Psycho Duel Chapter 48: We Have Company

Walt hurried out of his room, heading for the back deck. Rick was still awake. He was at the kitchen table, where an assortment of hand guns and rifles were laid out. The spread of firepower made Walt do a double-take. Rick was in the process of meticulously cleaning them.

Rick looked up from his work, a cloth in his hand and a piece of a gun in the other. “Everything alright?”

“We have company,” Walt said.

At that moment, a knock from the back deck caught his attention. They both turned towards the window. Elrich was standing on the deck, holding what looked like a cluster of squirrel or rabbit corpses by the tails in his hand.

Walt opened the door and Elrich dropped the cluster of corpses onto the deck. They weren’t rabbits or squirrels at all. If anything, Walt thought they looked like chupacabras or some other strange cryptid.

“Witchhounds,” Elrich said, his voice dripping with disdain.

[Examine]

[Witchhounds]

Witchhounds. Minion. Set: Fleshgrafter Vance’s Kennel. Rarity: Rare. A creation of Vance, the Fleshgrafter of Witchhold, designed to be a reliable tracker.

Pack: These minions come in packs of four.

Witch Sniff: Once they get the scent of a target locked in, they can lead you straight to target.

Bite: 4 Attack, Cooldown: 8 seconds

Health Points: 4

Cost: 2 Vigor Stones

Rick stepped out onto the deck and Walt was surprised to see him wearing a tactical vest and holsters. There was were handguns in the holsters, an assault rifle slung over his shoulder and he was carrying a long, black case.

“There is someone looking for you,” Elrich said. “The only reason for Witchhounds to be here is that they have your scent. Whoever is using them will be arriving soon.”

The Silver Tongue. He’s the first in line to come for me. He’ll want to duel.

Walt peered out into the dark, scanning the edge of the lake and the trees. He couldn’t make anything out with the lack of light.

He looked to his gauntlet and accessed the Vaulted Deck of Cards his first, mysterious patron had gifted him.

They must have realized this Calix Nephus person would come after me and they wanted me to be prepared.

He ejected the Night Vision card, catching it with his hand. He threw it to the side and it disappeared in a roiling black fog. When Walt blinked, his vision flared. The world around him became monochrome, almost as if he was suddenly in an old black and white movie. And the lake and trees were no longer hidden by the darkness. He could see everything in the gray world around him quite clearly.

Night Vision Activated…

Cards In Play: 3/5

Outside of a duel, there was a five card limit he could have in play at any moment. He wondered if this was a technological limitation of the gauntlet or a failsafe put in by Slaynami. It would be kind of over-powered to be able to have an entire deck codex in play at once outside of a duel.

“Do you know how to use a gun?” Rick asked Walt.

Walt shook his head. With his two last slots, he equipped the Boots of Nemora and the Wand of Green Skulls. He held up the wand for Rick to see. “I do know how to use a wand, though.”

“That’s uh, pretty neat,” Rick said, “but I should teach you how to shoot. Imagine duel wielding.”

“Our world’s weapons aren’t so great against the Psycho Slingers and their monsters. I’ll stick to weapons from my gauntlet.”

“Fair enough. Some of us don’t have the luxury of a gauntlet, though.”

He was right of course. Walt wondered if there was a way for his people to build weaponry that could eventually take out slingers. There had to be a way to circumvent the power of the gauntlets.

“If you ever change your mind, let me know,” Rick said. “There’s discipline from learning good gun etiquette that might be applicable to your gauntlet weapons. Just throwing it out there.”

According to the system, Voidlocks couldn’t use guns. But that probably just applied to the magical guns from the gauntlets. It probably just applied to cards. He was still a human from Earth so he was pretty sure he could wield a gun as a Voidlock if he wanted to outside of a duel.

“You should stay here, guard the cabin while I go investigate,” Walt said.

“I’d like to come with you,” Rick said. “And if you’re right about the power gap, you should have Elrich stay close to the girls. He’ll be able to protect them better than I can.”

It was a fair point. But not without its problems.

“Janice would kill me if something happened to you,” Walt said.

“She’d kill me if something happened to you.”

Walt chuckled. “Fair.” He turned to Elrich. “Which direction do you think these things came from?”

Elrich pointed southeast at the woods. That was in the direction of Cumberland Mountain. Where he had dueled Shae. He surmised that’s probably where these witchhounds found his scent.

“Alright, Elrich,” Walt said. “You stay here and guard the cabin. We’re gonna go check out the woods. We’ll be back soon.”

I hope.

#

“I know who’s looking for me,” Walt said. He and Rick were walking through the woods away from the cabin and the lake. With his night vision, he could see their surroundings well but he wasn’t seeing any trace of anyone yet. “It’s a Psycho Slinger I pissed off. He’s most likely looking to duel me.”

“I kind of figured,” Rick said. His brother-in-law, geared up as he was, looked like a special forces operator. He seemed incredibly calm for the situation.

“Rick.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you really a consultant?”

Rick didn’t look at him, but kept walking, scanning their surroundings. He was focused. “I’ve worked all sorts of jobs.”

Walt was about to ask more specific questions when a system notification dinged.

Dryder Hounds Have Detected Threat…

Walt heard the trill of a Dryder Hound and the thrum of their silken webs. He looked up at the branches and saw one of the silken strings of the dryders vibrating.

“Stay here,” Walt said. “I’m gonna get above to look up ahead. If I end up in a duel, go back to the cabin and get everyone out.”

“What if you don’t come back?” Rick asked.

“Then that’s all the more reason to get away.”

Rick knelt next to a tree stump and opened his gun case. He retrieved a scope and peered up ahead.

