Wolfe swiveled and shot Zack Chang in the chest, blowing the man near in half. His enemy collapsed to the ground, red-brown cards spilling around him without so much as a single summon.
But Wolfe wasn’t sitting around to enjoy his kill—he dismissed the experience notification and raced to the side, leaping over a set of stone spikes into the basalt pew and half crouching. Bullets spanged around him, from Caine, but he only took a single point of damage from a slight hit to the shoulder. Caine’s toy pistol couldn’t do much against Wolfe’s net defense, between the actual stat and his resistance to Mortal damage.
Wolfe, on the other hand, had a double strength gun that ignored type disadvantage.
Wolfe knew he could have hit Damian for an insane nearly four hundred and fifty damage, but he also knew that with his temple, a mere four enhancement card slots—ten levels—would become eight enhancement cards in his deck that were all double strength. That was a lot of potential power. Plus, Damian had clearly put himself out to be attacked.
Never do what your enemy wants.
At the same time Wolfe was contemplating his moves, he threw his Fireborn Hellhound out, into the center aisle between the pews.
“Fuck, he got Zack!” Caine yelled.
“It won’t matter,” Damian said. “He’s dead anyway, and now we get Zack’s cards and don’t have to pay him.”
Caine flew on wings of fire to land behind the first row of pews, mimicking Wolfe’s defensive moves. The blond bastard threw a card out as he did.
A rune, glowing with white energy, appeared across the floor. It was complex, with numerous interlocking circles.
Preemptive Retribution
Uncommon Tier-3 Persistent
2 Divine, 1 Any Power
This card makes all opposing creatures Open: Any round it attacks, its opponent inflicts its damage first, and only if the creature survives will it inflict damage. This does not affect creatures whose attacks are ranged.
“Sometimes, angels don’t wait before taking down evildoers.”
Damian threw out his own card, and a massive, ten-foot-tall horned demon with all the muscles of an Olympic bodybuilder appeared.
Infernal Champion
Rare Tier-1 Infernal Creature
5 Infernal Power
Health: 35
Attack: 16
Defense: 16
Magical Attack: 0
Magical Defense: 16
Special: Terrifying Aura: When this creature comes into play, return any one creature that doesn’t have resistance to its type, or is of matching type, to the deckbearer’s deck.
Special: Neutral Defense: This creature does not take any extra damage from any source due to type disadvantage.
“Infernal Champions are trained to fight the strongest enemies of the Infernal, and embody the theory of rule by fear—most flee before their might.”
The setup proved too much for Cereboo—he turned into the Infernal Champion, only to be grabbed by his central head. Cereboo stopped with a whine, and tried to snap with his other heads. The Infernal Champion slung Cereboo sideways into the stone spikes on the end of one Pew. His health and defense were far insufficient to handle the damage, and a triple canine yip of pain, cut-off, was his only contribution to the fight.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Caine was behind cover, and Wolfe fired a cluster of shots at Damian, just to get a sense of what he was facing. He didn’t have the power to put any more cards out.
Deckbearer Ethan Wolfe and Deckbearer Damian Grimm engage in physical combat.
Ethan makes a Physical Attack at 23 (20 + 3 random roll) against Deckbearer Grimm’s Physical Defense of 26. Damage dealt is 28 (23 * 23 (1.375)/26)).
Damian grunted hoarsely as he was blasted three times in the chest, blood spewing from his chest. The Hutt wannabe coughed more blood as he lumbered backward. He tripped over the chain of one of the ‘slave girls’ he had—who let out a yelp as she was pulled to the ground—and half fell, half leapt off the dais to the back, out of sight.
But he didn’t die. Wolfe guessed that Damian’s total health bonuses were over eight net, but he was pretty sure they weren’t enough to take a second round of damage similar to what Wolfe had just done. Thank the gods that the building imposed some health penalties on the enhancer cards, or I’d be royally fucked.
Wolfe was still okay with his choice to start the fight with wasting Zack, though. He didn’t think he could have handled a third deckbearer.
At the same time Wolfe was attacking Damian, the Infernal Champion obliterated his Fireborn Hellhound, again without taking damage thanks to the Preemptive Retribution card.
