Cursed Draw

"One trick is to target their vitals even more than you normally would. The throat, the eyes, arteries, anything you can think of to trigger their Vials emptying quickly.”

-Leshy Knots speaking to his eldest son

Chapter 31: Dawn Hunt Vs Crashing Wave -Part Two

Darius

Darius was sent flying backward as the whirling blue Resonance sliced open dozens of light cuts all over him. The cleavers his spear had become and crossed forearms bore the brunt of it, slashed repeatedly as though with a whip.

The portion of the pier the combatants were on now was a lot larger than the one they had started on. Large enough that it was wood that met Darius’ back as he came crashing down, not water.

“You aren’t very good at this.” Said the Demi-Human in a snarky imitation of what the hunter had said to her moments before. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he regained his feet, Darius let out a little laugh.

“Okay okay, I deserved that.” He went on as one of the four vials inside him emptied to close the shallow cuts. Well most of them, it was only one Vial after all. It did however stop his bleeding and turned being covered in slashes to being covered in scratches.

“What you deserve.” She hissed. “ Is to be fed to the god!” With that, the fish woman was charging yet again. It seemed to be her only actual tactic; play every card she could and then try to crush the other player beneath a savage charge. Even for a Demi-Human, it struck Darius as a little…basic. Not that he had time to be making internal critiques. The woman was still under the effects of the ‘Flashing Scales’ Card and moving with blurring speed.

Still fast didn’t mean unpredictable, if she was going to run at him in a straight line three times in a row Darius could hardly let her get away with it. Even animals tried different things. Without the time to check his hand, Darius was still working with Brood Queen’s Venom, and Scent The Blood. Another minute and a half of his spear’s transformation would be enough. It would have to be enough.

Shaking off an internal shudder at the thought of using the Card, Darius activated “Brood Queen’s Venom!”

Instantly his mouth filled and then overflowed with green-tinged drool that sizzled and popped upon contact with anything that wasn’t him. This was easily his least favorite Card of all twenty in his Library. The stupid thing always left him covered in his own drool, but it was just too effective to easily replace.

Feeling gross at doing it he spat a spray of venom at the girl’s face. There was no blocking the liquid and she was forced to close her eyes against the acrid pop. Darius was a little surprised that she didn’t halt her charge, rather trying to clear her face one-handed whilst still sprinting.

Easily slipping to the side he hacked a line of flesh from her scaled back as she passed.

Perhaps he should have followed up more, but Darius had a plan. Step one: Coat his cleavers in the contact venom. It was a weird sensation but the red-headed boy scraped the drool from his chin and cheeks with the short bone cleavers his spear had become.

It gave the Demi-Human the chance to recover but her troubles had only just begun. Darius did a quick calculation in his head. She was rank nine, sixteen internal Vials against a potency of two from his venom. He would need to tag her eight times with the venom to put her to sleep with the venom, but four would be enough to start slowing her down.

Surging forward he brought the cleavers down in a cross slash similar to the one he had landed on her earlier. Those rank nine reflexes easily blocked both cleavers, but not the flicking motion that sent drops of venom flying at her already pink eyes. The fish woman stumbled back releasing her blade with one hand to swat them out of the air.

Not giving her a chance to recover Darius once again spat at her face. The fish woman twisted out of the way, but it left her open to attack with the envenomed cleavers again. In an instant, he had delivered a flurry of strikes. They were light, barely forceful enough to break her Harmonized skin. That was all the hunter needed from them though, break the skin and deliver the venom.

One on the shoulder, one across the abdomen, one on the elbow.

Still drooling like the time he’d gotten into his parent’s whiskey barrel at age seven Darius grinned. The effect would start to slow her down now. He only had a few minutes before her body cleared the venom but if Darius could hit her four more times the venom would make her all but immobile. It was only a matter of time now.

“Hydrochains!”

The shout didn’t come from the demi-human but from the captain aboard the galley.

‘Right. Him.’ Darius hadn’t really wondered why the Demi-Human hadn’t made an attempt to challenge him. He assumed she wanted the space to use her water walking Card and rush tactics. Even if she had, Darius wouldn’t have accepted as the Arena would have trapped him. She could have just attacked the pier and left him swimming in a contained area. Now he realized she had fought without a Challenge so the man with the True Deck could interfere at will.

Knowing he was about to be hit with a spell the hunter burst into motion, trying to clear whatever zone the effect targeted.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that kind of spell and Darius quickly found his legs pushing against congealing Water Resonance. Realizing he would soon be locked immobile the red-head boy made sure he was at least facing the Demi-human before the watery chains fully formed.

