This chapter will be mostly told like a T.V announcer until the Tournament battle ends, some more action involving the boy from the first day, Greydon. He becomes a pretty main side character later on when the MC is out of the house and can go to school. This chapter also is gonna cover around two days maybe, expect a huge word count. It's also why it took longer than the others.
Also, for this section all thought/detail will be told from the perspective of Sidnie, I.E what is happening in the show for the most part. The Announcer will be the yellow lettering, and any 'action' will be done in a separate color from that, and from the perspective of the fighter I choose to represent.
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"Welcome to the second day of the National Amateur Tournament!"
The announcer did a little thrust with his hands that set the crowd within the stadium roaring.
"If you are just now joining us, you missed a stunning display of skill by the up and coming new bloods onto the scene of Dungeon Wars!"
He began going in circles on his mobile station that allowed him to view all angles of the match as he began to go over todays events.
"Today we have a line up of over Sixty Competitors, and Thirty Matches! We already have some young favorites in the group as well, The Goblin King and his Ogre, GREYDON! The Rabbit Mistress SUZUKI! and last, but far from the least of the three hopeful crowd favorites. The Undead Master GRIFFON!"
Jessica, Franny and I must have missed those matches with Griffon, and Suzuki. That made me sad, but we got to see them today. Griffon was a gangly boy around fifteen, and seemed really thin, where Greydon was just lanky, but with the promise of growth and muscle. Suzuki was a really cute Asian girl, with shoulder length black hair and a serious expression.
"These three young hopeful amateurs along with the Fifty-seven other competitors all have the prize in mind for this tournament, which as you all know, is the privilege of leaving the Amateur devision and joining the Adept Ranks, along with the ability for their dungeon to hold a second Race! The winner will also receive the water based Race of Naga! Isn't that amazing? The first ever Intermediate Race given as a prize for an Amateur tournament!"
The announcer was really into it today, yesterday's matches had been a dazzling spectacle of ingenuity and cunning from this years Amateur ranks after all. I wondered if they would show a recap so Leo could see as well?
It would be nice if they did.
They showed a display of the Naga Race starting species, it was a Tadpole with black and blue colorations. The crowd went wild, Naga was a rare intermediate race, one of those only available through event tournaments that happened every so often.
"As you all know, the last battle of yesterday's round had our very own Greydon showing us a surprise trump card. His Ogre! A powerful creature focused on brute strength. He showed great cunning by managing to save it for a key moment, hidden in one of the caves on his side of the battle arena. Today we shall see what he has in store now that his trump card has been revealed!"
They were focused on Greydon, yes this tournament advanced the winner out of the Amateur devision, but they were still Amateurs. The fact he had managed to gain an Ogre was the prime reasoning no doubt, they were the strongest evolution for Goblins within the Second Tier after all, and extremely costly to unlock.
"Without further adieu, let the second day of the tournament...begin!"
Once the announcer stated that, the camera panned over to the first battle of the day. It was a fight between two Wolf Dungeon users, from what I could see early on it would be a matter of attrition, both seemed to have equal numbers, and evolutionary paths unlocked. It would depend utterly on strategy, more so since it seems they both ensured Werewolves were a prime population for their packs.
The glasses, on, and entering the Dungeon War field I took control of my strongest Werewolf. I called him Stalker, because he was evolved from a hidden Variant wolf. Hidden variants were ultra rare, and the exact method of gaining them had to be fully understood before the option to make them common place became available.
These were also hoarded like mad, and to my knowledge only I knew how to breed the Shadow Wolf's, and through them the Werewolf equivalent.
They looked enough like normal black furred wolves, or Dire wolves that unless looked at closely to see the trailing mist of shadows lost in the dim forest, they would never know.
I grinned cruelly, I'll show this bastard how wolves are meant to be used.
We were allowed a total of 100 of our chosen race, and I split it up to 40 Shadow Werewolves, and 20 Dire Wolves, along with 40 Shadow Wolves. My strongest pack combination.
I had no idea what my opponent had, aside from him being wolves, and the quick glimpse of the Werewolf figure on display before it was cut off. This let me know he focused on strength as well.
Once the bell sounded, signaling the start of the match, I sent a split pack of 10 Dire Wolves, and 10 Shadow Wolves to both the right and left of the map to begin taking the territory nearest us, and allow my A.I to have vision and advise me of what I could not see.
The rest, myself included with my strongest Shadow Werewolf moved forward, down a straight line.
I wanted to draw him into a direct conflict where my wolves would shred him and his wolves to pieces, I growled out for 6 of my Shadow Werewolves to shift into the shadows the forest gave us, and to strike unseen at the controlled wolf of our foe when he made himself known.
