A quiet night. The moon's light illuminated Oliver's target like a spotlight, reminding him what he must destroy. A behemoth of a monster with no sense of identity, only the carnal instinct to live keeping it moving. It's body was practically a mountain of flesh, save for the few protruding lumps that you could barely call limbs.
Oliver cracked his knuckles, as he bent forward, placing one foot in front of the other.
"Mr Sieg, once you're done healing them. Take them as far away as possible. I don't plan to hold back" Oliver said.
Hearing those words, caused sieg to softly chuckle.
"Don't cause too much trouble" sieg responded.
Oliver paused before laughing.
"I'll try... But don't expect me to make it my priority!" As he said that, he dashed towards Pierro.
His speeds were incredible, like watching a bullet shooting out from the barrel of the gun. His movements were so fast in fact, that his scarf began to resemble a trail of light following him. Oliver clenched his fist before striking one of Pierro's limbs, causing intense pain. In response to his attack, Pierro slammed its limbs down on the ground, attempting to crush Oliver. Instead, Oliver dodged out of the way, grabbing one of the beast's limbs, and ripping it off. Pierro screamed in pain, as it began to stagger. Hearing such a horrible sound coming out from Pierro's mouth, it was honestly annoying.
"Hey, have some respect!" Oliver said, using its own limb to beat it.
Pierro was sent flying. Crashing into a warehouse. The impact caused a huge cloud of dust and rubble to explode everywhere. Blurring Oliver's vision a bit.
"Shit I think I overdid it..." Oliver thought to himself.
As he tried to do the same move he did back at headquarters, Oliver's arm was cut off. Oliver winced a bit from the pain, a product of all his training, but he was more concerned as to what had caused his arm to fly off like a ragdoll. He began focusing his vision in front of him, noticing a new figure, where Pierro landed.
"Shit... Did he change forms? No... This feels like that time... He evolved..." Oliver thought to himself.
The dust suddenly was parted away, revealing a new form from Pierro. It was now more humanoid, but it still lacked the identity that most Festers had. It resembled more like a vague idea of a humanoid creature, compared to the lively designs of normal fester. However the fact that Pierro was able to change into a human shape... Meant that Pierro hadn't entirely lost all of his sense of self. Such an unprecedented situation. Things were starting to get interesting.
Oliver grinned as he began healing his arm back up.
"I don't care how many times you evolve. I'll still kill you..." Oliver said, starting to approach Pierro.
Pierro looked at Oliver, his demeanor causing a part of his mind to be stimulated. A memory. A terrifying one. A memory that he never experienced, because it was the memories of the attachment unit he absorbed. A memory from before it was turned into a weapon. A time when it was a live; and lived foolishly. It believed, like most Festers do, that humans were their prey. However, the one who slayed it, was no human. He was a monster; an abnormality; a creature that broke the world's balance. The feeling of certain failure began bubbling up inside Pierro's heart. He knew Oliver had a chance to become that abnormality; and that he would be the first of his victims. Such fear, it brought Pierro's mind back from insanity. Such is the way of prey. In the most desperate of situations, they'll achieve anything to survive.
Pierro's hands began trembling as Oliver got closer, which Oliver found satisfying. Pierro took a step back, before yelling at Oliver.
"Get away from me you monster!" Pierro yelled, as he began summoning hundreds- no thousands of cards above him.
They began swirling around in this sky like a vortex. Pierro moved his arm facing towards Oliver, causing cards shoot at him all at once. Instead of dodging or running, Oliver stood still, as if he was unimpressed by the attack. Once the cards were only a few centimetres from hitting him, Oliver pulled the trigger on his driver. His belt began consuming the cards, as they were essentially made of descent energy. However, Oliver wasn't able to absorb all of the cards, as his driver would overload; though he did make sure to minimise the damage. As the leftover cards that weren't able to be absorbed began to slice into Oliver, he immediately began healing thanks to the stockpile of descent energy he just got. Pierro was baffled by how easily Oliver was able to counter his attack; the fear in his heart growing. Pierro looked to Oliver with fear, only to find Oliver counting on his fingers.
