Source & Soul: A Deckbuilding LitRPG

The air was crisp as we stood outside, Ediane and her seven summoned Spirits waiting for us. Yesterday, most everyone had quickly taken the general’s lesson about being the one to initiate combat to heart, each with varying degrees of success. Personally, I hadn’t been as successful as I had wished, and after a raw but heartwarming evening with Esmi, I had spent little of the night sleeping, my thoughts circling the adjustments I needed to make, both for pre-summoned battles and dueling. Even when speaking with my maple in the morning, I found myself drifting off as I dipped into those memories, seeing my choices for the exercise as clearly as I could any card I had memorized.

I had started with nearly all of my Souls summoned: two regular Assassins, my Master Assassin, two Metal Golems, my Winged Knight Atrea, and my two remaining Carrion Condors. I also had one of my new Master Shieldbearers summoned for defense, while the other waited in my deck as a reserve.

As soon as Edaine had allowed, I sent my two regular Assassins after one of her seven Spirits, using their Hunt ability to share a single target. However, the General expertly employed her summons’ Unit ability to add a second Spirit to the combat, which was disastrous for me: the Armor 1 of the two Spirits blocked the Assassins’ attacks entirely, and my souls were easily cut down by the 3 attack that the Spirits possessed.

To my dismay, Edaine used the same tactic on my Master Assassin, negating his 2 points of Fast Attack just as easily, since once again, Unit allowed her to decide how the damage my Souls dealt was distributed. This forced me to use a Protection Spell to keep him from being destroyed – which, thankfully, I had plenty of cards in hand to support.

My two Metal Golems were each crushed by the Spirits they faced – two-on-one in one case and one-on-one in the other. In the end, I only did a single point of damage to one of the Spirits, and the destruction of the Golems drew me most of the remainder of my deck, which I was supposed to be keeping in reserve.

The two Condors and Atrea couldn’t be blocked by the Spirits, but Edaine negated Atrea’s damage with her Shield and one of my Condors with her Armor of 2, both beak and blade rebounding off the filigreed metal, leaving not so much as a dent.

I had attacked with the Condors last in the hopes that my other Souls would have taken out some of her Spirits, thus buffing their attack, but Edaine had entirely thwarted that plan. She did take 2 damage from the remaining Condor, at least, a few shards slipping from her person since, as far as I could tell, she had no cards drawn to block with, just her hovering source and summoned tokens.

In return, Edaine did an equal amount of damage to that Condor with her elegant Mythic Sword.

Unwilling to give up the fight yet, I then used Microburst and attacked again with my two remaining flyers – I didn’t bother with the Master Assassin since he would just be swarmed by all seven of the Spirits, only one of which had even been hurt.

Edaine couldn’t use her Shield again so soon, so while the Armor stopped the wounded Condor, which the general finished off, Atrea and the other Condor scored 5 points of damage, flaking a satisfying burst of card shards from the woman. What was not as satisfying was that I was still staring down seven healthy souls after losing five of my own. This left me with only my Master Assassin and Master Shieldbearer for defense. The pair would be able to protect me for a turn, but only one, after which I would likely be overrun, which Edaine was sure to point out.

In comparison, Esmi had no such difficulty eliminating the Spirits. To begin, her Kobold Treasure Hunter stole Edaine’s Shield.

Then Esmi used her Kobold Spitfire and her own Soul ability to give her kobolds with 2 attack 4, enough to rip through the Spirits’ 3 health and Armor 1.

With eight such kobolds on the field – three Cold-Blooded Kobolds, three Kobold Fighters, one Kobold Fire-Eater, and one Kobold Sniffer they – as well as her Giant Albino Kobold, their charge destroyed all seven of the Spirits.

This left two of the 4 attack kobolds, plus the Treasure Hunter, free to attack Edaine directly, while Esmi kept the Spitfire back so it couldn’t be struck in combat.

The general cut down one of the kobolds with higher attack and absorbed 2 points of damage from her Armor, but still took 9 damage, cards fountaining from her – beating everyone who had gone prior, including myself, in Spirit kills and damage to the general.

The only other person who came close to matching that was Gerad, who, similar to Esmi, had used his Legendary Kitsanya’s ability to destroy Edaine’s Shield.

Then his Queen of the Realm focused all the Spirits, letting her, Kitsayna, two Mythic Souls, and Gerad himself charge in, equipped with his Legendary sword All for One.

