“No…” Sarah nearly fell out off of the bench, “You’ve got to be FUCKING kidding me!”

Bruno had abandoned covering his grandson’s ears from her obscenities, “As his ‘Regent’ like his ACE likes to call me, I can both issue and compete in duels.Most likely because a four-year-old would not make a good competitor...”

An air of solemnity hung over the park.

“So you just fucking challenged me, risking your own grandson’s fucking LIFE?”

Bruno placed his deck box between them, “People who know about Leben Seher will soon arrive and force us to fight. Same with you and your rabbit-thing.” He opened the box and pulled out the cards within, “Haven’t you seen them? Evil people and their creatures hovering around our periphery?”

“One can attest at least three other parties are observing us currently.” The booming voice rang out over the roof, almost shaking it.

“It’s only a matter of time until this had to happen. As our friend said, I should have taken you out sooner if I knew you were going to decline my offer.”

Thoughts, emotions, rationalizations, excuses, and, most predominantly, fear, picked Sarah up in a storm. Not only was she forced to play a card game for her life, but if she lost, she would be complicit in the murder of a four year old boy. In addition, others observed them behind the fog. Others with both strange powers and intent to end her life. Was it for strategy? Or even their own amusement?

Sarah felt sick.

“I don’t wanna…”

“It’s too late, bellissima.” He began to shuffle his neatly sleeved deck, “I gave you a chance for escape. A chance to live a life away from all of this…”

Sarah sat hollow. No matter how she sliced it, no matter which approach she took to see this, either she was going to die or someone who led someone else to theirs. The pit in her chest grew to a fever pitch, causing her to struggle for a single breath.

As she began to accept just letting the game go by, a small green figure jumped onto the table, silent throughout the entire meeting. One who mattered just as much as anyone else there. “Squeak?”

She tried to look at the creature in disgust. It was his fault she was here, caught between a rock and child murder. But, try as she might, Carbuncle looked just as pained. He looked back at her with concern, not just for himself, but for her as well.

He likes this as much as I do. But he doesn’t have a say whether or not we fight. That’s all on me. His life, as well as mine, are in my hands… Fuck.

Rubbing up against her, not caring about phasing into her arm, he gestured towards her deck box before looking into her eyes, “Squeak!”

Fuck. He understands my dilemma, but still wants to go through this. I need to trust him on this….

“Fine.” As she breathed out, the pain abated for just a second, “But we’re doing this fucking right, five fucking shields, best of fucking three.”

Bruno placed his freshly prepared deck before him, “Very good. It makes this a lot more easy for me if you actually try.” He held a brave face, but tears began to well in his eyes, something Sarah was well ahead of him in.

As she took out a deck of her own, the park faded in a sheet of white.

The gazebo they sat underneath shattered into a series of multicolored shards and wisps, leaving them standing in a pure void strangely more than 20 feet away from each other.

“Squeak!”

Standing beside her, Carbuncle stood. No longer the ghostly green he typically was, but actually tangible. His fur actually was a shade of purple, the recess in his forehead a sickly brackish color. As he looked at Sarah, his eyes glittered a crimson red.

Before she could offer an expletive in surprise, a labored footstep shook what she thought as the ground beneath her, “One was worried that he must dishonorably claim the life of one in forfeit. May the more adamant will surpass the other!”

Bruno lifted his arm before him. As he did so, five transparent sheets of glass appeared before him and Ricardo, a soft blue in color, “Age before beauty, bellissima, I draw!”

He skimmed the five cards in his hand, fanned before him. Deciding on one, he pulled it from his grasp and held it aloft, “I will summon Mountainside Hermit!”

Arising from the ground before his shields, a large hermit crab appeared, coloring the space beneath it. The immense void around them both exploded with blues and distant greens. Either underneath the ocean or up in the air, it was hard to truly grasp where they both stood.

“Holy shit!” Both the new scenery and the hermit crab taller than both of them warranted the reaction.