"Is he mocking me? No... Is he planning something? What the hell is he doing?!" Pierro thought, his mind descending into paranoia.
Pierro's body jolted in fear as Oliver focused his attention back on Pierro.
"Four hundred and fifty" Oliver said.
Pierro was confused. What did he mean by "four hundred and fifty"? Was it the amount of time he had left? Was it the amount of counter attacks he could've used? What was it?
Seeing such a confused look on Pierro's face, it made Oliver chuckle a bit.
"Four hundred and fifty. The amount of cards I didn't get to absorb..." Oliver explained.
"You know, you're quite strong Pierro" he continued.
Pierro stood confused once again. What was the significance of that statement? Was it again just mockery? Why would Oliver say something like that?
"... Right now Pierro. I really don't have any grudges against you. Sure you kidnapped my sister, and almost killed me, but I don't really have anything against you. Right now, you're just another monster of the week I have to take down. So please, don't bore me" Oliver said. Pierro could almost feel the arrogance coming from Oliver's voice.
Even with the fear consuming his mind, his pride as a Fester couldn't allow Oliver to insult him so casually. Pierro clasped his hands together, as he began chanting in an esoteric manner.
"O hollow corpse I besiege the, to create a desolate land for me to rule... Fools Paradise"
Oliver was confused by his actions, however he felt something was clearly off. From the distance, Oliver could hear Sieg yelling at him to leave, but it was too late. The ground beneath him began to quake as various contraptions began emerging from the ground. Before he knew it, the area had turned into a twisted carnival of games.
"The hell is this?" Oliver said, looking around to gauge the dangers of his situation.
As he said that, spot lights shined on Pierro, who was standing atop a Ferris wheel.
"Welcome to my Territory!" Pierro exclaimed, in a rather dramatic fashion.
Oliver looked at Pierro with a grimace, finding his attempt at trying to scare Oliver embarrassing.
"Could you stop trying to act cool? It's embarrassing... what's a Territory even anyway?!" Oliver yelled.
Pierro was about to explain, however he was interrupted by Sieg who explained in his stead.
"It's an imaginary space created from descent energy!" Sieg yelled.
Realising his plans had been foiled, Pierro grinded his teeth before angrily yelling at Sieg.
"Shut up! I was just about to get a power boost!" Pierro yelled back at Sieg.
Sieg only replied with a smug smile, causing Pierro to get even more mad. Noticing Pierro was now preoccupied with Sieg, Oliver realised it was the perfect opportunity to for a surprise attack. He began climbing up the attractions to reach Pierro, then with a well timed pull of his driver's trigger, he hit Pierro with an execution. However, as Oliver's foot got closer and closer to Pierro, he noticed a grin forming on Pierro's face.
"Penalty"
The moment Oliver's foot made contact with Pierro's body, blood began exploding out of him. He essentially looked like a water balloon being popped.
His limp body fell flat to the ground, which would probably crush all his bones if he wasn't in his suit. Oliver laid on the ground for a few moments, his mind trying to catch up to what just happened.
"It's like what happened with Olivia... But way worse. I think most people would die if he used this ability... However, I know exactly how to counter it" Oliver thought to himself.
He slowly began sitting up, crossing his legs and yawning. He looked up at Pierro and said, in a nonchalant manner.
"I'm not playing your game-" however he was interrupted.
"Penalty"
Once again, his body exploded into blood, however this time it felt even worse. Previous it felt like blood was just flowing out of his body, but this time, it felt like he was being wrung out. Oliver could feel himself losing consciousness, but he quickly used descent energy to heal himself up, although only by a little bit. Oliver began hyperventilating, questioning why his plan didn't work.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"I did it before... And I didn't get any penalty... So why..." Oliver thought, trying to calm himself down a bit.
Looking down on Oliver, Pierro began cackling.
"That's what you get idiot! But I don't blame you for trying that trick again! Ah... This power is amazing! The power to force my ability to activate, no matter what..." Pierro said as he held his face.
