Jacob glanced at the cards in his hand nervously, thinking quickly as the monster approached him. He had to move fast to avoid sharing the bloody fate of Amaryllis; he doubted his Avenged Water Demon could last long on its own against the crystalline creature - there was no possible way of knowing how much Strength it had, but it was enough to demolish a significant amount of machinery in the testing facility.
Carnivorous Island Potato - Creature - Plant Type - Strength: 800 - Defense: 800
Crystalline Ice Rain - Spell - This card summons a razor sharp crystalline ice rain that damages everything underneath it.
Exiled Hamster Warrior - Creature - Light Type - Strength: 1500 - Defense: 1200 - A fierce and exiled warrior, who seeks revenge on the lord that has forsaken it. Gains 200 Strength against Dark Types.
Equip Transfer - Spell - This card allows a caster to transfer an equip that it controls from one entity to another.
Card of Illumination - Spell - This card summons a bright orb of light that illuminates whatever space it is cast in. Damage against Dark type creatures is doubled, while damage against light type creatures is halved.
“Hit the creature with a saltwater spear,” Jacob looked up from his hand at the crystalline creature as he spoke to the Avenged Water Demon “then draw it’s attention to the right, away from the girl.”
The Water Demon nodded, and a long spear of pure ocean water appeared in its hands. It threw the spear at the monster then lunged to the right, drawing it’s attention away. The creature cried out as the spear stuck into it, eating away at the rock around the gaping hole it left. After a second the spear dissolved, leaving behind a puddle of seawater. The monstrosity slipped as it tried to turn with the Avenged Water Demon, and hit the floor hard. Several pieces of crystal cracked off of it, littering the ground with stone.
Jacob moved to the left to step out of the creature’s sightline and cast Equip Transfer.
“Transfer Holographic Shield of the Dead King to the Avenged Water Demon” Jacob’s shield de-materialized after a few seconds, re-appearing on the Avenged Water Demon’s left arm as the crystalline monster found it’s footing again. It swiped at the Demon, which raised the shield up to meet the strike. There was a resounding CLANG! as the crystal arm hit the holographic surface, and Avenged Water Demon slid across the floor dramatically. Jacob stumbled slightly as the soreness in his shoulder returned, and his left forearm cracked slightly. Pain shot up it, echoing what the Water Demon felt. Jacob gritted his teeth and stood up straight, remembering a similar effect during his battle against the RevGang Enforcers a few weeks ago; whatever his creature felt, he would feel a portion of. The Avenged Water Demon grunted as it slid to a stop but remained standing, and Jacob looked down at his equipper. He tapped a few buttons, and the Water Demon’s stats came up:
Creature Card - Shadow Card - Avenged Water Demon - Ocean/Demonic Type - Strength: 1600 - Defense: 300 - LIGHT/ROCK OPPONENT, DEFENSE REDUCED BY 300, STRENGTH INCREASED BY 100
Doing some quick math Jacob estimated each swipe of the Crystalline Creature did roughly 900 Strength damage, which was amplified by the weakness of the Water Demon against Light type creatures. He was glad he had worn the more advanced equipper his Grandfather had given him; type weaknesses weren’t denoted on the text of individual cards, and his old equipper wouldn’t have told him how much Strength and Defense his Avenged Water Demon had left. The equipper had also managed to detect the opponents type through it’s effect on the Water Demon’s stats; while his Demon had a natural weakness to light type creatures that lowered its Defense, it similarly had a natural increase in Strength against Rock type creatures due to the Water Demon’s Ocean subtype. Still, the Strength of the creature was impressive; melee attacks typically had the lowest amount of Strength if Jacob remembered his Casting Theory correctly, which meant the Strength stat of the crystal monstrosity was likely at least double when using weapons - and triple with projectiles. That gave it a max Strength stat of 2400 - a stat that seemed unimpressive in comparison with the most powerful cards in the game, but was surprising given the creature’s origin.
