Losing his Warlock of Midnight Darkness didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the various attacks from the remainder of Scarole’s revenants.

His Wyrm Chronicler had the lizard-creature on its shoulders animate and spring into action. It tried sinking its teeth down into Tay, but the shadowlight around him moved to protect his skin from being punctured. Still, Tay could feel its jaws clamping down on his arm, and when it cracked its tail against his face that still sent his head spinning.

But even that didn’t come close to measuring up against the barrage of fireworks that the Archaic Magician unleashed upon him. That 2 extra Power it had gotten from the Emblazoned Servant really stung. One firework, white in color, burst against Tay’s chest and knocked him flat on his back.

When he finally managed to pick himself back up, the crowd sounded like a mixture of confused voices and cheers for Scarole. It was hard to make anything distinct out, but impossible to not notice that he couldn’t hear a single person shouting his name favorably.

All things considered, Tay felt more numb whenever he summoned a revenant than when one attacked him. That was probably because of the energies around him shielding his body though. If he wasn’t attuned at all, how deadly would these things actually be? Tay’s mind wanted to think back to when Rantho’s Gargoyle had almost cleaved him in half. Those sorts of thoughts were best left for another time though.

“I think I’ve demonstrated enough of what a friendship with House Polamund offers,” Scarole said. “Whenever you’re done picking yourself up, feel free to take your turn.”

Tay’s Life: 55 Scarole’s Life: 25

Summoning those revenants had taken a lot of Life out of Scarole, but ultimately, that Life converted into board presence. Tay had only lost 5 Life, but he’d gotten nothing out of it. That was 5 Life that he couldn’t put toward another revenant, permanently, unless he wanted to unattuned like Scarole.

And Tay knew he couldn’t bring himself to work backward in attunement. Wouldn’t that just make his body more vulnerable to Scarole’s attacks? Even if he didn’t take more damage, he didn’t want the possibility of those fireworks or teeth actually making it through his shields and harming him.

But those were worries for another turn. Because the truth of the matter was that while it looked like the situation was beyond his control, this was the exact situation he’d played a control deck for.

“I hate to disappoint you,” Tay said. “But while we’re talking about friends, I want you to know that this deck in its entirety was handcrafted by one of my closest. Every single card was selected to combat any situation that would crop up.”

Aside from extreme forms of aggro where he couldn’t actually set up his board enough, but Tay didn’t feel as if saying that had the same sort of command. He leafed through his hand until he determined the order in which he would win back the board again.

“Keep your friendship with House Polamund,” Tay said. “They’re nothing but liars and cheats, and I’m going to assume anyone satisfied with that isn’t any better.”

Tay felt his life energy drain out of his finger tips and into the card he held aloft. Then, with a flick, it exploded into a burst of shadowlight. Emerging was a man with twin knuckle dusters and a hard hat upon his wide head. Streaks of darkness plumed off of his shoulders like smoke from a campfire.

(15) Enforcer of the Warlock Stable Shout: reduce target foe revenant’s Power by half (rounded down). Then, if its Power is less than that of this revenant’s, obliterate it. << 3

Tay only had to raise an eyebrow at the Swordsman of Woe for his Enforcer to read his mind. The smoky darkness coming off of his shoulders arched through the air and practically suffocated the Swordsman, who shrank in stature. Once the Swordsman lowered his blade to cover his mouth, the Enforcer rushed forward and pummeled his opponent in a series of well-placed blows.

A blow to the stomach finally shattered the Swordsman into a thousand different sparks of snowy whiteness. That left Scarole with a dark scowl across his face.

“What is it with your deck and reducing the Power of my revenants?” Scarole fumed. “Don’t you have anything else your cards can do or is your friend as single-minded as the cards he found for this deck?”

“Well, I suppose I could take a page out of your book then?”

Tay threw out another card—this one, he aimed for the back of his Enforcer. The card stuck to the Enforcers back and sunk into it. His revenant became another cloud of darkness, which then faded into an armored-up Apprentice of the Warlock.

(5) Apprentice of the Warlock Stable

Shout: reduce target foe revenant’s Power by half until the end of the turn (rounded down).

Uproar: add Warlock of Midnight Darkness from your deck or Oblivion to your hand.

< 2

In addition to her robes and skull and dagger, the Apprentice of the Warlock had the Enforcer’s helmet over her head and spiked gauntlets along her arms. It seemed as if the knuckle dusters from the Enforcer had translated into armor for her.

“Since I’m summoning her as part of a fusion, her Uproar effect triggers and I’m able to add Warlock of Midnight Darkness from Oblivion to my hand.”

