Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

"Luck is all that we all need to beat our lucky little friend here," John laughed, "now can we take all our bets and then put the equal number of coins to our ace?"

"Sure, I'll bet with five as long as this is the base bet," one of the guards took out over a hundred coins before throwing five in carelessness towards Arthur.

And the rest did the same.

"The game should start with at least one coin each if one or more had zero coins," John said before patting over Dof's shoulders, "that's why giving you these five coins made it more interesting."

"Indeed," Dof laughed, "Let's play."

One of the guards took out three dices and gave them to Arthur. "Please roll so we can start the first round."

Arthur took the dices and John suddenly said, "You should throw the dices here, on the table, so everyone will be able to see the numbers clearly."

Everyone didn't say a thing to object and Arthur could only inwardly sigh.

"Five… Three… Six… that's fourteen," John said after Arthur threw his dices. "Now it's your turn," he pointed towards the guard sitting to the side of Arthur.

"You should roll," the guard said.

"I'm the judge, so my turn should be the last," John said before adding, "so start rolling and let's see who will take the first coin off our ace here."

"His numbers are good," the guard got the dices, "but not that great," he blew at the dices for a moment before throwing them on the table.

"Five… four… one… sorry my friend you lost," John laughed, "pay the ace four coins please."

The guard simply threw four coins to Arthur.

"Three… six… two… sorry, you lost too," John laughed again after the second guard rolled the dices. "Pay three coins to the ace."

"One… one… one… damn, your luck is bad," John couldn't help but shake his head while other guards laughed at the bad luck of their friend.

"He is having the worst luck ever today," Dof laughed, "he should be the sole loser in the end, not me."

"I'm not the one who lost all my money in one round!" the guard aggressively said in return.

"At least I won a couple of times already," Dof's face didn't change, instead he laughed again while saying, "but you, my poor Ran, lost all the game today."

The face of that guard remained dark even after the round was over and only two guards won four coins off Arthur while he gained over twenty!

And Arthur instantly fell in love with this game.

"The round is over," John suddenly said, "those who want to retreat can now have the base coins they paid first and stand aside."

Arthur suddenly felt bad to let this small wealth go off his hands. He glanced in stress over the others who just showed no signs of retreat.

Yet the next moment fate decided to put an end to this little play.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Rumble!"

The next moment a series of muffled explosions happened while the entire place started to tremble. Everyone stood up with extreme shock over their faces.

"What is that?" John suddenly asked, "Let's go and check now," he shouted while the others all jumped off the table, yet they didn't forget to take their money off Arthur.

"Let's leave," John whispered while watching the guards run fast towards the stairs leading to the lower level.

"Where are you going?" Just as they were about to run towards the opposite site, Dof shouted.

Yet the two didn't answer and started running as fast as they could towards the exit.

"Damn!" one guard realized what was going on, "we were fooled! Go, stop the…"

Yet before he could continue his words, a loud bang occurred from their rear and a large number of prisoners appeared to flood from the stairs of the lower level.

"Hahaha, your help wasn't wasted after all," John laughed the moment he saw the guards being taken out by the large number of those angry and resentful prisoners.

"I told you we should free them all," Arthur couldn't help but smile while the trembling happening here kept getting stronger with each passing second. Even the roof started to crack and thin tongues of dust started to rain down their heads.

"No time for that," John urged, "let's leave."

"I'm not the one who insisted on playing!"

"They deserved to be taught a lesson," John laughed, "and you are the one who got their money, not me."

"It was a lucky round."

"I never doubted your luck," John seemed to be so excited by all the devastation happening around. The two reached the stairs and started jumping them two or three steps at a time. "I believe you are the luckiest person I ever saw!"

Arthur only remained silent and said nothing. He knew John was referring to their escape and he also knew for sure that wasn't related to luck.

But as his friend was convinced it was luck, then he wouldn't correct him.

Just as they reached the surface, the entire ground all around was already cracking and releasing terrifying sounds.

It was too late in the night, and despite that the place around was well lit by many fiery orbs hanging high in the sky.

"Move… fast," John urged him while leading the way towards a certain direction, "they released the flaring orbs already and will flood this place soon in large numbers."

"Who are they?"

"The entire garrison from the castle nearby," John said, "we have a small window to run away. Don't stop even if an entire army is standing in front of us."

Arthur couldn't help but regret following him back there and playing with those guards. These precious minutes were more than enough to take them away from here.

Despite enjoying the game, he now regretted even stopping in track back then.

The area around was lined by low level walls and three to five gates as far as Arthur could see. "Almost there," John said while the two already reached a closed gate.

"Stop right there!" All of a sudden one guard shouted from the top of the walls, "Where are you two going?"