The amount of damage he was striking for was absolutely ridiculous. The Queen alone had 11 attack, what with all the focused souls, while Agata had 12, since Gerad had a full hand of cards, plus the extra one his soul ability allowed. Not to mention the prince hitting for an 11 himself, Hilbrand for 5, and Kitsanya for 4 – a staggering 43 in all. If not for a handful of advisors nearby furiously casting Protection on Edaine, she would have been beaten and chopped up into an unrecognizable pulp. However, when the Spells and Souls cleared, the general looked far from impressed.

“Efficiency is essential for success on the battlefield. When you overextend, you invariably leave yourself open to reprisal. We did not provide you with those eyepieces on a lark; you have them so you can make appropriate calculations.” She pinned Gerad with a steely gaze. “You should have known that half the force would have been sufficient to remove me from the field, allowing you to keep the other half back for protection or your next adversary. You risked unnecessarily.” The general began addressing the rest of us again, but the words still seemed aimed at the prince. “This is no Flinch Test, which I hear is still popular among the carded, to see how much damage you can do in a single swing. It is about eliminating those you face with the minimum resources required, so you can have the maximum effect on the battlefield.”

I expected Gerad to bluster at the chastisement, claiming anything from that with a full hand of cards and plenty of Source up, he was far from defenseless, or that we had simply been instructed to presummon and fight, nothing about additional considerations. However, to my shock, he kept his peace, his lips thinning, but that was all. Truth be told, I found this quiet, intense prince much more worrisome than the casually cruel one I had grown up with.

Our varied attempts, and Edaine’s corrections, had been on my mind for the past sun cycle, and with that information, I felt prepared to outperform my last attempt today.

“Basil,” the general called, as if recognizing how eager I was, letting me go first.

Stepping up to face her seven Spirits, I was hyper aware of my dwindled amount of Source – the loss of one Order still fresh and yet to be regained – but no one commented on the lack. Instead, they looked doubtfully at my lack of summoned souls, and I swore I heard a few snickers from some in the group. Putting the watchers out of mind, I focused on Edaine, who had raised an eyebrow at my solitary approach.

“Begin,” she said.

Fast as I could, I cast a single Spell.

The same as every time I used it, a giant scales rose up from the ground, capturing the Souls afield in its great weighing pans. However, with no Souls summoned on my side, the scales dipped low with the Spirits crowding one bowl and then they burst apart in a shower of glittering motes, bringing the scales back in balance, before it too dissipated.

“Clever,” Edaine said, and I let out a breath of relief and triumph. “However, only half considered.” Then she rushed at me, so quickly I thought she must have some soul ability that gave her greater speed, and her Mythic sword swung toward me at full force.

Shamefully, I squawked in shock, tossing out one of my Executions from my hand to block the 2 points of damage. I was off balance, and the pushback of the card shards knocked me from my feet and onto the metal ground of the fortification.

“You’ve temporarily neutralized my Souls,” Edaine said from above, offering me a hand, “but are still on the backfoot in this engagement because you yourself were unprotected. “What should you have done instead?”

I took her gauntleted hand, more than a little embarrassed, and she pulled me to my feet with barely any effort.

“I should have had one Bodyguard at the ready to block your remaining Spirit and you,” I answered. “I also should have had my Helm and my Scalemail equipped.”

“Good,” she said, nodding at me before turning to the rest. “E’lal, you’re next!”

“Well done destroying them all,” Esmi said to me, as I came to stand beside her. I gave her a brief grin of thanks, but knew she was being kind, as she had admitted to me the night before she had a penchant for doing.

E’lal had done poorly the day before. Even fully buffed to 11 attack with three Feral Strengths, an Inevitable Evolution, and Wild Ascension, plus two more for Ambidextrous and some very basic Relic Swords that granted 1 Attack each, he hadn’t been able to break through the 21 points of health that the seven Spirits represented.

I had thought his Precision ability might give him the edge, since with it he could ignore the Spirit’s armor, but in the end, it had mattered little, the same as his Strong and Overkill.

Like against me, Edaine had used Unit to great effect, spreading out the damage E’lal had done so not a single Spirit was destroyed, also making his Fast Attack meaningless.

The Spirits struck back for a combined 21 damage. E’lal Dodged one of the Souls, absorbed another with his three Barkskin he had precast and more from hand, the rest shedding cards from his Mind Home.

