The Priest of the Blazing Shield. Minion. Set: Leviathan’s Lair. Rarity: Epic. The shield-bearer for the Hellpriests of Leviathan. Armored brutes adorned with the Blazing Shield of Hell.
Provoke: Causes enemies to attack this minion.
Cinder Mace: 8 Attack, Cooldown: 3 seconds
Shield Bash: 12 Attack, Cooldown: 30 seconds
Armor: 25
Health: 15
Cost: 5 Vigor Stones
A harsh voice came from the helm of the armored minion. It sounded like a pained voice stripped raw from pain and suffering. “The only way to her is through me! You shall feel the Leviathan’s burn!”
“Why does every single one of the Leviathan’s fanatics sound the same?” the Blood Queen said. “Honestly, man. Has anyone not told you that you’ve been brainwashed and have joined a cult?”
The Flesh Golem didn’t say anything. Instead, it replied to the Priest of the Blazing Shield’s taunt with its fist. Its arm went all rubbery as it cocked its fist. Walt had to side-step out of the way as the appendage flew by him as his minion wound up his punch.
Then there was a rush of wind and the slack on the arm went taunt and it whipped towards the armored opponent. A disturbing thud of flesh violently meeting metal resounded through the library.
The Hellpriest’s minion raised its flaming shield, blocking the Flesh Golem’s liquid flesh attack. It was a horrific spatter, meat at a high velocity slapping into a metal wall. The flames emanating off the shield burned the flesh. Yellow fat sizzled and bubbled in the heat.
“A mighty strike worthy of the Leviathan’s kiss!” The Priest of the Blazing Shield said. “Now, my turn!”
It flew down a few stair steps and then rammed the Blazing Shield into the Flesh Golem, putting its whole shoulder and body momentum into the charge.
Again, the noise of the fight made Walt cringe. Is this what car accidents crashing into large livestock sounded like? The crunch of the shield and armored pauldron smacking into the Flesh Golem filled the air.
And to Walt’s surprise, the pure power of the shield bash knocked the Flesh Golem onto its back, crushing the stair rails on each side. It slid down a few more steps and the Blood Queen, behind it, had to dance away.
Then the armored priest raised its cinder mace. Embers from the terrible weapon floated to the book shelves on the first floor, setting some of the books on fire. Then the minion slammed the molten mace into the Flesh Golem.
The stairs collapsed under the weight of the blow. Bits of flesh and blubber burst out, spraying the bookshelves and splattering Walt’s face.
The Blood Queen gasped, looking down at the clumps of flesh and clots of pink tissue decorating her torso. Then the surprise shifted to anger. A facial expression indicating offense that she should suffer such an affront to her vanity.
The mace had hit the Flesh Golem so hard its appendages had separated from its torso. The torso itself was rendered into a cratered mess of goo. The smell of burning flesh made its way to Walt’s nostrils and he nearly gagged from the stench. Heat waves wavered out of the blunt force trauma wound, vapors warping the air above the dying golem.
One of the hands on the golem trembled, the arm trying to raise and grab the Priest of the Blazing Shield above it. But then the hand fell to the ground as animating magic left the minion. The mess of flesh began to melt and decay as the animation core dissipated into motes of light.
The specks of light flowed back into Walt’s card gauntlet. The Flesh Golem was dead.
Walt stared at his opponent’s armored minion in shock.
The gong sounded.
Turn 6
03:00
Vigor Stones 6/6
How many cards to Draw?
Walt saw a trail of crimson light motes flowing from the quad into the library. It zipped up to the ceiling, presumably where Beth was located. It was the healing burst from the Hellwell she had placed in the quad. It pulsed at the beginning of each turn, restoring some of her Health Points. He checked her health.
Hellpriest
Health Points: 58
When she played her card, Walt saw her health deplete on his interface. Thanks to the Blood Queen’s War Whoop effect, she had to use her Health Points instead of Vigor Stones to pay for the card.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Hell Priest
Health Points: 49
The Blood Queen attacked the Priest of the Blazing Shield. With a vertical slash, she struck at him with her hardened and elongated blood claws. But instead of finding soft tissue, they only met the priest’s flaming shield. Crystalline blood shrapnel dusted the air, then turned to droplets, melted in the heat.
The cinder mace swung, hitting the Blood Queen in the side. Blood sizzled and smoke steamed upon contact. Walt’s minion hissed in pain, but the blood in her form flowed to the area of impact, creating an extra layer to soften the blow. It absorbed much of the trauma.
“You’re going to make me late to my pedi session!” the Blood Queen said. And then she slashed his shield with her other hand. This time her blood claws slashed through the flaming shield.
It fell from the priest’s arm in three pieces, his defensive armor points now depleted.
Another figure appeared on the edge of the second floor. It was a bald man in robes of blue flame. The skin on his face was ritualistically flayed and he held a staff surrounded in a cold blue light imbue. He looked down on the fight and his staff began to glow brighter.
----------------------------------------
[Examine]
[Cleric of Leviathan]
----------------------------------------
Cleric of Leviathan. Minion. Set: Leviathan’s Lair. Rarity: Rare. Clerics purified in the blue flames of Leviathan, they help control the battlefield by healing friendly minions.
