From the Field card hovering in the air burst forth a wave of Order energy. The energy rippled across the air until it met an invisible boundary and suddenly locked into place.

In the span of a few heartbeats, the lobby around him disappeared. The carpeted floors, the mural on the ceiling—all faded.

Tristan now stood in a glowing room formed entirely of Order energy. Columns and statues formed at regular intervals, creating the sense of him being inside of a temple of sorts. The statues were of vague, hooded figures glaring down at him imperiously. They held various implements: a gavel, a scythe, a book, and more. As he moved, the eyes of the statues followed him.

All cards except for his Attack cards grayed out. He reached for a [Shadow Step], and his hand just passed through it.

Tristan turned and faced Dennier, who let loose a breath.

He thought rapidly, trying to think of how to escape. Without his Support cards, it was difficult. He was also sure she had some Field-related Perks that would make things trickier, but thankfully there were none that could extend a Field’s duration.

Still, there were others that could really put him in a dangerous position.

“Why an Order Field? You primarily use Air cards. That would benefit your build more,” Tristan asked, trying to buy time. [Enforce: Reveal] created a timer counting down the Field’s duration at the side of his vision, above Dennier’ list of cards. Quite handy. He would have to get the upgraded version, [Enforce: Analyze], when he advanced into Expert.

Her response was a wry look, clearly understanding what he was doing, and she pulled out a card.

Well, worth a shot.

Tristan started running towards the back of the lobby, where the [Teleport Stones] would be if he got out of the range of the Field. Without his Support cards, he was a sitting duck for her Attacks.

A card arced high in the air above him. With horror, his [Enforce: Reveal] told him what the card was.

[Tornado]. An extremely powerful one-cast card with the condition of only being able to be cast inside a Field.

The card hit the maximum cast distance a few meters ahead of him and then started spinning mid-air. A screeching wind swirled around it, more and more every second, until soon a raging tornado stood between him and the boundary of the Field. He cursed, digging in his heels in against the suction effect of the Attack dragging him towards it; he knew just one touch of that card without his [Armor] and he was dead.

Tristan turned and ran parallel to it. The tornado followed him, clearly able to be directed by Dennier, who was keeping up with him at his side.

Think, think, think! Where could he go? If he tried to use {Darklink} to teleport to where the Stones were, the following tornado would just suck the Attack into it instead. He looked around desperately, his feet slipping as the tornado drew closer and threatened to suck him in. It tore through the Field, carving deep rends. Order energy misted out, revealing the carpeted floor of the lobby, before repairing itself.

That’s it.

Tristan activated his second cast of {Darklink}. He pulled a card, then was forced to duck out of the way of Dennier’s last [Enforce: Burst]. That little moment, however, made him lose his purchase on the floor.

The tornado roared and sucked him in. Tristan fell to the floor, sliding backwards towards the screaming maelstrom, drawing him closer to certain death.

With a shout, Tristan cast [Dark Kunai] up at the ceiling, above Dennier. She flinched as the Attack flew up and pinged the top of the Field, the line of Dark energy connecting him to the mark left behind.

Before he was swallowed up by the tornado, he reactivated the Perk, and he blinked to the top of the room.

Below him, Dennier twisted about and cast her last [Furious Wind] at him. Tristan managed to block it with his legs, dealing heavy damage to the [Armor] there but not shattering it. Some stray slices of wind cut gouges into his bare arms, but he barely noticed.

He twisted about and chain-cast three cards directly down beneath him.

[Midnight Javelin] went first, shooting forth and breaking through the Field, creating a dent in the floor of the lobby. Before the Field could repair itself, [Nightmare Cleave] hit the newly formed dent, carving the damage deeper.

Then, [Monstrous Descent] struck, breaking through the floor and into the secreted employee layer underneath.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Dennier cursed as Tristan dropped down. He passed through the hole slowly covering up with Order energy into the employee section with a grunt. The remaining shreds of his [Armored] legs shattered from the impact as he rolled off the momentum and stood.

Now it was Tristan’s time to curse. The Field card extended down here, too. He’d been planning on using his last cast of [Sinking Sands].

