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Psycho Duel Chapter 27: Bloodhound
🕑 Added 2022-11-19 02:40:41 +0000 UTC…Battleboard Initializing…
Battlebloard Zone Secured
The blue matrix twinkled at the same time as Richard’s and the Silentblade’s battleboard solidified. The two duel areas were right next to each other, each occupying part of the rest area and stretching out into the nearby forest.
Not the same duel, but parallel duels that would take place next to each other.
Walt had a stray thought. Would later phases incorporate matches that would involve more than two duelists, a la king-of-the-hill-style auto-battlers? That would be pure mayhem. He pushed the thought out of his head and concentrated on the present.
[Psychoslinger 20126]
versus
[Trial 00227]
2 minutes until match commences…
Trial 00227, Walt Harmon, will draw first since Psychoslinger 20126, Jacob Maseria, aka HunterX, initiated Duel…
Walt’s wand disappeared out of his hands. And the Boots of Nemora vanished from his feet. The cards had been re-gauntleted to prepare for the duel.
“Shit!”
Walt looked over at the adjacent battleboard and saw that Richard had fallen on his ass. His Goblin Rocket Boots and Falcata sword were gone, re-gauntleted. And his wheelchair was in the van.
The old man had no way to walk.
The Bloodhound and Silentblade burst into laughter. The Razor Tusk was gone, as was the Silentblade’s daggers. Re-gauntleted.
Fuck. Richard couldn’t walk and he was dealing with an opponent class who could go into Stealth Mode and liked getting up close and personal with knives.
Richard noticed Walt staring at him and cursed. “Don’t worry about me, kid! I’ll be fine. You concentrate on building your deck.”
Walt’s jaw tightened and he looked at the Silentblade. He couldn’t see her face, but he could tell by the squint of her eyes that she was amused.
He got to the edge of his barrier so he could whisper. “Wait for her combo.”
Richard looked up from his gauntlet and cards. “Huh?”
Walt continued, leaning in more. “She’s going to use a lot of resources to try and burst you down with knife attacks. There will probably be poisoned involved. Focus on armoring up and sustain before you attack her. Once she’s over-extended with her weapons and combo cards, that’s when you attack. She won’t have the resources to defend herself then. So…play it slow.”
Richard swallowed and nodded. Then went back to look at his cards with urgency and purpose.
“The Slaycast hyped you up,” Jacob, the Bloodhound, said. “You ask me? I think you got lucky.” He sat on the table of one of the picnic benches, building his deck.
“I agree,” Walt said. “That they hyped me up. I don’t think it’s deserved.”
Jacob smirked.
“But I didn’t get lucky,” Walt said.
Jacob looked up from his gauntlet, the smirk disappearing. “Either way, the Slaycast vouched for you, which makes you currency for people like me. You’re gonna be my meal ticket. The follows I’ll get from farming you? It’ll help me coast into the next phase.”
Walt gestured at the body of the sheriff. “You gonna tie and drag me to one of your beasts like you did him, huh?”
“Oh him? Nah. He tried to be a hero. He had some misconceptions about who was in charge. I have other things in mind for you.” His mouth contorted into a wicked smile. “Yeah, I have just thing for a Voidlock.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Oh yeah. You shitters like to be all tricky with your Health Pools. But what are you going to do when you don’t have a Health Pool?”
Walt turned his attention to his gauntlet and began going through his card collection. The Bloodhound class were hunters and could tame beasts, turning them into minions. He wondered how this would translate into style of play.
He wasn’t sure what to expect. Would Jacob have crowd control cards, or traps, that would immobilize him so that he couldn’t escape from his beasts?
Walt had gained a nice number of Legendary cards from Beth’s deck. While one would think that stacking a deck out with as many Legendary cards as possible could prove viable, it was usually the recipe for a disaster. Often, Legendary cards were indicative of different sets and would rarely have synergy. So having almost twenty cards that were of Legendary rarity might make for an expensive deck, it didn’t mean it would work as a successful deck.
