Cursed Draw

Chapter 2: Deck Building

Alabaster

Alley kept one eye on the floating cards as he ran. His options were limited, as he

couldn’t simply abandon the shore and flee inland. Not only would that mean giving up on adding the MuckDwell River Dragon to his deck. It would mean letting the monster escape with his coresteel chain still attached to it. Well not his, his father’s. The chain was a rare item and worth more than his family made in most years. Alley could not allow it to be lost. Especially as he hadn’t strictly speaking gotten permission for the chain’s use today.

No. He had to both stay alive and keep the dragon’s attention. Until he was allowed to manifest another creature or his next card draw happened that meant running around the bank of the river like a lunatic. Quickly realizing it couldn't bite at him effectively the creature had instead opted to flick its massive tail at Alabaster.

It had been twenty seconds since he played the flounder. If he could just hold out for ten more seconds he would be back in business.

Alley hurled himself into a dive. Skidding face first on his chest and arms across the muddy bank. The dragon’s tail lashed inches above his head. The spray of water accompanying the monster’s attack struck Alabaster with enough force to slice his skin.

It hurt and he winced, but deck building was often dangerous or painful. He wouldn’t have been much of a player if he couldn’t handle a little pain. What's more, if he had let the pain paralyze him he would have very shortly been dead.

Panting, bleeding, and covered in mud, Alley pushed himself back to his feet. After another three steps, a new card appeared among the ethereal hand hovering before him. RiverRush SnapJaw. He manifested it instantly. Normally Alley would take care to specify where he manifested a creature. There was no time for that now. Instead, he gestured wildly over his shoulder. The Card vanished from his hand, and the ghostly chains appeared on the creature cards still in his hand once more.

He didn’t need to look at the SnapJaw to know what it's stats were.

The horse-sized turtle Alley had manifested couldn’t hope to challenge the river dragon, but that wasn’t why he had manifested it. With three vitality it could be defeated three times before being sent to Alabaster's crypt. That meant the turtle could buy him time.

Even without a command, it would try to keep itself between Alley and any incoming threats. All creature cards behaved that way. They would even defend themselves if attacked as well.

Seeing the dragon had gone after the turtle in his peripheral vision, Alley spun to face the monster. It was instantly clear to him that two things had gone wrong with his plan. The first while a poor result was manageable, The MuckDwell River Dragon was not a card and this was not a challenge. It could attack as many times as it wanted, as quickly as it was able.

Wrapping its eel-like tail around the RiverRush SnapJaw. The beast flung Alley’s creature towards its maw. With shocking dexterity, it snapped the turtle out of the air. The dragon’s massive jaws descended on the flailing turtle. It then proceeded to rend the SnapJaw between its gnashing razor teeth.

Three Vitality became two, then one, and then the turtle exploded into fragments of blue light. Creatures getting destroyed was all a part of the plan. Even if this had been quicker than he’d hoped Alabaster wasn’t concerned. The second issue however was a disaster. Whilst attacking the turtle the dragon had torn free of the hook in its mouth. The monster had lost a chunk of its cheek in the process. It was oozing blood of a deep purple shade. But it was free. Free to launch itself at Alley. Which it promptly did with horrifying speed.

Still on the riverbank, Alley was easily in range of the monster’s lunge. He tried to hurl himself out of the way, but as he moved Alley’s feet slid out from under him. He landed awkwardly on his elbow, his feet splayed out in front of him. From the river, death rushed toward the boy. The enormous mouth of the dragon bore down on him like an endless dark tunnel.

There were still twenty seconds until he could play another creature, an eternity. The spell and relic cards in his hand were still useless. There was only one card Alabaster could play. This one was proverbial.

“Buckler Ring!” He screamed in desperation.

The sole magic item linked to his deck activated. The ring appeared on his finger and a dome of red energy, large enough to fully protect him from the front appeared. Three feet in front of Alley.

It had always struck him as odd that the gem set in the ring, which presumably held the magic, was blue. While the attack-negating shield projected by it was red. This, however, was not the time to worry about it.

The dragon’s bite collided with the dome and bounced off. It couldn’t hurt the creature, no matter the force it had been traveling at. But it did confuse the monster for just a moment. Alley had not wasted his chance. The moment the energy shield appeared he had begun scrambling to his feet. Retreating up the bank he planned his next move.

“Use every resource” he panted to himself. “Examine every option.” It was his mother’s mantra and had been drilled into him since he first picked up a card.

Changing direction Alabaster sprinted for the chained boulder. He reached it with eleven seconds until he would draw or could manifest again. And the dragon snapping at his heels. The next draw wasn’t important. If he could survive the eleven seconds, Alley had everything he needed.

As the dome of energy dissipated, the ring vanished from his finger. The enchanted item was extremely useful but would require a full day sitting in his deck’s storage before he could activate it again.

The end of the chain still dangled uselessly into the river. The chunk of bloody dragon flesh hanging from the hook darkened the water around it. Alley couldn’t pull the chain back in time to use the hook, but he could hide behind the rock at least. Maybe not exactly the ‘use of every resource’ he had intended. But if it worked it worked. This time thankfully. It worked.

Having scrambled over the boulder, Alley flung himself back to the muddy ground. It was dryer back here by the boulder, and the impact would no doubt leave some bruises.

Still, it saved him. The rock wasn’t much cover but the Dragon was smart enough not to smash its face into geographical outcroppings. So it had pulled back its strike, the monster instead seeking to raise its serpentine head over the rock. Slithering forward it paused again as it crossed the rock. The dragon had fully left the water. While able to move around outside the river it was far less nimble. Its massive weight and fishlike scales prevented it from moving like an oversized snake. The dragon’s tail whip was also no longer available to it, as it needed its back half to slither across the ground.

