Card Fighter: A Deckbuilding Progression Fantasy, page 24
He thought not.
If Kragen hadn’t died today, then all of them, Dax, Jynn, Mira, and Torald would be in danger. It was as simple as that.
In the end, that was how Dax justified the killing to himself. If it came down to a choice between their lives and the life of someone else, then he would make the same choice every time.
Maybe it wasn’t the most honorable justification in the world. Maybe it didn’t counter the argument that it wouldn’t have happened at all if not for Dax’s desire to be a Card fighter.
But it was the best justification he had, and it helped that Kragen wasn’t exactly innocent either.
In the end, it was enough. Dax was able to go to bed, not with a clear conscience perhaps, but without any overwhelming sense of guilt.
At the same time, his view of the world had changed. All he wanted was to be a Card fighter. He never thought that would lead him to become so casual about death.
And that reality was enough to take some of the joy of what he was trying to do away.
Chapter thirty-nine
Lauria Viandor’s favorite part of the Stone Serpents’ compound was right there at the pools.
There were three of them, interconnected, filled with clear, crystal water that seemed to provide her with calm, while reflecting her thoughts at the same time.
She would spend hours each day, just sitting on the edge of one pool or another, occasionally dipping her wrinkled, arthritic fingers into the water.
The perpetual drip that rang out through the hall chamber was like music, and she had instructed the guards to remain quiet, so that she could hear the resonant rhythmic sound.
Lauria was well aware that some of those who served her thought her mad for her habits. But they didn’t know what she knew. As well as the peace and tranquility that this part of the compound offered, all of it hidden away in the tunnels beneath the Jadehaven Fringe, these waters had once been far more than they appeared.
One of Lauria’s ancestors had been able to see glimpses of the future reflected in the murky depths. And that had led them to form the Stone Serpents and make them into the powerful Faction they had become.
Lauria thought that perhaps those visions were due to a Card her ancestor had kept, but if so, that Card had never been found.
Because of this lack, she had to make her decisions based on information gained the more traditional ways. Mostly, at least. Her people, her advisors, spies, and regular Stone Serpents were required to report anything out of the ordinary, anything that could prove a threat to the Stone Serpents as a whole, or to Lauria, the Stone Serpent Warden, directly.
So it was that just a few minutes ago, one of her Stone Serpent underlings had approached.
The man had bowed low, as was appropriate given her status, and once he straightened, she had asked him to speak.
As his training demanded, the man hadn’t hesitated.
“Forgive the intrusion, Warden,” he began. “But I have news that you need to hear.”
Lauria remained seated on the edge of the pool, and nodded for him to continue.
“There has been a death among our Card-fighting ranks. The man Kragen, who wielded the Stone Golem Card and a Level Up support Card, has been found in an alley not far from the Basement arena where he fought.”
Lauria was well into her ninth decade. She’d led the Stone Serpents for close to half a century, and this was far from the first time she had to hear such news.
Even so, her old heart started to pound a little more loudly within her delicate chest.
While she kept all emotion from her face, she wasn’t as implacable or as cold as she might have appeared.
“Cause?” she asked.
“Foul play,” came the Stone Serpent’s response. “He was found with his throat cut.”
“His Cards?”
“Taken.”
Lauria nodded. “Do you have any thoughts on the perpetrator?” she asked.
“Unknown at this stage.”
The Warden of the Stone Serpents gave the matter some thought.
While the waters in these pools no longer gave glimpses of the future, Lauria still knew much of what went on in the Fringe, and had a gift for intuiting things others could miss.
And sometimes, just occasionally, she caught true glimpses of the past.
Perhaps there was an echo of Card magic in the waters, or perhaps it was something within her. Either way, over the last few days, she’d been getting hints that something was happening. Something that might impact all of the Fringe, if not all of Jadehaven itself.
Was this incident, the death of this Kragen, part of this change? Was it somehow linked to the earlier deaths of some of the Stone Serpents who worked with the man?
Lauria stared into the waters, seeking answers.
Nothing else impinged on her concentration. The rest of the chamber, the Stone Serpent who had come to see her, all of it seemed to vanish, so that only the waters remained.
And for a moment, a mere heartbeat of time, she glimpsed … something. A shape in a darkened alley. Kragen? Perhaps, but if it was, he was almost encased in Vines that had a magical aspect to them.
In that instant, despite Dax and Mira’s attempts to hide Kragen’s true cause of death, for reasons beyond their control, the Stone Serpent Warden understood anyway.
Kragen had died at the hands of a Card user.
Abruptly, Lauria realized she’d been staring at the waters in silence for some time, and that the Stone Serpent was still standing, waiting. She turned her attention back to him.
“Seek the person responsible for Kragen’s death. I want to know who it is.”
“And when we find him?” the man said.
“Do nothing, but bring such knowledge to me.”
“As you wish,” the man replied. Then, with a second bow, he turned and left Lauria to her own thoughts in the chamber of pools.