The entire point of the Amateur matches was to kill the player controlled monster, only later would I have to bother with tactics aside from brute strength.
The howls from the two packs I sent out told me that they had reached their objectives and were making a beeline back toward the main group, while progressing forward through the dense forest.
I growled myself, it had been fifteen minutes, both of us moving forward, we should have seen some of his wolves by now. The two Shadow Werewolves flanking me shrunk back a bit at my growl, but stayed a pace with me.
Something didn't smell right, I took a deep with using the olfactory processors of my new nose, and balked, it smelled like...fire!
Son of a bitch! I howled a warning toward my wolfs, but the fire had already reached close enough, and swept so out of control that it was a mad scramble.
The sound of yips, snarls, and howls from my split packs came out, followed by silence. Shit shit shit!!
The bastard had Fire Wolves, a rare sub species, but easily obtained if you spent your points on it over all else.
The son of a bitch went strength, but used magical means to win.
I growled out my frustrations, I lost 40 of my numbers already, and continued to lose more of my wolves every second when they were to slow to flee the raging fire.
We found a cave, and hid there, but I had lost the rest of my wolves to the inferno, I only had my Werewolves, minus the six that had died once the shadows vanished in the inferno. So few, against at least 100 enemies. The cunning fucker wouldn't risk his own creature either.
That when I heard the snarls of searching wolves, a good half hour after the flames had passed or died down, and then the first clawed hand, and furred muscled arm swept into view, and I surged forward to rip it off with brute strength. There was no longer any shadows to use, and in the cave to enter the Shadows would just spell our doom with fire wolves.
My remained Shadow Werewolves charged out with me, and we took apart the first scouting party of 3 wolves, and 2 Fire Werewolves in seconds.
I panted, and growled at the claw marks on the body of Stalker, they hurt him, and it would slow him down after a while.
To late, I realized we were surrounded, I turned behind me to the sound of huffing laughter from a large Wolf, a plan wolf, no subspecies. The enemies controlled creature.
I saw the feral canid grin on it's face with it's fangs bared, and then the fire hit us all. The connection cut, and my last sound heard was the pain and terror filled howls of my strongest pack werewolves burning alive.
I'd lost, and left huge gaps in my dungeon packs power structure. It would take days for them to find a new pack leader. I'd gambled, and lost it all because I was too fucking stupid....
"Did you see that stunning display of skill, and ingenuity folks! Setting the forest on fire to flush out and diminish his foes! We may have a new contender on the scene for first place! On to the next match already underway.."
The phone rang, and I frowned at it, it was interrupting my show. It rang again, meanie. I picked it up, and heard Jessica on the other end breathing excitedly.
"Let us in! We have news for you!"
She hung up and I heard banging on the door. Ok then.
Rushing to the door, I opened it via the button on the wall, when it opened it showed a sterile entrance with doors designed to block all outside contaminants from entering the house. Guests were let in, cleansed with a spray, and then allowed into the living room when it was done.
It took a total of twenty minutes for the process to finish with them both, where upon they burst through the freshly opened door and tackled me to the ground in hugs that I swore would snap me in two in any second, all the while both were talking quickly, and loudly at me at once.
"I cannot believe!.."
"Thank you so mu.."
"This is the Greatest.."
"You.."
finally I had to yell at them to get them to calm down.
"GUYS!!! One at a time, please, and stop breaking me. It hurts to breath!"
They both got off me quickly, flushed in embarrassment but still hyper. Franny calmed down first, and stepped forward to hug me again, gently. before trying to explain in a jumble of words.
"YourdadcameandgaveusDungeonswithchoiceofstarterracestahtwecoulduseandawayforustointeractwitheachotherwhileplayingwiththem!" (A.N. This is intentional, hyper girl chatter has been released)
It took me a full minute to understand what she had just said, then Jessica did the same thing, but put in a lot of cools, I think.
"My Daddy did what?" I asked, to clarify.
They showed me their wrists in answer, and on them I saw watches like mine, and each had a name, an A.I name in the display right now. My eyes widened, and I jumped on them instead hugging tightly. Daddy had made sure I wouldn't just have Leo, but my friends to grow with as well.
Daddy was amazing, and I swore I would get even for this surprise. I could picture his look when I refused to hug him for five minutes, that would teach him!
"What did you pick!"I asked dumbly, to shocked and happy to think of anything else.
Franny spoke first. "Wolfs! Duh!"
"I picked the Undead!" was Jessica's reply, of course. (A.N skeletons changed to Undead for simplicities sake.)
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Then the onslaught began. They both spoke at once. "Your dad said you got a special race because of your knowledge, and that your A.I was a little different."
That was creepy, how they did that. I showed them Leo, who sent a display saying hello.
