The monstrosity in front of Jacob roared, its face opening horrifically to reveal a mouth of glittering crystalline teeth. The walls of that large test facility around him shook, vibrating as the sound bounced off it. In the blazing crystal suns that had replaced Ku Do-Yeon’s eyes pure rage burned, drowning out any visible sense of reason or comprehension. And traces of Ku Do-Yeon that existed in the creature - besides the odd tuft of hair or clothing fabric - had been dissolved away in its transformation; what had replaced it was filled with anger beyond comprehension. The creature roared a second time, then swung an arm, sending the long table between it and Jacob flying over the conveyor belt and towards the train station.

  Jacob tapped his equip deck, and it spit out a card. He slapped it into his equipper without waiting to read it, activating it as quickly as possible. The crystalline creature formerly known as Ku Do-Yeon began moving forward, walking on the edges of its crystal arms and legs in a strange crawl. It’s crystal forearms were unnaturally long, reaching the floor easily as it quickly loped forwards. The lights on his equipper blinked, and Jacob glanced down at the screen as the card was cast.

  Equip Card - Corporate Card - Wonder Corp. - Holographic Shield of the Dead King - 4 uses remaining - Countdown to Casting, 3…

  The ground cracked under the crystal creature’s limbs as it grew closer, crossing the space faster than Jacob had anticipated.

  2…

  Jacob gulped as the monster continued to move at what seemed an impossible speed, lunging ten feet forward in less than a second.

  1…

  The creature continued to bear down on him, and Jacob nervously placed one leg behind him into a fight stance. He lifted up his arm that held the equipper as the monster crossed the final few steps. It lunged at Jacob, and a massive holographic shape appeared in front of him. The crystal creature slammed into it, before slumping to the ground dazed. Jacob braced against the shield as the creature did, feeling all the air leave his chest in an instant. There was a sickening crunch in his left shoulder as the impact reached it, and Jacob grimaced as pain blossomed from it. It was the same shoulder that had been injured in the match with Cleopatra earlier, and Jacob made a mental note to work closer with the Card Agency trainers when he got back stop favoring it. Assuming it healed at all.

  “Geez that was close.” Stan huddled behind the shield, placing his body between the monster and his wife.

  “You don’t say.” Jacob grimaced, watching the creature rise. It wandered backwards in disorientation, before turning to look back at Jacob. It roared again, this time more quietly, and paced carefully. Even blinded by rage the creature was intelligent, studyng Jacob with a careful eye. Jacob glanced down at the cards he had drawn into his hand and frowned.

  Carnivorous Island Potato - Creature - Plant Type - Strength: 800 - Defense: 800

  Crystalline Ice Rain - Spell - This card summons a razor sharp crystalline ice rain that damages everything underneath it.

  Avenged Water Demon - Creature - Ocean/Demonic Type - Strength: 1500 - Defense: 1500 - This card gains 250 attack and defense against fire creatures. The card loses 250 attack against unredeemed demons.

  Exiled Hamster Warrior - Creature - Light Type - Strength: 1500 - Defense: 1200 - A fierce and exiled warrior, who seeks revenge on the lord that has forsaken it. Gains 200 Strength against Dark Types.

  Bubbles of a Treasure Chest - Spell - Blows an unending stream of slightly acidic bubbles towards any direction chosen by the caster. Each bubble causes 100 strength and defense damage to everything it hits.

  Not a terrible hand, though without knowing any of the stats of the creature in front of him it was difficult to know how effective it would truly be. The creature grumbled, and Jacob quickly placed Bubbles of a Treasure Chest onto his equipper. A large wooden treasure chest appeared, not unlike a life sized version of those you would find as a cheap toy in a fishbowl.

  “Treasure Chest, blast whatever that thing is.” Jacob pointed at the monster as it gnashed it’s teeth at him. The chest turned and opened its lid, and a stream of fast moving bubbles shot out of it. Several hit the monster and it screamed, the crystal steaming a bit where the bubbles hit.

  “That thing is Ku Do-Yeon.” Rama offered dryly.

  “Was Ku Do-Yeon.” Stan added.

  “Alright wise guys,” Jacob flickered his gaze across the room, quickly taking in his surroundings as the crystal creature turned its anger to the treasure chest “Everyone behind the conveyor belt.”

