The leonid's breath was hot on my face as he growled through his teeth. "I had hoped you would be more of a challenge than this, little human."

Our duel was already well under way, and I had grown used to Dodging the first of his attacks with Fluid Grace, my body slipping expertly aside when I willed it.

However, the second strike of his Flurried attacks was a constant annoyance, and this time I blocked with none other than my Legendary, the card spinning out of my hand to meet the blow. Being what he was, Dallon exploded in a mass of glittering diamond shards that shoved my opponent back, his claws digging into the arena floor in an attempt to stay closer.

Against the leonid's Precision, which ignored Armor, Dallon would have been a poorly priced summon, so I felt no great loss watching him go. In fact, I had used him to stop the perfect amount of damage, 5, the same as my opponent's current attack value courtesy of a Potent Growth.

In response, I summoned a cheaper Bodyguard, one who would let me survive another turn while I dug through my deck for answers.

The match wasn't going badly so far, but neither was it going particularly well. I had lost some key cards in the initial turns, such as my Pantherkin and a Raven Nightguard, and two of my Defensive Katas had been used to fend off the leonid's unending aggression. The silver lining was that I had managed to strip a Preternatural Reflexes from him, one of the few ways he'd be able to hurt Atrea since it granted Fast Attack.

Unfortunately for me, I had yet to draw her.

As expected, the leonid didn't hesitate to attack again as soon as he was able. My Soul shoved me aside before the leonid reached me, the two of them grappling for only a moment. I had another Fluid Grace in hand, but it would be pointless to cast on the Master Shieldbearer – the leonid's second attack would shred the Soul either way.

The shards of my Master Shieldbearer had barely settled before my opponent cast another Spell on himself, which Healed him of the 1 damage my Soul had done and would do the same every subsequent turn.

I gripped my cards tightly, wishing I could use them to flatten the leonid. With such a Spell in play, I must now end things quickly, lest my opponent get back everything he'd used so far. I drew hard on my summon deck, hoping for if not Atrea, then Gale's Vestments of Blurred Perception to cut my opponent's attacking time in half. It wouldn't finish the match any faster, but it would leave me with more resources to work with.

But neither was what Fortune saw fit to give me, so all I could do was stand there, grinding my teeth.

This time when the leonid came at me, I used the last of my Defensive Katas, diverting his attacks first with a well placed elbow and then a knee, completely robbing his strikes of their power.

I also had my Soulforged Helmet equipped – my breath feeding back into my nose inside the Relic – but the stronger my opponent became, the more value I would get out of it, which was why I had used the Kata instead.

I didn't second guess the play, but I did itch to do damage to him in return. I kept seeing the leonid tear the arm from Gale, blood flying in an arc, and I knew I wouldn't be sated until I saw red decorating his white fur.

"No more of those," the leonid said with pleasure, referring to my Katas. "Which means…" He cast a Spell of his own, a surge of power throwing him through the air at me.

Though his quick return was a surprise, my Fluid Grace ensured that I flowed past the first of his attacks and the second I had no choice but to take on the Helm, the shards of the lost Relic glittering down around my head. Now things were looking out of my favor indeed.

I growled in the back of my throat, again taking both of my draws from my summon deck… and there she was. Without hesitation, I summoned my salvation, the Mythic misting into being midair.

"Need a hand?" she asked when she solidified.

"I certainly do. Keep that animal back for a time, would you?"

She beat her great wings to move into position between us, leveling her sword at the lion-man. "My pleasure."

"Bah," the leonid said, "another stall tactic. What pleasure will that give to the crowds?"

This was not the first time he had spoken of the audience so. As far as I could, he cared nearly as much about their perception as he did his victory. Beloved of the Maw, his Soul card said. Could the Maw be the leonid arena? I was not well informed when it came to leonid culture, beyond that they loved their duels, and that lack of knowledge was to my detriment in this moment; if I knew more about him, the greater I could make him suffer, I was sure.

When it became my opponent's turn, he drew his cards, and like me, played one of them immediately.

