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Psycho Duel Chapter 39: The Flame of the Silver Tongue
🕑 Added 2022-12-16 00:43:29 +0000 UTCThe gong sounded.
Turn 4
Vigor Stones 4/4
03:00
Begin Draw?
Walt was tired, his reserves of energy nearly drained. But his will to live and the last droplets of adrenaline coursing through his veins kept him from lying down and welcoming sweet oblivion.
The pig, formerly the Gnomesucker, snorted, rooting around the ground for mushrooms at his feet. “Well, happy foraging. I best get moving again.”
He turned and continued down the slope, putting more distance between him and Shae. But she hopped and landed near the thicket. Scrollkeep the Immortal floated behind her, following.
“Wait,” Shae said, reading her chat, “are you guys betting to see if he’s going to survive past mid-game or not?” She laughed. “Alright, let’s hold a poll, then.”
Her laughter was like a cheese-grater on Walt’s already frayed nerves. He picked up the pace and drew new cards.
Salvatore’s Phylactery
Blood Imp Mother
Desecrate X
Blood Mirror
Blood Worm Bomber
Walt sighed. “Great. Another stellar hand.” He delivered the word ‘stellar’ with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
I should have just discarded the whole hand to begin with to draw more fresh cards.
He was beginning to regret he hadn’t included more mid-game minions in his deck. He had seriously fucked up. What good was a Blood Worm Bomber when Shae had a minion who could just send it straight to the graveyard? And not only that, Scrollkeep the Immortal could anchor the minion there, negating any card effects that could pull minions from the graveyard back onto the battleboard.
“Bad news, NPC,” Shae’s voice carried down the mountain ridge. She was managing to keep pace with him. “The majority of my Chat thinks you’re not going to survive past mid-game. Do you agree with them?”
Walt wasn’t going to give her or her fans the satisfaction of even answering that question. Instead, he focused on his hand and continued down the ridge, using his allotted time to think.
There was no sense in trying to play another mirror. She would probably just find it. He’d rather take his chances with his only other option. He snatched the card out of the air and then it flicked it over his shoulder.
A noxious green cloud billowed into the atmosphere and then drifted up the ridge, searching for Shae.
It was an inefficient play, leaving him with one Vigor Stone he couldn’t even use. And it would be for nothing if the Thaumaturgist had a card to cleanse the debuff. But it was the only play he had.
Walt saw on his HUD that the Desecrate X debuff had afflicted his opponent. To confirm, her offended voice cried down the mountain. “Gross, dude!”
She addressed her chat. “This Voidlock sent his green fart cloud after me. I don’t know if I’ll be able wear this perfume ever again! He just ruined Estelle Noire for me! And for that he’s going to pay!”
Above Walt, there was a crash. He wrapped his arm around a tree and looked behind him. In the air above, there was a swirling ball of arcane energy. It looked like a dozen Tesla coils had exploded and were running haywire. A sudden gust of wind blew his hair back and he held on to the tree tight, lest he go tumbling off the edge of the ridge.
The arcane energy took the form of a ghost and crashed onto the ridge. Rocks and dirt fell past him. It had two spectral arms ending in huge spectral fists. Its whole form was highly charged with arcane energy. Leaves and branches that happened to touch the being exploded into flames.
[Examine]
[The Reflective Arcano]
The Reflective Arcano. Minion. Set: Arcanist’s Keep. Rarity: Epic. The spirit of arcane energy hungers for spells.
Whenever you cast a spell of the arcane, this minion gains +5 Health Points and +5 Attack.
Jolt Punch: 8 Attack, Cooldown: 5 seconds
Health Points: 10
Cost: 4 Vigor Stones
Shit.
This was the type of minion one would want to deal with now. Letting it survive until the next turn almost guaranteed it was going to grow stronger. And the longer it stayed on the board, the more it would feed on spells and the more difficult it would be to deal with.
When he played Mythic, Walt saw minions like this snowball out of control and lead to devastating losses. By the time a player had gathered the resources to strike it down, they were already dead in the water.
