Wolfe grunted in pain as the bullet slammed into his back, taking a step forward from the force.
Hans attacks at 9 (5 +1 trained thug +3 gun +0 random roll) and does 3 damage (81 net damage over 14 defense 14 ((5 + 3 crafty street fighter +3 defense mantle (2 x1.5 for perk)) x1.25 (Inborn killer perk))/2 for Infernal resisting Mortal.)
“You saved my life,” Liam said, wide-eyed.
“Regretting it already because you’re talking when you should be fighting,” Wolfe grunted out while turning and spraying his bullets down the hall at Hans.
Hans yelled and dived to the side himself. Wolfe got a negative modifier to his attack despite his ‘take best of two’ perk, winging Hans but not hitting him seriously.
Two Light energy beams hit Hans across the chest, nearly vaporizing his shirt and leaving giant, burned gashes on him. He screamed and rolled into a room to the side of the hall.
“Excellently aimed, sister,” Liurenia said.
"You as well,” Sorenia replied.
“After him!” Wolfe cried, and Sorenia, Liurenia, and Malviere all ran into the room. Sorenia made it around the corner first, and had time for a brief scream as she was consumed in fire.
Wolfe saw the ‘card’ responsible in the air over the blaze before Sorenia turned into golden particles and flowed back to Shel.
Immolate
Tier-2 Uncommon Fire Immediate
1 Fire, 1 Any power (available)
This power makes a magical attack (fire typed) against 1 target at strength 12. This repeats the next round. This may not target a deckbearer unless he has no creatures on the field.
Wolfe rushed to the corner but hit Liam and bounced back. Liam shot around Liurenia, but Wolfe got no death notification for Hans. More shots and tinkling glass sounded.
“He’s getting away, onto the roof!” Liam shouted.
Where we were planning to go. Great.
“Move!” Wolfe growled, pushing past Liam.
He entered into a plush but otherwise normal office room, with a small couch and some chairs and a bunch of corny signs, including a huge piece of wall art that said “all our jokes are canned” over a picture of the same.
But all Wolfe cared about was the busted window. He saw Hans scrambling across the roof on all fours, trying to keep low enough to avoid bullets. Before Wolfe could end him with his Edge, however, the bastard made it behind some piping.
What the fuck warehouses still have piping on the roof in this day and age? Go home, Noimoire, you’re drunk, Wolfe thought exasperatedly before diving out the window at a run.
He hadn’t realized there was a tiny gap between the warehouse and the roof, but he sailed over it and hit the top of the building in a roll. His mantle protected him from the normal scuffing that would occur from such a move. Wolfe rolled to his feet and charged forward, gun out, and fired a single bullet vaguely in Hans’ direction just to keep his head down.
At the same time, he swiped his cards, pulling an Angry Hellhound and tossing it to the ground.
Hans stood, and a card very briefly appeared in Wolfe’s vision.
Wall of Flame
Uncommon Tier-1 Fire Persistent
This card creates a wall of fire up to 6’ wide, 20’ tall, and 100’ long that burns hot—anyone within 5’ takes a true damage per round, and anyone crossing it takes a 10-point Fire magical attack every 6 seconds.
The card did just what it said, and Wolfe screeched to a halt and backed as a towering inferno appeared across his path. He hesitated briefly as some of the plastic on the piping caught fire, and insulation burned away as well.
I’ve got resistance to fire and an effective nine magical defense…
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Wolfe glanced back. Liurenia flew from the window, but a rapid fusillade of bullets slapped into her and she dropped down, behind the cover of the flame wall.
But Wolfe heard Hans’ gun click on empty.
At the same time, Malviere hopped across the small gap, calling, “I’m coming, Chosen!”
Neither companion was likely to be much help, Wolfe judged.
Wolfe had the new Demonic Portal card, his tier-three Angry Hellhound, and a Lost Hellhound Puppy left. Not his best hand, since he couldn’t get close enough to summon onto the other side of the fire wall.
I could really have used my Fireborn Hellhound right about now, gods, Wolfe thought sardonically. I have to do something, or this guy will just use fire cards or creatures to fight me.
He took a deep breath, anticipating agony, and ran at the wall. Right before he hit, Wolfe leapt through the searing flames, his skin frying. He screamed in agony as he took six damage—something about being burned was far worse than just being hit or shot, and Wolfe thanked Cerberus for his own resistance to fire.
He also slammed into a pipe partway through and careened sideways, away from where Hans had been firing. He hit the ground on the other side of the fire and rolled, then came up to see Hans standing a mere few feet from him, gun in hand as he tried to reload. Wolfe was injured now, taking a die penalty to all non-health stats—he had sixteen health left.