Jacob’s deck box whirred as it spat out another card, and he drew it. He glanced down at it - a FateCo snare which didn’t seem to have much application in the current match:
Card Return(x1) - Snare - Returns one card on the field to the caster’s hand. If it is a snare card, it is revealed without being activated before it is returned.
Jacob opened his mouth to call out an attack, when suddenly a sword of cloud shimmered into existence in the hands of the Avenged Water Demon. He glanced down at his equipper and smiled, as his Demon’s strength increased to 2100.
“Demon, slash and evade - don’t let that thing hit you!” Jacob called to his creature. The Demon nodded and rushed the crystalline beast. It slashed viciously at the creature’s side, carving a deep gash into it before dancing away just out of the creature’s range. The crystalline monstrosity roared at it and lashed out again with an arm. It’s attack missed. Jacob glanced down at Stan, who shrugged.
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“Rama said only one creature at a time could fight that thing.” Stan glanced at his Nun of the Order of Silence, which was helping Rama tend to Amaryllis’s wounds “She didn’t say I couldn’t give it a sword.”
“No she didn’t” Jacob grinned at Stan, then turned back to the match in progress. The creature lunged forward and tried to stab the Avenged Water Demon with one of its crystalline arms, which it batted away with it’s shield. It stabbed the blade of its cloud sword into the stomach of the creature, which cried out in pain.
“Demon, use Polluted Water Daggers!”
The Demon ducked under a horizontal swipe from one of the crystalline arms, then jumped backwards. It crossed its blade in front of its shield as it summoned the attack, a series of murky looking daggers appearing in the air in front of it. They shot forwards towards the crystal creature like bullets, whizzing through the air before embedding themselves in the creature’s body. The creature cried out as they hit, and Jacob saw the polluted saltwater begin to dissolve some of the rock around each wound. The creature stumbled backwards at the impact, backing into the wall it had thrown Amaryllis into earlier. The room shook as it hit the wall, and the creature shook its head in pain. The attack was super effective.
The creature pushed off from the wall in frustration and met the Demon’s attack with projectiles of its own, launching over a dozen sharpened crystals out of its body towards the Water Demon. The Demon quickly ducked behind its shield as the crystals flew towards it; the majority hit the shield harmlessly, though the Water Demon cried out as it was impaled by two of the projectiles. Jacob felt a sharp pain in his right leg and side where the projectiles had hit the Water Demon and grimaced. He raised his equipper, pulling up his creature’s stats:
Strength: 2100 - Defense: 100
Jacob tapped his equip deck, and it spat out a Heal card.
“Equip this to the Demon.” Jacob placed the card into the Equipper, and the Defense stat on the Avenged Water Demon increased. The creature stretched a little bit, holding the shield up slightly higher. The crystals were pushed out of its body, and the wounds they had created closed roughly. Jacob felt the soreness in his own body ease a little bit from the sympathetic effects, and he checked his Demon’s stats again:
Strength: 2100 - Defense: 1400
The Heal card disintegrated in the equipper, and Jacob cursed under his breath. That was his last heal card; he was going to have to be a lot more careful on the rest of the tour. Rama appeared to have plenty of heal cards given her emergency treatment of Amaryllis, but thus far had yet to offer those cards to any of the tour guests unprompted. Counting Kerl and the creature in front of him the experience had already claimed 3 of the tour group’s members, and it was clear Rama was going to provide as little assistance as possible. If anything she was more likely to throw Jacob into the heart of whatever danger was coming, if her behaviour in this encounter was anything to go by.
The crystal creature roared, and prepared to charge at the Avenged Water Demon. Jacob looked away from the equipper and hesitated, before getting an idea.
