The Unfocused faction, all eight hundred and twenty of them, entered the underground section chosen for them by Pob. His Bounty Squad would guide them and ensure that other Imperials did not discover them and did not encounter any Beli.

  They had chosen an unused series of tunnels not very far away from the entry to the Forest of Bethella, formerly known as the Guzzler’s Den.

  “I would rather stay and help you,” Eleazar told them. “I don’t like others to fight my battles for me.”

  “We are not fighting for you, we are fighting for Earth and Belona,” Jenna reminded the stuffy Imperial. “And, if things go as planned, the Den is not going to be safe for you anymore. You would only get in the way.”

  “My brother never ordered your friend killed,” Eleon told Pob softly as both watched the Imperials and the Losers part ways. “We did not even know he existed. Whatever happened there, it was between Boral and Garan.”

  “I know,” Pob answered quietly. “I have always known. I don’t know what hand those two were playing, but it was meant to be played in the shadows. It does not mean I have to like you,” he added. “But I will keep my word and guarantee your safety until the Losers return.”

  Eleon was sharp. He did not miss that “until”.

  Twenty minutes later, the three Losers had crossed the rift into the dungeon. Then it was only a short walk to the small bridge over the dungeon river, an eternal circle of water surrounding the landmass.

  “The game begins,” said Billy, jumping from the bridge into the water.

  Jenna could feel him through the blood link using his deck, turning his Joker into the Seven of Drakes. Three minutes and three more Draws later, he emerged in his sleek, speedy form, bought with four Cups. The double saddle had appeared on his scaly back.

  “Let’s go,” his voice thundered inside their heads.

  They sped through the river protected by Billy’s magic. It was a very different experience from yesterday’s ride. The dungeon river was teeming with dangerous, evolved lifeforms, all of them carrying progression cores.

  Banks of deadly semitransparent piranhas parted to let them pass unmolested. Evolved crabs watched them without interest from the bottom of the river.

  If they had tried this stunt without the protection of Billy’s magic, Jenna knew they would have been torn to shreds by now.

  It was inaccurate to say that the river denizens viewed them as other aquatic species- those species hunted each other. They saw Billy and his passengers as the river itself, and one does not attack the river.

  Jenna’s mind detected the location of the first Dimensional Beacon and directed Billy to it. She imprinted the directions to the second one in his mind. Jumping through dimensions made the teleport effect much easier. The multiverse contained infinite spatial dimensions. That meant that there was always one in which two separate locations were adjacent.

  Jenna felt Billy summon another Draw. He kept the two Wands that had been charged with the saddle-magic and summoned one Sword, one Coin, and the Joker. He turned the Joker into another Arcana, keeping the two Wands in a separate Hand. He could not lose that saddle. The arcana showed a man crossing through seven stone gates placed along a circle.

  The Seven of Gates

  Requires the Fold of the Suit of Drakes.

  Swords: Each Sword spent teleports the dragon to one point he can see or detect with magical senses.

  Wands: Each Wand held in the Hand doubles the speed of the dragon by moving along strange dimensions. This bonus stacks with the one granted by Cups.

  Cups: Each Cup spent allows the dragon to double his speed for one minute, by moving along strange dimensions. Spending additional cups adds more minutes.

  Coins: Each coin spent grants one additional jump for each Sword in the Hand.

  He spent the Coin and then the Sword, making fast teleports to two different beacons located in the rivers surrounding two other dungeons. He had to rest for a minute to get a new draw, then he kept repeating the procedure, trying to jump to nineteen different beacons placed along the progression dungeons.

  This was supposed to be the easy part. Fluids and Committed should already have been warned by their spies that the Unfocused were leaving their dungeons en masse. That could only mean they were preparing to try to invade another dungeon.

  All the Imperials in those dungeons were hastily recalled to their rift entrances to protect it from the incoming attack, leaving the river unwatched.

  It should have been a piece of cake, but on the twelfth jump Jenna swore.

  “The beacon, it is moving. Something has swallowed it.” A giant evolved sturgeon had swallowed the lead capsule. But the sturgeon was a creature of the river, and that meant Billy could command it. He summoned the Seven of Rivers and spent a Sword, controlling the beast and forcing it to deposit the beacon in its rightful location and leave. Then they had to wait another minute until Billy got a new Draw. This sorry business had cost them two extra minutes.

