Cards
He held the cards to his face, mouth twisted a little bit to the left, brows furrowed as he deliberated his next move. On the holo-deck, two of his Ztyk monsters stood, brandishing their weapons, awaiting his command. However, their threats were lost to the five opposing Ztyk monsters, who looked fiercer and meaner than his, and who, obviously, outnumbered them. He had three more Infantry cards, and two more Special Ability cards. The clock was ticking. It was his turn.
He inhaled deeply, held his breath, then exhaled.
Time to roll the dice. . .
He dropped a card, face down on the analyzing screen of the holo-deck. Suddenly, a large Ztyk monster sprung from the table. It dwarfed all the other monsters before it. It had green skin, wore a dirty loincloth and had a lone eye positioned in its forehead,which glared down at its opponents. It looked like an oversized ogre, but it was a heavily armed oversized ogre. It wielded a large club in one hand, and a Morningstar in its other hand. Of course, this was only a snippet of its awesome power; it also boasted a near indestructible shield, a power surge ability that could end the game on his command, a summoning ability which could raise a fallen Ztyk monster. Simply put, the 'oversized ogre' was his trump card, and as befitting a trump card, he had saved it for last. . .
But if she has the rumored Yvisgh card. . .
His opponent smiled wickedly. “Looks like I’ve pushed your hand, Timmy boy,” she said, and dropped a card on the analyzing screen, face down. A dragon sprung from the holo-deck, soaring through the air above the Ztyk monsters' head, unleashing bursts of flames on his monsters. The flames proved too much for his monsters, turning them into piles of ashes, all except his ogre, who made a show of dusting its shoulders.
Timmy dropped another monster card on the analyzing screen, and a wizard sprung forth. It held a long, black staff, seemingly made of glass. It spread forth its hands and cast a spell. Suddenly, a hologram of cards sprung forth, a few inches from his face. Timmy smiled at them as relief washed over him; she didn’t have the Yvisgh card after all.
Sally, his opponent frowned at him; she couldn’t see the cards' contents, so she didn’t know that he was peeking at her cards.
Timmy selected three cards out of the four, and suddenly, they appeared on the holo-deck. Sally, realizing what had happened, was slack jawed. Timmy couldn’t help but grin wickedly at her. He dropped a Special Ability card, and watched as a clone of his ogre sprung up from the holo-deck.
He then enabled Power Surge. His energy units finished at that. The ogre let out an earsplitting roar and beat its chest with enough force to make its own rib cage cave in…if it had rib cages. Next, the ogre exploded into a large, white ball of energy, wiping out anything and everything in its path. . .except its original.
When the light vanished, his ogre made the same dusting shoulder gesture, but when Timmy checked its stats, he discovered its shields were nearly gone. No matter, the last card Sally had was worthless anyway, too worthless to waste Energy Units on. Timmy folded his arms and waited. He had won already, whether she liked it or not. . .
Sally glared at him, then stared at her final playable card, the remaining cards in her hand no longer glowed, but had grown dark, showing that they couldn’t be played again. She tossed it onto the holo-deck, showing that she forfeit, and stormed off.
All around him, the cheers of his friends were deafening. . .
© Fadeyi Danlee 2019
