There was nothing on the shard besides the endless sand. At least, after five days of exploration by the Jeff army, nothing had been found. Jaden was grateful that the oversized, Earth style nexus existed to act as a permanent landmark. Otherwise it would be easy to get lost in the wind-swept dunes that made up his new home; even with the map to help navigation. It wasn’t necessarily the desert itself that was getting to Jaden though, it was the boredom. After the extreme, danger-filled environment of the jungle he had been thrust into the polar opposite: a featureless, endless wasteland devoid of anything besides his own people. The only thing he had available for entertainment was experimenting with his ever-growing supply of cards.

Rather than just buying the one-token packs, he had leveraged his relatively high mana pool so that he could buy the more expensive packs. Already he had built a second deck themed around magicians, and he was working on his third when it finally happened.

“Oh hell yes.” Jaden muttered as he looked through his latest acquisitions. “Aki, gather as many people as you can. We’re going to do a ritual summon.” Ritual summoning was the name Jaden had given to an experiment he performed based on his experience with the mana tithe. It essentially involved a group of people pooling their mana together for a single casting. In retrospect there were a number of situations that could have been resolved more easily this way, but Jaden could only admit that hindsight was twenty-twenty.

“As you command, sir.” Aki replied. In a little under an hour, hundreds of Jeffs had gathered; kept loosely organized by Four. Lois and Niko hung in the background; not participating in the ritual, but curious.

“Alright everyone, channel your power, and believe in the heart of the cards.” Jaden yelled, cackling as magical energy coursed through him. Before it could overwhelm his senses, Jaden channeled the energy into the card in his hand. Every drop of the mana went into a plains card that he quickly placed back into his deck. From the sky, a small hill of dirt manifested, and invaded the paradise of sand.

“Stay where you are, and let your squad commander know when you’re full on mana again. Squad commanders, let Four know. Once everyone is full again we’ll start the main cast.” Jaden called out. To satisfy his curiosity, Jaden checked the stats on the plains card he had created.

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

Plains

25/8,095

Will regenerate internal mana pool, a full charge every minute. This mana may then be used by the summoner.

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

Jaden noted for future reference that the time to regenerate full mana had doubled, likely because it didn’t scale perfectly with increases to the maximum mana. After about two minutes, Four gave the signal, and Jaden pulled out his next card. “Channel again!” Jaden allowed the mana to build up until he felt as if he was about to explode.

“I cast the building card Border Fort!” Jaden announced at the top of his lungs. A large stone structure faded into existence, stone by stone, slowly over the course of the next several minutes. When it was done, Jaden tied his new creation to the plains card. The moment he did it seemed to gain definition as if the individual stones had only been a suggestion a moment earlier.

While he was admiring his new creation, Lois walked up. “Does this mean we finally get to sleep in a bed? Is there running water? I haven’t had a shower in two weeks.”

Jaden shrugged. “Yes on bed, no idea on water.” Before he could continue, there was a loud thump. Jaden looked around in confusion.

“Did you hear that?” Jaden asked. There was another thump, accompanied by a small tremor in the ground.

“Yes. What the hell is that?” Lois asked, looking around wildly.

Jaden was about to shrug, when a giant worm erupted from the ground next to the castle. It emitted a screeching sound, and bashed its front end violently into the fort. The fort was none the worse for wear, but a quick check confirmed that it had lost three hundred mana.

“I don’t think it can actually do much damage. It’s hitting for less than the regeneration.” Jaden said uncertainly.

“You jinxed it.” Lois said a second later, when another worm appeared. With both worms battering at the fort, Jaden was less confident that it wouldn’t eventually succumb.

Lois and Niko glanced at each other. “Let’s go.” Lois told Niko.

“Beds.” Niko said solemnly, nodding.

Seeing this, Jaden activated his card mat, and began drawing his hand as the two women charged the worms with the nearby Jeffs also joining the charge. Because he had been fiddling with his deck, he currently had his alternate deck equipped; one based on mage characters, and direct spell-casting. He hadn’t quite perfected this one to his liking, but he had gathered enough thematically appropriate cards to make it serviceable.

As he scanned his hand, the closest Jeffs reached the worms. The creatures didn’t react until one of the Jeffs stuck it with his spear. It emitted a loud screech, and swept its house-sized tail at the offending soldier; killing him instantly. The rest spread into a loose formation, and began to poke at the massive being as more and more soldiers streamed in. Meanwhile, Jaden decided on a strategy.

“I play the plains card.” He announced, putting half his mana into the casting. Once he had drawn a replacement card, he activated his next card.