Territory creation; an ability obtained from understanding ones true potential. Pierro had gained this ability after experiencing near death, loss of self recognition, and overwhelming fear. To create a territory, one must use contracts, descent energy and ones own innate technique to create an imaginary space. To explain it further, think of it as descent energy being the base of the area while contracts and descent energy act as the building blocks of the imaginary world. As such, there is nothing that can stop the activation of an innate technique. Meaning the only reason Oliver hadn't been bombarded with penalties, was because Pierro really did want Oliver to play his game.
Dropping down from the Ferris wheel, Pierro stood towering over Oliver.
"Come on, let's play" Pierro said, a devilish smile creeping on his face.
Oliver clenched his fist, but knew he had no other choice. He slowly stood up, looking right at Pierro.
"Fine... But don't expect me to play nicely" Oliver retorted.
"Exactly my style" Pierro said, before snapping his fingers.
Spotlights began shining on both of them as the ground beneath began to shift. The whole area in fact began to transform into a giant chess board, with just as large chess pieces atop.
"Our game... Chess!" Pierro exclaimed.
Pierro conjured up a seat and chess board for himself, however not for Oliver. Oliver was about to complain about his poor sportsmanship, but that was when he realised the chess pieces were only on Pierro's side of the board.
"What's the catch...?" Oliver asked, getting into a fighting stance.
"I love smart opponents... You see; instead of the chess pieces fighting each other... They're fighting you" Pierro explained.
Hearing that explanation, Oliver wasn't really convinced, however he didn't really have a choice but to believe Pierro, as he was going to make his first move.
"As you know... White goes first" Pierro said, moving his pawn to E4.
The giant chess piece began moving towards the designated box, the force created by it's movements caused Oliver to lose his balance a bit.
"This is bad, if just a pawns movements can cause this... No. I just have to beat him before I die... Hopefully I can do that" Oliver thought to himself.
Standing up straight, Oliver began to observe the board. It was like any other chess board, save for the missing black pieces that Oliver was replaced for. If he used the logic from what he knew from Pierro's game, he probably would be able to only move like a chess piece; but he didn't know which.
"I can't expect he'd be so generous to give me the movements of a queen... But if he gave the movements of a pawn, that'd make the game impossible to win. But maybe that's what he's going for. No I can't think like that, if what he said about the world's balancing system is true, it wouldn't let something like that happen..." Oliver thought.
Noticing Oliver was taking a long time, Pierro groaned before creating a timer above the board.
"There! You're taking too long! You only got 1 minute each turn to strategize!" Pierro said annoyed.
Oliver grimaced before sighing.
"That sucks... But just strategizing won't do anything. I gotta actually play the game to figure things out!" Oliver thought to himself as he began to move.
As he made his first step, a screen popped up in front of him. It was an aerial view of the board with lit up boxes where Oliver could move.
"So I can move like a knight and a pawn huh? Now that's interesting..." Oliver said to himself.
As he technically wasn't a normal piece, he was given the option to move anywhere as long as it was confined to the 6 and 5 row. Keeping things simple, Oliver moved himself to D6. It was now Pierro's move, and he knew exactly what to do. A wide grin formed on his face as he picked up a familiar looking piece from his board.
"Queen to G4"
The giants queen chess piece slid across the board until it reached it's designated square. Oliver was a bit startled, however, he could just move to a safer position next turn.
"Check"
As Pierro said that, all the other chess pieces disappeared, leaving only the queen chess piece.
"Since you're in check, and you don't have any other pieces to protect you, I added a special rule. If you can beat this piece, it acts the same as a capture" Pierro explained.
Oliver looked at Pierro with a confused expression before yelling.
"What do you mean beat?!"
Suddenly, Oliver began hearing rumbling. He turned to the queen piece, seeing some chunks of stone falling off. Some of the stones were much larger than the others, causing Oliver to have to dodge out of the way.
"At least I can move freely, so I'm not limited to one specific spot..." Oliver thought to himself as he tried to recuperate.
