“Throwing the crystals away is of no consequence to us,” said Spade with a dry laugh. “The crystals are only to set the rules and ensure minimal interruptions. We will continue to play by the game as intended.”

  “The game?” asked Aurin. “You think this is all a game?”

  “You’re only in the first stage, cutie,” said Heart, wriggling her fingers at Aurin. “Even I don’t know what comes next.”

  “You don’t need to take things so seriously, Aurin,” said Club, offering a shrug. “We will continue to play our part, and you can consider everything we throw at you good training.”

  Aurin let out a derisive laugh. “Good training?” he asked, and then pointed a finger at Spade. “Is it good training if that maniac Jackson tried to skew the odds in his favour by sniping one of my Minakai from a distance before conjuring the dome?”

  Club looked towards Spade, who chuckled. “Aurin, Aurin, Aurin,” said Spade, shaking his head. “It worked out in the end, didn’t it? My miscalculation meant we still had a three-on-three battle. You can’t surely still be bitter, can you? You won, after all.”

  “Naughty, naughty,” chided Heart, poking Spade on the arm. He batted her hand away irritably.

  “You should not have done that,” scolded Club. Even through the robotic filter, his voice radiated in annoyance.

  “Shut your mouth,” said Spade, holding up his arm where several summoning stones were embedded. “Today’s rules are two Minakai each. Luna, participate if you wish, but you might as well sit this one out.”

  “You think I’m going to let Aurin fight all three of you alone?” she asked, holding up her tamer glove. She summoned Angree and Flaround to her side.

  Spade summoned his Totempo and Snowlem, Heart summoned her Fyrvern and Debigger, and Club summoned his Gorungra and Cephelarock.

  Aurin held up his arm and looked at the stones embedded within. He smiled as they reflected his face back at him, and he started laughing. Softly at first, then a low chuckle, before bellowing uproariously. Luna looked at him like he was made as The Blackjacks all watched him.

  “If all of this is just a game to your boss,” said Aurin, calming down. “And he considers the rules to be important, then I already know how to beat him.”

  “Enlighten us, Aurin,” said Spade.

  “First, I want to explain something to you,” he said, looking from Heart to Club. “If you’re working for Sir Ashmore’s son, it’s important you know the truth about what happened to The Collector.”

  “Summon your Minakai,” demanded Spade, taking a step forward.

  “No, Jackson,” said Aurin, as calm as could be. “Sir Ashmore was a thief; a kidnapper. Jackson here stole my Breminia on his behalf and Sir Ashmore tried to forcibly brainwash her into becoming his. He led my friends and I into a place called the Ruins of Transference, and held Breminia there, promising that she would be freed if I could beat him. If I lost? I had to give up ownership of her and partake in the ritual that would see her become his.

  “Once I defeated him, he still refused to take no for an answer. We wound up battling in one of those rift domes you three like so much. But we were not alone there; there was another. He had brought with him an Orb of Dimensions that Sir Ashmore used, thinking that it was an Orb of Return that would allow him to give us the slip. He used it, banishing himself to another world. Nothing that happened to him was my fault. Nothing.”

  Heart moved her head as though rolling her eyes behind her mask, but Club tilted his head to the side, turning to face Spade.

  “Is that true?” he asked quietly.

  “Unverifiable nonsense,” scoffed Spade, flexing his fingers. “Now hurry up and summon, Aurin.”

  “It’s as I told you,” replied Aurin with a grin. “I already know the secret to beating your boss’s game. The trick is to not play by his rules.”

  He reached into his jacket pocket and grabbed several summoning stones at once. Focusing on the stones in his tamer glove at the same time, he summoned an army to his side. Shamtile, Glacibot, and Skrow warped from several feet away and now stood before their tamer. Flanking them was Spikruption, Dolissile, Leonite, Desparee, Steambot, Gorunze, Chopchop, Zenoman, Sunny, Lycavine, Quetzel, Zeera, Breminia, Gittup, Flowl, and Litehorn.

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  “You want to play?” asked Aurin. “Let’s play!”

  Aurin and Luna’s Minakai charged towards their foes, unleashing an explosion of powerful elemental attacks. Spikruption and Flaround teamed up, sending a scorching blast of fire towards The Blackjack’s Minakai. Skrow and Quetzel conjured tornados that tore the ground to shreds as they made for the line of enemies. The water elementals shot water jets and pressure cannons, and sent mighty geysers high into the air. A flurry of diamond and stone erupted from Shamtile and Zeera, who were joined by Bakugon from the sidelines. The drake did not want to miss out on the action.

