Blake and Harry began their duel standing at opposite sides of the training arena.
Blake was pleased when he drew Stone Golem as his first, which was his most powerful card so far.
Both the attack and toughness ratings were much higher now, which made the monster far more formidable in combat. It was so close to reaching the evolution threshold at Level 5 that he thought this duel might tip him over the edge.
The first card Harry drew was Flame Shield, which he’d acquired over the last week. A ring of fire erupted beneath Harry’s feet. The circle of flame beneath Harry’s feet would leap into the air to block any incoming attack that came from any angle at Harry, burning attackers and incinerating projectiles.
Flame Shield was considered powerful, and lots of duelists seemed to have trouble countering it, but there was an easy way around it for Blake.
He’d be able to overcome it with Shaleskin Wolf, but for the time being he needed to go through the motions to make Harry think that his defense was working.
Blake sent his Stone Golem in to attack. More people gathered around the outside of the practice arena now, pointing at Blake’s monster as it stomped toward Harry. As far as Blake knew, he was the only person who could use cards in this way.
The monster reached Harry with its fists raised high. It threw punches powerful enough to crack boulders, but pillars of fire rose between Harry and the stone golem as the defensive spell blocked all the incoming attacks.
“Go around behind!” Blake called out, hoping to trick Harry into thinking he was trying another tactic. But really, Blake was just waiting for the draw card timer to reach zero so he could summon his next monster.
Every time the stone golem attacked, its fists came away covered in fire. The golem was resistant to flames, but not immune. The shield also left the golem on fire, which caused small damage over time.
The moment the draw card timer hit zero, both Blake and Harry drew and played their second cards. Blake’s wolf leaped out of his card and into the battle arena, and the flames surged around Harry’s arms, empowering his strikes.
Now whenever the stone golem attacked and was blocked by the flame shield, Harry would also throw a couple of punches at the golem to do some more damage.
Normally that wouldn’t have been a problem, but Harry’s strikes seemed to do far more damage than before. Each was accompanied by an audible cracking sound, and splits in the rock had begun to appear where those punches landed.
Blake commanded the wolf to leap into battle and attack from behind. While the flame shield attack was quite powerful, one of its limitations was that it could only defend one direction at one time, so a concerted attack from two different angles resulted in one of those attacks landing.
At least that was the theory. In practice, it looked like Harry had some new tricks up his sleeve.
The golem attacked from one direction, and its strikes were blocked by the flame shield. When the wolf went to flank Harry from behind, he spun toward it and threw a punch.
It caught the massive stone fur wolf right in the jaw and sent it flying. Fire broke out on the wolf’s hide, but it faded after a few seconds. The wolf got back to its feet and immediately went back into the battle.
Those upgraded Flame Fists might not have worked on the heavy stone, but the wolf was nowhere near the same weight.
“Come on, you can do this!” Blake called out to try and inspire these monsters to fight harder.
Turned out Harry could only use one of those super powerful strikes once every thirty seconds or so.
Eventually Harry’s defenses were overwhelmed by the two monsters. Even though the Flame Shield stopped one attack from the wolf coming in from behind, the stone golem rushed over the threshold of the flame circle around Harry’s feet and delivered a smash right to Harry’s face.
Harry tumbled out of his flame circle, and the fire surged across the floor to find him again. When Harry spun to his feet he had a split lip and a bloody nose, and he raised a hand in surrender.
“Geez, that was a pretty good fight,” Harry said.
With his monsters at his side, He headed over to Harry and offered him his hand. Harry’s flame fists had extinguished the moment he forfeited the match, but they were still warm when Blake took his hand and helped him back to his feet.
A message went out over the system confirming Blake as the winner of the practice duel, and a nominal amount of experience had been awarded to each card used within the battle.
This was just enough to send his Stone Fists Card, and by extension, his stone golem, all the way up to Level 5!
A system message appeared.
New card evolution available!
Stone Fists Card can be upgraded into either Boulder Fists or Stone Swords!
Alternatively, you may keep your card in its unevolved state, and continue using it.
Blake looked over both of these options. The most logical upgrade pathway would be from stone fists to boulder fists. It basically kept all of the good things about the card, leveling up all of its most powerful aspects.
Card: Boulder Fists
Level: 5
Rarity: Uncommon
Element: Earth
Type: Sustained Ability
Cost: 1 Anima
Duration: 30 minutes
Effects: Transforms the user’s hands into large fists that resemble boulders, increasing the user’s physical strength significantly. While affected by Boulder Fists, your arms will be significantly heavier, and your physical attacks will be devastating. Attacks using Boulder Fists have a chance to crush armor and other physical defenses. Your strength will increase to compensate for the added weight, but you will move more slowly.
The idea that he could crush defenses and armor was seriously useful, especially as people leveled up their defensive cards to even greater heights. Still, it felt like the easy option to choose. Boulder Fists was basically just Stone Fists taken to the extreme.
Blake looked at the Stone Swords card preview to understand that option better.
