Standing in front of the rusted door, he set about checking his supplies. He first made sure his rifle was fully loaded before he checked his revolver. Finally, he touched the scalpel in his pocket to make sure it was still there. It wasn’t the most effective weapon in the world, but it had come in handy back at the mountain resort.
He glanced at both of his companions. “Are we ready?”
Valentina grinned. “Let’s kick some alien ass.”
Kassandra rolled her eyes at the other woman’s statement. “They’re not aliens.”
“As long as they bleed, I can kill them.” Valentina lifted her rifle and clicked off the safety. She looked over at Warren. “They bleed, right, doc?”
“They die just like anything else.”
Valentina nodded her head. “Good enough.”
Warren shouldered his own rifle and stepped toward the entrance. He grabbed the handle and eased the heavy iron door open. From inside, he heard only silence. The ancient lights flickered in the hallway, looking like they would fail at any second, but somehow kept working.
Before he could continue, Kassandra stepped in front of him and drew her dagger. She proceeded down the hallway in a fighting pose. Since he’d upgraded her card, she’d moved with a new and deadly grace. Even a minor card upgrade from poor to common vastly increased a minions power. He vividly remembered her kicking the hotel’s front doors off of its hinges.
If a common quality minion was so powerful, what would he be facing when he confronted the other squires? He was under no illusion that the aliens would use poor and common quality cards like him. Would he stand any chance against them?
He shook his head to dispel his thoughts. Now wasn’t the time for such worries. He’d always had a problem with getting distracted in the past, and it had taken him a long time to learn to focus on the present. Right now, he needed to prepare for battle.
After a short walk, they reached the first chamber where he’d faced the Wizened Milbark. But there was no sign of the sentient tree or the mass of roots and vines that had engulfed the room.
I guess this means enemies don’t respawn.
The sight of the empty room filled him with disappointment. He’d been hopeful that he could farm this dungeon for experience. But apparently, once you defeated a boss, it wouldn’t reappear. So, at best, there were only another 4 bosses, since the description said the dungeon was for levels 1-5.
After a brief pause, they proceeded across the room to the door on the far side. Recessed in the wall was another rusted iron door, similar to the one at the entrance. In fact, the more he examined it, the more certain he was that it was an exact copy. Even the rust looked like it was in the same spots.
Warren grabbed the corroded handle and tugged on it. But unlike the well-oiled door leading into the dungeon, this one barely moved. As he yanked on the handle with both hands, he winced at the tortured sound of metal grinding on metal; it froze after opening a crack and refused to move any further.
After a second, Kassandra stepped forward and grabbed the side of the door with one hand. With ease, she tore it open, the metal frame warping slightly. When he gave her a look, she shrugged her shoulders. “I guess I don’t need help to open jars anymore.”
He shook his head before proceeding down the corridor. Unlike the previous room, these walls were constructed of hand carved sandstone blocks. And every surface of the stone had alien hieroglyphics scrawled on their surface.
They emerged from the tunnel into a staggeringly massive room. One of the first things he’d done when he moved to Florida was to visit the Kennedy Space Center. But this room dwarfed the structures where NASA had housed the space program rockets.
In the center of the area was a pyramid with numerous terraces leading toward the top. At the highest point of the structure, a creature with the head of a crocodile stood holding a staff in one hand. It wore long white robes, and humanoid legs emerged from the bottom. Above its head floated the name plate, “Sobek, Level 2.”
Kassandra stopped at the edge of the sand covering the floor. She spun her dagger around in her hand while she frowned. “I don’t think this boss is going to be like the last one.”
“Tell me about it,” Warren said, eyeing the hundreds of stairs leading up to the enemy summoner. “I have a feeling this is going to be a much tougher fight.”
“Whatever.” Valentina peered down the sights of her rifle. “I could take out that weirdo right now. Boom, headshot, and we win.”
“He’ll have a shield surrounding him,” Warren said. “I fought against an enemy squire with a shield, and I could barely penetrate it with an anti-tank weapon. Your rifle probably wouldn’t even scratch it.”
Valentina pushed her plump lips together. After a second, she reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of grenades. “Cover me, and I’ll stuff these down his pants.”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“We’ll call that Plan B,” Warren said, grinning. “I think I’ll start with calling my deck and see what we’re facing.”
“Are you ready?” he asked Kassandra.
Kassandra nodded, a familiar look of determination on her face.
Warren took a deep breath and activated his combat deck. As he did, Kassandra disappeared into a storm of light and then four cards appeared in his vision. He quickly read over the hand he’d drawn:
- Nocturne – 1 Energy
- Duskwalker – 2 Energy
- Sword of Deimos – 1 Energy
- Lab Accident – 3 Energy
As he activated his combat deck, the creature named Sobek at the top of the stairs sprang to life. It waved its staff around and a moment later, a horribly misshapen creature appeared from a tempest of swirling water. It looked like something had crossed a crocodile with a lion and a hippo. While its head was clearly that of a crocodile, it had the furry mane of a lion, and the ungainly body of a hippo.
A name plate floated about the creature’s head that read:
Ammit, Uncommon Quality
1 Energy
While the summoned crime against nature waddled down the steps of the pyramid, he activated the artifact Ring of Vlasiiang. The moment he did, a second orb of energy appeared in his vision. He immediately selected Duskwalker from his cards.
