"Ladies and gentlemen, let's see what the Three Fires Arena has in store for our competitors tonight!"

  The announcer's voice barely penetrated Dania's focus, but she noticed that the warmth that had made Amari so happy had ratcheted up a notch. With a quick glance away from where Rhett stood waving at the crowd, Dania realized that the landscape around her had changed entirely. The wooded slopes and spreading trees had vanished, replaced by scrubby hills and dry, dusty boulders. All the lush green faded to shades of ochre, gray, and brown, and the soft loam beneath her feet became shifting, treacherous sand.

  "It's the North American Desert!" The announcer's voice elicited a wild, raucous cheer from the surrounding crowd, causing Dania to look around again. "Besides battling each other, our competitors will also have to contend with soaring temperatures, brutal sand-blasting winds, and… your favorite… the random diamondback rattlesnakes!"

  Across the way, Rhett grinned at her. "Every minute, there's a 45% chance that the arena will spawn a nest of angry diamondbacks in the play zone. They're neutral, and will attack us both, as well as our creatures," he called out.

  Cool, Dania thought. Because battling a career card cop isn't enough of a challenge.

  But she said nothing. She just nodded to show her understanding. A hot wind blew across the path, throwing dust up into her eyes and stinging her face. She swallowed, blinked, and refocused on her cards.

  "And the battle begins in three… two…one…GO!"

  Dania touched her first card, the Lost World Lioness. She heard the announcer calling out something about her choice, but she deliberately pushed that to the back of her awareness. In front of her, Rhett must have chosen his mantle as well, because all of a sudden he stood clothed in something that looked like a cross between futuristic power armor and something from King Arthur's court.

  With her mantle-enhanced feline agility, Dania then leapt to her right, where a cluster of boulders sat half-buried in the shifting sand. She heard a warning rattle just as she managed to put the boulders between herself and Rhett's line of sight.

  Fuck, the diamondbacks!

  A reptilian head reared up, striking faster than her eyes could follow, and Dania felt a sudden fire streak across her wrist. She let out a hiss of pain and reacted from pure instinct. Her clawed hands clamped down on the diamondback's neck, capturing it and rendering it unable to strike her again.

  Now what? she wondered for a split second, before a yip of pain and a mechanical clicking sound warned her that Rhett had played another card. She bounded up atop the boulders and hurled the snake at Rhett's approaching figure with all her might, then touched her Best Beta card and flung it at the mechanical contraption currently trying to find purchase on the slick boulders beneath her.

  Rhett caught the snake in one gauntleted hand, but unlike Dania, he didn't get it right behind the neck. Instead, it writhed around until it reared up and managed to strike his cheek, just below his right eye. He let out a yelp and whipped it down to the sand, then brought an armored boot down on its skull with a sickening crunch.

  Dania cycled her cards and eyed her Dire Wolf Tracker. She would have liked to send it out with the extra play the Best Beta provided, but she didn't have the power. Said Best Beta was currently occupied in snapping at the mechanical contraption's rearmost metal legs, which didn't appear to be doing much to stop it. It was having more trouble with the sand-slick rounded boulders, and seemed inclined to ignore her wolf altogether.

  Okay, quit reacting, Dania told herself. The best defense is a good offense. Think strategically. What would Jake do?

  Her current hand held her Tar Pit, Era of The Ice Age, the Dire Wolf Tracker, and her Short-Faced Bear. With a thought, she ordered her wolf back away from the boulders and tossed her Tar Pit down directly in front of the contraption, leaving her boulders as a kind of island jutting up out of a pond of tar. Across the way, Rhett laughed and touched his forehead in acknowledgment of her cleverness, and then played a beige card that produced a serious-faced human with a huge backpack.

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  Dania looked long enough to see that it was a Mortal [Civic] card called Combat Engineer. It pulled out a rifle and began shooting at the wolf that turned with snarls to meet it. She ducked down to make herself as small of a target as possible and waited, sweating, until she could play again. She had her finger poised to tap in her Short-Faced Bear when a different plan started to form in her mind.

