarot, energy flowing through Finn’s hand and into the rest of his body. He could feel it — a new Angelica has been acquired.
Suddenly, the three were all teleported away from one another as the world around them faded away to nothingness. A brief mont later, they found themselves in the sa white room as before, standing right net to each other.
“Well,” Tarot — Jim — chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “This is… awkward.”
“So much for an S-Class Hunter,” Iris scoffed. “What a rookie mistake, forgetting you had two opponents and not just one.”
“A-Ahem, I will admit I got caught up in the mont and forgot about ya, but ta be fair, I didn’t think ya would’ve known where Finn and I were,” Jim argued.
“Oh, I didn’t,” Iris replied nonchalantly. “That is, not until all the noise Finn made.”
“… Wait,” Jim interrupted, glancing at Finn, who was busy exploring the nus on the holographic panels all around them.
“Don’t tell … ya purposely jumped out after so that I would blast ya with projectiles, which you could then fire back at to make lots of noise and alert yer partner to where we were?”
Finn didn’t respond, but it was clear that was the answer.
Iris laughed and patted Jim on the shoulder lightly. “You see, Finn knows quite a lot about Tarot cards, since he used to have a friend who talked about them all the ti. He knew you had The Fool up your sleeve still as a trump card. He also fully knew you were going to blast him with magic or projectiles the mont he stepped foot outside, which was exactly the reason he did so. You got played like a fiddle, S-Rank.”
“So that’s how ya predicted Emperor’s bullet and escaped The Sun…” Jim shook his head in frustration with himself. “Man…”
“Us two, re D-Class Hunters, managed to beat you, an S-Class, in a fair fight. I think a little reward is due,” Iris said smugly, folding her arms. “What do you think, Finn?”
“… I’d like a favor from you, Tarot,” Finn said after so hesitation.
“Eh… well, I suppose I did lose. We never agreed on this before the fight, but this is a bloody good way to remind of today and learn from it. Sure, I’ll accept yer request,” Jim said at last. “Also, call Jim. We ain’t in a bloody battle ‘nymore, mate.”
“Got it.”
“So, what do ya want to do for ya?” Jim continued, shrugging nonchalantly. “Teach ya how to pick up girls? No, but ya already got this sweet young lady right here…”
“Hm. I haven’t decided yet, but…” Finn glanced sideways at him. “I’ll let you know when I have.”
“Sure. As long as it’s sothin’ within my abilities, I’ll do it.”
Iris looked at Finn, already knowing what he was thinking in his mind. He wanted Jim to teach him the Cardmaster Angelica, but he didn’t know if he could be trusted yet, hence why he was holding off on asking.
Iris sighed and smiled faintly. “Well then, let’s head back, shall we?”
Jim nodded, then froze as he just happened to look at the ti displayed on one of the panels.
“AH, GODDAMN IT! I MISSED MY BLOODY DATE!”
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