“Under the table!” Wolfe screamed, grabbing the edges of the darkwood table they sat at.
Shel dived under the table, but Harry and Pete were slower. Wolfe threw the table over, behind her, as the two tommy guns erupted. Wood splintered and the table shook, but Wolfe was already moving. He had one hand on his chest while he pulled the gun with other.
A deckbearer has pulled their deck near you.
Fuck.
When the initial spray stopped, Wolfe leaned around the side of the table.
Pete was down, multiple gunshots to the chest, in a spreading pool of his own blood. But Harry appeared somehow completely untouched, one of those freak luck things, and he shot one of the assailants in the chest while Wolfe shot the other. To his disgust, he hit the thigh instead of the torso of his target, but it was ultimately irrelevant as his target went down while trying to reload, and Harry and Wolfe each put a few more bullets into the guy.
Wolfe glanced around, taking stock—enforcers at various points around the club were dead or missing. We’ve been betrayed—someone let them in.
Wolfe also noted that quite a few party-goers were also down, many screaming as they bled, and a few unmoving. This is going to fuck Big Man Grimm’s operations for months if not years.
He turned back around to find that Big Man Grimm had three fiery red cards in front of him. Even as he watched, a card disappeared and a red aura settled over Big Man Grimm, giving him horns, bat-wings, a tail, and cloven feet as an aura around him. His eyes glowed red.
Wolfe took in the mantle.
Infernal Baron
(Legendary Tier-1)
5 Infernal Power
The hierarchy of the hells has accepted you, and you receive a portion of their power, making you an almost unstoppable killing force.
Infernal, Fire
Persistent (Mantle)
Gain 15 Magic attack and an additional 7 to each defense. Gain 30 health. Gain a fly movement capability. All Infernal creature cards gain 25% to their stats.
Well, fuck, I guess our enemies missed their chance, and holy crap, if I had that card with my perk… were the only two thoughts in Wolfe’s head as he stared at his boss. He hadn’t known that Big Man Grimm had upgraded his mantle since the last time Wolfe had seen it.
“It’s time to reap,” Big Man Grimm said, his voice seeming to reverberate from the very pit.
A person with a handgun gun typically rated about an eight to ten rating, so…
The massive gout of flame that hit the thug that came through the crowd left a chunk of charred meat that the coroners would have a hell of a time identifying—the thug didn’t even scream.
But the flame washed around, the air superheating to the point that people around the target screamed and yelled, and many staggered away cradling burns. As Wolfe glanced around, he saw a couple people with camera phones filming. Fuck! He’s gonna get himself arrested for accidentally killing the clubgoers!
“Be more careful!” Wolfe yelled. “Don’t hurt your clientele!”
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Big Man Grimm glanced around. “Fuck. Got it.”
Another thug came running up and Big Man Grimm touched one of his cards. An extremely sexy succubus sprung into existence, and the man stopped moving, just staring at her.
“We should go!” Wolfe cried out. “We’re not doing any good sitting here and fighting! We need to be where we can tell friend from foe!”
Big Man Grimm nodded, “Fine. We’ll take the evacuation plan and head for the garage. Call Rico—he’s on garage duty—and make sure that everything is fine. For now, let’s get to the elevators on the assumption it is.”
The four of them—Shel, Wolfe, Big Man Grimm, and Harry—all rushed toward the back wall of the club, where the elevators were, dodging or pushing through the screaming party-goers as they did. At the same time, Wolfe dialed Rico.
“Wolfe?” came Rico’s voice. “What’s going on?”
A gunshot went off amid the general cacophony around them.
“Was that a gunshot?” Rico asked.
“Yes. Is the garage clear of Cobras?” Wolfe asked.
“Yeah.”
“We’ll be there shortly,” Wolfe said, hanging up the phone.
A few more gunshots went off, but the attack seemed disorganized, and nothing else came at them before the elevators arrived. The four of them jumped in, and Wolfe hit the down button.