It was an Earth Relic I'd never encountered before, and I squinted, reading the details of the card quickly. I had wondered about the leonid's lack of Overkill, and this was clearly meant to act as the replacement, letting him push past Souls that failed to hurt him.

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"This will change nothing," I informed him, not bothering to hide my disdain. "Atrea will still damage you, invalidating the Transform effect."

He smiled at me toothily while we both continued to draw cards during this stand off. I even did a small Order Source Explosion to bump up my hand size further, knowing the extra Source would be next to useless to me during the end game.

"Will she now?" he said. Using more Life than Earth, he transformed the Armor, and what had once been a breastplate made of dun-colored stone grew in a shifting swell of self-replicating rock, the hard bits grinding against one another until the leonid was completely covered. The encasement gave him a few additional feet of height, which, on someone as tall as the leonid already was, meant I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

I will cut you down to size, I hissed in my mind.

He stood there like a mighty rock golem, and in that moment of stillness, I realized he'd just wait for his five Earth Source to recover – enough to use Earth Source Power's damage mitigation to nullify Atrea's attack, letting him carry straight on to me with the Armor's Juggernaut effect.

"What are you waiting for?" I shouted at him. "Attack me."

"Soon enough," he said, all the rock he wore vibrating with his words. "Soon enough."

"I won't even defend with her," I promised. Atrea cast a worried look over her shoulder at me, but I only had eyes for my enemy.

He shifted in his rock armor, considering. "I don't trust you, little human," he said. Then, instead of waiting to use his Earth Source Power, he cast the two Spells on himself, the first to get him up to five active buffs and the fifth to end me.

His Legendary Spell doubled his height and elongated his snout and arms, huge antlers growing out of his head. The Juggernaut Plate kept pace with these changes, the rock expanding and shifting wildly, so that when the second Transformation was done, it was like I stood against a great beast carved from a mountain.

Then that mountain charged at me.

I couldn't have used Atrea to defend if I had wanted, not with his Legendary Spell letting him Hunt me directly. But I didn't mind. In truth, there was a part of me that trembled in fevered anticipation for his arrival.

He swung at me for 16 damage twice, and the first of those I stopped by casting two Protections from hand, massive shields of bronze imposing themselves between us, both blocking for 8.

Like a gong hammer, his fist rang against them. His next swing I Dodged, but in the split second before that, I cast another Order Spell, one elevated to Rare through the use of my Soul Ability – each time I used Potential Unleashed, there was a different feel to it, and this time it was like my back was against a wall, but then that wall lifted me to greater heights.

As the leonid's mighty, rock-enshrouded paw sailed past me, I sprouted in size to match him, my fist catching him in his exposed side, striking for 32 damage – 32 Precision damage from Atrea's Aura, crushing through all of his Armor.

The punch was strong enough to lift the leonid off of the ground, despite his current size, and send him flying across the arena. In that form, he couldn't cast any defensive Spells, but as he had proven against my brother, Earth cards were excellent hand blockers, and he dumped all he had now. Still, they could hardly be enough to stop 32 damage, and when he impacted the arena floor, he lay there prone, likely stripped of cards both outside and in. For all I knew, he was already dead inside his shell. I stomped over to him, my size shrinking with every step. Still, best to be sure, especially against an opponent who could Regenerate.

"Atrea, finish him."

She swooped in at my command, sword leading the way. As she did, I saw the rock sloughing off the leonid and his body returning to a regular size like mine was. I thought for sure that meant he was dead, until I saw him trying to lever himself up on one blood-soaked arm.

The strange sight made me hesitate, and a second before Atrea's blade would have skewered him, I cast another Protection. I had never used that Spell on an enemy before, and it was gratifying to see it work as intended, briefly repelling my own attacker.

Then I summoned my last Bodyguard and headed the rest of the way over.

"Basil –" Atrea asked as I approached.

"Apologies," I told her before refocusing on the leonid. "Why did you dismiss your cards?"

"It is our way," he rasped, struggling to his feet.