  The biggest mistake most deckbearers make is forgetting that there are other ways to hurt them besides their cards, she thought. I wonder… if I can keep his creatures occupied with mine…

  The thirty-second waiting period ended, and Dania made a quick decision. She stabbed her finger at her Polar Sanctuary card. Instantly, the painfully bright desert sky darkened. A breath of wind stirred her hair, then quickly built to a howl. Lightning flashed in the dark clouds overhead, and first one, then two, then millions of snowflakes began to fall. Within three seconds, the wind picked up enough that the snow started to blow sideways, and Dania could no longer see Rhett's position across the field.

  She could barely see the Riot Police card running to back the Combat Engineer up. She heard the crack of the Riot Police card's weapon, though, followed immediately by a pained canine whine. A swirl of tawny light spiraled back to her chest, causing her to duck lower behind the rocks of her "island".

  He's throwing mostly Mortal cards at me, which makes sense given their advantage against my Beast cards. But that's fine. That works well with my plan.

  As soon as she could, Dania cycled her hand and threw another Beast card—her Giant Ground Sloth—into the fray. Rhett countered with a Veteran Animal Control officer who had an additional advantage against Beast creatures. She could barely see the card's silhouette as he marched toward the developing standoff between her Sloth and his two fellow Mortal cards.

  Her Giant Ground Sloth lumbered toward the Combat Engineer and the Riot Police, swiping at each of them with his wickedly clawed forepaws.

  The Riot Police stepped in front of its teammate, raising its shield to take the blows. Under the cover that provided, the Combat Engineer knelt next to the edge of the Tar Pit and pulled a bundle of flat metal plates from his giant backpack. At first, Dania couldn't figure out what it was, but when he started slotting the plates together, she realized that he was building a rudimentary bridge.

  In the meantime, the Riot Police stood blocking him, shooting at the remaining creature with his pistol. Dania saw several rounds hit her Sloth, and heard his roar of pain as she counted down the seconds.

  Hang in there, buddy, she thought. Just a second more… There!

  She stabbed her finger at her Megafauna card, and pictured her Giant Ground Sloth as she did so. Instantly, the Sloth seemed to swell, growing not only larger, but apparently stronger and faster, too. It swiped at the Combat Engineer, knocking him and his half-finished bridge into the Tar Pit, where he promptly dissolved into a swirl of beige light.

  Pop! Pop! Pop!

  More rifle fire joined the chorus of snarls that echoed up to her. Trusting her Sloth to hold his position for another half-minute, she turned and leapt from her perch, clearing the edge of the Tar Pit and landing with a puff of newly fallen snow. She lifted her head and scented the air, her feline instincts separating the scent threads of tar, sloth, wolf, and mortal in her brain. Carefully, she rose to her feet and began to stalk quietly, quickly in a curving path around toward Rhett's last known position.

  "Let's see how you like this one, Dani."

  Dania froze at the sound of his voice coming from just ahead. She still couldn't see Rhett himself, but a golden light suddenly blazed in front of him, and her enhanced ears picked out the beat of wings on the wind-whipped air. The light arrowed through the snow, disappearing off Dania's left shoulder toward where her creature continued its desperate battle.

  Strike, now! Dania's mantle-given lioness instincts stabbed through her. She leapt blindly, stretching out her fingers and extending her claws as she did.

  Rhett's scent filled her nose a split second before she slammed into his back. She heard his startled "oof" as he collapsed beneath her sudden weight. Rage and hunger and adrenaline spiked through her body as she raked her claws down the long, strong muscles of his back. She heard him bellow in pain and buck up against her weight.

  Can't let him turn. Can't let him escape. Can't let him fight!

  With her instincts riding her hard, Dania let out a snarl and struck, digging her teeth into Rhett's neck just beneath his skull. She heard him bellow again and felt a searing, tearing pain in her lower leg as he fought back with a knife he must have had on him.

  But it didn't matter. With all the immense power of the prehistoric North American lioness she resembled, Dania bit down, relishing the crunch of Rhett's spine between her teeth.

  Books 1 and 2 are now available in KU, and Please check it out and tell him I sent you!

  Also... OOOH! Look! A new deckbuilder series: