As they walked, Uffda and Max talked over the cards, system, and experiences they had since the start of the Ascension. Uffda was jealous of his recruitment contract and the rewards he could gain from it. Max tried to temper this by sharing what he had learned in his tutorial. Most of which she had figured out for herself but for the information about where they were currently. Talking over Mana, monsters, and an upgraded earth they realized that they were in for far more battles (this was far more exciting of a realization for Uffda than for Max). As they discussed battle strategies, Max had his next soul crushing moment. As he brought up deck sizes and the chance that one would start with a good card, Uffda brought him down with an offhand comment.

  “Well, that’s what I have my blessing for.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “My blessing, it lets me automatically start with my battle axe at the start of battle.”

  Realizing that he had never looked at what his blessing actually did, Max hurried to bring it up.

  That’s not as good as Uffda’s, but I guess it’s better than I would expect from the God of Pain. It also explains why I didn’t notice its effects till now, I totally forgot that packs could have given out cards that I wouldn’t be able to use.

  A loud roar broke Max out of his thoughts, drawing his and Uffda’s attention to their left, where over the walkway they could barely make out a commotion happening a couple rooms over. Inside a small courtyard, they could see Dawn being confronted by an angry Minotaur. For a second cards flashed past his eyes making Max work to try to read them before they vanished.

  With a roar, Uffda took off for the next room, her ax appearing in her hand in a flash of red light. Swearing, Max rushed to catch up. Racing into the next room, he ran face first into a wall of golden light. A notification popped up but was almost immediately replaced as he skidded further into the room.

  Selecting Uffda, Max turned to view the battlefield as a rock smashed into his forehead. Rubbing the pain away, he saw a trio of small rat monsters on the far side of the battlefield. They looked like a rat the size of a large cat had been stretched upright and electrocuted, tufts of greasy black hair stood on end and stuck out in ragged clumps. While they weren’t wearing clothes or armor, two had slingshots and pouches of pebbles. The third was sitting in a weird contraption that looked like a combination of a crossbow and a wheelbarrow. At Max’s feet he heard the pebble that had hit him plink down, and looking down he saw his defense drop to 8. Only 1 damage per attack, great, we should be able to plow through these guys and go help Dawn.

  The next ratling also targeted him with its pebble reducing his defense to 7. However, the third targeted Uffda with its contraption, hurling a small green blob that splashed over her. A notification immediately popped up into his vision, along with the lights first cycling to Uffda then Max.

  Of all the shittiest luck, of course this won’t go right. Drawing his hand, Max realized that his luck wasn’t changing anytime soon. Cloak of Shadows, Young Hellhound, and Withering Gaze and not a single mana to play any of them. Max had no choice but to watch as the lights flicked back over to the ratlings.

  This time they concentrated all their attacks on Uffda, dropping her defense to 5 and paralyzing her for another turn. Where are their cards? I mean it’s nice that they keep attacking with these pebbles cause our defense will refresh before they can do any damage, but shouldn’t they have some abilities or something? Also, how can they paralyze without using a card or Mana? A freaking rulebook would be so nice right now.

  His next card was Forgotten Ruins, allowing him to throw it down and summon in his Hellhound. Here’s hoping that they will have to focus on creatures first, or they could still attack Uffda. As the turn changed back over to the ratlings, Max noticed that only the ratling in the contraption had the black rings around its feet. This was also drawn out as it was the only one that didn’t switch to attacking the hellhound, it blob again paralyzing Uffda, before it activated its first card.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The ground surged up, creating small tunnels for the ratlings to peek out of. As the lights flashed back to Max, he drew Deakron’s Hymn. Do I use it now? I wouldn’t be able to use anything else to attack, but my hellhound would be able to. However, Uffda wouldn’t and she’ll still probably get paralyzed before it's her turn again. We have to get out of this stalemate before they get something better on the field.

  Using the mana from the Forgotten Ruins, Max summoned Withering Gaze, which focused on the Ratling Deckbearer inundating it in green fog. The black ring switched from 3 defense to 1. How are we sucking so badly at these small fries when we went through those octopoids so easily? He commanded his Hellhound to attack, which killed off one of the basic ratlings.

