Gambling with Scratchers (Part 2)

Immediately everyone dove into the pile, including myself. Swiping the first ticket in my sight, I set it flat on the ground and attacked it with my snow shovel scoop. With relative ease, I scratched the layer of ink off, leaving behind a small pile of metallic dust.

Darn.

The ticket was a dud that read, ‘Loser.’ in black text. I tossed it over my shoulder and dug back into the pile.

“Pick up the pace!” Rollnaldo shouted from the crowd.

Beside me, Sir Scratchalot was slicing the thin layer of ink off about a dozen tickets at a time with his great sword, which he handled with razor-like precision. Then there was Scotty, who to my surprise hadn't left his starting spot. He just casually sat back watching everyone else.

Feeling a bit more frantic, I started laying out a handful at a time when I scraped through them. Still though I got nothing but losing tickets.

A gun shot rang out and everyone suddenly paused and turned their attention to the source…

“Arg!” The guy dressed like a pirate stood with a smoking flint lock in hand. In front of him was a stack of tickets with a giant hole in them.

“Disqualified!” Balliam announced. “It's against the rules to destroy the tickets.”

“Arg?” The pirate responded, confused, as two slotomatons proceeded to grab each of his arms and escort him away.

There was a ding of the bell signalling for everyone to stop. All the contestants momentarily set down their scraping tools.

Billiam went over to inspect the damaged tickets. “We're good, none of them were the winner.” He hit the bell signalling that we could resume.

“Why isn't it working!” The guy with the hard hat shouted in frustration, as he smacked away at a singular ticket on the ground with his ball peen hammer.

“Faster, Lucky, faster!” Rollnaldo yelled at the top of his lungs.

I was beginning to break a sweat as I continued scraping away. Sir Scratchalot had already scratched at least ten times the amount of tickets I did, while Scotty still had yet to touch a single one.

Wait a second…

I slowed down my pace, as something dawned on me.

“At the end of the day, gambling’s just probability and luck.” Rollnaldo's quote from back in Dice Town echoed in my head.

This competition wasn't about speed or even scratching the most tickets. The goal was to find the winning ticket, which at the end of the day came down to probability and luck.

“Why the pip are you slowing down, you mother pipper!” Rollnaldo began to cuss me out.

I know I made it this far by listening to him, but this time I was confident in the idea that just popped into my mind…

Ignoring Rollnaldo, I completely stopped. Facing the massive pile of tickets, I put out my hand and proceeded to activate my gambling sorcery. My body became surrounded by the familiar blue aura.

“I think now's a good time to end this contest.” Scotty remarked, as he became encompassed in a golden aura from activating his gambling sorcery as well. Not only did his body glow, but his eyes did as well as he carefully inspected the pile.

“There it is!” Both Scotty and I shouted simultaneously, as a ticket at the very top of the mountain of scratchers was illuminated blue and gold from our abilities.

Both of us immediately made a break toward the pile.

Sir Scratchalot sheathed his sword. “Baaaaah!” Taking advantage of us pointing out the ticket to him, he started up the mound himself.

Shoving, punching, and kicking each other, things became physical as we were now locked in a battle to see who could reach the peak first.

“Baaaaaah!” Sir Scratchalot declared just as he managed to get the edge on us and nearly reach the top.

Just as he nearly managed to grasp the ticket in his hand, a coin flew out of nowhere and knocked the slip of paper up into the air.

Scotty let out a maniacal laugh. “Nobody beats Scotty the Scratcher!” He was the one who flicked the coin.

“Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Sir Scratchalot exclaimed as he leapt from the top of the steep pile, toward the ticket that was slowly gliding down. Mid-air he managed to snatch it, then proceeded to stick a landing that would have shattered the bones in any ordinary person's legs. He pulled out his great sword and proceeded to scratch the ink off the ticket in a single swipe. “Baaaaaaah!”

“Not so fast!” Rollnaldo Interjected, as he rushed over from the audience. “I’m calling a violation of the competition rules.”

Balliam dinged the bell signalling for everyone to halt. “What's the meaning of this interruption?”

The crowd of spectators let out a surprised gasp at the unexpected turn of events.

Rollnaldo pointed to Scotty “You, your gambling sorcery allows you to see through those scratcher tickets. Are you able to use it to see through other things, specifically metal?”

“I’m Scotty the Scratcher, of course I can.”

“Great, I want you to use it on that knight’s armor.”

Like earlier, Scotty’s eyes glowed a golden color as he stared intensely at Sir Scratchalot.”

“Baa-?” Before Sir Scratchalot could let out another moan, Scotty hit him with a punch to his helmet causing it to fly off…

Once again the crowd gave an over dramatic gasp, as the helmet hit ground with a clank.

Balliam shook his head. “Wait a second, you're no gamblord.”

Under the helmet was a comically small headed green creature with pointy ears and an ugly pig-like face.

“Baaaaaah.” The creature screeched in a squeaky high pitched voice. His torso began to rumble, then suddenly a little door in his stomach popped open and dozens of tiny identical looking green creatures began flooding out of it.

Everyone stood motionless for a moment, completely speechless as to what they just witnessed.

Finally, I was the one who broke the silence. “What the heck was that?”

“Gamble goblins. They're mischievous little creatures that like to interfere with Gamble Showdowns.” Rollnaldo explained. “As non-gamblords, they weren't even permitted to enter this contest in the first place.”

Balliam picked up a ticket that the goblins managed to scratch. “Looks like this was the winning ticket.”

“It was obvious I was about to grab that ticket. I should be the one crowned the winner.” Scotty arrogantly grabbed the ticket from Balliam's hands.

“Let's not be too hasty, Scotty.” Balliam looked over to me. “From what I could see, both of you were close to reaching the top.”

“That's ridiculous we can't end this with two winners.” Scotty protested.

“I suppose you're right.” Balliam thought for a moment. “I got it! We’ll settle this with a sudden death round between the two of you.”