EPISODE 1: GAIUS
Glancing to his left, Tian was aware of the sun slowly setting in the distance out of the window as the crowd grew even larger. He turned back to face his opponent. Gaius van Balesar, elite triple triad and commander of the Praetorium outpost, would this day finally meet his match. In the distance an explosion sounded, and Tian was momentarily distracted. Gaius saw him flinch, and allowed a small grin to slip from behind his mask.
"Truly powerful men do not flinch at explosions..." he mocked, "and today you will learn what a truly powerful man can do with a deck of cards. I am the superior card player after all. The weak need to be led by the strong, and there is nothing stronger than my opening card..."
He selected his card and raised his hand high up in the air. The wind howled around him as in a blinding flash he brought his hand down and placed the Terra Branford card down at the base of the board, her double ace side exposed and impenetrable. Inexplicably he also turned gold. But that was irrelevant. What mattered was the card he had played.
"A double ace to start?" Tian wasnt surprised. That a military commander would pride himself on such a defensive opening made perfect sense.
"A double ace to begin your defeat..." Gaius condescend, so certain was he of victory. "None have bested me in the Praetorium, and you shall not be the first"
"Nobody has bested you here because nobody wants to come here, it's long and it's boring, just like your diatribe. And your strange obsession with Cid. Now focus on the game" Tian placed his first card down opposite the Terra card. A 3 star double 8 corner piece. He confident its double 8 would not be beaten as Gaius had already played his 5 star card, thus the rest if his deck must be 3 star, and no 3 star has higher than an 8.
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Lead Iest
Phoenix [Light]
"Damn, I should have checked the roulette rules". Tian quickly set about overcoming the advantage, but the best he could manage was to go card for card for the next few turns. He was unable to overcome the setback of the first turn, and despite his best efforts, he was staring down a 6-4 scoreline with only one move left for him to make. Gaius had been ruthless in protecting his lead and realistically with only 3 spaces left on the board, it was looking like this was going to go the way of the arrogant commander.
Tian surveyed the board, as Gaius contemplated his penultimate move. 3 squares remained unoccupied. The centre piece, unusually, and the two remaining slots next to Terra on the bottom row. Gaius brought his hand to the deck and took out his choice of card. He placed it down in the centre of the deck, and began to laugh. It was his own card. The arrogant General had cheated, and played his second 5 star of the game, capturing one of Tians cards and leaving the match at 7-3 with one move left to play.
"You cant do that...! You cant play two 5 star cards in one game Gaius Gaius you cheater!"
Lead Iest
Phoenix [Light]
Tian looked at the cards remaining in his hand and the board. The Gaius card had a weak underbelly, a soft 5 that could be taken, or he could recapture his own lost card on the right of the board but either of those moves would still leave him 6-4 down and there was no guarantee Gaius wouldn't be able to capture him with his final move.
Tian closed his eyes while searching desperately for inspiration. His sweaty fingers clutched his cards and he felt his heart rate increase as he stared at them.
"20 seconds..." announced the timer, signalling he had to move soon...
"Hydalyn, I need your aid... I cannot let this man win or it will spell doom for all of Eorzas triple triad tournaments..."
A voice came to him, ghostly, crystalline, echoing out of the darkness... "Flip the board and walk away..."
'Great! Brilliant advice... just flip the board over like a sore loser...!' Tian shook his head. There must be a way out... the voice came again, stronger this time... more urging... "Flip the board Tian..." he looked up, and saw the ghostly visage of his former love Minfilia, standing behind Gaius. She looked down at him smiling and mouthed the words "Trust me..."
Tian took hold of the edges of the board with both hands and prepared to throw it into Gaius and run. He was quickly stopped by the voice "What the fuck are you doing?"
"I'm flipping the board like you said..."
"I didnt say to flip the board..." said Gaius, confused.
"No not you, the voice..."
Lead Iest
Phoenix [Light]
"Never mind..."
"You have 10 seconds Tian... make your move and surrender to the might of the Garlean triple triad society!"
Tian looked once more at his cards. It was then that inspiration struck. He had a Squall card. Alone it could flip Gaius and protect itself, but because of the roulette rule, it could do so much more.
Tian places the card down next to Terra Branford. Gaius began to cackle. His moment had come. The cards lit up, and the Gaius card was flipped and then time seemed to stop. Gaius suddenly found he had mo more chuckle left as he looked at the board. A feeling of dread rose from his stomach.
"Looks like you should have checked the roulette rules too Gaius" said Tian, smirking as his master stroke came to fruition. "The second rule we are playing is Fallen Ace, and by my count, that makes your Terra Branford card mine..."
Lead Iest
Phoenix [Light]
"You... you cant have... you must have cheated!!" Gaius screamed. He placed his final card down and the board lit up to declare Tian the winner and the recipient of one the cards Gaius owned.
"I dont need to cheat to beat the likes of you Gaius. And you couldn'even best me with cheating so what does that say about you? Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking that card..." and with that he reached forward and plucked the Gaius card from the centre of the board. He tucked it into the deck keeper in his pocket and turned away.
"Will you at least care for my card?" pleaded Gaius. The once intimidating General reduced to a sobbing mess...
"To be honest, I'll probably never use it..." Tian said without looking back... he walked slowly over to the door and paused for a moment. "But... I suppose it's nice to have since it's rare..." he said as he left the building and stepped out into the dusk. The moonlight illuminated a shadowy silhouette running towards him, and Tian immediately recognised it as Alphinaud.
"Tian, thank the 12 I found you. We need to go to Coerthas immediately. The dragons are in open revolt and attacking the settlements..."
"Good..." mused Tian... "I still need to collect the Nidhogg card anyway..."
BY TIAN SHI @ PHOENIX