It took three days and two deaths to cross the Ashtae Forest. Now, Noah was less than a mile from Beaver Bridge. Noah’s team had reached the river—and the path that ran along the shore.
Unfortunately, a contingent of elves was waiting where the path reached the bridge. Team Noah would most likely have fight through.
So everyone had retreated a couple miles, and they were eating, resting, and thinking about cards. Even with the lower card rates many of the monsters offered, the men that followed Noah had gathered twenty cards.
With a battle facing their team, the men had formed two groups, each with ten cards. They were about to roll off to see who got all ten cards. Each got the same chance to get a deck as the cards they contributed. Trevor, despite looking like a bro, was apparently a closet nerd who had brought his lucky ten-sider with him.
Noah himself was up to ten cards, and had gotten a third Reclaimer Golem from RED’s ability to switch cards from dead monsters.
He sat on a rotten log in the path at the edge of the forest, Lika beside him and RED nearby, keeping watch. Noah was carefully considering his deck, and any changes he might make.
“You know, now that you have three, you can merge them,” Lika said, staring at the card.
“What?” Noah asked.
“You can merge the cards. So it increases in tier, making it better forever.”
Noah stared at the card in his hand.
Reclaimer Golem
Uncommon Tier-1 Golem [Cyber, Scavenged]
1 Golem, 1 Any Power
Health: 10
Attack: 0
Magical Attack: 0
Defense: 5
Magical Defense: 3
Special: Every round this card is out, it may heal 2 damage to any Golem, or double to any Cyber or Scavenged Golem
Special: May convert a single machine or metal material to do a full heal of any Golem, and +5 maximum Health and +1 to all stats to any scavenged Golem so healed.
Special: Apocalypse Scavenger 1: This card may process Mortal ruins to create scrap tokens. Approximately a motorcycle’s worth of components and one hour is necessary to create one token. It may have a single Scrap Token tied to it.
“It’s not a von Neumann machine, not yet, but we’re getting there.”—Crystal, High Priest of Mechos.
“It’s decent, but it’s not the greatest card ever. I mean, my golems rarely last long enough to heal. Although it’s better than the Wasteland Scavenger card.”
Red let out an electronic raspberry. “Well, if you would simply upgrade me, I could certainly benefit.”
Lika ignored RED, her gaze intently focused on the cards in Noah’s hand. “Well, pull the others out of your deck and merge them. See how much better it gets.”
“How do I do that?” Noah asked.
“Just sub in some other card, push the three cards together, and then put the new, better card back in. Or at least, that’s what our village witch-doctor always said. She seemed smart.”
Noah did just that. He grabbed a Rattletail Origin card, and willed it to replace one of the Reclaimer Golems. The card disappeared from his hand, and a Reclaimer Golem appeared. He did the same with the Wasteland Scavenger.
He hesitated with the three cards in his hands.
“Just press them together hard and merge them,” Lika said, bouncing on the log next to Noah.
This system is really easy to use for magic.
Again, Noah just followed her instructions. He took the three cards and pushed them together between his hands, willing them to combine. The three cards shimmered, then slid together. The card that emerged was nearly the same—but not quite. Noah noted a bit more survivability and some increased scrap holding capacity.
Reclaimer Golem
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Uncommon Tier-2 Golem [Cyber, Scavenged]
1 Golem, 1 Any Power
Health: 12
Attack: 0
Magical Attack: 0
Defense: 5
Magical Defense: 4
Special: Every round this card is out, it may heal 3 damage to any Golem, or double to any Cyber or Scavenged Golem
Special: May convert a single machine or metal material to do a full heal of any Golem, and +5 maximum Health and +1 to all stats to any scavenged Golem so healed.
Special: Apocalypse Scavenger 2: This card may process Mortal ruins to create scrap tokens. Approximately a motorcycle’s worth of components and one hour is necessary to create one token. It may have two Scrap Tokens tied to it.
“It’s not a Von Neumann machine, not yet, but we’re getting there.”—Crystal, High Priest of Mechos.
“Well, that was underwhelming,” Noah responded.
Lika laughed at him and lightly hit him on the shoulder. “Don’t be silly. It’s a permanent increase in your power, like leveling. Your deck just got stronger, as it plays slightly better for the same power cost.”
Noah nodded to her words. He supposed it made sense, but giving up two cards to get a small power increase hurt.
He looked at the Ashtae Forest around him—a forest he would forever think of as the Rattletail Forest. I suppose any Rattletail Deckbearer crazy and badass enough to brave this forest regularly could get a ridiculous number of merge cards, though. So I guess it’s a legit strategy. I wonder if there’s a place I can get a ton of cards for my deck.
Lika wasn’t done. “Besides, it’s crazy hard, but if you can get a card to tier four, it supposedly gets a really strong ability, making it far more useful.”
Noah did quick math in his head. “That’s twenty-seven copies!”