“When this is all done,” Big Man Grimm growled out, his voice heavy, “I want you to sow the city with the corpses of the Cobras.”
“I figured,” Wolfe responded.
“We need to hire new people—people we can trust,” Big Man Grimm said.
Wolfe nodded, but he knew that part of the conversation wasn’t really for him. The elevator reached the garage level and everyone exited. It was like entering a new world—no screams, no gunshots, everything was clear, like what was happening above was a distant nightmare. They headed for the SUV that Big Man Grimm kept in the garage for just this emergency.
Wolfe was uneasy, but it took him a moment to figure it out. He held his hand up. “Wait.”
Everyone, even Big Man Grimm, stopped.
“What’s going on?” Wolfe’s boss asked. As he did, the mantle faded from him and rushed back into the deck. He pulled more cards and began to cycle through them, most likely looking for his mantle again.
Wolfe was looking around, his gun half raised. He also touched his chest, bringing his cards out and looking for his own mantle. “It’s too quiet here. They had guys all over the club for fuck’s sake! Practically coming out of the damn woodwork. Now it’s just peaceful and safe here? I don’t buy it.”
Shel’s eyes darted between Big Man Grimm and Wolfe, and she brough her own deck forth.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked.
“Maybe just walk up to the street and call an Uber?” Wolfe asked.
“If there’s someone out there, we’ll definitely be dead if we do that,” Big Man Grimm responded, his tone matching his last name.
As they were speaking, Rico walked over to them, his brow furrowed over brown eyes. “What’s going on?”
“The club is under attack,” Wolfe replied. Then an idea struck him. “Did you bring your car, Rico?”
Rico nodded, his eyes quizzical.
“And you, Harry?” Wolfe asked.
Harry dutifully nodded as well.
“Look, let’s have Rico here take the SUV, we’ll take Rico’s car at the back of the pack, and Harry can lead us out. If nothing happens, we can switch cars a couple blocks down.”
“What do you think will happen?” Rico asked nervously.
Wolfe shrugged. “I don’t know, but they knew enough to get past he guards here… so it might be something.”
Rico was hesitant, but Big Man Grimm leaned in. “I’ll pay you ten-thousand extra to do this one thing—something you should already be handling.”
Rico’s eyes filled with greed and he nodded, then fished his keys from his pocket and handed them to Wolfe.
Wolfe flipped his cards and his mantle showed. He grabbed it and the familiar red aura settled around him, forming tiny horns on his head and turning his skin red.
Shel also found her aura, and a golden radiance rushed into her and then emanated from her body.
Rico pointed to a boring sedan style car in blue. “That’s mine there.”
Big Man Grimm handed Rico his own keys, and everyone scattered. Big Man Grimm, Shel, and Wolfe all got into the blue sedan. The floor was filled with wrappers and empty plastic drink bottles, both front and back, and Big Man Grimm frowned at the mess as he got in the front. Shel went to the back.
Harry drove out in his own car, a solid Ford truck, a touch older and faded. He drove to the exit, paused, and then turned onto the street heading left. It was late enough—or early enough, depending on your perspective—that the street was empty outside, well-lit by the two fancy clubs on either side. The one across the street was a lot tamer than the Ekron Eternal, with a floral theme, including a row of bushes around the outside. Rico went next, driving the same black SUV Wolfe had taken the boss’s daughter Miriam to the airport—among other places—in. He stopped at the exit, paused, and then drove out onto the road as Wolfe drove the blue sedan toward the exit.
A brief flash came from behind the bushes across the street, and the SUV blew apart in a fiery explosion. A piece of metal flew through the front window of Wolfe’s temporary car, blowing the entire front windshield apart and lashing glass across Wolfe’s eyes in a flash of agony despite his red aura adding protection. He heard Big Man Grimm cussing, Shel’s scream, and gunfire as he opened the door and tried to roll to safety while blind.