Dallion kept staring at the golden box, as if by doing so he’d gleam what’s inside. It was obvious that the opponent standing across from him wasn’t the general—it was merely an echo created by Dallion’s realm, which meant that his skills were no better than Dallion’s. And still, there was a deep sense of fear, as if Dallion had brought a knife to a gunfight.

The easiest thing to do was play on the assumption that the “general” had the same skills at the same level. And yet a voice in the back of Dallion’s mind kept on repeating, “but what if he didn’t?” There was more riding on this than just a level. If Dallion failed, he’d have to face a real life opponent, which would be considerably more difficult without a boost.

Nil, can you give any advice on this?

It’s been a while since I’ve played anything of the sort, but even if I were fully familiar with the strategies, I’d respectfully decline. This is your leveling, dear boy, not mine.

Some help you are, Dallion grumbled mentally. Deep down, though, he knew that the echo was right. Receiving help during a trial was more than cheating on a test. There were no shortcuts here. Anything Dallion avoided would return to haunt him down the road and would do so with interest.

“You aren’t stumped already, are you?” The general tilted his head. “When in doubt, why not do something extreme? You’re in the lead, after all.”

“Shut up.”

There was no point in using his prize now. Leaving it for later, when the general had wasted more tokens, was clearly the proper choice. If Dallion happened to win this round, he’d simply go all in at the next one, and if he lost, then he’d gain control of the later battles.

“I won’t use my prize,” Dallion said, then placed a harp token on the table.

“Typical newbie move.” The general shrugged. “Still, if that’s how you want it.”

The box vanished, revealing the exact same three tokens the general had played last round: a glove, an eye, and a sword. If Dallion was right that both of them shared the same skills, that meant that the general was out of perception tokens. Maybe this was the perfect moment to test that.

“I pass.”

“Are you sure?” The general arched a brow. “This is quite a good prize. I forgot to mention that each prize is better than the last.”

“I figured that out by myself,” Dallion lied. “Besides, you never said I needed more skills to win a combat. Looking at what you have, music should be enough.”

For a single moment, Dallion saw the general’s left eyelid twitch. The truth was that Dallion had only said that to annoy the man, but seeing the reaction, it seemed that he had stumbled onto something. Apparently, token quality mattered and in far greater numbers. Could it be that Dallion had been tricked to add more tokens than he had to the previous round? An attack was needed to win a battle, which by default made all attack tokens much more valuable than the rest. However, music could also be used as a means to achieve victory.

The general placed a second sword token on his side.

“Let’s start combat,” he said in a far less friendly tone. Dallion’s hunch, it seemed, was correct.

“I use my music to convince you not to surrender,” Dallion said, pushing his only token to the middle of the table. As he did, one of the general’s sword tokens moved forward on its own.

“I attack again,” the general said, pushing the second token of that type. “And claim the prize.”

The result was one to one. Now the game really could begin. By Dallion’s calculations, he already had an advantage. What was more, this round would determine whether his strategy had merit.

“The reward for the third round is repetition.” A golden cylinder appeared. “You can use it to copy any other token you have on the table.”

“Only tokens I have?” Dallion asked. “None of yours?”

“You can copy my tokens as well,” the general said reluctantly. “Will you use your sphere token?”

“No, no need. Let’s play as we have till now.”

This was a round Dallion had to win, not so much because of the overall score, but also because it was the only thing that would grant his opponent an attack option. If Dallion was correct, music tokens would start appearing this round. Dallion had one remaining, which meant his enemy had three.

Nil, are familiars considered part of me the same way a stat or skill is? Dallion asked. Outside of the game.

Well… there’s quite a lot written on the subject, the echo replied. The bright minds of today, and all those before, weren’t of the same opinion, but there’s more evidence that they aren’t. While familiars join your realm, they act more like echoes than linked guardians. Also, they have desires of their own.

Aren’t echoes the same?

Yes, and no. Think of an echo as an autonomous instance of you. They come to their own conclusions and might make a different choice now and again, but they are basically you. If you like apples, your echo will like apples. It might prefer them baked, or maybe have a taste of red apples rather than green, but the source of their desires is the same. Familiars aren’t like that.

Thanks. That’s all I needed to know.

A smile appeared on Dallion’s face. If this were a mirror match, there were two things that the echo of the general didn’t have.

“I bid with Nox,” Dallion said. A silver figure of the crackling appeared on the table.

“You’re willing to sacrifice your familiar?” the general asked.

“It’s not a sacrifice if he wins. I’m just relying on his strength just as I rely on my skills and attributes.”

“A fair point.”

This time, there were only two tokens on the table, both of them harps.

Got you, Dallion thought.

