The goblin didn’t say anything as she kept her crossbow trained on Noah.

For his part, Noah stared at RED exasperatedly. “Are you a psychopath?”

“Technically, yes.”

The goblin laughed out loud at that, her mouth showing teeth, but she didn’t make further comment. Or move the crossbow.

RED continued as if the goblin weren’t there. “But that doesn’t make me wrong. Hear me out, fleshloaf. That lime-colored subhuman currently threatening you with that miserable weapon has one of the three cards that will let you win this contest and claim a realm. We have the advantage, no matter what idiot patter she spouts. Kill her and take it, as the gods certainly intended.”

“Look here, you—” the goblin began, not lowering her crossbow, but not firing either.

“I’m not going to—” Noah said.

RED overrode them both, his synthetic voice loud. “Don’t be a fool. Where will you keep your unborn spawn and woman safe? Where will you rebuild, and protect your people? It’s them or us, the gods were pretty blatant on that point. Besides, you can’t even leave the zone to rescue your woman till someone wins this quest.”

Noah frowned. It was a point, and for a moment, fear for Hope seized him. but…

“Hope wouldn’t want me to murder people just to save her,” Noah muttered. “I could never look her in the face again if I did that.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” the goblin woman said, lowering her crossbow and awkwardly walking up, her hands out. “You want to leave this place, deckbearer? In order to go rescue some human chick you want to breed with? That’s all you want?”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “Or at least that’s my first and most important goal.”

“Then we’re fine. All you have to do…” the goblin said, drawing it out, “is help me! Once I have a realm, you can leave! Everyone wins. Best possible solution.”

She beamed at them, her smile taking up near half her face, and clasped her hands above her head. “By Gimgok I’m a great negotiator.”

RED remained unimpressed. “You’re a fool and a miscreant who offers us air. You bring nothing.”

“I’m a deckbearer, and a damn good one,” the goblin said.

RED’s voice hit a new level of sarcastic. “Looked like you were five minutes from being perforated before we came along.”

The goblin ignored RED and held her hand out, palm up, to Noah. “I’m Lika. That’s Lika Boomba, princess of the Zorin Bog goblins!”

One of the other two remaining goblins said something in another language. It sounded derisive to Noah, somehow. The second goblin laughed.

Lika whirled on the first one. “I am too a princess, Mok, even if I’m the thirteenth child.”

The goblin said something else in the strange language and rolled his eyes.

Lika frowned, and Noah saw tears at the edge of her eyes. “Well, she didn’t kill me, and I can still claim my birthright.” Lika slapped the card orbiting around her. “I have the card!”

Noah stared, fascinated by the conversation, as the goblin said something else in their bizarre language.

Lika looked on the verge of tears, but rallied. “Don’t make me remove you from my future harem. You already have one strike ‘cuz of your small pole.”

The first goblin, the one who had made whatever the comment was, blushed, his green cheeks darkening. He didn’t answer.

The second one, still on the ground, pointed at the first one’s crotch and laughed raucously.

Lika, seeming to think she had won, haughtily ignored the antics of the two. She turned back to Noah and shoved her hand forward again, still palm up.

Noah covered it, and tried an awkward shake. “I’m Noah.”

Lika frowned and stared down at their hands.

Then she laughed, her large mouth revealing sharp teeth, and shook her head. “What, you don’t have the palm clasp on whatever world you come from? Weird, human. So, are you going to help me help you?”

“I…” Noah began.

“Don’t you do it,” RED said menacingly.

Noah glared at his companion card. “I will help you, Lika.”

“By all that Mechos holds holy,” RED muttered. “You’re an idiot. This is the apocalypse, not kindergarten.”

“Look, I don’t want to become some modern-day barbarian or reaver,” Noah replied. “This conversation is over. I’ve decided, and we’re helping Lika.”

"Alrighty then!” Lika said, throwing her hand into the air and grinning her huge toothy grin again. “Since you’ve seen the light, I can give you this.”

She pulled a small, thin vial from her vest and grabbed Noah’s hand—the one with the slashed wrist. She flicked the cap off with one long fingernail and then poured the mixture on his wound.

Warmth filled his wrist, and Noah stared as the flesh knit itself back together. His arm also felt far better.

A notification appeared in Noah’s view. Unknown potion heals 5 Health. Wound to wrist healed, injury penalty lost. Wound to arm healed. Bleed DoT lost.

“Wow, that felt amazing. How did you do that?” Noah asked, rotating his suddenly healed arm. “Is there magic outside of the cards?”

