[Capitaine]
Our first targets were the two groups that hunkered down near us. They were eyeing each other up as good targets to extend their timers and did not pay much attention to who or what was behind them.
My chiens pointed their noses towards the exposed side of their cover. Three demons hunkered behind a pile of seats. They fired exploratory spells and projectiles across the car towards the embankment that protected their nearest rivals. A volley of similarly strong attacks crossed the metal ground between them and smashed into the cushion hill.
“We need one each, let’s not be gluttonous about this,” I reminded gently, the magic of my command slipping into Yoshitsune’s ears.
“One,” she confirmed with a short nod before she disappeared in a flash of light.
The crashing sound of thunder from behind startled our prey. But, by the time they heard the noise, Yoshitsune had already appeared on top of them, her blade spraying blood in every direction. She immediately swept her blade again, with a shock of lightning atop it. One of the demons died while the other two were injured from the blast.
I had only just managed to lift my gun up and take a shot. Their expected two on one counterattack evaporated when my bullet gave a greeting to a demon’s forehead. Their head snapped back and they fell backwards with a limp impact.
Yoshitsune took a few more bites out of the lone survivor with her blade. A blast of light took her away from both groups and disappeared amongst the cushion landscape. I took my own evasive maneuvers to remove myself from vision.
“That was more than one,” I said to myself as I snapped up my binoculars and began scanning the scene.
Shouting could be heard from the surviving group. Their heads peered over the embankment in curiosity over the fate of their just recently alive adversaries. With the timer running low, they took the risk to investigate the scene more closely. The scene that they came across drained the color from their face. I watched their heads twist in every direction to try to find the perpetrator, but there were no immediate signs.
With less than fifteen seconds remaining, I watched firsthand just how close their bonds to one another were.
An explosion rumbled the landscape and their sharpened teeth and claws turned against one another. I watched silently as they ripped each other to shreds as quickly as possible. One of the four managed to get the first kill. A sword plunged through the unfortunate loser’s chest and penetrated the other side. Blood dribbled down the tip and they planted a foot into the victim’s chest to extricate the weapon.
The first winner flashed their eyes towards a potential escape and the other two turned on them. There was not enough time to negotiate or to use logic. Impulses drove violent reactions. They fought each other to be the one to be able to secure the kill.
Fire spewed and water attempted to extinguish. In the end, neither managed to dispatch the first winner before the timer went out. As soon as the clock reached zero, both demons collapsed from the invisible death that seized their hearts.
The lone winner stood on uneven footing. Their shoulders slumped and their tongue lolled lazily from their open mouth. Before they could even celebrate their survival, a red portal opened behind them. An electrified blade thrusted out from the opening and pierced the demon through the neck. Their muscles spasmed and they fell to their knees, too weak to pull the weapon from their throat. The demon fell forward, sliding down the weapon and landing face-first onto the metallic ground.
Out stepped Yoshitsune, her head turning to face my hidden position. This was a different beast than the one that I had known during the hunt of the Corpse-Watcher. It was not a change in demeanor. Her personality had not changed. Nor was it a change in her combat. It was a ferocity or a brutality that overcame her like I had known many mild-mannered demons to eventually fall into in the past.
The red-skinned ogre of the east possessed something else intangible.
But, I did not have the time to analyze the changes in my returned friend. Less than a third survived the timer, leaving around ninety contestants scattered around the area. Beneath me, I felt the ground move us towards the center. The viewers weren’t very interested in watching us bumble through the battlefield in the hopes that we come across each other.
Yoshitsune seemed to ignore this. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the open. Her horns were covered in a soft glow and I could feel waves of energy pass over me every few seconds like a pulse.
“Friend, what are you doing in such an exposed place?” I hissed from behind my cover. “If you couldn’t tell, we are being condensed closer together.”
“I am seeking the boss,” Yoshitsune answered.
“And, how is that going?”
“I do not believe the creature to be large in stature,” she explained. “Outside of our viewers, the only thing I am detecting are our other contestants. So, either the boss is not physically within this space, or it is one that specializes in stealth.”
I rubbed my chin. The idea seemed great two minutes ago when there were around a hundred and fifty more living souls available. But now, why couldn’t we just win ourselves? It was clear that Yoshitsune was far more of a threat than she was when we last met. All we needed to do was meet a few demons that would team up with us and we could sweep through and end it?
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But, that didn’t feel fun at all. Discovering and eliminating a hidden boss. I wanted to show Laugh and all these observers that I was of a better creation than they were. Destroying their little game and creating my own path to victory sounded far more gratifying than shooting the heads off of forty more demons.
“Alright, go my chiens, try to flush out this hidden entity.”
My hounds turned from seeking out opponents to scouring for this boss that may or may not be present within this space. I frowned at the blindness that this would create, but, I would just need to trust my little ogre.
“Where are our nearest enemies?”
Yoshitsune pointed her hand to the front and left. “Five, one hundred and twenty shaku.” She moved slightly off center. “Two groups, six and seven. Two hundred and fourteen shaku and two hundred and ninety seven shaku.” Arm all the way to the right. “Two, one hundred and seventy three shaku.” Arm back nearer to the center. “Over twenty in different spots. Three hundred shaku. I can feel farther if you want the rest.”
