The outside border of the arena flashed from white to yellow. It grew in height until it was about 10 feet tall. Stepping outside it would obviously lead to a loss.

A message appeared saying that Blake’s deck was being shuffled, and his cards appeared in front of him, surrounded by glowing white light. They were shuffled automatically by the system.

Once the deck settled, another message appeared which counted down from 5 seconds.

Once it hit 0, both Challengers would be able to draw their first card in the duel.

Blake eagerly awaited the countdown to end, then reached forward and selected his very first card. He secretly hoped that it would be his Stone Fists card because at least he knew what that would do.

When he drew the first card, he saw the telltale outline of a man's body covered in rocky armor. He’d drawn Shale Skin as his very first card. He hesitated for a moment and the system must have sensed his apprehension.

It flashed a message that said you must play this card, so Blake held the card aloft and activated it. Bright white light erupted from the card which Blake almost expected to surround him and envelope him in stone armor.

Instead, the light coalesced into the form of a wolf large enough for Blake to ride. He saw the familiar stone plates of armor interspersed beneath the fur, and his previous assumptions about what would happen were proven correct.

The Shaleskin Wolf snarled at Frank as he held his own card in front of him.

“A monster summoning card, huh? I've never seen one of those before. It's a pity for you that I'm going to have to take it from you,” Frank said as he played the card held between his fingers.

He threw the card toward Blake, and it landed on the ground at the feet of his newly-summoned wolf.

“Move out of the way!” Blake commanded.

The ground opened up right underneath the wolf and Blake’s feet. Blake scrambled backward to escape the sinking ground, and his wolf loped along out of harm's way.

But the ground kept falling.

Blake found himself tumbling through the air to escape the widening sinkhole. A glance down revealed a pit full of stone spikes in the abyss beneath him that would impale him if he fell on them.

Suddenly an upward force lifted Blake out of the hole, and he felt the warm breath of the Shaleskin Wolf on the back of his neck. The wolf unceremoniously dumped him onto the ground after the collapse had finished, and Blake got back to his feet. He commanded his wolf to attack Frank Collins, who had a rueful grimace on his face.

Frank had obviously expected this opening gambit of the stone spike pit to finish things before they had even begun, but he hadn't counted on Blake having a monster that would come to his rescue.

The wolf bounded across the battlefield toward Frank who sought to flee. The bastard was running for his life, stumbling every other step, but somehow managed to stay ahead of the wolf’s jaws.

“Come on! Finish him!” Blake shouted.

He focused on his deck and watched the sixty second countdown reach 3, then 2, then 1. Frank was ready to draw his second card soon.

Without knowing whether his anima would replenish itself after this duel, Blake decided that he would hold off on activating his second card unless he absolutely had to. Frank hadn't managed to hurt him or the wolf just yet, so the wolf might be able to finish this eventually.

Frank drew his second card and grinned. “This is it, kid. It's all over now.”

A flash of brightness surrounded Frank and covered his skin. Once the light dissipated, Frank was covered from head to toe in stone armor, and held a massive two-handed sword made of stone in his hands.

Was that what Shale Skin was supposed to look like when it was played properly? The card had said nothing about a weapon being provided at the same time, but Blake figured anything was possible. Maybe this was an advanced form of the same card?

He wished to see what card had been played, but when he queried his AI assistant, it said that this kind of intelligence wouldn’t be available until after the duel had concluded.

This was both frustrating and understandable. If a Challenger could look up what an opponent's card did as part of a duel, any element of surprise would be rendered null.

The Shaleskin Wolf advanced on Frank in his stone armor. Frank was a lot slower now, but he was a lot more powerful as well.

Blake thought back to the descriptions on his Stone Fists and Shale Skin cards. The cards had said a person's physical strength would be increased so that they could still move while covered in stone.

Frank swung his massive sword at Blake’s wolf, much faster than Blake expected. The increased strength when using earth element cards seemed to enhance speed as well as power.