“Magic that’s not a part of the Great Game of the gods?” Lika asked, then laughed and slapped the knee of her club leg. “What an imagination you have, deckbearer. No. I can carry a certain number of token card items crafted from materials gained from my deck. This was a Heartcap token card I found and upgraded with my Goblin Witch-Doctor card.”

“Were those potions you threw, the ones that exploded, token cards as well?” Noah asked.

Lika laughed. “No, those were gunpowder vials with a little something extra.”

That’s… interesting.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Lika’s smile turned sly. “So, shall we go see what cards that jackass elf prince had? I’ll split ‘em with ya, fifty-fifty, but I get first pick.”

“Are you serious, you reprobate parasite?” RED asked. “I cannot believe that my idiot deckbearer here was so foolish as to fall for your wiles, but that elf was entirely his kill. Not to mention that he preserved your functionality. The rules of the Great Game are the same everywhere I know—to the victor go the spoils.”

Lika blushed and stared at the ground. “Yeah, sorry. Won’t happen again. Old habits from dealing with my gator-bait sisters.”

Noah was about to ask about that, but a sudden thought blotted everything else from his mind. “Wait, wait. How are you speaking English? And with an occasional idiom? How come that elf guy spoke English?”

“What? English? Is that your language, Noah-the-human?” Lika asked, and the two goblins with her laughed.

“I… yeah,” Noah said, nonplussed.

“I don’t speak whatever stupid human tongue you do. As if. Deckbearers can understand any other deckbearer. A gift of the gods.”

RED continued the explanation. “As to the idioms, the magic is likely translating her flippancy. I would counsel you that ‘murder’ is still a viable option. The best viable option.”

“Pfft,” Lika said, waving her hand at RED again. “We’re buds now. No murdering friends, not even if they have great stuff. Just like I was taught by our witch-doctor. And you’re the one who just gave me shit about inappropriate behavior, murder-man.”

“Murdering you isn’t inappropriate, its—"

“We’re not having this conversation again,” Noah said. “End of discussion. I’m gonna go get the elf’s cards.”

He walked over in the direction of the first elf he had killed, not waiting to hear anyone’s opinion. After a second, everyone else followed behind him.

As the previous moments of danger and negotiation faded, Noah was struck by the death around him. Most caused by his hand, as evidence by the holes in most of the corpses’ chests.

The elf bodies around him appeared nearly human. They had hyper-thin builds and long ears, but the only thing that was significantly different from a human at first glance was that each had metallic hair—some copper, some gold, and some silver.

He was briefly saddened by the lives he had ended. He wished he could have done things differently, but…

How would I have done so? I gave them a chance to surrender. They chose violence, and when you open the door to violence, you can’t complain about what walks in.

He wasn’t fully convincing himself. But he legitimately wasn’t sure what he could have done, in the moment, to kill less of the elves. Except die, let the goblins die, or both.

Although, now that he thought about it, he had killed elves. A lot of them. Which in turn meant he had gained experience.

Noah checked back through his notifications, thinking about them and calling them forward. He saw that he had killed eleven elves. Ten were listed as ‘Ashtae Royal Guard,” but the last was listed as a Level Seven Deckbearer.

He had made two levels to scrape into level eight over course of the entire fight.

Man… is the entire world of Arena like this? I’ve been leveling crazy fast.

Noah stared at the bodies around him. And is leveling only accomplished by murder? I feel like the world is going to get a lot darker than it already is, even with the apocalypse, if that’s the case.

He finally reached the body of Prince Ayrlic. Blood and brain were everywhere around the corpse. A copper-and-crap stink was already permeating the warm air around them. Cards lay on the ground near the chest of the fallen elf, and Noah reached down and picked them up.

There were fifteen cards. As he picked them up, however, he saw a sixteenth card lying off to the side, separate from the first collection. He stepped around the corpse to pick that one up as well.

Noah glanced through the original fifteen, shocked to see that a lot of the cards were stronger than he had expected. And, now that he thought about it, how was Prince Ayrlic level seven? Had he murder-hobo’d a bunch of monsters and such as well?

“Did everyone that has cards get their new cards yesterday?” Noah asked Lika as she clomped up beside him.

“What? No, of course not. I mean, I got my cards when the warren was sent to Arena, but my mother is level nineteen and has been a deckbearer for two decades. Our witch-doctor has had his cards—cards that were passed down through three previous witch-doctors—for about six years.”

That must be how the other races will survive the fact that even ten percent of humans with guns will be a lot. We’re late to the Great Game.

