Blake pressed his lips into a line, realizing that they probably weren't going to come to a compromise. He then looked between the two of his companions.
"Can you guys play a card? I still don't have any low ones."
Elise nodded, while Myra shook her head once more. Seeing this Blake once again let out a sigh.
"...Let's just do what we can, and avoid using playing cards since we didn't do so in the beginning."
Myra spoke slowly.
"So... we skip another turn."
Blake shrugged his shoulders.
"It looks like this game was rigged to have us lose anyway. I don't see how we can win without losing so much if we don't get any playable cards."
And with that, they all gave up on their turn, clearly a bit dejected as they did so. It then became Jack's turn once more. He drew two more cards, the Ace and a 9. Though they weren't the most useful to him right now.
He placed down his 3, the last card he could play for free before attacking Blake again, slapping him in the face. His gauge went all the way down to 1. The next attack would get him out of the game.
The turns then switched over once more.
After drawing a card, Elise let out a sigh.
"I already have a 2, 3, and a 4. Do you guys really still not have any of them at all?"
Blake's eyelid twitched as he shook his head.
"...No."
Myra smiled bitterly and shook her head as well.
"I don't..."
Elise let out a long sigh.
"Maybe I can just use the three to destroy both of them?"
Blake's eyelid twitched.
"I guess so. It seems like this game was designed to be one that makes you use all of your playing cards in order to win. It's quite literally just like a pay-to-win game. The actual chances of getting a usable card are too low compared to the others."
[The game is completely fair! You can choose to use your own cards if you so wish, but you can win just as easily despite that!]
The corner of Blake's lip twitched.
"...Typical predatory gacha."
[What was that?]
Blake cleared his throat.
"Nothing, nothing."
In the end, Elise just summoned a 3 and used it to attack Jack's 3, destroying both of them. The board was empty once more. While the three of them were losing, they also realized it wasn't worth using so many cards just to win.
They just decided to hope that the random card they lost wasn't too bad.
With that, it became Jack's turn. He drew a King and a 4. Since his only playable card was a 4, he decided to use it and attack Blake to finish him off. Though, something strange occurred.
Instead of slapping him in the face like the last time he was attacked by a 4, it instead raised itself into the air and curled up for a moment. A clubs sign gradually materialized from the air, condensing into a black ball.
Blake furrowed his rows.
"What the fu-"
Suddenly, the black ball shot out an incredibly fast beam. Blake attempted to block with his arm but simply had no time to make it.
An ear-shattering bang resounded in the room.
Blake was completely blown out of his chair, slamming into the wall and forming a miniature crater. There was an indent in his chest, and at best, a few of his ribs were broken.
His eyes were wide open as he coughed up blood.
Myra immediately freaked out.
"Blake! No!"
Elise grit her teeth and clenched her fist.
"Fuck... we should've known the punishment wasn't going to be so simple."
Myra attempted to get out of her seat to go check on Blake, but before she could even get on her feet, she was pulled back down. With tears forming in her eyes, she continued trying to pull herself out, but to no avail.
"Blake! Are you ok? Blake!"
In response, Blake slowly raised one hand to lightly cover his chest. Through pained breaths, he spoke up.
"Still... alive... but fuck... that hurt..."
He grit his teeth trying to stand up, but slumped right after. Seeing this Elise cringed a little.
"Don't try to stand up. I'm not sure how much pain you're actually in right now, but you're not in any condition to stand. Maybe... try and go to sleep."
Blake blinked a few times and coughed another mouthful of blood.
"Oh, alright then."
He slowly closed his eyes. Elise let out a long sigh.
"It looks like he's still breathing... but we have to get out of this game soon if we want to help him."
Myra slowly nodded.
"A-Alright then."
As for Jack, he simply let out a laugh.
"Wow! This game really is so much fun."
Elise narrowed her eyes.
"Of course you're a bastard that enjoys the misery of others. I knew from the start there was something wrong with you."
Jack tilted his head to the side.
"No, no, no, you are misunderstanding! I like having fun when everyone else is also having fun! That's it! You guys are clearly having fun too!"
Myra appeared horrified.
"How could you?..."
Jack giggled while holding out his hands.
"Because it's fun! Why else?"
The air in the room changed quite a bit. Myra silently put down on Ace, which destroyed Jack's 4. From there, she took out a 2 from her playing deck. At the same time, Elise put down a 4.
Myra was the first to attack.
Though, instead of just slapping Jack across the face as it did with Blake, instead, it shot through the air like a knife and suddenly sliced off one of Jack's fingernails. Seeing this, Jack only stared at it and laughed.
"Wow! This really is fun!"
However, that fingernail along with the others was regrowing at a speed visible to the naked eye. The injury made Myra flinch, thinking that maybe this was too much.
"Wait, why is it doing that to him? Will he... die if we continue hitting him?"
Elise narrowed her eyes.
"It's fine! Maybe if that thing was a human then we should be concerned, but it clearly isn't! A normal human wouldn't be so unfazed after losing their fingernail!"
After saying that, she attacked with her 4, which also shot through the air like a knife and directly cut off his hand, sending it flying through the air. Seedy directly grabbed it with a vine before turning to look at the two to growl.
Once it expressed its anger, it tried to pick up Jack's stub and reconnect the hand together, but unfortunately, it didn't work out too well. After letting go, Jack's hand fell down onto the ground with a splat, all the while blood came out from his stub.
Seedy put two vines on its head, feeling distressed. Jack let out a small laugh seeing all this.
"What are you trying to do Seedy? It won't come back on anymore! But you can eat it. You like it, don't you?"
Seedy picked up the hand with a sad look. After giving the bleeding hand a hug, he ate it as told. Along with that, a gauge appeared next to Jack, displaying a 14.
At this point, Myra's eyes widened all the way.
"W-We're definitely going to kill him at this rate!"
Elise narrowed her eyes.
"Well, we don't have a damn choice, alright? It's either him or us! If we all end up like Blake, then who the hell's supposed to save the others?"
Myra found herself unable to respond after hearing that. As for Jack, he simply let out a giggle, holding out his stub in excitement.
"Wow, it's so great that everyone is having so much fun! This is great!"
The stub on his hand was already regrowing itself. Bones were the first thing to grow out, jutting out a bit awkwardly as flesh wrapped itself around them. While it would take a while for the injury to heal, it looked like things would happen quickly enough.
Now that it was Jack's turn, he drew two more cards, a Jack and a 6.
The first thing he did was steal Elise's 4, before using it as a sacrifice to summon a 6. Then, he attacked Myra's 2. The 6 sliced through the 2 before hitting Myra in the face.
Her gauge went down to 16.
With that, he ended his turn. When it switched over to Elise and Myra's turn, they were on standby. Eventually, Elise spoke up.
"Do you have an Ace?"
Myra shook her head slowly.
"...No."
Elise immediately began biting on her thumbnail.
"What the fuck is this bullshit? The game is clearly rigged against us, how are we supposed to do anything if the cards on our side get stolen? Fuck, even if we play a card, it's only going to help him!"
She wasn't wrong. The only cards that they would be able to play would range from 2 to 4. That wasn't enough to deal with a 6, and would only destroy their own cards on the attack. Perhaps if they were able to attack directly, then they would have a chance, or maybe an Ace to clear the field.
Unfortunately, they had already thrown away their chances when they didn't use playing cards beforehand while all three of them were still up. Now that they were in this position, there was very little chance that Jack could still lose.
Elise and Myra looked at each other with trepidation.