Chapter 25: Battle Cadence

In Losember, a dealer would emerge at the table Hagerty and Diggy sat at.

“The game is simple.”

Hagerty raised his brow as Diggy pulled out a deck of Battle Cadence cards.

“Oh…” Hagerty said, tilting his head with a look of disgust on his face. “You’re one of these guys.”

Diggy then slammed his deck on the table. “You scared?”

Just then Hagerty pulled up his HUD and sent a message to Madder. “Lady luck is smiling.”

“Hagerty, we established that your addiction to Battle Cadence was detrimental to your health...”

Hagerty cut her off mid-sentence to explain. “It’s for Humanity.”

With that explanation alone, Madder would let out a sigh and then send Hagerty an item. As the item reached his in-game mailbox, he opened the package and revealed it to Jun. “Yggsalad feast your eyes on this!”

Rather than slam his cards on the table, he gently placed them. Showing the care he had for the cards, even if they were digital.

“So you do dabble?” Diggy said.

“Shut it,” He then looked at the dealer. “Let’s let the cards do the talking.”

Battle Cadence was a mini-game created for players in Asper Online. It was a trading card game, where players collected cards and faced each other with cards they had earned. Cards could be purchased at a vendor in different cities and players themselves sold cards in their shops, but the rarest of cards were locked by quest and special monsters. As boss monsters were generated by players, the card obtained was something created by chance once the monster was defeated, but the cards were not just for monsters, but for players as well. Although the names on the cards wouldn’t refer directly to a player, it visually represented them in a manner that left players' imaginations to wonder, how the cars were obtained. Elite players on the other hand would know which card represented who. As the dealer would sit down, he crossed his arms. “Kids these days and their Wugiohs.”

“Die please,” Diggy said, looking at the dealer, but then Hagerty pulled one from thin air and rolled. “Four. Not bad.” He then tossed the die to Diggy who caught it and inspected it.

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure it's not loaded.”

“Loaded?”

“Hacked, glitched, coded, macroed, microed, all of the above,” Diggy said as he turned the die and rotated it. Making sure every inch was clean and unaltered before he grabbed it firmly in his hand and rolled. “As the die bumped from number to number it landed. “Five!” Diggy yelled, raising his arms. “You're on!”

Diggy drew his cards.

“Not bad…”

Battle Cadence started with players drawing 7 cards. From these 7 cards, they would designate the ones which they wish to use from the hand into what was called the Fog of War. The cards in their hand were considered Ascended. From the Fog, effects could occur, but after both players would deploy their cards. Unlike other card games, there was no turn player, except on the first time, when there were 5 Cadences which were like steps that occurred on a music score. Each player could play their cards from the Fog into these steps facedown. When the “Fog Phase” ended starting from 1, each player would reveal their cards like a tarot reading that they had placed down in positions, 1 to 5. Each card had a specific action that it was prescribed to do on that cadence. Thus strategies were created knowing these things and the combination grew endless. After the 5 Cadence, There would be a clean-up phase and the cycle would begin again, where cards on the field would return to the fog, to strategize and play onward. Draw a card, and decide which cards to play. This allowed players to keep track of potential as well as gear up for new threats. The first player to get 10 capture points won, and that was by occupying positions on the playfield.

The first round began as both players placed their cards into the fog. And as they did Diggy would flip a card face up.

“Of course,” Hagerty said dimly.

As there were many cards in Battle Cadence, there were 7 main Archetypes thus far. The Ice types, The Nature Types, the Underworld Types, the Cyberpunk Types, The Assassin Types, but lastly, Diggy would call upon the final type.

The card Diggy had flipped up into the Fog was a card of the Pirate Archetype. These cards had an effect that allowed them to be positioned advantageously in the Fog where battle usually didn’t occur. The card he revealed was ‘Shanty Lin’, a card while in the Fog it ‘Waded’, allowing Diggy to reveal two cards in his opponent's Fog, choose 1 of the two, and send one to the graveyard. “Of course, you’d play a Pirate Deck,” he exclaimed but Diggy only continued proclaiming his feats. “Shanty Lin herself gave me this card and with it, I’ll move on looking at your Fog.” As Diggy chose two cards he revealed. “Behemoth and Scourge.” It wasn’t the first time he’d heard of the cards but he saw a symbol. It was a Green U, and because he’d never seen it before, he questioned the Dealer. “What does that Green U signify?”