Don’t think about the possible child murder. Don’t think about killing Ricardo. She continued her mantra she had maintained throughout this ordeal. With a reticent draw, she looked through her own hand. Only one card was available at the moment, something to get on the board this early.

“I’ll go ahead and summon Stormstrider Sprite!” She imitated Bruno, holding the card aloft, and recoiled softly when the card shattered in her hand, floating upwards. In response, a green light flew in from somewhere behind her, settling between the opposing giant crab and her shields. It was strange to think they had the same offensive capabilities, at least if the cards were anything to be believed.

The whole experience was surreal. What was a normal day in a slightly wooded park quickly shifted as they appeared to be in an entirely other dimension with creatures both great and small. Fucking shit. I wish it didn’t have to be like this…

“Are you done? I’ll make my move!” Another card manifested in his hand, appearing to be the reverse of what happened when they played a card. “I cast Aqua Regia!” Another card appeared in his hand, “This allows me to draw one card and add it to my hand!”

With the two lights hovering around him growing dim, Sarah had to assume those were his play points.

Wordlessly, a card manifested in Sarah’s hand, giving her the same play as her opponent, “I guess I’ll cast Aqua Regia myself! You already know what it does!”

Despite her confident front, the storm continued to rage within. The pit only grew wider, and with being transported to what she believed to be a new dimension where the only way out was… She found it hard to breathe.

“Not going to attack? Looks like you’ve gotten a bit better from when I saw you duel last…” Bruno already had his next card in his hand, holding forth another, “I’ll summon The Dreaded Mask!” The familiar Heathen creature took new life, quite literally, as a disheveled cloth still maintaining the shape of its owner’s head blew in. An ominous red pinpoint of light appeared from the umbrage of the mask, as Bruno shouted, “Summoning this creature lets me add one spell from my deck to my hand!”

Fuck. I remember that card from when I was duelling Mica. Does he have the same strategy?

“Alright! My turn!” Being in the thick of things, Sarah had no choice but to loosen up a little. Carbuncle continued to stare down the gargantuan turtle creature, overlooking their duel with equal intensity, “I’ll summon a creature of my own! Go, Sixth Storm Oracle!” As a shamanistic grey-furred beast person appeared, cross-legged and deep in meditation, another light representing their play points flew out of him and fell into orbit around Sarah with the others, now dimmed from the summon.

“And I’m going to break your shield with Stormstrider Sprite!” The bright green point of light flew up in a tight spiral before surging forward at a speed, blowing Sarah’s hair back a bit. Just before impacting the glass panes on the other side, it slowed for a full second, causing Sarah to step back and rub her eyes.

“Very good, Bellisima. That’s how I know you’re in this!”

But why would he let that go through? His Hermit could block my Sprite, killing them both, sure, but better than losing a shield...

With a flourish that flexed his toned arms, he held a card out as it shattered. Suddenly, the blue environment around them shifted to a steely grey as distant rumbles could be heard. Underneath Oracle, a column of violent winds and clouds quickly overtook him, leaving nothing but a shimmering orb that quickly joined in step with Sarah’s. “Gift of the Storm lets me destroy a creature Strikeless or not while giving you a play point.”

“Pssh. Thanks for the ramp, nerd! That only gets me to my top end faster!” Sarah faltered with her taunt, trying to find some way to lighten the mood a bit. With only Stormstrider Sprite on her side of the field, she drew her card for the turn. “I don’t think you’re ready for this, you fuckin’ old man!”

“Grampie! That girl is mean!” Ricardo gripped harder on his grandfather’s pant leg, “She keeps saying mean words!”

Crossing her arms, the stormy greys finally faded back to the ephemeral blues, shifting with every undulation, throwing off her concentration if she let it slip even for a second. “I know he’s the real ACE holder, but did you really need to bring your grandkid here?”

“Well, if there’s anything I’ve learned from our duel here, is that there doesn’t seem to be a maturity barrier to these games…”

Wait a goddamn minute.