The envenomed weapons and spit had taken their toll. Darius could clearly see his opponent had slowed considerably. Unfortunately that only brought her down to roughly his own normal speed.

Given that his legs were presently being locked to the pier by flowing chains of water he would need her to be a lot slower than that if he wanted a chance to survive the water spell’s duration.

Sparing the briefest of moments to flick his eyes to his hand Darius noted the Dawn Shot, and Primal Forge he had played earlier had been replaced, though he was still waiting on a new Card after Brood Queen’s Venom.

Speaking of Brood Queen’s Venom. Darius had drawn the other copy of the Card he kept in his deck no help there, he was already dripping acrid venom down his front. The other Hunter’s Intuition wasn’t a whole lot better since he already knew what she was going to do.

The demi-Human Charged one more time and Darius pulled the oldest trick in the book.

“Dawn Shot” He declared through venomous drool.

At the same moment, Darius hurled one of the bone cleavers at the woman. No Card activated and his eyes didn’t glow. After all, you had to have a Card in hand in order to play it. The fish lady didn’t know any of that though. She skidded to a halt bringing her sword up to guard against a projectile she thought she couldn’t dodge. Knocking the flying weapon aside she snarled and began to surge towards him once more.

The Trick had only bought Darius a few seconds, but that was all he needed for Primal Forge to wear off. The Deflected cleaver that now lay a few feet behind the Demi-Human launched itself with unerring straightness at its twin, seeking to reform into the Ancient Spear.

Aiming this sort of thing was a tricky business so the returning blade cut through the woman’s side rather than her spine as he had intended. It still drew a howl of pain from her lips and sent the fish woman stumbling forward. Right into a thrust from the still reforming spear.

Blood burst from her mouth and the sword slipped from her fingers. Still, the woman was rank nine she wouldn’t die easy. With a roar, she shoved the spear away and all but collapsed as she stumbled back. The steam of closing wounds rose from her, but it was thin and almost clear. Sure signs she was running low on Life Essence.

Darius still couldn’t pursue but for the first time, the Demi-human retreated more than a few steps. Badly wounded, swordless, and wary, she retreated more than halfway along the chunk of the pier that had become their impromptu arena. Intent on letting the Hydrochains buy her some time to recover, or worse the captain to Manifest something further to help her. Darius couldn’t allow any of that.

“The god” She mumbled, pleaded even. “ The god will devour you, and make Karieto so so strong.” She giggled through bloody teeth at him. “ You will see! He will be lord of the Shattered Hull and no one will hurt us again!”

The red-headed boy couldn’t help but feel pity for the girl. Whatever madness the process of Harmonization had inflicted on her mind had somehow left her both powerful and pathetic. He met her eyes with his own sad gaze. He always felt pity for the prey, but it hadn’t stopped him a single time since he was four years old.

“Scent The Blood!”

Darius felt one of the two still full Vials inside his spirit empty to fuel the effect of the card. It was a similar sensation to the healing effect but a lot less painful. With a snarl, the hunter jerked one side of his body towards the Demi-Human. Instantly he felt the movement accelerate past normal human limitations and knew the whiplash of this was going to hurt. Holding onto his bone spear till the very apex of his arm’s blurred extension. When he released the spear the increased torque launched the weapon like a ballista.

The spear took the fish woman in the solar plexus, just a few inches lower than the still-closing wound of his earlier thrust. Rank Nine durability or not the spear’s head still punched right out her back.

Mouth gulping like the fish creature she was, the other Trials wielder collapsed onto the pier. Collapsed and bled her last, he knew this from the way her now dead form rejected the Harmonization. Blue Water Resonance poured from the woman’s…no the girl’s form. He could see it now that the transformation to Demi-Human was being undone. She had once been an athletic girl a few years Darius’ junior. The red of her braided hair reminded him so much of his own she could have been a fourth Knots sibling.

As the last of the Resonance faded away a strange glass bottle seemingly smoothed by an extended time in the ocean appeared on her chest. It was the girl’s Dealer, locked and useless now that she was dead. It would stay that way for at least five years. Eventually, someone would be able to access her collection again, but it wasn’t going to be soon.

Shaking his head the hunter spat on the pier in disgust the saliva sizzled on the damp wood. His own family had a strict policy about understanding the dangers of a Deck before owning one. Someone had an utterly opposite philosophy, someone who had fed that girl Resonance and Life Essence all the way up to rank nine well before an age where her own personality could hope to survive the Demi-Human transformation.

Cracking his neck and rolling his right shoulder Darius realized he had been right, the whiplash from the unnaturally accelerated spear throw had hurt like a bitch.