Must be a night vision scope.

Walt jumped up into the air and the wings on his boots began flapping. He rose to tree top level, being careful not to get up above the canopy leaves in case someone was looking down on the area. He wanted to use the branches and leaves as cover.

He wove between branches, going deeper into the woods towards the mountain. The ground below had turned into a slope going up, and soon he found himself entering the wooded foothills.

He froze, holding onto a branch, when he caught movement below. There was a man in leather buckskin leggings and a chambray shirt riding on some kind of four-legged creature. His head was shaved save for the brown braids falling from the top of his skull. His jaw was dark with the beginning of a beard. His card gauntlet was the only thing in his monochrome field of view that appeared in color.

That’s not Calix.

The Slaynami system identified the man.

Name: Joseph Shadow Wolf

AKA: Mr. Nose

Psycho Slinger

Record: 2-0-0

Class: Bloodhound

The creature he was riding came into closer view. A pair of horns spiraled off its head and it traversed the terrain with blackened hooves.

[Examine]

[Black Phillip]

Black Phillip. Mount. Set: Adventurer Dio’s Wondrous Mounts. Rarity: Rare. A black mountain goat of the Cawraithian Mountains, a natural expert at covering difficult terrain.

Goat Kick: 8 Attack, Cooldown: 5 seconds

Bite: 6 Attack, Cooldown: 10 seconds

Health Points: 12

Cost: 3 Vigor Stones

The goat was following one of the witchhounds, which was yipping excitedly.

They passed directly underneath him, not noticing that Walt was hiding in the thick cover of branches and leaves. Walt was considering his next course of action when there was more rustling and another person appeared, emerging from the trees and following in the wake of Joseph Shadow Wolf.

Walt blinked and shook his head. The next man was the spitting image of the first Bloodhound. Except his face was clean cut.

Name: Jeremiah Shadow Wolf

AKA: Mr. Fang

Psycho Slinger

Record: 2-0-0

Class: Bloodhound

Twins?

Walter’s mind raced. Twin Bloodhounds were on his trail. Bloodhounds were known for being excellent trackers. This was no coincidence.

Calix must have hired these two to find me. But was he nearby? Or were they going to try and bring Walt to him?

This Bloodhound was riding what looked to be a wolf the size of a pony.

[Examine]

[Cawraithian Wolf]

Cawraithian Wolf. Mount. Set: Adventurer Dio’s Wondrous Mounts. Rarity: Common. The wolves of the Cawraithian mountains, born in shadow and snow, make for excellent mounts over rocky terrain.

Claw: 7 Attack, Cooldown: 5 seconds

Bite: 7 Attack, Cooldown: 10 seconds

Health Points: 10

Cost: 3 Vigor Stones

Walt hovered there among the leaves, trying to figure out what the play was. His mysterious patron’s words ran through his mind. The real game is how you play off the battleboard. He gritted his teeth. Obviously, he couldn’t let them reach the cabin. And if he confronted them to duel, that was no guarantee they wouldn’t play dirty and just try and capture him.

But maybe he could spook them off somehow, force them to retreat. He went through the Deck of Vaulted cards to see if it would spark any ideas.

Unstable Shadows. Spell. Set: Slaynami Vault. Prey on the fears of your opponent by manipulating the shadows on the edge of their vision.

When cast, Fears the target for 1 Turn.

Fear: Target will try to run away from the caster.

Cost: 2 Vigor Stones

If he wanted to play it, he had to regauntlet a card. He called back his Dryder Hounds. After a moment, motes of light appeared out of the tree tops in the distance and raced through the atmosphere. They disappeared into his gauntlet.

Then he realized the Bloodhounds had froze and were looking up at Walt. They had seen the lights from the returning Dryder Hounds.

Shit. Stupid.

All three Psycho Slingers were staring at each other for a tense moment.

Then strangely, the Bloodhounds smiled at each other, seemingly pleased. They turned their mounts around and started heading back the way they came.

“What?” Walt said, confused. They were leaving.

Had they just been hired to find his location? And not engage?

Walt used his Slaynami system to challenge Mr. Nose to a duel. He could see that the Bloodhound had received the notification, because he stopped and turned around. He paused and his eyes had that glassy look that indicated he was looking at his HUD. His lip trembled and he glanced at Walt. He looked like a kid who was about to do something even though his parents warned him not to. The duel invitation had definitely tempted him.

As he was about to speak, the clean shaven Bloodhound gestured with his hands at his brother.

Sign language.

So, Mr. Fang was deaf. But now the brothers were violently signing at each other, a heated argument in sign language. Finally, Mr. Nose, the one with the beard, acquiesced. The way his shoulders slumped indicated he had lost the argument. He nodded.

Joseph Shadow Wolf aka Mr. Nose has declined your invitation to Duel….

Mr. Nose pulled on the reigns of his monstrous goat and turned around, heading away from the cabin. Mr. Fang, the deaf brother, didn’t break eye contact with Walt as he backed away, finally turning his mount around to join his brother.

Walt called out after them. “That’s it? You don’t want to duel?”

They ignored him and quickened their pace. But Walt knew that he couldn’t just let them go and report his location. He had to do something.

He flew after them. A card shot out of his gauntlet and he caught it and hurled it down in front of the two fleeing Bloodhounds.

There was an explosion of dirt and rocks that sent the Bloodhound brothers flying off their mounts. From the dust cloud, a humungous skeletal hand that still had pink musculature attached to the bone emerged, palming the earth.

Walt’s Skeletal Hulkbeast rose above the twins, its flayed titan face grinning.