Dylan found Risha leaning against the short wall surrounding the sparring ring.

Unlike earlier in the day, she wasn’t focusing very intently on the pair fighting inside. A new member of the guard had taken over that job.

“Ready for our match?” she called as he approached.

“About that,” Dylan began, “I’m not sure how useful that’ll actually be for me.”

“Sparring in a controlled environment with someone stronger than you will be plenty useful.”

“Well, it’s not exactly that I wouldn’t get anything out of it if you guided me, it’s just that I think there’s a better way you can help.”

Dylan then explained a bit about his class and the ideas he’d been considering about testing the cross-tier effectiveness of his cards.

“And I mean, sure, I might be able test some of that during a regular match, but because of the randomness involved in my class, I’ll never be able to truly guarantee anything beyond my Favored Card.” Then he brought up a piece of bait he didn’t think Risha would ignore. “Besides, if we do things my way, you’ll get the chance to hit something at full force. You’d never be able to do that in a normal match against someone as fresh from the Tutorial as I am.”

Risha hummed a bit. “Fine, fine. We’ll do what you want.” Risha began walking over to the man who’d taken over monitoring the sparring ring. “But don’t think I’ve given up on you yet. We’ll still have our session someday.”

Dylan chose to ignore that last part and just followed along.

“Half the tests you mentioned don’t seem particularly dangerous. Do we really need the ring for them?”

“It’s true that some of it would be fine to do just about anywhere, but for the rest, it’d be better to be inside the dampening enchantment. And since I can’t really control which cards I’ll get first, we should probably just do it all in the ring.”

Risha nodded.

When she reached the guardsman on duty, the two talked for a bit before she turned back and said, “Two more matches and we’re up.”

“It might be better to let someone go in front of us then.” Dylan scratched the back of his head. “I need about thirty minutes to finish getting ready.”

Risha gave an exasperated sigh. “If you’re not good to go when it’s our turn, I’ll let whoever’s behind us cut in.”

Dylan nodded and sat down with his card catalog.

Looking at his phantom decks, he activated the one he hadn’t used yet. The Void deck included all of the cards he wanted to test with Risha, but when he loaded it, he didn’t choose the deck’s namesake as his Favored Card. Although Assimilating Void was on his list of things to try, it didn’t require the reshuffling combo that his Phantom Rally test would.

When he’d finally finished his preparations, the sun was noticeably closer to the horizon. He stood and looked at Risha, “I’m ready.”

She nodded. “First match ended quick, so I had to let two more pairs go first.” Looking over to the ring, she continued, “But this one won’t last much longer.”

Dylan followed her gaze and found two girls sparring with each other. One looked like a speed-based melee class and the other looked like a Gunner.

Wait a minute, isn’t that Hazel? Dylan watched the athletic brunette dodge the other girl’s thin blade and then kick up a cloud of sand toward her opponent while trying to open the distance between the two. Didn’t Lucas say she’s an Archer?

Instead of one of the bow-type weapons that her class skills typically required to function, Hazel was carrying a short manatech rifle.

I suppose her skills might give some kind of boost to all ranged weapons, Dylan thought. But the impression I got from Lucas was that she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the class, so that boost must not be too impactful.

The fact that she wasn’t taking advantage of all the power her class could offer put her at a disadvantage, but her skill with the gun more than made up for it. Even though the distance she’d created wasn’t more than a handful of feet, she made quick use of the time she’d bought to bring the weapon around and find an open shot against the other girl.

The blast of energy the gun released smashed against one of Alyssa’s shields, shattering it and interrupting the melee fighter’s momentum. And that was the beginning of the end. Hazel never let the other girl close enough to threaten her again.

By the time everything was over, they both looked exhausted.

She did a good job, but without crystals to power the weapon, how long can her own mana last?

Manatech guns were one of the more expensive weapons a person could use, and that was largely because they universally relied on mana crystals as a power source. Someone could use their own mana to fire them, but as far as Dylan knew, that would drain a person even faster than the gauntlets he’d tried earlier.

The sparring match had been short enough for Hazel to avoid that problem, but real combat would probably be different. Especially because the Archer class didn't have the most mana to begin with. It was something she could work around with enough time to grow, but if she kept insisting on using the gun, things might be a little rough for her in the immediate future.

