The Horned Spade, Master Marksman Wilder vs. The Time Hunter, Typhokinetic Levi M. Strider.
Spoiler (Click to Show)
Percy swore under his breath, gathering up the cards he had in his apartment before making his way to the door. He had a single, black fedora hanging on the coat rack and a black trench coat to match. He pulled them both on and walked out the door, locking it behind him.
It would’ve been a waste of time putting shoes on, as he would have had to take them off when putting on his suit anyway, so he tried his hardest to mask the fact that he wasn’t wearing shoes by wrapping his pants legs over the backs of his feet.
He came to the elevator rather quickly but decided against it, as his pursuer would most likely be in there. Instead, he walked down the remainder of the hallway, getting to the stairwell and beginning to make his way down. He sat on the rail, sliding down, with one explosive card in his hand just in case he needed it.
Turns out he didn’t need it at all and got back to the alley where his uniform was relatively quickly. He took the coat and hat off, hiding them where his suit was as he pulled it on. He slipped the mask on last, taking a deep breath as it snapped onto his face. He fed the cards he had on hand into his suit before he backed out of the alley, into the open street.
It was pretty early in the morning, so the traffic wasn’t too bad, maybe one or two cars, plus the little boy named Jason that would ride around on his bike delivering the newspapers every morning. Jason seemed to have already passed his building and Wilder was fine with that. It just meant he wouldn’t be in the way of getting hurt.
Wilder heard it before he saw what was happening. Glass breaking, people beginning to scream. When he turned his head up to look, he was shocked. The top of the building was coming down, debris and shards of glass beginning to fall. He couldn’t believe it, two days and two houses, could things get any worse?
He’d wished he didn’t start questioning his own luck. A bundle of dark smoke was falling quickly to the ground, much too dark to be from the destruction of his building. He flipped the explosive card in his hand around, hiding it in his palm as the smoke touched the ground. As soon as it did, it began to shift, the flowy parts of it turning humanlike. After a second, in its place stood a young man, maybe an inch or two shorter than Wilder himself.
He stood, coughing into his hand. He was caucasian, long shaggy blonde hair and he was wearing a long sleeve cyan-colored shirt and baggy beige pants. Wilder scanned him with his eyes a couple of times, spotting two kunais hooked to his belt. He had a big smile on his face, and Wilder had a slight flashback to Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
Wilder finally figured it was time to say something.
“You know, it’s a really big hassle to have lost two homes in two days, friend.” He spat out at the young man. The young man raised an eyebrow, pulling a kunai from his belt and spinning it around a bit.
“It’s pretty hard to tell if you’re actually talking or not.” He responded, ending it with a chuckle. Then he shrugged, walking to the right which Wilder mimicked by around him in a circle.
“I’m not really one to judge though. Someone’s put a lot of money on your head, friend.” He said. Wilder put his arms behind his back, switching his explosive card to his left hand and sliding a piercing card into his right.
“Is that so? Well, my momma always told me I’d be worth a lot of money one day.” He said, grinning, but his opponent couldn’t see it. “I think you’re a little young for this. What’s your name, kid.”
The young man laughed, bringing the kunai up to his shoulder, like Wilder did when he was throwing a card regularly. “Young? I’m twenty three, man.” He stopped walking, the smoke beginning to seep from in between stones and circle around him. “And the name’s Levi.”
In a quick motion, he threw the kunai. He was fast, but Wilder was faster, he’d been doing it all his life, afterall. He threw the exploding card and it collided with the kunai in mid-air, blowing up in a large puff of smoke. Assuming Levi hadn’t left his spot, he threw the piercing card. It cut through the smoke, heading straight for Levi’s head. He pulled the other kunai from his belt, knocking it to the side and dashing through the smoke which curled up around his arms.
He started off with one leaping kick which Wilder sidestepped quickly. He hit the ground much more softly than one normally would, aiming a flurry of kicks at his chest. Wilder blocked the attacks with his arms, the padded armor blocking the majority of the damage. When he saw an opening, he pushed back on Levi’s legs, making him stagger. He then leaned in, bringing his leg up for a hard, pushing kick to the face, one that would probably throw him to the ground if it connected.
Levi steadied himself, bringing his arms up to block the kick. He retaliated with a low sweep, knocking Wilder off of his legs. He hit the ground hard and immediately rolled away, a foot smashing into the ground where his head was a second ago. He lifted himself up on his palms, swinging his legs around like a breakdancer and knocking Levi down.