The sword slammed into the wolf’s flank, and sent chips of stone, fur, and flesh flying. The wolf whimpered under the blistering force of the attack, and Blake knew that he would need to summon his last monster to help out.

Blake drew and played Stone Fists, summoning the creature in a flash of light. He commanded it to attack Frank.

The golem advanced slowly, but his wolf was still alive. Frank turned his attention toward the new monster. It moved a lot more slowly than the wolf and would probably shatter under Frank’s powerful sword strikes, but not before it got a couple of good hits in.

Blake had a surprise up his sleeve. His wolf wasn't dead yet, and it had just enough power left for one savage attack. Blake waited until Frank drew his massive sword back for another swing before he commanded his wolf to leap up and grab hold of Frank's wrists with its mouth.

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The wolf leaped and its mouth crunched down between two of the softer armor plates where Frank’s forearm met his wrist. Frank grunted in pain and shock, and he reflexively let go of his sword. The wolf released Frank's arms.

Now was the time to turn the tide.

“Take the sword and run!” Blake shouted, and his wolf followed his orders.

The Shaleskin Wolf took the sword’s handle in its mouth and dragged it away. As Frank went to scramble after his sword, the golem shoulder charged him and knocked him off balance. The golem was on top of him then, slamming its massive stony fists into him over and over again.

“I yield, I yield!” Frankie yelled as his stone armor started to crack.

A new message appeared.

Duel complete!

Frank Collins has forfeited this duel.

Blake Thornwood is the victor.

Your anima has now been refreshed.

Blake felt an infusion of power rush through him as his anima was restored, and that was accompanied by a burst of pride at defeating Frank Collins on his own turf. Blake enjoyed seeing the fear and fury in Frank's eyes as he walked over and offered the old man his hand.

Frank took it grudgingly and allowed Blake to lift him back to his feet.

Suddenly Harry was there by Blake’s side, patting him on the back and congratulating him for a good fight.

“You got another monster card?” Harry asked. “That’s badass!”

Blake grinned as The System then awarded Blake his reward for winning the duel. He received a Lair facility card, but the confusing thing was that Frank didn't seem all that upset about losing it.

New card received!

Card: Lair

Level: 1

Rarity: Epic

Element: Earth

Type: Facility

Cost: 4 Anima

Duration: Forever

Effects: When a Challenger plays a Lair card, it spawns a personal facility that can only be managed by the Challenger that activates it. A Lair can provide vast power to the owning Challenger. A lair can be upgraded through various means and provides many bonuses that the challenger would not normally have access to, such as anima regeneration throughout the day.

Blake's eyes flew wide when he saw that last statement. Anima regeneration would solve a lot of problems when it came to wielding the cards and give him an edge over the competition.

The kicker there was that he would need to keep this information from Harry as well. Blake figured that once he reached New Meridia and found his parents, Harry would probably be on his way anyway.

Blake shot a quizzical look at Frank, but Frank just raised a finger to his lips to stop Blake from saying anything. Blake desperately wanted to know why Frank had wagered this particular card, but the more he thought about it the more he realized it was really Frank's only option.

If Frank only had two cards total, and he planned on keeping control of Cedar Creek himself, giving up one of his power cards would not be an option. Blake wanted to speak to Frank in detail, but it was already time for Harry's duel.

“Are you sure about this?” Blake asked as he left Harry in the middle of the arena.

Harry shrugged. “Not really, dude. But then again, I'm not really sure about much of anything that goes on these days. I’ll either walk out of here with another power card, or I'll walk out of here with nothing and I'll be back to where I was a day or so ago. Either way I'll be happy. Easy come, easy go.”

Blake followed Frank and the other two ruffians to the side of the arena. Frank was still smiling, despite his loss.

The System also acknowledged that Frank now needed to let both Harry and Blake pass if Blake won his duel, so Blake was relatively certain Frank wouldn’t turn on him. The System would punish him if he did.