I hope this goes better than last time.
The shadows swirled in front of him and the gunslinger with glowing eyes stepped forth. Boone tipped back his cowboy hat as he contemplated the pyramid. Then his face transformed into a scowl. “Oh great, I’m fighting weird Egyptian crap.”
“Take out the croco-hippo thing.” Warren called out to Duskwalker. “Then focus your fire on Sobek at the top of the pyramid.”
Boone raised his eyebrow. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“That thing!” Warren thrust his arm at the monster galloping down the stairs. It might look like the misshapen offspring of a few different animals, but it moved surprisingly fast. And its mouth was stuffed full of razor-sharp teeth. He did not want to fight it in melee combat.
But before the gunslinger could unholster his weapon, he received a notification in his vision.
Ammit has used the Clone ability.
The enemy minion creates a copy of itself with the same stats.
He watched with shock as the charging creature split in two. None of his cards had come with abilities yet, but clearly, they were a powerful addition to minions. Now they had to deal with two of the monsters.
With a shocked look on his face, Boone drew his guns and backpedaled away. The gunslinger opened fire, his weapon spitting out flame and smoke. The first shot went wide, striking the stairs beside one of the Ammits; a spray of stone shrapnel showered the creatures.
From beside him, Valentina went down on one knee and added her own fire to the gunslinger’s. Her first round caught one of the monsters in the eye. It let out a roar, but barely seemed to register the wound. If anything, it only galloped faster.
Warren lifted his rifle and lined up a shot. He squeezed the trigger and watched the bullet strike the back of one of the creatures. Together with Valentina, they focused their fire on the one on the right. Meanwhile, Boone kept pumping his rounds into the other one.
After only a few seconds of firing, it was clear the gunslingers' ammunition far outclassed his own. While most of his bullets bounced off the creature’s thick hide, Boone’s shots blew off chunks of flesh.
With a pained cry, one of the charging creature’s legs failed. A bullet from the gunslinger’s weapon had struck it in the knee, and it went down before skidding to a halt. When it tried to struggle back to its feet, another shot rang out, the bullet slamming into the center of its head. With a pained groan, the creature collapsed to the ground before lying still.
Valentina ejected her magazine before cycling in another one. “Holy shit, that thing is ugly.” She squeezed off a series of round as the monster galloped toward them at full speed.
Warren glanced over to see his energy was only half full. It would take at least another minute before he could summon his sword or some melee support. The creature was going to be on top of him long before that.
He pulled the trigger as fast as he could. Each bullet hammered the Ammit stampeding at him, its toothy mouth open in anticipation of a meal. The thing had lost an eye and probably had a dozen bullet wounds, but it wasn’t slowing down.
What would it take to kill it?
The creature was only a few yards away when Boone stepped in front of Warren. The gunslinger flipped his guns up, ejecting the spent casings, before slamming new bullets in. “I’m guessing I need to keep you alive,” he said. “Otherwise, I’m probably dead, too. Right?”
“Something like that,” Warren said, retreating with Valentina. He wasn’t sure what Boone’s plan was, but it was better that Ammit take out his minion instead of one of them.
As the monster bore down on Boone, the gunslinger calmly lifted his guns and waited. At the last second, his body phased out of existence. His form flickered before disappearing into the shadows.
Warren blinked in confusion. What had just happened?
A moment later, Duskwalker stepped out of the shadows behind the hippo. He raised both six shooters and blazed away. The creature took twelve rounds into its backside before it even knew what was happening to it.
The enraged creature spun around, but its jaws clamped down on empty air as Boone stepped back into the shadows. This time, he reappeared a good thirty paces away, unloading his guns on the hippo creature again.
The monster seemed to have had enough with chasing an enemy it couldn’t catch, and it fixated its beady black eyes on Warren. It rushed toward him, ignoring the gunslinger and Valentina. But it was slowed by dozens of wounds, and it dragged one hind leg behind it.
Warren raised his weapon, but Valentina pushed his barrel down while shaking her head. She stepped forward, pulling a pin from her grenade, and then tossed it at the advancing monster.
Without hesitation, the creature snatched the grenade from the air with its toothy jaws. It swallowed it before continuing in their direction. Then its eyes went wide. A split second later, an explosion tore the creature in half. A geyser of blood and guts shot high into the air.
As the two halves of the creature crumpled to the ground, Warren held up his arm in an attempt to shield himself from some of the bloody rain. He glared at Valentina. “Was that really necessary?”
She grinned, her own face streaked with blood. “Not really, but wasn’t it fucking awesome?”
“Next time, let’s just kill it the normal way.”
“Whatever,” she said. “You’re just jealous of my kill. I bet if there’s a alien highlight reel, I just made it.”
Warren turned his attention to the summoner at the top of the stairs. His own Energy orb had just refilled, but strangely, the enemy summoner hadn’t cast another card yet. Which meant it was likely saving up Energy for a larger summons.
Now that he had 1 Energy, he could cast another card. He selected ‘Nocturne’ from his hand as he trotted toward the stairs leading up to the top of the pyramid. They needed to kill Sobek fast. Because if they didn’t, they were going to face a much more powerful minion.
And with how much more advanced Sobek’s cards were, he wasn’t sure if they could win a second round.