A shadow near one of the boxes moved, and Wolfe pulled his gun and splayed his hand onto his chest, feeling the fire and hunger before pulling his deck as well. He almost ended whomever was sneaking up on them, but remembered that he needed to let one of the fuckers around here live.
“Come out and keep your hands where I can see them!” Wolfe called. He grabbed his ‘soul hunter’ mantle and put it on as well.
A ginger guy, a few inches short of six feet and emaciated thin, stumbled from among the pipes and into the light provided by Sorenia’s lantern. Even in the dim, cool night air Wolfe could see the sweat beading on him, and the guy stared back at Wolfe with wide eyes, pupils dilated. One eye was bruised, his upper lip was cut, and his nose was smashed, with crusted blood all over the upper lip and in his faint red-fuzz mustache.
Kevin.
“Stop hurting me, please!” Kevin cried out, falling to his knees in front of Wolfe.
Wolfe holstered his gun and reached down to grab Kevin, who was blubbering after his brief declaration. Kevin flinched away from him and cried out “No!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Wolfe said, savagely. “You’re going to bring everyone down on us, on the off chance Sorenia isn’t guiding them here already!”
Shel rushed forward and knelt, putting her arms around Kevin. “It’s okay, Kev. It’s fine. We’re here now. You’re safe. They can’t hurt you anymore.”
Wolfe was glancing around, sure that the noise would bring everyone down on them, when someone else stepped from the shadows around a cluster of pipes, gun out and pointed at Shel. “Can’t we, bitch?”
At the same time, a small, four-foot-tall demon with burning skin and knives for fingers hurled itself at Wolfe.
Wolfe jumped into the path of the bullet while simultaneously pulling his weapon and firing back, a three shot burst right at his opponent’s chest.
The bullet from the other guy slammed into Wolfe’s stomach—about where Shel’s head would have been—even as his three shots hit his opponent in the chest. The other creature slashed at Wolfe, its claws painful as they dragged along Wolfe’s side.
A notification box appeared.
Deckbearer Ethan Wolfe engages in combat with unknown Deckbearer.
Ethan makes a ranged Physical Attack at 18 against unknown deckbearer’s Physical Defense of 6. Damage dealt is 54. (18 * (18/6)). Damage exceeds unknown deckbearer’s health. Unknown deckbearer slain.
Unknown deckbearer is eliminated. Unknown deckbearer was a Level 4 deckbearer and Deckbearer Ethan Wolfe gains 57 experience.
Unknown deckbearer makes a physical attack at 12 against Ethan Wolfe’s defense 12. Damage dealt is 12. (12 * (12/12)). Ethan Wolfe has 13 health remaining. (25 temporary maximum – 12).
Klackit makes a physical attack at 9 against Deckbearer Ethan Wolfe’s defense of 14. Damage dealt is 4. (8 * (8/14)). Ethan Wolfe has 9 health remaining.
Klackit involuntarily returned to card form upon death of unknown deckbearer.
Wolfe was left bent over, blood streaming from a hole in his stomach and claw marks along his side—but his enemies were all down or unsummoned in just a few seconds.
Wolfe had already been moderately hurt from his gunshot and claw slash he had gotten during his time at the pound. Now he added an agonizing second gunshot wound and slash wound both. The pain was borderline debilitating, and Wolfe thanked the stars for both his natural toughness and the mantle. Without either he would be dead, instead of just wishing he was.
Shel sprang to her feet, crying, and ran over to Wolfe, grabbing his arm and trying to help him remain standing.
“Are… are you okay, man?” Kevin asked, staring at Wolfe.
“I said, shut the fuck up!” Wolf hissed out. “That was their deckbearer, but we need to go. There is almost no chance that they didn’t bring reinforcements!”
Wolfe started to hobble from the area, but even as he did, he heard yells from further in the complex. They sounded as if they were headed this way.
“Fuck!” Wolfe snarled out, straightening himself. “You guys get out of here!”
“What’re you going to do?” Shel asked, her eyes wide.
Sorenia walked up as well, her light shining like a beacon to all of Wolfe’s enemies. Wolfe held his hand up to her. “Go back, please, to at least pull the enemies a bit in the wrong direction.”
Sorenia backed up, but as she did, she gave Wolfe a salute with her free hand. “That was a brave and noble thing, not what I expected of a dark deckbearer. Thank you. Perhaps I was wrong about you.”
