I Became My Healer Elf Character-Chapter 96: House of Cards

Kurayami suddenly looked to the sky before turning her head to Hikari. "Master, did you feel that?"

"Yes, that was a lot of magic power, and it came from the direction of the Misty Isles."

The dragon nodded. "Do you want me to go take care of it?"

"No," Hikari said, "I still intend on having Amelia take care of her sister. If I end up doing everything for her, I'm sure she'll never forgive herself." Hikari looked around the room they were given after their briefing. "Besides, we should think of this as a vacation and use it as an opportunity to enjoy ourselves."

The elf sighed and looked towards her angel. "On second thought, you should go inform Amelia of the situation. It will be awkward if we run into her sister, but she's not there. You can take those kids back with you to my domain. When everything is all over, we'll go back there to meet up."

Akari bowed. "Yes, My Lady. It will be done."

Following that, the angel left out of the small door into the ship.

"They're always so serious," Ayase said. "You really do take after a certain skeleton king with those subordinates. Are you going to turn to the dark side?"

Hikari glared at the witch. "No, besides, we should have fun while we're here. As you know, I've constructed things like chess boards…"

"Mistress, please wait. I have a gift to give you!" The vampire pulled a deck of cards from her own inventory.

Hikari grabbed it and could only smile wryly from her face on the box. She reached in, expecting to pull out queens of herself with card suits. However, what she pulled out was a completely different game than expected.

"Mizuko and I thought of a new game, Master. I hope you will like it."

The elf thumbed through the different card designs. She recognized all of them as monsters she'd either done combat against or tamed at some point. All of them had life points and defense points, reminding the elf of a certain dueling game.

"Wow, you both came up with this on your own?"

Ayase shook her head. "They had my help, too! Let's just say that I took a little inspiration from card games in our home land. I call this one the Hikari deck! It's got spells and light monsters, combining some of your subordinates in there too."

Hikari was surprised by the quality of the drawings. Each drawing was almost a perfect replica of the real life version, only that they were more of an anime art style. "Who drew all of this?"

Ayase raised her hand. "That would be me, of course."

"I had no idea you could even draw this well. Did you learn this while you were over here?"

Ayase shook her head. "I started drawing on Earth because my mother wanted me to try it, but I didn't master the craft until I became bored in this world."

"Is there anything else you mastered that I should be aware of?"

The witch shrugged. "Drawing, painting, literature, knitting, and a bunch of other things. It shouldn't be surprising. Besides, you seem to be good at most things that you try."

"That's because I'm more of a master of none."

"That's not true!" Kurayami retorted. "You're the master of all. Master, you should play this game against me first! I have my own deck!"

"Alright," Hikari said, pulling out the small rule book inside of the box. She began reading over the rules, noticing that it was similar to two different games at the same time.

Each players starts off with 10,000 life points. The first one to lose all of them is the loser.

Players take turns based off an initial coin flip to decide who goes first.

At the start of the game, each player draws 6 cards and 1 more at the start of each turn.

The first player cannot attack on their first turn.

Each player must play environmental cards to be able to play monster cards. Spell cards require gems that increase by 1 each turn.

Monster cards are placed in attack or defense position and can only be placed when they have enough environment to summon them. When a monster card is attacked in attack position, the monster with the higher attack points wins. Subtract life points from the losing player based off the difference.

A monster card attacked in defense position will use the defense number instead, and the player who loses that battle cannot lose life points, unless otherwise stated by another card.

Spell cards can only be played if one has both the gems and the environment to play them in. Spell cards never consume the environment and can be played at any time from the hand. Each player gains 1 gem per turn, up to a maximum of 7.

Finally, every card that is defeated will be sent to the void and cannot be summoned again until the next game. Unless, someone plays a card that resurrects them.

Hikari smiled at the rules, noting the subtle differences between this game and the others she remembered.

"You all really went out of your way to make these. I'm sure these would make a lot of money over here. I could have that man make copies of them, and then we could spread this game around in our free time."

Ayase nodded. "You've not even seen the best part of this game yet."

Hikari looked towards the dragon who was waiting in anticipation. "Then, shall we?"

The dragon nodded and pulled out a coin that Hikari hadn't seen before. It was similar to the golden coins from [Gensuba]. Only this time, it had Hikari's face on it.

Kurayami flipped the coin into the air and called heads, yet it landed on the other side—a cute depiction of Kurayami's tail. "Ah, looks like Master goes first."

The dragon placed, the coin onto the table. Incredibly, it started glowing before spreading out into an entire small arena.

Hikari widened her eyes at the magic display. The arena was a white with golden trimmings. On each player's side there was a spot to place their decks. A black, swirling void stayed at the top left, and there was spaces for monsters and environments and spells. At the very top of her side, Hikari noticed that there was empty purple gem sockets. One of them lit up as she began her turn and placed down her deck.

The elf couldn't help but marvel at the display. "Wow, you girls really went all out on everything here."

"We would never make a sorry game for Master. Anything presented to Master must be at least of this quality."

The elf chuckled and began the game by drawing 6 cards. A light in the middle left lit up saying which phase it was. The word 'draw' was highlighted. She drew another card and looked over her hand.

On the first turn, she'd drawn three of the same environment and an angel that only took one environment to summon, along with 3 spell cards. Hikari placed her environment down in the zone meant for them.

Rays of white light shone from the card, creating a small projection. In the next phase when she placed the monster, Hikari noticed the true craziness of this game.

The white angel with 6 wings floated from the card in attack position. It carried a golden tipped spear and looked ready to abide by her command. The thing was so lifelike that the elf tried to touch it, but her hand simply slipped through the creature.

Ayase grinned smugly. "Impressed? I enchanted every single card of all of our decks personally. You have no idea how long it took to make them."

"When did you even find the time to start making these?"

"It was around when we first left that harbor city when I got the idea. I figured it would be nice to have something to do while we traveled, and the other girls pitched in their ideas, too."

"How many games of this have you tried?" The elf asked.

"We've played a few games, but none of us have touched your deck, so feel free to say if the balance is off. I can always work out some tweaks once we figure everything out. Consider this a prototype."

Kurayami grinned. "Alright, Master! I am going to finally beat you in a board game, so get ready!" The dragon went full chuuni and whipped a card from her hand as if she was the protagonist of a card dueling anime. "I summon a dark environment! And I play this card in attack position!"

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Hikari tried to resist laughing, but it was proving a challenge as she covered her mouth. In all honesty, she found it quite endearing and cute that her dragon had gotten so into a game. It was common for the dragon to get enticed in board games, and it make the elf happy to see that she enjoyed something else. She always wanted the dragon to thrive on her own and find her own hobbies she could enjoy.

Like that the game continued for several turns. Cards were sucked into the void when they died, until the game ended overwhelmingly in Hikari's favor.

The elf smiled wryly at the girls. "Why did you all make my deck so overpowered? I think this will need a lot of tuning if it's to be fair and competitive." Noticing their expressions she waved her arms. "But don't get me wrong, the game is very fun! I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it!"