Card: Stone Swords
Level: 5
Rarity: Uncommon
Element: Earth
Type: Sustained Ability
Cost: 1 Anima
Duration: 30 minutes
Effects: Transforms the user’s hands into large stone swords, increasing the user’s attack speed significantly. While affected by Stone Swords, your arms will be heavier, and your physical attacks have a chance to find weak spots in your enemy’s armor, increasing your chance to land critical hits. Your strength will increase to compensate for the added weight, but you will suffer no movement penalty.
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Blake had no idea what kind of monster the card would summon, but he had enough information to figure out the basics between the choices.
Boulder Fists would be slower, but more devastating. Stone Swords would hit faster and possibly harder when he landed a critical hit.
What did that mean for the monster he would summon?
The first would be slow and powerful, like an unstoppable juggernaut, but the other option would give him another fast hit and run combatant that would probably work very well with the Shaleskin Wolf.
As the interface prompted him to choose an evolution pathway, Blake focused on the Stone Swords card and selected it. The system asked him for confirmation whether he would like to choose that one, and he selected yes.
The card flew out of his pocket and hovered in the air before him. Harry and everyone gathered around watched with curiosity. The card glowed with inner light as it started evolving. The light pulsed once, twice, and then a third time before fading.
As the light dissipated, the Stone Swords card appeared, and it showed an image of an arm that formed into a wickedly sharp sword at the wrist.
“Yo, did you just evolve that card?” Harry asked.
Blake grinned. “I sure did. Fancy another match, so I can try it out?”
Harry exhaled in as though he was about to respond, but someone else stepped up next to Blake.
It was Kenji Nakamura, the Rank 1 fighter who’d lost to Wilfred Regis in the first duel on Blake’s first night in the city. He flashed Blake a wry smile.
“How about you fight me, this time?” Kenji asked.
“I’m happy to make this a practice duel, but I’m not willing to wager any cards. Last fight I watched you in, you fought for cards,” Blake said.
“That’s perfectly okay. Besides, if we wanted to wager cards, we’d need to make a duel request to the city’s main arena. You can fight anyone you want at one of these practice dueling arenas, but the only time they can have stakes is if you do it in the central arena in front of everybody. I lost a pretty great card when I lost that duel against Regis, and I haven’t had the heart to duel for cards again.”
Blake whistled. “Knowing that you have to put one of your own cards on the line to have the chance of winning someone else’s? It’s a hell of a gamble.”
“A lot of the people who are super into dueling are always hesitant to wager anything unless they have a spare power card to put up as collateral,” Kenji said.
Having a random cheap card was a good idea. Low risk, but high reward. Unless the person he dueled had the same idea.
The trick was that Blake would need to make enough credits to be able to buy an extra power card. The costs of a lot of the cards through the power card store were exorbitant.
“I accept your challenge,” Blake said.
The arena immediately reset itself so they could take their positions, clearing debris by itself.
The duel started off with Blake drawing his brand new Stone Swords. The moment he played it, a creature similar to his Stone Golem appeared, but the ends of both of its arms ended in jagged stone swords. It wasn’t nearly as bulky as the stone golem, and looked like it could move with a lot more grace than the old lumbering monster.
“That’s the card you just evolved, right?” Kenji asked.
Blake nodded. “It sure is.”
“Exactly what kind of card is that? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Well, I’m not about to give up any of my secrets just yet,” Blake said with a grin.
Kenji drew and played his first card which caused two flaming chakrams to appear in his hands. The flames flickered out from the palms of his hands and up his wrists, but he remained unburned. His trench coat with the neon trim flowed out behind him, and it made him look like he’d just stepped out of the pages of some manga.
Blake immediately sent his new monster on the attack. The system labeled it as a Stone Slasher Golem instead of a Stone Golem, and it was much faster than the last form it had taken.
Kenji began by throwing his chakram at the slasher, but Blake’s new monster crossed its sword hands over its chest as it ran to defend itself.
The stone fists of its last form were great for attacking but didn’t have much in the way of defensive capabilities. The slasher already looked to be more balanced – fast enough to avoid attacks, but sturdy enough to defend itself.
However, the attacks from Kenji’s flaming chakrams were not without effect. One chakram slammed into the slasher’s crossed arms and chipped off little pieces of stone. The attacks left a small lingering flame on the stone, but the slasher was resistant to this because of its earth element type.
The moment the monster reached Kenji it unfurled and spread its sword hands wide.
As Blake focused on the slasher, a new window appeared which showed its stats, as well as its current focus, which was labeled as Balanced. He could also change it to Offensive or Defensive, depending on what the battle needed. He decided to keep it as Balanced until he saw Kenji’s next card.
Monster: Stone Slasher Golem
Level: 5
Evolution Stage: Advanced
Affinity: Earth
Strength: 120
Toughness: 110
Agility: 90
Magic Power: 80
Personality: Defiant, Quicker than Average, Crafty
Traits:
* Brutal
* Stone Body
* Dual Wield Swords
* Elemental
Past Evolutions: Stone Golem (Stone Fists)
Future Evolutions: Unknown
Kenji probably had more than two cards than Blake, but because Blake only had two usable cards, the system didn’t allow either to draw more.