His vision was now filled with dust, though he could see a glowing pair of eyes hidden within. Before he could even react, a large figure lunged towards him. He barely managed to dodge the attack, leaving him with a missing arm. Oliver fought through the pain, quickly jumping backwards to get some distance between his opponent. Oliver attempted to heal his arm, however his driver issued a warning beforehand.
[ATTENTION: AFTER THIS ACTION, ONLY 51% OF DESCENT ENERGY WILL REMAIN]
Oliver grimaced, but healed his arm anyway.
"It's not like I can do anything with a missing arm anyways..." Oliver thought to himself.
The dust began to settle, the figure that attacked him now visible. It was the queen piece, however this time it looked alive.
"So it's like that huh? Fine..."
Oliver leaped towards his opponent, landing a strong hit at it... Which practically did nothing. As he began to regret his decision, his right eye began burning. Like it was telling him that something bad was about to happen. The piece responded to his unsuccessful attack with a blunt hit using it's sword, sending Oliver flying backwards. From inside his suit, he began coughing up blood, which was incredibly concerning.
"What the hell? Why does it hurt so much? No... What's more important is why the hell did I do nothing to it... Unless. Oliver thought to himself, an unnerving thought creeping into his mind.
He looked to Pierro, noticing a sinister grin plastered on his face. Oliver quickly held his driver, asking if it could tell him if he was under any special conditions.
[ERROR: function unknown]
"Dammit you stupid hunk of-"
[RELATED FUNCTION: Armour's defense and physical output has severely weakened due to a previous unsuccessful execution attempt]
Oliver paused for a moment before patting and apologizing to his driver.
[Smirk]
"Huh did you just tal-" however before Oliver could finish his sentence, the queen piece began dashing towards him.
Oliver rolled out of the way just in time, however the piece wasn't done just yet. It kicked Oliver up before grabbing him. It squeezed him tightly, it's grip was almost unbreakable. Oliver groaned as he felt his bones being crushed; all the while Pierro looked on with glee. Realising his torture was a source of entertainment for Pierro, Oliver became enraged.
"Don't... Underestimate me... You damn clown!" Oliver said as he began moving his hand towards his belt.
The chess piece's grip didn't make his job easy, however with sheer willpower, Oliver managed to grab his driver's trigger. Underneath his mask, he smirked, confident in his victory.
"Go die basta-"
However before he could even pull it, the chess piece crushed his head with it's other hand. In the distance, Sieg watched in complete horror as the chess piece dropped Oliver's headless body on the ground. His eyes narrowed, placing his hand in his pocket. He was about to grab something, but stopped himself when he saw Oliver's hand twitch. Miraculously, Oliver's head began to regrow, as if it were a shallow wound.
"He healed from it? But how?" Sieg was rightfully confused.
Oliver's healing was a technique known as descent energy overload. By overloading body parts with descent energy, it forces the body to increase the cell's output to its limits. This meant with enough control and descent energy, one could theoretically even regrow a heart if they were fast enough. However to regrow a brain, was a ridiculous idea. To even overload your body, you'd obviously need to use your brain, so trying to regrow your brain using descent energy, was like riding a bike with no wheels. Sieg looked down at Katherine who was still unconscious, smiling subconsciously.
"You were right, Oliver's potential is truly fascinating" Sieg thought.
Slowly getting up from the ground, Oliver held his head.
"Like hell I was going to let a stupid clown kill me... but I can't believe that actually worked... Still..." Oliver looked at his arm which was now out in the open.
Even with 51% of descent energy left inside of his driver, it still wasn't enough to completely heal his head, so his driver began using the descent energy in his suit as a replacement. He knew if something like that were to happen again, he surely wouldn't live, however something about Pierro told him that he wasn't planning to kill him anytime soon.
"You... Really survived? You survived! You survived even something like that! Hahahahahaha" Pierro said as he began laughing maniacally.
Despite Oliver's miraculous feat which spat in the face of Pierro attack, he wasn't mad. He was in fact overjoyed, as his prayers were finally answered. For his entire existence, Pierro had only wanted for one thing; A person he could play with forever. All his opponents died the moment they lost, meaning that he could never play with the same person over and over again. Someone he could beat, break and belittle all he wanted, the ultimate paradise.
