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Book 2: Chapter 33: Drop The Camouflage

Those were the ones Arthur could see. There may be others in the brush waiting in ambush he couldn’t. If they stayed in place, their luck would soon run out.

Arthur’s own mental shield protected him, but… what if he could expand it? Extend it around others?

He had no idea if this would work or not, but he had to try.

Arthur concentrated on the mental image of extending that skill outward. To encompass Echo, Marion, and Penn.

This illusion isn’t real, he thought fiercely. It’s not real. It’s—

He felt like his skill brushed up against something solid like a barrier. Arthur couldn’t tell if it was a barrier he could break past or not. But maybe—

“Alright, fine! But you can’t tell my minders about this.”

Echo’s petulant voice snapped him out of his near-trance.

Blinking, Arthur focused on her. Then he blinked again, this time in confusion.

In his moment of inattention, she had returned to her usual, childish form. Now she glared up at Arthur with her arms crossed over her chest.

“What are you doing? It’s dangerous out here—“ he started.

“I told you that Marion has a camouflage card. Duh.”

“What? Oh.” Arthur stepped back, looking around to make sure the area was still clear. “Anything I can do to help?”

The girl shook her head. Her cheeks were rosy red as if she had been running straight out. She took three deep breaths like a diver about to plunge underwater. “I hate being Marion,” she muttered.

Then her body blurred, growing taller.

Hopefully being Marion meant she kept her own Illusion nullification card. But Arthur figured she knew the pros and cons of her deck and wouldn’t appreciate him questioning her.

A moment later, a double of Marion stood beside the real copy. She staggered in place as if struck by a dizzy spell.

Before Arthur could even raise a hand to steady her, she flicked her own arm as if to knock it away. “I’m fine, don’t touch me! Ugh, I hate this. It’s like seeing double of everything — Where?” She twisted around to look sharply to the right.

There at the edge of the churned up field emerged a pack of six scourgelings. They had the shape of weasels and flowed over the ground like a living wave to them.

Arthur backed up a step in alarm then looked around. Where had he dropped that saber?

“Bring Penn over here,” Echo commanded, for once sounding older than her twelve years. Her face still scrunched in distaste, she started making arcane gestures with her hands as if she were weaving something in the air.

Arthur had to fight the urge to watch. This must be an actual spell — not a charm which was done on command. He didn’t know much about complex spell work as those who had access to those cards weren’t hive workers or dragon riders, generally.

Also, Echo’s ability to copy card powers was frightening. He had to hope she would never copy him.

All this flashed through his mind as he ran toward Penn, scooping up the fallen saber as he did.

He got another notification that he had picked up the Saber Proficiency skill again. So. He had lost it when he let go of the weapon. That was a disappointment.

Reaching Penn, he grabbed his cousin’s wrist and pulled him toward Echo and Marion. Penn walked along slowly, utterly passive like someone in a daze.

Arthur held mixed feelings toward his cousin, but he hoped he hadn’t been trapped in the falling illusion all this time.

Echo and Marion were starting to fade from view by the time he reached them. As he stepped close, a tingling sensation washed over him as if he had stepped under a waterfall. It was over a moment later and the two royals became easy to see.

Echo finished her arcane gestures. A sheen of sweat covered her forehead. “It’s done.”

“The—“

“Look for yourself,” she said impatiently, gesturing to the other side of the field.

The scourge weasels had split into two groups and flowed around them like they were a boulder stuck out of a river. They reconverged back into one group after they passed. All this was done without hesitation, as if the scourgelings hadn’t realized what they’d done.

“I’ll be fine,” Echo said. “But you should catch me.” Then her legs gave out from under her.

Arthur barely caught her in time — Marion’s body was heavier than he looked — and eased her to the ground. “What’s wr—“

“It’s too much. I can’t deactivate his time card, and I have mine working to echo him, and this camouflage card….” She drew up her knees, head hanging down as if she was nauseous. “I can’t keep it up.”

“Is it your mana?”

She shook her head. “It’s just too much at once here.” She tapped her heart, indicating her heart deck. “You have to do something.”

