“Don’t be a hater.” Jaden admonished, gathering his dropped cards.

Lois made another gagging noise before moving toward the brewing battlefield. Jaden sighed, and looked at his hand for the first time. Muttering possible strategies to himself, Jaden pulled out his first card.

“I play Plains!” Jaden announced, pouring his full two-hundred and sixty one mana into the card. Once he had drawn his next card, Jaden waited, watching his personal mana slowly tick back upwards. It took only thirty seconds from that point until the dragon finally emerged from the thick jungle.

The trees falling in front of him were the first indication of the dragon’s arrival. Apprehensively, Jaden braced himself as trees with trunks seven feet thick were pushed aside like paper mache. Jaden scanned his hand again, looking up just in time to see the dragon emerge into the small clearing his party occupied.

Jaden’s eyes widened when he saw it. Dragon seemed to be a misnomer, perhaps a loose term, or even an error in translation as he watched the massive snake flick its tongue out; tasting the air while staring straight at Jaden. Across the snake’s body were large talons, which it used as traction to pull its considerable bulk forward. Jaden suddenly understood why the trees had been falling as it used a nearby tree to propel itself forward; the sheer force of the movement causing the tree trunk to shatter.

A scream snapped Jaden from his reverie as one of the Jeffs charged forward, stabbing his spear at the “dragon.” Jaden was heartened by the fact that the spearhead penetrated the creature’s scales; albeit only a few inches. Jaden was less heartened when the dragon turned its serpentine head, and breathed flame on the offending Jeff; reducing him to a quickly fading cloud of mana with barely over a second of concentrated fire.

Jaden winced, and looked down to his cards; pulling one from his hand. “I play Amazon Archer!” He said in the most dramatic whisper he could manage, hoping not to draw attention to himself as he watched a horde of Jeffs attempt to overwhelm the dragon with numbers. To their credit, the dragon was quickly being peppered with small wounds. The cost was high though; as Jeff after Jeff succumbed to either fire breath, or the dragon’s flailing body.

Jaden channeled the entire two-hundred sixty-one mana value of the plains card into the amazon, hoping that quality would be a better bet than quantity in this instance. As the amazon manifested, Jaden saw a brown-haired woman with thick features, thick muscles, and cold robotic eyes. Strangely she only had one breast, and this confused Jaden for a moment before he remembered the stories of amazon warriors who cut off their breasts in order to fire bows.

Shrugging, Jaden sent her a simple mental command to attack the dragon. The woman turned, and began firing from a quiver that continuously restocked arrows as she fired them. Nodding, Jaden turned to watch the fight, absorbing the blood which already spattered the ground liberally from the dragon’s many small wounds.

Charging in with a furious shout, Niko swung her sword into the dragon; carving through one of the protruding talons, and a full foot into its flesh. The grievous wound attracted the attention of the dragon, who turned its head; opening its mouth to breath fire on Niko. Jaden’s breath caught in concern before Lois jumped in front of Niko, deflecting the stream of fire with a glowing shield of light that extended from her crossed forearms. The shield buckled and wobbled as it strained against the flames, but held.

“I really hope that’s ki, cause that would be really cool if that was a thing.” Jaden muttered, feeling powerless to help as he continued harvesting blood-mana.

The moment the stream of fire cut off, Niko ducked around Lois’s shield; hacking into a different section of the dragon’s hide. It bellowed in pain, thrashing violently. Jaden decided his heart wasn’t strong enough to handle the constant upheaval as Niko was sent flying; trailing blood from several gashes caused by the dragon’s talons. Jaden winced as Niko skidded along the ground, but watched her stand up painfully. Jaden breathed out a sigh of relief as the wounds; albeit slowly, closed up thanks to her passive regeneration.

With a roar, Niko charged again. Lois and the dragon had not been idle during this time. Once it knocked Niko away, the dragon turned its attention to a squad of Jeffs who had used the distraction Niko provided to needle it with their spears. As the dragon focused on frying them one by one, Lois focused the white glowing energy into her fist. Silently, she stepped forward, and drove her glowing fist all the way to her shoulder into the dragon.

The dragon froze as if in shock for just a moment before turning its head toward her. Pulling her arm out of the dragon with a wet schlick sound, Lois jumped, and drove a glowing foot into its throat. Her foot came back bloody as the dragon made a distressed “hurk” noise. Lois jumped back, and a moment later, the dragon seemed to vomit; producing a flaming liquid that reminded Jaden of napalm. Lois crossed her arms to form her ki shield just a moment too late as the flaming liquid splashed onto her body.

Lois screamed, her body launched backwards by the gelatinous stream; still protected by her ki shield even as the small layer that had penetrated her defenses immolated her. The moment she landed, Jaden sprinted for her; the dragon becoming distracted from his prey as Niko reengaged it. Skidding to a stop by Lois’s groaning, burning body, Jaden summoned a wave of cold water without using a card. Swearing at the massive amount of burn damage that ravaged her body, Jaden activated the blessing Chance had given to him to draw the First Aid card. The moment it reached his hands, he immediately played it with all of the mana he could muster both from himself, and his plains card.

He breathed out his stress as best he could as the bandages wound themselves around her body. Jaden did his best to push her pained whimpering out of his mind as he stood. “Stay here, we’ll handle the rest.” He told her in his best soothing voice; hoping she could hear him through what sounded like unbearable pain.

