Episode XIII
Another month passed and there was still no sign of the Night Witch. She could have been dead already, and I would have been waiting for nothing. Or maybe she changed her mind and decided long ago that she wasn’t going to visit me anymore. There was also a chance that she was simply taking her time and would come to see me soon. Whatever the reason, I believe we could all agree that Raven was a very unpredictable being.
And the painful truth was that I would never know her plans unless I just continued waiting and waiting and waiting and… oh, how I despised waiting! I’d probably be old and wrinkly by the time she came to me – or at least I’d feel that way.
On a very normal day, I noticed that King James was acting unusual. It was obvious something was troubling him, and even I, a not-so-smart Cannon, could tell. As any decent son would do, I waited for the right time and talked to him when we were both free.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He put on a very, very fake smile.
“Hate to break it to you, but that’s not convincing at all.”
He smiled even larger, showing a perfect set of white teeth.
I sighed and shook my head. “I thought we agreed on this already. We are no longer keeping any secrets from each other, ‘kay?”
I couldn’t tell whether or not he was pleased with our agreement. “Sure” was all he said.
“Good,” I replied, “So what’s bothering you?”
He rubbed his forehead in distress. “Oh, Danny, haven’t you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” He handed me a copy of News Royale.
I took the newspaper from him and nearly fainted when I saw what was written on the front page. It was titled “NEW LEGENDARY” and beneath the title was a picture of someone I knew too well. Raven, Raven, Raven. How on earth did she convince Mr. Supercell to make her into a Royale card?
Noticing my shock, King James nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know. It’s terrible.”
My head spun. “How did she–? Why did Supercell–? Okay, this is really not good. We need to alert Mr. Supercell and tell him to ban her immediately.”
“I don’t think it works that way,” he said, looking unhopeful. “Supercell has never removed a card from the game before.”
“But the Night Witch is an exception,” I noted.
“True, but Supercell doesn’t know that.”
Another idea formed in my head. “Or, we could nerf her to the ground and remove all her powers so she wouldn’t be such a threat anymore.”
King James released a frustrated sigh and pulled his own hair. “You think she’d let them nerf her? Now that Mr. Supercell’s within her reach, she can do whatever she wants. She can manipulate them to buff her to the max, or even force them to shut down the game. They wouldn’t be able to do anything against that.” Ouch.
I thought for a second. “Maybe that’s not what she wants. Maybe she’s changed.”
“Trust me. I know Raven better than anyone else in the world. If she wants to be a Royale card, then her intentions must be the worst.” He sounded very confident on this, which was NOT not a good thing.
“Then what do you suggest we do? Should we warn the others?”
“No. I say we give up and surrender.”
Neither of us one spoke for the next thirty seconds. We were both terrified.
“I don’t care how powerful the Night Witch is going to be, but I hope that we will never, ever unlock one in our chests,” I said, breaking the silence.
He looked me in the eye for a very short moment, and then stared at the ceiling, straightening his back. He didn’t look vulnerable anymore. “I hope so too.”
More silence. This time, he was the one to break it. “I won’t let you die. I promise.”
Though both of us knew he had little control over that, I still felt safer under his protection. “Thanks, Dad.”
Word went around quickly, and soon, everyone was talking about the new Legendary. As a matter of fact, it seemed as if it was only thing people were talking about now. Strange. No one was ever excited when the other cards were released, but the Night Witch had grasped everyone’s attention.
“What do you think of her?” Mavey asked me during breakfast the next day.
“Who?”
“The Night Witch.”
I suppose I should just play along for now. “She’s cool, I guess.”
“Do you think she’s a little too overpowered?”
I thought about the time when Raven blocked my cannonball without even thinking. “Definitely.”
“She’s gonna receive a nerf for sure.”
“Hopefully.” I leaned in closer and spoke quietly, so no one else could hear. “Let’s talk more about this later. There’s something I have to tell you.”
“Sure, meet me in my room. Third floor, second section, fifth door on your right.”
I tried very hard to store this information in my head. Third floor, second section… yeah, my memory sucked. “Can you repeat that again?”
Instead of rolling his eyes in annoyance, he smiled warmly. “Finish your breakfast. I’ll wait for you and show you the way once you’re done.”
I didn’t want to keep him waiting for too long, so I speedily shoved all the food in my mouth. “Let’s go.”
I followed Mavey out the Cafeteria, through a few passageways, up several flights of stairs, and into a narrower hallway where the rooms were. He led me to the fifth room on the right side and pushed the door open.
He turned on the lights and told me to get comfortable, so I chose a fluffy bluish beanbag. He had a fine room, a much larger one than mine. I immediately noticed a very colorful poster with an image of a P.E.K.K.A. on it. There were also four bookshelves in the room, one in every corner, and each one was entirely filled with books. Everything else he owned was blue.
“You have a nice room,” I commented.
He thanked me. “What did you want to tell me earlier?”
“First, you must promise that you won’t tell anyone else.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him. Of course I trusted him; I just needed to make sure he knew I didn’t want others knowing about this.
“Yeah, I promise.”
“Good. The Night Witch is evil.”
“Um… that’s unfortunate.” To others, that would have sounded like mockery, but I knew it just meant that he didn’t have a proper answer.
“No, like – she’s worse than you think. She’s probably killed at least a hundred people before, and I think she’s going to try to shut down Supercell.”
“And you know this because…?”
“King James told me. He’s my father, by the way.” I knew this took a lot of faith to believe in, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought I was lying or playing a game.
“How is he your–?”
“Long story,” I interrupted. “And I used to be a human, but I think the Night Witch turned me into a Cannon.”
Mavey wrinkled his brow. “That is a very serious accusation.”
