Lexie didn't know how to react. She barely knew how to breathe. She was desperately trying to maintain her cool, but it was difficult with Top Dog standing there in the flesh staring at them.

Especially when his eyes narrowed on her and he frowned. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

Lexie could only release the tiniest of squeaks. He remembers me!

Outwardly, she couldn't speak until Cara jabbed her quite hard in the ribs.

"Um yes." Lexie coughed/wheezed the words out. She tried regaining composure by clearing her throat and running her hand through her hair, super casually. "We met at the stadium in Arcadia. When you were–."

"Visiting, yes, I remember." He shot her a slight warning look.

Oh, that's right, Lexie remembered. His betting was supposed to be a secret.

"It's nice to see you again," Top Dog said and gave her one of his wry smiles.

"It's nice to see you too." She almost managed to sound normal, except for a hitch at the end of her sentence.

Lexie didn't know what else to say as a follow-up and she was aware of everyone in the dojo now staring at her. Her face was turning red as a tomato. She was embarrassed by just how much she was fangirling but come on, it was Top Dog. The number one in the league! They had to understand. Heck some of them were probably fangirling internally too. Lexie was just worse at hiding it.

Conrad glanced between the two of them, his smile growing into a shit-eating grin. "Well, Lexie, since you're already acquainted with our guest, how about you go first?"

"Go first with what?" she uttered dumbly and Jan or Boris snorted.

"The sparring?" Conrad said. "You know the one I just mentioned maybe fifteen seconds ago?"

"Oh right." Come on, Lexie, get it together! "Yeah, that's fine."

Conrad winked, and he said, "How about we do this? If you win, my friend here's going to autograph something for you. Would you like that?"

Oh my gosh, yes!

"Yeah, that would be fine or whatever." Good. She'd managed to sound less deranged than her thoughts at least.

Conrad clapped. "Okay. Clear the floor, everyone. Lexie and Cara are going first."

As they all shuffled to get into place, Lexie caught Tate's eyes. He was giving her an amused look and when she mouthed, "What?", he only shook his head.

They arranged themselves on the seats as Lexie and Cara faced off against each other. Lexie quickly organized which cards she was going to use in her head. Now was the perfect time to try <True Windbreaker>. She also decided to use the Three Feet Apart effect by reversing <Stay Steady, Stay Ready> from the Martial Artists Deck. Luckily, <Windbreaker> wasn't required to be part of the deck before it could be used. It was an untethered card, like <Out of Sight, Out of Mind>. That gave her a lot of freedom to utilize the card with whatever deck she wanted. The issue was that given that she'd chosen from the the Martial Artist's deck, she couldn't use any of her Party Planner Cards but that shouldn't be much of a problem.

The current Windbreaker had a power of nine anyway and required one-twenty to two-hundred mana points, so it wasn't like she could use a lot of other cards, given that her mana capacity was only four hundred to six hundred. She also needed to be very careful with wasting mana right now. Her capacity only allowed a few moves so she anticipated a quick and decisive win.

Lexie took a deep breath and told Cara, "Don't hold back this time. Because I'm going to go all out."

Cara smirked. "I wasn't planning on it."

Lexie nodded. She figured this should be a shortish battle. All she had to do was activate 'Three Feet Apart' to keep Cara out of the way and then she would target her with Windbreaker as a finisher. She had to be careful with that one though so as not to hurt herself or Cara. She'd already set <Windbreaker> to exclude the air in Cara's lungs and vital organs and she'd added a variable buffer node, which meant she could turn down the power of the card if she wanted. That was good for both preserving her mana and hiding the fact that she'd made an overpowered card. Lexie only planned to use the minimum effective effort required to take Cara down.

But as the clock ticked down, Lexie knew that she might be in for a curve ball. Cara wasn't stupid and probably already knew her plan. Which meant that Lexie had to be ready for anything.

They both stood staring at each other for seconds, menace glinting in their gazes. They had a mutual understanding that they were going to do everything possible to destroy each other–without serious injury of course–and nothing would stop them.

"Time!" Conrad called out and Lexie completed activation of the first card, right as Cara rushed her. Later, when she affixed her starter deck, she would wait for the bell to ring before she activated the effect just to see how fast she could go with adrenaline in her system:

The effect kicked in almost instantly and by the time Cara jumped at Lexie, she'd been swept back by the magnetic force.

