The sapphire blues danced around the combatants.

In spite of the unique panorama, Sarah found herself airing out the underside of her sweater. In addition to the emotional nightmare she was forced to endure, the surreal space she found herself in was kinda stuffy. She was not sure which was worse.

“I’ll make this quick for you.” With a flick of his wrist, Bruno held out a card. He grinned confidently, “Spending eight of my play points, I summon Brazos del Mar!” The Spanish name took a different inflection with his Italian accent.

Knowing the card, Sarah waited in anticipation for the sky whale to arrive much like the one she had summoned; a gargantuan creature descending from above and sweeping into the field with a level of grace unexpected from such a colossal cetan. However, as she waited for the creature to appear, nothing did.

“Uh, are you sure you played the right card, you old fart?” She leaned forward, hands on her hips. Ricardo's childish laughter echoed through the space.

Bruno looked around before double checking the card actually shattered from his hand. As he flipped to the back of his hand for the third time, there was a shift. Catching himself, the very ground underneath the both of them shook more violently than the first time.

“Wait… You gotta be fucking shitting me!”

The shifting blue to white to teal had held a solid color since Bruno had held the card out, something both were to busy to notice such a subtle shift.

A distant bellow finally reached their ears, low and somber being carried through the air, rushing past the two and into the expanse beyond. Past the cry of the beast that put even the size of the massive turtle creature between the two to shame, the wind began to pick up, pushing past Sarah as if they both were standing on the wings of an airplane.

“Alright! I will also have Hana, Oni Glutton to attack your Pippi!”

While Sarah only stood to the monster woman’s knee, Pippi was only a young girl half of that size. With Hana’s two attack points, terribly low for a seven play point creature, it was enough to demolish the young maiden’s single meager point.

“I’ll also use Leben Seher to destroy your Medusa Emerald while my Mask destroys one of your shields!” Both creatures struck forward, destroying their respective targets.

Fuckfuckfuck. How am I going to get past his blocker? Sarah remembered the card Bruno summoned after her workshop with Mike and Mica. Brazo del Mar was a 9 play point Alcademia Sky Whale creature with a whopping 8 attack points. On top of having [Double Strike], it also had [Blocker], and the ability to let it not remain strikeless after blocking an attack, allowing it to block any and every attack she threw out. It was a nearly impenetrable wall.

Nearly being the key word… Every time that thing blocks, the owner has to draw a card as well, meaning if I hit him enough times…

Reaching the peak of 10 play points herself, Sarah drew her card for the turn. If I draw Miraelle I could also could just beat up that blocker… “I’ll attack with both of my creatures!”

The smaller Sky Whale and Oracle charged forward with the same time manipulation from earlier in the match occurring. As the drawn-out second ended, both creatures shattered before reaching Bruno’s shields.

Two cards appeared in his hand, “Bellisima, I know what you’re trying to do.”

“Trying to play the game?” Sarah shrugged exaggeratedly, “Can you blame me? For some life-and-death stakes here, you sure are putting me to sleep!”

The wind continued to surge from behind Sarah, leading the large Italian man to pick up his young grandson. They seemed to have found a reprieve from the blustering breeze behind their still massive ACE monster. Drawing for his turn, he summoned another The Dreaded Mask, adding a spell from his deck to his hand. “I’ll attack two of your shields with Leben Seher and Hana, Gluttonous Oni!”

Similar to the previous turn, the two massive monsters charged forward, this time both headed for Sarah’s three remaining shields. With both cards being added to her hand, Sarah grimmaced. “Shit. There’s that Rapid Growth I placed with Topaz Spellbot…” Already at the maximum number of play points, the spell would do absolutely nothing.

“Any reason why you didn’t want to break my last fucking shield with your first Mask still on the field?”

“Same reason why I don’t attack with my Brazos, I don’t want to leave my creatures open in case you find some way to make a come back.”

It made sense. Despite being able to get two bucks off of his meal at the Interplanetary Palace of Desserts, he had a solid grasp on the more nuanced mechanics of the game. It’s a fuckin’ shame that I could actually die from him playing a card game too well.

With only one shield remaining versus his zero, it only took the right card for her to walk away with this round one victory. “Either Miraelle to beat his big blocker or Homunculus Lancer to ignore it altogether…” She whispered to herself.

Closing her eyes, she tried to stop thinking.

Not about the killing of little Ricardo.

Not about the gale force winds threatening to send her flying at any moment.

Not about her own mortality and the balance it hung in.

With a slow and mindful breath, she held her hand out, awaiting for the card to enter it.

Either card to squeeze out a potential win. Either card she needed more than anything.

She felt the card materialize between her fingers. With another deep breath, she slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry with anticipation as the card she was sure would allow her to take her pyrrhic victory….

“Fuck!”

A Pippi, Fox Maiden awaited her, much to her apparent disappointment. Even though she knew the young girl would appear before her if she chose to summon the creature, she still swore violently at the piece of cardboard she drew. “I’ll just summon a Topaz Spellbot…”

As she placed a useless card from her hand to shields, she picked up the card that was just a translucent screen before her.

“FUCK!”