“Great,” Wolfe huffed out, still in agony. He felt like he should make some cynical joke, but the approval of an angel was probably a good thing, and no joke came.
He let it go and turned to Shel, giving her a smile that was almost a grimace. “I’m going to do what I do best. Murder everyone.”
“I might have spoken too soon,” Sorenia said, frowning at Wolfe.
Wolfe couldn’t help but laugh. It was a brief time I spent in the light.
“You’re… so wounded,” Shel said, staring at the blood pouring soaking Wolfe’s shirt. Her hands were fluttering nervously, like she couldn’t figure out what to do with them.
“Happens,” Wolfe muttered, stiffly walking over and taking the deckbearer’s cards from his body. Even as he did, he hit the ‘five minute’ mark on his mantle, which faded back to his deck.
Wolfe happened to glance at the top card, which was the companion card.
Klackit (Unique, effective Power 2, effective Tier-5)
0 power
Wrathful Lemures
Infernal
Companion
Attack
8
Magical Attack
4
Defense
5
Magical Defense
5
Health
11
Special: Companion.
Special: Rage of the Wrathful Dead. All 1 and 2 power cost Infernal and Undead creature cards have +1 to all stats while Klackit is in play.
Special: Strength in numbers: All 1 and 2 power cost Infernal and Undead creature cards do not count against maximum cards in play so long as Klackit is in the deck.
Interesting. Not sure it’s worth a second companion card slot, but maybe…
He pocketed them and spoke without turning. “Now get your brother back to the car!”
Shel pulled a card, and a golden mantle settled around her. She grabbed her brother with one hand and pointed with another. “Run back where we came from, and wait for us at the car! We’re going to, um, defeat the bad guys.”
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Wolfe snorted at her phrasing but was warmed by her choice. She’s gonna stand by my side, huh? Half of me wants to send her away, but I could use a second deckbearer I suspect.
Kevin ran stumbling into the dark, but at least he was headed in the right direction, Wolfe noted sardonically.
Wolfe put Kevin from his mind to focus on the task at hand—murdering the Cobras. He moved into the shadows of the boxes, cycling cards while he looked for his mantle.
Just as he found it and put ‘soul hunter’ back on, he got another notification that a deckbearer had pulled their deck near him. Fuck. How many damned deckbearers do the Cobra have? I’ve already killed two in the last three days.
Wolfe moved among the pipes and boxes of the construction site, positioning himself so that he would be able to see people coming from the same direction as the dead “unknown deckbearer” had come from. He kept himself in the shadow provided by a box, but positioned so that the light provided by Sorenia’s lantern would hit anyone heading toward his position.
Shel followed and crouched down beside him. He motioned her behind a box, to hide her soft golden glow from enemies—he was extremely glad she had her mantle on. It made her a lot harder to kill.
Wolfe decided to go for broke and brought forth Cereboo and then cycled his deck until he had his ‘fireborn hellhound’ card, and tossed it onto the field beside his three-headed boxer puppy. Wolfe had never summoned it before, but it didn’t disappoint. It was larger than Cereboo and all muscle, with a look closer to a Doberman than a normal hound, but fire flickered across its sparse black fur, and its eyes glowed an equally fiery red.
He directed both dogs to crouch in hiding positions as well, hoping that the glowing Sorenia would be enough distraction to keep his three companions hidden.
Wolfe sent an ironic prayer to the gods, hoping his enemies wouldn’t take to long to arrive, as his everything was hurting again, and he wanted to get this over with and get to Big Man Grimm as soon as possible.
Wolfe had thought about using the ‘no kill pound’ and focusing on getting ‘rescue puppies’ into play, but the ‘fireborn hellhound’ was simply far stronger than the ‘no kill pound’ card until he had more synergy, and his card limit and total power meant that Cereboo, a mantle, and one of his three-power cards was as good as he was going to get for the moment.
Even as he was thinking about his tactics, a Cobra thug showed up, stalking among the boxes, heading toward Sorenia. Shel started forward, but Wolfe held his hand up.
As Wolfe had predicted, another four thugs moved forward. They were still shadowed, but from Wolfe’s angle, he saw them all. Five of them against five of us—but I don’t think any of them are the deckbearer. It’s time.
Wolfe surged into action, standing and moving forward.