She must have a range extending [Perk], Tristan thought as he ran down a hall transformed by the Field. From what he remembered of Polter’s brief passthrough of this space, this was an access shaft of sorts that led to the secondary crystal room behind him. He definitely didn’t want to damage that by mistake.

He heard a thud as Dennier landed in the hole he created. Tristan sped up, the Order energy beneath his feet making a strange chiming noise as he dashed through.

Field cards didn’t actually create an extra-dimensional space. They merely overlaid the new zone on top of the surroundings like a fresh coat of paint. So while from his perspective he was running towards a wall of glimmering gray energy, he knew there was actually a door.

The tell-tale sound of a card flying through the air made him react. He twisted and cast his last [Nightmare Cleave] along with a [Midnight Javelin].

Her last [Dragon Rush] met his Attacks head on and exploded. The resulting force sent him flying backwards painfully, and his back slammed against the door at the end of the shaft. He crumpled to the ground, sucking in a painful breath, but thankfully his Attacks absorbed enough of the damage to not break anything.

He turned and pushed through the oddly viscous energy, finding the door knob. He pushed it open, his heart sinking as he saw the Field continued past into a small room with shelves lining the walls, all transformed by Order energy.

He got to his feet and limped through. It looked like the explosion from their colliding Attacks had also sent Dennier backwards, buying him some time. He reached the other end and pushed through the door here, revealing another shaft under the Field card’s range.

He sped up best he could. From [Enforce: Reveal], he saw that she was basically out of Attacks.

Except she still has all five casts of [Galeforce] left. Why hasn’t she used them?

He finally reached the end of the Field’s zone and pushed through the boundary, squelching out on the other side. Here, the shaft continued, returning back to its normal metallic form. At the end was a ladder that led up to a hatch.

His grayed out cards returned. He quickly cast [Sinking Sands] at the exit to the Field and then pulled [Predator’s Mark] and a [Dark Kunai].

The moment she came through, he would end her.

—🃁—

Dennier stood at the boundary of [Domain: Control]. She knew the rat was likely waiting on the other side for her to pop through. Her hands itched to just pop through and use a [Galeforce]

to end him.

Instead, she simply turned around. She’d underestimated him too many times and wasn’t about to do it again. Besides, she needed all her casts of [Galeforce] for {Summon Conversion}, and she had a feeling Zephyr would be needed soon.

She stalked back down the shaft, summoning her [Binder]. A part of her had been terrified that the rat was going to destroy the crystals down here. Thankfully, he’d gone the other way.

She pulled out her personal shortcomm and converted it. The things were godsdamned expensive, but their use was undeniable.

“Duro,” she said into the machine. “Come in.”

A moment later, the man’s raspy voice came through. “Yes, Cap’n.”

“Report.”

“The damn hostages are here in front of the Scapegoat. There’s a lot of ‘em, Cap’n, but we told them if they continued their advance, we would blow the [Warpbox].”

“Good. Keep them there. I’m on my way.” She converted the shortcomm back to a card and put it away.

The [Warpbox], though a wrench in her plans initially, was turning out to be rather fortuitous. She would use it to deter the hostages from boarding the Scapegoat until she could come through and deal with them. Once the Scapegoat was secure, she would refresh her deck and finish off Tristan.

I’ll have to keep that Eila girl’s body intact, she thought, arriving in the shaft with the hole to the lobby. Throw it in front of the rat’s face. That’ll show him the price of mutiny.

She bent down and leapt up, plunging her hand through [Domain: Sequence’s] energy. Grabbing the lip of the hole, she pulled herself up and out.

It was impressive that he managed to survive the Field. Granted, she barely had any casts left; it would’ve been a different story had she had her full arsenal.

Still, she thought, walking to the [Teleport Stone]. He’s impressive. This was the first time since unlocking Expert six years ago that she’d cast the Field and not defeated her opponent.

As she went, she activated {Summon Conversion}. The only card avalaible—[Galeforce]--glowed bright. She snatched it out of the deck and clenched her fist. Air energy coated her hand as the card dissipated.

In her deck, Zephyr’s grayed out card shone. She placed her hand on it, and the [Perk] transferred the Air energy into the card, creating one more cast she could use.

The Field card dissipated around her as she reached the [Teleport Stone].

It was time to end this.