Card Fighter: A Deckbuilding Progression Fantasy, page 10
She found herself caught in the back corner, where the stage met the wall, and when Kragen cut her off, she had nowhere to run. She tried anyway, and almost succeeded in ducking under Kragen’s outstretched arm.
Just like he’d done with the duplicate before, Kragen caught her, gripping her around the waist with an oversized hand made of rock, and raised her high in the air.
Dax’s breath caught in his throat. He thought Kragen might slam Mira down on the stage again. Without her duplicate in action, Dax didn’t know if she could survive such an impact.
Sure, he wanted the chance to talk with her at some point, and knew that if she was injured or dead, that conversation wouldn’t be possible. But more than that, he genuinely didn’t want to see her hurt for her own sake.
Nor was he the only one. The audience gave a collective gasp, although some raised their voices in anticipation of imminent bloodshed.
But at the last moment, Kragen simply drew her close.
“Do you yield?” he rumbled.
Chapter fifteen
Mira grimaced in Kragen’s grip. If she had any other Card to play, now would have been the time. It looked as if the woman wanted to continue to fight, as if she refused to believe it was over and that she had lost.
But the Stone Golem gave her a shake, hard enough to make her cry out and clutch at his arm.
“Makes no difference to me,” he rumbled. “I’ll win this match either way. The only question is if you get to walk away from here in one piece — or not.”
Kragen’s meaning was clear, and Mira didn’t have a choice. She slumped in the Stone Golem’s grip.
“I yield,” she said, speaking as if the words left a bitter taste in her mouth.
The applause was thunderous for such a small crowd. They clapped and yelled in delight, and the Stone Golem let go of Mira, letting her fall unceremoniously to the stage floor.
Almost at once, he started to shrink, first losing the bulk his Level Up Card had granted him. Dax was almost certain that he’d let the effect fade on purpose rather than having just run out of time.
Then he shrank back to his regular size and shape, once more becoming the misshapen, ugly, older man.
The crowd didn’t care. They continued to voice their approval, and many Mark and Veer changed hands as a result of the wagers. The twisted fighter basked in the glory of his victory for long moments while Mira picked herself up in the background.
Finally, the tall announcer made his way back to the stage. He said that there would be another fight in a couple of days. Then, as things began to calm down, the illusionist minstrel took over the stage once again and began to play.
Many in the crowd either made their way to the exit or headed to the bar to order another drink. But Dax was still watching the fighters.
Kragen made his way back to the Stone Serpents to bathe in their congratulations. A more subdued Mira climbed down from the stage and made her way to an older man who wore an expression of sympathy on his face.
Dax had no idea who this older man was, but it didn’t matter. Now was his chance. A glance toward the Stone Serpents confirmed in his mind that there was little to be gained from approaching the victor. The Stone Serpents would doubtless just chase him away, even if he felt inclined to approach.
Which he didn’t. Mira had shown him skills beyond just the use of her Card. Even though she’d lost, he knew she possessed information he needed.
So he made his way through the thinning crowd toward her.
Dax studied Mira and the older man by her side as he approached. The old man carried sympathy in his eyes, and his focus was exclusively on Mira.
As for the fighter herself, the determination and fierceness she’d displayed on the stage had largely given way to a look of despondency. She wasn’t looking at anything in particular, although she did glance at Dax when he drew near, her eyes flat and glassy.
Dax had tasted defeat in his short life. He knew how it felt, just as he knew that different people responded to it in their own ways.
He figured he would have to be careful with his words and tried a sympathetic smile.
“You fought well,” he ventured.
Mira showed no spark of interest. “Save it,” she said flatly. “I don’t need anyone’s sympathy.”
The older man glanced at Dax for a moment, assessing him. Finding no threat, he turned back to Mira just as quickly.
“No, I mean it. I’ve watched a lot of Card fights. I’ve seen various Gifts and fighting styles. Your Gift — it’s not the strongest, but the way you pair it with your fighting style —”
Finally, Mira was looking at him. Her gaze had sharpened, but her mouth had set into a line of moderate anger.
“Look,” she said, “In case you didn’t notice, I lost that fight. I have no use for flattery. So I’d prefer to be left alone. Understand?”
Dax blinked at the woman. This was going to be tougher than he thought. But it might be his only opportunity to talk with her, and he wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
“You would have had him if the stage was larger. Or if you’d been able to use your Gift again.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” she said with a toss of her head.
Even that gesture was dismissive. She wasn’t even looking his way anymore. But Dax had to keep trying.
“Look, I know this isn’t the best time, but I need your help —”
Maybe his approach had been wrong, or maybe there just wasn’t anything Dax could do or say that would have made a difference. All Dax knew was that he had reached the limit of Mira’s patience.
She didn’t even bother to look back at him. She simply said, “Torald,” and the old man instantly transformed from the concerned father figure into something more menacing.
He rounded on Dax, a dagger suddenly in his grip, his entire body coiled and poised for violence.
His gentle demeanor now a thing of the past, he stared at Dax through hard, gimlet eyes.
