"Jake!" Dania called out. "We've got incoming!" She glanced at her cards and considered her first play. Usually, it would be to get her mantle on if she could, but she'd already taken care of that in her role as back up for the team. Other than that, though, her choice so often depended on what they were facing… and in this case, she had no idea.

  When in doubt, go for more power, she thought, her finger hovering in front of her Tar Pit card.

  "Hush," she asked quickly. "What is it, and where is it coming from?"

  "A newwww ssssspawwwn," Hush said, "I havvve not sssseeen thisss oneee beforrrre, but iiit issss powerrrfulll. It comesss frrrom theerrrrre." He lifted one spindly, eerily wrong-jointed arm and pointed off to the right, where the trees and brambles lay thicker than elsewhere.

  "Hopefully the undergrowth will slow it," Jake said, but Hush shook his head in the negative.

  "Noooo," he said. "It doessss not impeeedeee iiit."

  Dania sucked in a breath, and this time the dread that settled into her stomach was all her own. "Shit. That means it probably has an amorphous or incorporeal form," she muttered. "Which means chip damage if at all." Her deck ran heavily to physical attacks, and was rather weak on the magical side, though she did have some solid elemental plays with her Ice energy type.

  Well, whatever, she thought as she tossed the Tar Pit down in front of the thicket Hush had indicated. At the very least, this will allow me an extra extinct card in play and return killed creatures to life under my control.

  "I'm on it," Jake said, his artificially mature eyes narrowing. "I've got magic attacks, plus the side deck from the Archive. Amari! Kendra! Joe! Finish it off and reset, we've got a bigger bad on the way!"

  "What do you think we're doing?!" Amari yelled back, frustration in her tone. Dania glanced over to see if they needed her help, but as she looked, Kendra's scorpion sank its tail into a jagged tear one of the Hellcats had made in the Overwhelming Dread's tough skin, and the monster let out one last shriek that died out and faded away.

  So, too, did its physical form. The hulking, slime covered shape dissolved into so much shadow and moonlight, leaving only a single purple-edged card lying in the snow. Amari darted forward and grabbed it, shoving it into the pocket of the designer vest she wore before turning with a gusty exhale to face Dania and Jake.

  "So what fresh hell is this, now?" Amari dismissed her remaining Hellcats as she spoke, and they dissolved into crimson light that spiraled back to her chest. Likewise, Joe collected his green-edged Creeping Vines, and Kendra her Shadow Scorpion.

  With a glance at Dania, though, Kendra left the Disk of Isis where it was. Dania couldn't remember if it had an extended time in play or not, but she figured Kendra knew her deck best, and so she didn't question.

  "Where is this thing?" Amari asked.

  "Therrrre," Hush said, drawing the word out so that it shivered under Dania's skin. She turned to look in the direction he'd pointed. She didn't see anything, but it didn't matter. She trusted Hush, and as the darkness rose and the wind whipped through her hair, Dania made a decision and touched her second card: Adventuresome Paleontologist.

  A spiral of beige light arrowed to the ground and resolved into the figure of a man wearing tan trousers, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and collar open, and a sweat-stained fedora on his head. At his hip, he carried a revolver and a coiled bull whip.

  He drew the revolver and shook out his whip in his free hand. Dania sucked in a breath and steeled her nerve. His decent physical attacks were going to be no good against an amorphous monster, but he let her play her extinct creatures at a discount, which could be helpful. She had the feeling her role was going to be to keep creatures on the field for the monster to attack until Jake and the others could wear it down with their magical attacks.

  "I see it!" Jake called out. "It's Incorporeal, so use your magical attacks and anything that does damage directly… Dani, that means your Polar Sanctuary!"

  "Got it," Dania called back. She hadn't gotten that card in her initial draw, but chances were good she'd get it next time. "I can't see it yet, any other data?"

  "Um… don't let it target us," Jake said, his voice going soft. "Here it comes."

  The darkness intensified, broken only by the soft glow from the pair of Hellcats Amari played to the left, and the continued pale light from Kendra's Disk of Isis behind them.

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  Something moved in the brush. Dania narrowed her eyes, peering into the gloom. Confusion swept across the surface of her mind, as if her brain couldn't, quite, make sense of what it saw. A vaguely humanoid shaped fog flowed through the broken, naked branches like some kind of dark cloud golem. Except the more she stared into the center mass of its form, the more Dania saw images…familiar ones.

  Herself hugging Jake in a graduation cap and gown, but Jake gasping, his face turning purple as she cut off his air with her enthusiastic arms around his neck…

  Dania shook her head and blinked, tearing her eyes away from it. "Don't look directly at it!" she shouted. She didn't know if Jake would see the same thing, but the last thing she wanted him to see was an image of her hurting him.

  I would never. Never in this life or any other. Never.

