At saturday a large crowd flocked to the city hall. Inside were a large circle which was used as an arena for the fighter battles. Ten minutes after her registration Beth sat with her friends in seperate preparation area and discussed about her strategy. She got also a notice with the tournament plan and the rules: In the qualifying rounds she can only use one fighter, in the semi-final she can use two at the same time, and in the final three fighters at the same time. Also the use of capture cards was forbidden.
"Your first opponent is Tom.", said Amy. Tom was a guy from school with a pretty low deck. Beth had seen fighting a few times.
"It would be the best to start with Stephanie.", said Josh, "You must save the powers of your best fighters cause there are a lot battles in a row. Otherwise your fighters will be exhausted if you use them again and again."
"Sounds reasonable.", said Beth, "I only hope that Tom wasn't prepared for Stephanie. He knows that I use this fighter."
"Yeah, but this way you can keep Emily and Marcus as secret weapons for your later battles. And after all, Tom isn't so bright.", smiled Amy.
A few minutes later a bell ringed and Beth stood beside the arena and faced Tom. He was twelve-year old boy, but with his glasses he looked more clumsy than clever.
"Ok, Beth, ready for the battle?", asked Tom.
"Ready when you are.", answered Beth, "I summon you, fire mage Stephanie."
"I summon you, forest guardian Levalle."
Vis-a-vis from Stepahnie stood a large creature, who looked like tree with arms, legs and a face.
"You send a tree against my fire mage, Tom?", asked Beth, "Don't make it too easy."
"Be sure I won't.", said Tom, "I use "Rampant growth"."
Immidiately Levalle began to grow until he was 12 feet tall.
"Yeah, crush her, Levalle!"
Levalle tried to hit Stephanie with his massive arm, but she could dogde at the last moment.
"Shit, that was close. But at last he can burn.", said Beth, "Stephanie, use your fireballs to enflame him!"
Stephanie launched a tirade of fireballs against Levalles chest, but it seemed useless. His green skin seemed to be resistent against the fire.
"Damn, he used that magic card to increase his defense. But this game can I play, too.", thought Beth. She raised a card and said:"Solar fire".
A sun ray stroke down on Stephanie and after the bright light vanished her hair had changed into yellow flames. She had a grim smile on her face and the fire orbs around her hands doubled in size.
"Solar cannonade", yelled Stephanie and started another tirade of fireballs on Levalle.
But this time he was engulfed in bright flames and he shoke until he felt to the ground and vanished.
After the battle Beth sat down on a bench in the preparation area and sighed. Amy and Josh ran to her and cheered about her victory, but Beth was too exhausted too talk. And it seemed like the next battels would be much harder.