The meaning behind the changes she sensed weren’t yet clear to her, and again, she lamented that her Gifts with these waters were so limited.
Yet age had taught her patience. She knew that if she waited and watched, keeping her eyes open for information, soon enough the changes she sensed would make themselves known.
Then she would act, to take advantage if she could, or to remove a potential problem once and for all.
Chapter forty
“Have you tested your new Card yet?” Jynn asked.
It was the day of the fight. He and Jynn hadn’t made any concrete plans to meet up, but the gambler had turned up at Lena’s before Dax had finished eating.
“No,” Dax said. “Not yet.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
Dax gestured at his half-eaten rice bun. “Breakfast, for one,” he said. “And I was waiting to see if you would show up.”
“Of course I was going to show up!” Jynn said. “I need to know how well your Cards work together. I need to know if I should be betting all my coin on you, or if I should bet on Rorke instead.”
Despite Jynn’s jokey delivery, he had a valid point. After Dax finished his breakfast, the two of them made their way to an alley away from prying eyes. When Dax was satisfied that there was no one around to see what they were doing, he spoke the words out loud.
“Activate Level Up,” he said.
Jynn was looking at him. “What happened?” the gambler said.
“I’m not sure,” Dax answered. “Let me look…” He quickly focused on the information about his active Gift.
Vines of Binding
Level 1 Rare (Enchantment)
Sprout vines from a defined point. Vines can be used to immobilize even the strongest of opponents, or whatever purpose you can imagine. Vines will continue to grow for ten minutes and will remain in place after such growth is complete. Refresh rate two hours.
It looked just the same as it had when he activated it. Next, he checked his Wild Card, and that’s where he got his surprise.
Wild Card (Supported by Level Up)
Level 2 Legendary (Chaos), Proficiency: 6
Upon activation, selects a random temporary Gift aligned with the Card’s level. Gift changes with each new activation.
His jaw dropped. He knew this was what the Level Up Card was supposed to do, but to actually see it was a completely different thing.
“What is it?” Jynn asked.
“Well, you know my Wild Card is a Rare, right?”
Jynn nodded.
“Well, not anymore. Now it’s a Legendary.”
Dax found himself wondering about Kragen’s Stone Golem Gift. What rank had that been to start with? And what level had Kragen managed to achieve with it?
But then he shook the question out of his head. Maybe Mira could answer part of that question, but as for what Level Kragen had achieved, Dax would likely never know.
“What does it mean? What can you do?”
“I don’t know. It hasn’t affected the Gift I currently have.”
“Well, try! Let’s see what you can do.”
Dax was already nodding. He opened his mouth to activate his Wild Card again, to see what it might come up with now that it was Legendary.
But then he hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” Jynn asked.
“The Gift I currently have — it’s the one that produced the Vines. The one that held Kragen in place.”
“So?” Jynn asked.
“It has refreshed. Which means I can use it again.”
Jynn was quick to understand. “You can use it against Rorke,” he said.
Dax nodded.
To his surprise, Jynn quirked a grin. “You mean we went through all that to get a support Card that you might not even need to use?” he asked.
Dax hadn’t thought of it that way. “I guess not. I mean, I can see that it’s working. And I can still activate it again if I need to. But this Vines of Binding Gift might be just the thing to take down Rorke’s monster.” With the way Mira had destroyed the Vines the last time he’d used them, he was confident nobody would be able to make the connection with Kragen’s death.
“Well, okay then. I guess I’d better go lay down some bets. What are you going to do between now and when the fight starts?”
It was a good question. “I might just relax,” he said.
In his mind, he let his Level Up Card fade. There was a timer in his mind telling him it would refresh in just a few hours, and that would mean it would be ready to use again long before the fight was scheduled.
“Okay. Well, I’ll see you at the fight,” Jynn said.
***
It turned out that Dax wasn’t very good at relaxing with the culmination of a lifelong dream just a few hours ahead of him.
For a while, he wandered without any real goal in mind, and he spent some time listening to a minstrel singing on a street corner. But there was too much going on in his head, and he eventually tossed the minstrel a couple of coins and headed away.
It was too early to head to the Courtyard arena, so instead he figured he would see if Mira was around. But the training area they used was empty, with even the screens having been folded back up.
Dax decided to make use of the space anyway and walked through many of the exercises Mira had given him. He took it easy, having no intention of wearing himself out before the fight, stepping through the Steps and performing the strikes and evasions of the different Faces at half speed.
To his surprise, he found that the routines, the exercises, were calming. By the time he was done, he felt happy, at peace even, and the movements had warmed him up nicely.
With the first afternoon bell ringing in the distance, Dax figured it was time.
He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then he made his way to the Courtyard arena.
Chapter forty-one
The last time Dax had visited the Courtyard, it had just been him and Rorke. This time, there were already several dozen people gathered. As Dax made his way through, his mask already in place, the excitement that had been largely missing since the death of Kragen started to return.
He’d always enjoyed the anticipation leading up to a Card fight, and this one was special. This Card fight was his.