Hello Francesca, and Jessica, I am Leo. It is a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to meeting your A.I's once they develop the first string of personalities, and growing with you and Sidnie.
He was very formal in his greeting, for some reason I got the image of a butler in my head, meanwhile Franny, and Jessica both had their mouths open and were trying to process Leo.
No A.I newly born should be able to talk with anyone but their owner, and showed no personality beyond a computer software this early. I grinned at them.
"LUCKY"
"LUCKY"
They both said at once again, and asked to see my Race. Daddy only told them it was unique. I nodded, pretending to not be scared to see the Imps I thought of as cute again. I needed to get over this! I said resolutely within my mind.
"You know, we just watched the first match of today's Amateur Tournament, it was a fight between wolf users. They went the Werewolf route first."
This was used mostly to just talk, and maybe distract them if I was lucky.
"Let me guess, they brutally slaughtered each other" was Franny's comment. She disliked going strength over brain.
I shook my head.
"The one that lost had a Hidden Variant that dealt with shadows or something. And he lost while only taking 5 of the other wolfs out. His opponent had Fire Wolves, and set the entire forest in front of them on fire, it went out of control, and took out most of his pack. Then they lured out the remaining wolves with a decoy patrol, and set them all on fire."
Franny blinked, and frowned at that. It really was masterfully done. The Amateur used what most believed to be a brute strength race, and turned it into something that could use it's supposed weakness as well.
"They have another match..."
Jessica interrupted me, knowing what I was trying to do.
"Oh no you don't, let us see your Race!" She was beaming an innocent smile at me, and I pouted at her.
"Cute, come on!"
She dragged me up the stairs to my room, and looked at the 20 by 20 table, and breathed out a wow. The world was not truly the most detailed, but what she was saying wow to, was the Imp enclave in the stone area in the far right corner.
"Are those...Demons?" Franny asked, to which I nodded.
They both went over to examine them more closely, and then looked at me curiously.
"What species is this? It's not either of the two starting Species advertised." Jessica asked.
"Imps...Daddy said it was a special start because it would allow me to go any route I wished, but would take longer because they are the weakest species..."
They both said neat, and grinned while looking at each other, and then at me.
"Wanna see ours?" They asked at once.
That confused me, it was impossible to show me theirs, unless they had a direct link to portable tables that would be miniaturized, but contain the full scope of their dungeons world. It was mostly used for school purposes.
I noticed the little blocks they had in their hands then. Portable tables, they must of dropped them before pouncing on me earlier.
"I'd love too!" I said, excited now.
The portable tables were a direct link to the main table, and took a full day to link fully so it would remain in realtime with the main one. Kids used it during school, there were classes for this, as well as free time to grow their dungeon on a more personal level, and to allow for battles between each other.
Naturally they were small scaled, and for fun. The winner got the cumulative points for the dead, and the loser had to rebuild.
They could also be used to link dungeon A.I's together so they could communicate, and grow through that. I grinned, it would help speed their A.I 's along to speaking if they interacted with a developed A.I.
It would also be our only interaction between others with Dungeons until 15. Anyone who possessed one under that age tended to have it confiscated by officials. Daddy probably had things in place for that for them, but better safe than sorry.
"Remember to not take it to school," I reminded them, sad I couldn't actually join them right now.
"We know, your Dad told us already, we have permission because he's a developer of Races, and A.I, but it has to stay a secret." Franny said calmly.
I nodded, and they set up their small 5 by 5 tables, and I looked at their worlds. Franny, got Wolfs. There were no variations from starting species with this race. It always started as wolfs.
They were common greys, and she had around 30 right now.
"What's your population limit at?" I asked her
"500! I plan to split the packs up and move them to unique areas in the world to get higher possible Variant occurrences on location. Maybe get a hidden one." she grinned at me, her eyes alight with the possibilities.
I grinned back at her. She was adorable when she smiled like that, all aquiver with what she would do, and how. She was about my height, long curly red hair, and freckles with glasses. I thought she was pretty, she hated her hair though.
Jessica showed me hers next. Undead have two starting Species, based on how you want to go about your process. Skeleton, and Ghouls.
Jessica chose Ghouls, because they were the easiest to evolve, Skeletons cost a bit more to unlock evolutions because they started as bones only. Ghouls already had the flesh, though fewer avenues early on to choose from when evolving.
"Mines is 300, I chose the option to have burial sites placed all around the Dungeon world for me to find, and allow me to turn them into Ghoul pits that popped them out easier. Population will come later." She stated matter of factly.
I loved her purple hair, she had been talking about changing the color again. I envied that option honestly. She was a pale white with a beauty mark beneath her left eye, and was pretty like a doll. Mommy said if not for her 'gothness' she'd be a china doll. That confused me, but I felt it was accurate.