Tay wasn’t sure how that was going to work, since the Warlock of Midnight Darkness had vaporized into black sparks, but it materialized just in front of him and hovered there until he reached out and grabbed it. The card itself was warm, as if someone had been holding it over a fire.

“I’m also going to summon my Darkbastion Bulwark!”

And Tay threw out his final card for the turn, which transformed into a spiked creature that had half of a shield on both of its arms. When it brought those arms together, they would form into a protective barrier. And, above all else, it was quite colorful for a Chaos 3 revenant—with streaks of violet, purple, and yellow between its dark black stripes.

(15) Darkbastion Bulwark Inert

During your Main Phase, you may sacrifice this card to obliterate target foe revenant.

Ignore this revenant’s Volatile trigger so long as you control a Warlock revenant.

Provoke, Volatile <<< 4

If this wasn’t a strong board to be going into the late game, Tay didn’t know what a strong board looked like. Not only was his Darkbastion going to protect him by making sure revenants could only attack it with its Provoke aura, Tay also had a Warlock revenant in the arena. That meant that Darkbastion wasn’t going to sacrifice itself at the ends of his turns.

And to top it all off, Tay had his two revenants obliterate Scarole’s, leaving the pale man defenseless for the time being. Tay had another card in his hand that he could’ve attacked Scarole with but it didn’t seem like the right time to play it. For all he knew, Scarole had something worse in his hand.

Better to be prepared and wait than overcommit, so Tay passed the turn.

Tay’s Life: 20 Scarole’s Life: 25

The first thing that Scarole did was hold up his left hand. But instead of holding a card aloft, Tay noticed three rings along his index, middle, and ring fingers—a Talisman. One had a green emeronyx socketed into it. Another had a red robonicle that currently looked like it was on fire with ruby energy. The last was a dark shadowstone that perfectly captured the essence of the night.

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The ruby robonicle grew in intensity, until Scarole’s pale hand seemed aflame with red fire. He moved his hand forward and a ball of fire shot forth from his ring to engulf the Darkbastion Bulwark.

(15) Consuming Robonicle Target revenant with 4 Power or less is obliterated. @4

Tay watched as his demon melted before his eyes, obliterated. Then Scarole’s rings all lost their luster, now having to recharge themselves.

Then Scarole absorbed two more Order cards into himself, buffing up his Life total once more. He then brought forth a towering revenant that had the crowd going wild for it. The whole crerature seemed made out of stone. It had cracks running through it that glowed like the inside of a furnace. Two fiery eyes fixated on Tay’s sole remaining Apprentice of the Warlock.

(20) Lavacrust Golem Stable Shout: you may obliterate other ally revenants to have this revenant gain their Power. Energize 6 >>>

At Scarole’s command, the Golem stomped its way over to the Apprentice and brought its massive arms down upon Tay’s ally. The Apprentice of the Warlock became no more and the ground quaked upon her demise. The Golem also grew in stature, with more cracks of lava appearing across its body as it gained size.

“Whatever you have to play,” Scarole said, “my Golem and everything else I have in my deck will be more than happy to crush you into the ground. I know you have that Warlock in your hand, but not even reducing my Golem’s Power will you get you through it.”

Tay’s Life: 20 Scarole’s Life: 5

Tay drew for his turn, and then looked over his hand. He looked it over again and then squinted. He furrowed his brow because something didn’t seem right. Did he—did he actually have the win already?

He took a couple moments to run all the plays through his head. There was nothing more that Scarole could do. All Tay had to do was play two cards in his hand in a select order and then he won. It felt completely unreal.

Maybe that was because he could see everyone cheering for Scarole. They knew Scarole, more likely than not. This wasn’t Scarole’s first tournament, if he was sponsored by the Polamunds. How was everyone going to react when an upstart youth playing with a control Chaos deck won their topside tournament?

There was only one way to find that out.

Tay started by summoning forth a card that he’d been saving for a couple of turns—the Headhunter of the Warlock. Standing in the arena, looking up at the towering Golem, stood a man of height with himself that wielded an axe and a short sword.

(20) Headhunter of the Warlock Stable Shout: target foe revenant loses Power equal to this revenant’s Power. Then, add a card from your deck to your hand, with Power equal to or less than the Power lost. << 2

Around the Headhunter’s neck hung a cloak that fluttered in the breeze. The Headhunter lifted it up and a then casted a sidelong glance at Tay, as if awaiting his command.

It really didn’t matter what card Tay fished out of his deck, but he decided to commit to getting the Fiend of Many Faces, just in case things went a little too far south. Tay then nodded at his Headhunter, and a long hand made out of nothing but shadows snaked its way out from underneath the revenant’s cloak.