As soon as Levi hit the ground, Wilder jumped back up, three fire cards in his hand. He threw them all together in a straight line which would amplify the fire. Levi turned, the smoke around him coming in front of him and forming a shield which blocked the cards. They stuck in the shield, and after a moment exploded into fire, burning the smoke away as if it was dry tender for a fire.
Levi leaped up, a high kick aimed for Wilder’s face. He jumped back, retaliating with his own kick which Levi blocked easily, grabbing Wilder’s foot and pulling it toward him, locking him in place. Wilder swore underneath his breath, kicks wouldn’t work and close quarters combat was pretty much a stalemate. Seeing this, Wilder locked his foot under Levi’s armpit and jumped up, bringing his other leg around and kicking Levi in the face. Wilder fell to the ground and Levi stumbled back, his two kunai appearing in his hands.
Wilder rolled backwards, jumping away with three cards in his hands; a piercing, an impact, and an electrocuting one. Levi stayed quiet, leaning back to throw his kunai again. Wilder easily sidestepped them, but when he looked back, Levi was in front of him with a third kunai in his hand. He couldn’t tell if it was an extra or if one of the others had teleported back, but he didn’t have the time to mull it over.
Levi swiped out at him in a wide slashing arc which Wilder ducked under. He stuck his cards in the chest pocket of his trench coat, bringing both hands up to guard his face as if he were a boxer. He threw a few quick jabs at Levi’s chest which were easily blocked or dodged. As soon as Levi stepped back, Wilder dashed in, pivoting his foot inward with a wide swing aimed for Levi’s side.
Just as he expected, it was dodged with a backwards jump, and as he brought his arm back around, he whipped his other arm up, the electrocuting card in his hand, and flicked it forward. Smoke flew up again, hardening into a much more reliable shield, though that didn’t stop the electrocution from taking effect. The electricity arced around the shield, singeing the ends of the smoke before fading away slowly.
Wilder took a few steps back as Levi stood back up, not a hint of emotion on his face. Wilder thought that was weird, but he didn’t care enough to think about it. Three cards ejected from his suit, all piercing. Levi held his hand out, a ball of smoke flowing around in his palm. He crushed it under his fingers and ran forward again.
Wilder threw the first card which Levi blocked with his kunai. He then threw the others in a curving arc, yet Levi swung outward wildly, knocking them both away. When he got in close enough, Levi flipped the kunai around, stabbing it at Wilder’s chest. He managed to dodge most of the stabs but the others only skidded off his suit, leaving small marks.
Levi ran into him, catching Wilder off guard, slamming his shoulder into his chest. As Wilder stumbled back, Levi opened his hand, the ball of smoke coming back. Before Wilder could react, Levi shoved it forward and it exploded into Wilders chest like a shotgun blast. It threw Wilder backwards and he crashed into the ground, rolling before coming to his knee slowly. Wilder brought a hand down to feel at his chest, but his armor was still there. It must’ve been blunt impact.
Wilder turned back to the fight, all too late as Levi was already there above him, a solid sword made of smoke in his hand. Wilder rolled to the side as Levi came down, the sword disintegrating as it made contact with the ground. Wilder jumped to his feet only to be bombarded with small balls of smoke. They stopped for a moment, which gave Wilder time to look up and assess the situation. Levi had another small ball of smoke in his hand, but it was gradually getting bigger. He had to do something about that.
He ejected a confetti card from his suit as well as an impact one. He tossed the confetti one over Levi’s head and nailed it with the impact one, causing an explosion of confetti to drop down on top of him. As Levi fought to get it off, Wilder ran up to him, jumping into the air and dropkicking him as hard as he could. Levi gasped, the ball in his hand falling to pieces as he flew backwards, crashing into a large piece of debris.
Wilder was breathing hard and he made the mistake of shutting his eyes to take a deep breath. As soon as they snapped back open, Levi was in front of him, halfway in the air with a kick aimed to Wilder’s chest. It was too fast to block and too close to dodge, so Wilder just had to brace himself and hope he could take it.
Spoiler Alert: he couldn’t. The force of the kick itself threw him to the ground, but the pain in his chest nailed him to it. It was then that he realized the extra impact behind the kick, which he figured was due to the steel-toed boots Levi was wearing. But that wasn't it, there was something else there, almost as if there were two of Levi, kicking him in the same spot at the same time. God damn did it hurt.
