Cross watched Blanc and Trebor start their match, the promise of a nice and friendly game to spectate a relief after the events of… was it all really just yesterday?

  So much had happened over the course of a single day…

  Trebor was playing an unfamiliar card, marking the third deck he was running (a human looking fighter in a leather outfit, goggles over their head), when a sound drew his attention to the entrance to the cave.

  “Oh hey, didn't mean to startle you,” a stranger called out as she entered.

  She was visibly older than him and his friends, but Cross wouldn't be able to say by how much, and was mostly wearing hardened leather clothing, except for a metal gauntlet on her left hand, much like the one Balthazar had worn for their match, but made of a more common, silvery coloured metal rather than a yellowish one.

  “So, travellers who couldn't quite get to the city before night, or travellers from the city who misjudged the time difference between zones,” she asked in a friendly manner, keeping a polite distance as though to reassure him she meant no harm (even though her current position served quite well to block them from exiting, Cross noted).

  “... From the city,” Cross allowed. “We've only recently been able to travel, and didn't realise there could be a time difference between zones.”

  “Legends say there shouldn't be,” she shrugged. “It's something you need to learn before travelling too far, it isn't safe out in the open in most zones come nightfall, but memorise the differences and you can sometimes skip night completely by changing zones at the right moment. Well, when I say it isn't safe, it's not like anything can do permanent damage, but pain is still pain, right?”

  “We're used to pain,” Cross stated to cut off the conversation.

  Something about her was setting his nerves on edge.

  “Mhmm,” she nodded as though he had confirmed something. “So, a group of Heapers who left Zedon today, rather than taking another path through the border, and who have just started traveling. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and say you are the ones that pissed off Crash, self proclaimed ‘prince’ of Zedon, something fierce.”

  Cross was now fully on guard.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She laughed.

  “Oh, my apologies. I know who you are, Cross, Aurora, Rusty and Blanc,” she didn't indicate any of them in particular as she spoke, Cross noted distantly, “unemployed wanderers, but I didn't introduce myself did I? Hester, and I'm what you might consider a bounty hunter.”

  “A bounty hunter?”

  “Yes,” she grinned, showing off her teeth. “Someone hired to go after certain individuals or items and bring them back to whoever is paying me at the time. And a certain someone has promised me quite the payday for bringing back a rather powerful level X belonging to one of you. Supposedly stolen, even if I'm not so sure about that, but for this money? That many potential meals? I'm willing to give him some benefit of the doubt.”

  This wasn't good.

  Cross thought quickly, looking for a way out and questioning if it was Crash, his father or even just an audience to his match who had sent her.

  If Blanc wasn't stuck in a match with Trebor, he decided, it would be worth trying to escape.

  As it was, that would mean leaving the two as possible hostages, not an option.

  And with that, came the question of how she intended to force him to give up his ace, or Rustys if she was referring to the Legion cards.

  “I, Hester, known as the last of the noble order, challenge Cross of the Heaps to a match, his level X as my prize should I win. For my ante, I stake… these two cards that I hear should be worthwhile for your deck,” she stated, holding up two cards with their back to him, rather than revealing what exactly they were. “I place the further restriction that upon the conclusion of the match, the matter of the level X is settled between us.”

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  Cross thought quickly.

  Two unknown cards against a level X wasn't worth it, even with the cards required to play Harbinger of the End not included in the bet, but…

  “I accept,” he declared, an arena forming around them and blocking the caves entrance.

  Then, as her gauntlet unfolded to play, he continued.

  “If I may, why leave something so important to your job up to a match?”

  She shrugged as she drew her opening hand. “How else could I get the card? Can't steal it, not once someone has it in their collection. It's not something anyone with sense will trade. A hostage?”

  She snorted.

  “Try and find a faster way to get blacklisted as a bounty hunter than taking a kid hostage. Torture? Please, you're a Heaper. I've known Heapers to go years without food without breaking, our pain threshold is unbreakable. No, this is the only way.”

  She grinned.

  “So if you had just kept turning down my challenge, your card would be safe. Now, by custom of the order, the challengee takes the first turn.”