“That’s…fine for now,” I replied, making a mental note to research if there was a creature that had her ability. That, or try to get her to join me instead of Ishmael. But, I don’t think shooting her in half to steal the Corpse-Watcher’s rewards made her warm to me.
I held up my gun and scoured the land in front of us. I could see a few aggressive demons prowling in the far distance of the battlefield; veterans of Vendetta’s last stand that felt confident in their powers. Small skirmishes were breaking out to assail those unguarded individuals. But, for now, no new messages arrived. Unless that fight intensified, I knew that the lack of action meant that a time limit of killing would be implemented soon.
It was perhaps better to create our own action.
“Yoshitsune, I think it’s important that we set ourselves up for success,” I suggested to the meditating woman. “We should move to the pair on the right in preparation of the next order.”
“Very well,” she agreed, standing from her lotus position and unsheathed her weapon.
She led us on an aggressive approach with a near direct line to the enemies. I was unsure if it was her lack of sight, but she did not seem overly interested in using any of the cover that our game host had so kindly provided. Instead, we ran low across the wide gaps in the terrain in the hopes that we were not spotted.
My golden-eyed loup scouted ahead, investigating if there was anyone capable of suppressing their energy and acting invisible to Yoshitsune’s sight. It reported nothing unordinary just as the chiens yipped and pouted at their lack of discovery at this hidden boss.
Even if we didn’t find it, I would still have found the idea clever.
We reached a highly lumpy corner of the train car. Large mounds of cushion and metal framing stacked on top of each other to form a more complex fortification than most of the terrain. The area was littered with corpses to showcase the intensity of the fighting over this location. The question that remained was whether or not we were assailing a fortress of blood or the grave of wounded lions.
“They are near the top, on the side facing the wall,” Yoshitsune informed, pointing at the one lump amongst many. “They both have very strong magical signatures.”
“We have an elevation disadvantage,” I commented. “How do you propose we attack them?”
image [https://i.imgur.com/1X078AW.jpeg]
Notice
Game: King of the Hill
Rule Update
You have 60 seconds to kill another demon.
All that fail to do so by the time the timer runs out will perish.
“Before they kill each other,” I added.
“Take a shot from here and follow me through my ability,” Yoshitsune directed.
The Corpse-Watcher’s eye opened on the ground beside us with its twin hovering in the sky above the position. My pet’s ears pinned back against its head as it saw the mark of its former ruler.
I could hear the sounds of combat from behind the cover. Without a better idea, I lined up a quick shot and fired it through the cushions. The mana-infused bore a sizable hole through the fabric and silenced the fighting instantaneously. I could hear their shuffling. They tried to find a good angle to observe who assailed them without it costing them their head.
Yoshitsune slipped through the portal with the Corpse-Seeker right behind her. Not wishing to make the plunge myself, I slid my torso through the opening and aimed my next shot from above.
With the added firepower of my pet, we did not take long to finish off the ambushed demons and claim the hill ourselves.
I sighed with relief and tumbled out of the portal to land on the high ground and observe the battlefield from afar. I could hear the sounds of combat whirring up again, driven out by force by the audience. Magical effects from large-scale attacks cut through the sky.
“Well done, but I think we will have to move again soon,” I stated. “We are far too far away for the next timer.”
But, I did not hear a response. Instead, I felt the gentle pulses of Yoshitsune’s seeking ability wash over me. I turned my head to see her face looking skyward in pained rapture. Her hands trembled and the fingers of the hands that coated her body wriggled in discomfort.
“Capitaine,” Yoshitsune said with horror. “I was wrong. I thought that the boss was hiding amongst our fellow contestants, but that was incorrect. It was hiding amongst our observers.”
I tilted my head towards the magically blackened sky that hung above us. My eyes squinted to pick out any silhouettes or movement that would draw my attention towards whatever Yoshitsune saw through her unique way of sensing.
“Where should I shoot?”
“Anywhere,” she replied sharply.
“Are you certain that this remains a good idea?”
“I think it is going to arrive no matter what we do.”
I fired an exploratory bullet directly into the sky. It traveled for a few seconds before it disappeared into the blackness above. For a second, I assumed that it had missed and was lost to the ether. But, I saw something far more horrifying instead.
A health bar.
“We had a surprise awaiting our contestants, but it seems that there are a few clever children amongst you,” Laugh’s voice rang out through the area. “Oh well, in show business, you must be ready to be adept at improvisation. The finale comes sooner than expected! You survivors, your new task is to defeat the boss of this place.”
Two bulbous eyes opened above us, they rolled around the battlefield, taking stock of those below. Loud popping sounds went one-by-one as the creature lowered itself down from the ceiling. A ceiling that was no longer ink-black.
A spherical head held up by a numerous amount of tentacles. Once it got just above the ground, it detached itself from the ceiling and crashed into the floor, squashing anything that was directly under it and disrupting the fight that raged there. It had the appearance of an octopus, but it was not perfect. Long hooks on the tips of the tentacles and the jelly-like flesh was more reminiscent of those infernal creatures found in the Bowels scaled up to gigantic proportions.
image [https://i.imgur.com/7b4MiBq.jpeg]
Notice
Game: King of the Hill
Rule Update
You have 60 seconds to reach 32 living contestants.
If number is failed to be met, all contestants will lose.