The sudden change in the man was enough to make Dax flinch. Instinctively, he checked his Card and saw that he still had close to an hour before his Phase Gift refreshed. He silently cursed himself and wondered if he would have to activate his Card again, potentially losing that valuable Gift forever as he searched for something of more immediate use.
“You heard the lady,” Torald said, his voice low and threatening. “Walk away. I won’t tell you again.”
In the Fringe, when someone leveled a threat like that, it was wise to take them seriously. Dax nodded once and, without another word, began to back away.
When the older man relaxed his stance slightly, Dax turned around and kept moving.
He muttered curses under his breath. Mira had been his best hope to learn what he needed to know about Card fighting, at least for that day.
Then he relaxed, and a hint of a smile returned. At least he had seen another Card fight, and a pretty good one at that. And besides, had he truly expected to find what he was after on his first attempt?
Well, maybe he had, but maybe that expectation hadn’t been the most realistic.
He looked around the Basement one final time. Perhaps half of the audience was still there, either drinking or watching the show put on by the illusionist minstrel. But if Dax had hoped to try his luck with Kragen and the Stone Serpents to get the answers he sought, he was out of luck.
The Stone Serpents had already left.
Dax cast one last glance toward Mira and the older man, sighed, and headed for the exit.
***
Outside, clouds had formed during the time Dax had spent watching Mira’s fight, and the first fat drops of warm rain were starting to fall.
Such showers weren’t uncommon in the city of Jadehaven, especially at this time of year, but they seldom lasted long. Yet Dax hadn’t brought the cloak he wore for inclement weather, so he hurried down the alley between the burned-out buildings, thinking only of finding some shelter from the rain.
But when he reached the end of the alley, he paused.
There was a gathering of men there. Stone Serpents, and Dax recognized at least a couple of them from the Basement. They were doing their best to look casual as they stood in the rain, but Dax had lived in the Fringe for too long to be fooled.
Every instinct he had said that this was an ambush, and for a moment, he thought he was in trouble.
Then one of the men spoke to him in a low voice.
“Beat it, kid,” he said, and that told him all he needed to know.
They weren’t there for him. But then, why should they be? To them, he was just another stranger. They didn’t know about his Card, and unlike when he’d met the Iron Dragons, he hadn’t done anything to draw attention to himself.
He nodded in acknowledgment and scurried away, feeling nothing but relief. The last thing he needed was to antagonize a Faction known for running Card fights.
He’d made it to the next corner before he started to question who the Stone Serpents might have been waiting for, wondering who might be about to have a bad day.
Then he stopped and cursed under his breath once again.
There was a chance that some rich noble’s son or daughter from the outer rings had been spotted slumming it in the Basement. But it was far more likely that they were after the more obvious prize.
Cards of all types were valuable. And as far as these men knew, there had been three people in the Basement that afternoon who had at least one Card in their decks.
Kragen clearly wasn’t their target. He was a member of their own Faction, and a valued one, as the resident champion of the Basement Card fighting venue.
The minstrel-illusionist was a possibility. There were many ways to use a Card that spun illusions, although the utility of that Card diminished if it required a minstrel to use it.
But again, Dax didn’t think that man – Brenn? – was the target. He clearly had a relationship of some kind with the venue. Even if he wasn’t a full Stone Serpent himself, he likely had their support.
And besides, he wouldn’t be an easy target. Dax himself had experienced the utility of an illusion of invisibility, and he fully expected the minstrel to be able to cast something similar as well.
That left Mira. A challenger to Kragen’s supremacy at the Basement venue, she was clearly an outsider. And while she’d shown considerable ability, anyone watching the fight would know that she had reached her limit in terms of activating her Card.
Which meant that she would have no more than her physical skills — and those of the old man — with which to defend herself.
“They’re after her Card,” Dax muttered to himself. “And they’re going to get it.”
Dax could see no other option. Without her Card’s power, Mira would be severely disadvantaged. He knew that she would be lucky to walk away from the impending ambush with her life.
Dax knew he could just walk away. This was none of his business, and Mira was nothing to him. Moreover, she’d already turned him down flat when he’d asked for her help.
Before Dax had gained his Card, he would have done exactly that. But now, everything was different.
And besides, he needed the practice.
Once again, as Dax stopped his quiet cursing, he started to grin. As the rain began to fall more heavily, Dax hid himself in a burned and blackened nook and peeked out to where the Stone Serpents waited.
They hadn’t seen him. Of that much, he was sure. Their focus was on the people coming from the Basement, of which there were only a few.
Dax nodded to himself. He would watch the watchers, and when the time came, he would act.
It might even help him get the help he was looking for.
Chapter sixteen
Dax waited, the heavy drops of the rain quickly soaking through his tunic. His hair was thick and tangled, but the rain managed to work its way through to his scalp nevertheless, starting to drip down the back of his neck.
He wiped the water away from his forehead and muttered to himself that Mira had better appreciate his efforts.
For about twenty minutes, Dax stayed hidden in his nook, peeking out at the Stone Serpents. They too were getting increasingly wet, but like Dax, they remained in place despite their pose of just casually relaxing becoming ever more clearly a lie.