“I play Spear of Drak!” A lance of crackling purple energy shot from his game mat as soon as the card landed in its slot. With a loud, laser-like sound, it burned through the worm and shot out the other side; impacting the fort at an angle. Jaden winced as he watched the fort lose a tenth of its mana reserve from the impact.

“Definitely overkill.” He muttered.

The worm howled and flailed wildly in response to the damage, but Jaden grimaced as he watched the gaping hole begin to close. He could already tell this was going to be a long fight. As he drew his next card, and waited for his mana to regenerate, Jaden watched the battle.

Lois and Niko took turns hacking at the other monster that Jaden hadn’t attacked. Repeatedly, Jaden watched Lois bury her arm to the elbow in the creature with a single blow. When it attacked Lois, she formed a glowing white shield that would take the brunt of the attack; protecting her from any damage. So far she had avoided injury, but Jaden wondered how sustainable this tactic was. Niko on the other hand was using the length of her weapon to keep enough distance that she could dodge backward from the sweeping attacks. Twice she had mistimed her dodge, but both times the hit had been glancing; nothing worse than a twisted ankle that healed quickly due to Niko’s regeneration skill. Meanwhile the Jeffs clustered near the center of the worm, making it difficult for the creature to strike them as the two women held its attention.

Jaden was hopeful that the group would be able to wear the worm down without him as he turned his attention to his own target. Without the girls drawing aggro on this worm, the nearby Jeffs were faring considerably worse. Jaden frowned at this, and pulled on the mana from his field card.

“I play Barrier Mage.” He called out, instructing the summon to shield any soldiers that were about to take a hit. It had five hundred and thirty-five mana, so he hoped that would be enough to save at least a few. Jaden struggled with his deck for a moment as he tried to draw a card one-handed, before begrudgingly allowing the auto-draw function to take over; depositing a card in his hand in a manner reminiscent of telekinesis.

Jaden stared mournfully at his stump as he waited on mana regeneration. Unfortunately, the worm-like creatures didn’t seem to be shedding any blood, merely a kind of sludgy ichor that didn’t register to his blood magic ability. As a result, he was left without one of his greatest weapons.

“Aki, where are you in all this?” Jaden sent through his message spell. It only cost a point of mana per second, so he wasn’t particularly worried that it would slow down his regeneration.

“I am overseeing and organizing the battle my lord.” Aki replied flatly.

“Any chance you could provide ranged support against one of the worms? I’ve seen you use ranged attack spells before. The one that’s not fighting the girls is really kicking the crap out of the Jeffs, and you have the mana to do some serious damage.”

“I am needed to organize the battle, but I could send Kyle as backup. I have been keeping him in reserve in case they target one of us.”

Jaden nodded to himself. “Sure, that works. When this is over, remind me to stop dumping my whole mana pool into one or two spells.”

“As you command my lord.”

As Jaden watched, Kyle entered the fight in a blur of light. A moment later, lances of light began pounding into the creature, leaving small, sizzling holes that closed slowly. Jaden thought the creature seemed to be regenerating more slowly as Kyle turned the tables on it. Jaden watched the worm batter futilely against the paladin as the barrier mage added a second layer to a pre-existing barrier of white light that Kyle had erected to protect himself.

He glanced to Lois and Niko’s fight to find that Niko had somehow carved off an entire section of the worm. The problem was that the fragment of worm was reforming into a smaller version of the original; acting like a second, smaller attacker. With Niko distracted fighting this new opponent as it continually regenerated her attacks, Lois was forced to hold the main worm’s attention by herself. Jaden could already see cracks forming in her white chi shield as she struggled to maintain it against the creature’s earth-shattering attacks.

Jaden frowned, and placed a card on the game mat; awkwardly askew for a moment as he struggled with the mechanics of doing this one-handed before the game-mat righted the card’s orientation through an automated flex of its magic.

“I play Flame Mage Ignis.” Jaden declared, summoning it into existence near Niko. Once again, he channeled the full magic reserve of his plains card into the spell, though it wasn’t full yet, only giving the summon around three hundred mana. Where her attacks had seemingly only been creating even smaller, squirming little creatures that attempted to mob her as she angrily stomped on them; the flame mage’s spells were extremely effective. The fire burned the little monsters down to nothing but charred husks that didn’t regenerate. Even the mid-sized creature was quickly destroyed by a barrage of fireballs.

“They’re weak against fire. Do you have any fire spells?” Jaden sent to Aki.

“Only ice my lord. My presence is still more useful in sending commands.” Aki replied irritably.

“Fair enough.” Jaden sent back, scanning his hand. Because his personal mana had regenerated somewhat, he played another card as soon as auto-draw had refilled his hand.

