A cloud of shadowlight swirled above Tay. But he was not dead. Not yet.

Leaning over him was the multicolored form of a feathered and spiked creature, with plumage ranging from marigold to cyan to magenta. Its soul black eyes were turned down to him and its two massive grey horns protruded from the side of its spiky head.

(15) Darkbastion Bulwark Inert

During your Main Phase, you may sacrifice this card to obliterate target foe revenant.

Ignore this revenant’s Volatile triggers so long as you control a Warlock revenant.

Provoke, Volatile <<< 4

Shadowlight plumed off of Tay too, and the world seemed a whole lot darker. Beyond the cloud of shadowlight congregating between him and his own revenant, was a revenant which was still trying to kill him.

All that stood between Tay and certain death were the Darkbastion Bulwark’s arms, which bore curved plates upon them and came together to form a shield, which it now kept above them both. On the other side, crystalline teeth blacker than the dark depths of the ocean at midnight gnawed and tried getting through.

Now that the Bulwark was creating time for him, Tay took a breath and looked at the bear that would’ve ended his life.

(20) Obsidian Latticefur Latent Dormant: this revenant gains +2 Power. Energize << 4

The girl on its back had two pigtails of blond hair and a nasty scowl morphed into rage whenever her Latticefur failed to completely obliterate Tay’s revenant. She beat her hands against the back of the bear and urged it to slam down again, and again, and again.

The Bulwark didn’t buckle though and Tay quickly started picking up his other cards. He’d managed to collect all sixteen of them, as the Bulwark made up one and he’d managed to invest two before summoning it on a whim. Tay hadn’t even known what he’d been throwing out, so one of the Fourteen gods was up there looking out for him, being that the Bulwark was one of only a couple cards that could’ve saved his life.

Tay’s last card was Garudigas, which he always kept in his pocket, away from the rest of his deck.

The Bulwark began to groan, and Tay quickly crawled out from under his revenant. No sooner was he clear of it then the Bulwark threw the Latticefur off of itself. As the Latticefur recoiled, Tay’s revenant leaped up into the air and came down with its shield now broken in half and the sharp edges turned for the bear’s throat.

Two slices caught the Latticefur right underneath the jaw but the bear also managed to get a good swipe into the Bulwark’s side. Both revenants’ bodies swayed for a moment before bursting into clouds of dark sparks. The girl on the back of the bear plopped down onto the ground.

“Hey, you weren’t supposed to do that!” the girl cried out to Tay.

“Sorry for wanting to live,” Tay called back.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t count on that,” the girl said, swiping through her cards.

Tay was already doing the same when he made the realization that he was attuned to Chaos 3 and hadn’t suffered any further exacerbation of his revenant transformation. It was such a shock that he held in his breath for a second and stopped flicking through his deck.

Because it also posed a dilemma. If he was at Chaos 3, then he could theoretically summon any card in his deck. The problem was the Darkbastion Bulwark had been one of the strongest cards, in terms of sheer Power, in his deck. Most of his other cards relied on reacting to an opponent, so Tay began reorganizing his cards, moving the ones that could stop other revenants to the front.

Tay felt a cold prickling in his ear and shivered. No, he wasn’t going to summon Garudigas yet. If the Rune Wyrm wanted to come out that badly, then they could at least beg him for it. He wasn’t prepared to unleash something quite like Garudigas in a fight where his life wasn’t on the line.

Yet.

Shadowlight flickered around the pigtailed girl and she held up twin cards between her fingers. Atro hadn’t really specified if runekeepers were allowed to use more than one revenant in melee duels, but with how few rules there were, Tay wasn’t surprised. That meant fusion was also an option he could rely on as well.

The first of the girl’s cards blossomed into a four-winged serpent, with feathers protruding from the top of its head to form a flowing crown and mane. It whipped its tail back and forth with each beat of its feathered wings.

(10) Stormwind Serpent Unstable This revenant gains +3 Power if you control a Darkgale revenant. Flying << 1

The other card formed into a vaguely man-looking revenant, save that it wore a mask that was so large that it covered half of his chest. In his hand, he wielded a spear, and he had a line of bone-tipped javelins along his back too.

