From the summoner’s collapsed robes, a pillar of violet light shot into the sky. Walt gazed into it and felt like he could see into another dimension. He thought he saw people or creatures moving on the other side of an amethyst veil.
Suddenly, one of the cards in his hand spun into the pillar. The column of violet light swelled and started to spin, spraying a kaleidoscopic light show over the campus.
In the quad, Walt noticed violent movement. He saw the corpses that Beth had collected were moving. They were undulating, as if an unseen force was lifting them and violently shaking them.
Then the air around the corpses turned into a pink mist. Skin, yellow fat and pink flesh flew towards the violet pillar and the degloved corpses collapsed to the ground. The silhouette of a humungous humanoid figure formed within the light and there was a rush of air and the pillar disappeared.
The Flesh Golem fell out of the sky and landed in the quad on one knee, cracking the concrete ground.
Flesh Golem. Minion. Set: Necromantic. Rarity: Legendary. Harness the ultimate necromantic magic to summon a golem assembled from the parts of the fallen. Let them have a chance at revenge by combining the sum of their parts into a powerful minion.
Liquid Flesh Fist: 12 Attack, Cooldown: 6 seconds
War Whoop: Destroy all enemy minions on the battleboard.
Health: 20
Cost: 7 Vigor Stones
The chimera turned its eyeless face towards the new arrival and the mouth that still worked snarled. It turned and burst out of the window, taking part of the wall with it, to meet the Flesh Golem in combat.
But the Flesh Golem’s War Whoop activated. An explosion of energy blossomed from the core of the undead minion and radiated across the three-dimensional battleboard.
The Levitical Hellfiend was hit first. It succumbed to the wave of energy like it was being knocked down by an ocean tide. It disintegrated as it went under, turning into motes of light that flowed back into the Hellpriest’s gauntlet.
The blast hit the Cenobite Chimera and particle by particle, it came apart. For a moment, it separated on the atomic level and Walt thought he could see is disparate parts. The cells of its nervous and circular system detached and then the corpuscular mass transformed to specks of light.
Walt stared at his Legendary minion with the unsettling sensation of both relief and horror. On one hand, he was glad that the summoner pulled the Legendary card out of his hand and onto the battleboard. On the other hand, he didn’t expect the bodies off the dead college students to be violated in such a manner.
Walt had a hero’s fantasy of taking all those bodies and giving them a proper burial. Of using one of his Grave Grunt minions to dig a mass grave after the duel was over. And he’d spend the rest of the day putting the bodies to rest and covering them up. He saw himself collecting everyone’s driver’s licenses or ID cards and holding onto them. So that he could put the list of names out there so people would know that their loved ones didn’t make it.
But now, all the flesh had been ripped from the bones of the corpses to form his minion. He was glad he had the Flesh Golem to help him, but was disturbed that its physiognomy was composed of the Hellpriest’s innocent victims. He shook the thought away and focused on the duel.
The beautiful thing about the play was that not only were the Hellpriest’s minions destroyed, but Walt still had cards to play. But now, with board control, he was in a position to run the clock before making his move. He approached the hole in the wall and looked out at Beth.
Her veneer of confidence was gone now. But she didn’t look scared. She looked pissed.
Go ahead. Posture and show off that you enjoy pain and can tank hits, you little freak.
So Walt was a bit disappointed when she scattered from the quad and ran for cover. But it didn’t stop the Flesh Golem’s fist from finding her. The arm of flesh shot forth like liquid from a fire hose. It stretched across the quad and curved around a ledge, hitting the Hellpriest in the back.
She grunted and went flying, rolling across the concrete. It was a shame she lost her cool. Walt would have enjoyed seeing the Flesh Golem tenderize her with its fist until her health points were gone.
One of Chronico mini-drones zipped by, getting a God’s eye view of the duel. Another one hovered in front of him, where he was sure he was in the foreground of its cam. That’s when Walt had an idea.
He stepped closer to the edge so it would seem like he was above his opponent, in total control of the battleboard. “Do you concede?”
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Beth, in middle of pushing herself up, her mouth bloodied, whipped her head towards him. Her face contorted in fury as she realized what he was doing.
“Concede?” she said. “I do not concede. Ever.”
Then the Flesh Golem’s fist hammered into her face, knocking her back down.
“You just lost twenty-four points of health in two hits,” Walt said. “If you can’t get away from our friend here, you will die in the next in the forty or so seconds.”
Walt could see that she was double-checking her health on her interface. He could see it on his own.
Hellpriest
Health Points: 55
Then he looked at his own.
Voidlock
Health Points: 72
“Are you sure you want to die to an NPC?” Walt said. “Is that how you want people to remember you? They won’t remember you were Top 500 last year. They’ll just remember that you were the Hellpriest that died to some NPC in his second duel ever.”
She cursed, crawling across the ground. “Fucking RNG! The only reason you have board control is because of luck.”
“So is that a no?”