  The death of its buddy really pissed off the ratlings, while the basic one was still forced to attack the hellhound, the deckbearer first cast a mana then cast a second card on its fellow. This swelled the ratling to almost double its starting size, with muscles protruding out everywhere. Then, contrary to Max’s expectations, the ratling lunged forward and attacked the hellhound, killing it. Hyper must make it so you can attack again.

  However, with the ratlings focused on Max, they had made a deadly mistake, forgetting about Uffda. She lunged forward bringing her axe down in an overhead chop that eviscerated the Ratling deckbearer. This cleared out the other side, the Rat Maze and Grain Silo disappearing as the basic ratling shrunk back to normal size, before Withering Gaze switched to focus on it, killing it immediately. The board vanished in a shower of sparks that turned into a notification.

  While more notifications popped up announcing that they had reached level 2 and had received draw packs, both Max and Uffda powered down the last corridor to get to Dawn. Rounding the corner, Max made sure to slow down this time so he could get a view of the field before he had to join it. Instead of the glowing golden field he was expecting, Dawn was standing near the center petting a small pack of dogs. As they entered, the pack spun around growling, this was much louder than expected because each dog had three heads, each sporting glowing red eyes and huge teeth dripping fresh blood. On the other side was what had been the intimidating Minotaur, now a small pile of bones with barely any meat left. Dawn stood up, her 5’ figure clothed in a knit robe that screamed happy grandmother vibes, clashing with the demonic horde around her feet. Before the dogs could advance, a golden wave flashed over them leaving one regular dog Max had seen the card for from the bridge. Dawn waved and greeted them with a happy smile.

  “Hey kids, so nice to see you! Max, I’m ready for my break now.”

  “Ha, who needs a break when you have monsters to fight, am I right?” Uffda said as she strolled over to pet the dog.

  “Wow Dawn, how did you take out that Minotaur? We ran over as fast as we could, but that has to have been the fastest battle that I’ve seen.” Max asked.

  “Oh the nice fairy over at the inn gave me a bunch of tips for battle. Alot of it didn’t make any sense, but my kids always say that the fairies give good advice in their video games, so I figured it was worth a try.”

  “A fairy? An inn? Do you mean you actually found someone around here who doesn’t just immediately attack you” Max responded.

  “Forget that, she said inn, that means that there should be food there, I’m starving.” Uffda interjected.

  “Well then come this way, I think the special today is roast ham and potatoes.” Dawn gestured for them to head further down a path that had small blue stones on the sides.

  Entering the inn's courtyard, Max was blown away with the rustic yet homely look that seemed as far as possible from the deadly, but empty look of the rest of the ruins. The simple wooden boards were covered in green vines covered in small pin flowers, and small candles were set into lanterns creating a welcoming glow around a low wooden rail serving as a hitching post. Overhead, a huge cherry tree spread branches with small pink/purple blossoms in a beautiful backdrop.

  From the side, a large beast plodded forward, its black scales appearing like polished obsidian in the candlelight. It was a drake, a land bound relative of dragons in the fantasy lore of Earth. Here, its large fangs and glowing blue eyes seemed to have an almost human level of intelligence. It didn’t appear to care about them in the slightest as it crossed the courtyard to the inn entrance.

  Of course the first lizard I encounter is a freaking dragon type. No way in hell am I punching that, even if it showers dozens of titles. Looking over, Max saw that Uffda had an expectant look on her face and subtly gestured towards the drake in encouragement.

  Looking back, Max watched a figure he hadn’t seen swing down from a hidden saddle on the back of the drake. It stood at 7’ tall with a flowing black cloak that obscured most of it. What he could see was covered in a mix of black leather armor and a heavy scale mail that looked eerily similar to the scales from the drake. A sword was sheathed on its back, which was an odd fusion of gold and ruby elegance on the sheath and simple, battleworn practicality on the pommel. Spiraling around its head was a glowing blue gem reflecting off a bone mask taken from the skull of some fearsome creature. Long, black talons reached out to push the door open letting enticing smells of cooked meat spill out into the courtyard.