"Finally, I have someone who I can play with forever... So let's play Oliver, let's play until the end of days! Let's play until we both end up losing our mind!" Pierro shouted, his voice completely deranged.
"Fine... but don't cry when you lose!" Oliver yelled back, sounding equally deranged.
Pierro ripped out a chunk of his flesh then threw it at Oliver. Oliver was a bit confused, but eventually picked it up. He wasn't scared of being tricked, as he figure that if Pierro really wanted to kill him, he'd have already done it.
"I heard that thing on your waist say it needed descent energy to heal you or something... And since I don't wanna kill you just yet, I thought I might as well let you heal" Pierro explained. He sounded rather arrogant.
Oliver scoffed before feeding his flesh to his driver. It surprisingly filled the reservoir up to 76%, which Oliver wasn't expecting.
"At Least you're worth something..." Oliver said.
Restoring his armour, Oliver's reservoir was dropped down to 74%. He suspected that regenerating the armour didn't really cost much, but getting concrete proof helped his conscience a bit. Oliver looked up to Pierro, smugly asking.
"Go on, you said you wanted to play right?" Oliver asked.
Pierro smiled, before snapping his fingers to reset the board. Oliver was once again placed outside the board, but this time Oliver was prepared. He understood the rules a bit better now, however the handicap he was given still hurt his chances at winning.
"I'll start first obviously... Pawn to E4" Pierro said.
Oliver scoffed, mocking his lack of creativity. Pierro grit his teeth, reminding Oliver that he lost the first round because of said move.
"Yeah? So? You're just going to spam the same moves? Wow so unoriginal" Oliver said provokingly.
Pierro clenched his fist before undoing his move.
"Fine, how bout this, knight to C3" Pierro said.
Seeing the knight move, Oliver smirked.
"Dumbass"
Oliver pressed on the spot he wanted, before exclaiming.
"Me to D5"
He teleported to the D5 position, causing Pierro to cackle.
"You idiot, you're in check now!" Pierro said.
Oliver shrugged as the chess pieces disappeared, leaving the knight piece alone. It began shedding just like the queen piece, however Oliver wasn't scared. He yawned as he waited for the knight to reveal it's true form. Once the knight had appeared, it immediately lunged at Oliver. Oliver quickly moved to the square beside him, causing the knight to stop moving for a moment.
"Just as I thought..." Oliver thought to himself.
He kicked the chess piece, which did significant damage to it. The knight piece staggered a bit before moving itself backwards in an L motion.
"Now that just confirms it. Hey bastard, I figured out how your game works" Oliver said, confidently.
Pierro was shocked but put on a proud face.
"Oh? And how does it work?" He asked.
"Your chess pieces move like chess pieces regardless of whether it's in this battle like mode, or the real game. Meaning that they can only attack me if I'm on a box that they could normally capture me on. So if I just avoid those spots, I win" Oliver said, smugly.
Pierro clenched his fist, however quickly calmed down.
"Right... But why the hell did you even tell me? Now I know your exact plan, and I can alter the game accordingly!" Pierro said, smiling.
Oliver looked to Pierro, his smug grin could even be seen underneath his helmet.
"Well there's two reasons I told you..." Oliver said, beginning to walk towards the knight piece.
"One. I wanted to make fun of you..." He explained
"And two... Because it would give me enough of a boost to do this..." Oliver continued.
He punched the knight piece, destroying it completely. The chess piece then shrunk to the size of a normal chess piece, the flew towards the side of the chess board. The other pieces reappeared, and Oliver was given a chance to reposition himself by the game.
"Wow generous are we?" Oliver provoked Pierro.
"That's just how my technique works!" Pierro yelled.
Oliver chuckled before moving himself to a safer position.
"C3"
As he appeared at the spot, he got a good look at Pierro's face. He was clearly disturbed by being figured out, and was considering changing games to get an advantage. Then he realised he had one other plan.