  Anger, hot and familiar, flowed through her, igniting her nerves and spurring her into action. She flexed her wrist as soon as the cooldown allowed, cycling her hand and bringing up four new cards. At the same time, Jake shouted a warning a heartbeat before an unearthly scream filled the clearing, raising every hair on Dania's body and stabbing through her eardrums with piercing agony.

  Word of Death. That's some true Death damage. That's gotta take it down a notch, right?

  Dania scanned her deck and gritted her teeth. Still no Polar Sanctuary. Instead, she played her Expedition Charter to buff her Adventuresome Paleontologist. He'd get a plus two to his magical defense for her Tar Pit, and another plus two once she was able to get her Polar Sanctuary point of interest onto the field.

  "Adventuresome Paleontologist has gained the special 'Expedition Patron'. Which Point of Interest would you like to designate for the Expedition Goal?"

  The familiar "everywhere and nowhere" voice that filled her mind reminded her of the voice that announced her level ups. Dania blinked, because she hadn't been expecting to hear it outside of a dungeon. "Polar Sanctuary," she muttered, since that was the card most on her mind at the moment.

  "Polar Sanctuary has been designated the Expedition Goal for this charter. If any dungeon floor boss is defeated while Polar Sanctuary is in play, your Expedition Charter will be destroyed and your Adventuresome Paleontlogist will become unique."

  Dania shook her head and pushed the notification away. They weren't in a dungeon, and they faced an overland monster, not a floor boss. Although, its stats were certainly boss level, she realized as she focused above the vaguely head-shaped top of the Aspiration Blight.

  #

  Aspiration Blight

  Shadow / Psychic [Dream] Overland Monster

  Health: 120

  Attack: N/A

  Defense: N/A

  Magical Attack: 3x3

  Magical Defense: 14

  #

  Special: Incorporeal: Physical attacks cannot hit.

  Special: Stigmata: Any Mortal hit by this monster's Magical Attack is Marked. If they are a Deckbearer, once per minute, one of their cards that is not on the field or in hand becomes a Null Card and loses all effect for 4 Hours. This effect lasts for one minute per time the Deckbearer has been Marked. If they are not a Deckbearer, their Magical Defense is lowered by 1 for 4 Hours. This penalty stacks.

  Special: Nightmare of Self-Sabotage: Every other turn, this monster plays one card from the deck of each Marked Deckbearer on the field.

  Special: Dream Card: If this creature is slain, it will drop an uncommon card 50% of the time, and a rare one 40% of the time, and a legendary 10% of the time. If that card drops, 50% of the time it will be a [Dream] card.

  "All that you would make yourself to be, turned against you"

  #

  Dania sucked in a breath as the ramifications slammed into her mind. She refocused her eyes just in time to see Amari's Hellcats roaring as twin jets of fire streaked from their mouths toward the monster. Next to them, Joe's companion Audrey shot her water attack from her palms on an intercepting angle. Dania frowned, until her eyes tracked where the two elemental streams met and…

  Boom.

  Steam exploded, rocking through the clearing and knocking ice from the branches all around them. Dania stumbled, fighting to keep her feet even as her Adventuresome Paleontologist fell to his knees next to her. She glanced over to see purple light wreathing his head, his face twisted in agony.

  Shit. I guess the buff to his magical defense wasn't quite enough. This thing hit him with its psychic attack! As she watched, her tortured Paleontologist dissolved back into beige light that arrowed toward her chest, leaving her without a creature to draw the monster's fire.

  With dread soaking through her, Dania raised her gaze back to the disturbingly humanoid-shaped cloud with the images dancing in its depths. An arc of deep purple light exploded forth, wrapping itself around her and burrowing into her brain.

  She tried to scream, but she couldn't force the sound past her lips. She heard Jake yelling her name, but he sounded impossibly far away. The image of herself choking him, smothering him with her love and protection danced behind her eyes.

  No! Dania didn't know if she managed to speak the word aloud or not, but she hurled it at that image. I'll never hurt Jake, never!

  With a wrench, she forced her gaze to focus on the cards floating in front of her as she touched the card for her Giant Ground Sloth. It couldn't hurt the Aspiration Blight, but the monster couldn't attack her directly as long as she had a creature in play, and that might give her some breathing room.

  Purple light wreathed her hand as her Giant Ground Sloth resolved in front of her. She blinked at it for a split second before remembering the other, terrifying part of the Aspiration Blight's stats.

  Shit. I'm Marked. That means that once a minute…

  Something wrenched in her chest. Dania gasped and lurched forward as a thread of tawny light streamed sluggishly from her chest. It touched the ground and resolved into the figure of her own Short-Faced Bear.

  Oh, no.

  "Dani?" Jake called.

  "It took my bear!" she screamed, urging her Sloth forward to attack its deckmate. "It can play cards from my deck!"

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