All The Skills

It took a few seconds that felt like years for Arthur to realize he hadn’t hit the bottom of this endless fall.

This wasn’t an endless bad dream. He was trapped in an illusion.

Which meant he was likely standing in the middle of the fog, surrounded by scourgelings, assassins, or both.

“This isn’t real!” he yelled out loud, voice shaking. It didn’t seem to help. “This isn’t real. I’m not falling…”

Why hadn’t the dragon riders done anything yet? Surely, they would have come to investigate an unusual bank of fog. Someone had to be watching the Legendary recruits, if only to see how they performed in the field test.

Unless this was part of the field test?

He dismissed that thought immediately.

Valentina and Whitaker had strict requirements for the egg, but they were hosting the sons and daughters of nobles. They wouldn’t want them killed. That was one of the reasons they were preemptively trying to eliminate unworthy people.

So why hadn’t anyone investigated?

Maybe because they couldn’t see the fog, either.

An illusion inside an illusion? That felt like a Legendary-level ability.

This isn’t real, he thought again and spoke aloud to reinforce it. “This isn’t real.”

Squeezing his eyes shut, he clenched his fists and willed himself to believe it.

His mind flashed to his brief training with Kenzie. Using aura manipulation, she could alter emotions. Eventually, he was able to push her back.

He wasn’t quite sure how — it was like a particular twist in his thoughts, projecting them outward. Solidifying them. Making them as strong as a shield.

“This isn’t real!”

His outward shield struck something that was remarkably delicate and brittle, like spun glass. The glass shattered around him.

Suddenly, Arthur was no longer falling. He stood on steady ground. The day was bright around him. The fog was gone.

His team’s wanderings had taken them parallel to the wall. They stood in the middle of a churned up wheat-field. Penn, Marion, and Echo stood stock still around him staring blankly out to the middle distance.

And three flying scourgelings had taken off from the high trees and were headed their way.

Arthur’s immediate instinct was to grab everyone and run. He reached to touch Echo and tried to store her in his Personal Space. He’d apologize later.

Echo didn’t budge. After a frantic moment, he remembered why: He needed her permission.

“Echo, can you hear me? You’re not falling. It’s an illusion! Let me take you out there.”

Nothing.

Arthur looked to the sky. The three scourgelings were close enough to identify as more of those naked flying weasel things. Though the outsized fangs gave them the look of moles.

In desperation, Arthur grabbed Echo’s arm and Marion’s who stood right next to his sister. He pulled them forward.

They stepped forward like dolls, eyes blank. But they moved too slow. They were in the middle of an open field with no chance for cover. And that still left Penn.

Arthur looked back at his cousin and at the oncoming scourgelings.

A terrible thought struck him.

Penn had the Master of Combat card. With it, Arthur could finally fill in the missing piece to his set.

Arthur’s pickaxe lay a few feet away. He’d dropped it when he fell into the illusion. One swing at the throat ought to do it. Then he would grab the card and use it to save the Prince and Princess. Simple and easy.

Instead, Arthur mentally slotted Thief into his class slot, turned to Marion and started rifling through his pockets for a card anchor bag. Instead, he found two more bags of coins with him in addition to the one he’d already shown Arthur and Penn. Had he brought all his money?

New skill gained: Pick-pocketing (Thief Class)

Due to your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 3.

Would you like to add this skill to your existing Thief class?

Arthur dismissed that. The oncoming scourgelings whistled in excitement. They were so close Arthur could hear the snap of their fleshy wing-sails.

Finally, Arthur found Marion’s card anchor. He didn’t have it in a bag. He had a small, elegant tattoo on the inside of his wrist.

Hopefully the Prince had hidden something good up his sleeve.

Arthur pressed his pinched fingers to it and activated his Card Shuffling skill.

He removed a single card and shoved it into his own anchor bag.

Instant Tool and Weapon Competence

Combat

Rare

The wielder of this card will be able to pick up and use any tool or weapon with the ease and ability of someone with level 10 general experience. The user may gain more ability while using the weapon. However,

Warning: Competence boost will end once card is removed from the wielder’s deck. Any additional experience or levels gained will reset back to base ten once the tool or weapon leaves the wielder’s hands.

The scourgelings were almost upon them. Arthur grabbed the pickaxe.

New skill gained: Pick-axe proficiency. (Miner class)

Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)

And if the scourgelings were made of rock, maybe he could do something with it. Arthur pulled his arms back and then threw it end over end at the oncoming scourgelings.

It was enough to send two of them into a quick scattering turn. The third hadn’t so much as flinched. It came on straight and true, aimed directly at Penn.

Arthur ran back for Penn, too. He snatched the sword out of his cousin’s hands.

New skill gained: Saber proficiency. (Swordsman class)

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

No bonus from his Master of Skills card, of course. It didn’t matter. He knew exactly how to set his feet, how to best grip it under the pommel that combined flexibility and strength. This wasn’t an ideal weapon — he intuitively knew it was best to use this sort of sword from the back of a horse. Or a dragon.

But the scourgling was in a dive and it was all Arthur had.

He flashed it in a back cut, rather than an instinctive stab to let the edge do most of the work. The cut hit home and parted flesh down its neck and hide to the wing joint. Arthur stepped back before the blade could hit bone and stick. Good thing because, with a whistling shriek, the scourgeling turned in air to bite at him. It missed his wrist by a hair. Arthur turned away as it struck ground in a tangle of limbs. Bone snapped.