Wilder swept his legs around, knocking Levi off his feet before jumping up to take in his environment. In the middle of the street, debris around them, parking meters, one fire hydrant, and all of Levi’s smoke. Suddenly, Wilder had an idea.
Before Levi could get up, Wilder took three explosive cards, setting them on the ground and backing away. When they exploded, the cloud of smoke being the biggest one yet. Wilder dashed around in the smoke, setting down proximity mines and tying the confetti cards along with them. As soon as he was done with that, he wrapped more proximity and confetti combos around the parking meters.
He walked slowly over, leaning on the fire hydrant. He pulled his mask away to wipe the sweat from his forehead and snapped it back into place. Not even a full second after, the first mine went off, confetti flying off out of the giant smoke cloud. Then the next, and the next, and the next. Levi finally came out of the smoke, breathing hard with confetti covering his shoulders and his hair.
Wilder chuckled, flipping a coin around his fingers.
“Y’know, I think you look better like this.” He joked. Levi sneered, the smoke still floating around the air curling back around him. It slowly took the form of a giant bundle of smokey kunais. Wilder sighed, tossing the coin away and ejecting a piercing card into one of his hands.
He threw it to his side, the card slicing through the parking meters and he ran along the sidewalk, kicking them out towards Levi, the cards would explode when they got near them, and then a secondary explosion would throw confetti everywhere. The barrage of kunais followed him, crashing into the building behind him as he ran. He dove behind an old newspaper box, the kunais embedding themselves in the other side of it. He took a deep breath, taking an explosive card and an electrocuting card and sticking them together with some force. He actually got shocked a little, but the new card combo felt like it would do some serious damage.
As soon as he heard the kunais stop, he lept up over the box, the combo in one hand and a piercing and an impact card in the other. Levi was standing closer to the sidewalk, the kunais floating out behind him in the air. Wilder launched the impact and the piercing card and they whizzed past Levi on his left side.
Unbeknownst to him, the impact card struck the fire hydrant, denting it, and the piercing card sliced straight through the top, water exploding out of the top. It began to spill out, drenching the street in water. Levi hadn’t noticed, but when he did, he stumbled, his smokey kunais wavering and beginning to fall apart for a second, and for the first time since the kick from before, it felt like there was only one of him.
Wilder knew this was his moment. He threw the combo card in his hand at Levi, who didn’t have the time to react. It hit him in the chest, exploding and electrocuting him at the same time. He fell to his knees and Wilder rushed forward, his arm poised for a punch. Levi swung first, but Wilder caught it and twisted his arm backwards, punching him quickly in the face. Levi fell back again, but Wilder held him up, and blood began dripping from Levi’s nose. Wilder brought his hand high over his head, swinging down quickly and chopping Levi in the throat. He choked for a second before falling down to the ground, unconscious.
Wilder stepped back, breathing heavily. The fire hydrant continued to spew water into the air and it began to rain down on Wilder. He looked around, noting the damage they’d done around him. He swore under his breath and bent down to grab Levi and drag him over to the sidewalk, leaning him up against the wall. He ejected two piercing cards, using one to carve a message in the other and then sticking it into the ground. He kept the clean one in his hand and left the scene, not bothering to go back and get his coat and his hat.
He’d had mercenaries sent after him before, but none like that, none with powers. He was starting to think this had something to do with Selofina and his primary home, and if it did, it was beginning to piss him off.
He might as well have just called himself chaos, it always seemed to follow him around…
Later on when Levi would wake up, rain pelting him on the sidewalk, the first thing he would notice was the card embedded into the ground in front of him, a message carved into one side of it.
Brushing his hair out of his face, he shakily stood up, plucking the card from the ground and spinning it around in his hand. After some time, he brought the card to his face to read out the message.
The card was an Ace of Spades, but it was a custom one, detailed with two devils horns and a spiked tail. Around the symbol, the message read; ‘Don’t follow. Things will get Wilder.’ with a little devil emoji with its tongue out carved in at the bottom. Levi snickered, pocketing the card and walking away in the opposite direction.
“He’d be perfect for the Blades...too bad he’s gone now,”
Later on, in one of Wilder’s other backup homes, a sudden thought occurred to him as he was fixing himself a relaxing cup of tea. He quickly ran back to his suit, ejecting all of the cards left in it. There were about a dozen of each card; except for the flashbang and weighted net cards. It would be an understatement to say he screamed his head off.[/spoiler]
Spoiler (Click to Show)
Catena plucked it out of their front door, scanning it over, “Looks like a playing card.”
“How’d it get here?” Kiro qu