With only eight play points remaining after the summon of Topaz Spellbot, she could not summon the Miraelle that was in her shields for the entirety of the game. “What a God damned day… Just go.” She hung her head low and waved to her opponent with the back of her hand as her expletive still echoed through the vast expanse they seemed to find themselves in.

“My word... I had no clue she was so foul-mouthed…” Not even looking at his hand, Bruno ordered his assault, “Brazos, break her last shield! Leben, finish the game!”

The winds died down, leaving the two standing back in the endless ivory expanse, slightly missing the vibrant visuals.

“Squeak! Squeak!” Sarah always had to do a double-take when seeing her cohort in color. Seemingly running from somewhere within the void, Carbuncle had run towards her, landing in her arms.

“Sorry little dude, but we lost the first match…” In a sickening way, Sarah almost felt relieved with the idea of dying. It was either that, or live with the blood of a child on her hands. “I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

Carbuncle looked up from his snuggling in her chest, actually able to feel his partner for the first time since meeting her that one fateful night, “Squeak?” He looked up innocently at her in an almost reassuring expression. His eyes glittered with a surreal crimson that almost enraptured her much like their scenery in this strange place between dimensions.

With a chirp of encouragement, Sarah steeled herself once again. She just was not sure how many times she could keep picking herself up.

“Bruno, I’m changing decks.”

Placing down her ACE, Sarah patted the pockets of her coat.

“I’m afraid you can’t do that.”

After the subsequent pats while trying to maintain her composure, she grew more frantic with her search. Ricardo clapped loudly watching the short girl do what he called a ‘monkey dance’.

“I’m not sure why, but Leben said we can only duel with the single deck we chose at the start of the challenge…”

Her pockets were not devoid of space, but she distinctly remembered cramming her spare deck somewhere. “Fucking women’s clothes. We’ll never be equal as long as we don’t have pocket space... “ She muttered to herself.

“Fine.” She struck a pose in an attempt to regain some dignity, “We’ll go on to round two.”

Both Sarah and Bruno had passed their first turn with seemingly nothing to play. “My turn!” Sarah shouted, echoing in the white space reminiscent of an old cartoon her brother watched religiously growing up. While trying to remember the name would help in distancing herself from what she could easily describe as the most stressful moment of her life, she needed to maintain her concentration. Glancing over to Carbuncle, who had taken his position by her side once more, she received her card.

“I’ll cast Rapid Growth!” The card appeared at the moment she was able to play it, netting her another play point.

Reflecting her motion, Bruno held out a card himself, “I’ll cast Aqua Regia!”

As he received two cards, Sarah had one dropped into her hand as well, “I’ll summon Topaz Spellbot!” With no fancy setups like before with her last game, she swapped the cards to little fanfare. “And I’ll go ahead and evolve him into Spellbot Unit Topaz Emerald!” Holding her hand out, she hesitated. Wait. She had to steal a glance at the giant tortoise creature resuming his vigil over her two opponents. I need to slow down. He got past me once I started running out of cards and couldn’t keep up the pressure. As an unpleasant memory began to resurface, she shook her head causing her blonde curls to whip around her head. Yeah, that’s how I lost against that fucker Isaac too…

Accepting the dismissive hand motion from his opponent, Bruno drew his card, “Now this is something I didn’t expect to see…” Searching through his hand, he finally settled on a card, “I’ll summon my Nyctophobia!”

While the card shattering was nothing new, the creature he called forward was. While they were standing in a blank white expanse, shadows began amassing before Bruno from seemingly nowhere. Similar to what took Carbuncle away in the last game, the boiling brackish puddle gathered upwards and upwards, forming a panther-like creature with yellow light beams where the eyes should be. It’s overtly long tail twitched in the air as the shade paced back and forward, giving Sarah the creeps.

“Right, I played against that card when duelling Mike… It discards a card from my hand when it attacks, right?”

“Right you are, Bellisima.”

With nothing more to add, Sarah drew her card. With the Rapid Growth, she had 5 play points while only being her fourth turn. I don’t want to give that fucker a chance to rip ‘Buncle from my hand again. Holding out her card, Carbuncle hopped onto the field.

“Squeak!”

Sitting on the field, he seemed tiny against the opposing creature and downright miniscule compared to the opposing ACE creature. A now familiar sphere of light emerged from Carbuncle’s head hole, joining the now six lights dancing around her, two of which were not dimmed.

“Okay, I’m going to evolve Gemless Carbuncle into Lebok, Platinum Compass Bearer.”

Carbuncle chirped loudly. As he barked, a series of six monochromatic orbs arose from and spun around the small creature, five of which she guessed represented a civilization of cards within the World Game card game, with the last one an unfamiliar orange hue.

Before Sarah could ruminate on this further, a blinding flash of light radiated from her ACE and as it subsided, an eight foot tall bipedal creature stood in his place. Much like a werewolf, complete with the ears and tail, he wore an elaborate armor of furs and hardened leather. His face was covered in a heavy-duty tight leather mask and was outfitted with red-tinted goggles. A harpoon gun hung off of his shoulder, nearly as large as Sarah herself.

“Uhhh… ‘Buncle? Is that you?”