Dax was still soaking it all in when he spotted Mira and Torald. They were talking to a stout man with a greasy complexion, and Torald spotted Dax at about the same time. The older man had seen Dax in his mask before, and recognized him easily enough.
He nudged Mira, who broke off her conversation long enough to wave him over.
“Dax, this is Harkill,” she said. Even though he was trying to keep his identity hidden, Dax was comfortable using his real name. It was common enough in the Fringe that it shouldn’t help people figure out who he was. “He’s the announcer for today’s fight,” Mira continued. “Harkill, this is Dax.”
The rotund, greasy man looked Dax up and down but didn’t seem to be impressed with what he saw.
“Dax, is it?” he asked, but didn’t wait for any confirmation. He didn’t say anything about Dax’s mask. “Good to meet you. The fight is scheduled to start in just a few minutes. I’ll call you and Rorke to the fighting area.”
He gestured vaguely toward the marked off section of the Courtyard. “This is your first fight with me, so I’ll go over the rules. All fighting must take place within the designated area. That holds even if you have a Card that allows you to fly. The fight will continue until we find a winner. And that will be when you or your opponent is either unable to continue, or chooses to yield. Do you understand?”
Dax nodded. He’d seen enough fights to know that this was fairly standard.
“Good,” the greasy man said. “No weapons will be allowed beyond those you can conjure with your Cards, and that includes any knives you happen to have on you. And try to avoid doing anything that could hurt those in the crowd. Any questions?”
It felt to Dax as if he had repeated these instructions many times in the past. But he did have a question.
“I was at a fight not long ago where the Guardsmen intervened. Do you have lookouts for that sort of thing?” Dax asked.
The greasy man nodded. “The Valaris fight,” he said. “I heard about that one. But don’t concern yourself about that overly much. If any Guardsmen approach, you’ll hear about it.”
That was about all Dax wanted to ask, but Mira took the opportunity to jump in.
“What about Factions?” she said. “Are you expecting any trouble from them?”
Harkill shook his head. “Not really, although you never can tell with them. But neither competitor today has any affiliation, at least as far as I know. So we should be good there.”
Mira wasn’t satisfied. “I’ve seen people wearing Faction insignias already,” she said.
The greasy man shrugged. “Doesn’t mean there will be trouble,” he said. He changed the subject. “If that’s all? I have to go over the rules with your opponent as well.”
Dax had no other questions, and the rotund, greasy man waddled his way through the growing crowd.
“Are you ready for this?” Mira asked him as soon as Harkill had gone.
Dax’s usual grin had returned. He nodded. “Looking forward to it,” he said.
“Well, there’s only a couple of minutes to go. Let’s get closer to the fighting zone so we don’t have to fight through the crowd when the time comes.”
They did as Mira suggested, and Dax found himself hopping from foot to foot in excitement. He couldn’t wait for the fight to begin, nor was he the only one.
Even though the crowd was still smaller than at the Valaris fight, to Dax, it seemed to be humming. The murmur of people talking filling the Courtyard completely.
Dax hadn’t expected so many people to watch his first fight, then realized that they weren’t there for him. Rorke had already been making a name for himself, and from what Dax knew, his Card was spectacular.
They were there to watch him.
Not that it mattered. From Dax’s point of view, he was just happy they were there at all.
Mira was trying to talk tactics and remind him of his training, but in truth, he wasn’t taking much in. He was buzzing, eager for the show to begin, and only managed to focus on the present when Jynn turned up out of nowhere.
The gambler looked a little ill, but he managed a smile nevertheless.
“I got some really good odds,” he said. “Although not quite fifty to one. But I tell you, Dax, you’d better win this, or we might have to visit our friend Jasper again.”
“You bet it all?” Dax asked.
“Pretty much. Just a Mark or two left.”
On another day, Dax might have fretted. For the first time in his life, he actually had more than a few Veer in his coin pouch. And while he knew he could always get more, he really didn’t want to have to do so.
But today, the euphoria of it all was too much. He just grinned until his cheeks ached and said, “Good.”
It looked like Mira wanted to say something. Perhaps she was worried that Dax wasn’t taking this as seriously as she did. But before she could, the greasy announcer – Harkill — entered the fighting area and raised his hands.
The crowd obediently became silent.
“Here we go,” Dax said to himself.
“Good people!” the announcer called out, his voice loud and clear. “Thank you all for coming! You are about to witness a battle between Card fighters, one of whom is swiftly gaining a reputation. You all know who he is. Master of the Crimson Warg, and a winner in all of his previous fights, can I get a warm welcome for Rorke Caldaris!”
From the other side of the fighting area, the man Dax had met once before strode out to the center of the ring. He wore a simple tunic and pants, and he should have looked nondescript. Yet there was a sense of power about him that Dax couldn’t deny.
The crowd erupted into a mixture of applause, whistles, and shouts of admiration. Dax couldn’t help it. He found himself joining in, clapping along with the rest.
