Since Walt’s weapon had gone off cooldown after a minute, that meant Ricky’s weapon was off cooldown as well. The necromancer snarled and flew at the Void Fucker.
Walt scanned his opponent’s winged boots with his system interface.
[Examine]
[Boots of Nemora]
[Use: 1/3 Turns]
After this turn, the necromancer’s winged boots would expire. So that meant he’d be more accessible to Walt’s minions. Hopefully.
Ricky swung his bone scythe in a vertical motion, slicing the Void Fucker down the middle. The spectral souls of people spilled out of both halves of the minion and dissolved away into eternity. The two halves of the Void Fucker fell to the floor, the hands flailing at the sky before growing limp and fading away back to the virtual storage space of the card.
“Get this weak shit outta here,” Ricky said. He spoke into his cam. “This dude really thinks his weak ass minions can do anything.”
[Examine]
[Bone Scythe]
[Weapon]
[1/4 Use]
Walt could take another ten damage from Ricky’s weapon. After the necromancer used it, it would be gone. He had wasted one of its uses to cut the building in half.
“Talking shit to the noob with a Starter Deck?” Walt said. “Has anyone ever told you you’re so good at this game?”
Walt flicked two cards into the air.
The first one burst into light and the Voidlock tentacle symbol flashed in the air. It shot out at Ricky, tendrils of black and purple light entangling him and then penetrating his form. He hunched a little and grew even more pale. A noxious aura surrounded him and a debuff icon appeared over his head.
He had been afflicted by Desecrate X. Which would enhance Walt’s Darkened Soul Art damage against him.
The second spun across the floor, leaving a slick trail of blood. A plump Blood Worm Bomber appeared in its place, sliding across the floor on the blood like it was a snot trail. It was about the size of a German Shepherd. It pulsated, oozing coagulated blood.
And then he did something to risk it all.
He needed to play one more card, but he needed 3 extra Vigor Stones.
So he braced himself for a world of pain. He Soultapped three times in a row. The first instance made him stumble as the life drained out of him, transferring into a Vigor Stone. The second tap brought him to his knee, turning the veins on his arms black. On the third tap he heard himself screaming, and the sensation that there was a giant needle in his core, extracting him of his essence.
Each successive Soultap cost one extra Health Point, so he had ended up using 36 Health Points to play the next card.
The card was Replicate. He dropped it to the ground and it turned to light, blinking over his plump minion.
The Blood Worm onboard shone crimson and shimmered. Three more Blood Worms materialized in front of it and spread across the board.
Voidlock
Health Points: 35
Ricky laughed at the two cards. “That all you got?” He spoke into his cam again. “This fool didn’t even put a minion on the battleboard. Delete this game, my guy. Here, I’ll do you a favor and help you.”
Since Walt had finally played his cards, that meant Ricky could play his.
The Necromancer threw the glowing card like it was a shuriken. It spun end over end and arced into the sky and exploded into the equivalent of a laser light show on the Fourth of July. With each flash of light, Walt could see glimpses of other blue barrier matrixes and the mayhem the Psycho Slinger presence was causing in the city. The sky over Terminus place turned blood red as the light show continued.
It was a Legendary card, after all. And it was quite the spectacle.
Something was forming in the sky. A birth of sorts. Flesh, skin and muscle was accumulating into a ball in the air. The air filled with gore as an invisible force ripped the corpses within the blue battleboard arena of their meat. The hundreds of parts reassembled itself into a new, massive form.
It was a Flesh Golem. A patchwork giant of flesh, skin and gore assembled from all nearby dead people. To Walt, he thought of those mecha animes. Except this mecha was made out of meat. It fell from the sky and landed on the exposed building, nearly cratering the floor.
Its arrival destroyed all the Blood Worms Walt had played. That must have been its War Whoop effect. So when this card was played, it destroyed all of Ricky’s opponent’s minions that were on the battleboard.
The worms erupted into mushroom clouds of blood and Ricky groaned as their four Death Cry effects dinged him for a total of [12 Damage Points]. Not only that, each ping of damage was amplified by Desecrate X. Ricky’s body flared crimson and green each time a dying worm damaged him, augmented by the Desecrate X debuff. His health was knocked down to [48 Health Points].
But Ricky still had one Vigor Stone left and he used it to play one more card. He tossed it above his head and it burst into gold light that fell on his body, healing him for twelve Health Points.
A burst of gold light also appeared over Walt, and he felt a sudden warmth of healing power.
----------------------------------------
[Examine]
[Necro Flash Heal]
----------------------------------------
Necro Flash Heal. Spell. Set: Necromantic. Rarity: Rare. Spellforged by the Necromancer, Essie Fleshmend, cast this spell for a quick restorative necro heal. Also heals enemy Hero.