The lupine man looked over her shoulder and threw a quick thumbs up before turning his attention back to the battlefield before him.

“Jeez. I might be a goddamn furry now…” She mumbled to herself before a quick slap to get her back on track. “Okay! I’m going to [Expend] from both Medusa Emerald and Lebok to both draw a card and gain an extra play point respectively!”

While she did forget to expend and draw on the previous turn, she was grateful her creature remained on her field. With another deep sigh, she nodded with her now seven play points on turn four, “Go ahead.”

Drawing his card, Bruno scowled. “Shi- Darn…” He took the hand of his grandson, taking the side of his grandfather. “Ricardo, are we going to beat that mean lady over there?”

Ricardo broke his glare from Sarah, turning and smiling at his grandfather leaning down to speak with him, “Yup! We’re going to kick the mean monkey girl’s butt!”

Holding back a chuckle, Bruno continued, not breaking eye contact from the only family he had left, “Yes we are! Don’t ever say the ugly words she says, alright?”

After seeing his grandson’s overenthusiastic nod, Bruno stood, “I’ll break one of your shields with Nyctophobia!”

The writhing shadow creature pounced forward, its yellow spotlights growing brighter with anticipation. Bounding forward before lurching, it flew through the glass pane, it’s whip-like tail slapping Sarah in the stomach.

“Ow! Shit!” She held her hands to her core, biting her lip while trying to make sense of the pain. Lifting her hand to her face, she expected blood where there was none. “Holy fuck, that hurt!”

Bruno straightened his pose. “It’ll only hurt for a little bit, Bellisima. It’ll all be over soon.”

The somber tone the old man across from her took only aggravated her further.

“Geez. I’m not fucking looking forward to that shit again…” Getting the card in her hand, she smiled at the now eight play points she had swarming around her on turn five, “Alright, keep it going! I’ll summon a Palabra de la Montana and a Stormstrider Sprite!” Drawing her card, she remitted the turn again. With Palabra, Sprite, Lebok, and Medusa Emerald, Sarah felt more confident in her field this time around.

Four of Bruno’s play points dimmed, leaving him only one left, “I’ll cast Innocence Lost, this lets me-”

“Yeah, yeah. You can fuckin’ kill on guy on my field that still has it’s strike left! Hurry up and pick, old man!”

With a scowl, he pointed towards Lebok, “I’ll destroy one of your evolved creatures!” As he finished, a column of smoke began to writhe and crawl up the lupine explorer’s legs. Before long, he was encased in the fog before disappearing along with it. “Next, I’ll break another of your shields with Nyctophobia!”

With another shield broken and another slap, this time on her shoulder, Sarah drew her card. “I shoulda killed it! I should’ve fucking killed it if I knew he was gonna pull that stunt…” As the pain subsided, Sarah finally looked at the cards in her hand not destroyed by the shadow beast.

“I’ll spend eight of my nine play points to summon Miraelle, The Great Fox!”

As the card shattered, nothing seemed to change yet again. As Sarah was about to complain, the sound of a foreign instrument rang, it’s strings being delicately plucked. Two young girls with fox ears similar to Pippi strode forward, dropping leaves from tiny wicker baskets they carried in a trail behind them. After an adequate distance, the sound of heels clacking on the ground echoed in the void around them.

With every step she took on the leaves, blades of dark green grasses sprung forth en mass. Trees rapidly grew into place as she passed, emerging from the carpet of turf as she strode into their game. Her own fox ears twitched, standing far taller than her consorts. Sporting a red and black kimono with elaborate designs, she held her head high, purposefully not looking at the two humans in her presence.

As she and her handmaidens took the field before Sarah, she made two swiping motions towards Bruno. Orbiting around him, two of his play points shattered, leaving him with only three. The grass and trees reached as far as their eyes could see, overtaking the scenery and turning the battlefield into her own private weald.

“Holy shit, that’s cool.” Sarah muttered to herself. Her field only grew in the past turn, and with now six creatures on the board, she could end this round handily next turn.

A vein bulged on Bruno’s neck. With yet another useless card in hand, he tried his best to maintain his composure before Ricardo, who knowingly held his grandfather’s leg tighter. With a mumbled prayer, he opened his eyes and pulled a card from his grip, “I’ll summon a Mountainside Hermit!” He tried his best to hide the strain in his voice.

As he felt guilt for his grandson, he swallowed his empathy for his enemy, “Nyctophobia, break another shield!”

Sarah’s palms began to sweat as time slowed down before the creature’s leap through one of her three remaining shields, giving her a chance to block with one of Miraelle’s tokens. Every fiber of her ‘ape brain’ screamed at her to stop before the pain came in. No. Both his and mine have 2 attack, meaning I’ll lose an attacker I need to push for game…

Biting her lip and tucking her head into her arms, she twisted away as the tail slammed into her back.

“Oooh, fucking shit!” She howled. With another whelp, another card left her hand.

As she continued to be doubled over, hissing from the pain, her tenth play point came in and orbited her with the rest. On turn seven, she had reached her maximum play points and still had two shields remaining.

Rubbing yet another line of raised skin she gained, she stood up straight.

“Alright, fucker. It’s payback time.”