"Isn't she going to step in and stop this dispute?" Betty asked in confusion.
"How could that be? The North has always been quite open about this sort of thing." The boy shrugged. "It's already good enough that she isn't fanning the flames."
"In the North, it's very common to settle things through duels to win a woman's mating rights."
"When the two of them started arguing earlier, that general's son, Wardson, already declared he wanted to duel Rowell. But Rowell is only a Tier 2 warrior, so he refused."
"Then Wardson should've won, right?" one of Betty's friends asked curiously.
"It's not that simple." The boy laughed. "Rowell said this is the Royal Capital—problems shouldn't be solved with brute force, but with intelligence."
"Even the Empire's three great generals don't rely solely on strength. They also need exceptional command talent."
"So they decided to use a more 'fair' method to determine the winner."
"A fair method?" Betty looked puzzled.
She saw the three people in the center of the field separate. Several people ran over from the teaching building carrying three long tables, placing them between the two boys in an '工'-shaped formation.
Behind each of them stood a wooden board frame two to three meters tall, used to pin up sheets of paper—though it wasn't clear what they were for yet.
Seeing their confusion, the boy beside Betty grinned. "Have you heard of Magic Duel? Or Element Cards?"
"Of course. Element Cards have been really popular lately—they were invented by His Highness, the Seventh Prince, Ron André," Betty nodded.
"They're planning to settle this with a Magic Duel." The boy gestured toward the center. "See that? The person in the middle is responsible for dealing the hands."
"There are also people who will record the players' hands on large sheets and hang them on those wooden frames so everyone around can supervise."
"According to traditional rules, whoever takes three hits first loses a round. It's best of three, and ties go into extra rounds."
Betty's eyes lit up. She found this format quite interesting and immediately focused on the center.
Their position was diagonally behind Rowell, the grandson of the Duke of the Eastern Territory, allowing them to clearly see the five cards he had just drawn.
After dealing the cards, the host flipped over the top card of the deck as Rowell's random attack card.
Rowell could choose to use this card directly to attack or replace it with one from his hand.
In addition, he could fuse one of his hand cards with the random attack card to form a composite spell, or discard the random attack card and instead use two cards from his hand to form a composite spell for the attack.
Four possible attack methods—he could choose any one.
Rowell chose to combine his hand card Fire Dragon Spell with the random attack card Heavenly Water Column, forming the lightning-element spell Heavenly Thunder Dragon.
After the host announced this, Wardson immediately lowered his head and began rubbing his cards, thinking about how to respond.
"The most cost-effective defense would be the earth-element spell Rock Rampart Shield. Same magic tier, excellent defense, and it won't waste high-level cards," Betty said after a brief moment of thought.
The boy beside her looked at her in surprise. "You understand this, too?"
Betty found it odd. "Why? Am I not allowed to?"
"It's not that." The boy chuckled awkwardly. "It's just that girls usually prefer simpler playstyles, like stacking defense. Not many are willing to memorize the Magic Duel compatibility chart."
"I'm fairly good with magic. That chart isn't hard to memorize," Betty replied modestly.
At this moment, Wardson had already played his defensive card. The host quickly opened the compatibility chart included with Element Card purchases and began checking the interaction.
After about ten seconds, the host announced, "Wardson successfully defends," prompting a smug smile from Wardson.
"He'd rather spend a top-tier card like Hurricane Tornado than use a few lower-tier cards to cycle through the deck. That's not a wise choice," Betty shook her head.
"Unless the rest of his hand is equally strong, he's going to have a hard time against Rowell's current setup."
The defending side, lacking a random attack card bonus, could perform two consecutive defenses.
If they truly couldn't block the opponent's attack, they could use those two defenses to burn weaker cards and then replenish stronger ones at the end of the turn.
Wardson clearly hadn't learned this technique—he opened by throwing out his strongest card.
At the end of the first round, both players refilled their hands to five cards from the host and moved into the next round.
As expected, the match unfolded just as Betty predicted—Wardson was completely overwhelmed by Rowell.
Rowell took the first round decisively with a 3–0 victory.
In the second round, although Wardson drew the random attack card Element God — Element and the hand card Magic God — Magico, dealing two hits to Rowell—
He was still turned around in the end, with Rowell making a difficult comeback to win 3–2.
Best of three—Rowell secured two consecutive wins and ended the match early.
"He drew both trump cards and still couldn't win…"
Betty felt a bit disappointed. "Even though those two cards are highly offensive, when you get them in hand, you can hold them for a finishing move—or even use them to block a fatal hit if necessary."
"Playing Magic God — Magico immediately after drawing it… that's just poor technique…"
"And even after playing them, he already secured two attack points with Element God and Magic God. He only needed one more to win the round, yet he still failed."
When attacked by Element God, the defender must use four cards of the same rank but different suits to block it. As for Magic God, it requires five cards forming a straight flush.
These were almost impossible attacks to defend against.
And if held for defense, they were practically unbeatable.
Even with such favorable conditions, Wardson still couldn't seize the opportunity—it only proved he hadn't put real effort into Magic Duel.
"Betty… keep your voice down…" her friend tugged at her sleeve.
Betty immediately fell silent, realizing she shouldn't say more.
If Wardson overheard her criticism, it wouldn't end well…
And just then, the situation suddenly spiraled out of control—
"Damn you, Wardson! You dare hit me!?"
"Rowell, watch out!"
"Wardson, stop! Don't be reckless!"
"The teacher's coming!"
Boom— the crowd instantly scattered like startled birds.