Heals target for 12 Health Points, Heals enemy Hero for 12 Health Points
Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
The Necromancer’s health had raised to [60 Health Points].
Walt's health raised to [47 Health Points].
Turn 9
Vigor Stones 9/9
Draw?
Walt felt the Blood Mirrors healing him, as they had been doing at the beginning of the turn. He was now at [50 Health Points].
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Now, it was the Necromancer’s turn to play his cards first. His winged boots disappeared, finally expiring. He landed in the hallway across from Walt.
The Flesh Golem came after Walt. Its arm stretched through the air, extending. It was like liquid flesh shooting from a hose. The thing’s massive flesh knuckles hit Walt in the chest. If he wasn’t wearing a Slaynami gauntlet, he’d be dead.
But instead, it just hit him for [12 Damage Points]. The blow knocked him through a wall and he bounced off a bed in one of the condos and tumbled backwards to the floor, a jumble of limbs. The wind was knocked out of him.
The Flesh Golem’s fist retracted on the arm of liquid flesh. And it turned and came after him.
“You want to run out the clock, bitch?” Ricky said. “Here, I’ll show you how it’s done.”
He came into the condo and swiped his bone scythe, slicing Walt for another [10 Damage Points]. His health reading turned red, indicating he was under half his total health points. He was in danger of dying.
Voidlock
Health Points: 37
He hit Ricky with his last Green Skull from his Wand. The Necromancer yelled in pain, the green flames knocking his health down even more. The Wand disappeared from Walt’s hand.
Ricky’s Bone Scythe disappeared out of his hands as well, returning to its card’s virtual space. It’s number of uses having expired. But the Necromancer just examined the cards in his deck, letting the timer tick down as his Flesh Golem came after Walt. It would strike him again after its attack was off cooldown.
Walt realized he was fucked if the thing kept hitting him. He had to keep away from it for close to a minute and a half until he could play new cards. He got up and ran. There was no more ceiling so the whole floor was exposed like an open dollhouse. He ran through a door and then scrambled up a wall into another condo, putting more walls between him and the Flesh Golem.
Walt drew three more cards and examined his hand. The goal for the next minute was to survive, but he had figure out his play. Just because he couldn’t play card yet, didn’t mean he couldn’t draw and plan his turn.
Life Leech
Blood Mirror
Void Scavenger
Soulbloom
Abyssal Blast
As he ran through a condo, weaving through furniture and then pulling himself up another wall, Walt could see that the three Blood Mirror cards were still in play according to his HUD. They had been feeding him a few health points each turn. That was a convenient feature. So that way he didn’t have to wonder if they had been destroyed or not.
He landed in the next condo right as the Flesh Golem crashed into the previous one he was in. It did its attack again, but its fist just smashed through a series of walls and wasn’t long enough to reach him.
Walt held his gauntlet in front of him and examined these three cards.
Void Scavenger. Minion. Type: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Common. The souls of orcs driven mad by the Void.
Ravage: 10 Attack, Cooldown: 4 seconds
Health: 18
Cost: 6 Vigor Stones
He popped up from a roll, nearly out of breath. He scanned the next card.
Soulbloom. Spell. Type: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Common. The next spell you play this turn costs Health Points instead of Vigor Stones.
Cost: 15 Health Points
Walt’s eyes widened at the card. This would be over-powered in any other deck, but since it fit in with the flavor of the Voidlock class and mechanics, it made sense. Still, he immediately recognizes that this was a clutch-ass card.
Abyssal Blast. Spell. Type: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Common. Deal 15 damage to the Enemy Hero.
Cost: 7 Vigor Stones
Since Walt had already been calculating the numbers, an old habit that he had never fully abandoned, he realized he could knock his opponent all the way down to five health. He was close, but he was afraid if he did this prematurely Ricky would play a card that would heal himself.
He couldn’t risk that. Not when life and death was on the line.
Walt would hold off until next turn and hope he could play a minion or spell that would do enough damage to put the necromancer within lethal range. He continued to run from the Flesh Golem, which was closing the distance with him.
“Now, I’m not sure what cards I should play, Chat”, Ricky said. “But that’s okay, I have some time to think about it. For starters though, why don’t I equip a weapon? I want the satisfaction of meleeing this delivery driver to death.”
He tossed a card into the air and Fist Weapons appeared on both of the Necromancer’s hands. They were Teeth Knuckles, an undead variety of brass knuckles. Instead of metal shaped around the knuckles, it was bone with big molars protruding off the edge to maximize impact. They not only looked like they could destroy soft tissue, but Walt knew they would also pulverize bone.
