Pob checked the ragtag group of Beli accompanying him. They didn’t look competent, but they had earned his respect by choosing the hardest road. They had all awakened their powers, but none of them had more than four Arcana—nowhere near Pob’s eighty-nine.

  “I am not going to hold your hand,” he lied.

  “You will conduct reconnaissance work, and you will do it alone. The Skillmaster is busy with alchemy in the lab; Jenna has returned to Babylon to retrieve something that could help us dismantle these dungeons without releasing their essence all over Belona, and Billy will be doing infiltration work alongside our new Imperial friend.”

  None missed the acid irony with which he delivered the last part.

  “We are more than ready, sir; you have trained us well,” Beliza stated. She was a scrawny girl, no more than sixteen years old, likely one of the many street urchins who survived in Belona by running errands for the dockmasters. The Beli were enthusiastic gamblers, and gamblers are not prime parenting material.

  “No, Beliza. You are not more than ready. I have trained you for nine bloody hours. You are months away from being ready, but you are all I have,” Pob admitted. Beliza worried him; her Call was Take the Initiative, not a safe one for a teenager in the midst of a war.

  “Well, then let’s get to it,” Valdo chimed in. He and his twin brother, Penn, were both in their early twenties. They had worked as dock laborers until their livelihoods were stripped away when the River Dragon mutated into a monster, rendering the river unnavigable.

  The twins had the pragmatic attitude that comes from working hard from an early age. They weren’t in it for glory or revenge; they were simply aware that they had lost their jobs and needed to find new ones.

  Valdo’s call was Get Back on Your Feet, and his brother’s was Finish the Task You Started. Not bad Calls for soldiers. And that was what they had become.

  Their final member was Poro, an elderly gentleman who walked with a cane. His Call was Lead by Example.

  Poro had the refined manners of someone who had received higher education, possibly a minor functionary at the Academy or the Government, down on his luck.

  Pob chuckled at his own thoughts. There was not a single Beli on the whole planet who was not down on their luck.

  “Poro will lead the group. Your tasks include locating refugees, providing assistance when possible, and gathering information about Imperial activities. If you encounter an Imperial patrol, avoid contact. Retreat if they approach you; if they do not detect you, observe and record their actions."

  "Why is Poro the leader?" Beliza asked, clearly not impressed by age or experience.

  "Because his Call is better suited for leadership," Pob regretted his choice of words as soon as he said it.

  "Do you mean I should take the initiative?" Beliza’s face brightened with joy.

  "No, I meant that you should follow his example and shut up," Pob barked back.

  This was serious business; he could not afford to treat these individuals as if they were in kindergarten.

  He intended to follow them at a distance, protected by the invisibility granted by one of his own Arcana. He was prepared to intervene if they found themselves in serious trouble.

  “Remember to take a sip of Bob’s potions if you are going to use your powers,” he reminded them. “They grant you a chance to summon the Joker, just as if the system were still active in Belona.”

  Potions were tougher to make than Medicinal Pills, but they could be rationed to make the most of their usefulness. Each sip would last only five minutes, ideal for someone who intended to gain experience through combat.

  They all drew their hands, using their Joker to summon the Arcana best suited for the task at hand. It took them almost twenty minutes to get the exact cards they needed, so they could begin exploring the city.

  Penn possessed an Arcana called Two of Labor, which allowed him to remain undetected while it was in his hand. Poro used his own Arcana, the Two of Groups, which allowed him to share the benefits of any one member with all the others. They snuck into the city under the cover of this magical mantle.

  Pob followed them at a distance, shielded by a much more powerful spell. His Arcana made him invisible, while Penn's merely reduced the chances of attracting attention.

  Belona was a war zone. The Imperials mostly ignored the Beli, but they fought each other with gusto, tearing down buildings and wrecking the city with total abandon.

  Pob heard his students discussing possible approaches.

  “Where are all the people? We have been patrolling for an hour and have not found anyone yet,” Valdo asked.

  “They must have taken refuge underground,” said Poro. “That is what I would do.”

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  Pob thought the elder Beli was probably right. Each hood in Belona had a vast underground complex connecting most of the significant buildings. It was an old reminder of the days when Tribulations and dungeons had ruled Belona, kept in operation for historical and cultural reasons. Most of the population was probably hiding under them. Not that the Imperials seemed to care.

  “Let’s go to the central market. The nearest entry to the underground is there,” Beliza suggested, taking the initiative, as it was her wont.

  Pob followed them carefully. He was a seasoned warrior from the Tribulation wars, even if everyone thought he was just a glorified porter. He knew the open esplanade before the market was the best spot for an ambush.

  Just as he feared, as his four students neared the market entrance, a shape unfurled itself from the floor, standing in all its glory. It resembled a manta ray, with a single eye in the middle of its thorax. Vertical slits, lined with teeth, ran along its exposed body.