“We’re up.” Risha vaulted over the wall.

Dylan summoned his deck while walking over to the entrance. Once inside the dampening enchantment, he met Alyssa.

“Need me to support this one?”

He shook his head. “Thanks, but we’re good. You can get some rest.”

She looked up to the sky. “I’ll probably call it a day then. See you tomorrow.”

“Later,” Dylan waved as she walked out of the ring.

After she was gone, he moved to join Risha, who was standing with her arms crossed in the center of the white sand.

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“So, what’s up first?” she asked. He’d already given her a brief overview of everything he wanted to try; they were only waiting on the right cards to begin.

Dylan looked at his hand. “Immobilize.” It was the only thing he wanted to test that he’d drawn so far.

Risha nodded. “Do you want me to just come at you and see what happens?”

“Pretty much.”

As the two separated a bit, Dylan pulled the card from its illusory state and into his hand. Then he signaled the Pugilist to begin.

The scene of her running toward him was nothing like when she’d raced from the training complex earlier in the day; she kept her pace to a jog, but even still, she was fast. It almost looked to Dylan as if there was a disconnect between the steady movements of her muscles and amount of ground she covered.

He waved the card in front of him and braced himself for a headache. The woman rushing toward him was much stronger than the bosses he’d struggled to use Immobilize against before.

What surprised him, however, was that as the card dissipated, Risha stopped. Frozen midstride.

There was no strain. His head didn’t hurt. No blood dripped down his nose. It was easy.

And then the first second passed. He paid the first mana to maintain the channel, and immediately collapsed to the ground, fighting to keep conscious.

Before he’d had time to react, a massive force had torn at the back of his mind, robbing him of all ability to think or move.

“—ay?” Someone was shaking his shoulder. “Dylan, you okay?”

He managed a grunt. The pain had only lasted a moment, but its memory was enough to debilitate him until its echo had faded.

When his eyes managed to regain their focus, he found Risha worriedly squatting next to him.

“That hurt.” His voice came out hoarse. He coughed to clear his throat. “How long was I out of it?”

“Not even half a minute.” The woman smiled and let out relieved breath. “Anyway, that surprised me.”

“Me getting hurt?” Dylan asked.

Risha rolled her eyes and moved like she wanted to give him a light smack on the back of his head, but she stopped herself before her hand reached its target. “No. You stopping me.”

“Only for a second.”

“Still, it’s impressive.” She chuckled. “Remember you’re only at the lower end of tier one and I’m a high tier two.”

“Middle,” Dylan echoed his father. “You still need to get your resilience up.”

This time Risha did smack him and then reached out to help him up. “You shouldn’t listen to everything your dad says. Be more like your mom.”

Dylan smiled as he stood.

Despite the pain of Risha breaking the channel, he was in a good mood. It seemed like the first second of Immobilize would still work on cross-tier opponents, so as long as he didn’t try to maintain it, it could still play a useful control effect in combat.

He brushed some sand off of his clothes, and when he lifted his head, Risha had a pensive expression on her face.

“How much protection does your card give the things you stop with it?”

Dylan was puzzled. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“If you stop something that needs to breathe for too long, will it suffocate? If you stop something moving quickly, will it get hurt by the sudden deceleration?” Risha crossed her arms. “Basically, I’m asking does your card simply stop something, or does it also protect that thing from the natural forces resulting from it imposing its control?”

“I’m not sure.” Dylan tried to think back to how he’d used the card before, and he found that nothing he’d done could give him a clear answer. He’d never stopped a creature moving fast enough to cause it noticeable injuries, and he’d never stopped one for long enough to cause the potential lack of air to be a concern.

Even when he’d used the card against himself, he hadn’t actually noticed things like his own breathing. The first time he’d done it, he’d been caught up in the novelty of it all, and during the second, he’d been too preoccupied with the seemingly bottomless chasm gaping beneath him to spare a thought for anything else.

Immobilize clearly needed more testing, but thinking of the implications of Risha’s words, Dylan’s eyes began to light up.

She noticed. “It’s not the kind of trick you can use against every opponent, especially those with high resilience, but if it doesn’t prevent the damage that would be naturally caused by its effects, that card can offer you a surprisingly potent means of attack. You just need to learn when to exploit it.”