The Dealer perked up, unintendedly due to his disposition. He hadn’t dealt any cards nor was he a part of the game, but this invitation allowed him to be the dealer once again in another way. Rather, he was to be the judge. “I’ve played my fair share of Battle Cadence.” He then copied the essence of the card, creating a hologram of it in the air. “The Green U allows a card in the graveyard, to be played from the graveyard, into a cadence, depending on where the Green U is.” He then highlighted Behemoth. “As you can see, Behemoth’s Cadence is U/K, D, F, A, R. This means that on the first Cadence after the Fog, it can Arise from the Underworld, taking position. And when it does.” He looked into Diggy’s eyes. “You better hope you have the answer for it!” He then began to laugh but turned to Diggy. “Make your move.”

Diggy saw the two. Scourge’s Cadence was U/A, U/D, U/S, A, and Y. Jun looked in confusion. What do all these symbols mean? Hagerty gave him a quick lesson. “In Battle Cadence, there are several types of actions cards can do. Stands for Attack, D, Defend, S, Shift, and Y, Branch.

“Shift, Branch?” Jun exclaimed, but Hagerty Continued.

“Similar to math, certain actions take priority over another. Remember BEDMAS?”

“Brackets, Exponents, Division…” Jun would stop and roll his eyes. “Multiplication…” He said slowly.

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Hagerty noded. “In Battle Cadence, the attack action is the last thing operation or action. The first action to act in a Battle is generally Movement effects. Shift and Branch are both Movement abilities that move things on the Cadence. Shift allows you to move your Card in the same Cadence to another step, and Branch allows you to play another Cadence from your Fog into the field.”

“Wouldn’t that make a whole other battlefield?”

Hagerty only nodded and Diggy chose to send Behemoth to the graveyard. “I’d rather have a possible threat on the first phase, which I can prepare from than on 3 steps.”

“Alright Phase 2, Battle Designation!” The dealer announced.

“Wait a minute!” Diggy said obnoxiously. “There’s more.”

He then flipped 3 other cards in the fog. “My Pirate Deck will crush you.” Lo and behold he had flipped 3 more Pirate cards all with the Wading ability. All 3 Pirates were able to Anchor themselves to the cadence before any other cards were deployed. This generally made them able to set up before the opponent and from what Jun understood, he was confused. “Wouldn’t that put him at a disadvantage?”

“Just you look,” Hagerty exclaimed, as Diggy set up his 3 Pirates in the Cadence, he would see the 3 cards. The First, Bermuda was placed in the first spot. He then placed a card in the second spot called Bounty, and in the Fourth spot, he placed a card named Deadwater. Jun then noticed that the cards had more numbers at the top of them and quickly came to Hagerty’s knowledge for answers, “What are those numbers? Why are they on the top?”

The dealer then explained. “Those are values for their Kaiju effects. If they land on a Cadence with a K, their card becomes that card as well, giving them 2 actions in a single Cadence.”

“Isn’t that a bit overpowered?” Jun asked.

Hagerty would nod, but he’d explained. “It is because they are telling the opponent where they are being placed. Unlike for me, other cards are placed face down, and then revealed.” He then placed his cards face down in the third and fourth. He wasn’t too pleased with his move, as if they knew it was the best he could muster. As the next step would begin, Hagerty’s Behemoth remained in the graveyard. Hagerty looked at Jun. and winked. He then placed his cards accordingly.

The dealer looked at the two, and signaled for each to reveal their first move, although the effect of Hargerty’s Behemoth would trigger, allowing it to enter the field, and activating its effect.

“Wait, what's a K?” Jun asked, pointing at his card.