“I play Yokai Lightning.” He said, investing one hundred mana into the spell in an attempt to avoid more overkill. A moment later a flash of utter blackness in the shape of a lightning bolt pierced the worm that was still fighting Kyle. The bolt seemed to have a physical presence as it left a stab wound several feet deep in the worm. The creature shuddered and shrieked as black sparks crackled along its length; leaving visible burn marks wherever they traveled. The burns faded a moment later as the worm’s regeneration went into effect, but the stab wound healed more slowly. Jaden was certain now that they were beginning to overwhelm the creatures mana since that was most likely necessary to fuel its regeneration.

Jaden still had another one hundred mana in his personal reserve, so he cast another spell. “I play Potion Master.”

A portly man in a flowing robe appeared, and began throwing bottles of a green substance that sizzled like acid. The fact that it continued to deal damage for several seconds seemed to eat into the worm’s capacity for regeneration, and several of the burns stopped regenerating entirely after it continued for long enough.

Jaden glanced to the other battle, and found that Niko had learned from her previous experience. Now, she was sticking to stabbing attacks only; avoiding slashes entirely. Lois had recovered from the beating earlier, but she was attempting to dodge instead of shield now. Jaden assumed that meant she was low on chi. The fire mage exhausted the last of its mana as Jaden watched; evaporating into nothingness. The damage had been done though. The worm’s entire body was covered in scorch-marks, and some of these had stopped healing entirely. Jaden hoped that meant it was out of mana, and turned back to the other worm.

Kyle was now hacking at it with his sword, carving off large pieces with each strike. Unlike before, these didn’t turn into mini-worms, which suggested this creature was truly out of mana. Drawing on his plains spell, and personal mana, Jaden threw down another card.

“I play Wrath of the Doomed Mage.” Jaden announced with all of the melodrama he could muster.

“Aki, get everyone back from Kyle’s worm.” Jaden sent.

As he watched, the sky darkened. The army around Kyle’s worm drew back, and Jaden was silently grateful to Aki as he watched the spell continue to form. He had some idea how this would go in theory, and he only hoped they had retreated far enough.

The sky seemed to reach a crescendo point before the dark clouds began to light up as if they were filling with miniature suns. Then all hell broke loose. One by one, the balls of fire held by the clouds rained down on the targeted worm. Each ball that struck went through the worm as if it was made of wet tissue paper, exploding against the ground below it with enough force to leave small craters in the sand. Before the spell was even halfway done, the worm toppled to the ground; lying still as small stars of light continued to burn through its ever dwindling corpse. Soon, the only thing left was a mess of charred flesh strewn across a quarter mile of ground by the explosions.

Aki didn’t waste time. The group that had been attacking the now dead worm quickly shifted to the remaining one. Jaden knew it was over as soon as Kyle began to pepper it with spears of light. Since it had already been weakened beyond the point of regeneration, the new damage sources quickly overwhelmed the dregs of its power as it was systematically hacked apart. Within a minute, the creature collapsed with a dramatic thud; silently oozing orange ichor as the group continued to dismember it in the interest of caution. After all, no one knew the worm’s biology well enough to know whether it was dead or simply unconscious.

By the time they were done, it was in almost as many pieces as the one Jaden had obliterated. For good measure, they charred what was left with the powers of another fire mage summoned by Jaden. Finally finished with the arduous battle, Jaden, Niko, and Lois rested; their backs leaning against the wall of the fortress.

“Don’t you dare make the joke you’ve been thinking about this whole time. You’re just going to jinx us.” Lois commanded Jaden dryly.

“What joke?” Jaden asked innocently.

“You know the one. It’s just going to make things worse so don’t say it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jaden replied, winking.

Lois simply rolled her eyes, and decided she was too tired to respond.

That was the moment they felt another tremor. “That better not be what I think it is.” Lois announced grumpily.

A few seconds later, another worm appeared, and began battering at the fort.

Lois sighed. “Ugh, I’m so tired of that squishy worm guts feeling. Really not what I was expecting when I chose the monk class.”

“Gross.” Niko agreed.

Jaden sighed. “Well you know what they say.”

Lois glared at him. “Don’t you dare.”

“The spice must flow.” Jaden completed, nodding sagely at his own wisdom.

Lois rolled her eyes and jumped to her feet; then helped Niko up.

“I’m going to go before you think of more giant worm jokes.” With that, she began jogging toward the worm. Niko turned, and winked at him. He winked back, and she ended their shared moment of humor as she followed Lois.

“I mean how could I not, it was right there.” Jaden muttered as he awkwardly drew cards from his deck one-handed.