The System allowed Harry the same preparation time that Blake had, and each of the combatants took their positions at either end of the arena.

The preparation message disappeared pretty quickly. No way would Harry have been able to read through all of the rules in that short amount of time. Seemed he really didn’t give a shit.

Blake shook his head but couldn't help smiling. That sounded like how Harry approached basically every problem in his life from what he’d seen of the guy so far.

The duel started in earnest shortly after that. Harry was the first to play one of his power cards. His fists and forearms erupted into flames, which billowed white hot flames. Not to be outdone, Joel retrieved his sole duel card and played it as well.

The light from Joel's card exploded in the air and then formed into a weapon. A long handle formed in Joel's hands, and Blake's heart sank when he realized that this was probably already over.

Joel held a long spear tipped with a stone blade and spun it around like a martial artist. The weapon made a pleasant whooshing sound as it blurred. The whole thing appeared to be made of stone, so if Joel could move it around with that kind of speed, he likely had a strength bonus as part of this card.

Harry grinned as Joel twirled his spear, unfazed despite the obvious disadvantage of reach. He charged before Joel finished his twirlings, making the spearman back off, wary of a trick.

While Harry chased Joel, Blake decided to use this opportunity to ask Frank the burning question.

“Why did you wager that card?” Blake asked.

Frank shrugged. “You might not believe me when I say to you that what I did to your parents, I only did for my own survival. You can believe that I'm the bad guy, this irredeemable piece of crap who just takes what he wants, when he wants it, but that's not me, kid. I had a feeling that you had an ace up your sleeve, and this was my way of trying to make up for what happened to your Mom and Pop’s house and bunker. If you're going to New Meridia you're going to need a safe space of your own.”

Blake didn’t trust this guy as far as he could throw him. This could all be an act. And yet Blake didn’t detect a trace of deception in Frank’s voice. “How do you know that? Have you been to New Meridia?”

Harry threw a flurry of fiery punches at Joel, who blocked them with his stone spear. Then he lashed out at Harry, who lifted his flaming arms to guard himself. Harry grunted at the impact of the spear and slid back a few inches. This wasn’t looking good.

“The city wasn’t even there a week ago, but it became its own power in these parts almost overnight. It's run by some guy named Clay Atlas, and one of my informants said that he'd gotten some kind of crazy powerful card straight off the bat that turned him into some kind of City Lord.”

“There are cards powerful enough to spawn whole cities? That’s a crazy amount of power,” Blake said, but was happy to hear that his own hypothesis sounded like it was correct.

Secretly, he made himself an oath that he would eventually find one of these cards for himself. He’d create his own city and use it to protect the people who couldn’t protect themselves. Or maybe he’d take it from Clay Atlas himself.

“When you're a City Lord or in control of any kind of settlement you can influence things directly,” Frank continued. “You can set missions for any citizens who live in the settlement you control called Work Orders, take a portion of the resources that are gathered by your citizens, and a whole bunch of other powerful perks that come with being the ruler of a city in the new world.”

“So that's why you wanted to take over Cedar Creek.”

“Not initially. To begin with, all I wanted to do was survive, but eventually the system started calling me the person in charge and I took that role seriously. New Meridia is only about an hour's drive away from Cedar Creek, and I'd pay good money if you were to keep me up to date with the things that are happening in the city.”

“You want me to be a rat?”

“I prefer the term informant. What makes the whole situation feel better.”

Suddenly Harry surged forward at Joel and delivered a punch so powerful that it snapped the handle of the stone spear in half. Joel swore, threw away the bottom half, and kept the top half that had the pointed stone head on it.

He swung this wildly at Harry, but he'd hit his groove now. Harry dodged out of the way of all of the strikes, and for a big guy he was pretty light on his feet. He delivered a one-two punch combo to Joel's side, which made a plume of fire erupt on his clothes.

Joel dropped to the ground and rolled, trying to put the fire out.

“I yield!” Joel called out, and Harry also won his very first duel.