Death Roulette - Hero's Lies Arc

After Schulz completed the name of his Carte Blanche, the sky went slightly dark. A massive roulette wheel spawned in out of nowhere. It was the size of a small bungalow, hovering overhead. It had thirty-eight slots in total. Two were colored green, and eighteen were red and eighteen were black. However, unlike a usual roulette table, it had no numbers, just the colours, evenly spaced out. Kage’s four students looked up in awe.

This was what it was like to be at the top of the food chain of power.

“Your students seem impressed, Kage,” Schulz chuckled. “A Grade Three Carte Blanche is nothing to sniff at. Are you sure you don’t want to use your Carte Blanche before we start, Kage?”

“Oh please! You think I would waste my time on learning that! Please continue,” Kage smirked, crossing his arms tightly over his body. “Stop wasting time and tell me how your Carte Blanche works.”

“Fine, if you insist,” Schulz sighed. “Every twenty seconds, we can call out a colour. Either red or black. If the person gets it correctly, they get a ten percent boost in power, speed and manna reserve. The first person to hit ten correct colors wins, and the other will die.”

“Right, and what about the green color?” Kage asked curiously. “What if I call green?”

“Well, if you call green and you get it wrong, nothing happens. However, if you call green and you get it correct,” Schulz continued, a manically smile growing on his face. “The other person will die instantly. On top of that, if the ball lands on green, and nobody calls green, both people will die.”

Kage thought long and hard about the information he was given. Bibi looked nervously on at the events.

“Kage is done for! This is just a stupid game of chance!” Bibi groaned, pouting. Tomokazu shook his head.

“No, I’m sure Kage will win.”

“In our relationship, I’m always right!” Bibi yelled, lightly punching his arm, to which Tomokazu scoffed.

“Not this time. I know how Kage operates. He has the highest battle IQ of any person I have ever seen, including my own father.”

“What? So, you're saying that...”

“Yes, in a battle of intellect, Kage would beat the strongest person in the world.”

Schulz began to grow impatient, and stamped his foot down hard on the debris, immediately regretting it as a slight pain shot up his leg.

“I’ll let you choose the first color, as you are my guest of honor!” Schulz announced loudly. “What will it be, black, red or green?”

“I’m disappointed, Schulz. What a weak Carte Blanche.”

“Huh? How dare you say that! My Carte Blanche...”

“All of the Gods can overlap their Carte Blanches. They can overlap twice, thrice, four time, all the way up to eleven times. You clearly can’t do that, because getting the right answer buffs the user, so overlapping would be pointless. Weak,” Kage said as if he was stating a fact. Schulz was getting so mad, he began frothing at the mouth, the adrenaline rushing all around his body. Kage smirked, the mechanisms in his neurons in his brain firing up. “I call red.”

“Black for me then! Let’s go!” Schulz yelled, charging at Kage with his pure gold sword. The roulette table began to spin, and the ball was let loose. Kage blocked Schulz strike quickly, then teleported behind him to land a thrust attack. Schulz gasped, stepping off to the side, but the sword still scrapped his side. He jumped up, kicking towards Kage’s face. Kage caught Schulz leg, slamming him into the ground. With Schulz stunned, Kage slammed his sword down, but Schulz stopped it, an inch above his neck. Kage began to overpower him, the blade getting ever so close to the hero’s neck.

The ball stopped on the roulette table. It had landed on the colour black.

Schulz felt his body become slightly more powerful as he began fighting Kage’s strength, the blade raising away from his neck. When he was free, he jumped away, swinging his sword in a figure eight stance to defend himself.

“I see. Ten percent is a huge boost in a fight. There has to be something I can use to win. The green zones...why? A Carte Blanche is made from a person’s imagination, so it shouldn’t have any obvious weaknesses. Why would me calling green kill Schulz? It seems stupid to have that...no...I have to think harder. It might actually be a stroke of genius!” Kage thought to himself, as he launched himself at Schulz, who dodged upwards out of the way.

“My turn, Kage! I call black again!” Schulz laughed, zooming up into the air, putting some distance between himself and his foe.

“If I don’t call a zone, the roulette wheel won’t spin. Should I just not call a color? No, with his first buff, within minutes he’ll overpower me. I need to call, and get one right. Green, or red?” Kage thought to himself once more. In a split second, he made his next choice.

“I’ll take red again then.”

The roulette wheel spun again, the ball violently bouncing down the table. Kage swiped upwards, trying to cut Schulz’s legs. Schulz twisted his body and faced towards the ground, blocking Kage’s sword strike. He backflipped in the air, blocking two more attacks from Kage. The students on the ground looked eagerly on at the battle above them.

“Can you follow this, Kuro-Yami?” Hiroshi asked the God of Darkness in his head.

“Yes, but it’s alright if you can’t. This is on a God’s level of fight. You would be overpowered. Just watch and try your best to learn,” Kuro-Yami said with a small smile on his face.

The roulette table stopped once more. Black again.

“Looks like the God’s are on my side today!” Schulz beamed, getting another ten percent buff.

“Why is there a twenty second cool-down between calls? Is it so that he can get away, and keep getting lucky with buffs? No, I can’t think like that. Whether he has more buffs or not, the twenty seconds can help him regroup and think,” Kage thought once more, figuring out all his options. “I guess I need my brain to go into overdrive!”

Schulz charged downwards, knowing that he had a huge upper hand in this fight for the first time. One or two more correct calls would be the end of Kage. 

*QUESTION TIME!!!*

"Is Kage a good teacher and master?"

Hiroshi says - "He's very good. He pushes me hard, because he believes in me, which is something new to me. I have never had someone believe in me like he does, not even Blossom. He also cares about my mental health and the nitty gritty details of my life. He's not a teacher or master to me. He's a friend."

Wisteria says - "In one word, yes. In two words, heck yes. He's awesome. He pushed me to a power that I never thought I had. I was bouncing for joy when I lifted that huge iceberg! I was so proud of myself, and he was just as proud! He's like a father figure in a way, even though I still have a father. Does that still make him a father figure? I think he also gave Oshi some confidence to ask me out, so I appreciate him for that."

Tomokazu says - "He's a deserter. As soon as the war was called as a truce, he 'retired'. He's a coward. What if Titania tries attacking again? We will need him more than ever! Although, he hasn't given up on me, even though I have been an asshole to him. So...I guess I'll thank him for that."

Bibi says - "A great person! He believes in me even though I don't have a trace of manna! He's my comfort person, I suppose. Someone who will be there for me, even when nobody else will. Im grateful for him."