When Wolfe came crashing through the fire, Hans gave a cry of his own and stumbled back across the roof, between two of the pipes that were now burning, dropping the magazine he had taken out on the ground. But he smiled to see Wolfe, and touched a card in front of him. “You aren’t so tough, Wolfe, no matter what Damian said.”
A fiery wolf appeared in front of Hans, growling with a sound half canine, half crackling wood in a fire.
Fiery Wolf
Uncommon Tier-1 Beast/Fire [Canine] Creature
1 Fire, 2 Any power
Health 20
Attack: 3
Magical Attack: 9[Fire]
Defense: 3
Magical Defense: 5
Special: Beneficial Façade[Elemental]: This creature benefits from all cards as if it were an Elemental in addition to its other types.
Special: Thorns [Fire 6]: If this creature is attacked in melee or by brawl, the attacker takes a magical attack of Fire type at 3 or 6 strength, respective to the type of attack, and if that damage would kill the attacker, they make no attack. This defense scales with all bonuses that would add to Magical Attack.
“Beasts are highly susceptible to magical augmentation, and these wolves were no different.”
“Join the pack,” Malviere said from behind him, then howled.
Wolfe received a notification. Fiery Wolf has switched allegiance for the duration of the fight.
The Wolf turned, and growled at Hans.
Wolfe pointed his gun at Hans, growling himself, but the thug deckbearer dived behind another of the giant pipes. The Wolf howled and chased after him.
Wolfe cussed, but didn’t waste ammo trying to hit his running enemy, letting the dog handle it.
Instead, he painfully climbed to his feet and took a quick glance around. He saw the fire escape along the side, past the fire he had just run through.
Damn. I really need to kill Hans.
A series of yells and cussing told Wolfe that Hans wasn’t dead, but the notifications said he was probably close, absent healing, but had resistance to fire.
Wolfe turned back to the pipes, crouched low, and tried to rapidly walk through the couple pipes and venting system on the top. The roof felt warm to him, but he ignored it. Now that he was on the other side he switched his cards, sardonically noting the Fireborn Hellhound, and summoned it.
Wolfe was pretty sure of impending victory.
Then, as if to spite him, the roof exploded right front of him. His crouched position behind pipes meant he wasn’t hit by either the blast or what it had thrown about, but his brief relief was short-lived as the part of the roof he was on cracked.
He got some experience for Hans dying, and his fiery wolf blinked out of existence.
Wolfe stood, flailing his arms, as the roof shifted again, dropping another foot.
He turned back to see Shel staring at him, her hand at her mouth. Although Wolfe was pretty sure every thug in the greater Noimoire area knew where they were, he was still glad Shel didn’t shout for him and give herself away.
The roof cracked again, and dropped another couple feet. Wolfe continued to flail his arms, and grabbed a pip, but the portion of the roof Wolfe was on gave out, and a twenty-foot section ripped away, one edge falling down while the other remained half-attached to heated metal rods.
But the side only fell another fifteen feet or so before slamming into something, the whole roof segment at a forty-five-degree angle. Wolfe fell down the steep and relatively smooth surface till he caught a pipe, tripped over it, and slammed down on something else.
Another roof? was Wolfe’s first quizzical thought. He was staring at a roof with a slight wall around the side, and in that wall were red stained-glass windows depicting horrible tortures and abuses of mortals at the hands of demons. The roof and wall were painted black, and at the far end, there was a portion with stairs slightly down to a door set in the ceiling.
A couple cards slid down next to him, and Wolfe absently gathered them as he stared in shock at the baffling and poorly designed building in front of him.
As he stared, a card overlay appeared.
Temple of Corruption
Rare Tier-1 Elder Building
0 Power
Special: The owner of this building may pay 1 less of either Infernal, Elder, or Undead power inside their building for all cards.
Special: All of the deckbearer’s cards with ‘cultist’ in their title double their stats, to a max of +6 on each, if within a mile of the Temple of Corruption.
Special: The benefit of all Elder, Undead, and Infernal enhancement cards are doubled, as are the number of enhancement cards the deckbearer may have. However, each one adds a feature and either doubles all negatives, or, if there were no negatives, imposes -1 Health and -1 to any random stat.
“Liam did say that evil hobbit had a temple down here, and I can’t wait to see what he looks like now, given what I just read,” Wolfe muttered, standing.
The rods twenty feet behind him gave a tortured scream of breaking metal, and Wolfe turned, staring in brief shocked horror as the metal broke and the broken piece of roof fell.
Wolfe leapt off the piece of collapsing warehouse roof and onto the temple roof, grunting as he hit, his wounds painful.
He stood and brushed himself off for the however many-eth time today, noting that his shirt was all but gone, and even his pants were barely holding onto modesty.
He stared at the door in the roof. “I guess Damian and I are gonna settle this today after all.”