“Watch this.” As Hagerty brought Behemoth into the first step, He placed it in line with another card he had faced down. The left side of the text bar on the card had a name that read, Hathes. “That’s its Kaiju. Kaiju are secondary units that a card can manifest. They have Cadences as well.”

“Pirates are similar. So this will be a battle of the giants, huh?”

“But that’s not all,” Hagerty said. “As Behemoth enters the Cadence, he creates a basic Cadence in the graveyard. Anytime a unit dies, I can create a 1/1 Soul in the Graveyard Cadence, while Hathes my Kaiju, gets stronger for each Soul in the graveyard.”

"That sounds complicated.” Jun surmised but he continued to watch as Diggy would point at Hagerty’s Behemoth. “Back to the Fog?”

Hagerty placed the card to the Fog while Jun looked puzzled at Hagerty. “Didn’t you just bring that out?”

Hagerty shook his head. “His Bermuda has the F keyword, which stands for Fog. it can place itself back to the FOG…”

Diggy was quick to buy in. “Then I can choose another player’s card and return it to the FOG,” Diggy said menacingly. As he targeted Behemoth, it returned to the Fog, and a token appeared next to its name. “What’s that for?”

Diggy would then point once again to Bermuda. “Once I have 3, I can summon his Kaiju, Daedalus.”

Hagerty took a breath in and out but remained calm. “That’s just one move. Let’s move on.”

The dealer then coursed the two the move to the next step. As Diggy was the only player to have a card in 2, he turned to Diggy. “Bounty will Branch,” Diggy announced, looking at a card in his Fog. He pulled out a card that looked different. “I will play the Cadence card, Typhoon.” He revealed the card and then placed it above the current set of cards. As Jun looked at the card he noticed that the card had 5 circles in it, similar to the cards with characters in them, but were different. He then began to move Bounty and Hagerty’s position. Bounty into the 5th step and Scourge into the 1st position of this Cadence.

“The Cadence Typhoon, allows me to bring any until into it, whenever a card anchors to it. Because Bounty Anchored to it I can now bring any number of units to it, but I will bring your next card which must be.” He then flipped over Hagerty’s card. “Scourge.” to the 1st position.

“He could do that? But didn’t the first step happen already?”

Hagerty only nodded once again. “Because it's already past, Scourge will not act…” It was solemn and telling. He was being outplayed.

As no cards were in the 3rd spot anymore, the game would move towards the fourth step. From top down the game would be read as Hagerty flipped over his card. “Welwitch, will defend…” He said haphazardly.

“Too bad my Deadwater will Branch,” Diggy said, placing another card from the Fog into the playfield.

He placed it once again below the 2 sections. “Now for my trump card, Beacon of the Gods!”

The card would make a loud digital noise, buzzing through the air with magnificent auras emitting from it. Hagerty’s eyes raised as if he knew something powerful was coming.

“Beacon of the Gods allows me to reveal a card from wading and anchor it to this Cadence.” He then grabbed his Bermuda and placed in position 5 of Beacon of the Gods.

‘Checkmate Loser.” Diggy then targeted Welwitch, placing it back into the Fog. “Step 5!”

As Hagerty had no cards positioned in the 5th section, reading top to bottom, Bounty would Attack, for 1 and Bermuda for 2, accumulating 3 CP from attacks and 1 CP each from holding the most units in a Cadence. The dealer then counted the points and signed it onto a virtual screen. “5, Diggy, Hagerty 0.”

“You’re getting annihilated!” Jun said to Hagerty.

As the next phase would begin, Hagerty’s cards would return to the Fog, while Diggy’s cards would remain. Hagerty noticed Jun’s confusion and quickly explained, “Those cards are anchored, meaning they must stay on the field for 1 full turn before returning to the Fog.”

Jun understood the theme. The Pirates card emulated going to sea, facing danger and then returning after adventuring, but he could tell they were a strong archetype but he remembered the inspiration of the cards and wondered. “Who were these cards based on?” If it was true then all these cards held merit to players in the game. Did Diggy then defeat these characters in the game gaining their cards? Or were these humanoid mobs he gathered these cards from? Either way, the strategy they imposed was very effective in controlling the board. As Diggy accumulated 5 points in one turn, it would seem that Hagerty only had 1 turn left, if this kept up.