For the second time that morning, Alabaster launched himself from his hands and knees into a sprint. His face had turned red, and he was sweating profusely. Yet when he spun around to face the river dragon again a smile was plastered on his face.

“Reed Stalker” he declared just as the chains across the card vanished. He had also drawn. The card he pulled ‘Land of Rivers’ was a powerful ongoing spell. It would physically transform the land around him while active. Sadly its other effect was to increase the power of all creatures that held both resonances, Water and Beast.

As the MuckDwell had those two along with ‘Dragon’ it would gain just as much advantage as anything in Alley’s deck. The creature he had just manifested ‘Reed Stalker’ would get no benefit at all. Unique among all the creatures in his deck the stalker held no water resonance. It was a beast creature at least though, which meant Alabaster could play it without cost. Since his deck’s resonances were Water, Beast, and Pressure.

The Reed Stalker was also the smallest creature he owned. Smallest but among the most powerful.

The stalker manifested in between Alley and the river dragon. The huge monster undulated side to side as it drove towards him. The light cleared and the stalker fully formed. It was a large blue and green-furred cat with strangely short whiskers. Standing about half the height of a tall child.

The creature’s power and vitality hovered over its head, but after less than a second the power number blurred and became ‘2100’.

The Reed Stalker might not initially seem like a good fit for his deck. But aware of its special effect, Alley had spent weeks hunting down the two he owned. For each water resonance creature in the owner’s crypt, the Reed Stalker gained two hundred power. With no time to spare Alley gave the order for the Reed Stalker to attack.

“Blurring pounce!”

The Reed Stalker bent its legs, its claws and fangs began to glow, and it leaped forward with such speed Alley could barely keep track of it. The dragon and the cat collided a moment later. Their power was evidently equal as both creatures were slain. The dragon was disemboweled. Causing it to spasm and let out a pitiful roar, before collapsing onto the bank. Still, it had managed to snap its massive jaws down on the back half of the lionkin. The Stalker exploded into blue light and returned to Alley’s crypt just like his other creatures.

With a whoop of joy, Alabaster dismissed his hand. The ethereal card images return to the miniature reality their originals dwelled in. He was still panting. His whole body ached with exhaustion. His arms and face stung with cuts and scrapes he had barely registered. None of that mattered now. The dragon was dead, it’s card his to claim.

The elation he felt at the successful hunt buoyed his tired limbs as he carefully approached the corpse of the dragon.

Alley kept on his toes. He was confident the monster was dead, and yet it never paid to be reckless. Picking up a rock half the size of his fist he threw it at the dragon’s open eye. There was a sickly squelching sound as the stone met the iris. The monster didn’t even blink. Letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding Alley strode forward with more confidence.

Once he reached the massive eel creature Alley placed his dealer; the silver bracelet on his wrist against the monster’s corpse.

Instantly his dealer grew hot. There was a rush in Alabaster’s ears, and for a few seconds, the world was replaced with an endless white light. When his vision returned the MuckDwell RiverDragon’s body was glowing. Filled with the same blue light that appeared when a creature card was destroyed. Moments later three orbs of glowing colour rose from the corpse. The dragon’s resonances. Cerulean for the water resonance, Tan for the Beast resonance, and finally a shimmering gold for the resonance of dragons.

The orbs hovered in place for a moment before colliding with each other. The resonances pushed against one another for long seconds, before finally they merged. What this produced was not another colored orb, but a hovering ghostly version of the MuckDwell River Dragon.

Above its head the numbers and icons of a card.

This image vanished shortly. Leaving behind a single card lying atop the corpse of the dragon. Reaching down Alley plucked up the still-warm creation. He could tell from the details visible on the card that the dragon required the sacrifice of a single vial. Not the best value, but it still had more powerful base stats than anything presently in his deck. Besides he had no idea what abilities it could unlock should he manage to evolve it.

Alabaster spent another few seconds admiring the fruits of his labor, before mentally claiming the card. It vanished from his hand into the pocket reality of his collection. ‘So convenient’. He sometimes wished you could store things like food and tools in that other realm. But alas no. The dealer could only store cards and certain enchanted items that were linked to the deck.

Sitting down atop the body of the river dragon. Alley inspected himself for injury while he caught his breath. His first urge was to instantly cram the new card into his deck, but he knew that was wrong. His mother had taught him that almost all of the best decks stuck to the forty-five-card minimum. Finding a place for the eel beast would mean taking something else out.

He was mentally running through his options when a sudden jerk of motion snapped the reverie. Somehow the Muckdwell’s corpse was moving! Alley looked up and what he saw caused his mouth to hang open in shock.

A second MuckDwell River Dragon had emerged from the depths of the river, no doubt drawn by the blood of its kin. The newly arrived monster had its jaws locked around the first dragon’s tail and was dragging the body that Alley currently sat on into the river.

The boy cursed himself. He absolutely should have been prepared for this possibility. The whole reason he was out here today was that the river dragons were migrating east towards the open ocean for their mating cycle. They only passed by Cursed Isle once every five years, but when they did it was in numbers.

This was precisely why he had been told time and time again to never go deck building alone. How once you created a card your dealer would need an hour before it would allow you to manifest again. About the dangers of unpredictable monsters.

All excellent points. Which was why Alley had not gone deck building alone.