It worked! Elation pounded through her as she began activating the second card. Meanwhile, Cara leaped high in the air and attacked from above expecting that to cause a glitch that drove Lexie into the ground. But Lexie had already planned for this and worked it into her mathematical calculations. Lexie remained still but as Cara was about to land with a high kick, Lexie was instantly pulled back and maintained the three feet of distance.

Lexie had a singular thought that if she ever managed to make an actual 'Three Feet Apart' card in her starter deck, she would make it with a variable buffer that would increase or decrease the distance between her and her target depending on what she wanted.

But she couldn't think about that right now, because Cara was on the move.

Lexie didn't hesitate. She began activation of the <True Windbreaker> setting the effectiveness buffer at the lowest. She tried to aim for Cara but it was hard. The other girl had somehow gotten faster and she was no longer coming at Lexie straight up, instead jetting in a zigzag pattern that jolted Lexie from side to side, making her dizzy.

Shit, Lexie thought as her nausea rose swiftly. Should have thought of that.

"Nice one, Cara!" Boris called from the stands and Lexie cursed at him in her head. She was disoriented but she had to get Cara and one-shot this. She couldn't afford to botch the target because of how mana-intensive <True Windbreaker> was.

Finally, the 'Three Feet Apart' effect ran out and Lexie fell to the ground trying not to puke. Cara flew for her and Lexie straightened, targeted, and completed the activation of <True Windbreaker>. Cara's eyes widened as her feet stumbled and she fell to the ground.

To her credit, she didn't just stay down, nor did she react with anything except a brief moment of confusion. She knew what had happened although she probably didn't expect the effect to be that potent. She continued charging at Lexie and Lexie, not having anything else to do, turned around and ran.

Damn it, she'd underestimated Cara by putting <True Windbreaker> on its lowest level. She was trying to be careful and not hurt the other girl, but she'd forgotten that even a slower Cara sprinted faster than Lexie did on a good day.

Lexie had less endurance too. Shoot, this is probably why Conrad had me doing all that running. If she hadn't gotten basic endurance from that, she would have been toast by now.

As she ran, Lexie planned her next mode of attack. She would do the same thing again, but this time with a more effective <True Windbreaker>. It was a shame that the buffer node couldn't be used after the card was already active, otherwise she could have just increased the effect. Maybe that was something she would work on. She'd try to tweak the card the next time she was in a dungeon.

She was still pleased, and downright giddy that it had worked in the first place.

Another thought occurred to Lexie as Cara caught up to her, cutting off her escape and swinging her fist. Lexie didn't have any attack cards currently. Most of her cards were focused on defense. I need at least one good attack card, she thought, as she avoided the punch trying to run. Cara was still faster and with a snarl, she launched herself at Lexie tumbling them both to the ground.

Cara finally got in that punch on Lexie's jaw and Lexie screamed, "Ouch!"

Pain-induced anger had her fighting back, hitting and scratching and twisting around. Her mana exhaustion meant that she didn't have a whole lot of strength but thankfully, <True Windbreaker> elapsed which made Cara light enough for Lexie to push her off and run away.

But with <True Windbreaker> entering its cool-down period, Lexie was in trouble.

Cara caught up to her in no time. Lexie had to wait for her cards to cool down, and for her mana to not be so low that she risked burnout with a second activation. So when Cara tackled her for the second time, Lexie had no defense. The only thing that saved her was that Cara's attack didn't pack much due to the weightlessness she couldn't control.

It was enough to take her to the ground, but Cara was not much stronger than Lexie and the girls rolled around fighting for dominance. Lexie fought back physically and thought about all the cards she could use for this moment, seeking intents by forming stories to govern the magic.

A shield, Lexie thought next. I need a shield. Something to protect me from all angles so that no matter how fast someone is, it won't matter. I also need a good attack card.

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She focused on the story, on how she got to this point, on who Cara was to her. She'd figured out the trick to forming good stories now was a main character, her, and antagonist Cara, a narrative, and a twist.

And once she figured it out, the intents popped into her head.

Well-rounded protection.

Take her head off.

That last one was too dark an intent for Lexie to take seriously but it helped distract her from the pain.

As Cara kneed her in the gut, Lexie had another thought.

I need a card that reduces pain, Lexe thought as agony spiked in her stomach. Pain always raised her anger levels and she had a thought to kill Cara's wind just for that. But she decided to wait a little longer since it didn't look like Cara could seriously injure her.

That was until Cara drove the heel of her palm up into Lexie's nose, and Lexie felt it all the way up to her brain.

"And she's bleeding," she heard Jan say.

"Yeah that was a nasty one," Urmas concurred.