  Jenna had calculated that each extra minute increased their chances of being discovered by one-third.

  Finally, they completed the first circle. They had successfully teleported to each of the nineteen Dimensional Beacons located along the different dungeons.

  The second circle phase began. Odds had changed; they would be lucky to end their run without interference.

  Jenna saw Billy summon a new Arcana, depicting a man in the middle of a crossroads from which seven different paths emerged.

  The Seven of Ways

  Requires the Fold of the Suit of Drakes.

  Swords: Each Sword spent creates an open magical gate that lasts for twenty minutes. Anyone can cross that gate, but it can link only two destinations the dragon has teleported between during the last hour.

  Wand: If the Hand contains a Wand, the dragon may replicate for free any teleport effect he has created during the last hour, as long as he is at one of the two ends of that teleport. The Dragon’s passengers will be teleported with him. Each extra Wand in the Hand adds one hour.

  Cups: Each spent Cup doubles the duration of the next gate created by the dragon.

  Coins: Each coin spent may be exchanged for a card from another suit.

  They began the second run, but this time they could not go as fast. They needed exactly one Sword and four Wands each time for their plan to work. That created a magical gate linking two different dungeons that lasted for nearly six hours.

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  Billy usually needed at least two or three draws to get the cards they needed, and each draw added one minute to their trip. Each minute they remained stationary increased the chances of their being discovered by the Imperials.

  Finally, it happened; on their sixth jump, a group of flying Committed hovered over their location. Four of them were clearly winged warriors, as evidenced by their combat Intent. The fifth resembled a floating glass jellyfish and seemed to be a scout of some sort. Jenna guessed this was the one who had sensed something off about the river.

  “You are going to have to shake them off and return here, Billy. If we stay, they will sooner or later notice the beacon,” Jenna told him.

  The River Dragon swam gracefully along the river, but the Committed patrol followed it effortlessly through the sky.

  Jenna poured Focus and Magic Affinity points into Bob.

  Condensation (Watercraft Level 3): Extract moisture from any water source in sight and condense it in the air—scales with Mind. It lasts at least an hour after being conjured.

  Mist poured out of the river in industrial quantities, filling the whole dungeon. The warriors lost sight of them, but the jellyfish followed them unerringly, tracking them with some kind of evolved sense. It was Jenna’s turn now.

  She instructed Billy to surface.

  Sure enough, the scout was floating fifty feet above them. Jenna poured as many points as she could into her leaping strength and easily closed the distance, grabbing the glassy jellyfish by its lower tentacles.

  Then she increased her weight and density, dragging the creature down to the riverbed with her. Her increased density enabled her to survive the crash, but the Jellyfish was not designed to withstand such an impact. Its body shattered into a thousand crystal pieces.

  Jenna swam back to the saddle, and its magic automatically dried her.

  The warriors were still flying blind through the mist. Billy returned to the beacon undetected and opened a new gate, escaping through it.

  Twenty minutes later, the whole dungeon system was linked by a series of semipermanent magical gates.

  “Now comes the difficult part,” Jenna thought. “There is no way they will not detect this.”

  The Seven of Circles Arcana depicted a man standing within a series of progressively larger circles that nested within one another.

  The Seven of Circles

  Requires the Fold of the Suit of Drakes.

  Swords: Each Sword spent after completing a circular path adds one day to the duration of any magical gate located along it.

  Wand: Each Wand in the Hand doubles the speed at which the dragon moves in any circular path.

  Cups: If the Dragon spends at least three Cups after he completes a circular path through magical gates, all terrains located along the circle will become mystically fused in a single territory for as long as the gates last.

  Coins: Each coin spent may be exchanged for a card from another suit.

  The mystical power of the Seven of Circles Cups was not as incredible as it seemed in the text. It was intended to create a mirage effect, concealing the shortcuts provided by the magical gates along the Beli River and making the trip appear continuous.

  Billy and Jenna had theorized that using it inside the magical transport circuit they had just built into the dungeons would actually fuse them altogether into a giant one. It was a cheat, of course. So what? Nerf them!

  They made a couple of Draws, conservatively settling for a Hand with two Coins and the two Wands they needed to maintain the Dragon Saddle manifested.

  When the Circle was over, they would need a Hand with one Sword and three Cups to fuse all the dungeons for at least one day.