Dylan nodded.

“You also need to figure out just how much weight and force you can handle. I doubt those are unlimited.” Risha smiled. “Now, up what’s next?”

Dylan looked at his hand and chose another card. For the next few minutes, he and Risha continued to essentially stress test his deck.

While waiting to draw what he needed for the more complicated tests, he played everything else to see how well his cards would work against a strong tier two opponent. Unsurprisingly, they were mostly ineffective.

Basic attacks like Mana Spike and the Phantom Archers' arrows couldn’t do anything to Risha. Mana Shield offered him no real protection.

Giant Web was able to slow her for just a moment, but she quickly tore her way out of it. However, even though it couldn’t stop her, remnants of its sticky threads clung to her and proved distracting.

When Dylan drew a second Immobilize, he asked if Risha could try not fighting its effect, and this time, the channel worked. He felt the shadow of instinctual resistance, but the Pugilist had it well under control.

After keeping her frozen for several seconds, he stopped maintaining the card. Despite their earlier speculations about what Immobilize might be capable of, now wasn’t the right time to extensively test it, and Risha wasn’t the right choice of opponent to test it against.

Her high resilience would allow her to last longer without breathing, and unlike entering an environment without air, being frozen by the card made it difficult to track changes in and around her body unless those changes produced a noticeable effect. In the time his mana would allow him to maintain the channel, Risha’s resilience may prevent her from even being able to feel the lack of oxygen.

Still, Dylan was happy the card could be used with cooperative cross-tier partners. He’d never know if he or someone else around him would encounter another hanging chasm situation.

When he finally drew Siphoning Veil, Dylan told Risha that it was time for the next test.

He’d summoned the Lizard Ravager a few minutes earlier, but he’d ordered it to wait to the side. Now, he called it back while activating his new card. Greenish smoke wound its way around the creature, helping it cast a more menacing appearance.

“This the one I get to hit at full force?” Risha asked.

Dylan nodded but said, “Not just yet. I want to see how well the veil can handle different levels of strength first.”

“So, start weak and ramp up. Got it.” She took a step toward the monster.

“When you feel yourself causing actual damage, I’d appreciate it if you stopped your attacks just short of connecting.” Dylan pointed to the ravager. “Still need it for one more test.” He paused. “That’s the one for you to go all out.”

Risha signaled that she understood and then began.

At first, she used as little strength as she possibly could. Dylan watched the smoke slow and eventually stop her strike, but he wasn’t too excited. With the amount of force behind her fist, it was to be expected.

Gradually, the hits came harder and faster and the veil had more trouble dealing with them. With strength approximately equal to Dylan’s own stat level, Risha’s attacks were slowed enough that the lizard could easily avoid them. Twice that power, and even though the veil still clearly had an effect, the ravager started taking a little damage.

Risha stopped hitting it and continued to attack the greenish smoke.

When she crossed the peak of tier one and displayed a force value equivalent to low tier two, Siphoning Veil began to feel like more of a decoration than a means of protection. Looking carefully, it was still working; Risha’s attacks were being slowed and drained of a portion of their energy, but the significance of that portion continued to shrink with her growing strength.

At a level of force equivalent to about two hundred physical power, the veil was all but useless. The test was over.

Dylan summarized his thoughts. Great against the same level. Good from mid to high tier one. Struggles against peak tier one, and although it still works against low tier two, the effect isn’t enough to matter.

He nodded and pulled another card into his hand and walked to Risha’s side. “Okay, time for one of the big ones.”

“The one where I get to stop holding back?”

Dylan nodded. “Assimilating Void. I’ll play the card in front of the ravager, and then you’ll have five seconds to hit the…well, the void, I guess. Use your strongest single attack and try to get through to kill the ravager.” He mimed punching the air. “I’ve never used this one before, so I don’t exactly know what’ll happen. Ready?”

“Good to go.” Risha looked excited.

“Costs too much to play this. I’m not willing to do it more than once.” Dylan paused, wondering if the test was a good idea. “We’ve only got this one shot.”

“Got it.” The Pugilist patted his shoulder. “Stop hesitating already, and let’s go.”

Dylan blew out a long breath, looked down at his hand, and then activated the card.