"I taught her that," Boris said happily and in her pain-filled mind, Lexie cursed him once more.

Ok, that's it. As Lexie began activation of <True Windbreaker> again, she thought about how to escape Cara's hold. Cara had both knees clamped on either side of Lexie's hip and was hitting her steadily.

Lexie decided to startle her by cracking her forehead against hers, a move that dazed both of them. Nevertheless, Lexie managed to stumble onto her feet and back away. As Cara attempted to give chase, Lexie was ready for her. She increased the effectiveness to about the halfway point, targeted and activated <True Windbreaker>.

Cara tried to dodge at the last minute but it got her and this time she dropped to the floor like stone. She tried to push herself up but she couldn't move, didn't have the strength to carry her windless body up.

"Lexie!" Cara glared at her. "What the heck did you do to me?"

"Sorry," Lexie said although she wasn't truly sorry. Her nose still stung after all, and she wiped the blood that had trickled out.

"Time," Conrad called out finally and Lexie bent over to hold her knees and pant. She still felt disoriented from all the shaking and the smacking around, but luckily system healing was already kicking in. Cara kept trying to get up, looking embarrassed at her failure.

"It's okay," Lexie told her. "It'll wear off after another fifteen seconds."

"That was amazing Lexie," Jan called out.

"Yeah, real good!" Boris said and started clapping.

"Thank you," Lexie said but she noticed that a few people on the bleachers looked stunned. Like Ken and Shadow. They'd expected Lexie to lose clearly. Tate on the other hand looked smug, like a proud father. Conrad also looked pretty happy and nodded at her with a thumbs up. Lexie couldn't bring herself to look at Top Dog yet.

Jan, Lane, and Umbras joined in the clapping, with the latter saying, "Well done, Lexie. You too, Cara."

"Yeah, yeah," Cara grumbled from the ground. But then she added, "Whatever card this is, is crazy sick, Lexie. Even though I hate you for it right now."

"Thanks. You did well too."

After the clapping died down and Lexie helped Cara get up, she finally risked a glance at Top Dog. He had a focused look on his face but he didn't look happy or impressed. Lexie's heart sank a little. It wasn't like she was trying to impress him. But she had expected him to be a bit impressed.

She'd just won her first official match. And it was using card magic. Everyone else in the audience was absolutely gobsmacked but Top Dog looked more so confused and a little bothered.

Apprehension crawled through Lexie but she assured herself that she hadn't really done anything wrong.

"Well," Conrad started. "Safe to say that you've improved by leaps and bounds, Lexie. And you too Cara. That was quick thinking how you got out of the first trap by essentially knocking Lexie, dizzy."

"Thank you." Cara accepted graciously despite her loss.

"Lexie… I probably don't need to tell you how amazing that was. Heck, if not for the fact that I was watching you draw the cards and shatter them, I wouldn't even believe you were using cards. It was so quick and well thought out. And I couldn't even tell what deck you used."

"It's my own deck," Lexie said. "Just a few cards I'm working on here and there. Sometimes, I combine them to create different effects."

"I didn't know you could combine cards."

"It's not advisable in most circumstances, but I'm working with an expert…" Though Elvira wouldn't refer to herself as such, she was certainly knowledgeable on cards, and 'expert' sounded better than 'scholar', "....and she's teaching me how to do it safely.

"Oh, ok. That's good. My only commentary would be that, of course, you have to build up your endurance. That was only ten minutes and you looked pretty beat at the end of it. If you're going to join the games, most of your fights will last a lot longer than that. Some of them will be hours and you need to keep up the energy for the crowd. Also, you need to build a better attack base. You too, Cara. Find a way to add more power to your blows."

Lexie and Cara both nodded. Lexie was already calculating having to double her jogging frequency and was eager to get back to the dungeons to craft more cards. She shifted her attention to Top Dog, who looked like he was ready to say something.

"What's your goal here?" he asked her.

"I'm sorry?"

"As in what do you want to achieve?"

"Oh, erm.." she thought about it. "To win?"

"Is that a question?"

"No?"

He shook his head in answer. "I say that because while you did reasonably well, you were on the defense through most of that fight, with almost zero attacks. When you did attack, it was mediocre. You fumbled throughout and didn't even attempt to take her down until she was on top of you. You just let her smack you around, barely fighting back. Throughout, it looked more like you were playing a game with your cards than you were fighting. It was kind of annoying at a point."

That was a valid point, although it stung hearing it from someone she looked up to. Lexie took it on the chin, but he wasn't done.

