It was Guild Master Anne who’d spoken, in her hands was an elaborately crafted box.

  After a few moments of silence Anne took a half step forward. Lord Darion didn’t respond but the heavy barbed arrow that thunked into the wood between her feet answered in his stead.

  James didn’t even see it arrive.

  Lord Darion did take that as his cue to continue.

  “You have guests who insist that you know them. Do you permit them to join you?” Lord Darion said evenly. “I remind you that as you have not yet completed the Arena challenge Round Three, we will not intervene if they are less than cordial.”

  “Thank you, Lord Darion. No, I will not take responsibility for their actions in this section. Let’s go with them.”

  Anne frowned. “You don’t trust us?”

  “No. No I don’t. Let’s go.”

  He motioned to Squire who was running along the railing. She returned to his shoulder. She was too big for his shoulder now, but managed it anyway, by winding part of her body around his torso.

  Charlie merely stood and padded over to his side.

  Having not ordered anything, James was right to go straight away.

  Edward and Ken abandoned their food, but did bring their drinks along.

  They made their way out of the sectioned off area to the general public. As that was mainly Card Commanders and their retinues there was a lot of tension.

  Still, after only a few minutes, they found a spot overlooking the Arena, nearly half way around, above and behind one of the four platforms in the arena.

  The rest of the silvers set up a perimeter allowing them to speak. When Anne tried to exclude Brody, Edward, and Ken, James insisted they stay.

  “Brody is my vassal, Edward and Ken I trust with my back. Guild master Anne, where have you been?”

  Anne’s equanimity returned and suddenly the woman across from James was composed and in charge of herself again.

  “As I mentioned in my letter, we’ve been preparing ahead for you. This first battle is a gateway of sorts to the future. There’s a Silver level raid dungeon deep in Bob’s labyrinth that we went to. Twenty five silver ranked guild members were needed. Janine and the few that remained behind were all we could spare. This, she handed over the box, is my plea to you to not forfeit this upcoming fight.” She motioned to Edward, Ken, herself, Rock, then the silvers around. “Please, fight for us, do not forfeit.”

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  It was then that James realised what the biggest barrier was for Anne, Erranoc, and indeed all the lands. Card Commanders all had lives before coming here. For Anne and the others to have a chance, they first needed to convince innocent people to overcome their upbringing and unwillingness to kill their former friends, or at the least acquaintances.

  “I finally understand your test with Garron. You wanted to see what I valued most. How I treated Garron. I used him, and you probably were happy about it. Shows a level of greed over human life. But that was wrong. I didn’t know what was happening yet and regretted it almost instantly. I’m betting that’s when you decided to push greed as my motivation trigger..”

  Anne listened without interrupting him. She didn’t give away anything.

  James continued.

  “Now, you have someone in the top eight. Someone who is strong enough to win, likely a special item that will give me a good fighting chance, but you need to know I’ll fight for it. Here’s the thing, the world I come from,” Anne winced slightly but didn’t interrupt. “It values each individual's life. Without any of this, even if I were to forget and lose all my powers, I would still live a full and meaningful life. That’s true for all of the commanders. At least all the ones still in their right mind.”

  Anne sighed. “You’ve already decided to forfeit then haven’t you?”

  “Yes. This may all be real, but it’s not enough for me to kill my friends over. I would die first. Bob’s giving us an out, and we’ll all take it. I’m almost sure of it.” James’s mind flicked to LT for a moment.

  “Some of us may even keep our powers. I imagine getting into the top eight is really the only true motivator going on here.”

  James was worried about Squire and Charlie but it seemed like they would be considered part of his powers and leave him in the top eight.

  Bob appeared out of nowhere. “That sounds like a forfeit to me.”

  James quickly popped the box Anne had given into his inventory.

  “No, I’m not one hundred percent sure yet,” James said, trying to buy time. If he forfeited now he wouldn’t be in the top eight.

  “Nice try, but you’re out.”

  In desperation James pulled his trump card.

  Play Card: Window into Reality

  Target: Area

  He put the window directly under where Charlie and he sat. They fell in before anyone could stop them.

  James thunked onto a pseudo-metallic floor.

  The window closed above him.

  Nearby were a number of beds with multicoloured crystals layered around. In the centre a massive crystal pulsed.

  System display windows showed all around with images of the Arena floor. The last window showed an expanse of space, with asteroid-like shapes moving through it.

  The label in the corner called it the Void Sea.

  An icon showed a large cluster of objects nearby with strings attached to another larger dot called “Bob Casteron’s Commander circus”.

  About twenty other ships were parked at the structure.

  Charlie barked in confusion.

  Squire clung to him like glue.

  James got up and looked around.

  A much slimmer Prax lay on one of the beds. Other beds included the forms of Lord Darion, Lord Marrick, and some others whose name he didn’t know.

  He walked over to the ‘space’ monitor. The view expanded as he got closer.

  Earth wasn’t there.

  Nothing that should have been was there.

  System Notice: Prax has invited you to watch a live stream video.

  Trait Activated – Wait—NO!