As the players would draw their next card, Hagerty smiled for only a moment. His Behemoth m Scourge and Welwitch would remain face up in the fog, as they had now fought but some cards entered the Fog, faced down.

“I don’t even have to try, you're dead this next turn no matter what you do!” Diggy activated his Shanty Lins effect, anchoring it to the first Cadence. Followed by revealing 2 cards in Hagerty’s Fog, but Hagerty simply flipped his cards.

“Pipe down, hothead.” It was a card with a purple sky design of a galaxy. In the centre was a character with blue hair and golden beads. She wore a blue layered armour, peering out of the card, as if she was looking out.

“What is that?” Diggy said.

Diggy then placed the card Around the Cadences and it began to orbit around all the Cadences like a moon around a planet. He then flipped two other cards, which did the same. ‘Don’t you worry? Lady Luck is smiling over me!”

Diggy would continue sending Welwich to the graveyard. “Let’s do this.”

As Diggy began to move his Shanty Lin forward, to signify it attacking, Hagerty put out his hand to Duggy. “Hold on there!” He then pointed to His cards in Orbit. “First I will trigger my card Borealice.”

As the card read, it allowed the player to place a card from the fog into a cadence. Hagerty looked into his fog and chose a card with a brown. desert design called Sun Priestess. As the first step would then proceed, Sun Priestess would activate the letter H keyword, Herald. Herald allowed its controller to place a Legend card into a cadence. A Legend card was a creature that required a certain set of conditions to be met before it could be summoned. Legends cards were generally very epic cards denoted with World Boss Monsters. Using this effect, Hagerty placed a card named the Legend of Khonsu. It was a card that looked like a Cadence card but had a designated Attack And Health Score in a small diamond. It had a Prophecy text which was its requirement to enter a cadence as a unit. Suddenly Haggerty would bring a card from Orbit. Once again it was the Borealice card, which had another letter O, which was the keyword Orbit. As this triggered he would place it back into Orbit, and bring another card from the fog into play. It was a card called Glorien, which depicted a shirtless sand warrior armoured in gold, and blue attire. He placed it in the standard cadence in the first position.

‘That’s a pesky card!” Diggy wept, pointing at the Borealice.

“She is...” He thought. The phase would continue and Shanty Lin would Attack but Glorien would defend, preventing Diggy from gaining CP.

“Drat.”

The second step would then begin and Hagerty would pick Borealice once again. He picked up the card and placed it into the 2nd position. Borealice’s cadence read, O-O, K, A, Y. Jun would notice the Purple text in the card’s keywords and as Hagerty continued, his play would explain what they did. As Borealice entered the third Cadence, a meteor was summoned with 3 power and 0 health. He used the meteor hitting Bounty. As the damage would go through, Bounty would go to the graveyard, which would then start Borealice’s Meteors effect. Three asteroids appeared in orbit circling the field. As the 3rd step began, Hagerty used one asteroid to branch another Cadence.

Diggy was in awe. What was this card he had never seen before? The mechanics and gameplay. Never before had he seen cards that orbited the Cadence. Even the dealer was bewildered. “Are these even legal?” Diggy asked but because the game allowed them to be used, they had to be. Even more so, as the cards depicted characters of defeated foes or gifts from friends it then struck Diggy. “It couldn’t be…”

Back in Dydas, as hundreds of players clashed to take on the three guildless players. A player would rise to the tower of Dydas, facing the king of avarice, the baron of gold, Goldmancer Aluxan. “It’s been a while, Gladys. Or should I say…”

The character reached out her hand just as it was depicted in the card that Hagerty had used. Downing a blue dress with golden metal pauldrons and a tiara with a golden outlet on each end, she said bittersweetly, with the tone of someone seeing an old acquaintance, turned enemy. “Unveil!” The sky would strike away its light and the stars would appear. In the sky, hundreds of meteors would begin to enter the first atmosphere.