Finn lunged at his opponent, but Tarot swiftly dodged out of the way and got out of the church, since he knew fighting in there wouldn’t be advantageous for him now that Chariot was gone.

He still had quite a few cards left, but all his defensive ones were gone. However, throughout the battle so far, he noticed Finn didn’t use any Abilities. Archon said he had the Oculus Angelica, but since he was blind, that pretty much rendered the Angelica useless. More advanced Abilities in the Angelica didn’t require sight, but to reach that advanced stage, one needed to practice using the Angelica first using basic Abilities.

Because of this, Tarot possessed an overwhelming advantage in this fight already. Iris was nowhere to be seen, so it was essentially just a 1v1. Once the sun set, he was planning on using The Moon and The Star cards to finish this fight… but he needed to hold on until then.

Luckily for him, however, Finn suddenly dashed out of the church in a quite predictable manner — making his life a lot easier. Perhaps, he could finish it right here.

“Kid…” Tarot sighed in disappointment. “Ya walked into yer own death trap.”

Lifting a hand, he suddenly shot out a barrage of purple pellets, using The Hierophant card.

Finn, however, didn’t attempt to dodge. Instead, he merely crossed his arms in an X-shape and blocked the attack head-on.

“Ngh…” He groaned, clenching his teeth.

Tarot blinked a few times in surprise. “Ya really think ya can hold my entire bloody attack? Heh.”

The man chuckled and amplified the strength of his pellet barrage, completely locking Finn in place. Finn had a purple shield up which caught all of the projectiles, but Tarot knew it wouldn’t hold for long.

At least, he thought it wouldn’t hold for long.

As seconds grew into entire minutes with Finn still holding on somehow, Tarot furrowed his brows and stopped the barrage.

“Aye… what is that bloody shield…?”

Finn merely smiled like a devil.

“… Your death.”

All of a sudden, the thousands of tiny pellets that had gathered on Finn’s shield were shot back towards Tarot at once. His eyes widened in shock as his own attack was turned against him, bombarding him in smoke.

Finn panted heavily and fell to the concrete ground as the last pellet was fired back. Holding all of those projectiles had consumed nearly all of his mana, and some may question if this was worth it to win such a meaningless fight.

But to Finn, it wasn’t meaningless. He had a goal in defeating Tarot — he had something he wanted to try. Not for pride, not for glory, but for his own selfish gain.

He did his best to take deep breaths as he watched the smoke before him, waiting patiently for it to disperse. He expected to see the dead body of Tarot, but there was something off.

This was a private match — in other words, if Tarot died, the simulation should’ve announced Finn’s victory. Yet…

“Ah… ya got me good there, kid, ya got me bloody good.”

“…!”

Finn froze as he saw Tarot’s figure emerging from the smoke, completely unharmed. On his suit, all the various sets of icons had lit up in different colors, and around him was a rainbow glow consisting of all said colors.

“But unluckily for ya… I had one last trick up my sleeve to prevent death. A card that means new beginnin’s… and the true trump card of a Tarot card deck.”

Finn knew what he was talking about.

“… The Fool.”

“Bloody straight. This is the second time I’ve been forced to use this card… and I’ve fought countless battles in my lifetime. Yer a good seed, kid. I can see why Bakris chose to save ya. But y’know, that bein’ said…”

Tarot pulled out a thin dagger from his breast pocket and pointed it at Finn, who lay exhausted on the ground, completely out of mana and energy.

“… I still won this fight. Nothin’ to be bloody proud of, I know, but-“

“Are you sure about that?” Finn suddenly interjected, freezing Tarot mid-sentence.

“… What?”

With a soft and dark chuckle, Finn spoke.

“Look behind you.”

Tarot immediately spun around, but it was too late. He could see the flash of a sniper’s muzzle, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, dead and defeated.

[Battle: End. Victors: Team B.]

Naturally, Iris was the one who fired this killing shot.

She quickly ran over to Finn and helped him up, holding him in her arms.

“Finn! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine… this is a simulation…” Finn muttered, then eyed Tarot’s body. Iris followed his gaze, and she immediately knew what he wanted to do.

“I see… I don’t think it’ll work, but give it a try.”

Finn slowly placed a hand on Tarot’s arm, hoping to use the Ghost blood to steal the Cardmaster Angelica from him.

In all honesty, he himself didn’t even think this would work either. But still, it was worth the effort — for on the off-chance that it did actually work, it would open up a whole new way to acquire Angelicas from other Hunters without them even knowing.

After several long seconds, Finn still didn’t feel anything. Iris sighed in disappointment.

“… Nothing, huh?”

But Finn didn’t move his hands. He expected the process to take a bit longer than normal, since the Ghost blood would have an extra step — to transfer the mana data from this virtual world back into his real body.

And indeed, his prediction was on the mark.

A black fog suddenly shrouded Finn and Tarot, energy flowing through Finn’s hand and into the rest of his body. He could feel it — a new Angelica has been acquired.

Suddenly, the three were all teleported away from one another as the world around them faded away to nothingness. A brief moment later, they found themselves in the same white room as before, standing right net to each other.

“Well,” Tarot — Jim — chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “This is… awkward.”

“So much for an S-Class Hunter,” Iris scoffed. “What a rookie mistake, forgetting you had two opponents and not just one.”

“A-Ahem, I will admit I got caught up in the moment and forgot about ya, but ta be fair, I didn’t think ya would’ve known where Finn and I were,” Jim argued.

“Oh, I didn’t,” Iris replied nonchalantly. “That is, not until all the noise Finn made.”

“… Wait,” Jim interrupted, glancing at Finn, who was busy exploring the menus on the holographic panels all around them.

“Don’t tell me… ya purposely jumped out after me so that I would blast ya with projectiles, which you could then fire back at me to make lots of noise and alert yer partner to where we were?”

Finn didn’t respond, but it was clear that was the answer.

Iris laughed and patted Jim on the shoulder lightly. “You see, Finn knows quite a lot about Tarot cards, since he used to have a friend who talked about them all the time. He knew you had The Fool up your sleeve still as a trump card. He also fully knew you were going to blast him with magic or projectiles the moment he stepped foot outside, which was exactly the reason he did so. You got played like a fiddle, S-Rank.”

“So that’s how ya predicted Emperor’s bullet and escaped The Sun…” Jim shook his head in frustration with himself. “Man…”

“Us two, mere D-Class Hunters, managed to beat you, an S-Class, in a fair fight. I think a little reward is due,” Iris said smugly, folding her arms. “What do you think, Finn?”

“… I’d like a favor from you, Tarot,” Finn said after some hesitation.

“Eh… well, I suppose I did lose. We never agreed on this before the fight, but this is a bloody good way to remind me of today and learn from it. Sure, I’ll accept yer request,” Jim said at last. “Also, call me Jim. We ain’t in a bloody battle ‘nymore, mate.”

“Got it.”

“So, what do ya want me to do for ya?” Jim continued, shrugging nonchalantly. “Teach ya how to pick up girls? No, but ya already got this sweet young lady right here…”

“Hm. I haven’t decided yet, but…” Finn glanced sideways at him. “I’ll let you know when I have.”

“Sure. As long as it’s somethin’ within my abilities, I’ll do it.”

Iris looked at Finn, already knowing what he was thinking in his mind. He wanted Jim to teach him the Cardmaster Angelica, but he didn’t know if he could be trusted yet, hence why he was holding off on asking.

Iris sighed and smiled faintly. “Well then, let’s head back, shall we?”

Jim nodded, then froze as he just happened to look at the time displayed on one of the panels.

“AH, GODDAMN IT! I MISSED MY BLOODY DATE!”