She got up and disappeared into the library building. The Flesh Golem pursued, crouching and squeezing through the doors. Its mass contorted and elongated like a blob of slime changing its shape to get through a crack in a wall.
Before it was out of sight, Walt said, “Little help here, buddy.”
One of its arms stretched out across the quad and the hand rose up to him. He stepped onto the palm like it was his personal elevator. He looked straight into the Chronico drone cam, addressing the audience on the other side of the interdimensional broadcast. “Is this entertaining enough for you? Watching one of your own get a beat down for coming to my world and hurting the people here?”
He stepped off the Flesh Golem’s palm and back onto the quad. The arm retracted and rubber-banded back into the library building. The Chronico drones followed him. “But you heard her, folks. I gave her the chance to concede. So what happens next is her choice. I’m just following the rules for your game.”
Walt knew that Beth had too arrogant of a personality to consider conceding. He had seen the pattern before. People too proud who would never choose to save face when provided the opportunity. They would rather set themselves on fire than admit they were wrong.
“Death by cognitive dissonance,” Walt said. “The ultimate self-own.”
The drone cams followed him into the library. He entered right as the Flesh Golem’s fist punched through multiple shelves of books to clobber the Hellpriest. She crashed into another shelf, the collision knocking it over. She cursed, getting up from the pile of books, and continued running.
The arm of liquid flesh retracted, knocking the shelves over, four of them tumbling onto each other like dominoes.
Walt spoke to the drones. “I’ve gotta admit. I was scared at first. This is my first time meeting a Hellpriest. Do I think it’s fucked she tortured and killed a bunch of people? I think anyone would. But the moment you apply a little bit of pressure, she crumbles. I guess I expected more.”
He hoped he was getting the reaction out of the audience he wanted. He wanted to destroy not just her, but the image she had created of herself. He wanted to defeat her, yes. But even more, he wanted to humiliate her. An act of defiance against the Psycho Slingers and their operators.
Walt played his next card. He pointed at the ground and the glowing Epic card twirled, morphing into a cycle of crimson blood. It spun, warbling and growing in size. The form of a being slowly formed inside the cyclone of blood. As it slowed, the blood accumulated into the form. It was crouched there, its back to Walt. Then it stood, revealing its form.
The Blood Queen unfolded her limbs and opened her eyes. At her full height she was a foot taller than Walt. A radiant crown of crystalline blood droplets floated above her head. It was a tall woman with a crimson aura. She had the demeanor and countenance of royalty. And her biology was comprised of flowing, liquid blood. It reflected the soft amber lamp light in the library.
To Walt, she seemed to be like a work of art. As if she was some sculpture of ancient royalty brought to life, but the sculptor had used blood instead of marble.
She turned to Walt. The gaze of her liquid hemoglobin eyes was unsettling. “You have interrupted my beauty session for what exactly?”
He nodded past the Flesh Golem and the wreckage of shelves and books, towards the Hellpriest, who had ascended the stairs and was barricading herself on the second floor amongst the stacks.
“A Hellpriest?” the Blood Queen said. “It’s been a while since I’ve faced one of those. Usually the dark casters form alliances. You must really loathe her.”
Walt nodded. “That’s about the right word for it.”
She began walking towards the stairs. “Well, let’s send her on her way back to Hell and maybe I’ll have enough time to get back to my beauty session. My girls are supposed to do my nails today.”
At that, the scarlet fingernails of hardened scabs on her fingers extended, growing into grotesque and razor sharp claws. Walt would not want to be on the receiving end of that cat fight.
She shimmered, and a flash of energy in her core zapped out like a bolt of lightning, zig-zagging up to the second floor towards the Hellpriest. Although Walt couldn’t see her, Beth shrieked. It was the Blood Queen’s War Whoop effect.
It would make Beth have to use Health Points instead of Vigor Stones to play her cards on the next turn. So, Walt surmised that on one of the turns she would go all in on healing herself. Even if she did, using cards would now cost her health at least for one turn.
Playing the Blood Queen card right after the Flesh Golem just felt outright diabolical. It was the perfect expression of rubbing salt in her wounds. It carried more of a sting because she was technically a healer class. The card was a nice counter to someone like her. Which is probably what explained the cries of rage coming from the floor above.
And she wasted no time making her play now.
There was a blaze of hell fire. It flared and then disappeared. Heavy footsteps clanked above as something approached the stairs to meet the Flesh Golem and the Blood Queen.
It was a stout, but wide-shouldered armored minion. Flame and smoke rose off its cloak and battle helm. Hellfire spewed out of the eye slots. It held a burning shield that seemed to be made of steel and blood red rubies. It was framed in links of cruel-looking hooks and fire burned along its edges.
In its other hand it held a ridiculously large mace made out of glowing cinders. The head was studded with flaming spikes.
It planted itself at the top of the stairs, blocking the way. It pounded the cinder mace against the burning shield, a series of loud booms that sounded like deep explosions.
It was taunting Walt’s minions.
[Examine]
[The Priest of the Blazing Shield]