Heal: 10 Health, Cooldown: 1 per Turn
Charnel Bolt: 6 Attack, Cooldown: 10 seconds
Health Points: 16
Cost: 6 Vigor Stones
Fantastic. Just what he needed to deal with.
Walt knew the Hellpriest would have minions with healing mechanics, but seeing one finally arrive brought a certain sense of both irritation and dread. He knew that Beth was fighting tooth and nail for board control so that she could heal herself.
“So, this is turning into a fucked up slugfest,” Walt said to himself. The tide of the duel seemed to be shifting back and forth and he needed to do something to make sure it stayed on his side.
He needed to kill the Cleric of Leviathan first. Or at least apply pressure to it. Leaving a healer unchecked could quickly end in doom. But the way the fight was going, his Blood Queen wasn’t going to last long.
He drew two cards and looked at his hand.
Replicate
Abyssal Blast
7-Fingered Ghoul
Wand of Green Skulls
Soul Fury
He was excited to see his weapon. He felt like he could protect himself with the wand in hand, but also knew that it could be a false sense of security. Especially since it had a one minute cooldown. Would be nice to find some kind of card that could reduce cooldowns. He had a brief fantasy of being able to use the Wand of Green Skulls like a rapid-fire magical Tommy gun.
But at the cost of 4 Vigor Stones, it didn’t leave him with much of a choice for putting a minion on the board. He’d have to use his Hero Ability to get the extra Vigor Stone in order to play the Soul Fury, but the minion only had 4 Health Points. It wouldn’t stand a chance against the Priest of the Blazing Shield and his healer cleric.
However, if he used his Hero Ability, Soultap, to exchange his health for a Vigor Stone, he could play the 7-Fingered Ghoul card. It had a War Whoop effect that would not only increase his card hand size from five to seven, but it would draw two extra cards when he played it on the board. And it was a beefy minion with 20 Health Points.
So, this was the answer. He’d have extra card draw which would give him more options to handle Beth and whatever she threw at him.
He took a deep breath and braced himself for pain. He activated his Soultap. He stumbled a step but then stabilized, wincing. He felt the sharp stab of pain at the center of his being. He watched the veins on his forearms darken more as his life force diminished. Like some unseen parasite was tapping into his core and feeding him on, swelling with his blood and part of his soul.
He gritted his teeth and then pain was gone. He saw that the transfer of Health Points for a Vigor Stone had been made.
Health Points: 62
Vigor Stones: 7
The 7-Fingered Ghoul Card started glow brighter, indicating that he had the resources to play it now. He gestured at it. It zig-zagged out and then shot up a few feet before exploding into a noxious green cloud.
The ghoul seemed to be a mixture of the corporeal and the incorporeal. It had translucent, sickly blue skin that glowed. The flesh was wrinkled and fallen off a bone structure that was visible through its pellucid epidermis. Strips of scraggly black hair fell over its green skull. Its nose was missing and its mouth was full of yellow teeth.
Walt’s gauntlet chimed and he saw two extra cards had appeared in the slots. He commanded the two extra cards to join his hand.
Upturn the Graves, Again!
Renounce the Grave
He didn’t have the Vigor Stones to play them right now, but Upturn the Graves, Again! would be useful on Turn 10. And a seven card hand from here on out might just give him the advantage he needed.
He looked up at his new minion. It looked like it was the caretaker of a mausoleum. As per its name, one of its hands had seven fingers. In the other hand, it held a metal liquor flask that it upturned in its mouth. It swallowed a plug of something and smacked its lips.
Then it burped. It’s seven-fingered hand stroking its raggedy collar. “Well, well. Was having a quiet night in the cemetery and now I’m here. What’s all the commotion?” Then it noticed Walt. “And who might you be? You’re not Ricky.”
Ricky? Walt frowned. It was referring to the necromancer, Walt’s previous opponent. It still thought Ricky was alive and was confused as to its new card holder.
“I’ve got some good news and bad news,” Walt said. “Ricky’s dead. The bad news is that I need you to help me deal with them.” He gestured at the Hellpriest’s minions.
The ghoul squinted at the Priest of the Blazing Shield and at his healing cleric. Its eyes grew wide and then it threw its head back, taking another glug of alcohol. “Better drink up then. The Seven-Fingered Fist Attack only truly works once I’m nice and sloshed.”
Walt side-eyed him. “What? Why?”
“I’m a practitioner of Drunken Gore-Fu. Trained under Master Coffinslap himself.
“Uh, okay. What are you drinking?”
“Formaldehyde. Or might as well be.”
The Seven-Fingered Ghoul finished off the flask and tossed it over his shoulder. He approached the Priest of the Blazing Shield and the Cleric of Leviathan above him. He staggered, a tipsy sway. And then surprised Walt by shifting smoothly, moving like liquid into what could be best described as a drunken Shaolin Crane martial-arts pose.
“Which one of you blokes wants a taste of the Drunken Seven-Fingered Fist first?”
Walt interjected. “The cleric. Up top. Definitely the cleric.”
The cleric’s head whipped towards Walt. The enemy minion glared at him.
And that’s when the Seven-Fingered Ghoul leapt up to the second floor and struck the cleric in the face.