  They would have to drop the Wands and get two new cards. As long as they did not draw another Wand, they would be able to get the cards they needed. They had a 50% chance of making it on their first try.

  They swam at an incredible speed through the river, as if they were in an underground magnetic train.

  Still, the situation had changed a lot. The Imperials had realized that the target of the attacks was the river itself, not the entries into the dungeons. They could see Imperials of diverse ilk diving into the river, looking for them.

  Unlike them, they were not in communion with the river fauna, and the transparent piranha and other wildlife soon began to target them. Jenna knew they were a temporary distraction at most.

  Billy kept speeding along the river, as more and more Imperials dived into it, their fury turning the river red as they destroyed the fauna that attacked them.

  Some of the weaker Imperials fell to the concerted attacks of the wildlife.

  Jenna saw one looking like a mandrill with two arms dissolve into a cloud of blood under the onslaught of a particularly vicious bank of piranhas.

  Soon, they had a group of almost eighty Committed close on their tails. Some of them swam almost as fast as the River Dragon did.

  They had only completed around one-third of the circle.

  They went through the next gate and entered a dungeon under Fluid control. They had to keep the magical gates open for the Seven of Circle to work, and that gave their pursuers the means to cross through the gate.

  A group of aquatic Fluids was waiting for them, blocking the way. Billy slowed his speed almost imperceptibly, allowing the first of the Committed pursuers to gain ground. He dove to the bottom at the last moment, letting the Committed overshoot straight into the waiting Fluids. Much as they had expected, the Imperials ignored them and started a fierce inter-faction fight. They hated each other much more than strangers.

  The dragon kept its frantic race to complete the circle, now almost three-quarters done.

  Only three more gates now. They passed the first one without opposition, but an organized group of Committed were waiting for them after the second one.

  They were so close now. Jenna grabbed Bob’s arm and pumped his mind full of Focus and Intensity points.

  Bob extended both arms:

  Aqueous Arm (Watercraft Level 3): Summon an arm made of water from any water source in sight. Its strength scales with Mind. The arm lasts 10 seconds and has a one-minute cooldown. It shares cooldowns with other Watercraft perks.

  Two titanic arms made of water swept the Imperial aside as if they were flies, but it could not last. Progressors were also creatures of magic, and they knew how to counterattack.

  Jenna remembered Eleon’s words a couple of days ago: “Evolution magic uses mainly the body of the caster as a tool. But the brain is also part of the body, and it can be evolved to shape energy and modify reality. When you see a Progressor’s eyes glow, or a new eye appear somewhere on his body, expect a spell. The optic nerve is the best conductor for Evolution magic.”

  One of the Fluids, who looked like a human brain on crab legs, extended an eye on a pseudopod and looked at the gigantic aqueous arms. Suddenly, Bob screamed as his arms were on fire and his magic fell apart.

  Damn, so close, and yet so far, Jenna thought, wistfully looking at the last gate.

  “Jenna, pump my Spirit. As many points as you can,” the still-shaking math professor croaked, still kneeling, after the psychic onslaught.

  Jenna did as ordered, and Bob extended his elven baton into his complete spear form and raised himself on his saddle.

  “Billy, charge!!” he ordered.

  Incoming Death (Spear Mastery 3):

  Charge with your spear while making a Spirit attack on all enemies in your path. Those who do not resist will flee in fear for ten seconds. The power stops the first time an enemy resists. Once resisted, it can’t be used again for one minute.

  Jenna wondered if the timid math professor had ever dreamed about spending his fifty-third birthday charging monsters while riding a dragon, wearing scale armor, brandishing a spear, and uttering a terrifying war cry.

  She guessed no.

  With Bob’s spirit empowered by Jenna’s magic, the progressors had no chance to resist. They scattered before the dragon like leaves in the wind.

  They crossed the last gate, and Billy played his Beli hand, swimming up to the surface while he dissolved the Wands that manifested the saddle and got two new cards, which, luckily, turned out to be a Sword and a Cup. He spent the two remaining Coins, exchanging them for Cups and releasing the spell into the river.

  The universe lurched as nineteen dungeons fused into a single one, an enormous landmass surrounded by a single, eternal circle of water.

  “By the way, Bob,” added Jenna.

  “Yes?”

  “Happy Birthday.”