With a deep sigh, Sarah accepted the card that came into her hand. Counting out six play points for the turn, she had to grin. Ooh.. I’ll show him…

“I’ll summon Topaz Spellbot!” A small rectangular robot appeared before her. Similar to a wider breadbox she had seen in antique stores, it hovered in the air with it’s two thin arms hanging by its side. A small unemotive circular face was placed in the center, just over a prominent yellow gem. “Summoning this card lets me swap one of my shields out and place one from my hand instead!”

In a well-rehearsed strategy, she held onto the Rapid Growth she drew the previous turn for this moment. Once he broke the shield, she would gain a play point for free by activating the [Shield Skill] effect the card had. “But wait! There’s more!” Taking another card from hand, she held it forward, causing Topaz Spellbot to glow. “For two more play points, I will evolve Topaz Spellbot into Spellbot Unit Medusa Emerald!”

The rectangular robot quickly flashed a blinding blue light. Once the combatant’s vision returned, a more complex entity hovered where the initial robot hovered. The weathered grey body was now a dazzling emerald green. The two arms that hung lazily by the sides were replaced with six apparently more dextrous limbs. Lastly, the already extravagant yellow gem vanished and a complicated weaving of verdant emeralds danced around possibly the largest crystalline structure anyone had ever seen.

Trying not to get caught up with everything going on around her, Sarah forced herself to continue, “With that, I will [Expend] the Topaz Spellbot underneath my new monster and draw one card!” As Sarah received yet another card in her hand, a metallic cartridge was ejected from the masterful machine before her.

She scanned through her hand once more. The card, Gemless Carbuncle, rested in her hand as the recently more tangible Gemless Carbuncle stood beside her, staring down his foe.

Phillip Turner's words that chilly morning at the restaurant rang through her mind. The fear she felt when she lost Carbuncle versus Isaac washed over her. Her sense of mortality overrode all senses.

"Alright!" She forced out, "I'll go ahead and cast Aqua Regia, letting me draw an extra card!” As the card faded into her hand, she purposefully avoided Carbuncle’s gaze. With only two play points, she whispered a word of thanks that she could not summon the three play point creature. “Okay, I’m going to target your shields with Stormstrider Sprite and Medusa Emerald!”

The two creatures on her side of the field lurched forward towards two of the four cobalt panes guarding the old Italian man. Just before Sprite sped into the shield once more, time froze again.

Before she could even blink, the monstrous hermit crab stood between the speeding green flash of light and its master’s line of defence. As the two collided, both creatures froze in space. After a noticeable amount of time, the two shattered similar to when they were played from the hand. While wrapped up in that spectacle, Spellbot Unit Medusa Emerald returned to Sarah’s side of the field unimpeded.

“Jesus fuck. My heart can’t take all of this…” Sarah muttered to herself, purposefully losing herself to the trippy background just for a moment’s reprieve.

“Well, I wouldn’t say you’ve earned a breather just yet…”

Forcing her back to reality, she looked over to find her opponent holding up a single card. “I’ll activate the [Shield Skill] of Hana, Oni Glutton.”

With the mention of her name, a large muscular woman appeared. Compared to the already tall man of peak musculature behind her, the creature stood head and shoulders above him while looking built enough to lift him with one hand. Sarah, thankfully, had a strong metallic creature and a series of glass walls before her, but even from a distance could tell she would only stand up to this one-horned creature’s kneecap.

“When I summon Hana, you lose two cards from your hand.”

Before her eyes, both her Lucky Cricket she planned on playing on the next turn and, more importantly, Gemless Carbuncle shattered from her hand.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

She quickly turned to see Carbuncle standing over a pool of pitch, slowly sinking into it. “Squeak!” By the time she realized what was happening, the diminutive creature was up to his chest in the tar-like substance, rapidly vanishing into the muck. With her heart in her throat, all she could do was reach out to Carbuncle before he was taken under.