(10) Darkgale Duskhunter Unstable Shout: this revenant gains +1 Power for each of your obliterated cards. < 1

And immediately, the muscles along the Duskhunter’s arms began to swell, bringing him from a measly 1 Power to 2. Both of the new revenants were formidable, considering all of Tay’s options.

The girl didn’t know it, but she’d just played around Tay’s deck. All his plans to counter her next card were slightly undone by the fact that she had summoned two revenants instead of one. If Tay wanted to clear them both and save himself, he’d have to either summon two as well or prepare a stronger card that he’d potentially need later in the melee. This was only his first opponent, after all.

In the middle of deciding how much Life he was willing to risk, the Stormwind Serpent made a break for him, fangs bared. He managed to duck in time but it whipped its tail down and caught him in his collarbone. That knocked him onto his back. Tay immediately rolled and barely missed getting skewered by one of the Duskhunter’s javelins.

This wasn’t a usual Runicka duel. Strategy still mattered but so did time now. If he took too long to plan out his moves, his opponents would do him the favor of making his decisions for him. Without time, he couldn’t follow Atro’s advice of devising the next, best play. At the moment though, all Tay could do was make a play that was good enough to keep him in the duel.

Before the Serpent made its return, Tay threw out a shadowlight-pluming Runicka card that exploded into a hulking creature with two tentacles reaching out from its back.

The Stormwind Serpent, thanks to its own effect, gained Power from the Duskhunter and was stronger than his newly-summoned Unknowable Abomination. But even as its fangs clamped down onto the Abomination’s tentacle, Tay stared at the aura on his revenant instead of worrying.

(5) Unknowable Abomination Inert

Shout: add Unthinkable Fiend from your deck or Oblivion to your hand.

Gains +4 Power if you control Unspeakable Horror.

Decay <<< 3

As the Stormwind Serpent drove its fangs deeper and deeper into the Abomination, Tay noticed a lightning-like pattern running up the Serpent’s body, growing within it.

“You’re mine now!” the girl shouted.

“Am I?”

When Tay’s revenant burst, so did the girl’s. She was left jumping up and down and pointing up at him.

“No! That’s not fair! Get him—”

Before telling her Duskhunter to skewer him, the burning lion revenant from earlier landed on top of the Duskhunter. The girl’s revenant dissolved into sparks under the weight of the fiery lion. Then, with a flaming claw, it swiped at the girl and sent her rolling across the arena.

Tay almost felt bad for her, before feeling his ribs again and remembering that she had been about to try and kill him. He also felt a pit in his stomach, like there was a thought he had about this situation, but he could not quite recall what it could’ve been. Which made him think that it was something that Mond had once said to him. He got this empty sensation whenever something about Mond came up and this was strange because he was in the middle of a duel.

Which also meant that he didn’t necessarily have time to be thinking about Mond, as the burning lion’s white eyes turned toward him. Tay took that moment to firmly clutch all of his cards and run. He tried leafing through them—trying to find a card that could beat the lion—but from its earthquaking steps, he knew he couldn’t slow down for a moment.

He’d been prioritizing his Life earlier but the truth of it all was that if his body couldn’t go on, it didn’t matter how much Life he wasted. He wasn’t playing a game here. He was in the middle of a fight. His attunement might protect him, but Tay doubted he’d be one for standing up against if that lion fell upon him with all its strength.

As he ran at full speed, it was hard to keep the crowd out of his attention. In that split moment, Tay couldn’t help but to notice that all eyes were turned toward him. There were plenty of other contestants that they could watch, couldn’t they? Did they have nothing better than to watch a man being chase to his death by lion burning with rage that was three times his size?

Except, they didn’t.

There was no one else in the whole arena, save for a handful of runekeepers. It seems Tay’s plan had worked up to this point. The Irons had been taken out by the Steels and all the Bronzes were gone.

All except one, and to see the last Bronze, Tay would have had to look into a mirror.

He could feel the heat of the revenant on the nape of his next, and could hear the crackling of its energies. His legs were about to give out when another runekeeper noticed his approach. She was tall and broad-shouldered and had a gorilla-seeming revenant summoned with a shell upon its back and arms the size of barrels.