But since his previous opponents were fellow dark casters, Walt found that there was some synergy with the Legendaries he chose. He only wished he could use that Voidlock card Richard had in his gauntlet.
Walt knew that they had agreed that Richard would give Walt the Salvatore’s Phylactery card after successful arrival near Nashville, but he was wishing he was able to use it now.
Walt walked back over to the edge of his grid. “I could really use that card you have.”
Richard was lying on his side on the ground, looking at his deck. “I’d give it to you if it would let me, but it doesn’t look like we can cross battleboards or exchange cards while these grids are up.”
“Damn.”
Walt finalized his deck. He organized the card list by their cost. Organized this way, he could have a macro view of all the early, mid-game and late-game cards. But to be frank, he wasn’t going for late game. He wanted to end this duel early so he could help Richard.
Soulbloom (15 Health)
Mortal Tentacle (1 Vigor Stone)
Deadwood Witch (1 Vigor Stone)
Blood Mirror (4) (2 Vigor Stones)
Chains of Agony (3 Vigor Stones)
Blood Worm Bomber (3 Vigor Stones)
Levitical Hellfiend (3 Vigor Stones)
Desecrate X (3 Vigor Stones)
Boots of Nemora (4 Vigor Stones)
Eldritch Death Summoner (4 Vigor Stones)
Wand of Green Skulls (4 Vigor Stones)
Unholy Tongue Lash (5 Vigor Stones)
Replicate (5 Vigor Stones)
The Priest of the Blazing Shield (5 Vigor Stones)
Abyssal Blast (7 Vigor Stones)
7-Fingered Ghoul (7 Vigor Stones)
Chronobite (7 Vigor Stones)
Life Leech (8 Vigor Stones)
Crucible Configuration (8 Vigor Stones)
This burst deck was a gamble. He was making his decision based off Jacob’s comment about Voidlocks and Health Pools. Unless the Bloodhound was a master manipulator, he didn’t think his opponent was trying to influence his deck build in a certain direction.
The read he got on Jacob based off his appearance, body language and the way he spoke, was that the Bloodhound was someone to take at face value. What you saw was what you got. He was all aggressive posturing. He was threatening and probably clever in his own way, but the patterns surrounding the duelist didn’t indicate he was wickedly cunning and sly.
Walt predicted that the Bloodhound was going to go face on him. The minions he played would try to bypass the other minions on the battleboard to go straight for Walt. If Walt could draw into the Boots of Nemora and the Blood Mirrors, he could use flight and the nearby forest for cover. But he also had some powerful minions that could wreak enough havoc should the Blood Mirror play fail.
Walt heard a noise and raised his head.
Jacob was standing on the picnic table, striking himself in the face, working himself up. He began howling and pounding his chest. “Come on! Come on motherfucker! Let’s gooooo!”
Turn 1
Vigor Stones 1/1
03:00
Begin
Draw?
The three minute countdown timer began.
02:59…02:58…02:57…
Walt’s gauntlet hummed and he saw his deck shuffle within. He drew and the edges of the cards appeared in the slots. He called them forth. They ejected. His first hand hovered in front of him.
Boots of Nemora
Chains of Agony
Abyssal Blast
Desecrate X
Blood Mirror
Walt was disappointed he didn’t have any minions he could play on the first turn. It was only inevitable he draw a Blood Mirror card since there were four of them in the deck. So that was useful. But the other cards were items, weapons or spells he couldn’t use right now.
He couldn’t even really Soultap into anything. This was going to be an inefficient turn for him. And there was no use in running down the clock.
He glanced over at Richard in his battleboard. The old man was lying helpless on the ground. His opponent had used her turn to Stealth herself. She vanished into thin air.
Shit.
Walt passed and prio shifted to his opponent.
“No cards to play, huh?” Jacob said. He was still standing on the table. His red and green cards evoked a forest. And blood. “That’s just too bad. But sometimes you draw a bad first hand. It’s just part of the game.”