Turning back toward the fight, Jaden began absorbing blood again; watching as Niko nimbly avoided the writhing serpent’s attacks. It seemed to be having trouble breathing fire, only emitting small wisps when it tried. Jaden assumed it was related to the fact that the area of its throat which Lois had injured was slowly leaking the flammable jelly it had thrown up on Lois. Without the flames, it was relegated to desperately flailing its body; though this was relatively effective against the less nimble Jeffs. This dance continued for another thirty seconds before Niko stumbled. Jaden realized her rage ability had finally drained her mana as the snake dragon sent her flying with its tail.

“No!” Jaden cried, as he began running; hoping he could save her like he had Lois. Unfortunately for him, his cry caught the attention of the dragon, which flicked its tongue in his dierction as if to taste him. Ignoring the Jeffs who were valiantly doing what little they could, and even the Amazon Archer, who was having moderately more success it continued to focus its gaze on Jaden. Jaden was so focused on reaching Niko that he didn’t even notice the dragon as it began slithering toward him. Crouching over Niko, Jaden began burning through cards as fast as he could by playing them with a single point of mana. He was so focused on his task that he didn’t perceive the dragon looming over him until a chunk of the dragon’s burning fluid dropped from its wound; landing on the hand that was holding his cards.

“Gah!” Jaden screamed, hand awash in agony as the cards fell from his grip. Jaden looked up, mind going blank with terror as the serpent flicked its tongue out; the forked tip stopping just short of touching his face. Jaden fell to his butt, and scuttled backward, only stopping when he ran into Niko. Something about her wounded, unconscious body snapped him out of his panic as he looked back and forth between her and the dragon. Jaden knew that if he fled now, it was unlikely she would survive.

His mind shifting gears, he went from blind panic to furiously searching for a way to save Niko; as well as himself, in a fraction of a second. Jaden’s plains card was full again, and his own mana had regenerated somewhat, but his hand of cards were strewn on the jungle floor several feet away. Not to mention that one of his hands was essentially nonfunctional. Jaden’s mind whirled, and at the same time that a vague idea came to him, the snake moved forward to loom over Jaden again; opening its mouth to devour him. It was at this moment that an arrow from the Amazon Archer landed directly in the dragon’s mouth. Its jaw snapped closed in surprised agony, and Jaden launched into action; seizing the opportunity. Propelling himself upward with all of his meager speed, and strength, Jaden smashed his good hand into the open wound on the serpent’s throat.

The flaming jelly coated his hand, but he merely gritted his teeth against the pain. Screaming his defiance, Jaden pushed his mana into the snake; remembering how the Dark Paladin had made the Klax explode. More and more mana flowed through his hand; the appendage eventually losing all feeling as the last of his nerves were finally burnt off by the jelly. For its part the dragon seemed frozen in place as if fighting some kind of internal battle. When Jaden had consumed all of his own mana, he drew on the Plains card.

Jaden felt a painful shift inside the dragon as his arm sank deeper; the jelly now burning farther down his arms. They remained this way for a full two minutes before Jaden’s mana became fully depleted. Even then he didn’t stop; continuing to desperately channel mana until he finally fell unconscious from the mana strain.

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Four was having a bad day. First, he had lost his squad. Then he had run for almost an hour straight, nearly been killed by a panther, and passed out only to find himself back where he started when he awoke to the notification about the dragon; certain that he was about to watch everyone he knew in the world die. Indeed, there were only five Jeffs left now, and he was one of them. When the snake moved to engulf Jaden, Four’s natural cowardice warred with his programming; leaving him locked in place. The other Jeffs didn’t share his compunctions, and dove in; sticking their spears into the dragon just as ineffectively as they had been for the entire battle. Though the snake not moving as they needled it was heartening.

Internally, Four’s dual natures waged war upon each other. What was the point of living if his summoner died? What was the point of risking his own life when he knew there was nothing he could do to truly harm the serpent? As Four fought himself, he saw Aki also standing rigidly in place. Aki seemed to be having a similar internal battle. Their eyes met, and Four shivered as he saw that Aki wasn’t afraid in the slightest. Instead, Aki’s battle seemed to be between his protective instincts, and whatever cold ambition drove him deep down.

Strangely this realization broke Four’s own deadlock. If he didn’t protect Jaden, Aki would assume Jaden’s position as his summoner, and Four couldn’t imagine what his life would be like under Aki’s sole leadership. Turning to face the dragon, Four charged forward; screaming in elated terror as for the first time in his life he knowingly thrust himself into genuine danger. Four felt alive in a way he hadn’t over the course of his entire existence. When Four later attempted to quantify the feeling he decided that it was the first time he had felt like a true Jeff. So, this feeling echoing in his soul, Four had nearly reached the snake, spear extended with the intent to ram at full speed, when it exploded in a shower of gore. Caught off guard, Four’s foot slipped on an errant piece of flesh; sending him tumbling and sliding into the suddenly exposed bones of the thing. Four clung to consciousness with every scrap of dignity he could muster as he struck a rib with a wet squelch.

Finally, laying on his back in a puddle of gore, Four’s senses returned to him. “Ugh, I got some in my mouth!”