“I’m sorry Bellisima, but we need this victory.” The twinge of regret in his voice only made Sarah angrier. “I’m sure you might not know this, but if your ACE monst-”

“Is in the fucking graveyard and you win the best of three, you win the fucking World Game. Blah, blah, blah, I fucking know this!” Much like a match struck in a room filled with natural gas, the miasma of fear she had been building up for the week had quickly become alite with rage. “If I don’t take this more fucking seriously, then I’ll end up dead and shit. Go.”

“I’ll draw.” The stoic somber silence Bruno projected only made Sarah seethe more. “I’ll spend two play points to cast Rapid Growth, and attack your shield with Hana.

The gargantuan creature charged forward past her creatures, destroying one of her shields. Without flinching, the shield card appeared in her hand, unable to be used.

“Go ahead.”

With the drawn card appearing as to be expected at this rate, she took two creatures from her hand and held them forward, “I’ll summon Pippi, Fox Maiden and another Stormstrider Sprite!” Freed from the thoughts holding her back, she continued, “And I’ll attack your shield with Medusa Emerald!”

The elaborate robotic creature fired a beam from it’s position, a different attack than the charge it made earlier, destroying the third of Bruno’s shields.

As the shield shattered, he picked out another card from his hand, already having received the broken shield and his draw for the turn, “I’m sorry, but I need to do this…”

Moving ever so slowly but looming over like a mountain above, the gigantic tortoise creature finally took a labored step forward. “I summon Leben Seher, the Elderbeast of Growth!”

If Sarah only stood up to the oni’s kneecaps, she was barely taller than a toe of the immense creature meandering it’s way onto the battlefield.

“When I summon Leben Seher for six play points, I gain two extra play points, bringing me up to nine!” Ricardo cheered as the large legend lumbered lethargically. “In addition, while he is on the field, anytime any creature would be destroyed, I gain an extra play point.”

Bruh. What the absolute fuck. That is WAY more broken than Carbuncle!

“I will also throw down another Mountainside Hermit for protection. Your move.”

As the Shakespearean shelled creature finally found his way between the two combatants, Sarah looked through her hand once more with the fresh card for the turn drawn. I need to make some big fucking move here, or I’m straight up dead. Unfortunately, her current hand did not give her much hope. Thank fuck I’ve got a chance with this!

“I’ll cast Aqua Regia again!” Her third time this game, she only had one left. “There we go! Let’s summon Palabra de la Montana!”

A distant cry rang out over the spacious void they currently occupied. Soaring in from above, an equally large cretacian either flew or swam in, further confusing the two duelists the nature of the space around them. Hovering before Sarah, the creature resembled a blue whale, but with sets of angelic wings keeping it aloft. If not for the life-or-death stakes around the space, Sarah would have been mystified with the surreal fauna.

“Summoning Palabra lets me draw another from my deck!” With the card finding its existence in her hand, she continued, “And with that, I drew and will summon another Sixth Storm Oracle!” The creature gave her another play point bringing her total up to nine, just short of the maximum. “And now I’m going to win this fucking game! I’ll target your shields with Stormstrider Sprite, Pippi, Fox Maiden, and Spellbot Unit Medusa Emerald!”

The three creatures charged forward with differing degrees of threat, with Stormstrider Sprite once again being blocked by Bruno’s freshly summoned Mountainside Hermit. With two out of the three landing their blows, her opponent was left exposed.

“Bellisima, I’m not going to just hand the victory over to you that easily…” Just the sound of his thick Italian accent drove Sarah off a cliff. “I’ve personally constructed this deck to deal with you and the rest of our enemies. All you need to do is stop your opponent from playing their cards, rip the ACE creature from their hands if they’re a little afraid, and win the game from there…”

“Wow, you must be some kind of fucking genius to come up with something like that.”

Bruno’s laugh almost threw her off, “Genius? No, where I’m from, being a genius gets you killed. You need to just survive and everything will be alright, right Ricardo?”

“Yeah grampie! You’re the bestest!”

Sarah had almost forgotten about the other person who had everything to lose here. Her mantra had continued, faltering often, but providing the much needed rock to weather the multiple storms she had to weather.

With her four shields to his zero, the light at the end of the tunnel was so close.

Or so she had thought...