212 The Tortoise's Struggle

"Seeing how Yue Han went all in, Kong Xian followed suit! He is throwing down everything as well!" Mr Patsu, the penguin massage therapist NPC, who was now an announcer in Auditorium One shouted to hype the crowd and indeed he did. The customers who were first slouching to watch in the auditorium were creeping to the edge of their seats to see this particular battle unfold right in front of their eyes.

"Kong Xian did not even flinch at such an aggressive attack!" Bear Cub One, the co-announcer beside Mr Patsu added his comments which made some of the customers rooting for Kong Xian. Meanwhile, more customers streamed in and were even more startled because of the noise the crowd in Auditorium One was making.

"Defence Up! Evasion Up! Counterattack Up!" Kong Xian frantically selected each card and swiped them up. Being Defensive in cultivation made Kong Xian too cautious to put a proper balance in his choice of cards, but it seemed that he had made the right choice doing so when it was up fighting against Yue Han.

As the Defence Up card enlarged and moved to the right for the other cards, Evasion Up, lit up and magnified, a ballerina silhouette figure in the card design appeared. It was later followed by the Counterattack Up which card design was of a silhouette of a knight piercing his lance to a black silhouette figure that smashed its sword on the knight's shield.

However, something extraordinary happened! The Counterattack Up card shone even more brightly than any card that a pillar of light materialised on to the card. "OOHHHHH!!! Critical Draw!! Player Kong Xian had managed to activate a Critical Draw from his cards!"Mr Patsu shouted and this made the customers even more curious.

"Critical Draw is a random event when the feelings of the pet and its master's actions aligned!" Bear Cub One exclaimed. "It is possible only when the Pet felt the same way as its master's actions which allowed the critical draw to activate, causing the Counterattack card effects to be two times more effective than usual! Two times!" Bear Cub One continued which compelled some customers who were previously rooting for Kong Xian to cheer loudly.

The Towering Tortoise did not disappoint as two out of three cards effects combined causing the mountain on its shell to suddenly spew smoke, creating a smoke screen effect that made the Blind Bat's accuracy and speed drop as it flew towards the tortoise.

"Hahaha! How would the smoke screen affect the accuracy of a blind bat?" A customer rooting for Yue Han shouted back at Mr Patsu and his answer was simple. "Well, its magic of cards. Believe in the cards."

"Your answer stinks." Bear Cub One retorted after which the customers laughed, but Mr Patsu did not care and continued with commenting.

"Hahaha! Even if you reduce it's accuracy and speed, remember my pet is a bat!" Yue Han said to Kong Xian to show that his efforts were fruitless. Indeed, even in the midst of the smokescreen which was created by the combination of its Defence Up and Evasion Up card, the bat still managed to pinpoint the location of the tortoise because of its innate echolocation skills. It just required more time to find the tortoise to attack.

The moment it found the slow moving tortoise, it sped up and dealt its attack. The tortoise who was trying to escape could not outrun the flying bat and was bitten by the bat. Not only that, the bat managed to cause a critical wound since the bat bit on its tail, a vital spot of the tortoise, and even the tortoise was inflicted with a bleeding condition.

It was at that moment, Kong Xian was smirking away which made Yue Han worried. "I did not expect the smokescreen but it seemed that it helped my pet to buy some time." Kong Xian said with confidence.

"What are you talking about? Your pet is bleeding to death as we speak." Yue Han replied with atinge of fear in him.

"Tsk tsk, not if your pet dies first. Towering Tortoise counter attack now!" Kong Xian commanded and his tortoise pet shouted, clearing the smoke screen effect. From the small mountain on its shell, everyone in Auditorium One could see that it was brimming with red boiling liquid. It seemed that the Critical Draw allowed the pet to activate one of its ability that usually required a technique card to allow the pet to attack.

"Go now! Volcano Blaster!" Kong Xian followed what was written on the Pandamonium pet app interface in his phone as he shouted with confidence. The bleeding towering tortoise gave a menacing look at the equally broken bat and aimed its shell at it.

"Evade with all your strength Blind Bat!" Yue Han shouted but it was too late as the lava blasted out the tortoise shell was spewing on the entire arena that even caused the ground to burn. If not for the fact that the blind bat was flying, it would have been in a hot mess. Unfortunately, one of the lava blasts succeeded to hit the bat causing it to drop to the ground on a puddle of hot lava.

The health bar on Yue Han's phone swiftly reduced to nothing and the battle was concluded. Bu Dong who was watching the battle on the side while choosing his cards clapped his hands at the current battle. The customers in Auditorium One who were watching clapped for an equally fantastic battle that could only be seen in Jin's shop.

Suddenly, two new cards appeared in front of Kong Xian and so was Yue Han. However, for Yue Han's case, he was only allowed to choose one of the two for keeping. "Hahaha, the cards are a no brainer for my next match!" Kong Xian laughed as he saw one of the cards was the volcanic blaster that was used recently.

"Wow, you can earn more cards just by battling?!" A customer saw the cards being given out to them at the end of the battle. "Yes, not only that, if you cannot find any player to fight, you can fight our monster's mini pet too!" Mr Patsu said.

"Can we do two versus two battles too?" A female customer asked as she wanted to fight alongside her boyfriend and Mr Patsu said it was allowed which made the customer excited and she rushed off to buy the card packs.

"Boss Jin, I know you like to take our money but this is too much. I have a family of two to feed and now I have to take care of my new pet on my shoulder?" The male office worker cried his woes out.

"I am sorry to hear that. Please buy responsibly." Jin bowed his head a little but his friend had already dragged him up to the second floor. "What are you crying for! Quick, let's buy the cards and try it out!"

"But my allowance for meals!" The male office worker cried out.

"Screw that! Just eat grass for the next two weeks until our salary comes in again."His friend persuaded him effortlessly and brought him up to the upper floors.

"Good fight," Bu Dong commented as he was at the corner arranging his final choice of cards."You want to fight with me?" Kong Xian was beaming with confidence.

"How about I fight both of you?" Bu Dong gave out a challenge which both of them could not refuse. "You are on! Oh but eh, is it allowed?" Yue Han asked but even Bu Dong shrugged his shoulders.

"The only way to find out is to try it out." Bu Dong did a long jump with his new Grade 4 cultivation and prepared his cards while the other two took the sides of the room. At this point, the interface showed an option. "two versus one?" which all three readily pressed on that 'Yes' button.

The room suddenly expanded sideways the moment all three of them pressed 'Yes' and the floor which was damaged by the lava previously was patched up. "This is beginning to be my favourite part of Boss Jin's shop." Yue Han said even though he lost terribly in the previous game.

"Same goes for me. At this rate, I need to work part time again to feed this new hobby." Kong Xian agreed with Yue Han.

"Just remember not to neglect your cultivation." Bu Dong reminded them as he pulled out his cards from the deck.

"LET'S BATTLE!!!" All three shouted at each other once more.

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