She shrugged. “Hey—it can be worth it. Some deckbearers can become so strong they live for hundreds or thousands of years. On that time frame, it would almost certainly be worth it.”
“I suppose they could hunt this forest,” Noah said, voicing his thoughts from a few moments ago. “If someone was relatively tough, they could farm this place pretty well.”
“That is a good plan, bone frame,” RED said. “I’m surprised you came up with it.”
Lika laughed, but her voice had an edge to it. “Yeah. Fuck this forest. Once we’re across the bridge, there’s almost no monsters. It’s just the central portion, between the rivers, that’s really bad.”
“And also where most of the cards can be gained?”
Lika nodded.
Noah heard a roar of happiness, and looked up to see that Trevor was hugging Matt and Emily. “I won! My lucky ten-sider came through for me! I got a deck!!”
“Don’t get too excited,” Emily said, laughing. “It’s a rattletail Beast deck composed mostly of the same dumb two cards. You’ve got all the spiders and those stupid origin rabbits.”
“Plus that tiger thing,” Trevor said. “Which I can summon by sacrificing lesser Rattletails.”
“Sure, whatever,” Emily responded with a roll of her eyes.
Another shout showed that a man named James Washington was the owner of the next deck—also a low-rarity, low-tier Rattletail Beast deck.
Noah looked around. Everyone looked as rested as he thought they would be, without actually taking a nap near the enemy.
“Well, shall we go see about getting another deck?” Noah asked. “With luck, the elves will have one.”
Everyone nodded eagerly.
***
A few minutes later, the remaining eighteen, plus Red, stood near the edge of the forest. Noah was set up with his bolt action rifle on a carefully placed log, looking at their target. It was a tiny palisade and tower that guarded the bridge, and by their best count, the ten elves guarded it.
The river behind was almost as large as the one they had crossed days ago, but the path from the edge of the forest to the fortification was a mere couple hundred feet. The elves were all lounging about, except for one bored—and hot—looking guy on top of the tower. Despite the elves’ general ineptitude, it was still a spot of luck that they’d been able to set up without being seen.
“How did they have time to build a palisade and tower?” Noah asked, glancing up from his scope. “It hasn’t even been four days since the apocalypse.”
Lika blinked and then laughed quietly. “Oh, you. Those ass-barnacle elves’ palisade was there long before the apocalypse—on our world. You might as well ask how your people built those farms in a single day.”
Noah blushed, feeling like an idiot. Of course.
“Wait, you’re from their world?” Noah asked.
“No idea,” Lika answered. “There were elves on my world, but not anywhere near where I’m from. Now they’re our neighbors.”
She made explosion motions with her hands. “Lucky us!”
Then Lika shrugged. “Or, well, I don’t know. There was only one river near where I lived before this as well. It doesn’t matter—job’s the same.”—she patted her vest, which still had a few vials—“we need to kill these murdering, stuck-up pricks and claim Beaver Bridge.”
Noah nodded and returned his eyes to the sight.
A few moments later, he gently squeezed the trigger. A bang rang out across the river, and birds flew from the trees around him, as well as a few from the sparser trees on the other side.
The elf in the tower collapsed as Noah deftly reloaded.
The elves around the palisade climbed to their feet, wary but not freaking out like someone with experience with gunshots would have been. One of them, with bronze hair and a fancier tabard over his leathers, called out in a melodious language that Noah couldn’t understand—to the felled elf on the tower, Noah figured.
Noah didn’t give him the chance to get a reply, dropping bronze hair as well.
The sound pulled all gazes in Noah’s direction this time, and one of the elves pointed right at them and screamed something in the same tongue. The elves grabbed weapons and dropped behind the palisade—those that Noah could see at all.
“What now?” Lika asked.
“I don’t think they have any deckbearers,” Noah said, a tiny hint of disappointment in his voice.
He summoned a Scavenged Battle Bot.
“That means no cards. But it also means we can just send monsters at them till they fall, or charge us,” Noah continued.
A flight of arrows rose from behind the palisade. “Or, perhaps they have a few options still,” Noah said, ducking behind his log which also hid his flush.
Everyone else got behind trees, and the arrows fell into the forest around them. There were no screams or cussing, so Noah assumed everyone was untouched.
“But they don’t have many options,” Noah continued. “As soon as the first Scavenged Battle Bot dies, I’ll have the power to summon the Goliath Scrap Bot, which can probably tear down the walls if need be. Meanwhile, Lika, you can summon as well, right?”
She nodded from where she sat beside him, behind the log. “You’ve seen me do it.”
Noah glanced back over the log, bracing himself against his gun, waiting for someone to pop their head up, hopefully for a long look. “So, send some of your golems over, and blow them up again when they’re next to the wall—since it’s a burst of fire rather than an explosion per se, that might set the whole thing on fire.”
Lika nodded. “You fight well, Noah. But bloodlessly. It’s… disturbing.”
“I fight to win.”