Book 2: Chapter 39: Compounded Card Effect

    Arthur walked.

    His awareness came and went in vivid flashes.

    One moment he was crossing through the canal, soaked from the chest down. The next he was on the other side, halfway through the next churned field. Another blink of an eye and he stood with others his age all together at the foot of the scourge cone. This close, he had to crane his head to look up and up and he still couldn''t see the top. Wait... why was he here? Why was...?

    The song invaded his head and Arthur drifted.

    Each moment of dim awareness came with notifications passing in front of his eyes.

    New Skill Level: Basic Empathic Resistance (Shield Class)

    Level 8

    New Skill Level: Basic Empathic Resistance (Shield Class)

    Level 9

    New Skill level: Basic Empathic Resistance (Shield Class)

    Level 10

    You have reached Apprentice in Empathic Resistance.

    New Skill gained: Basic Telepathic Resistance

    Due to your previous experience and your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 6.

    Arthur blinked.

    The sweetly seductive notes played through his head, but he was aware of other noises. Roars. The booms of explosions. Some of them were close.

    Slowly, he turned his head from where he had stared expectantly towards the cone -- they were all staring expectantly. He stood in the middle of a vast crowd of people. Townsfolk, farmers, evacuees, old, young...

    Instead of the cone, Arthur looked to the sky.

    The arrows of white dragons had fallen into disarray. Small dark pin-pricks flew among them. And from those dark points -- scourge bats -- came immense explosions.

    One of the cards the scourgelings had harvested from the Legendary recruits must be combustive.

    And that didn''t count the living tornado he saw in the near-distance, winding ever closer. Someone had either a wind or special tornado card.

    New Skill Level: Basic Telepathic Resistance (Shield Class)

    Level 7

    His mind cleared just that little bit more and he realized he was actively pushing on something in his mind. His thoughts built an ever crumbling shield, but the more skilled he became in the method, the less likely it was to disintegrate.

    The white dragons dodged, some diving straight down to avoid the concussive blasts. Arthur got the impression they were fighting back in their own way. The edges of his weak mental shields were battered by stinging pressures. The mind mages were trying to fight back.

    Perhaps the battle was what kept Arthur''s own fight from being unnoticed.

    Unfortunately, the people around him weren''t shielded. Some flinched, others let out low moans of pain, and one or two collapsed, foaming at the mouth. They all stared toward the cone, however.

    Why?

    What were they waiting for? Why had the Mind Singer gathered all these people together? They could have harvested their cards, like what had happened to the Legendary team, and been done with it.

    New Skill Level: Basic Telepathic Resistance (Shield Class)

    Level 8

    With the new strength to his shield came a touch more distance and clarity.

    The Mind Singer had sung in his mind to gather here and wait. For what, Arthur didn''t know.

    What he did know was the Singer surely had a Rare card. That''s what gave Arthur, with his Legendary skill, a slight edge. It also meant it likely had to strain to keep so many people under control.

    Arthur had been caught alone. No reason to think he had a Legendary card unless the Singer had looked closely. And it had the white dragons to contend with.

    Another rapid series of explosions blasted around one dragon which had fallen behind the others. It fell from the sky in pieces.

    Two of the dragons doubled back and snatched at the remains -- Arthur hoped it was to keep any more mind mage cards away from the enemy rather than greed for themselves.

    Half of the dragons were in pure flight back to the rip in the sky. They''d report a failure, that the land was lost.

    Then the king would come.

    Arthur knew he should leave. He had regained enough mental control to access his heart deck. A flick of thought and he could turn off the Nullify.

    An instant later, he''d be away.

    And these people would be left to their fate.

    He might have done it, but some of the white dragons weren''t fleeing outright.

    In an eye-blink, Arthur reached into his Personal Space and withdrew a tiny knife. Awful for combat, but perfect for snipping threads.

    His Instant Tool and Weapon Competence card kicked in.

    New skill gained: Small knife proficiency. (Swordsman class/Thief Class)

    Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 10.

    Holding it, he focused on his Fabric Snipping skill.

    He had no strength, no dexterity. No time except to maybe make one cut.

