First Game

James looked at Ebony in shock. Did James just hear her right? If he did, Ebony must have something she wants from him. She must be planning to get it through the stakes system. James is frightened for a moment, but suddenly, his fear disapates. James started to feel something different. Before long, he realizes that he is excited. He can't even remember the last time he was excited.

James looked at Ebony, who was impatiently waiting for his answer. He smiled. Ebony flinched. James's smile looked cruel, to her at least, and there was no reason he even should've been smiling.

"Alright. I accept."

Suddenly, the two were enveloped in a blue dome, and their decks disappeared from there hands.

"Thank you for playing Battlefield! Before we begin, what will the stakes be?" The automated voice from before asks.

Ebony straightens. This is her chance to get what she wants, James thought. What does she want?

"I would like to add the stakes that If I were to win, I receive all of my opponent's perks and his deck." Ebony said, standing tall.

"Wow. I was expecting something so much worse. I mean, now I don't want to lose that either, but that's not a huge loss even if I don't win." James thought.

"Acknowledged. Player one has set specific stakes for themselves. Player two may also set specific stakes for themselves, or they may copy player one's stakes." The voice said.

"So I get to set my own stakes as well huh?" James started. To Ebony, he seemed way too happy about that. For James, it was intriguing.

"Alright. My stakes are that if I win, Ebony will be forced to take me to her house, have her sister use a list, and that any blue lists she finds afterwards will be given to me." James said.

Ebony looked at James with a mix of confusion and repulsion. Take James to her house, seriously? Then she realized about the sister part, and the confusion and repulsion turned to straight anger.

"You-"

"Acknowledged. Let the game begin."

Suddenly, both James and Ebony knew how to play. They would be playing mobile mode. It turns out that there are two ways to play this game. Stationary and mobile. In stationary mode, the game is turn based. But since both James and Ebony were standing and moving, it would be mobile, which is time based.

Each player would start with four cards, and draw another at the beginning of their turn. They would either draw a warrior card or a charm card. They both were also instantly granted a Battlefield card, which must be played immediately. For some reason, the game required the players to voice exactly what card they were going to play out loud, otherwise it wouldn't register.

"I use the battlefield card "Sylvanic Battlefield"" Ebony said, before doing just that. She tried to go for a cool sounding voice. To James, shouting what card your gonna use just sounded stupid to him. It was literally a requirement though, so James sighed before doing the same.

"I, um, use the battlefield card "Traitors Gate", or whatever." James said. You could hear the sigh in his voice.

Ebony deflated a bit, thinking that shouting what your about to do was actually pretty cool. Added some drama to it. It was obvious to her however, that James did not care.

After both battlefields were played, the blue dome surrounding them disappeared, as well as the alley way where all this started. Instead, behind Ebony lay a purple, scorched, battle-torn landscape. James looked behind him, seeing a single, impressive looking black gate, and a vividly bright neon alley way behind it, unlike the dingy alley they were originally standing in. All things considered, it was pretty impressive to James. Then, the game began.

Each player has 100 HP. In mobile based, whenever your hit by an opposing opponent's warrior, you would lose HP equivalent to their attack. In mobile it was completely possible to negate the damage by dodging. Since both players were going at the same time, drawing would be on a 3 minute timer per draw.

James and Ebony both drew their cards. In this game, it was imperative that you be faster than your opponent. When James drew his card however, he was given two cards and told to discard one. James remembered about his two perks. James took a look at his cards, choosing carefully the one to discard.

"I call "Sylvanic Soldier" from my hand!" Ebony stated loudly.

James quickly turned to Ebony to see a young looking soldier in dark purple armor standing in front of her. The soldier had a timer above him, slowly counting down. This was because warrior cards could not officially enter the battle before the timer ended. In stationary mode, it would take a number of turns to officially be part of the battle. Until the timer ran out, the soldier would be basically a meat shield, able to defend but not attack.

James immediately went to use a warrior of his own, knowing that no defense was a very poor offense. He looked to his hand, realizing all of his warrior's had high time counts, he was never gonna be able to get them to attack in time, but he needed defense. Before he could pick, he heard Ebony call another Sylvanic Soldier. There was no limit to how much you could call in a mobile game.