“But it’s true. And you believe me, right?”
“Well.” He thought for a moment. “You’ve never lied to me, and you’ve always been a great friend, but… don’t you think this is a little too far-fetched?”
Yes, it was, but that didn’t make it false. “Ask King James if you don’t believe me. He’ll tell you exactly what I said.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“He will,” I assured him. “Bye for now.”
I walked out of his room and closed the door behind me, perhaps a little harder than necessary. Why, oh why, couldn’t Mavey just believe what I said about the Night Witch? Sure it was far-fetched. Sure it was unconvincing. But it was true, and that was what mattered.
I went to my own room to chill for a while, and I was met with a great surprise when I pushed open the door. It was the first time Raven appeared to me during the day.
“Why, hello there, Danny.” Beside her were two other men who looked strikingly familiar. It took me a few seconds to realize they were actually the Electro Wizard and the Ice Wizard.
I jumped. “Oh! Um… Raven! Didn’t expect you to come today. I was just talking about you earlier with my friend–”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I saw you in the Lumberjack’s room,”
I swallowed. She probably heard everything. “Oh.”
Meanwhile, the Electro Wizard was fidgeting with a pencil he found from somewhere, and the Ice Wizard was poking at a piece of slime. Both of them looked very bored.
“Who are they?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
Raven grinned. “They’re my baby brothers. This,” she said, pointing to the Electro Wizard, “is Peppers, and the other guy is Icy.”
What strange names.
“It’s Payton and Isaac,” the Ice Wizard spoke up. “And she’s Reanne. Those were the names given to us by our parents. I’m not quite sure where Raven came from.”
The Night Witch whined. “Shut your mouth for once. Our parents are dead.”
“And I wonder who killed them.” He eyed her suspiciously.
“Hey, don’t look at me that way. You know I only killed them for practice.”
Payton laughed without warmth. “That is honestly the worst reason I have ever heard for having to kill someone.”
“Oh please, I did the job swiftly. They barely felt any pain at all.” Shut up, Raven.
“Seventeen minutes!” Isaac snickered. “Swiftly indeed.”
The Night Witch giggled. “They deserved it. What use were they to us, other than reminding us over and over again to use our magic for good?”
That was all I could take. “GO. GET OUT.”
“Don’t you wanna hear the rest of the–”
“NO. Go away, Raven. I never want to see you again.” I said this with so much force, I couldn’t even believe it was coming from me.
A large, wicked smile appeared on her face, and I was suddenly afraid. “As your wish, Danny.” She turned to face her brothers. “Let’s leave this foolish place.” And all three of them had left within a matter of seconds.
I sat on my bed and leaned against the wall. I had made a terrible decision in telling Raven to leave my room, and now she was going to get me back in some worse way. I couldn’t even imagine how horrid her deeds were going to be. Please, Supercell, I pleaded to no one but myself. For your own good, and the good of humanity, please nerf the Night Witch.
It was the worst mistake I had ever made, and the only person who could fix it was Mr. Stephen Supercell, who was now under the control of Raven. All the hope I thought I had at first was lost. We were going to lose.
Just a day later, the Night Witch made her first move.
I saw Mavey reading News Royale intently, and seeing the perplexity and frustration on his face made me worry.
He sensed my presence as I approached him. “Danny, everything you said about the Night Witch yesterday was true.” He didn’t even look up from his newspaper.
I peeked over his shoulder and gasped. I was lost for words.
“This is all my fault. If only I had believed you, I could have stopped–”
“Mavey.”
“–her from messing with Supercell, and this–”
“Mavey.”
“–wouldn’t have happened, but I’ve been so–”
“Mavey, listen to me!”
He shrank back. “Sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. You couldn’t have stopped her even if you tried,” I said. I took a closer look at the article that was obviously written by Raven and cringed at every word.
A Necessary Nerf by Stephen Supercell
The Cannon is currently used in 96.2% of the decks, and it is very obvious what we need to do. Though each and every one of us hate nerfing our cards, we must keep the game balanced. Therefore, we have come to an agreement to decrease the Cannon’s statistics for the sake of the players. First, the hitpoints will be decreased by 50%. We will also decrease the damage by 37%, and the Hit Speed will be reduced to one hit every two seconds. We have decided to keep the range the same, as it is fine the way it is. The new statistics for the Cannon are shown below.
Hitpoints: 371
DPS: 40
Damage: 80
Everything else has remained unchanged. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great day.
I shredded the newspaper into tiny pieces and threw them into the trash can. The article was full of lies. It wasn’t true that Cannons were used in 96.2% of the decks. In fact, King James was one of the only people left, and everyone else was using Tornado.
“Supercell’s stupid,” Mavey spoke, trying to make me feel better. “Why would he listen to the Night Witch?”
“It’s not his fault. You can’t resist her manipulation,” I pointed out.
He looked unsure. “There has to be some sort of loophole.” He paused. “Do you think I can beat her if we fought one on one?”’
I pictured a Lumberjack facing a Night Witch in a Royale match. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure who would win. But because of Raven’s manipulation powers, she could defeat a whole army of P.E.K.K.A.s if she ever needed to. “I… I’m not sure. If you can really find a way to avoid being manipulated, then you might have a chance. But I’m telling you right now, her abilities are flawless. And even if there was a loophole, the Night Witch would only work even harder to make herself unstoppable.”
Mavey remained confident. “I’m not the type of person who gives up easily. If all else fails, I will hunt her down myself.”
He was such a loyal friend, but so very unlike me. Why should I try if I knew this was a battle that could never be won? The Night Witch still had so many tricks up her sleeve, and nerfing me was only the beginning.
