Chapter 60: Interference

Darius

‘Strategy and tactics are weird.’ Darius thought as he battled for the survival of himself and his best friend. A hunter by trade and the child of hunters who had in turn also been the children of hunters he valued strategy and preparation highly. They were still weird though, sort of unintuitive.

In Darius’ peripheral vision, he could see Alley who had abandoned his chain and was presently trying to fend off two of the wraith knights with a rusty pitchfork he had pulled out of one of the garden beds. Trying was probably the operative word there, Alley was getting his ass kicked all over the courtyard.

The original knight, the one that had spoken to them was still partially tangled in the CoreSteel chain. It was this one that Darius dueled with and why he considered strategy a weird thing. Alley might still be quick and cunning, but he just wasn’t that dangerous in a melee battle. Between the two of them, Darius was definitely the one better equipped to win against these armored enemies, and that was exactly why Alley was fighting two against one while Darius wasn’t.

It made sense, you wanted to give your best weapon the best chance of success. It just felt weird to send his less capable friend to handle the more difficult task. That was classic Alabaster Roe though, wasn’t it? The Boy was bossy, inconsiderate, egotistical, and sarcastic. But if he saw something as the right thing to do either morally or tactically Alley went after it, even if it meant putting his body on the line in a big way.

As though to illustrate the point the rusty pitchfork Alley was defending himself with met its limit and exploded into a hail of splinters as one of the knights smashed its blade into the farm tool.

As much as his instincts cried out to rush to his friend’s aid, Darius knew the best thing he could do for Alley was defeat his own opponent as quickly as possible.

Darius flicked a glance at the Card images hovering over his left hand. It took a mere split second and he knew exactly what had replaced Reveal Vitals, and the rest of what he was holding to boot. It was an important skill for a Trials Deck wielder, since even in a Challenge there was no fancy barrier between him and his opponent….Well, there was, but it vanished when the fight began, the point was he rarely had time to examine his hand of Cards in any detail.

So in one of the most boring activities he had ever forced upon himself, Darius had spent hour upon hour memorizing what every one of his Cards did and what they looked like. It was a skill that paid dividends now, as had he spent any more time looking at the Cards he didn’t think he would have been able to dodge the backhanded swing the ghostly knight launched at his head.

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Keeping his feet light Darius danced backwards out of the way, the ancient looking blade slicing past his eyes by less than an inch.

Darius had to give it to the knight, he wasn’t fast but he was accurate in the extreme. The monster had a good sense of timing, and that was without mentioning the thing’s strength. The Undead knight was stronger than Darius, though not by an insane degree. Once the hunter had reached the next rank he thought he would be roughly as powerful as his opponent.

‘Okay so those are its strengths, but I really need to spot a weakness or two before Alley gets killed.’

Darius’ hand presently held Brood Queen’s Venom, Primal Forge, Top Of The Food Chain, and The Final Thrust.

Brood Queen’s Venom was probably useless against a suit of armor animated by a ghost, a fact Darius honestly appreciated. Even the memory of that green venomous ooze flooding out of his mouth was enough to make him shudder. Primal Forge might be useful but Darius had his doubts. The only weapon it could create that would be much use here was the Ancient Maul. The maul was a decent enough club, and alright for battering armor. Still, it wasn’t the crushing force of The TuskBreaker he had used against the Golem.

Darius didn’t even consider Top Of The Food Chain these weren’t animals, and there would be no intimidating them. The final Card in his hand however had some potential here, the appropriately named The Final Thrust.

The Card gave his next thrust attack a lot of additional power and pierced any Resonance-based defenses the enemy might throw between them. The issue was the Card would lock down his hand for a few minutes if he didn’t kill his target with the thrust.

‘Risky.’ Darius really wasn’t sure how Undead worked, and the knight-monster’s lack of vital organs, or organs at all gave him pause. This would all get a lot harder if he suddenly couldn’t use his Deck.

While he was still weighing his options Darius launched a flurry of thrusts, slamming his spearhead into the knight’s helm and chest repeatedly. The Undead thing’s guard was technically sound but it was just too slow to keep up. The problem was these blows like all the others Darius had already landed just didn’t seem to do anything beyond denting the armor a little.

“Oh seriously!?” Yelled Alley. Darius retreated out of range to see what was happening. A zombie that almost seemed to be made of desiccated vines and tree roots had entered the courtyard from the strange glass building at the garden’s center and was joining the assault on Alley.

The hunter felt his eyes go wide as he realized it wasn’t just another Undead creature from within the mansion. This monster had the runes for Undeath, Bloom, and Abomination above its head, along with 1400 Power and 2 Vitality.

“Karak” Darius swore aloud. Someone nearby had Manifested that thing.