“Demon, use Ensnaring Net to pull it to the ground.” Jacob called out. The Demon didn’t look away from the monstrosity, but nodded slightly. The creature charged, and the Avenged Water Demon summoned a net of saltwater into its hands. It waited until the last second, dangling the net to its side as the creature got closer. Just before the crystalline creature could hit it the Water Demon leapt to the side, throwing the net over the monstrosity charging towards it. It tugged on the net while it simultaneously slashed with its swords at the creature’s legs. The monstrosity stumbled as it was thrown off of its center of gravity, it’s crystal legs crumpling underneath it as it hit the ground hard. There was a loud cracking sound, and a latticework of lines appeared in the stones in several places on the monster’s body. It thrashed about inside the net, roaring as it strained against the saltwater mesh it was entangled in. It yanked fiercely, and the Avenged Water Demon was pulled off the ground by the section of net it still held. It flew towards a wall and hit it with a sudden crunch.
Jacob fell to his knees as all the breath was pushed out of him, and his abdomen exploded in pain where the Demon had been hit. He audibly grunted, involuntarily gripping his stomach with his right hand as he struggled to breath. He sucked in a deep breath and doubled over immediately in a deep, rasping cough. The sudden movement was too much for his lungs, causing him to hack heavily. He felt a hand roughly patting his back, and he waved it away as he coughed further. He forced himself to take several long breaths, breathing in shallowly despite the pain. He coughed a few more times before finally breathing normally, looking up at the match with eyes clouded by tears. The crystalline creature continued to thrash about, tangling itself even further into the ocean net it was caught in. The Avenged Water Demon had gotten to it’s feet and was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. It looked battered, and its Holographic Shield had broken in half - while the arm it was attached to hung limply at its side.
“Help me up.” Jacob gasped out, and rough hands pulled him onto his feet. He looked over and saw Stan on the conveyor belt next to him, an expression of worry on his face. Jacob took another deep breath, and looked at his Water Demon’s stats
Strength: 2100 - Defense: 100
“Incapacitate it, but don’t kill it.” Jacob coughed as it called out to the water demon, his voice cracking through his inflamed throat. The Avenged Water Demon nodded its head heavily, and limped over to the creature. With one great movement it thrust its sword into the crystal beasts back, and the monster cried out in pain. It slumped to the ground, just before the Avenged Water Demon slumped down on top of it. Jacob pulled the Demon off of the equipper and it faded away into nothingness.
“Is it dead?” Stan let go of Jacob, who wobbled a bit on his feet. The actor glanced down at his wife, then back over to the mass of crystal and rock. The creature groaned, and Stan stumbled backwards. Jacob winced, and straightened himself up. His body creaked in protest, but he ignored it.
“No, that thing’s still alive.” Jacob shuddered a bit, and pulled his Exiled Hamster Warrior out of his hand, just in case. He wasn’t ready for another match and doubted the rodent would be a match for the creature, but he refused to go down passively. If this was his last stop on the tour, he was going to take that thing with him. At the very least he would do it some more damage - enough that maybe Rama would finally step in. Beside him he saw Stan pull several cards out of his own deck box, reading through them quickly.
“Too bad the rest of you won’t be.” Amaryllis’ voice caught Jacob and Stan by surprise, and the two whirled around to stare at her. She was standing several feet away from the conveyor belt, wobbling slightly. Blood had matted one side of her hair into a congealed mess, and her skin had paled from the loss of fluids. She had a fierce look on her face, and held a small blinking box in her left hand.
She had a pistol in her right hand, pointed directly at Rama.
want them to be like Pokemon, but that dynamic works best when there’s two casters - each controlling their own creature. For those who like duels, fret not - there’ll be plenty of opportunity for me to practice and refine it in the rest of the book and series. It’s an extremely mild spoiler but book 2 in particular has quite a bit of creature vs. creature matches; hopefully I’ll have it all worked out by then.
big about these characters - as Rama said earlier, everyone on the tour has secrets. No one is there without an ulterior motive - even if they’ve spent the majority of the tour blending into the background. I hope you like the reveal in the next chapter; it’s a bit more out there in comparison to the others, but somehow it isn’t the most surprising reveal I have planned for this little group. Saying anything more would be spoilers, so I’ll leave you pondering that.
trust in the cards…
What do you think the plot twist is with Amaryllis?