"Also, everything just all looked…clumsy. It lacked any sort of distinct style that the audience could follow, and it lacked flair. To put it bluntly, it was boring and messy. Once the novelty of watching a card mage fighter wears off, no one is going to want to watch the rest of that, and that's how you lose the audience and sponsor's attention."

Lexie didn't react, but she felt some shame pressing down on her. It was hard hearing that even though she'd won, she'd apparently sucked. And even worse, she'd sucked in front of Top Dog.

As though noticing her mood, his expression gentled ever so slightly.

"You did okay," he said. "You just need more work."

Lexie nodded and felt some of the pleasure of her win dissipating. Silently, she returned to her seat, and she heard Cara do the same. Lexie's disappointment must have shown because Boris patted her shoulder in comfort as she sat in front of him and leaned in to whisper, "You did good."

Lexie nodded again but looked at her feet. She wasn't even sure why she was so upset with herself. It wasn't like she even wanted to join the circuit. Right? And even if she did, it wasn't like Top Dog said she was totally hopeless. Just that she hadn't fought interestingly enough, which was true.

She thought about a card that would improve her fight choreography. That might be something to consider making if she was going to take the AFC thing seriously.

Was she? She wasn't sure, but she had enjoyed herself out there. The part where Cara had nearly broken her nose sucked, but she'd gotten through it. And she'd figured out the intent for two other cards while she was at it. Turned out that the adrenaline, fear, and anger made it easier to perceive intent. Maybe because it made her more honest, or whatever Naem said. In any case, fighting was good for making her defensive deck at least.

So she planned to stick around until she was done with that. After…well, she would see.

She took a deep breath and told herself to let it go. She was being a baby about this. Just because her idol didn't think she was a special snowflake didn't mean it was the end of the world. She'd still done something amazing. And hopefully, now that she'd figured out the trick, she could continue on this trajectory.

She turned to Tate, wondering when they would go back to the dungeon again, only to find that he was already watching her with a look of concern.

You okay? He mouthed.

Yeah, she mouthed back, warmly. He was nice for checking in on her. She also asked, Dungeon?

He rolled his finger in a circle. We'll talk after.

Lexie gave a nod, then turned back to watch the next few sets of fights. Top Dog was impressed with Boris and called him a second Conrad. He scolded Jan for being lazy. He liked Lane but Urmas got a detailed list of all the things he needed to work on. Top Dog said Ken fought like a less talented version of Lane and he needed to find his own style. Ken also got comments on how to be less stony-faced and interact more with the PHORB.

That was when Lexie realized that there was a PHORB floating near the ceiling recording them.

Lexie got nervous. Wait, had it recorded everything she'd done? Was it being streamed? Would anyone question the card she'd just used? Technically, since she had the ambassadorial key it wasn't illegal right? Because she could claim an ambassador gave it to her. Or she would say she bought it online because the last thing she wanted to do was reveal that a demon king gave her a magic card.

She would ask Conrad about what he planned on doing with the footage later.

"Lexie," Cara whispered and shifted closer to her, as Top Dog finished up his notes for Ken. "You gotta tell me what you did with that card. I felt like a thousand times heavier. It was crazy."

"Thanks." Lexie smiled. "I have you to thank actually because I couldn't have crafted it without you. And to show my gratitude, I'm going to make you something."

"What?"

"A card that makes you hit harder." Lexie figured she could copy <Windbreaker> and tweak it to only kill the wind in Cara's fists so that her punches landed with more weight. "I'll try to make it a simple activation pattern and you only need to use it when you're landing a hit."

"You can do that?" Cara's eyes widened.

Lexie nodded. "I think so." That was if Cara hadn't affixed all her free mana to physical points yet.

"Wow! Thanks!" Cara shook her head with an amazed look. "Gosh, you're so cool."

"Too bad Top Dog doesn't think so," Boris teased in a whisper because he'd shamelessly been listening in on their conversation. As Lexie and Cara shot him a look, he chortled.

"Sorry, Lex. It was just hilarious to watch you tongue-tied in front of him."

"Shut up," she said

"It was pretty funny," Lane piped in and she shot him a look too. "You're usually so calm and collected. It's fun seeing you act like a little girl for once."

"Right? Sometimes I swear she's like an old lady."

"Maybe she's both," Tate commented under his breath and Lexie glanced at him.

What was that about?

But before Lexie could inquire, Conrad called out, "Tate, Shadow. You're up."

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