Then he grabbed one of his cards out of the air and crouched. The card elongated, morphing into a glowing scaled tail. The translucent tail attached itself to the Bloodhound’s backside. The hood of scales lowered and a sharp stinger emerged out of the folds.
It looked like a deadly ivory thorn.
[Examine]
[Wyvern Stinger]
Wyvern Stinger. Spell. Set: Wyvern’s Peak. Rarity: Rare. Manifest a Wyvern Tail and shoot its sharp stinger at your opponent.
Deal 5 Damage.
Summon a Lil Vernon.
Charge: 1
Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
Walt cursed and burst into a sprint for the corner of the rest area building. He hoofed it, daring to glance behind him.
Jacob whipped his magical wyvern tail and lashed out, flinging the stinger which detached from the tail and flew at Walt. Before he could dive behind the corner, Walt felt a sharp pain at the center of his back.
The stinger had implanted itself in his back.
Voidlock
Health Points: 95
He pulled it out and held the wyvern stinger in hand. It was dripping with his own blood. He tossed it to the side and scrambled to his feet.
The magical wyvern tail fell off the Bloodhound. It began to curl in on itself, forming a spiral. Then it transformed into a pale newt-like creature with white skin. It resembled a giant grub with tiny little legs and claws.
Its eyes hadn’t developed yet and were still fused shut. Its toothless mouth shrieked, hungry. It sniffed and jerked its head around like a baby looking for its mother’s tit.
It locked onto Walt’s scent and squirmed across the grass, leaving a snail trail. It moved disturbingly fast.
[Examine]
[Lil Vernon]
Lil Vernon. Minion. Set: Wyvern’s Peak. Rarity: Common. An infant wyvern, still in blind newt form.
Milky Squirt: 3 Attack, Cooldown: 5 seconds
Health Points: 3
“Better run, squishy Voidlock,” Jacob said. “Lil Vernon likes to dissolve his food before he eats it. But can you blame him? Poor little guy has no teeth yet.”
It mewled and a milk-colored liquid sprayed out of its mouth. It hit the corner of the building where Walt took cover. He saw it dissolving through the brick and wood of the building.
The gong sounded as Walt made a run for it.
Turn 2
Vigor Stones 2/2
03:00
Begin
Draw?
Walt ran down the covered hallway of the two buildings and drew his cards. He didn’t want to take cover in the restrooms. Mostly because he didn’t think it would be a good idea to trap himself in a corner. So he made a run for the tree-line.
He decided to hold onto three cards. So his new hand was:
Blood Mirror
Desecrate X
Boots of Nemora
Levitical Hellfiend
Blood Mirror
“Running for the forest?” Jacob said. “Nice move! Only thing is, I’m a fucking hunter!”
As Walt ran into the woods, almost tripping over some roots, he heard the Bloodhound laughing after him.
He peered out and saw Lil Vernon racing through the grass after him, leaving its wet trail across the picnic area.
But he felt some relief when he saw an Armored Squire holding Richard, carrying the old man in his arms.
[Examine]
[Armored Squire]
Armored Squire. Minion. Set: Camelot’s Army. Rarity: Common. A loyal squire of Camelot. Will do anything to protect their liege.
War Whoop: The next Fortify Armor you play costs 1 Vigor Stone less.
Sword Slash: 3 Attack, Cooldown: 5 seconds
Armor: 3
Health Points: 2
Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
Walt could Soultap and draw into his Levitical Hellfiend, but he thought it was more worthwhile to play a Blood Mirror and hide it while he still could. And he could save his health for future Soultaps.
He stumbled into a creek and saw a hollow underneath the ridge of a bank. It was overhanging with tree roots.
Walt summoned the Blood Mirror from the card and tucked it into the hollow, submerging it into the water. The red glow flared upon placement.
In the distance, he heard Jacob cry out in pain as the mirror drained him of some health, transferring it to Walt’s pool.
Bloodhound
Health Points: 99
Voidlock
Health Points: 96
The red glow of the mirror dissipated. Walt stepped back. The Blood Mirror wasn’t visible at all. Not unless one peaked into the hollow and searched the water.
Walt ran on.