    His new proficiency in small knives combined with his Fabric Snipping skill, which was in turn boosted by his The Perfect Snip card.

    One cut became a dozen, deep and perfect as a skilled tailor.

    A third of the pressure on his mind lessened as the scourge-bat fell into pieces in his hands.

    The Mind Singer''s scream rang through his skull -- so loud and fierce that Arthur was on the verge of blacking out from it. Or maybe that was his dwindled life force. The world had started to darken around the edges again.

    His grasp on his skills slipped and the mental shield crumbled like a child''s sandcastle.

    He felt the Mind Singer''s mental crow of triumph -- her need for revenge was like a hot brand against his mind. The shield was gone. It tore into him without abandon.

    I''m here, said a calm voice in his mind. Its presence helped soothe the burn, and, he slowly realized, helped ease the damage too.

    Three white dragons -- one of them shimmering like diamonds in the sun -- landed in the clearing.

    An invisible field pulsed out from them. Abruptly, the Mind Singer''s presence vanished to a whisper.

    Around him, people woke as if from a dream. They looked around, murmuring, confused but not alarmed.

    New Skill level: Basic Empathic Resistance (Shield Class)

    Level 11

    They''re keeping the people calm, Arthur thought. But he didn''t mind. Slowly, he climbed back to his feet. He was far from recovered, but the shimmering white dragon''s presence buoyed him.

    As he stood, he stored the remains of the scourgeling in his Personal Space. He didn''t have the time or mental energy to deal with harvesting its card.

    The white shimmer''s rider cupped her hands around her mouth and called out. "Everything will be alright. Please line up and my riders will evacuate you to a safe area."

    People immediately moved to do as she told them. No questions. No hesitation.

    Arthur stood in place, looking around. Perhaps he was still damaged from the mental battle with the Mind Singer because it didn''t occur to him to move with the rest of the crowd until he felt the weight of a gaze on him.

    The white shimmer dragon had crystalline blue eyes. Arthur had to focus not to feel like he was falling into them.

    Her rider had white blonde hair, so bone straight that it didn''t look real. She noticed her dragon''s attention and smiled down at Arthur. "Are you resisting us, young man? We mean no harm."

    "I..." The word felt thick in his mouth, his tongue like a piece of cotton. Either the mental damage from the mind singer, the life force drain, or both. Slowly, Arthur shook his head. "You''re lying," he said calmly. "We''re not safe."

    He looked behind himself. Some of the braver dragons were still fighting the Legendary Rank scourgelings -- though the tornado seemed to have stalled out a few miles away. Small mercy.

    There weren''t enough dragons here to take anyone by a long shot. What was the plan? And where did the Mind Singer go?

    As if in answer, he heard a hiss in his mind.

    This isn''t over yet.

    The ground started to shake.

    Arthur had felt this before, during his first scourgeling eruption when he''d been a boy. But that shaking was like a warm summer''s breeze next to the hurricane now.

    Everyone was thrown off their feet-including the landed dragons. Trees cracked and fell, and some of the enforced peace over the crowd lightened.

    People screamed and pointed up to the cone they''d all been fixedly staring at before.

    Arthur still couldn''t see to the very top, but he had a good view of the sudden bulge growing out of the narrow neck of the cone. It was to the side, leaving the mountain distended and pregnant looking.

    Another sickening lurch of the earth and a giant fist, larger than any dragon, punched its way out of the cone.

    The earth fell away in a landslide, thankfully away from them.

    Mind mage voices echoed in Arthur''s mind, snapping orders at one another. Some loud, some quiet. All of them, he suspected, he wasn''t supposed to hear.

    It was too much. He again sank to his knees, hands over his ears. His palms were hot and wet with blood.

    It did nothing to stop the voices, but one -- the white shimmer dragon, though he wasn''t sure how he knew that -- echoed above them all.

    Call the hive leaders. This is a Legendary rank and far beyond us. Meanwhile, save as many civilians as you can. The more that are left behind to be sacrificed the stronger it will grow.

    Glittering white claws closed around Arthur.

    "No," Arthur protested, voice slurred. "Got my own way home..." But he couldn''t remember how he’d get there.

    His hands fell away from his bleeding ears as darkness closed around him.