Damian Black - The Order of the Night (English Version)

The Song - Chapter 6

After three hours they reached their first destination. In an abandoned village, the order had set up a small quarter for its passing members.
The huts were all small and rounded with thatched roofs, as they had been common a few decades ago.
There was a large fountain in the middle of the village.
The village itself was nothing special. The Unit brought their horses to a large barn in the back of the village. Where they unsaddled their horses and provided them with food.
"Damian, get some water." Commanded Liz, Damian nodded and grabbed one of the water jugs from the barn.
He ran out and in the direction of the well. He would probably have to fetch water for each horse individually. But he didn't care, it was good strength training after all.
The volunteers had also gathered by the well and filled their water hoses. When he came up to them, they immediately avoided him. But none of them exchanged a word with him.
Most of them turned their backs on him.
Damian went to the fountain without thinking about it. A tall man brought him the first load of water up.
He took this in reception and ran back to the barn where he supplied the horses with water.
He repeated this a few more times. After he had watered the last horse, he sat down in front of the barn to relax a little.
They wouldn't stay here long, but traveling on in the heat of the midday sun would be dangerous.
In the end, some would have heat stroke. They couldn't risk that.
"Hey", Selim and Kim sat down next to him.
"Hi you two."
Wearily, he leaned his head against the barn wall.
"You were right, Liz is weird."
Damian's gaze immediately fixed on Selim and Kim in front of him.
"She doesn't even talk to Sasha and Marco anymore. Unless it has to be." Selim had raised his eyebrow. The smile on his lips was gone, the boy was so lost in his own thoughts.
"We can not do anything." After a few seconds, Kim's voice tore the silence. "Whatever is the matter with her, she has decided that it is none of our business." She continued her explanation.
Selim and he nodded in agreement.
"Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon. Until then, do we want to play a game?"
Immediately the face of Selim was relaxed again and a big grin could be seen on it.
"What kind of game?"
"Magician", he pulled a small box out of his trouser pocket and placed it in front of Damian.
"Aidan invented it for us three years ago."
"Really now? Aidan?", he would never have occurred to him that this cold guy would like card games.
"Yeah", Selim opened the box and took out a pile of cards and started shuffling them.
"He said that people like us can have fun every now and then too."
"Tsk", you could hear Kim laying on her back next to them and visibly enjoying the sun on her face.
"So the game is actually very simple. You have seven cards in hand, each of these cards has a strength value. Then you decide up to three cards, which then compete against my cards. The winner of each round gets all the cards and they go out of the game.
Whoever has all cards on his side wins at the end. Every time you discard cards you have to draw the same number from the stack. However, when you put the Warlock, the game automatically starts from the beginning. It can only be played once in every new round. So it can save your ass or it can cost you victory. It has a lot to do with strategy. "
Selim finished his explanations and dealt them the seven cards. Damian slowly reached for his and examined it. They were all hand painted. Aidan was so talented,  crossed his mind.
When he noticed that some of the cards looked like his companions.
"You say, is that you?", his gaze caught on the card of a magician who wore a black cloak and whose dark eyes pierced him, although they were only painted.
"Yep, Aidan has dedicated a card to all of us. I'm sure you'll get one too." Damian nodded and looked at the other cards.
"Tell me, there are other things than the strength value. For example, healing." The figure on the map was clearly inspired by Kim. Her healing value was two, according to the card.
"Exactly, some have an additional ability. If a card has a healing value, you can draw a card from the lost cards on my side. If she has two you can take two." Selim scratched his ear and looked at him.
"So let's play!"
He cheered and put two cards down in front of him.
Damian swallowed, it was no shame to lose, but like every normal person he wanted to win.
His gaze slid over the seven cards in his hand, it would also be best to start with two cards. His hand slipped over the cards and caught on Liz's. Her strength rating was 80 while Kim's was only 50. However, Liz's had no special skills.
So if he assumed that 100 was the maximum strength, it would be better to keep Liz on hand for now.
So he put two cards down in front of him, both  gave a value of 130.
Now Selim grabbed his and uncovered them.
On one card he recognized Aidan with a strength value of 80 and on the other, Selim, who had a value of 30.
But Selim's card also seemed to have a special ability.
"Draw." Selim just mumbled and took the two cards in his hand. But he put one on its side.
"What kind of ability does your card have?"
"Compensation." The boy replied and grinned.
"If my card is played with another one, but the two are weaker. I get the partner card back, but my card goes on the discard pile. This way you can save your own card."
Damian grinned, yes that suited Selim, even in a real fight he would probably sacrifice himself for a comrade.