It took one look at Tay before snarling and taking a mean swing at him. All of Tay’s mind suddenly switched into learning how to duck under a fist the size of his torso.

He felt the fist pass over him and hear it crunch against the burning lion not even a moment later. Tay rolled as his body hit the floor but he still held onto his cards. When he came up, the gorilla and the lion were in a tussle and both runekeepers were staring each other down.

“How much more you got in you, Scarole?” the woman asked, panting.

She held a deck of Chaos cards in her hand. There couldn’t have been more than ten cards left in her deck, which meant she had already summoned most of what a person could manage. If this gorilla didn’t do her well, then she’d probably be out.

(20) Yordrez Dredger Unstable When this revenant obliterates another revenant, gain +10 Life. Flurry <<< 5

Tay would’ve whistle if he’d had any breath left in him. That was a powerful card. And that made it all the more shocking when the lion bit down on its barrel arms and burned with even more intensity. The Dredger screamed, but it was more akin to low groan that an old ship would make out at sea than anything an ape would’ve made.

Then the lion clamped its jaws shut, biting straight through the arm of the Dredger and turning it into nothing but smoke and sparks. It burned radiantly before turning its eyes back to Tay again. If he’d been scared before, he didn’t have a word to describe how quickly he sucked his breath in and tried to turn around again.

But two things stopped him from running.

The first was that the lion was quicker than him, and even if he could evade it, another runekeeper would take him out at this point. If he couldn’t think of a way to beat this lion, he’d lose no matter what.

The other was the plain fact that the more energy he wasted running for his life, would mean less energy he’d have to spare in summoning revenants. Fleeing meant losing, strange as that thought was.

The lion’s body burned redder than a ruby as it approached him, and its mane was certainly larger than it had been before.

(30) Regal Fireheart Inert

Whenever this revenant declares combat against another revenant, it gains the Power of its target.

At the end of your turn, lose -10 Life.

22 >>

There was the reason this lion seemed to burn a whole lot brighter than it had been at the beginning of the duel—it grew stronger with every revenant it fought against. Of course, it had a hefty downside by costing 10 Life a turn, but what was that when the Fireheart was the only revenant a runekeeper needed to summon?

The runekeeper named Scarole strolled up behind the Regal Fireheart, placing one hand against its hind legs and not even worrying about getting burned. He had long black hair that hung down over his pale face and a thin black jacket on with white fur lining the collar.

“You should pat yourself on the back,” Scarole said. “It’s quite astounding that a Bronze such as yourself made it this far.

There was the sound of ice shattering behind him, and Tay saw another runekeeper fall out of the corner of his eye. There were probably only five runekeepers left at this point. He just had to get through Scarole and whomever came after. Then, victory would be his. It had to be.

So, if there was ever a time, it was going to be now.

Tay swiped through his deck until he held a single Chaos card in his left hand, between his thumb and index finger. It glowed with the sacred darkness of a cloudy night, upon which all stars were concealed to the wide world. Shadowlight spiraled around his upraised arm as he felt warmth from within his card bled out like blood from a gaping wound.

When Tay called the Warlock of Midnight Darkness, it answered.

He could feel the toll it took upon his energy. He went from being just winded to being just barely able to keep himself standing. His left leg went entirely numb and for a moment, Tay grew terribly frightened that he’d pushed himself too hard and turned himself into more of a revenant. But a glance down revealed that his leg was fine and it had merely fallen asleep, somehow. Apparently, using too much Life left a physical toll upon his body.

But it was worth it to see the Warlock of Midnight Darkness emerge from a cloud of pure black void, its skull-topped staff held high in the air and blazing with the same sort of power that shadowlight held. Its coal black eyes flared and Tay felt just a twinge of warmth in his chest upon realizing that this was the first time he was seeing his trump card as something other than mere artwork.

And to the Warlock, he had only one though. Protect me, he wished. And so, it did.

(20) Warlock of Midnight Darkness Unstable

Shout: reduce all foe revenants Power by half (rounded down).

Uproar: obliterate all foe revenants with less than 3 Power.

Decay <<< 3

It was fair to say that the Regal Fireheart was too tough to succumb even to the Warlock’s curses, but that didn’t stop Tay’s revenant from holding its staff up high and casting a dark light at the Regal Fireheart. The burning lion’s flames dimmed noticeably and it shrunk to about half of its former size.