  Gittup, Litehorn, and Beetabolt shocked their foes with mighty bolts, with the young unicorn doing his best to mimic the more powerful lightning elementals. Glacibot, tired as he was, did not hesitate in shooting an icicle spear straight into the heart of the lineup. Desparee’s nature beam was surrounded by a flurry of bolstering leaves from Lycavine and Angree. Gorunze and Chopchop used their magnetism to repel the speeding Dolissile, pushing him to a speed that would have been unattainable otherwise. Leonite clung to the dolphin, readying his claw for the split-second he would have to strike.

  All the while, Sunny and Zenoman used their barrier powers to shield their teammates from the attacks of The Blackjack’s Minakai. The shields proved to be for nothing, as Aurin’s onslaught swallowed the opposing attacks whole.

  As the light died and the smoke cleared, Aurin was not surprised to see The Blackjacks had vanished. Without the restrictions imposed on the battle, they had no path to victory. He had them outnumbered and overpowered to a degree that would have been unfathomable without their rift magic. Rules? They did not mind outnumbering him when the opportunity arose. There was no fairness in their rigged game, despite their perceived objective not being victory. All the same, it felt good to show them what he was capable of when pushed.

  Luna blew her hair from her eyes and brushed it behind her ears. “That was really something, wasn’t it?” she asked Aurin as Angree and Flaround proudly approached her.

  “They’ll be back,” said Aurin. “But I don’t care. This is not like with the Zodiac Squad. I won’t constantly be on the backfoot. I want them to come for me because they don’t truly realise who it is they’re crossing.”

  “What do you think they meant by this only being the first stage of the game?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not afraid of finding out what comes next.”

  *

  “All of this data being transferred at once,” said Dr Holmes with great excitement. “Adriana, Remus, Gerard, are you seeing this?”

  “Yes, Dr Holmes,” said Adriana, her eyes bulging. “We’re being sent everything we need. Every last Minakai accounted for.”

  Alfred stood beside Dr Holmes, his mouth agape as he watched the flood of data roll in. While he could not interpret many of the sequences, what he could see was who was transferring the data to the laboratory. He trembled, watching the names appear. Spade, Heart, and Club; these were as intended. Diamond? Diamond had not been drawn. Why was he sending information? And not only that, why were so many of Aurin’s Minakai coming through at once. There were still a handful of rounds to go through before his full team had been analysed. There was still time, and he had not given the final order of this first stage of the game.

  The young master clenched his fists as he watched, his rage building with each passing second. His brow dripped with sweat and he wanted nothing more than to take his father’s golf clubs and smash the computer before him. This was not what he desired. This was not following the rules as he had set them out.

  “Those f-f-fools,” he spat, his right eye twitching wildly. “Th-th-those incompetent f-f-fools!”

  “Master Ashmore?” asked Dr Holmes, taking a step toward Alfred, but the young man was too volatile right now for him to dare coming closer.

  “This is wrong!” roared Alfred. “This is not how things were supposed to be! Discard Diamond’s data. He will redo things when he is drawn from the cards.”

  “I’m afraid that is not advisable,” said Dr Holmes, watching as the colour drained from Alfred’s face. “He sent word to say that the mask was badly damaged. It will take weeks to repair, leaving us behind schedule.”

  “It’s this or nothing?” gasped Alfred, grabbing his hair and pulling hard. “There are rules! I do not cheat in my games, yet I cannot play without all four suits. I would have to remove cards from my deck!”

  “If I may, sir,” said Holmes, tepidly. He looked from side to side as he spoke, avoiding eye contact with Alfred. “You not a player in this stage. You have a unique position right now, do you not? You… you are the arbitrator. You can make rulings on exceptional circumstances.”

  Alfred released his grip on his hair, mulling over the scientist’s words. Dr Holmes did make a good point. He was truly a brilliant man. Alfred took a deep breath and his manic expression turned to a smile.

  “You are right, of course,” he said, calmly. “As the creator of the game, I should have understood this. Of course, I am the one to settle disputes. I make the calls that nobody else can. Upload the data, Dr Holmes.”

  “Yes, Master Ashmore,” said Dr Holmes, setting the scheduled upload for the moment the transfer was complete. “I believe this is for the best. Project Virtugil is growing restless.”

  Alfred approached the vat of liquid and knocked the glass gently. “You will be free soon, my friend,” he said. “We are going to have a lot of fun together very soon. The plans have been drawn up and the means of implementing them are within my hands. You are a prodigy, Virtugil. Truly a one-of-a-kind species, and the prize of my entire collection. If my father had been here to see you, well… well, he is not here to see you. I suppose what he would have said does not matter now, does it?”

  As Alfred stared into the vat, watching Virtugil’s silhouette stir, he caught a glimpse of a reflection staring back at him. It was not his own face that he saw; it was his father’s. A split second later and Virtugil’s hand arose to touch the glass. Sir Arthur Ashmore disappeared and Alfred smiled as he watched Virtugil’s face press against the glass.

  right here.

  Aurin's Team:

  Luna's Team: