Wolfe occupied the place that Shel had occupied an hour before—the small dugout on the side of the Rat Arena floor. He gave Shel a quick pat on the back as she strode forward to touch the same glowing panel on the plinth that Wolfe had touched.
She hesitated briefly as her hand hovered over the panel, the only sound the impatient tapping of Clive’s shoe on the ground.
“You’ve got this,” Wolfe said.
Shel squared her shoulders and touched the panel. There was a brief pause, and then the screen flashed.
Shel’s Vengeful Orphan card came up.
Wolfe felt himself tensing. It wasn’t Sorenia, but the Vengeful Orphan is a solid card.
Shel froze in place—but at the same time, another Shel walked a few feet into the arena.
“Is that what happened with me?” Wolfe asked, turning to Clive.
Clive nodded. “Yeah, pretty much the same for everyone.”
“When I looked back, I didn’t see myself,” Wolfe said.
Clive gave Wolfe a crooked smile. “Well, it wouldn’t feel real if you just saw yourself back there hanging out, now would it? Just be a good boy and watch the arena selection.”
“Asshole,” Wolfe said with little heat, turning back to the action. Creepy bastard. But I can’t punch every idiot that makes dog joke.
The Arena shifted, and the announcer cried out, “Well, ladies and gentleman, you’ll need to hold onto your popcorn! Shel and Hector are in for a treat, and so is this entire audience!”
“What happened?” Wolfe asked as four massive, ancient, pitted pillars of stone rose, two on each end of the Arena away from Shel and her opponent Hector.
“Shh!” Clive put his finger to his mouth and glared at Wolfe.
“The Arena has selected the Remnants battlefield, which I think we’ve seen less than five times before tonight! The shades of two ancient Beast deckbearers, lost in this land ages before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, will be joining the fight!”
Wolfe frowned. Beast deckbearers would be weak against the Mortal cards in Shel’s deck, but still.
“How powerful?” Wolfe asked.
“For the love of all the gods, please let us watch!” Clive said.
Don’t punch our host, don’t punch out host, Wolfe repeated to himself as a mantra.
Shel touched her chest and tossed out a card—the Police Academy card. A brief image of her face, and the card, appeared in Wolfe’s vision along the outside of the arena.
A solid first pull. One of her best possible starts.
At the same time, He saw the face of Hector as he pulled a card—a four-winged, bird headed demon with claws on hands and feet that stood almost ten feet tall.
Pazuzu’s Get
Rare Tier-1 Infernal/Elemental[Wind] Creature
2 Infernal, 1 Wind, 2 Any power
Health: 35
Attack: 9
Magical Attack: 9
Defense: 9
Magical Defense: 9
Special: Perfect Movement: At any turn after the creature enters, may move instantly to any point within a 1000’ that could be reached in a direct line and attack any enemy that would then be available to strike, regardless of any other rules governing targets.
Special: Untouchable: 50% of all physical attacks targeting this card miss.
Special: Ward Infernal, Elemental, Fire: 50% damage to deckbearer and all allied cards from Infernal and Elemental types and all Fire energy.
“While not as strong as their father, Pazuzu’s Get can be found tormenting their enemies and protecting their allies in most of the desert wastelands of the old world.”
“Oh my!” the announcer called. “Hector is going for the immediate kill. Pazuzu’s get was a favorite of deckbearer’s that was introduced at the turn of the millennia—it allows a very fast killing of your opponent if you get it out and hold it!”
Wolfe couldn’t help but agree, and groaned nervously. Fuck, that is crazy strong—although it’s a demon and won’t really help with its protections. But it could go right after Shel—and possibly kill her in a single round next turn.
Two other people with vaguely Amerind features showed up in the screen, and one pulled a Rainbow Coyote, a three power Beast/Meta card that could deal damage as any energy type, and the second pulled a card called Tree line that created a Plant persistent that reduced all incoming damage from all enemy sources by twenty percent, but could be removed by any Golem or Fire direct damage spell.
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Near Shel, a small building rose with generic police symbols on it. She stepped so that the building blocked the line of sight of the enemy and the Pazuzu’s Get card.
At the same time, A line of trees grew near the one faux deckbearer, and a medium-sized coyote with iridescent fur sprang up near the other.
A single Rookie Riot Police popped out of the Police Academy.
Unlike in Wolfe’s fight, no deckbearer changed positions. Shel’s phantom still stood a mere few feet in front of Wolfe, now out of line of sight of everything else.
She still had three cards in front of her, and a fourth off to the side—Sorenia, her companion. Wolfe saw her reach for it, but as she did, she hesitated.
Her enemy pulled another card while she hesitated.
Pentagram of Demonic Strength
Uncommon Tier-1 Infernal Persistent
3 Infernal Power
Special: All Infernal cards get +50% to all stats and resist death at 1 Health the first time they would be removed for any reason except sacrifice.
Special: No card may remove an Infernal card except by dealing damage
“Sometimes, the power of the Infernal pours into the world, overwhelming all else.”
A circle of black flames sprang up in front of Hector, and Wolfe saw the Pazuzu card alter, going to a flat twenty on its basic stats.
At the same time, it blasted sideways, appearing next to the other deckbearer in his tree line. It attacked.
Wolfe saw the hit displayed on the outside of the arena—fourteen damage, squared, against the deckbearer’s current defense of five. Wolfe was interested to see that Arena-created deckbearers didn’t get a modifier to their defense like actual human deckbearers did. Instead, they thing had its hundred and ninety-six damage divided by a mere five, dropping it to thirty-eight damage, which was still nearly two times the deckbearers life. The twenty percent Treeline card reduction did almost nothing, reducing the overkill from two-to-one to merely one-and-a-half-to-one.