Kicking the body, Arthur turned. The other two scourgelings had used those few seconds to swoop into their own dives. They aimed at Marion and Echo.

Echo was blinking long and confused blinks as if coming out of a trace. But she wasn’t yet focused on the scourgelings.

“Echo, duck!” Arthur yelled.

She blinked slowly at him and didn't move.

Arthur stepped in front of them both, slashing wildly in a way his new skill said was horribly inefficient but would hopefully look intimidating.

The tip of his weapon caught the shoulder of one of the diving scourgelings. The creature chittered out and jerked away. That motion knocked the sword to the side for one crucial second.

The second creature plowed into Arthur.

Arthur fell to the ground with the scourgeling on top of him. Foul, rotten breath washed into his face.

In a flash, he mentally retreated into his Personal Space, grabbed an extra shirt to wrap around his arm, a scarf he wound to protect his neck, a knife-

New skill gained: Dagger Proficiency. (Swordsman class/Thief Class)

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

Correction, a dagger, and stepped back into reality. He shoved the dagger into the creature’s open maw. The teeth sliced through the cloth around his arm like tissue paper, his skin even worse than that.

Arthur screamed but jammed the dagger up through the top of the mouth into the brain. The scourgeling shuddered and twitched, drawing new agony from his arm in its mouth and the claws against his body. Then it went limp.

There was still another scourgeling.

Arthur rolled the dead scourgeling off him and tried to rise, but only made it to his knees before a wave of dizziness made him sit again. His arm was covered in red and there were… strips of flesh hanging off his hand and wrist that shouldn’t be. He’d lost the dagger somewhere, couldn’t feel anything past his elbow at all. Not a good sign.

The scourgeling had hit the ground in a controlled fall. Spreading its wings wide, it chittered angrily before it charged—four additional making it just as dangerous on land as in the air. Sort of like a dragon.

Arthur braced himself.

Echo stomped into the scourgeling’s path, picked up the beast by the back of the neck and slammed it down again. Her battle cry was as fierce as any dragon. The scourgeling twisted to bite but she kicked it with one solid boot, making its head snap to the side unnaturally. It fell into a heap.

“Gross! I hate these things!” She gave a full body shudder and turned. “Are there any more? Where’s Penn? Did they take him?”

Penn stood less than ten feet away, still caught in the illusion. Judging by the way Echo looked around, she was still caught in the fog.

Arthur shook his head and the entire world seemed to wobble along with the motion. The next moment, he was on the ground.

“Oh no, hold still.” Echo knelt by her side and reached into her leather vest to withdraw a glittery silver handbag, edged with pink gems. A very appropriate accessory for a twelve year old girl. It looked ridiculous in the hands of her huge form.

She pulled a bottle that… well, either Arthur’s eyes were playing tricks on him, or the green wax-sealed bottle was bigger than the tiny bag.

“Here… oh no, your arm. I’ll get it. Drink.” She popped the wax and pressed it to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone I gave you this. I’m only supposed to use it for myself.”

He had a momentary thought that he was surprised she wasn’t squeamish about his blood. Then the warm peppermint liquid hit his lips.

It was an instant infusion of energy and clarity. He gulped it down, using his working hand to steady the bottle and tip it back.

Sensation returned to his damaged arm, and it itched, but in a distant not-unpleasant way. He looked down to see the wounds sealing itself off. The blood obscured much of the mess, but he either saw tendon or bone reknit and was covered by new skin. The old hanging skin dropped off, unneeded.

It was kind of gross, but he was too fascinated to care.

Little wounds he wasn’t even aware of resealed themselves and within a few moments he was entirely whole and felt as fresh as if he’d gotten a good night’s sleep.

“Was that alchemy?” he asked, stunned. “A real potion?”

There were no card alchemists in Wolf Moon hive as it was one of the smaller hives. Arthur had heard stories of their potion abilities but discounted them as exaggeration. Now he was a believer.

“Don’t tell,” Echo started to worry her bottom lip with her teeth but then made a disgusted look as she encountered the beard. “I’m not supposed to—but you protected me and Marion. Is Penn… is he gone?”

Arthur stood. “No, he’s standing to your right. The fog’s an illusion, too.”

“I have a dispel illusion card,” Echo’s haughty voice lost its edge as realization hit her. “But if this was done by a Legendary power…”

“Yeah.”

He looked out. More scourgelings had broken off from the trees but were intercepted by a pair of red dragons who turned them to ash before swooping to snap up the falling card shards.

It was far from safe out here.

“We have to get Penn and Marion out. Can you carry your brother? I’ll see what I can do with Penn.”

“He’s my half-brother,” she corrected, then paused, again biting her lip despite the beard. “Marion has a camouflage card. I don’t think he knows I know he has it, but he could hide us all.”

“Where?” Arthur asked sharply. “In his anchor tattoo?”

“No, his heart deck. Why?”

Drat. He couldn’t grab it then.

He didn’t think they could easily walk out of here — not if Echo was still caught in the fog illusion. And if they made it back, then what? The mind mage would be waiting.

That camouflage card would come in handy. Somehow, Arthur had to wake Marion.

His mental resistance was part of a shield class.

Could that mental shield be expanded?