The shadow-hand reached up and raked the Golem down its chest, pulling away some white-glowing energies from the rock. Then the hand arched backward and reached over to Tay. It didn’t come to bury itself into his chest though and instead angled down to reach into his deckbox. The shadow-hand presented his card of the Fiend of Many Faces to him, as courteous as a footman fetching a guest’s coat.

Next came the Warlock of Midnight Darkness, which after seeing what it was capable of before, now earned wild approval from the crowd. Tay even looked back to see Amellia smiling at the reemergence of his trump card, and he couldn’t keep a smile off of his own face.

Because now that the Headhunter had lowered the Golem’s Power by 2, Tay’s Warlock of Midnight Darkness could use his shadow magic to create a path to victory.

(20) Warlock of Midnight Darkness Unstable

Shout: reduce all foe revenant’s Power by half (rounded down).

Uproar: obliterate all foe revenants with less than 3 Power.

Decay <<< 3

The Warlock of Midnight Darkness’s liquid shadows all but extinguished the fiery insides of the Lavacrust Golem, which brought its Power down to a measly 2. Then the Warlock tapped its staff against the arena ground.

Tendrils of pure shadow reached up from the dirt and curled over the head of the Golem. These tendrils wrapped themselves around its prey and then brought the entirety of the Golem down to the ground, where the revenant proceeded to sink into shadows in the dirt. Then, there was nothing in Tay’s way.

“No, it’s the same technique over and over again,” Scarole said.

“I may not have as many options as you, because my friends may not be as rich,” Tay said. “But you better believe that my friends care more about me winning than yours. The only thing your friends care about is the weight of their coin purses. No, I’ll take friends in low places any day. Now, see how friendly your high ones are when my two revenants strike you and end this game!”

The Warlock of Midnight Darkness unleashed a torrent of roiling shadow-water as the Headhunter rushed forward with his axe. Both attacks fell against Scarole’s front at the same time, knocking him to the ground. The white light of his attunement fizzled out and evaporated into the air.

The crowd went completely silent for a long moment. They held their breaths for so long that Tay even had time to look back at Amellia to see if they were waiting for him to do something. But she only smiled widely and put her hands upon her hips.

Then the crowd lost their minds. Some were clapping their hands, while others were pummeling their fists against the front of the arena. More than a few had faces so red that from the center of the arena, Tay could’ve thought he’d wandered into a tomato field.

But no one’s face was redder than Ranthomandir’s. The young Polamund dragged a hand through the spikes in his hair and stomped out to meet the fallen form of his champion. When Scarole groaned at him, Rantho kicked the man onto his side and threw his arms up into the air.

Then Rantho shouted, “No, this isn’t allowed! This man isn’t supposed to play in a tournament like this!”

Even with all the uproar, Rantho’s voice carried over all the celebrations and complaints floating around the arena. The din of the crowd died as Rantho held up a finger and pointed it directly at Tay.

Tay allowed his revenants to dissipate, and collected his cards from the air as they rematerialized around him. He raised an eyebrow at Rantho but said nothing back, instead choosing to take notice of Amellia’s approach. But his benefactor said nothing, and so Tay decided to do the same.

Rantho continued. “He’s a bottomsider. A filthy gutter rat. He belongs in the filth of the sewers, not in first place in a topside tournament!”

There were gasps from among the crowd, but mostly faces shaking their heads disapprovingly. Tay could feel the coin purse from Amellia slipping from between his fingers when Amellia’s hand fell upon his shoulder.

She called out to the audience, “What sort of accusations are these? Can the House Polamund not afford a loss this badly?”

If Rantho’s face was red before, it was on fire now. His hair practically transformed into flames burning away with all his anger.

“If you knew that my champion was indeed a bottomsider, as you say, then why wait until you’ve lost the tournament. If you had this knowledge beforehand, shouldn’t you have brought it up before House Polamund’s champion lost? Would you also have these good people hand you the win too?”

Rantho stammered for a moment before saying, “Well, no. I thought—”

“You thought you could besmirch my champion just because he beat yours with deck that doesn’t cost more than dog food, right?”

Slowly, the head shaking in disappoint reangled themselves so that they were condemning Rantho and not Tay. Some shouted for the Polamund to leave the stadium.

But through it all, Rantho’s eyes never left Tay. His face was flushed and his hands were shaking, but Rantho’s voice was steady when he spoke again. And he didn’t speak to the whole arena. Only to Tay. Only loud enough so that Amellia and him could hear it.

“You’re going to regret what you’ve done. And I’m going to make sure of it.”