Even as Wolfe moved forward Shel pulled her own card. A woman with a tight white uniform and a bag with the red cross on it appeared. Before Wolfe could voice his ‘what the hell?” thought, he saw that the card was a ‘rookie EMT’ card.
Rookie EMT (Mortal, Common)
1 Mortal
This guy just got his certificate, and really wants to save lives. As long as his hands stop shaking.
Mortal
Creature(Medic)
Attack
1
Magical Attack
0
Defense
5
Magical Defense
5
Health
8
Special: When the rookie EMT enters play, it may fully restore one creature card or restore 3 health to a deckbearer. Deckbearers may not benefit more than once every 24 hours from this ability, from the same card
Special: If on the field with any ‘veteran’ card, this card heals twice as much to Deckbearers or all creatures of the same deckbearer on the field.
Wolfe felt magic run through him, and the wounds on his body stopped bleeding. For a moment Wolfe felt perfect, but then the sensation faded, and he merely felt… slightly better than he had. A check revealed that he was at twelve of thirty health now, and not nine.
He didn’t waste the opportunity. He ordered Cereboo at one enemy and his Fireborn hellhound at the other.
The third thug went down in a hail of blood as Wolfe clustered three bullets into the cobra’s back. He dismissed the notification of his gain of twelve experience and leapt a pipe to change positions before anyone drew a bead on him.
Sorenia fired a couple beams of light from her lantern into the grouping, missing a couple times but winging one thug, and Shel brought forth her tier-two ‘rookie riot police’ card. The card appeared, plastic shield and sparking baton held tight as it moved forward and slapped at the same one that Sorenia had winged, shocking and bruising the already wounded thug but not taking it down.
The one guy that hadn’t been hit turned, but Wolfe shot him in the chest. That thug joined his brethren on the bare concrete of the construction site in a pool of spreading blood. A couple bullets spranged off the metal around him from the guy that had dodged most of Sorenia’s attacks, but fortunately nothing hit. The ‘fireborn Hellhound’ slew his guy with a rip at the thug’s neck that turned into a geyser of blood. The last thug was screaming as Cereboo chewed on him, although one of Cereboo’s heads and been shot and hung useless.
Wolfe rushed forward along the side of a huge metal container, prepared to end the last guy. But when he tried to cross between two boxes to get a better angle for the shot, an arm swept from the darkness and slammed into his chest. Wolfe’s legs kept going forward and he did a comical bit where he swung half around the arm before he was slammed to the ground back first, his back and wounds screaming in agony as he dropped back to eight health. But it didn’t stop him from pointing his gun upward.
At the same time, two huge frog demons rushed past Wolfe, leaping at Cereboo and the ‘fireborn hellhound’ and clawing at them, ripping gouges from their flanks but failing to finish them off.
Wolfe’s attacker resolved into Nico, whose face was half covered in bandages. He put his gun to Wolfe’s head as Wolfe put his gun in Nico’s stomach.
But Nico’s eyes widened as he saw who it was, and he pulled his gun back and yelled out, “Stop, stop, everyone stop!” At the same time, his frog demons disappeared and rushed back into his chest.
Wolfe, remembering what was happening with Nico and Damian, didn’t pull his trigger either.
His one thug stopped firing, and Shel called out “Stop fighting, Sorenia!” as well.
Wolfe realized the dynamic and dismissed Cereboo as fast as possible, hoping that Nico hadn’t seen the card. But he forgot to call off the ‘fireborn hellhound,’ and the thug that had been mostly eaten by Cereboo gave another scream as the mutt finished him off.
Wolfe unsummoned the card and muttered, “Sorry, my bad,” as he dismissed the experience notification.
“Fucking cute,” Nico said, snarling down at Wolfe before grimacing and returning his bandaged face to neutrality. “Perhaps I should drop you into the cement around here. I’m sure I can get some going just for you. I’ll tell Damian it was just a big accident.”
His eyes were feverish even as he kept his face still. “Or perhaps I should just kill your girl, here,” he said, pointing his gun at Shel.
Wolfe’s blood ran cold, but he kept his cool, acting like everything was no big deal. “I said I was sorry. Calm down. It was an accident.”
“Why are you killing my people anyway?” Nico said, leaning in close to Wolfe, who could smell B.O. with a hint of chemicals and medical ointment both.
