All The Skills

The scarlet dragon opened her mouth and unleashed a Legendary power.

What blasted from between her jaws was more of a force than a sound. It seemed to vibrate the seawater, the earth, and the very air around them. Yet notes hung in the air like snippets of a forgotten song. It was beautiful. But mostly, it was terrible.

Cressida’s bubble shield snapped up.

Rocks the size of Arthur’s head were thrown in all directions by the force of the blast. Most bounced off the shield. Those that hit the shield dead on stayed in place as if glued. They seemed to vibrate in place. Then they crumbled into gravel before Arthur’s eyes.

The sound was almost impossible to describe. All-encompassing. A deep, bone-deep pain that struck everywhere at once. Arthur clapped his hands over his ears, but it didn't make much of a difference. He glanced over at Brixaby just in time to make sure he had made it inside the bubble, too.

The dark dragon had made it in. He buzzed to land on Joy who was cowering, nearly flattened on the ground. She vanished into his Personal Space.

Joy, being Joy, must have granted him permission without him needing to ask. Or maybe she had just longed to get away.

Instinctively, Arthur used his Phase In, Phase Out card so that the terrible force went through him.

And he saw from the transparent quality of Brixaby’s scales that he had done the same.

He couldn’t extend that protection to Cressida. Her hands were also clapped over her ears, her mouth open in a silent scream.

Arthur wished that he could throw her into his Personal Space, too. But she was the only one who could keep the mana shield up – which was a thin, imperfect Rare barrier between them and the destruction outside.

Arthur’s gaze flicked out beyond the boundaries of the bubble.

Laird had dived behind the shield, curled up as tight and small as the dragon could reasonably get to keep every part of him behind Cressida’s bubble. His head was practically buried in the rocky soil. Arthur had no idea how much protection that would give him, but at least he was doing better than Shadow.

He had been caught completely out in the open and seemed to be trying to use his teleport powers to get away. Darkness passed over his scales once or twice, right before it was shattered by the sound wave.

He collapsed in place, blood gushing from his eyes, mouth, and dimples dragons had on the sides of their head in place of external ears.

Then his scales started peeling away as if ripped off by the force of a hurricane.

Arthur looked away.

Shadow wasn’t the only dragon in trouble.

The scarlet Uncommon was dying.

Only a few seconds had passed since the dragon had opened her mouth, but a growing blackness had started mid-chest — where dragons kept their cores — and was rapidly expanding out. It looked like how Joy’s poison affects the body. Only this was not just a rot Arthur could see, but also somehow feel. It was as if the power of the card was leaking outward, tearing and destroying the dragon as it did so.

He’d always been told that a lower-rank dragon taking on a higher-rank card would poison them. He thought it was a slow process, but apparently using the card quickened it.

Less than ten breaths of space after the dragon had first activated the card, the blackness had extended down all her limbs and finally up her throat.

The force/sound cut off abruptly and the dragon staggered to the side, her eyes wide and somehow clear and startled.

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Then she fell to the side.

The three other Mind Singer’s dragons had not been affected by the blast — no doubt protecting allies was part of the card’s power. The moment the scarlet dragon collapsed, the blue dragon pounced on her body.

“No!” Arthur saw what was about to happen. “Cressida, drop the shield!”

Still staggering, breathing heavily as if she had just run a mile, Cressida only stared at him. She looked like she was in shock.

Arthur turned and used his Phase In/Phase Out to pass through the barrier. He pointed. “Stop that dragon!”

The blue had gestured above the scarlet’s body, beckoning the core cards out so that he may take them. He’d surely insert the Legendary card in himself, which would be a suicidal act. But one that would likely kill Arthur and the rest.contemporary romance

Cressida’s Rare shield had barely held on. One more blast…

Brixaby had seen what was about to happen, too. He used Arthur’s Phase In/Phase out and buzzed up and around the shield, back toward Laird. Arthur didn’t know what he was planning, but he hoped it was good because he had almost no idea how he was going to stand up to three dragons and survive.

But almost no idea was better than none at all.

Dexterity or Luck? He thought, but the choice was obvious. He activated his 20-Point Spree card and threw all 20 points into his Luck.

Another one of the enemy dragons, a brown, lunged for him first.

Arthur pulled out a length of rope.

It was rope was only about fifteen feet long and coiled neatly together. Much too short to tie up a dragon.

He concentrated on his Makeshift Weaponry card and felt an idea spring to his mind as if by pure inspiration.

The dragon arched downward as if to bite him in half. Arthur suspected this was a ruse, the Mind Singer would want him alive at least long enough to see the rest of his friends and allies die. Her thralls had as much. But it would stall him.

Arthur flicked out the rope and snapped it back. The motion was clumsy, but the dragon’s head was close and he had a large target. And Arthur was feeling lucky.

The end of the rope flicked right against the dragon’s eye.

The brown let out a shriek of surprise — dust erupted around its feet as it pulsed its card in instinctive surprise.

That gave Arthur the second he needed to slip by it.

But the brown had at least succeeded in stalling him for a few heartbeats. That was all the blue dragon needed to take the Legendary card from the dead scarlet.

Arthur caught a flash of the card. The brilliance and flowing inky images told him this was indeed a Legendary card.

Then it was gone as the blue shoved it into his own chest.

Oh no.

Arthur took a breath, about to call for everyone to retreat. He wasn’t worried about himself, but Brixaby, Cressida, Joy and Laird. If the card could choose who was impacted, surely they would die before Arthur.

Before he had the chance, a dark, Brixaby-shaped streak shot to the blue dragon.

… And up his nose.

The sound the blue made was a part snort, part squeal. That squeal got louder when smoke started billowing out of his nostrils. Then the blue dragon flung himself to the side, desperately pawing at his muzzle.

Apparently he had trouble concentrating enough to activate the card with his sinuses literally burning. Brixaby must have activated the enchanted metal bar.

Arthur turned at a roar to see that Laird was alive and was bringing down a whirlwind of purple candle-top flames on the yellow dragon.

The yellow countered with a shield not too dissimilar from Cressida’s, only made of pure light. Unfortunately, it was an Uncommon facing a Rare power. It had only limited effectiveness. Some of the candle-top flames penetrated the shield and the yellow screamed as they burned his scales.

Meanwhile, the blue was flinging its head back and forth. He dislodged Brixaby who shot out, end over end, clutching his fire-enchanted metal bar.

Arthur darted to the side to catch him, but with quick beats of his wings, Brixaby regained control.

The blue had suffered horribly. Half of one nostril was burned away leaving a hole in its face.

Not that it mattered. He’d soon be dead from the card poisoning his core anyway. He looked down at Arthur with triumph in his eyes. For a moment, it was like locking eyes with the Mind Singer.

Arthur heard the snippet of a song ringing in the back of his mind: Lyrics of command.

The blue opened his mouth.

So much for luck, Arthur thought.

At that moment, Joy with Cressida sitting on her back, erupted from his shadow.

“No, you don’t!” Joy cried, leaping up and slamming her verminous claws into the base of the blue’s throat to stop the noise before it could start. For good measure, she bit his face to pump more poison in.

The blue died without so much as uttering a peep.

done.co