In his enhanced state, he also had 11 extra Health, plus Regenerate, so he was far from out of the fight. However, taking not a single Soul down and being so heavily damaged in the process was far from an ideal result – not that E’lal seemed to mind, staying upbeat throughout the whole affair.

Today, the elf stepped onto the field just as he had before: at least nine feet tall with his enhancements, not counting his enormous antlers, skin glowing in soft green and yellow patches where it wasn’t covered by bark or vines that looked like additional corded muscle to his already overlarge frame. This time though he was joined by three Souls, Life warriors I had seen the elf ambassador use in the Tournament.

E’lal attacked, the Souls charging in with him. Their 2 attack each wouldn’t do much, but I imagined my bunkmate was hoping that by busying a few of the Spirits, he would actually be able to destroy some this time. Edaine did block the Life Souls with her own, but then she let E’lal through the rest, stopping his entire attack on her Shield with a clang that reverberated off the metal buildings and walls that surrounded us in the open-air training space. She didn’t bother striking back with her Sword, instead starting to lecture.

“This is why, unfortunately,” – she glanced up at the huge elf – “it is usually unwise to invest so many cards into a single Soul or summoner. Too often there is a more efficient way of countering the combined enhancement, putting you at a massive resource deficit.”

I could see the truth of the Edaine’s words. Even my Common Helmet could have done the same, forcing someone like E’lal to have to wait an entire turn before striking me again.

The elf opened a mouth that revealed fangs, his voice much deeper than usual. “It is as you say, General. Alone, it is an incomplete strategy.”

I could hear what he was implying, that this was simply not how the elves fought, but he didn’t make the statement with any sense of petulance or complaint. The nod Edaine gave him in reply seemed to indicate that she too understood but that it wouldn’t stop her from making an example of his performance. All in all, the exchange might have deterred me if I had planned to use enhancement for offense, but I didn’t think a focus on defense would suffer from the same shortcomings.

“Ky’reen!” the general called, as my bunkmate lumbered back to the line of trainees.

This was the tattooed elf girl, and like the day prior, she summoned Souls that could Transform, the same type I had seen used at the Tournament.

With them, she summoned some Common Timber Wolves, and she herself also turned into a werewolf.

However, even with a Timber Wolf supporting each Werewolf, they weren’t enough to stop paired Spirits, and while Ky’reen destroyed one herself, that was the only Soul she took down, doing no damage to Edaine.

Today, however, the wolfkin elf added two Werebears to her forces.

In addition, Ky’reen did not Transform, focusing instead on her cards in hand, glaring at them, as if they weren’t to her liking. Despite her ill temper, the Werebears were exceptionally useful due to their Terror forcing double blocks. Smartly, using Unit, Ky’reen had attached two of her Timber Wolves to the two Werebears, which let both a Werebear and a Wolf get past the defending Spirits. At first it seemed like this breach might not matter – Edaine stopping the Werebear with her Shield and the Timber Wolf with her Armor – but then Ky’reen cast two Feral Strengths on the Wolf, which I thought was a neat trick, waiting to see which one was shield-blocked before then buffing the other.

In the end, the elf still took out one of the Spirits with a Werewolf and also did 2 damage to Edaine, a definite improvement, which Ky’reen grinned fiercely about. To me she looked pleased but far from sated.

Next up was A’cia, the gorgeous elf who seemed to only use Spells, and defensive ones at that. She was the only one of us to not attack, miring the Spirits in vines when they came for her, and when the Souls eventually got past those, healing herself with Life Spells, Source Power, and even an Explosion.

Despite all this, in the end Protections had to be cast on her to keep her standing. The scenario had played out almost identically to the day before, and unlike with the rest of us, Edaine went through multiple turns. When it was over, the general gave the same sort of speech she had previously to the elf, about how for most summoners a mix of offense and defense is ideal, in case one is ever caught out alone. A’cia dipped her head in deference to the words, but something about the set of her shoulders and spine gave me the sneaking suspicion that the elf didn’t plan to change her strategy.

In stark contrast to the elves, as near as I could tell, all of the paladin trainees used the exact same deck. It was swarm-focused Order with plenty of Soldiers, City Watch, auras, token generators, and Formations I had seen in the War Camp’s stalls.

They also used some healing effects today, which briefly made me consider if I was overcommitting to cultivate an entirely new source when I could achieve similar results with one I already possessed.