He waited a beat, fully expecting her to preemptively interrupt him as she was seeing the future. “Do what?”

“I don’t know! Something!” she snapped, and it was a mark of how bad she was feeling that much out.

The best, quickest solution would be to break Marion and Penn out of the illusion.

Arthur pulled back his hand and punched him in the jaw.

Penn’s head snapped to the side. Arthur, meanwhile, felt like he had just hit a brick wall.

He hissed and shook out his hand, looking at his cousin (who remained oblivious) to Echo who, still sitting with her face against her bent knees, was shaking with laughter.

“Why did you let me do—“

“Because it was funny!”

“Well, it didn’t break him out of the illusion,” Arthur sighed. “I have something else I can try.”

Once again, he reached for his mental resistance and imagined that shield extending outward. It was easier this time. And again, he encountered that barrier.

He gritted his teeth and pushed past it.

New skill:

Mental Resistance - Area of effect

Due to your previous experience and your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 3.

Then something happened that had never occurred before.

Warning: The usage of this skill requires mana.

It felt as if something were being ripped from him. Something he could ill afford to lose.

Arthur collapsed, barely aware he was clutching at his own chest. He caught a flash of Marion and Penn blinking rapidly, coming awake before Arthur’s own vision dimmed.

Funny. He thought that tunnel vision was just a saying until now.

Despite everything, he kept a hold on the skill. The moment he let it go, Marion and Penn would be vulnerable to the illusion again.

He heard voices over his head — distant words Arthur couldn’t understand.

Someone slapped him upside the head and pressed another bottle to his lips.

Healing?

He drank, eagerly. The liquid tasted of sunshine, like pure energy.

His sight returned in a flash and that terrible sense of something vital being sucked away… stopped. It simply stopped.

His heart deck bloomed in his vision. There was a new icon: An image of the radiant sun with a swirl in its center.

Temporary Mana Boost

100/100

Then a moment later

99/100

98/100

Arthur blinked the image away and looked up to see Penn tucking the half-drunken bottle away in his pack.

“Hasn’t anyone told you not to use a charmed card when your mana’s not unlocked?” Penn asked, lips curling grimly. “It’ll start eating into your life force.”

“I… er… thanks.” Arthur’s head pounded, and his thoughts spun. He wasn’t about to tell Penn the truth — it wasn’t a card, but a skill. He had just developed a skill on his own… and one which was still incompatible with his other cards.

How was that possible?

Marion stood by Echo who still wore his form and didn’t look much better than Arthur had.

The fact he and Penn weren’t demanding to know what was going on told Arthur he’d been out for some minutes.

“I can put up another camouflage spell,” Marion said, “But not until Echo drops hers, and it will take a minute or two.”

“Meanwhile, we’ll be visible to every scourgeling that’s looking to eat a card,” Penn said grimly. “And we still need to harvest those bodies I see you two managed to kill.”

“My mana boost is draining fast,” Arthur warned. He was already at 78/100.

“Stop using that card,” Marion said. Arthur started to speak but he waved him off. “You’re going to say Penn and I will get trapped again. But I think we’ll only get lost in the fog. Something as strong as a falling illusion is usually tied to a trap card. You have to stumble in on it. And thanks to you, we’ve broken out.”

Arthur nodded. He didn’t have much of a choice. His mana boost was fading quickly.

“All right,” Penn said. He absently touched the side of his jaw with a finger as if trying to figure out why it hurt. “On my mark, Echo drops the camouflage and returns back to her battle form.”

“That’ll take a few seconds,” Echo said. “I have to return to my body, first.”

He nodded. “Until then, Arthur and my job will be to keep the scourgelings off you two.” He paused, looked at his belt and then at Arthur. “Why do you have my saber?”

Sheepishly, Arthur stood and handed it back. He checked his list of skills and mentally sighed when he found the Saber skill still listed, but dead and gray. Inaccessible.

So he grabbed one of his old reliable butcher knives from his personal space.

His knife proficiency went up from 35 to 45, and it had never felt so natural in his hands.

“I’m ready.”

Penn nodded to Echo. “Drop the camouflage.”