As soon as Jaden’s mana regenerated, he gently shook Niko awake, and peeked over the top. The battle continued to rage with heavy casualties on both sides. Lois had long since reentered the fray once her opponent bled out, and she had already killed two Klax with the help of the Jeffs. Jaden found his Dark Paladin still alive, using its vampiric powers to repair any damage it received.

“Good morning.” Niko muttered blearily.

“Are you ok?” Jaden asked worriedly, ducking back down. “You passed out.”

Niko nodded. “Berserker rage makes me tired. Lots of mana.”

Jaden rubbed her shoulder affectionately. “Are you able to go back out there? The fight’s not going so well.”

Niko nodded again. “My mana is back.”

“Alright, go help Lois. I’m gonna get back into the fight too.”

Niko saluted sarcastically, and scrambled to her feet. “Aye, captain.” She said as she reclaimed her sword.

“That’s general to you.” Jaden replied, already sorting through his hand of cards.

“Big promotion.” Niko retorted, and hopped over the log; clearing the line of shields in front of it in the same motion.

Jaden shook his head with a wry smile as he selected a card. “I play Spike Trap.” He called out, investing sixty mana. A red globe appeared to his vision in the midst of a dense group of Klax. A moment later, one of them triggered the trap, causing two Klax to fall into a sudden hole in the ground. A prompt appeared while Jaden was deciding on his next card, confirming that at least one of the Klax had been killed as he received his share of their soul. This caused Jaden to realize he didn’t know exactly how much mana he had, leading him to open his stat page.

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Jaden Harris

Max MP: 354

Free MP: 117/177 (50%)

Stats

Strength: 10 (0%)

Agility: 10 (0%)

Fortitude: 45 (10%)

Endurance: 10 (0%)

Charisma: 10 (0%)

Intelligence: 141 (40%)

Magic Resistance: 10 (0%)

*all stats are rounded to the nearest whole number

Jobs:

King of Games Level 6

Skills:

Blood Magic Level 3

Titles:

Fop Level 1

Originator Level 2

Creator Level 1

Status effects:

None

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Jaden glanced through the kill notifications that had accrued while he rested, realizing his Paladin had harvested a significant number of souls on his behalf. Smiling, Jaden grabbed his next card, activating it with a single point of mana. “Wormhole!” He announced, giving it a random set of coordinates. A Klax that had been charging a line of Jeffs disappeared into the sudden opening in space. As soon as the Klax entered the wormhole, Jaden closed it.

“God, this system is so broken.” Jaden muttered, drawing another card.

Jaden watched as Lois, accompanied by a newly refreshed Niko, tore into a pair of Klax. Whether because of absorbing souls, or just gaining more mana through use, it was apparent that they were slowly becoming stronger as they were now able to pierce the Klax’s hides effectively.

“I activate Hero’s Sword.” Jaden announced, pouring all of his remaining mana into the spell. The sword fell from the sky to land in front of Niko, who picked it up in her off-hand as she dodged around a Klax. With a furious roar, Niko swung her new sword with all her might, cleaving a third of the way through the Klax’s torso. Grunting in approval, Niko pulled her sword out of the Klax with a sharp tug. It bellowed in pain, swiping at her sword arm, but missing as she pulled the sword out too quickly for it to catch her.

Snarling, Niko thrust her sword into the Klax’s chest, pulling her sword out in a smooth motion a moment later. It became clear that she had pierced something vital when the Klax stumbled drunkenly for several seconds before falling over dead. Jaden nodded, satisfied that the sword was sufficient, before turning his attention to absorbing blood to regenerate mana. While one hand absorbed blood, the other placed a card on his battle grid.

“I activate Plains.” Jaden called out, combining the mana from his previous plains card with twenty mana from his blood regeneration to create the second plains card. Drawing his next card, Jaden shrugged in uncertainty at the results of his next move; momentarily cutting off his blood stream as he manipulated three cards simultaneously. “I activate fusion to fuse Loyal Soldier with Mystic Hunter.”

The two cards lit up with a blinding light as he put the full power of the new land card into the spell, suddenly slamming together as if drawn by magnets. The result was a single card, shining too brightly to be seen for a moment as it slotted itself into place on his battle grid. When the glow finally subsided, Jaden could see a man in gilded Chinese armor such as one might find in a martial arts movie standing silently in front of him. A notification appeared as he looked down to examine the card.

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You Have Found A Rare Fusion!

Rare fusions represent the combination of cards which complement each other well. In this case they are both spear-wielders by nature, and thus have decent synergy. Other such combinations might not be so obvious in the future. There are other, rarer tiers of fusions, so keep experimenting!

Brought to you by Clip’s secretary as he couldn’t be bothered to mock you right now. His words, not mine.

*************************************

Waving the notification aside, Jaden looked at the stats for the card. Due to a power he had recently unlocked through his King of Games class, the information appeared as a popup.

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Name: Majestic Spearman

Effects: Equip cards with spear in their name have twice as much effect on this card’s stats. While benefiting from the effect of a spear-type equip card, flip a coin. If heads, this card will not receive damage this round.

Attack: 2,000

Defense: 1,500

HP: 3,000

*************************************

As he read through the prompt, Jaden’s battle-grid automatically replaced the expended cards into his hand. Glancing at the new set of cards, Jaden smirked, and said a mildly sarcastic thanks to the Heart of the Cards.

“I play Spear of Fate!” Jaden called out excitedly, pouring all the mana he had available from every source into the card; amounting to thirty mana. The spear in the spearman’s hands was replaced by one in the shape of an egyptian ankh; with the circle at the top of the spear being more of a sharp oval, and the points of the cross being sharpened to act as extra blades.