The Reflective Arcano arrived on the battleboard with only ten Health Points, but Walt had no way to kill it at the moment. If he had his wand or a minion on the board, or hell, even a spell, he’d be able to deal with a measly ten health. But as circumstance would have it, he had no choice but to let it survive another turn.
“Motherfuck,” Walt said. He looked below him, quickly charted a course. And then he took off, half hopping and half-sliding down the treacherous slope. There were more woods below, but to one side was a steep drop he’d like to avoid.
A Chronico drone zipped parallel to him, recording his descent.
The gong sounded.
Turn 5
Vigor Stones 5/5
03:00
Begin Draw?
The Reflective Arcano rushed down the ridge after him, pursuing. Its bottom half scorching the rocks with jolts of arcane heat as it passed.
As Walt slid down a stretch of gravel and pebbles, he held his gauntlet in front of him. He had held onto two late game cards that were just proving to limit his options. At this point, he felt like he had to cut his losses with one of his cards.
So he discarded Salvatore’s Phylactery and got rid of his hand except for one card. His new hand was:
Blood Imp Mother
Levitical Hellfiend
Soulbloom
Replicate
Hell Mirror
“Finally!” Walt said. He couldn’t help it. The sight of the Levitical Hellfiend nearly brought tears to his eyes. And when he saw the other minion in his hand that he’d be able to draw, he let out a surprised cry. What started as delirious howling, as he slid down the mountain slope, turned into maniacal laughter. Damage numbers danced in giddy emoticon-language inside his pain-addled mind. His brain was running purely on adrenaline fumes.
The damage numbers were so big, that for a few feveish slo-mo seconds, he thought he was dreaming.
He grabbed the Levitical Hellfiend card and gave it a big sloppy kiss. Then he released it into the air. A black portal manifested in the air. The robed minion dropped out of the portal, hundreds of loose book pages fluttering into the air.
The Levitical Hellfiend landed on a boulder on the slope, falling to one knee. It pulled its weapon out of its robe. The Black Tome.
Its cowled visage pointed at the Reflective Arcano, and Shae, who was casually descending the slope. Taking care to choose her footsteps. Scrollkeep the Immortal followed her, hovering.
Walt crashed into a rocky outcrop, turning so his shoulder and side took much of the impact. The collision brought him back to reality.
“It appears you need my aid,” the Levitical Hellfiend said in its raspy and secretive voice. “How may I assist you?”
“You know what I need,” Walt said. He rolled over and pushed himself to his knees. He put one hand on the side of the boulder, bracing himself.
Then he Soultapped for the third time.
Voidlock
Health Points: 67
He gained a Vigor Stone.
Vigor Stones: 4/6
Walt didn’t bother to wait for the pain to subside. He knew the card he wanted to play. The Blood Imp Mother normally cost ten Vigor Stones. But since he had played a spell, which his Hero Ability counted as, he had triggered the Levitical Hellfiend’s special effect.
Which was reducing the cost of a chosen minion in hand to one Vigor Stone. So, Walt played the Blood Imp Mother.
The card zipped into the sky, out of Walt’s sight. The night was silent for a moment save for the descent of The Reflective Arcano. Since this was no Legendary card, there was no arrival heralded by music or a fancy light show.
But the arrival of the Blood Imp Mother and it’s brood of five flying Blood Imps was dramatic nonetheless. The matriarch minion looked like a giant gargoyle, made out of blood, scabs and sharp bone. Her wingspan was impressive, easily stretching twelve feet across from tip to tip. She shrieked, an ear-piercing sound. Her brood, the five imps, flapped their wings beneath her, protected by her wingspan.
They passed over Walt’s head, dripping blood. The matriarch looked down at him with eyes like orbs covered in red paint.
“Focus everything you’ve got on the Thaumturgist!” Walt shouted, pointing at his opponent.
The Blood Imp Mother turned her head towards the caster, strings of red-black blood dripping in thick strings off its angular skull. It hissed. “Yessss, massster.”
Shae froze in alarm, caught off-guard by the sight of this kind of minion power during the mid-game. Walt thought he saw her mouth the words, “What the fuck!”