“Ooo! Pazuzu’s Get swings for the fences!” the announcer called amid cheering from the balcony around the side. A brief flash of blood and the deckbearer, and the trees, disappeared.
Pazuzu’s Get turned to face Shel now that it had line-of-sight.
Shel withdrew her hand from where it hovered in front of Sorenia and touched another card.
The Rookie Police Officer faced skyward and screamed, and then disintegrated.
Barter the Soul flashed on the arena wall.
“This is why we watch!” screamed the announcer. “The one play that changes everything. Pazuzu’s get, now empowered, just changed sides!”
A second Rainbow Coyote joined the fight, as well as another Rookie Riot Police, put out by the Police Academy.
The first Rainbow Coyote was heading across toward Shel, and the second joined as well.
“Bullshit!” Wolfe called when the Arena sent both against Shel.
“Shut up!” Clive said. “It’s random. Your squeeze just got unlucky!”
Wolfe wasn’t too worried—he assumed Shel was now going to be the winner since she controlled the overpowered Pazuzu’s Get.
Hector frantically swiped cards, but a look of triumph replaced his grimace of fear, and he dissolved the Pentagram of Demonic Strength and hit another card.
Bar the Gates
3 Any Power [Available]
All Divine, Elder, Infernal, and Elemental creature cards are banished. The power used remains gone for an entire extra card switch.
“‘This is a world of Mortals, and our influences should be indirect. And I would trade all my influence to be rid of theirs.’--Raphael, Archangel of Kindness, protector of Mortals.”
Wolfe sighed in frustration, but Shel didn’t hesitate, throwing out the Guiding Light card.
Guiding Light
1 Light, 1 Divine Power
+2 to all Stats of any Mortal card
“‘You must be a Guiding Light to guide Mortals to be free of the influence of the damned’—Raphael, to the 30th Lantern Angel cohort.”
At the same time, a Rookie Riot Police popped out of the Police Academy.
“Hector really saves his bacon with that pull, but now he’s got no cards on the field while the beautiful Shel has four!” the announcer called. “How can he recover?”
One of the Rainbow Coyote’s reached Shel, but turned to attack the older of the Rookie Riot Police with its new increased stats. Even though the Wolf attacked using Death energy, the matchup was still mixed since it was a Beast attacking a Mortal, and both took damage—the Coyote more.
A “Coyote Pack” appeared by the other deckbearer. It was a beefier creature at three power, but still not amazing with the bad match-up.
Wolfe was still hopeful despite Pazuzu’s get having been vanished—Shel had the best position of the three remaining deckbearers he thought, and not by a small margin. Each of her once weak Rookie Riot Police was now eight attack, nine defense, and eight magical defense, with solid match-ups against Beast cards.
The next thirty seconds solidified Wolfe’s certainty that Shel still had the fight. Sorenia came out, pushing the now three Rookie Riot Police to ten, eleven, and ten on stats and making them take half damage from Infernal Sources as well.
Hector, meanwhile, apparently didn’t have enough power left for the pull thanks to the Bar the Gates card, Wolfe assumed.
The rest of the fight was slow, but certain, with Shel slowly cleaning up, maintaining field advantage with too many cards coming too fast and with too much power for Hector to ever recover. Toward the end, there was a brief moment when a Pazuzu’s Get rejoined the field, but Shel had two Barter the Souls, and she simply took the Get again.
The end was rather anti-climatic, and the crowd’s cheers were anemic. But Shel handled it well all the same. And her choice of cards in the beginning had been perfect.
The field faded and the true Shel, frozen in front of the screen, gasped, her hand holding the card that had been wagered—the Bar the Gates card. She turned to Wolfe, her eyes glowing. Then she ran and leapt on Wolfe, wrapping her legs around him and hugging him.
“I did it, I did it!” she exulted.
“I knew you could,” Wolfe said, smiling and kissing her.
Clive made gagging noises. “We are not amused.”
“Shh!” Wolfe said to Clive in imitation of his earlier comment and laughed.
Clive joined in, surprising Wolfe. Okay, so a weirdo and jackass, but at least he has a sense of humor about it.
“You did well, young deckbearer,” a woman’s voice, cultured and precise, said. “Would you care to wager that card you just got against me?”
Wolfe turned, and Shel hopped down from him.
Standing across from him was a lady, dressed in a long, black lacy dress that was simultaneously sexy and demure. She had pale white skin and long hair so blonde it was almost white.
Clive coughed. “Surely she wouldn’t—”
“Quiet,” the woman said, her voice suddenly cold and commanding. Wolfe marveled at her vocal control as Clive just shut up, and even Wolfe felt a hint of danger from her.
“Well?” The lady asked.
Shel glared at her. “You’re the one we saw fighting when we came in—Elizabeth, Infernal Champion.”
Elizabeth smiled. Her voice was reasonable and not threatening as she said. “Not Infernal Champion—Champion of Enlil. I won’t bet against anything in your deck—and if you beat me with your Divine deck, which has advantage, you’ll probably go up five to six levels. I’ll give you three million dollars if you win. So whatever the Arena takes, we agree to trade back in return for the specific prizes. What do you say?”
Shel glanced at her phone.
Wolfe started to speak. “I don’t think—”
Shel held her hands up. “No. I’ll do it.”
Wolfe glanced at her. Her face was set, her expression fierce.
Elizabeth smiled, a smile not that different from Wolfe’s when some baby enforcer tried to ‘step’ to him back in the day. “Brilliant.”