Wolfe shot a few more times, since the ammo of Brimstone was infinite. But he was starting to become concerned about the fight, despite his great opening move.
A second Infernal Champion joined the fight next to the first, and Wolfe winced. Damian must have also gotten a great deal of power or cost reduction from whatever enhancers he had.
Caine also summoned Artenia.
Wolfe swiped his cards, getting a Pack Howl, a Tier-Four Angry Hellhound, Cerberus’ Home for Wayward Hellhounds, and a Lost Hellhound Puppy. He almost touched the Home, but stopped.
Wolfe had suddenly realized how he was about to get himself killed. He needed enough monsters to fight both of them and not let any of the big guys through, as they would kill him. If he threw the Home out, it would need a round, and Wolfe would get owned by the big guy.
Instead, Wolfe threw the Lost Hellhound Puppy out, and took aim at the big guy while quickly leaping from pew to pew. He fired repetitively at one of the Infernal Champions as he did, blasting it away.
Deckbearer Ethan Wolfe and Infernal Champion Card engage in physical combat.
Ethan makes a Physical Attack at 27 (20 + 7 random roll) against Infernal Champion’s Physical Defense of 16. Damage dealt is 62 (27 * 27 (1.375)/16)).
The Champion was wasted before it could attack, but the second one slaughtered Wolfe’s Lost Hellhound Puppy.
A Light energy magical attack from Artenia hit Wolfe, and he crashed to the ground behind a pew, grimacing as he took another five damage and his wound penalties went to two.
Wolfe quickly glanced over the pew to see that Caine had put a buff on Artenia—Sentence Passed—that allowed her to attack a deckbearer directly.
Shit, shit, shit. I got one minute before I’m dead, even assuming I draw one creature in the next card hand.
Wolfe leapt up, going for broke, to see that somehow, Damian had pulled another Infernal Champion. Damian shouldn’t have gotten the power from the first one back yet. It told Wolfe that Damian’s Enhancers were somehow reducing the cost of his Infernal Champions even further, or adding power, or both. There was no other way.
Wolfe fired rapidly and wiped one out while it also dropped the Angry hellhound.
After a moment, Wolfe turned, and aimed for the pew that Caine was hiding behind. It exploded, revealing Caine, who had pulled a Corporate Enforcer.
Wolfe bit his teeth to keep from screaming as another Light beam slashed along his side, burning him deeply despite his mantle.
Caine scrambled back, trying to find cover. His eyes were wide with fear as Wolfe leapt over pews toward him. He had actually wet himself, his once-immaculate white suit stained yellow around the crotch, and Wolfe sneered at him.
“Wa-wait!” Caine cried, his hands held out in front of him. “My dad is a billionaire! He can pay you whatever you want, take care of anything! Don’t kill me, please!”
Normally, Wolfe wouldn't hesitate to put Caine down. But the battle was turning against him, and he needed a way to get Damian fast.
“Then kill Damian, right now,” Wolfe said. “Do that, and I’ll spare you.”
“Don’t listen to him, we have him!” Damian screamed from behind the dais.
Wolfe knew they did—but he was pretty sure he could kill Caine at the same time, possibly a round earlier.
He swiped his cards.
At the same time, Brimstone disappeared, and Wolfe got a notification that its time on the field was over.
Caine smiled.
Wolfe had Cereboo back, as well as a Deal with the Devil, the useless Litter, the too costly Demonic Portal, and the Immolate.
Caine was being an idiot. The loss of three attack wasn’t significant since Wolfe had another thirty seconds with Hellfire, and that would be more than enough to finish Caine off.
But Wolfe would die as well if he did, since there would be too many creatures on the field for him to handle. He had to kill one of the Infernal Champions to prevent himself from being attacked. Wolfe couldn’t see a way around it. But if he didn’t kill Caine, Caine would just keep summoning, and Wolfe would be overwhelmed next round.
Fuck it. I’ll at least leave Damian with absolutely no followers, a pissed-off boss—whoever this guy’s dad is—and a whole situation to explain to the police when Rhett and his boys get here.
Wolfe raised his gun, prepared to drag all of Damian’s hopes to hell with him.