Cursed Draw

Take for example our so-called lesser cousins. The Trials Deck, and the players that wield them are to be respected, and treated as dangerous foes. While yes these players cannot alter reality around them, contained as they are to affecting themselves and their equipment. And yes their library size and ability to gain new cards are both severely limited. But consider this. The player of a Trials Deck may only be challenged by another Trials Deck wielder. So should you find yourself threatened by one of these 'lesser cousins' know that your most common defense will not save you.

-Mysteries of the Deck. Book one. -The arrogance of the player.

Prince Of The Dawn Hunt

Player: Darius Knots

Dealer: Metal Bar Piercing Top Of Left Ear

Rank: 11th [Blooded]

Resonance: Pursuit

Library: 20 Cards

Chapter 3: The Big Game Hunter

Alabaster

Alabaster jumped from the dragon's body. This time he actually landed on his feet. The soft muddy bank sank beneath his boots lessening the impact.

Ahead of him, breaking from the long reeds that had been concealing Alley minutes before, was a boy about his own age dressed in hunter’s leathers. His hair was a dull red ponytail. His skin was a sun-tanned brown. He was shorter than Alabaster but significantly broader. His name was Darius, and for six months out of every year, he was Alley’s best friend.

In one hand Darius carried a harpoon of jagged bone. His Trials Deck hand hovered around the other arm. Smaller and less prominent than a True Deck, the hand of a Trials Deck was never in front of its player’s face.

The two boys shared a grin as they passed each other. Alley dashed back towards the boulder and his father’s chain. Darius engaged the dragon. Alabaster knew his friend would be alright by himself, but he still wanted to help. Without his deck that meant he needed a weapon. He grabbed a hold of the coresteel chain and began to drag it back to him. There had been no time to retrieve the hook with the first dragon. That was no longer the case.

He heard Darius shout his battle cry. Something in his native tongue of the North East. It meant nothing to Alley. While he wished he’d had more time to rest first, Alabaster was determined, and within moments he had grasped the iron hook at the end of the chain.

Coresteel was light for its strength, but the hook and chain together were still too heavy to throw effectively. He hadn’t intended to use the chain as a weapon today.

Alabaster glanced back at his friend. Darius had pierced the dragon’s neck with a throw of his harpoon. While the beast was bleeding with the weapon embedded in its flesh. The dragon was very much alive, and very much trying to snap its enormous jaws shut on Alley’s friend. Darius had no doubt increased his own strength with a card before hurling the harpoon. But now he was struggling to recover his spear without being bitten in half for the trouble.

Alabaster blinked. The chain was too heavy for him to throw effectively.

Bursting back into action Alley hurried to undo the latch that held the almost unbreakable chain in place.

His wet fingers fumbled the device, but after a few moments the latch was undone and the chain was free of the boulder.

Hook in one hand, chain in the other dragging behind him Alley dashed towards Darius. As a child, he had complained that his mother made him run as much as she did. He couldn't understand what that had to do with winning challenge matches.

He understood now.

Waiting until his friend had successfully dodged one of the MuckDwell’s attacks so that he could get distracted without dying. Alley called his friend’s name.

“Darius! Take!”

The pair had worked together their whole lives and found that in the midst of combat the more succinct you could communicate the better. As such they had developed a sort of shorthand. It wasn’t exactly a code language, but it did sometimes come across to other people as baffling.

The red-headed boy flicked his eyes in Alley’s direction. Almost without thought, he thrust his hand out to take the hook. Alabaster didn’t so much pass the chained weapon as drop it as he sprinted past, confident his friend would catch it.

His confidence was well-placed. Darius snatched the hook out of the air, already activating another card. “Dawnshot!” he yelled. Causing one of the small cards hovering around his arm to vanish. While Alley couldn’t see it, he knew the Dawnshot card would also cause his friend’s eyes to fill with yellow light. Obviously, the card had some other effect too. It likely has something to do with ranged attacks or accuracy. Alabaster wasn’t sure exactly what.

Trials Deck- Prince Of The Dawn Hunt

Dawn Shot Resonance- Pursuit

The Player's next ranged attack cannot be dodged. Only Blocked, Stopped, or Negated.

The dark-haired boy held the end of his father’s chain tight. As Darius spun and then flung the hook end of the coresteel chain. The dragon attempted to whip its head out of the way, but the large hook seemed to change direction mid-flight. Allowing it to tear into the dragon's eye and become snagged there. The roar the dragon let loose shook both boys on a physical level. As though the sheer volume of the sound caused the world around it to vibrate.

Having never stopped running, Alley leaped into the air. The chain going taught in his grasp he swung out over the water. Using the dragon like some bloody thrashing version of the rope swing behind his house.

Not wishing to have its eye torn out, the beast leaned towards Alabaster. Arresting his swing and sending him tumbling into the water. Exactly as he'd planned.

While Alley was diving beneath the water in an attempt to keep himself safe. Darius had been given the opportunity he had been waiting for. Leaping from the bank he slammed into the neck of the turning dragon. Grasping his spear he held himself aloft. There was a slight tearing of flesh, but the weapon held firm. Darius could now once again activate the Harpoon Rain Card in his hand.

“Harpoon Rain”

Trials Deck- Prince Of The Dawn Hunt

Harpoon Rain Resonance- Pursuit

Requires a Spear or Javelin type weapon

Create two copies of the Player's weapon on either side of the original.

Copies will mirror the speed and trajectory of the original for fifteen seconds before vanishing.

It was unusable unless he was holding some sort of spear or javelin. Unevolved as it was, the card only created two copies of the bone spear once it left his hand. It would however create them next to the original. Letting go of the harpoon he felt the magic of the card activate. As he fell into the water he saw the second and third copies of the spear appear. Piercing the dragon twice more.

The creature was dead, it simply didn’t know it yet. Throat and neck pierced by the savage barbed spears, its blood had already begun to impede its ability to breathe.

Thrashing about half blind, and choking on its own bodily fluids the second River Dragon met its end. Alley had already pulled himself back on the bank. After diving towards the riverbed he swam back towards land. Assuming it would be a lot safer than sharing the water with a dragon. A sound theory, but inaccurate in this case. With its final spasmodic thrash, the dragon’s tail smashed into the still-swimming Darius launching him out of the river with the force of a Clash Ram Alpha. The boy’s wild scream was the only warning Alley got before his friend collided with him.

With a wicked ‘THUD!’ the world went black.