My own looks were sub par, of course, compared to them. To thin, because of my diet, I looked malnourished, and my blond hair was soft, but brittle and thin because of my illness, and the treatments I had to undergo.
I moved from those thoughts, and pointed to the sockets in my table. "Hook them up! Leo would love friends, and we can go watch the rest of the tournament!" I said excitedly.
It wasn't like we could do much else. Neither of them had the population I did right now, and I didn't want to fight them for points. I wanted to earn it the hard way. I felt it more fulfilling. At least for now.
They nodded, spoke to their A.I's and we headed back down. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard the door open, and Mommy walked in with some groceries, and my medicine. Icky!
"Mommy!" I said, and ran over to help, Jessica, and Franny doing the same. "Can Jessica, and Franny stay if their parents agree?" I asked on the spur of the moment, excited.
"Of course sweety, I'll call them and ask, ok?" I nodded and hugged her, whispering in her ear when I did. "We have to get Daddy for this surprise!"
She giggled and agreed, once we finished putting stuff up, we all went to the living room, while Mommy spoke to their parents and got permission.
They were hopeful as well. We haven't slept over with each other in forever!
"...So ends the fifth match! Suzuki, the Rabbit user has defeated the Slimes!"
cheering roared through the T.V and I told Jessica, and Franny about the other two favorites, Griffon, and Suzuki, along with their Races, and the prize for this Amateur tournament.
They gaped at that, the Naga being a reward alone was enough, but being given access to a second Race right into the next round of rankings was truly unheard of.
We matched a few more battles, A lot of people picked Wolf, or Undead for their starting race because of their power early on. It was enough to carry most people through the early stages of beginner, and allow the A.I to grow enough to manage more races later on.
The next main battle I was looking forward to involved Griffon, and his Undead. He was fighting a Wolf start.
This Wolf Race had gone intelligence over raw power, and had gone with the Kobold evolution. From the looks of the armor coloration, it was a water variat.
Griffon had gone a, unique route, to say the least. His Undead were a mix match of Skeletons, and Black Knights, a rare evolution of Skeleton that wore heavy black plate mail. They were mostly just giant bulwarks of metal with little speed, or attack power. The skeletons had some speed, but no real power either.
His side seemed focused on battles of attrition, because skeletons did not tire. The living did.
It ended much that way, but he implemented a unique stratagem of encircling his weak and brittle skeletons with the Black Knights. The Kobolds and Wolves could barely get through the defences, and it turned into a slow, and bitter, execution. Griffon won his battle, and Jessica was drooling at the implication of Skeletons for later use.
The final battle of the day involved Greydon, and a Slime user. The Slime user made Greydon work for his victory. He used a combination of Basic slimes, and Mimic Slimes, a difficult to achieve rare Variant that had taken the form of basic creatures in his dungeon world. The normal slimes he used as a kind of bomb with the bird formed Mimics, that soon took the shape of down Hob-Goblins and fought them with their own strength.
In the end it was the use of his single Ogre that won the day, but it cost Greydon a lot of his Goblins, and Hob-Goblins.
"That ends the second day of the Tournament! To all you watching at home, tune in tomorrow at 12:00 pm to see the Semi finals, who will survive now that all the surprises have been shown? Will it be one of our favorite? Will it be an unknown name? Look forward to it with us!"
I turned the T.V off, and Jessica, Franny and I talked for a while before eating dinner, their parents agreed to them staying the night. It was a weekend after all.
Mommy even joined us, she was excited to join in, she knew a lot about the Wolf, and Undead Races because she had helped Daddy make them. The pointers she gave Franny, and JEssica would help them grow their Dungeons early.
I grinned, looking forward to when we all turned fifteen now. I'd be able to join them in school, with luck, and people wouldn't know what to do with them. They will have had five years to grow their Races power base. They may even be within the fourth tier of evolutions and advancements by then.
Several hours passed, and it was time to go to bed. When we got to my room, the bed was big enough for us to share, we laid down and continued talking about future plans, mostly involving the Dungeons, and our A.I's. Leo contributed to the conversation of course, saying it was fascinating to link with Grendel, Franny's A.I, and Lucifer, Jessica's A.I.
Personally, I looked forward to the tournament tomorrow, and seeing what we could do with our Dungeons.
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I cut it short of two full days, would have been way to big in my mind. The next chapter will be up, and I will do a POV of one of the three main fighters in the tournament when it's their turn, and a poll for who you all want the Winner to be. May even be up tonight. ^.^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and be prepared for some hard core Dungeon growth next chapter.
As always, much love and cookies.