I didn't assist him, keeping a safe distance. He still had the strength of a Soul card after all, which was why I had summoned the Master Shieldbearer. If the leonid attacked while Atrea was focused, I'd be protected and then I'd have her disembowel him.

The leonid heaved himself the rest of the way up. "The match was yours," he said, one arm hanging limply. "There is no point in hiding behind enchantments at the end." He thumped his chest, albeit weakly. "Let the crowds see me at the end. Emblazon my shape in their minds that they might carry it with them and speak of it to others until the end of days."

When I didn't immediately act, he turned his gaze away from the crowds to rest on me.

"Go on," he said. "Finish it. It is your right."

Atrea looked at me, and I nearly gave the command a second time, but something held me back. The knowledge that Esmi was watching? Some small kernel of who I had been looking to reassert itself? I couldn't say. What I did was draw deeply on all four of my summoned Order Source, weighing that power as it flowed calmly into me and settled. What was the balance to be found here? What was deserved? Yes, I had been enraged when the leonid had torn the arm from Gale, but he could have done much worse. He could have killed my brother.

"Esmi tells me that you were summoned by the vampire Alexi for a card trade," I said, my words measured as I floated on a sea of Order. "That you did not participate in the war. Is this true?"

He shook his mane as if disliking the question. "I ask for no clemency."

I studied him a moment longer. Gentler, kinder Basil. That was who Esmi wanted to return, wasn't it?

"Rip your own arm off," I told him.

Blood was dripping into his one good eye and he shook his head again in an attempt to clear it. "What now?"

"An arm for an arm," I said. "Or Atrea can behead you. It should make for a painless death."

He eyed me, then unsheathed the claws of his right hand, their edges glistening. Both my Souls moved closer to me, but I felt no fear. There was a pact between us now and he would either abide by it or die. The leonid locked his fingers together like a spear point and drove them into his left shoulder. Blood spurted, but the force of the strike wasn't enough to separate the limb, so he began sawing. The whole time our eyes never parted, not until the limb tore free and he stumbled to the side.

When he did, I approached, despite the worried murmurs from my Souls. My Life Source Power reached him before I did, the Healing energy sealing the wound, turning the sluice of blood into a dribble and then nothing at all.

The leonid exploded upward, grabbing my arm and yanking it into the air. "Hurrah!" he bellowed. That was almost the last thing he did, the command for his beheading on the edge of my mind, but I caught myself just in time. The leonid didn't even notice, turning us about, so that we spent time facing every portion of the stadium. "Your champion!" he shouted five times over, tugging my arm higher each time. And then to me, "They are roaring their approval. I am sure of it."

I heard nothing from the expanse of glass-covered stands, but I saw no reason to correct him. I felt something in my off hand, and I looked down to see that it was the Legendary Life card he had used against me. It tingled against my fingers for the brief moment I held it before tucking it away for future consideration.

And then the will of the Twins touched me, just as it had in the first match, suffusing me with the knowledge that elevations were mine to had. Hull and Esmi had explained to me that the winnings in this second round were greater than the first – two elevations, which could even be used on the same card, should I want to. I had choices aplenty, and many cards I wished to see raised. However, with my Soul abilities being what they were, was there perhaps an unstated but better option I could pursue?

"I propose a bargain," I told the Twins aloud. Then, in my mind, I sketched the shape of my desire. My recent matches had made it clear that my paths to victory were too narrow, and the manner in which I had won these last two… the nature of it spoke to something within me. The thought sent, I waited, wondering if the Twins would see fit to grant my request or if I had just foolishly squandered their generosity.

For twelve beats of my heart I was left wondering and then a green-bordered card snapped into being in front of me. With utmost care, I took from the air in both hands, the leonid having released mine by now.

There could be no waiting, not for this. I slotted the card into my Mind Home, cycling until I could summon it. When the cool handle of the weapon settled into my grasp, the fit and feel was one of absolute perfection.

Rejoice, Father, I told him, wherever he might be in the stands. I've become part of the family trade, after all.

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