Kenji and the Slasher Golem traded blows, and Blake grinned as he saw the golem land a few good hits on Kenji. He winced at the pain and took a step back, trying to put some distance in between himself and the Slasher so he could attack with his weapons from a distance.
That tactic kept him safer, but the Slasher was very mobile and could cover quite a distance in a short amount of time.
The card draw timer ticked down to zero and Blake drew Shale Skin. He played it and his Shaleskin Wolf appeared in front of him with a howl.
Kenji used his next card. His chakrams, which were spinning in mid-air in the center of the battlefield, exploded with heat and flame as chains appeared and wrapped themselves around the weapons.
Those chains reached out toward Kenji, and they fastened tight around his wrists. The chains themselves were on fire, and now his chakrams had become a completely different weapon.
The weapon still had a circular blade attached to the end, but the flames that billowed out from both the chains and the weapon were of a much greater intensity than before.
Blake had no idea what the weapons were called or what synergy had caused them to manifest like this, but they looked dangerous.
The Slasher was close to Kenji, and with a flick of one of his wrists, Kenji completely wrapped the Slasher up, immobilizing it with his flaming chain weapon.
The chain wrapped around the Slasher like a flaming vine, and Blake could tell that it was in trouble.
Blake commanded his wolf to his side, and he stepped up onto the wolf’s shoulder to ride it into battle. The wolf thundered across the arena toward Kenji, dodging the flaming chain strikes Kenji sent its way.
Now that Kenji had played both of his cards, Blake had an idea for a strategy he might be able to use, though it was risky.
When he got close enough to Kenji, Blake commanded his wolf to allow itself to get caught up in the flame chains. The wolf obeyed and put itself into a vulnerable position. The moment before the flame chains lashed out once again, Blake leaped from the back of his wolf and onto the battlefield.
“Whatever you do, don’t let him pull those chains back!” Blake called out as he rushed across the battlefield at Kenji.
Kenji’s eyes went wide as the unempowered form of Blake Thornwood ran directly at him with his fist raised. Blake threw all his weight into a single punch which caught Kenji in the jaw.
Kenji rocked backward, but stayed upright because his flame chains were entangled with Blake’s monsters.
Blake pummeled him with his regular human fists, until Kenji finally relented.
“Okay, okay, I forfeit!” Kenji called out.
The arena’s automated announcer, which was nowhere near as enthusiastic as the live announcer in the central arena, proclaimed Blake Thornwood as the winner. The arena restored any anima reserves either of the combatants had. The system also directly deposited a power card with a green outline right in front of Kenji.
Blake looked down at the power card, confused. “Why did it give you that?”
“That’s not just any normal power card,” Kenji said. “This is something that you get at the end of a duel if you’ve sustained any injuries directly. You’ve got a hell of a punch, you know that?”
“So, you can just use that potion to regain any health that you’ve lost as part of the duel?” Blake asked.
“Right on the money.”
“What’s stopping you from taking it to a power card store and selling it?” Blake was immediately thinking of the credits he could get if he had one of those cards.
“When you get one, you’ll understand. These ones can't be taken out of the arena, and also can’t be traded, sold, or anything else except for being used. It’s single use too, so once you use it to recover, it’s done. It’s just a way for the system to let us train as much as we want. But just remember if you go and do an actual duel, you don’t get the same treatment. You would have to actually have a reusable potion card or a recovery card or something like that,” Kenji said.
“I’ve never even seen a recovery or potion card. I’ve never seen anyone use one in a duel, either.”
“Yeah, that’s probably because a lot of people are focused on offensive and defensive skills at the moment. Power card acquisition is pretty slow, and when people are figuring out their battle loadouts, they’re generally keeping any of their recovery ones for use afterwards. Have you ever thought about actually dueling in the arena with everybody else?” Kenji asked.
Blake shrugged. “I mean, I’ve thought about it. I just don’t like the idea of having to put up one of my cards to wager for the outcome.”
“The way I see it, you have a crazy advantage. There are only a few cards that I’ve seen that give the user a guardian or any kind of automated defense. But somehow both your cards summon a crazy monster that is extremely hard to defend against. I see you’ve only got two cards at the moment, but if you expanded your roster a little, maybe found some more personal offense or defense cards, you'd probably find that you would have a good chance against basically everybody. Attacking with multiple targets at once would be very difficult to defend against with the cards that we know are currently in circulation.”
That comment planted a seed in Blake’s mind.
It was true that nobody else could do anything like him. The closest had been Nessa Ashcroft with her Stone Sentry card. But even then, it wasn’t really an autonomous type of monster like Blake’s were.
“I might just consider that. As soon as I can save up for a card as a loss buffer, I’ll throw my hat in the ring and see how it goes,” Blake said.
“You should, man. That power that you’ve got just in those two cards, I reckon you’d probably be able to stand up against a rank three fighter if you use them right. Hey, if you ever wanna chat strategy or what it’s like fighting in the arena, just hit me up, yeah?” Kenji asked.
Blake received a New Meridia social system friend request from Kenji Nakamura and accepted it. Kenji left soon after.
Harry clapped Blake on the back. “Damn, dude! That was incredible! When are you going to sign up for a real duel?”
Blake’s smile was irrepressible.