In that time, maybe half a dozen people made their way past them without attracting undue attention. Most of these passers-by responded as Dax had done, giving a double take, only to relax when it became clear they weren’t the intended targets.
Finally, well past the time when some of the Stone Serpents were starting to show their frustration, their targets approached.
Dax could see them clearly, making their way along the alley, oblivious to the ambush in waiting. Dax could have called out in the rain to warn Mira and the old man, but what good would that do? They would still be trapped in the alley, with no options and half a dozen Stone Serpents descending on them.
And besides, so far, the Stone Serpents had done nothing. There was still a chance that Dax was wrong.
That chance disappeared as soon as Mira and the old man reached the end of the alley. The Stone Serpents immediately positioned themselves in front of them, with weapons of different sorts in their hands.
Dax heard Mira let out a curse and saw the old man conjure his dagger once more.
“About time you two decided to show yourselves,” one of the Stone Serpents growled, a heavy-set man with no neck and a foreboding presence.
“What do you want?” Mira demanded. To her credit, she didn’t back down, and neither did the old man beside her.
The heavy-set man chuckled. “We thought you were smarter than that,” he said. “You have something that you’ve shown yourselves to be unworthy of. We can think of a better use for it.”
Mira’s hand moved up as if to protect the Card in her chest. It was clear to everyone what the heavy-set man was talking about. Yet Mira remained defiant.
“You expect me to just hand it over?” she said, her tone suggesting very clearly that this wasn’t going to happen.
“It would save time,” the heavy-set man rumbled. “Either way, that Card of yours – well, it’s not yours any longer.”
Dax had heard enough. He’d been hoping that enough time would pass for him to be able to use his Phase Card again. But there were still a few minutes to go before that Gift refreshed.
If he was going to help, he didn’t have a choice. As he walked casually toward the Stone Serpents, he muttered under his breath.
“Activate Wild Card.”
As had happened many times before, words appeared in Dax’s mind:
Flicker
Level One Uncommon (Ability)
Travel instantaneously to a chosen target. Five uses remain. Refresh time: Twenty-four hours.
“Torald, watch my back!” Mira said. At once, the old man attacked, using his dagger and a surprising burst of speed, even as Mira launched herself at the Stone Serpents as well.
Dax couldn’t help but grin. Usually, he had to cycle through at least a couple of activations before he found one he felt he could use. This time, he’d gained a Gift that should serve, if he used it wisely.
At the same time, he recognized it. Flicker. Valaris had used it to great effect in his fight against Gorval in the underground arena.
Yet Dax knew that all by itself, the Flicker Gift wasn’t an attacking option. He had to use it in conjunction with a weapon. Like the dagger he’d taken from the Iron Dragon.
Dax shook his head. Before he’d gained his Card, he’d never killed anyone. Now, he was consciously walking into a situation where deaths were more than likely.
Yet he didn’t really have any choice. If he did nothing, Mira and the old man would die.
In the few moments Dax had taken to activate his Gift, the confrontation had grown messy. The old man’s first strike had drawn blood. One of the Stone Serpents cried out and clutched at his arm. Mira had launched herself at the heavyset man and driven him back, but already, the greater numbers of the attackers were starting to become an advantage.
The old man was trying to keep three attackers at bay while the other three were circling Mira.
Dax couldn’t wait any longer. In his mind, he saw a new option: Select target.
Along with the words, there was a circle that seemed to hover in front of his eyes.
It seemed intuitive enough. Dax focused on a point behind one of the Stone Serpents, a slim man who wielded a curved knife in each hand and seemed dangerous. Dax selected that spot as his target, and in less than the blink of an eye, he found himself right there.
He didn’t hesitate. He thrust his dagger hard into the slim man’s back, to the left of his spine.
The man gave a grunt, and his knees gave out.
The heavyset man cried out a curse and turned toward the newcomer.
“Who in the name of all the Gods are you?” he bellowed.
Dax noticed that, just like the lead Iron Dragon, this man wielded a sap, a flexible club designed to break bones. He offered the man a grimace that was well-short of his usual grin, then focused on a point behind one of the men attacking Mira’s companion.
Again, Dax blinked out of existence and back in. He tried to use the same strategy, thrusting his dagger at the Stone Serpent’s back, but this man proved quicker. He turned just at the wrong moment, receiving a glancing blow for his effort rather than something more debilitating.
“There’s another one!” the heavyset man bellowed. “Look out!” Then he added, “Looks like we might be able to collect more than one Card today!”
At this, three of the remaining Stone Serpents turned towards Dax, leaving just one facing each of Mira and the old man.
Dax decided he didn’t like these odds and focused on selecting a target further away, vanishing just before a stray blade cut through where he had been standing.
“Where did he go?” someone shouted.
Dax reappeared maybe twenty feet away from the fight. He knew he only had two more uses of the Flicker Gift left. Even though Mira had used the distraction to get the upper hand on one of the Stone Serpents, the older man had walked into the heavyset man’s sap and crumpled.