Wolfe pushed him away a bit and sat up, keeping his gun at his side and down, then stood the rest of the way up and brushed himself off. “I didn’t know these were your boys. I was just trying to rescue Shel’s idiot brother.”
“Who? Kevin? He’s your squeeze’s brother?” Nico asked.
“She’s not my ‘squeeze,’ but yeah, he’s her brother. I didn’t know you guys were here, seriously. Or recognize any of these as ‘your guys’ per se.”
“Per se?” Nico asked, puzzled for a moment.
Shel was staring at them, wide-eyed. “Please let Kevin go.”
Nico glanced over at her. “We don’t let people leave the gang, especially traitors and incompetent fools.”
Wolfe fished a cigarette out and lit it, briefly watching the dead people around him, the five thugs laying awkwardly over and among the piping they had snuck up through. A ton of blood was now pooling across the cement. Wolfe took a drag, trying to think the situation through.
Stupid piece of shit is gonna cost me, but I’ve made more than a million in cards, likely close to that just in the cards of the dead guy. I can easily afford to do the thing Shel wants here.
Wolfe made his first play to Nico. “I’ll give you a card, a common, power one, tier one. You forget Kevin was here.”
Nico glanced around. “Where’s Ivan?”
Wolfe took another drag on his cigarette, everything but his head hurting. “No idea who the fuck that is.”
“Ivan, the deckbearer? Had a weird Lemure with him?”
Wolfe exhaled, blowing smoke through the darkness, which was lit by Sorenia’s lantern. He watched the patterns of the smoke interacting with the lantern light for a few seconds. Right. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that. Still…
“Dead. He shot me, got what was coming to him.”
Nico’s eyes narrowed. “Give me his cards.”
“Don’t think I will. It’s the ‘shot me’ toll.”
Nico touched his own bandaged face. “You shot me! Should I get a bunch of your cards?”
Wolfe laughed. “No. I didn’t shoot you, Miriam shot you. Big Man Grimm’s daughter. That wasn’t on me. Take it up with her.”
“Give me the cards,” Nico snarled, starting to raise his gun again.
Wolfe left his gun down and pulled his own weapon of choice for the situation—his phone. “Shall we ask Damian how he feels about it?”
Nico paused, gun half drawn, and everyone stood around silently. After a moment, Nico snarled, winced, and shoved his gun into his pants. “Fine, asshole.”
“Look, I’ll give you two cards to give me Kevin and get out of here.”
Nico briefly appeared as if he would explode but finally nodded, and Wolfe passed him the ‘Tiny demonic pitchfork’ and a tier one ‘torturer imp’ cards.
“I’m out of here,” Nico said. “Being around you and knowing we’re on the same team makes me sick. Just make sure you do your damned part of this!”
Everyone wants me to do something for them, even my fucking nemesis. Shit. Shoulda gotten a damn union.
“Yeah, I’ll get right on it,” Wolfe said, taking another drag on his cigarette.
Nico glared at Wolfe for a bit and then stomped off into the darkness.
Shel threw her arms around Wolfe, who grunted in pain. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Wolfe. I can’t believe you saved Kevin. You saved him from a deckbearer and everything, and then just gave so much money. I can’t ever make this up to you.”
Wolfe chuckled, then winced as his wounds yelled back at him. “Eh, fucking with Nico is practically how I get my rocks off. Watching him enraged and unable to kill me was worth the price of admission.”
“Still… thank you,” Shel said, letting go of his torso and gently taking his arm.
Sorenia came up behind them, lighting everything, but didn’t add anything to the commentary. Wolfe thought he could read approval in her face, though.
“Let’s get out of here before the cops come,” Wolfe said.
Shel nodded, and the two of them walked out of the tangle of half-built industrial plant, across the open space, and to the broken fence. Just as they arrived, the sirens started.
Wolfe walked through, glancing around, his rage rising. Trash? Check. Dimly lit street with no streetlights? Check. Homeless encampment? Also check.
Kevin and Wolfe’s Car? Not check.
Son of a fucking bitch.
“I’m going to kill him,” Wolfe muttered, his body shaking with rage.
Shel tittered nervously.
But Wolfe calmed a bit as the sirens got closer. He stepped into the street and headed across as he pulled his phone.
“What’re you doing?” Shel asked.
“Calling a gods’ damned Uber.”