However, seeing them confirmed previous studies of mine on the subject: Order cards such as these could only mend wounds, never restore cards in one’s Mind Home. Due to this limitation, many scholars considered it an inferior type of healing when compared to Life, and I refused to make subpar choices for my deck again. This time my deck would be the very best at what I designed it to do. That Order healing cards were circulated almost exclusively within the Church of the Twins and their paladins – a fact I was witnessing firsthand – and that joining their ranks was a lengthy affair by all accounts, only helped cement my current trajectory.

All in all, the trainee paladins’ results were middling – better than the elves but nowhere as good as Gerad or Esmi; not even as good as me, in truth – a few Spirits of Korikana destroyed, a few damage to Edaine, but that was about all.

The dwarves as a whole continued to mystify me. I had been eager to see their Depths cards, and while watching their dark, crystalline Depths Source floating over their rocky heads had been a treat, the trio had summoned exclusively Earth cards with the Earth Source they also possessed. Worse, the cards were by and large ones I already knew of: Soil Trolls, Iron Trolls, and Rockslides.

I saw one use a Spell called Hardening, which prevented damage to a Soul or Summoner, as well as a Sump Troll that moved lethargically even after being summoned.

But both cards were only Common; in fact, all of the Summons I saw from them were either Common or Uncommon, as if they were more card-poor than I was. Even odder, the Deepkin made plays that were far from optimal, if not downright ill-considered, like casting only one Rockslide into the Spirits’ Resist 1, so the tokens suffered just a single point of damage each, with no real follow up, or attacking with trolls that had no hope of getting through the line of Spirits.

The most exciting interaction was when one of the dwarves used their Depths Source Power to destroy a Spirit of Korikana that had taken 2 damage from a Sump Troll. The space around the Spirit darkened and then its armored body was crushed and bent, folded and twisted until it was nothing more than a lump of metal that broke apart into motes. The other two Deepkin made dissatisfied noises in their throats when this happened, sounding like little avalanches, and I never saw anything like it again.

It did however stick with me that the Resist 1 of the Spirit hadn’t protected it, presumably because the Source Power of Depths didn’t actually do damage, just destroyed the target based on the amount of health remaining and source spent. Interesting.

As she did for the rest of us, Edaine gave criticism and suggestions after each dwarf went, but one and all, the Deepkin took the advice with literal stone-faced silence, making no promises or sounds of any kind to indicate that they would try and improve. To the general’s credit, she never lost her temper with them, but I had to imagine trying to train such recruits would be a frustrating ordeal.

Afi, on the other hand, posed a different sort of difficulty, begging off participation in the day’s exercise.

“The enemy will not wait for you to collect yourself,” Edaine said in that measured yet forceful way of speaking she had. “They will strike when it suits them, not you.”

“I have no doubt they will,” Afi replied, showing minimal deference to our instructor, “but that applies only once we have entered the battlefield.”

“That is exactly what this space represents for your days here,” Edaine said, gesturing to the open portion of the fortification we used for the presummoning exercise.

Afi looked down as if to indicate that she had not stepped into the squared off area yet for precisely this reason. She wasn’t cheeky enough to say it out loud, though. “You also impressed upon us the importance of proper planning. I want to be sure that my preparations are well and truly complete. A loaf of bread half-baked is no bread at all, is it? Only with adequate time to rise can it become what it was made to be.”

Again, Edaine revealed little about her thoughts as she considered the girl, before finally calling, “Esmi! Your turn has arrived early.”

“Take Fortune with you,” I said, squeezing my fiancee’s hand as she departed.

I should have known that she would have no need of it. Today, instead of having her Treasure Hunter take the Shield, it snatched Edaine’s Armor right off the General’s back. Next, Esmi cast her Pile On Spell, using her gathered forces to crush one of the Spirits, and send 7 Overkill damage at Edaine.

2 of it was stopped by the general's Helm, and the other 5 she negated with her Shield. Esmi then sent nearly all of her souls in to attack. However, unlike yesterday when the Giant Kobold’s ability had been canceled out by Edaine’s Armor, this time every kobold that fell to a Spirit did 1 damage to the general, totalling 6 in the end.

Also, with only six Spirits as defenders, two kobolds with 4 attack and the Treasure Hunter with 3 got past, doing 11 more damage to the general for 17 in total, which was enough to force a Protection out of the watching advisors – with four Mythic Relics Summoned, Ediane likely only had sixteen cards remaining in her Mind Home.