Looking around to see if there would be an automated coin flip of some kind, Jaden didn’t see any. Shrugging, Jaden spent a single point of mana that had regenerated in the several seconds he had spent examining his summon to create a rudimentary coin. Strangely, the head of the coin held a figure of anubis, while the tail side held an ankh. Cocking his head at the unexpected depictions, Jaden shrugged again, and flipped the coin. The coin glowed with red light as it rotated in the air for a second longer than it should have, before landing in the heads position as it hit the ground. Dissolving into a ball of red energy, the coin shot into the spearman’s chest; leaving a glowing red trail in Jaden’s vision. Blinking away the streaks in his vision, Jaden mentally commanded his spearman into the fight.

The spearman, glowing with a golden color, charged silently. As it found its first target, Jaden noticed the spearman was covered in a soft yellow glow that he attributed to the temporary invincibility. Jaden sighed as he returned to accruing mana, watching the spearman duel with a Klax. The Klax was already filled with several small holes, making Jaden frown slightly as he decided he hadn’t put enough mana into the spear equip. Still, the spearman was slowly wearing down the giant lizard. Jaden watched as the Klax landed a lucky strike, only for the blow to pass through his spearman harmlessly. As this happened, the golden glow surrounding his spearman dimmed slightly.

Jaden smiled as his summon opened another hole in the Klax; exploiting the lizard being off-balance from the failed attack. Curious, Jaden opened his map, and realized there were only five more Klax left including the one fighting his spearman. Jaden felt good about this until he saw the remaining four Klax tearing through the Jeffs as if they were made of tinfoil. These Klax were stronger and faster than those Jaden had seen until now. In fact there was no comparison between the two groups.

Jaden watched as Niko, Lois, and Jaden’s Dark Paladin engaged one of these elite Klax. The Klax was almost as fast as Niko, able to match her blow for blow, while entire trees to errant strikes. Jaden winced as a squad of Jeffs were struck by a falling jungle tree; immediately popping into a cloud of mana that misted the battlefield before dissipating. Lois snuck in from behind the Klax, punching with all her might. The spiked knuckle of Lois’s armor broke off, while failing to do any damage to the Klax.

Niko, with her extra-strength sword, wasn’t having much more luck. This Klax seemed to be smarter than the others, protecting its gills with its thick, scaled arms, which were thick enough to deflect the weapon. With a snort, it thrust out an arm, catching the sword mid-swing without any apparent damage. While it was thus distracted, the Dark Paladin ran in from the side. Jaden opened a popup to check how strong his paladin had become.

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Dark Paladin

Owner: Jaden Harris

Mana: 453/100

*************************************

“Holy crap, how strong are these things?” Jaden muttered as he watched the Paladin’s sword bounce harmlessly off the Klax’s hide. The Klax flicked its single eye toward the new threat the moment it felt the impact, letting go of Niko’s sword; which was now wrenched, nearly broken by spiderwebbed cracks all along the blade. Checking his mana, Jaden funneled twenty mana into the blade, which was sufficient to restore its physical form. Contemptuously, the Klax backhanded the Paladin into a nearby tree; leaving a crater several feet deep in the thick trunk. Jaden checked the damage, and saw this single blow had cost the paladin over a hundred mana.

The Klax turned back to Niko, who was thrusting her sword toward its gill. It snorted in irritation as the blade left only a small red gash on the organ. The Klax’s leg thrust out, short, straight claws brutalizing Niko’s stomach as the impact sent her flying; tumbling through underbrush in a way that left scratches, and gouges across her skin.

“No!” Jaden cried, attracting the attention of the offending Klax. With a shouted mental command, Jaden spurred the paladin back into the fight. Silently it charged the Klax who was now walking calmly toward Jaden’s position. It was only a moment later that the paladin impacted the Klax. With a brutal thrust, the paladin’s hand penetrated the Klax’s gill. It shouted in pain, punctuated a moment later by the paladin activating his blood powers. Internally, the Klax’s body began attacking itself; lances of blood exploding out from the thick scales. The Klax seemed to scream soundlessly, lungs no longer functioning as it died. The body sagged, and finally toppled as the few functional muscles remaining failed in death. The remaining Klax looked at their fallen brother, glanced at each other, and fled, the remaining opposition unable to prevent their escape. Jaden disengaged his battle grid, and minimized a notification without reading it as he looked to see Niko’s fate. Swearing, Jaden rushed to Niko’s side; already fumbling through his deck to find his First Aid card. Jaden examined Niko critically. Her stomach was rent open, and the entirety of her skin was covered in thick gashes. One of her eyes was bleeding white fluid.

“We really need to stop meeting like this.” He said sarcastically as he continued hunting for his card.

“Must stay interesting.” Niko coughed weakly, finally passing out from the pain as if she had held herself awake for the express purpose of making a witty comeback.

“You certainly do that.” Jaden muttered, pulling out the card he needed.

“I play First Aid!” Jaden announced, pouring all of the mana that was available to him into the card.

This time the bandages encased her entire body, including her head, making her look mummified. Letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, Jaden collapsed against a nearby tree, reading through the notification he had minimized.

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Spoils of War Announcement

You have absorbed the soul of:

-1 Kel’Dun Hunter.

As a result, your maximum mana is increased by 153 points. Continue absorbing the souls of your foes, and reach ever greater heights. Note that 90% of every soul is taken as tribute by the local arbiter. We thank you for your contribution.

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Jaden spluttered in a mix of surprise, and fear. “Holy-”