  The monster rushed towards the Treasure Chest, steaming from half melted crystals in several places as it did. Jacob began backing towards the conveyor belt, keeping the group behind his shield as they all moved as quickly as possible behind the belt. They gathered behind it, and Jacob spotted his grandfather also hiding on the other end of the long production line.

  “So that’s where you wandered off to.” Jacob glanced outwards as the creature reached the treasure chest, filling the air with a crunching sound as it demolished the wooden object.

  “You’re doing great kiddo.” Jacob’s grandfather offered him a thumbs up, keeping one eye on the creature “Keep up the good work.”

  “Thanks.” Jacob ducked back behind the conveyor belt as the remains of the Treasure Chest was thrown into the other side of the belt. Shards of wood rained down upon them, clattering to the ground all around the group. The shield kept the largest fragments from hitting them, but Jacob was feeling the strain in his shoulder. He had likely cracked a bone for the second time, and it took every ounce of focus not to react to the pain. Jacob tapped his equip deck and it spat out a Heal card. He threw it into his equipper, glancing at the screen as he did.

  Equip Card - Government issue - Standard Heal - Final Use - Countdown to Casting, 3… 2… 1…

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The card disintegrated in the equipper as it went into effect, knitting together the cracks in the bones in Jacob’s shoulder. He grunted at the sensation, which felt like a short burst of agony followed by a deep soreness. The words of the ship doctor flashed through his head briefly through his mind as the card was cast: “Cards can do a lot to heal, but you never come back 100%”. Jacob tested the shoulder, grimacing at the soreness. The shoulder moved stiffly, with an ever so slight grinding feeling as it rotated. He would be lucky if it had healed back to 50% of where it had started before the tour; the duels were taking a toll.

  On the other side of the conveyor belt there was a variety of crashing sounds as the creature destroyed a variety of equipment, searching for more targets to attack. Jacob glanced over the belt carefully, doing his best not to be spotted. The Crytalline monster had busied itself with demolishing the small go kart like machine the South Koreans had been looking at earlier. Amaryllis was still slumped in the corner, and there was a small pile of destroyed machines lying next to her that had been trying to reach her. The pool of blood under her head appeared to have stopped growing, but she remained unconscious.

  Jacob ducked back behind conveyor belt and took a deep breath. Beside him Stan peeked out over the conveyor belt and frowned.

  “That thing is really doing a number on that Go Kart.” Stan’s voice was nearly silent as he looked out, trying not to be heard. “Shame, it looked fun.”

  “Oh it definitely is.” Rama muttered back “Runs out of gas too quickly though, we haven’t quite figured out drawing more from the Power cards.”

  “Maybe if you combined it with that multi-equipper?” Jacob’s grandfather chimed in “Though you’d have to find a way to not turn the drivers into monsters.”

  “Or you could keep them as monsters and make a show out of it.” Stan ducked back down behind the belt and grinned “Extreme Creature Racing, I’d watch that show.”

  “Terrifying monster on the loose, woman bleeding out in the corner, and I’m stuck with the three stooges.” Jacob’s deck box whirred, dispensing a card to replace the Treasure Chest he had cast. He pulled the speel card out of the equipper and shook off the dust from the disintegrated heal card, wiping it on his pants for good measure. He grabbed the new card and slid the old one back into his deck box in one movement, and the box whirred again as it moved the spent card to the bottom of the deck.

  “Could be worse.” Stan’s wife adopted a tone of mock severity “You could be married to one of those stooges.”

  Jacob looked at the card he had added to his hand, and started to get an idea. It was a FateCo card, from the pack he had bought to complete his deck in the card shop:

  Equip Transfer - Spell - This card allows a caster to transfer an equip that it controls from one entity to another.

  “Stan, Draw 5 cards.” Jacob glanced back over the belt at the creature, which was chasing a terrified manufacturing bot around the room. It caught up to the bot and jammed a crystal arm through its body, sending sparks through the air as it speared the machine.

  “What?” Stan stammered a bit, barely concealing his anxiety.

  “Just do it.” Jacob kept watching the creature as it roared, and began tearing apart the robot it had speared into small pieces.

  “I’m going to need to send those two a bill when this is all over.” Rama said dryly. Jacob ignored her.

  Beside him, Stan tapped his deck box like he had seen Jacob do when they had talked in his cabin. It spat out five cards, and he pulled them out of the deck. He looked at them helplessly, then looked up at Jacob. Jacob glanced at him, and reached out for the cards. Stan handed them to him, and Jacob looked them over.