“Also, there’s nothing more humiliating than taking damage from a skeleton,” Ricky said. Then he used his Hero Power to summon a skeleton. It erupted out of the floor and lumbered after Walt.
“Decisions, decisions,” Ricky said. He still had Vigor Stones to play with and clock time to run down.
The Flesh Golem’s fist extended out on the liquid flesh but Walt dived out of the way. The fist hit a fridge and it flew into Walt, throwing him through a wall and onto the floor. He groaned and his spine felt all fucked up. And he was pretty sure one of his kidneys had ruptured. The pain was almost unbearable.
He dug his hands into the floor and dragged himself forward.
“You don’t deserve that gauntlet,” Ricky said. “What were you thinking, installing Slaystone?”
The necromancer finally used his remaining Vigor Stones to play another card. A spectral cloud that seemed to contain a humanoid figure of composed of spike bones burst forth from the cloud of soil the card left in the air.
[Examine]
[Bone Spirit]
The Bone Spirit passed through a wall and threw three bone spears at Walt. The spectral bone spears impaled him, dinging him for health.
Health Points: 28
He had never felt such pain before. He heard himself howling. And then the spectral bones dissipated, but the wounds were real.
Finally, now that Ricky had played his cards, Walt could play his.
Walt threw a card at the Flesh Golem and the Void Scavenger appeared in front of the golem, catching its attention. It hit the Scavenger with its fist, and then the scavenger hit it back, attacking with its claws and teeth. It tore a chunk of flesh from the golem and consumed it.
As the two minions battled, they destroyed a wall and crashed into a bathroom. Joy crawled out from underneath the debris. She had been hiding here in the shower.
“What’s this?” Ricky said. “Chat, there’s another NPC here! This one’s a civilian. And you know what we do with civilians!”
The necromancer made a bee-line for Joy, his Teeth Knuckle fist weapons at the ready. He caught her and pinned her on the ground, straddling her.
He scraped the Teeth Knuckles on his fists together, taunting her. “If I only had more time to play with you. My viewer count would sky-rocket. But, I am in the middle of a duel after all.” Something in his Chat caught his attention. “You know what, Chat? You’re absolutely right. This noob doesn’t even have a minion on the board. He can’t do shit.” He looked back down at Joy. “Let’s tenderize your face!”
Even though he had the Vigor Stones, Walt didn’t want to play the Blood Mirror card, because Ricky would see and then both realize what was happening and destroy the mirror. There was no way Walt could play it while his opponent had eyes on him. He passed the remainder of his round to reset the clock.
Turn 10
Vigor Stones 10/10
Draw?
Ricky flinched, his body shuddering. The noxious black and green gas emanating off him as he took five points of poison damage.
Also, Walt felt the Blood Mirrors positioned on the floors below transferring Health Points to him. Health it had taken from Ricky. His health ticked up to [31 Health Points].
Ricky Z, Health Points: 30
Walt realized the necromancer had never cleansed himself of the gnomesucker poison. He was now within range of Walt’s finisher combo.
He accepted to draw one card but he wasted no time playing the four cards already in his hand from the previous turn.
Ricky reared his fist back to punch Joy with his Teeth Knuckles, but the first card shot a wave of purple Void energy at the necromancer, knocking him off Joy. The Abyssal Blast bathed him in damaging purple Void plasma.
Walt used his Hero Ability, Soultap to give himself the extra Vigor Stone he needed to play Blood Mirror. Wasting no time, he threw the card and placed the mirror at his feet. It dinged Ricky for damage.
He was out of Vigor Stones now.
But he threw the Soulbloom card, allowing him to play Life Leech. He flung the card, paying for it with his health.
Voidlock
Health Points: 16
Since it was his fourth instance of Soultap, it cost him 14 Health Points. He was dangerously low now, on the verge of death.
Voidlock
Health Points: 2
But Life Leech triggered the Blood Mirror combo. There was the sound of souls screaming, as if the abyss opened up, and a beam of crimson energy shot out of the Blood Mirror at Walt’s feet. The beam joined the three others lasering through the floors of the condo to join and form one big beam of vampiric blood energy.
It hit Ricky ‘The Z Fucker’ Armada and penetrated his torso. He looked down at the beam in horror. And his the skin of his face shriveled as his life force, his soul, was sucked out of his body and down into the one beam, and split off into the various beams leading to the different mirrors. It even funneled the blood out of him.
The mirrors consumed his blood and soul, then grew dark.
The minions in the Battleboard Zone, the Flesh Golem and the Void Scavenger, disappeared into their corresponding card gauntlets, trailing motes of light.
The necromancer’s remains were curled up on the floor in the fetal position, a withered husk.
Congratulations!
You are the Duel Winner!