But Esmi wasn’t finished yet. She used two Fire and four of Order to first cast From the Ashes, repopulating the field.

Then she used Convocation, turning all of her souls into mini Sources.

At that point she devoted four of the freshly risen kobolds, creating a Source-powered fireball doing 2 more points of damage past the Resist of the Helm, which put her exactly 3 beyond the number of cards Edaine should have had in her Mind Home, enough to “kill” a regular person. Not only that, Esmi still had three souls available for defense, some Source ready and others soon refreshing, three cards in hand, and thus three remaining in her deck.

“Well done,” Edaine said when the last Protection that had been played on her cleared. The general smiled, and I felt a stab of jealousy to have missed out on similar praise. What I could do if only my soul ability were more combat focused! “It looks like I’ll have to start using cards against you starting tomorrow.”

The ill feeling stayed with me until Esmi turned around, her face brimming with joy. Seeing her so happy, the discontent melted away, and I gave her a tight hug when she left the field.

“You were amazing,” I said into her hair. And once I had worked as hard as her, I would be amazing, too. I simply must figure out how to put the pieces available to me together correctly.

Having been so depleted of cards, the general had to take a twenty minute break to refresh her Mind Home, during which time we were given leave to mingle.

Hull had been little more than a statue throughout the exercise, standing nearby but offering little more than grunts or nods. His eyes were focused inward, and I noticed he had a smooth stone in his hand, which he was worrying with his thumb.

“Did you receive that from your bunkmate?” I asked him.

“What?” Hull said, the word coming out like he was half asleep.

“That,” I said, pointing at what he held.

He yanked his hand back, balling his fingers around the rock, completely covering it. As quickly as he had retracted from me, he relaxed, sighing out a breath and loosening his hand.

“Sorry. No,” he said, sounding run ragged. “Didn’t get much sleep last night. Here,” he said, offering the rock to me.

I gave it a quick look and handed it back since the topic seemed to make him uncomfortable. As far as I could tell, it was a plain river rock, nothing special. Assuming he didn’t throw it at someone, no one would think twice about him having it.

“Up late thinking about today’s classes?” I said. “You weren’t the only one.”

“Yeah,” he said, tucking the stone into his pocket, “that’s it.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you go the Lows again?” I whispered. “Two nights in a row?”

Esmi was looking at him now, too, just as interested in his answer as I was.

“No,” he grumbled, and when neither of us let up, he raised his hands as if to show us that nothing improper was in them. “I swear by the Twins, all right? Ask my roommate if you don’t believe me.”

He certainly seemed off balance, but if he hadn’t gone to the Lows what other trouble could he have possibly gotten into in a single night? There was only so much madness that could follow a person around.

“I think I will speak with your bunkmate,” I said, leaning back. “About Depths, anyway. The way they’re approaching this exercise is decidedly strange.”

Esmi stepped closer to us both and talked low. “My teachers in Charbond sometimes said that Deepkin were poor duelists, caring more for the crafting of summons than the usage of them.”

“But even if that’s true – even if Depth Relics are their fascination – shouldn’t they be using them?”

Esmi and Hull gave me nearly identical shrugs.

“See,” I said, “this is why I need to talk with them. How are they to be our allies if we don’t properly understand them?”

Hull snorted. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you. Harganut’s a real chatterbox.”

I didn’t bother trying to talk with Deepkin now, and not because of Hull’s lip. I wanted to stay with my friend in case there was something more to what he was chewing on, and while I like to believe that he enjoyed the extra attention, I didn’t get anything more of substance out of him.

When Edaine was ready again, it was Gerad’s turn. The prince did virtually the same thing as the day before, but with more restraint, for which the general applauded him.

It was Hull’s job to wrap us up, going last today instead of first like before. As he stepped up into the ‘field’ I gave him a not so subtle reminder about attacking. Predictably, he shot me a glare and grumbled, “Ass,” which made me smile.

He was halfway through summoning his sources and Souls when Edaine surprised us all by kneeling, that was until we turned around and discovered precisely who was descending from the clear blue sky.

“So,” the king said, and I swore I felt the weight of his voice press against me. The smile he graced us with was beneficent and a long cloak snapped behind him, longer than any person who walked aground could possibly wear. “Who is ready to enter my Immaculate Vault and claim the prize that was promised to them?”