Scarole frowned and crossed his arms. “Well, that’s a pity. All that bravado and here I thought you might actually be playing a good card. Instead you’ve gone and thrown out a card from what—three sets ago? Four, maybe? Control cards don’t have a place in melee duels, I hope you know that.”

Even then, Scarole didn’t declare an attack with his lion and the Regal Fireheart didn’t budge. “Even then, it is smart of you to summon a revenant with Decay. I’m not going to run my Fireheart into it, so no doubt, you’ve guessed my strategy. I need this lion to win. So, I guess I’ll go and do this.”

Scarole held a white Order card up and let it cascade down to the ground in front of him. From it, more fire blossomed until there was a small and skinny creature with ram horns atop its head, a goat-like tail, and a hoggish nose. Upon its shoulders were two thick steel plates and it had a cape flowing behind it, making it seem as if it were part of an army, despite looking like a monster. Its eyes were snowy white like every Order revenants’, but also burned like the heart of a hearth.

(5) Patient Bombardier Stable Shout: obliterate a foe revenant with Power equal to or less than another revenant you control that wasn’t summoned this turn. 1 >

Tay felt lightheaded, even as the Bombardier removed a cannister from its back and hobbled over to the Regal Fireheart. It somehow drained the fire from its mane until the cannister was glowing with fiery destructiveness. And when the Patient Bombardier unleashed those flames upon Tay’s Warlock of Midnight Darkness, Tay could feel the raw heat licking his face.

But he wasn’t out of the fight yet. Melee duels were more than about cards and Power and running away. They were about quick thinking.

And he already had another card, this time in his right hand. And shadowlight blazed from it.

When Tay threw the card, the revenant emerged from it before his card even got closer to hitting the ground. It was a long salamander-looking creature, except that its arms and legs were probably five times as long as a salamander’s ought to be. Its head was swollen, and the revenant had not one, not two, but four humanoid faces that were all locked in different expressions. One smiled in joy, another frowned in sadness, while the others displayed anger and surprise.

(10) Fiend of Many Faces Inert Shout: this revenant and a foe revenant swap Power. Provoke << 2

The fiend slithered across the dueling grounds, narrowly avoiding a stomp from the Regal Fireheart. When it came up again, its head rotated until the surprised face stared at the burning lion. Then a green lightning beam jolted forth from the Fiend’s mouth, and zapped the Fireheart. Two bumps traveled along the lightning, one coming from the Fiend and another from the Fireheart, both starting and ending in opposite revenants.

The Fiend of Many Faces swelled in size, while the mane on the Regal Fireheart all but extinguished as it shrunk down to a size that was even smaller than Tay. Scarole cried out, even as both of his revenants were obliterated and he was left with nothing.

“Don’t want to try summoning something else?” Tay asked.

Scarole, on his knees, swayed and then shook his head. “Just finish me off, you brat. My whole strategy banked on that Fireheart card. All that’s left in my deck are support cards that won’t get me over yours.”

And yet, Tay couldn’t bring himself to say the words, nor think the thoughts. His Fiend of Many Faces loomed over Scarole, but its rubbery hands did not come down and knock the man out of the melee.

Then, Scarole erupted into a cloud of razer-sharp leaves. They came from nowhere and reminded Tay of the trees of Pyrewood during autumn, when the wind picked them up and threw them every which way. But as much as they reminded him of home, these leaves picked up speed and soon were swirling faster than even a tornado. They picked up Scarole’s body and threw him into the air as if he weighed less than a leaf himself.

“What in the—”

Then Tay was picked up too. Leaves swirled around him and he looked back to see what looked to be a walking trees with coal black eyes—another revenant was attacking from behind.

And next to it stood a woman with her hair done up into a ponytail, with dark black streaks running through her natural blond. Her eyes were just as black as her revenants, but her outfit was violet cloth, like the Shorlagan flag.

“Sorry to come in like this,” the woman said, calling up to him. “I wished we could have had a fairer fight, but I want what’s in that chest and there’s no such thing as honor when it comes to Runicka. Hope you’re fine with second place.”

And Tay lurched toward the ground.