Date- 5 April 2321
Time- 11:24
Location- Southern Region, Blossom district, Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse No.234
“So, should we get started,” Joe asked looking at Aba as she had declared to overlook their life-and-death duel.
“Sure, both of you take your positions,” Aba seemed to have experience refereeing for duels.
Following Aba’s command, Corey and Joe stood opposite to other while the others who tagged alone to witness their duel stood on the sidelines of the testing area, making space for the duel to take place. Seeing that everyone was in position Aba yelled, “Remember the regular rules of a life-and-death duel will be applied, if either of you two fails to follow them then Agatha will step in to conclude the duel, Understood?”
“Yes.” Joe and Corey answered in unison. As each of them glared at the other. Waiting for Aba to say the magic word.
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Getting the green signal, Joe immediately summoned his grimoire preparing to play his starter card but paused seeing that Corey did not summon her grimoire and was doing warm-up exercises while cracking her knuckles and neck joints. This confused Joe, causing him to wonder if a life-and-death duel meant something different in this part of the southern region. With every passing second Joe and the crowd were puzzled by Corey’s actions and wondered if she was missing a few nuts up there.
Forget others, they did not know what Corey was capable of but even Susan could not help but feel the same as them. That was because she would never be able to imagine that Corey, as a card master, was planning to fight a card grandmaster purely with the might of her physical body. If Susan knew what Corey was planning to do, she would definitely yell out loud, ‘Have you lost your mind? Or your origin card has finally pushed you to point of growing suicidal tendencies.’
Soon a minute passed and witnessing that Corey still had not summoned her grimoire Joe lost his calm and yelled, “Hey, what’s the hold-up? You do know that it is too late for you to forfeit the duel now.”
“Yes, I do. Duh,” Corey looked at Joe as if she was looking at a dumbass for even implying that she wanted to forfeit.
“…” the way Corey looked at him enraged Joe, but he did not let his anger control him. As much as he wanted to thrash Corey around using his cards, he knew this would not work in favor of his plan.
With the realm difference between Joe and Corey, this duel already seemed like him trying to bully Corey. Now, if he were to defeat a Corey who had not even summoned her grimoire it would only make him look worse in Aba’s eyes. Which would be contrary to everything he had worked for so far. Therefore Joe did not attack the defenseless Corey which was unlike him as he had no qualms about bullying the weak and those that could not defend themselves.
Frustrated Joe once again shouted at Corey asking, “Are you going to summon your grimoire or not?”
“No, I don’t need to summon my grimoire to defeat the likes of you. Come at me when you are ready,” Corey said nonchalantly while she cracked her neck joint.
Listening to Corey’s words Joe’s rage raised to a new level, he was very close to losing his calm, forgetting about looking like a bully in Aba’s eyes and just killing Corey and being done with it. However, Joe controlled his rage, as he could not mess this up.
This was his golden ticket to ascension. He never dreamed everything would fall in place just like how he used to fantasize. Now all he had to do was follow the plan, this was once in a lifetime opportunity for someone like him, and he did not dare to mess it up over a few insults and provocations. To make this happen Joe was willing to enter a pact with demons if he had to. He was prepared to sacrifice anything. Joe was willing to go all in to take a short cut then take the regular path.
“Girl, no matter how much confidence you have in your physical strength, I will not take the initiative to attack you, as this is not the way I wanted to fight for the honor of my family,” Instead of letting Corey’s action irritate him any further Joe decided to use it as an opportunity to show Aba that he was a just and righteous person fighting for the honor of his family and nothing more.
“Fine, if you can’t take initiative to attack me, then I will throw the first punch but I will warn you if I were to attack you then this duel will be over before you can even react,” Corey said hearing Joe say that if he would not attack her unless she summons her grimoire then she would.
“Aren’t you being too cocky? Do what you have to do, though I cannot attack a defenseless person, I can sure as well defend against a defenseless person,” Joe, himself, did not know what he meant by speaking those words, but he was trying his best to come off as heroic and someone with principles.
“Cocky? Whatever,” Saying that Corey hopped twice before vanishing from her spot and then she appeared in front of Joe and slammed her right fist on his chest.
The impact of Corey’s punch on Joe’s chest was blocked by a shield made of golden light. The shield was able to block Corey’s punch but under the influence of the force of her punch, Joe was lifted off the ground and thrown into the air. Then he fell to the ground however he appeared to be unharmed.
Seeing this Joe’s goons panicked, realizing that there was a huge error in their plan, they had underestimated the strength of the low-level card apprentice.
