14 Chapter 14

The rest of the horde was easy work, and Daniel didn't feel like he needed to intervene. He didn't have a fully put together deck and they did. There was no reason to put himself in danger if they had it handled. Besides, once the team had a solid footing and didn't need to constantly dodge boulders their efficiency had gone up significantly. He'd almost felt bad for the splinters, which seemed to be made from the reddish-black clay that was now strewn about the battlefield.

In short, they had it under control, but just because he didn't need to intervene didn't mean he was about to miss out on watching his teammates fight. The only person he really had a read on at this point was Stanford, and maybe Steph. The rest of them had been extremely resistant to the idea of sharing anything about their cards with him. It was to the point that Daniel was pretty sure that it was a cultural thing to keep their decks secret and not just a personal choice. Either way, this was as good a moment as any to peek in on how the team actually functioned. 

Daniel positioned himself away from the ongoing battle and hid himself up in one of the stronger looking trees. The one he chose had leave's that resembled something more akin to strings than the run of the mill leaves and served as good enough cover for his purposes.

Once he'd gotten himself situated up in his vantage point Daniel left Limbo and watched the rest of the ensuing battle. 

The first thing he noticed was that Gabriel was fast. It was different seeing him move in Limbo and in the real world, something about it was more impactful here. He sliced through monster after monster, moving from one to another with frightening efficiency. Outside of physical enhancing cards Daniel wasn't quite sure what he had, but he definitely had something.

Jonathan on the other hand was interesting. Whenever a member of the group received an injury, big or small, he'd simply point his palm at them and a beam of fog would shoot out. It traveled about as fast as an arrow and seemed to have no cooldown from what Daniel could tell. Any time it hit a member of the team all the injuries they had would vanish as if it were never there. 

But what puzzled Daniel was that Jonathan would use the same ability on the monsters and they'd melt on contact. It wasn't a pretty sight; dozens of puddles littered the battlefield where a splinters had been struck.

Watching Steph fight didn't really provide any more insight into her cards than what he'd already had. Although, he did notice that in between shots she'd be in slightly different positions than she'd been in moments before. Arms, legs, and hair out of place without visibly moving from where they'd been seconds before were prime examples of her cards in action. 

It made Daniel suspect that some time fuckery was at play, and honestly, he hoped he was correct. Time fuckery was something he'd be more than ok with having on his side.

As for Stanford, he was busy striking down splinters at a distance with his sword. The man had remarkable technique despite coming across as a bit of a simpleton. As he watched him move Daniel began to suspect that he had a strength or endurance card, but that suspicion quickly shifted to Jonathan buffing the people he healed. 

Anyone that was hit by his fog, not including monsters, would move faster and hit harder. It wasn't that much of a difference. It was subtle enough for Daniel to consider that it may just be them getting refreshed upon being struck by the fog. It was hard to say, but in the end it didn't matter. Eventually he'd be on the receiving end of the fog and no amount of secrecy would keep him from feeling the firsthand effects of the man's card.

Daniel watched as the monsters single mindedly charged the group, and while some of them had cards that made them unpredictable and therefore dangerous, the synergizing cards in each of the Iron Bone group's decks easily eclipsed anything that the splinters could throw at them.

Either way the wave of monsters was letting up, and that was Daniel's cue to make his way back over. With a thought he entered Limbo and hopped down from the tree before leisurely walking back to the group.

===

"You don't understand Gabriel, Daniel lied to us, he has another card. I don't know what it does, but that splinter with the illusion card bled when he killed it," Steph said with irritation in her voice, "Those things don't have blood, hell they don't even have organs. I don't know what other cards he has or what they do, but I don't feel comfortable with a liar in the group. If he wanted to keep his deck a secret all he needed to do was say so and none of us would have pried, but purposely lying about the amount of cards he has is dangerous."

"Steph," Gabriel said, "Calm down. He didn't lie to us. He only has the one card."

Steph waved an arm dismissively at Gabriel's words, "Then how do you explain the bleeding splinter? It had an uncommon or rare illusion card. Which means that its own card didn't make it bleed, so it had to have been him."

Gabriel stared over at Steph as his expression shifted through a spectrum of emotions before settling into a resolute frown, "Steph, he's a code red. He doesn't know it, and for the love of god do not tell him. I need you to drop this now."

Steph's face paled, "For real? Is that why Anton put him in our group?"

"I said drop it. The last thing we need is him going all paranoid on us and getting us all killed."

After a moment of thought Steph nodded her head, "Okay, but once we're back inside the wall, we're going to have a long conversation about this."

"We will."

===

Daniel reappeared amongst the rest of his group and breathed in the 'fresh' air of the real world. It was thick with the smell of death, but when you've just spent a good bit of time holding your breath that hardly mattered.

Daniel breathed in the air greedily, not that he was incredibly desperate for it, but appearances mattered. For all the rest of the group knew, he'd been stealthed right by their side the entire time. 

Though when he had time to think about it he did find it odd that it smelled at all. Considering the unique bodies the splinters had it seemed strange that they stank as much as they did.

Regardless Daniel announced his presence to the rest of the group with a smile on his face, once he'd caught his breath of course.

"So what now," he asked. "Is this enough or do we need to kill more?"

Gabriel eyed Daniel for a moment before responding calmly, "This should be more than enough. The area should be clear enough for the miners to do their work. They'll be more than capable of clearing out the stragglers themselves."

"Now for the fun part," Stanford said with a grin. "The walk back."

That was met with an eye roll from Steph and a groan from Jonathan. Apparently they didn't appreciate the coming nature walk.

'Hopefully it's not to dangerous on the way back.' Daniel thought. 'Not that it matters much, I guess. Even if I do literally nothing the entire trip back, they can't say that I didn't contr-'

Daniel was drawn from his thoughts by the sound of a bestial screech. Something big was approaching from the treeline, and he didn't want to be around when it showed up. With a thought he delved back into Limbo and the rest of the team got ready for the approaching monster.

===

Firgrax rushed through the trees blocking his path with a frightening speed, yet none of them fell. 

Not that that was unusual, his physique had its advantages. Or at least it usually did. Firgrax's amorphous shoulder was currently sporting a long cut dripping with a clear liquid that sizzled with the air upon leaving his body.

The bastard Firgrax had been hunting had thrown his sword at him and it'd actually struck true. It'd been a long time since something had wounded him, and quite frankly he was not enjoying the experience. 

'Now the Red Death is hunting me,' Firgrax thought sickly. 'The cocky bastard actually thinks he'll kill me this time.'

Firgrax's constantly shifting, ever floating body heaved with laughter as he ran. 

It went against his nature. Anything blessed by the moon was to be killed, he knew that. Which was why it was taking everything he had to keep himself from turning around and ripping that man apart limb from limb. 

'Before I do that though I need to fix this wound,' Firgrax cursed internally.

He'd lose the fight if he started it wounded, and that was unacceptable. That moon blessed would die, the Red Death would die. 

So he ran towards the brightest souls he could see around him. There were five of them off in the distance, no, four?

Firgrax squinted with innumerable eyes towards the distant souls and found one had but a single foot set in this reality.

'Interesting, they'll do nicely.'

With that Firgrax burst out of the treeline and rushed towards the group.