Chapter 14
"Spell Card activation. Graceful Charity. I draw 3 cards from my deck, then discard 2."
Rowan placed the card and drew three from his deck, then selected two to send to the graveyard.
Alexis caught a glimpse of the discards. Two field spells, from the look of it.
Just as I thought.
This deck really is almost entirely Spell Cards built around the Libraries.
"Good draw. Right Leg of the Forbidden One."
Rowan glanced at one of his new cards and mentioned it casually, the way someone might read off a grocery list.
Like announcing each step of an execution.
"Damn it!" Chazz's forehead was damp now.
The feeling of waiting to die was becoming very literal.
Especially with this infuriating nobody narrating each piece of Exodia aloud just to grind at his composure.
It was like being walked to the chopping block, watching the blade come down on the person ahead of you, and knowing you were next in line.
Two pieces down. Three to go.
"Graceful Charity, second activation. Draw three, discard two."
Rowan played another copy of the same card without ceremony, drew three more from the deck, and discarded two.
"Upstart Goblin. You already know this one."
He activated it without elaborating, drew one card, and Chazz's life points climbed again from 6000 to 7000.
Nearly double the starting total.
An extra life's worth of cushion, sitting there completely useless.
Chazz would have gladly traded it.
He would have preferred the card drain a thousand from him directly if it meant Rowan drew one fewer card.
That was how far things had tilted.
"The third Spell Card this chain means both Libraries are back to three counters," Syrus called from the sideline, putting it together before anyone else could say it.
Even he could see what was coming.
"Monster effect."
Rowan swept his hand across the field.
Six green gems blazed to life across the two Libraries, then dissolved into twin streams of light that poured back into the top of his deck.
"I remove three Spell Counters from each Royal Magical Library and draw two cards."
Two cards came up.
Rowan looked at them.
One had a golden chained left arm on it. The corner of his mouth rose slightly.
"He drew another piece?!" The reaction was simultaneous. Chazz, Alexis, Jaden, all of them read it on his face at the same moment.
Ding. Emotion Points from Chazz Princeton: +400.
Chazz's two lackeys had quietly grabbed onto each other in the background, both pale.
"Chazz, your life points are a candle in the wind."
The system chime was still ringing pleasantly in his ears.
Rowan looked down at the eight cards now in his hand and kept moving.
"Spell Card activation. One Day of Peace. Both players draw one card from their decks, and until the end of your next turn, all damage either player takes becomes zero."
"There's a card that does that?!" Alexis stared.
She was well-versed in most cards that saw competitive play.
But this one, One Day of Peace, she had never encountered. Not even in theory.
No one else in the room had either.
The Six Samurai deck that originally carried this card was sleeping somewhere unknown in this GX era, buried and forgotten.
Only Rowan had it, courtesy of the system's version of the Dark Magician deck.
"One Day of Peace resolves. We both draw one."
Rowan drew with a smile.
Chazz drew through his teeth, staring daggers across the field.
"You're somewhat lucky. The last two Exodia pieces are still somewhere in my remaining seventeen cards."
He said it with mild disappointment.
Chazz felt no relief whatsoever.
Seven Spell Cards.
Three Upstart Goblins, one Pot of Greed, two Graceful Charities, one One Day of Peace.
Combined with two activations of the Libraries' effects. Rowan had pulled sixteen cards from his deck in a single turn.
Add the five opening cards and the standard turn-one draw, and the total came to twenty-two.
One turn.
The deck was down to eighteen cards.
Chazz's fist was tight enough to leave marks.
And it was not over.
"Third Graceful Charity. Draw three, discard two."
Rowan produced a third copy, drew three more from the deck, and sent two to the graveyard.
The Duel Disk absorbed them in a quiet flash of light.
"Both Libraries are at two counters again. One more Spell Card and I draw twice."
He looked through his eight-card hand without any urgency and held up another familiar card.
One Day of Peace.
"You already know what this does, Chazz."
The sweat on Chazz's palms had gone cold.
He was starting to think about running.