The Reflective Arcano jumped and upper-cutted the air. The flying Blood Imps scattered. But the matriarch was too high. The Jolt Punch missed.
The matriarch opened her mouth and released her Blood Web attack. Strings of blood gushed out of her mouth and landed on Shae. There was a loud sizzle as the acidic blood fell across her face and body, burning her skin and clothes.
At the same time, the Blood Imps projectile vomited on her, covering her with more blood that burned.
But, to make matters worse for the Thaumaturgist, each bit of damage was amplified by the Desecrate X debuff. For each separate attack from all the minions, the green cloud flared and she was ticked for extra damage.
The noxious cloud surrounding went nuclear with the all the damage, mushrooming up. A toxic green mushroom cloud. When it was done, Shae was reduced to sloughing skin and piercing screams. The attack had done seventy-six points of damage to her in a matter of seconds. The vain girl was now deformed.
Thaumaturgist
Health Points: 14
“How’s this for a mid-game play you annoying bitch!” Walt said.
As if in pathetic retaliation, Scrollkeep the Immortal targeted one of the Blood Imps and sent it to the card graveyard with a streak of arcane energy.
Shae released a cry of savage fury that echoed down the mountain and could probably be heard in Crossville. Her arms flew out to her sides, her fingers outstretched, releasing a card. Her torso began to glow as if she had a core of arcane energy inside of her, charging up to max. The light emitting from her was so bright that Walt caught a flash of her skeleton.
Then a blast of arcane fire shot out of her torso in all directions, immolating every minion in her radius. The flying Blood Imps disappeared in the flash of arcane light, the image of their bodies coming apart at the seams imprinted on Walt’s eyes as he blinked. The Levitical Hellfiend was also overcome in the wave. One moment, it was there, covering its face with its arms, but then it wasn’t.
The only minion of Walt’s that was alive after the blast had passed was the Blood Imp Mother. But her wings were tattered and her blood form was bubbling and boiling.
[Examine]
[Heat Wave]
Heat Wave. Spell. Set: Arcanist’s Keep. Rarity: Epic. Release the arcane fire that burns inside your heart!
Deal 15 damage to all enemy minions on the battleboard.
Slaughter. If a lone enemy minion is still standing after the spell is cast, draw a random Arcanist Spell that costs 0 Vigor Stones this Turn.
Cost: 5 Vigor Stones
When the spell was cast, the Reflective Arcano held its arms out wide and absorbed the trigger effect. It opened its mouth and bellowed. The sound emitting from its throat was like an electric live wire and rocks grinding together. Coils of arcane energy flickered in the air around it. The minion grew, increasing in size by a couple feet.
The Blood Imp Mother shrieked and took to the air. She circled Shae, preparing for the cool down on her attack to reset.
But then there was the sound of thunder striking meat. The Blood Imp Mother jolted in mid-air, its limbs going askew and its wings freezing-mid flap as if it was being electrocuted.
[Examine]
[Arcane Strike]
Arcane Strike. Spell. Set: Arcanist’s Keep. Rarity: Rare. Remind your opponent of the power of the arcane with a mystical strike.
Deal 15 Damage to Target.
Cost: 5 Vigor Stones
As the Blood Imp Mother fell out of the sky, it exploded in a burst of blood. The fluid hit Shae and Scrollkeep the Immortal and it was like several balloons full of blood exploding. They were covered head to toe in blood.
Shae upturned her ruined head to the sky and screamed in rage.
To add salt to her many wounds, and because Walt wasn’t one to waste Vigor Stones if he had the chance, he used his remaining stones to play the Hell Mirror. There was no sense in hiding it.
He just placed it at his feet, pointed it at Shae. The mirror glowed red, proccing, draining health from her.
She twitched and the green cloud around her blinked, growing brighter, the Desecrate X debuff enhancing the life drain.
“You know, I’ve changed my mind.” Walt said. “When you’re covered in blood and on the verge of death, you actually look kind of cute.”
Shae screamed.
Thaumuturgist
Health Points: 5
Comments
Al
Oho, shall I be proven wrong?