  “Draw,” Cross stated, keeping an eye on her.

  No level 2, but a good starting hand regardless.

  “Turn end.”

  She nodded, drawing her card and placing it with the rest of her hand.

  “It seems almost unfair,” she commented as she picked out her first card, “but… well, consider this a learning experience. I summon Knights Squire.”

  Knights Squire

  Atk: 4 Def: 8 Life: 13 Level: 2

  On play: add 1 card with an equip-type effect from your deck to your hand

  The summoned fighter looked like a young man wearing what might have just about counted as armour, wooden sword and shield in hand.

  “And thanks to his effect, I can add Heirloom Blade to my hand.”

  There was a brief glow from the deck on top of her gauntlet, before she drew from it the card she had named.

  “Now I activate Heirloom Blade, equipping to Knights Squire!”

  The sword the Squire was wielding transformed, shifting from a basic length of wood to a fancy metal sword, but what drew Crosses attention was the cards on Hesters gauntlet.

  While she had played the Heirloom Blade to a space on the gauntlet, it had then faded like those cards sent to Balthazars discard when they played.

  “Heirloom Blade doesn't do anything right now,” Hester allowed, “but that doesn't matter too much. Knights Squire, attack!”

  The fighter approached Cross Awkwardly, before swinging the sword in his general direction.

  It still knocked off some points, dropping him to 96 Life, on impact, stinging slightly.

  “And now for another type of card you won't know,” she continued, picking the card from her hand to place in the twenty second slot. “I activate Castle of the Round Table!”

  The arena walls around her side shuddered, stone walls and towers growing from the ground as grass spread under her feet.

  “A zone,” he whispered, recognising the effect.

  “It's only a card,” she shrugged, clearly disappointed by his lack of reaction. “I guess you do know about them, figures his info was out of date again. Oh well,” she shrugged. “Now, this is a very special zone, with one effect just for me, that I can't use,” she added in a quiet grumble, “and one for both of us. Now, whenever a fighter that is equipped with another card is destroyed, that equipped card becomes available to be equipped once more, but only once. Now, turn end.”

  “Draw. I activate my own zone, Narrow Pass! Now any damage either of us would take while we control a fighter is halved!”

  The arena around him changed, cliffs creating a narrow path behind him and turning where he stood into a bottleneck.

  “Ah, worried about piercing effects then,” Hester commented. “A very popular card amongst bounty hunters who don't run an archetype with a zone.”

  “Not exactly. Summon Harbinger of Discord!”

  Harbinger of Discord

  Atk: 14 Def: 14 Life: 14 Level: 4

  Passive effects: while summoned, enemy fighters lose 2 Atk. Does not prevent enemy fighters attacking directly

  On destruction: if a copy of Harbinger of Bloodshed exists in the owners deck, summon it at no cost

  “Now, attack!”

  The distortion that marked the Harbingers attack struck the Squire, dropping him to 7 Life.

  “Turn end.”

  Hester nodded as she drew her next card.

  “So, you run an archetype that leaves you open to direct attack, no wonder you use Narrow Pass. And now, I tribute Knights Squire to summon my Templar Swordsman.”

  Templar Swordsman

  Atk: 20 Def: 8 Life: 13 Level: 4

  Passive effect: this card is treated as a ‘Knight’ for effects that reference ‘Knight’ cards

  Condition: this card destroys another fighter in battle

  Conditional effect: draw a card

  The fighter glowed briefly, expanding as metal armour formed over them, the shield turning to metal too while the sword retained the look of the Heirloom Blade.

  “Not only is his Life fully restored,” Hester noted, “but the Heirloom Blade is passed down to the new fighter, boosting his Atk by 4. Only to then drop by 2 thanks to your fighters effect,” she added before Cross could say anything. “Now, Templar Swordsman, direct attack.”

  This time the attack looked much more practised, landing cleanly only for the impact to be blunted by the effect of the zone, dropping Cross to 85 Life.

  Hester visibly hesitated for a moment before speaking.

  “Turn end.”

  “Draw,” Cross declared.

  At least he had an idea how Hesters deck worked, now he just needed a way to get around it…