Barely waiting his turn, he then added a fist and a dartbow token to the table. The general added two more shield token, just as fast. It was starting to look as if his plan was to counter everything so he could use his final music skill to snatch a victory. Dallion’s only solution was to keep the pressure, which he did by using an acrobatics skill and his own music skill. This move made the general pause. Hand on chin, he stared at the table, as if calculating the odds. Dallion did the same, but no matter how he looked, it seemed that the round was won. There was nothing that his opponent could do against the current bid.

“You’ve become rather aggressive,” the general said at last. “As if you think that you hold all the cards. A piece of advice—” a mind token appeared on the table “—never let overconfidence blind you to the potential possibilities.” A second mind token appeared along with another shield.

Both of these were guard moves. They also meant that the general had exhausted all his shield and mind tokens. Of course, he still had the swap token, allowing him to reclaim one of them for the next round. Even so, Dallion could see his trap close.

“Harpsisword, dagger, and acrobatics,” Dallion said, adding his tokens to the rest.

Now he had the advantage once more. As expected, the general countered with a harpsisword of his own, also adding his final harp token to the mix. After almost a full minute of thinking, a lightning token was also placed.

“Using your single reaction?” It was Dallion’s turn to smirk. “Things must be pretty bad.” He added his stiletto, then his acrobatics token. “What about now?”

“I pass.” The general pushed his harp forward. “I force you to surrender.”

“I counter your music with my music,” Dallion pushed his own harp to the center.

“As do I.”

That made two harps against one.

“I let my harpsisword deal with that.

“A weapon can’t be efficient against music.”

“That’s not what you said last round. Besides, the harpsisword can create music as well.”

“In that case, I force you to surrender, once more.” The final harp joined the rest of the tokens.

“And I do…” Dallion pushed the token of his training stiletto forward. “Surrender, my stiletto, that is. Can’t say it would have done much damage anyway in its current state.”

“A typical amateur move,” the general said, although there was a note of annoyance in his voice.

Dallion tried to see what other emotions there were, but he found that he was unable to. It seemed that during the course of the game, he lost the ability to perform any skills he used up. That was probably another rule that the general had forgotten to mention. It also meant that Dallion had to be extra careful with his bidding. There was no telling if he’d lose all perception if he ran out of tokens, making him an easy target.

“I use my shield to stand ready,” the general said.

“I use my acrobatics to attack from a different spot.”

“And I use my reaction to turn in that direction.”

“I use my Nox dagger to break your shield.”

“I create an instance using mind, to prevent that from happening.”

The movements were getting faster and faster. Tokens almost flew to the center of the table, along with the obligatory explanations. Nothing was left to chance, no explanation was wasted.

“I use acrobatics again to attack from the side.”

“And I create another instance.”

“I use Nox to attack you directly.”

“And I block with my guard skills.”

“In that case, I do nothing and just watch Nox slice through your shield and keep attacking!” Dallion almost shouted. This was it—the moment he was waiting for. There was nothing that the general could do now. If he had used his swap prize and reclaimed a music token early on, he would have had the ability to counter the familiar, but now it was too late. Shields and weapons were useless against Nox, and Dallion was very careful to make sure that his opponent used the word “block” and not “evade.”

“Interesting.” The general looked at Dallion, then back at the table. “I guess I have to concede this one. There are a few things I could do, but you’ll still win in the end. Before we move to the next round, though, I’d like to reclaim an attack.” One of the golden swords disappeared, replaced by the golden pyramid.”

Just as I thought, Dallion was rejoicing on the inside. The rational part of him warned him not to celebrate yet, but he was having difficulty seeing how his opponent could win the next round. Not with all the tokens he just wasted. According to Dallion’s calculations, the general had one attack skill, three weapons, as well as two potential attacks using body. All of this could easily be countered using Dallion’s mind, reaction, and guard tokens. Not to mention he had Lux if things became really complicated, as well as the third round’s prize.

“The fourth round’s prize is the ability to erase,” the general said as the table cleared once more. “That grants the ability to remove any token on the table.”

“I don’t think it’ll come to that.” Dallion placed the sphere on his side. “I want you to bid first.”

“So, you finally used it? Not a bad choice, but you know it’s useless for battle. You should have used it in the second round, instead of music.”

“I’m using it now.” Dallion fought to keep himself from grinning.

“I see that, and have no choice but to follow the game’s rules.” A sword token appeared on the table. “I suppose you were expecting that. Not the most elegant approach, I must admit, but it sometimes takes force to achieve victory. Now what else should I add…” he scratched his chin. “How about three more?”

Dallion froze. There were four identical sword tokens on the other side of the table. Not only did that mean that the general’s skills were completely different from Dallion’s but it also showed that his skill levels were far greater.

“I warned you not to celebrate early.” The man grinned. “All I needed to do was to get rid of your annoying familiar and harpsisword. It would have been better if you bid your flaming chicken last round as well, but then again, one can’t expect everything to go according to plan. So, what will you do now? Let me have the eraser prize, or keep on bidding. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get lucky? Maybe I’m just bluffing, after all?”