  It emitted a thumping sound that Pob recognized as the bastardized form of Old Imperial that most Committed used. He had learned the language while in captivity. Good servants learned fast, so their masters could order them.

  “The gall of these pathetic, unevolved monkeys, strolling about while the Children of Evolution lay claim to this city. Natural extinction is too good for these. Mayhaps we should speed the process, don’t you think, Bhuto?”

  “Be quick about it, Oltra, there are Fluids around,” Bhuto answered, in the same fashion. The four Beli gasped in surprise. It appeared as one of the trees standing next to them.

  Pob prepared himself. He wanted his students to gain confidence in their abilities, but not at the expense of their facing two Imperials at once. He saw the four taking a black pill from their pouches.

  Not the potion. The Pill that Bob had assured them would also hasten the speed and ease of their Draws. Good thinking. Pills were difficult to create and lasted only five minutes, but they were powerful weapons meant to be used.

  The Imperial called Oltra spread its body and flew towards them, its vertical mouths opening as it dived into the air; it intended to fall on them, smothering and devouring them at the same time.

  Beliza played her hand, depicting a man who making his way through a muddy field, his sword raised.

  Two of Entropy: Spent Swords negate momentum: the more Swords, the greater the effect.

  Suddenly, Oltra became stuck in the air, as if trying to fly through molasses.

  Beliza had fulfilled her Call by taking the initiative and got a new Draw. This time, the Arcana was a glowing card depicting her, charging at the onlooker. The Golden Joker had come.

  “Now! While it is defenseless!” shouted Poro, folding his hand and drawing a new one.

  He had also fulfilled his Call by leading by example, and another glowing Joker appeared in his hand. This one showed him helping someone who had fallen on the floor stand up.

  As Poro’s hand contained two cups, when folded, they activated their residual blessing, making all passive Bounty benefits in the next two rounds be shared by all members of the group.

  He transformed the trickster into a new Arcana, an upgrade of one he already had, Three of Blessings. The original one allowed him to transfer one of his swords to a friend so that he could use it within the same round.

  The new version allowed him to pass as many swords as he wanted. He spent two coins in his hand to get two new Swords and passed them to Beliza, who suddenly found herself with six Swords in her hand.

  Beliza transformed her Trickster, getting an attack card: Two of Challenge. The card allowed, among other tricks, spending Swords to perform a mystical attack on someone who had not hit you first.

  Bounty allowed a great deal of flexibility on how its magic manifested. Beliza chose to play the same trick on Oltra that she had attempted on them, causing a giant maw to materialize in mid-air and chomp on its body. Six swords were more than enough to cut it in half.

  The other Imperial, who had been posing as a tree, extended its branches, suddenly transforming into tentacles that enveloped Valdo. It exerted crushing strength on him, intending to crush every bone in him.

  A surge of panic ran through the other three students, but Beliza retook the initiative:

  “The Fold still protects him; the group will share any blessing we cast on ourselves for two minutes.”

  Penn, his brother, used an Arcana that let him resist damage by holding Wands.

  Valdo’s body became like stone, resisting the pressure that would have crushed him seconds ago.

  Something golden and beautiful flashed in his hand for a moment as the Joker came to him. He created an Arcana that forcefully ripped the tentacles away from him. Two of Rebuttals. It had the power to physically hurt anyone who had harmed the caster during the last minute. The best way of Getting Back on Your Feet is not to let anyone bring you down.

  It was Penn, of course, who brought the fight to an end. He Finished the Task with his own Joker, transforming it into an Arcana that made the tree burst into fire.

  Pob watched astounded. The whole thing had not lasted more than ten seconds. They had gotten four Golden Jokers during a single fight. He had been playing Bounty for years, and it was the first time he had seen anything like this.

  He understood that Bob’s Alchemy had played a part and that the four Players had relatively weak and easier to upgrade decks. Even so, it was a phenomenal achievement.

  He thought of the ninety Players still training at the Secret Mountain.

  For the first time since Vlas had died, he felt a flicker of hope in his soul.

  They entered City Hall cautiously. Half the building had burned down, and what remained was strewn with debris and broken masonry. They had to use Bounty to clear the entrance to the Underground.

  The vast halls that formed the Underground appeared empty, but Pob knew better. This was the only place the families could have hidden.

  “Come out. We are Beli Players. We have come to help,” he said in a calm voice. Slowly and cautiously, people began to emerge from the side halls—whole families, hungry, thirsty, tired, and afraid. There must have been hundreds of them.

  Their grandparents had survived the Tribulations by hiding here. They had always stocked food and water, more out of cultural reverence than fear of needing them again. This quaint superstition had likely saved millions of lives. But they could only hold out for so long.

  Pob realized then that they had always been deceiving themselves. They had never had the luxury of time to plan their counterattack. They needed to act immediately—or hunger and thirst would rival the Tribulations themselves.