"Counter-bluff!"
Naturally, the opponent's choice was also the one he had the most confidence in.
In truth, from Ekko's Challenge earlier, it was clear that the opponent could no longer remember his real pieces.
But with the opponent counter-bluffing, if Ekko conceded, both sides would return to the same starting line.
At that point, the opponent had merely forgotten some pieces, while Ekko would be completely thrown into chaos by the endless possible arrangements.
He had only one chance to win.
Right now.
He had to guess that one-in-three chance correctly.
"Banner, sword, crown…"
When he said crown, Ekko's eyelid suddenly twitched.
It was a warhammer piece.
Ekko let out a helpless breath and lowered his head.
He had guessed wrong.
Lady Luck had not favored him.
Now, he had to hand that Hextech Gemstone over to the opponent.
"Give it to me."
A greedy look appeared on the old man's face.
That made Ekko feel worse than if he had swallowed a whole bowl of flies.
For a scientific genius, handing over the result of his and his colleagues' hard work…
He would rather be killed.
Ekko clenched his fists hard, his entire body trembling.
But as if possessed, he still handed over that shining Hextech Gemstone.
The old man's face was covered with an irrepressible smile.
He had truly returned with a full haul.
Chuckling cheerfully, he was just about to take the Gemstone and stand up to leave.
However, another hand pressed down on him.
"One more game. I'll play you."
There was a faint smile in Caleb's eyes, leaving everyone around them somewhat dumbfounded.
"Sure, but you have to make them leave."
The old man's gaze flickered slightly, then he spoke.
Of course, he was afraid Caleb would cheat by coordinating with the surrounding people to remember his pieces.
After all, there was strength in numbers. If the other side was determined to cheat, it was only seven kinds of hand signals.
The surrounding crowd would be able to see his every move each time.
Naturally, the room had to be cleared.
The old man had already used up his trump cards.
"Everyone out. Wait for me to bring your things back."
"Please!"
Ekko slapped Caleb heavily on the shoulder, then led the crowd out through the door.
Inside the empty tavern, Caleb looked at the opponent's eerie smile and smiled as well.
"Mage, you'll play this game properly with me, won't you?"
The opponent's expression was somewhere between a smile and not a smile, and that huge mouth of his stood out especially sharply.
"Of course. I won't disappoint you, Two-Coats."
Caleb sat down as well, his expression calm.
"Heh, heh, heh… As expected of the Governor. You truly are different from ordinary people."
"That kid is already a rare talent, but you surprise me even more. Keh, keh, keh, keh…"
"This time, I'll bet my life!"
Caleb said it almost without hesitation.
As for that strange noise coming from the opponent's throat, Caleb acted as though he could not hear it at all.
"Interesting… Truly interesting…"
"Start already. Enough nonsense."
Caleb arranged his seven pieces in order.
For other people, remembering these sequences would be troublesome.
But for Caleb, who spent every day grinding through that magic book like it was Magic: From Beginner to Grave, this was honestly very simple.
The only troublesome part was the opponent's tongue.
"Swap."
Sure enough, the opponent used that long tongue again.
Caleb calmly picked up two pieces and swapped them without the slightest panic.
"Hmm?"
As the pieces landed on the soft pad, the opponent's brows instantly twisted together.
Three pieces had actually landed at the same time?
Even if the other party had picked up two pieces with one hand at once, the old man did not believe Caleb could fool him.
"Bluff!"
After the old man once again used his long tongue to swap positions, Caleb finally spoke.
Sure enough, he had taken the bait.
The old man could not help splitting his huge mouth open and laughing.
"Banner, scales…"
He had used his tongue to swap the order right from the start. Caleb would only become more and more confused.
As the old man spoke, Caleb also flipped over his own pieces.
However, the old man suddenly felt a chill, because the first two pieces he had been so confident about were both wrong.
That meant that in this wager, the other side had scored three points first.
What was going on? Why had this happened?
"You were paying too much attention to the arcane energy surging inside me, as well as the greed permeating this entire area."
Caleb was still seated upright in his chair, smiling.
"Steed, sword, scales, warhammer, shield, banner, crown."
"Am I right?"
This time, the shock on the old man's face could no longer be restrained.
With trembling hands, he placed the iron sword and the Hextech Gemstone on the table, then tried to leave.
But a flash of blade light that illuminated the entire tavern room interrupted him.
"Tahm Kench, you've got some nerve, coming into my territory to run wild and feed."
Youmuu's Ghostblade appeared in Caleb's hand, a faint layer of cherry blossoms swirling around it.
"You really are interesting. No wonder when I played against you, your desire was almost as still as an untouched well."
There was no tall, thin old man anymore. All that remained in place was a fat, flattened, oversized catfish.
His two whiskers drooped beside that huge mouth, and his small green eyes glared viciously at Caleb.
"I'm warning you, boy. The whole world's a river, and I am the king of that river."
Tahm had not come here with Hextech as his goal.
What he had been feasting on was people's greed.
The burning gazes of those gamblers just now, and Ekko's desire to win even more…
All of it had been very enjoyable for him.
Only that one round against Caleb had tasted like wax.
"I still can't figure it out. You were clearly looking at my eyes, so how did you guess everything correctly?"
Tahm also found it unbelievable.
With three pieces, swapping two of them created three possible outcomes.
And in the five turns after the opening, Tahm had chosen Swap without exception.
Altogether, there were two hundred and forty-three possible swap sequences.
How had Caleb been so certain?
Tahm had already confirmed it. Caleb had not used any Rune Magic.
So where exactly had the problem come from?
Caleb extended his left hand. At his sleeve opening, a small little hand and a floating eyeball entered Tahm's field of vision.
"So you used blood magic?"
Tahm said regretfully.
The opponent must have taken advantage of the moment when all of his attention was focused on that short white-haired kid and grown new tissue.
No wonder he had been so confident, only to get slapped in the face by Caleb instead.
Those three sounds had not come from one hand holding two pieces at all.
It had been three hands, each holding one.
"Heh, heh… Young man, you look barely over twenty."
Tahm was also an old demon, and he had seen no shortage of brilliant talents.
Someone who could leave even a shallow cut on his thick hide, while also having magical power surging inside his body, was truly a genius rarely seen in a thousand years.
"I'm telling you, quit while you're ahead. Let's call it here. Peace is better than tearing up your own house…"
Although Tahm was facing off against Caleb inside this bar, he did not feel any heartache. The bar was not his.
"There are limits to what humans can become. Given time, you will surely amount to something…"
Before Tahm could finish speaking, he suddenly felt the aura in the room change completely.
The sinister presence he released after revealing his demonic true form was actually being suppressed by another, even stranger aura.
Blood surged out of Caleb's entire body, building into a presence completely different from his usual self.
"It's coming from there!"
Tahm's eyes naturally locked onto that spear. The heart on the spear was pounding violently, its sound clear and audible, like a war drum.
"Die!"
The moment the spear entered his hand, Caleb took just one step, and the sonic boom it produced shattered every window in The Last Drop.
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