Page 345 of Light Leech

My health plummeted to fourteen.

“Zeg, Zhu, do something!”

He roared, “You!” This was the first time I heard him physically speak. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking so, noting that this was a cognitive construction, but it still felt real. Naoma had seen him and the other Imps knew about him, but it was reassuring to see that any chance of a delusion had dissipated.

He swung his weapon but it was stopped and redirected to a polyp by Lusticle. “Play your cards!”

His shout pulled me from my reverie.

I glanced at them, wondering how much manipulation he had done. If he hadn’t placed this card in my hand, it was the kind of luck that made me hate games like this that claimed to be all strategy.

I tapped the card and it shot to the center of the field.

Gambler’s resurrection: replay any previously played card from the gamble deck.

Without another card to draw, the game revealed Ability Dependent. I took three damage from the ability cards in my hand. I only had eleven health remaining, but that number was insignificant compared to the single health point MayWat had. I could have played all my ability cards and then played Gambler’s Resurrection with a hand free of ability cards, but I doubted the game would last long enough for that slight difference to matter.

She screamed at the system, not caring as He Watches succumbed to Zhu’s attack and squared up against Lusticle.

The announcer spoke with joviality, though the inhumane taste of a programmed voice made it all the more unsettling. “This is quite the battle, don’t you think? Perhaps I was too eager to expedite the results of this battle. Oh well! A winner is a winner! Don’t worry though, the end has not yet arrived! Look at this! With only two legends remaining after the polyp invasion, our two competitors are left with their respective Light Leeches! How exciting! Why don’t we even the game out a little? PetNeb can no longer summon legends to support his Boarrior of the Journeymen. If MayWat defeats his legend, perhaps we can allow something later, but why spoil this fun? With our players’ star cards out against each other, we now see the most concentrated form of our competitors’ intellect pitted against each other!”

The field unfroze and our legends engaged in combat without a command to activate their abilities.

A black veil locked the legend cards in my hand but allowed me to use my ability cards.

MayWat played one before I could read the text on my cards.

True Leech: Can only be played on a Light Leech - Human Intestine Field exclusive card! Target legend absorbs power from the field, increasing health, strength, and grants the keyword Ascendant.

Lustacle crouched and stabbed her abundance of tentacles into the flesh of the field. Each tentacle pulsed as if it was drinking the atrophying flesh beneath her feet. A light shield prevented any of Zhu’s attacks and only dropped once she had finished drinking the patch of flesh into a gray panel of lifeless ground. The red of her tentacles glowed and shifted to a vibrant orange. Each appendage extended and increased in circumference as her height doubled.

I tapped an ability card then spent the rest of my lumens on a variety of Zhu’s abilities while I waited for the card to activate.

Vampirism: Replenish target legend’s health by one point for every damage dealt during the next turn. Correction due to rule adjustment: due to terns being momentarily disbanded, this ability will last for the next minute.

Lustacle stabbed Zhu with one of her tentacles, piercing his chestplate and causing an eruption of liquid blue light to erupt from his wound.

Zhu squealed as he pulled his weapon toward himself and stuck the tentacle with the bladed end of his staff. After three strikes, he cleaved the tentacle free but could not stop the next two that pierced his legs.

The process of cleaving and stabbing repeated. Despite Zhu’s vampirism, he was still losing health at a gradual speed. Without the card, I was sure she would have defeated him by now.

Zhu was relentless. He continued to strike with a stubborn resilience despite the cracks in his armor, then skin, that revealed a blue light within his core that threatened to break free.

Lusticle leaned down, her eyes obscured by tentacles, but her red lips and slim nose stuck out with the shine of perfect skin wet by sweat.

Zhu roared. Opening his mouth opened him up. Her mouth stretched wide and a tentacle shot out from within, darting into his mouth and pulling them together in a horrific kiss.

I shouted his name despite knowing that it was futile.

MayWat tapped an ability card, granting her Light Leech with Penetration.

Lustacle drank in Zhu’s light.

My health dropped like a leaking wound.

I had seconds left.

I tried to read my ability cards but lost all literacy in the wave of anxiety and dread.