The Ultimate Regressor System

"Heads."

Darian let a smile spread across his face as he said this, the Avallion speeding towards him while his expression remained excited.

Lucas stared at him anxiously...

Heads... heads meant he would fight.

Heads also meant he would win. He wasn’t sure if Darian was somehow predicting the future outcome, or was just saying to to add to the odds.

What he was sure of was that he had better win. And if the beast exploited any weaknesses, things will be bad.

[Skill Activated: Dead Man’s Hand.]

A spectral card flickered into existence above Darian’s outstretched palm, spinning once before landing face-up in the air between him and the diving Avalion.

The card flickered, spinning on its edge. Then a spade symbol appeared on it followed by the letter ’K’ on the same card.

"King."

The creature’s talons swept toward his chest, and the attack simply stopped...

It was not deflected, it was not blocked, it just stopped mere inches away from his skin, as though the strike had never carried any force behind it at all.

A sword materialized in Darian’s free hand in the same instant— silver and curved. He raised it up and swung, driving it forward in a motion that opened a gash along the Avallion’s chest.

"Told you," Darian said, unhurried, watching the creature shriek and stagger back. "Never lost."

Lucas watched with awe from where Yor knelt beside him, her pale healing light still gathering around his shoulder, and felt a strange mixture of surprise and unease settle into his chest as Darian pressed forward, clashing with the creature and emitting sparks from each collision.

"What...what just happened?" Lucas asked, eyes wide and still trying to process what he had just witnessed. Right before his eyes, the beast had charged at Darian at full speed and just...siezed to move. Like some unseen force held the beast at that very moment.

"That," Yor said without looking away from his injury. "Is his ability—one of it anyway."

"His ability draws a card every time he’s about to be hit," Yor said quietly, following Lucas’s gaze this time. "King negates and counters. Ace reflects the attack, Joker is a gamble in itself. And Bust—" She hesitated, eyes narrowing with worry. "Bust is bad."

"How bad?"

"You’ll see if it comes up." Then she spoke again, her voice quieter. "And I hope it doesn’t..."

The Avallion recovered fast, reared back and dove again, faster this time, and Darian’s card flickered once more as it spun it’s next card.

This time, once the card resolved, a picture of a clown in red and blue appeared. It’s grin so wide its eyes narrowed at the edges.

Darian smiled, failing to keep the excitement from showing on his face.

"Joker"

**BIFF**

The talons connected this time, raking a shallow line across Darian’s forearm, and his expression tightened as he felt the pain shoot up his arm.

However, as blood welled from the wound, something else bloomed alongside it, flame ignited suddenly bright along the length of his blade, orange light blooming faintly and painting the air where he stood.

"Interesting," Darian murmured, examining the newly ignited sword with a look of detached curiosity on his face . "This should work fine, I suppose."

He surged forward before the Avallion could fully recover its altitude, the flaming blade creating a wide burning arc across its wing.

"KRRAAAAH!!"

The creature shrieked, it’s voice climbing into a sharper tone as it thrashed hard, hard enough to send loose stone skittering across the courtyard floor the moment it fell to the ground.

Darian pressed on relentlessly, landing strike after strike which each on landing clean as the fight began tipping decisively in his favor with every passing second.

Then the Avallion lunged one more time, its jaws wide, and its talons reaching for another swipe. The card flickered, spinning on its edge again.

However, when the card resolved, a different symbol appeared on it.

The card had a spade symbol that was cracked horizontally, it’s edges looking like it was melting all the way to the bottom.

Darian gritted his teeth.

"Bust."

The talons connected fully this time. There was no negation, and no reflection. There was just the impact landing solid, hard enough to drive Darian backward several steps.

He forced himself to stop and took a shaky breath. Blood was already welling up and leaking through his wound across his chest where the strike had landed unopposed.

He barely got his blade up in time to avoid a follow-up strike and he was hit again, stumbling... momentarily frozen by whatever penalty the failed gamble had inflicted.

"That’s not good," Lucas said, his expression tightening.

So this was the effect of the bust card...

"He’ll be fine," Yor said, though her hands didn’t stop their work as she focused on against Lucas’ own wound. "He’s pulled that card at worse times and still walked away."

"For someone who just told me how bad it could be if he pulled a bust card, you sound quite nonchalant about this."

"I’ve watched him fight for weeks now. He’s never lost." She said, eyes still focused on his wound. "Trust me."

Darian recovered his footing just in time to raise his blade against the Avallion’s next dive, and the card flickered, spinning a third time.

Another Bust...

Lucas’s stomach dropped, his jaw tightening... "That’s two in a row."

The creature’s talons caught Darian across the ribs, and he grunted, staggering as blood began soaking fast through his shirt now, the accumulated damage of two failed gambles clearly taking its toll despite his composure.

He was frozen again, and the creature struck him a second time, the impact sending him flying in the air.

The Avallion didn’t wait...

It soared into the air after him and roared, slamming its tail into him with enough forced to drive him into the ground— the impact forming a crater on the courtyard floor.

Lucas’ heart thundered in his chest. He refused to believe that the man who Yor had told him had never lost a battle was about to lose one right before his eyes...

The dust cleared and he saw Darian stagger to his feet as he forced himself upright despite the pain and injuries. He raised his blade, the weapon rising in a defensive guard as he took shaky breaths and wiped the blood from his forehead.

"Come on," Lucas muttered, watching with his fists clenched so hard, his knuckles were turning white. "Come on, come on—"

The Avallion circled once, gathering itself for what looked unmistakably as a final decisive strike, and Darian planted his feet and raised his sword prepared to meet the creature in another clash.

The beast dove at full speed, it’s talon raking across the air as it came down toward him.

The card flickered, spinning one final time....

This time, a spade symbol appeared and inside that spade, the letter A was engraved into it.

Darian grinned.

"Ace."

Darian raised the blade up in time for the Avallion’s talons to strike it instead, and the impact reversed entirely, the creature’s own momentum and force redirected back into itself with amplified and devastating power so hard that it tore off it’s left wing sending it flying backward through the air in a violent spin.

Darian surged forward in the same instant, speeding through in a blur and closing the distance before the creature could even recover from what hit it.

He drove the blade clean through its chest, flame still flaring bright along the edge, and the Avallion’s shriek cut off entirely as it collapsed motionless, onto the ground...

Silence fell.

Darian stood over the corpse for a long moment, blood dripping steady from the wounds along his ribs, forearm, and head breathing hard but upright, his sword still smoking faintly as the flame had finally began to fade.

"Never lost," he said again, quieter this time, and grinned before his knees finally buckled and he sank down beside the fallen beast, exhaustion and blood loss catching up all at once.

"That’s my cue," Yor said, already rising, her healing light gathering again around her hands as she hurried toward him. "Stay put," she said to Lucas, her voice firm. "I mean it this time."

Lucas watched her go, watched her kneel beside Darian and begin the work of closing wounds that had come dangerously close to costing him his life, and let out a shaky breath while clutching his chest.

"This is too intense," he muttered. "I don’t think my blood pressure can handle more of this."

He didn’t know where to call Darian’s ability powerful, or terrifying as he just saw the man literally decide the fate of every living person in the Faction with a coin toss.

He wasn’t even sure if that was the crazy part. Because he had Yor tell her how common it was for him to do that...

He let himself fall, his back hitting the ground as he sighed...

"I wanna go home..."

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