Noah glanced at the new cards, quickly making a mental list as he flipped through them.

1x Arrow Fort, a building card.

1x Skystrike Bow, a rare bow equipment card.

1x Rare Elven Wolf Ranger Commander, which buffed rangers and wolves both.

2x Rare Elven Wolf Ranger Champions, which were just better Elven Wolf Rangers, like the card Noah had found from the snake.

4x uncommon Elven Wolf Rangers.

2x uncommon immediate Ambush, which had an 1 available power cost and let a summoned card gain an immediate attack.

1x Swift Foot Mantle, which cost only a single power and added accuracy and overland movement speed.

3x common immediate cards called Gust Arrow, which allowed the deckbearer or any ranged creature of the deckbearer to shoot further and faster than normally possible, and gave creature cards bonus Attack.

Lika stared at the cards as Noah flipped through them. “Wow. Those are some bitchin’ cards you’ve got there… sure you don’t want to tip me a few?” She glanced over at RED. “There’s nothing that says you can’t be generous to friends in the Great Game rules.”

RED let out a synthesized scoff.

“I think I’ll keep these, apologies,” Noah said. This one is gonna ask me for things all the time, isn’t she? Is that a goblin trait? Or is it because she was a cripple that only recently became a deckbearer? I feel like a medieval or renaissance world would be especially hard on anyone with disabilities.

Lika continued. “You can probably trade them for some great stuff, since I see you use Golem. Or maybe just make your best bud a great deckbearer out the door, basically. At least if he knows jack-all about bows you could make your bud a great deckbearer, anyway.”

Then she stared at him. “Do you have a best bud?”

“Just Hope.”

“Well, you seem like a really nice guy even if you don’t have any friends.”

RED and the two goblins laughed.

Noah almost said something, but let it drop.

Then he glanced at the last card, the one that had been off to the side.

The card showed a ruined city-street that appeared to be a collection center for old technology—junk, especially computer screens, were everywhere. A man in a worn-down leather duster was rifling through it.

“Apocalypse chic,” Noah muttered and glanced at the stats.

Scrap Yard

Tier-1 Uncommon Mortal/Golem Persistent [Cyber, Scavenged, Wasteland]

1 Mortal, 1 Golem Power

This card can store up to 10 Scrap Tokens, and once on the field, they may be played at will. Whether on the field or in the deck, any card that collects a Scrap Token may transfer it to this facility.

Once on the field, any Golem card with ‘Scavenged’ in the title may be played for 1 less power. 1 power cards switch to 1 Any (available) and gains the ‘Speedy’ special: may be played as an extra play in a 30 second period.

“Cannibalizing the old tech to build something new isn’t ideal. But it’ll do till we win.”—Crystal, High Priest of Mechos.

“This must have been the card you created for us when we killed the prince,” Noah said to RED.

RED glanced down at it. “And a good thing I did. The cards he had were rather useless to us, and only Mechos knows where you’ll be able to trade those to someone else. But this thing could prove quite useful.”

Noah ignored that in favor of something else. “I really need to find another high-power Golem creature, since I’ll likely be able to bring it out with my deck. I mean, with my perks and the scrap token focus of the deck and this new card, we could bring out some really strong cards. Really strong. I mean, this new card could give us ten Golem power.”

“Don’t rely too much on one powerful card,” RED cautioned. “One enemy wielding a single card that steals your creatures and you’ll be destroyed for sure. Have options if you can.”

“Well, as long as I have Short Circuit in my deck, I can at least cheaply shut down my own creatures if they go AWOL, eh?”

“Joy,” RED muttered. “The second thing I wanted to bring up is that 10 power is the strongest card, I believe. So that’s the real limit—but yes, with enough Scrap Tokens, you could bring a real beast of a card out. Just don’t forget that you’ll need to prep ahead of time to benefit. Some day you may wish to move toward a self-contained deck.”

Noah thought about his deck. He had Mortal as a type as well as Golem, and all the elf cards were Mortal, although many required other Power types as well, frequently Nature, which Noah couldn’t even use because of his flaw. He was still half-tempted to put some in, as they were strong, but…

He knew that RED was right. Noah didn’t want to switch his deck style that far, since nothing would synergize, and he had a strong, if irritating, companion card he was stuck with that synergized with the Scrap tokens. He put all the cards in the pockets of his shorts, except for the Scrap Yard. That one he switched for the Scavenged Shock Stick, adding the equipment card to the equipment side deck of RED instead.

Then he stared across the water. “Alright, so what’s next on our plan?”