Chess

"Don't worry, he will be just fine. After all, winners do get some rewards."

Alan snapped his finger. In an instant, a strange mark appeared on his forehead.

On Earth, a similar mark appeared on the forehead of a young woman. She was completely oblivious to that mark.

But for Mathew, that mark started healing his injuries.

Of course, he couldn't wake up immediately, but this did make others relax a bit.

"Now that the first game has finished, let's start our second game."

"This time, it will be Chess."

Alan snapped his finger.

Two large chairs and a table appeared on the field.

"Please select the contestant!"

Alan announced while sending the seven races the information about the chess.

After a simple discussion, Shadow Race was chosen.

This was an octopus-like creature with one giant eye in the middle and two human-like legs. It floated towards the field.

From the human side, Charles was chosen. He walked up to the field and sat on a chair.

As soon as he sat down, he was instantly locked in with straps.

Even though these straps looked like they were made out of leather, he couldn't even budge.

This wasn't just for him.

Octoman also suffered a similar situation.

Alan floated above the table. Suddenly, a screen appeared above him, showing his hand. There was a small coin on his finger.

"Now, whoever gets it right will make the first move. Heads or Tails! Octobun, you will go first."

Unlike before, Alan just scanned their brains and found their names. Since there was no audience, it was better not to announce their names.

He tossed the coin in the air, and Octobun shouted.

"Heads!"

The coin flipped several times in the air before it landed on the back of his hand.

"It's Tails! Sorry, Octobun, Charles gets to start the game."

The chessboard appeared in front of them. Charles got the white pieces while Octobun got the black pieces.

Looking at the chess pieces, both of them got ready. There was a small timer on the side.

Although they were far away from the board, they could still move the chess pieces with their cosmic energy.

And that's exactly what they were supposed to do.

But according to Alan, there were some surprises hidden within these chess pieces.

The question was, where?

The answer was Chessboard.

So, they were a bit cautious with their moves, especially Charles, who was supposed to make his first move.

After thinking for a minute, he clicked on the timer and moved the pawn on the third box from the left side two steps forward.

At this moment, suddenly, the chessboard darkened. The table began shaking, but the chest pieces were stuck like glue.

A shadowy figure appeared above the chessboard. It was a man holding a long spear, pointing towards Octobun.

The pressure coming from the tip of the spear was massive. It slowly turned into a fiery blast of yellow flames that moved toward Octobun.

Seeing this, Octobun thought for a moment before he pressed the timer and moved the fourth pawn from his left side two steps forward.

At the same time, he also condensed a yellow barrier using his cosmic energy.

Bang!

The yellow flame wave collided against the barrier, creating a powerful shockwave. The heat was making them sweat, but this was just the first move.

Octobun's pawn moved, releasing another soldier. This soldier was holding a large sword that he swung towards Charles.

But just before it could pull down the sword, it suddenly stopped.

The soldier found that it couldn't move its body. Its brain functions were being hampered by a powerful wave of telepathy.

'A telepath! Damn it! My opponent just had to be a telepath. With the timer on the side and these powerful chess phantoms in front, I can barely get any chance of concentrating on the game itself.'

'But I can't lose. If I lose here, wouldn't those yellow squares trash get a chance to make fun of me and my race?'

Octobun gritted his teeth and started making new moves.

His mind and skills were good. He managed to evade the positions where he needed to make more moves.

He did that to give his opponent less chance of moving his chess pieces.

But Charles was a genius.

Because of his telepathy, he managed to learn a lot of things in his teenage years. As he grew, he learned even more things.

But his chess move was even stronger because he could use telepathy to read his opponent's mind.

Unfortunately, this time, he struck a wall.

While Octobun wasn't too powerful for Charles, he did have a powerful mechanism to block all kinds of telepathy.

This forced Charles to focus on Chess and blocking his pawns with his telepathy.

Of course, that wasn't all.

While he was doing this, Octobun was also moving his limbs to create a certain device.

Charles saw this and thought.

'No, I am not sure what this device is, but it should be something to block my telepathy. If he manages to do that, his pawns can easily kill me.'

'I have to find a way to release my queen and rook.'

After a few minutes, Charles had already figured out the role of each piece in this game.

Not only were they used to win the game, but if used correctly, they could even kill his opponent.

Pawn's attack could be stopped, but other special pieces had powerful attacks.

For example, Bishop had a long-distance attack that he could use to snipe Octobun while Knight had a scary assassination attack.

Because of this, Octobun's defense was almost destroyed.

One strong attack from a rook or a queen, then it would be crushed.

He had to do it before Octobun finished creating his product.

'No, not that, I need to move Knight.'

Suddenly, Charles realized something and moved his knight.

Knight created a phantom that dashed toward Octobun and jumped.

Because Octobun's attention was mostly on the device, he even forgot to focus on his chess.

In his mind, he knew Charles would use a rook or queen. Because that's what his mind told him after a series of calculations.

But his mind forgot to calculate Charles' profession.

Because he could read minds, he had also learned psychology. Because of this, he was able to see Octobun's intention and change his strategy in the middle.

It was a risky move.

Because he was using a knight in a place where he could easily get attacked by an opponent's Bishop.

But he firmly believed that this move was important.

Splash!

Just like he predicted, the Octobun was so consumed by his invention that he didn't raise his defense and got one of his arms chopped off.

"Argh!"

The Octobun screamed in pain. He tried to stop the blood flow, focus on chess, and even finish his invention, but the pain stopped him from doing anything.

"How could you?"

Octobun gritted his teeth and moved his bishop to crush the opponent's knight.

Unfortunately, Charles had already predicted this. He raised his Telepathy to extreme and stopped the Bishop from afar.

He moved his Queen to destroy the Bishop.

Not only was the Bishop out of the game, but Octobun also faced a fierce sniping shot from Queen.

The queen had the power of a rook while having the sniping range of a bishop.

Bang! Crack! Crack! Thud!

The shot was so powerful that it crushed the cosmic energy barrier. Octobun managed to get his limbs to block the blow.

Although it managed to do that, they also suffered considerable damage.

More importantly, the Queen was only one step away from checkmating his king.

'No, I can still do this. As long as I focus on chess, I can still win this game.'

He gritted his teeth and moved his knight to block the direct line of the Queen.

Before his knight's phantom could attack Charles, it was blocked.

Unfortunately, he forgot one thing.

Just like how he had calculated Charles' moves, Charles had also calculated his moves.

So, when he made that move to cover his king, he moved his Knight to take down one of Octobun's pawns.

At the same time, it launched another assassination attempt. Unfortunately, this time his attack was blocked by another barrier made out of Cosmic Energy.

Even so, Octobun was in deep trouble. The Knight had direct contact with his rook and bishop.

If he moved his rook, Knight would destroy his bishop, and then he would have his other rook.

But if he didn't move the rook and changed his bishop, Charles could take down his rook or move his Queen based on his future strategy.

At last, Octobun decided to sacrifice his Bishop. He believed that Charles wouldn't move his Queen.

It was a perfect place where no other piece, except for a rook and a knight, could destroy him.

Unfortunately, his rook was blocked by another piece while his knight was already gone.