James picked his warrior. "I call "Traitor Bastion". When called, I can discard one "Traitor" card in my hand to freeze one of your soldiers. " James said, once again thinking that the whole shouting aspect was still ridiculous.

When he used the card, a large man in rusted, filthy looking armor, with a huge black sword, appeared in front of James. The man waved his hand, and the first Sylvanic Soldier's timer froze, at 5 seconds remaining. Another timer appeared right beside it's original timer, signifying the freeze time.

James looked at his cards again. He saw a couple interesting charms in his hand. After James looked at his cards, he started smiling. At first James didn't know why. Nothing in his hands was particularly useful in the moment. Then he realized, it was because he was starting to have fun. He hadn't had some good, solid fun in a while.

The draw timer ended, so James drew another two cards. One was useless to him, but the other seemed to have some real potential. James discarded the first card, opting for the second. Then he immediately used it.

"I use the charm "Traitors, one and all". When this card is used, one of your warrior's switches sides, and teams up with me, In exchange for me sending one of my cards to your hand. I think I'll take that second soldier." James stated, inadvertently sounding like some cartoon villain.

James stole the second Sylvanic Soldier, right as it's timer ended. The soldier immediately began to advance on Ebony, ready to strike her.

"I also call "Traitor Withyon". When Withyon is called, one of my warrior's timers may be immediately ended if I already have another warrior who's timer has already ended. Since your soldier counts as my warrior now, I seem to fit the conditions perfectly." James said, with an evil smile on his face.

Withyon appeared in front of James. Withyon looked to be an old man in a black cloak. Withyon shakily pointed a rusted dagger at Traitor Bastion. Bastion's timer immediately disappeared, and he started to slowly advance in Ebony as well.

Ebony started to look pretty desperate. Her original Sylvanic Soldier stopped the second one from advancing, but Traitor Bastion immediately crushed the soldier. Bastion proceeded to swing his giant sword at Ebony. Ebony quickly jumped to the side, barely dodging it. Bastion was big and strong, but slow.

"I use the charm "Sylvanic Desperate Measures", allowing me to call one "Sylvanic" warrior card from my hand, with no timer, as long as I take 20 HP!" Ebony shouted frantically, while using the card.

"I call "Sylvanic General Dreken" from my hand!" Ebony said, while frantically scrambling away from another one of Bastion's attacks.

When Bastion went to swing again, his sword was blocked by a pure purple blade. Attached to this blade was a handsome knight in purple armor and a lighter purple cape. This knight had black hair, and purple eyes. Dreken and Bastion clashed. James instantly knew Bastion was gonna lose. Ebony got lucky with that general, it looked to be pretty strong. Probably would of had a very long timer normally. Withyon's timer finished. Withyon started to advance on Dreken, but James directed it towards Ebony instead.

There was no rule that all warrior's must fight each other before attacking your opponent. James knew that this was probably really underhanded, but he also didn't care. He was playing a deck full of cowardly traitors, after all. James also discretely used another charm to speed up Withyon, making his speed and attacks much faster. The rules were he had to say his cards out loud. He didn't have to let Ebony hear him though.

Withyon speeded towards Ebony, striking her before she even knew what hit her. Ebony lost 14 HP, leaving her current HP at 66. Withyon immediately went for another attack. Withyon was too fast to evade, taking another 14 HP.

At this point, Dreken was able to defeat Bastion. Dreken immediately started to run at Withyon, but before he could reach, everything froze.

"The game has ended. The winner is James Donovan! Stakes have been put into effect." The automated voice associated with the cards said.

Withyon was too fast to evade, so Ebony could not physically escape his blows. Withyon also attacked with gusto, his knife a blur. By the time Dreken reached them, Withyon had already dealt enough damage to win the game.

James stared. He just won his first Battlefield game. Then he started to laugh. He had a ton of fun. grudgingly, Ebony walked up to James.

"Guess I owe you a tour." She said angrily.