  Nun of the Order of Silence - Creature - Light Type - Strength: 1600 - Defense: 1500 - This creature makes no sound, regardless of what it is doing.

  Sunset on the Apocalypse - Spell - This card fills everything in range with a golden light, and projects a beautiful sunset. Creatures within eyesight of the sunset are entranced

  Will o’ Whisp of the Fae Realm - Creature - Light Type - Strength: 1200 - Defense: 800 - Creatures who face this creature have a 50% chance of becoming entranced

  Micro Fairy - Creature - Light/Fae type - Strength: 1000 - Defense: 1000

  Sky Sword of the Cloud Gods - Equip - This card equips the caster or a being of its choice with a sword made of pure cloud. Raises the equipped beings Strength by 500.

  As Jacob had suspected, all the cards Stan had drawn provided a decent level of defense. Jacob would have to discuss deck boxes further with the researchers in the Card Enforcement Agency after this was all over, to learn how they seemed to know exactly the cards you needed outside of tournament matches - and why the draws were random in competitive settings. Assuming Jacob made it out of this factory in one piece. Given what had happened to Ku Do-Yeon and Kerl that was no guarantee.

  Jacob pulled out Nun of the Order of Silence, and handed he other cards back to Stan. He crouched behind the conveyor belt, and looked at Stan directly.

  “Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do.” Jacob looked Stan in the eye, who nervously took back the other four cards. Jacob held up the Nun card for emphasis as he spoke. “You’re going to cast this card here, behind the conveyor belt, and instruct the Nun that appears to go get Amaryllis and bring her here. The nun moves completely silently, so she shouldn’t be heard by the crystal creature. While you do that I’m going to cast a creature of my own to distract the crystal creature, and hopefully take it down. Once Amaryllis is safely behind the conveyer belt see if you can stabilize her and tend to her injuries.”

  Jacob glanced over at Rama, who watched the entire affair with quiet amusement “Do you have any Heal cards?”

  “I run a card factory.” Rama replied sarcastically “What do you think?”

  “Mhm.” Jacob grunted in response, then looked down at Stan. He handed the Nun of the Order of Silence to him, grabbing Stan’s hand in his own as he did. He looked the panicking man in the eye, and lowered his voice. “I know this is new, but you’ve got this.”

  Stan nodded, then took the card. The man took a deep breath, and placed it in his equipper. Immediately the serene figure of a nun appeared croached next to him, its face hidden by the large hood it wore over its habit. Jacob took a deep breath of his own, then climbed up onto the conveyor belt in plain view of the Crystalline creature. He placed Avenged Water Demon into his equipper, and the thin shape of the 8 foot tall creature appeared next to him. It glanced down at Jacob, who nodded at it.

  “Alright my friend, time to do this again.” Jacob spoke softly to the creature, who looked over at the crystalline creature. It hadn’t noticed them yet, as it was focused on the robot it was nearly done dismantling completely.

  “Hey!” Jacob called out. The crystalline creature’s head snapped to look at them and it growled. “Pyrite brain! You looking for me?”

  “Pyrite brain?” Jacob’s grandfather poked his head out from behind the conveyor belt.

  “I don’t know, you try insulting a pile of rocks.” Jacob frowned as the creature continued to growl, pacing slowly in front of them.

  “What? Too soft to face me?” Jacob called out again, attempting to goad the creature “I know limestone that’s harder than you.”

  The creature rose up and roared viciously, shaking the walls once again with the sound.

  “That did something.” Jacob’s grandfather ducked behind the conveyor “Good luck.”

  The creature began to move towards Jacob, and he drew another card. The match had started.

  next chapter. This chapter faced a similar problem to one I had earlier in the book; in editing the lead up to the match itself seemed to grow and grow, until it finally made more sense to split the chapter in two. Right now the duel is still written to take a single chapter, and will be happening in the next chapter - which will be posted on Monday, January 5th. It’s been difficult to get all of the chapters done on time (hence a few that have been posted a little late), but I’ve set aside the entirety of this weekend to catch up and even build a bit of a backlog.

  as they are written, consider checking out my and supporting my work! I’m not the best at updating it and filling it with content, but I have several patreon only-posts in their final edits, and am hoping to add more scheduled posts this weekend. I’m a low income writer and have to fit in drafting chapters between multiple jobs; any bit helps.

  trust in the cards…

  What part of pokemon battles do you want to see in future creature matches?