Chapter 281: Opening Act
“Okay…” Aegis let out a gasp of air, sitting on the bench in front of the multiple livestream displays of the gladiator arena. The tournament's first match was beginning, and the competitors had already been instructed to exit their waiting rooms and enter the arena.
From the left side of the oval arena, Seraxus and his party stepped out, walking slow and proud as the audience erupted in boos and angry shouts. This did nothing to wipe the smug smile off of his face.
Opposite his party, Starcry’s team entered the arena. Her demeanor varied drastically as she looked up with a warm smile to the audience members in the stands nearest, waving and bowing to them and thanking them for their support. Their cheers were of encouragement and pride, most of which came from the Vindicators in the stands who were sporting their red guild tabards proudly.
“How bad do you think this is going to be?” Aegis asked as he tilted his head to look at Pyri, standing at the end of the bench that he sat on, with Lina at his side, leaning forward towards the displays and watching them intently. Rakkan was pacing behind them, eyes glued to the screen. At the same time, Darkshot leaned up against the back wall and tended to Darkwing on his shoulder, who was looking anxious and jittery due to the sounds of the loud crowd cheers reverberating the walls of the chamber around them.
“Pretty bad.” Pyri shrugged with an apologetic look as she glanced back at Aegis briefly. “I mean, in terms of video game opponents, these avatars of darkness are deceptively difficult. The Simbox technology allows the game to read our emotions somewhat… So, using those emotions as a power source for the bad guys would mean that a large portion of the player base would need to be able to control their emotions to combat them. If you can't do that, you need to be able to overpower the dark emotions with positive ones at least, and… well… frankly…” Pyri hesitated to say it, but Aegis already knew it himself.
“It’s a lot easier to spread negativity than positivity.” Aegis finished her sentence.
“Yep.” She nodded. "It worked for a bit, but, look,” she motioned to the display where Seraxus entered the arena. "His wings are already starting to retake form. You might’ve given Yumily an impossible task.”
“Maybe.” Aegis agreed.
“Have a lil faith, guys, she’s the number one bard for a reason right?” Darkshot asked.
“Her music is really good,” Lina added encouragingly.
“We don’t need someone who releases hit music. We need a strong player.” Rakkan replied with a grumble. “I don’t think she’s gonna be able to handle it. She might not even try, she’s with those VGN guys.”
“Well… if she doesn’t, we’ll have to figure out how to deal with his Avatar of Hatred abilities.” Aegis tried to remain optimistic.
“On top of his party’s PvP dynamic. And the overpowered sword.” Pyri replied discouragingly.
“Yeah. On top of those things.” Aegis leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his clasped hands, locking his eyes onto the screens.
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Hae-won was pacing around the lowest row of the gladiator arena, eying a faintly glowing blue wall of magical energy that had risen up around the arena, preventing her from re-entering it. Curiosity got the better of her regardless, and she lightly tapped the blue wall of magic to confirm she couldn’t pass anything through it. On contact, a ripple effect of magic began flowing out from the impact point of her enchanted staff that she’d touched it with, making the wall temporarily easier to see.
From then, she continued pacing along, eying the competitors in the arena below as Yumily began introducing them to hype up the match. Hae-won quickly turned her attention to Yumily as she stood up on a raised platform on the far side of the arena, opposite the main entrance of the arena. Its layout was surprisingly similar to the Odin arena back in Kordas, but rather than any religious figures sitting on the raised platform, it was outfitted with decorations and stationary instruments for Yumily’s band and dancers to work from.
“The first team to reach three victories will become the winners, while the other team will be eliminated from the tournament…” Yumily calmly explained the tournament rules to her audience, and the audience in the arena. It felt stiff, as though she was reading from a script, and Hae-won quickly lost interest and instead looked more carefully at Seraxus’ and Starcry’s teams inside the battle arena.
Despite Aegis’ entrance and explaining to everyone in the world how they needed to combat Seraxus, his smug smile remained. It sent a chill down Hae-won’s spine as she saw it - his confidence unshaken.
“This is going to be bad,” Hae-won mumbled to herself nervously, quickly hitting a button in her interface to log herself out of the Shattered World simulation, and swapped over to her office simulation. Once in the office simulation, she pressed a few buttons on her wrist implant to open a call with Tommy and Shinji.
“Guys. I think what we did is going to make this situation way worse. They’re all going to turn on Aegis. I need to take over as his broadcaster as soon as possible.” Hae-won explained anxiously while opening up Aegis’ livestream on a viewer in her office simulation to see another female broadcaster standing in front of Aegis’ stream. “I need to take over for Alicia.”
“No, you need to be in the game and shoutcasting his matches,” Tommy replied.
“His matches aren’t gonna matter. His image is gonna get thrown into the dumpster when they blame him for what’s about to happen.” Hae-won angrily retorted.
“How do you know what’s going to happen?” Shinji asked curiously, his hands somewhat idle due to the very little action taking place on Aegis’ stream.
“Because I’ve been Aegis’ broadcaster from the beginning, and before that, I broadcasted for other streamers. I know how players act and react to these sorts of situations. VGN is about to have all the ammunition in the world to take him down.”
“If you know what’s going to happen, why not stop it?” Tommy asked.
“What do you mean, stop it?” Hae-won snapped back as though he’d said something absurd.
“You’re in the arena with your in-game character, aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but I’m a broadcaster.”
“Not right now, you’re not.” Tommy shrugged.
“What, you want me to play the game?” Hae-won scoffed at this suggestion.
“Your livestreamer needs your help, doesn’t he?” Tommy replied quickly.
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“I’m only level 10!” She shouted in annoyance.
“You are the best broadcaster I’ve ever seen, even compared to those I worked with in VGN. You don’t want them to best you just because they might have some ammunition, right?” Shinji replied, causing Hae-won to pause.
“Appealing to my ego isn’t going to work… I don’t get paid enough to be a caster and a player.” Hae-won replied with less aggression and more hesitation.
“You get paid plenty.” Tommy sighed. “We’ve relied on Aegis to prop us up and put our studio on the map. You’ll regret it if you don’t do everything you can to support him. We all will.” He added in a severe tone, which brought the three of them to a moment of silence.
“Ahhhhhhhhh…” Hae-won shouted in frustration before angrily ending the call and hitting her wrist implant to re-enter the Shattered World Simulation. It took her a second to regain her bearings as the lighting shifted and the loud audience cheers once again filled her ears.
“Remember everyone, no matter what happens, the sword is at fault. Seraxus is a victim!” Yumily called out to the crowds as the match below had already begun.
It was a slaughter - Seraxus’ party hung back while he alone charged forward and, within a few moments, cut through two of Starcry’s party members, killing them in single hits despite them making several attempts at effective countermeasures to his attacks.
The Vindicators began booing and shouting angrily down at him, and the black, misty wings on Seraxus’ back gained more and more substance.
Starcry shifted into a druidic beast form while her two remaining party members began bombarding Seraxus with ranged attacks, utilizing crowd control effects to try and slow him down. A few spells hit, binding Seraxus’ feet and causing his floating weapons to freeze in blocks of ice. This prompted Hajax to step forward to get into Seraxus's range and cast several spells to remove the bindings on Seraxus' feet while the rest of Seraxus’ party remained hanging back and watching smugly.
> “It looks like Starcry’s team has managed to lock down Seraxus’ weapons - forcing the advanced cleric player Hajax to step forward and remove the crowd control. Seraxus remains confident in his approach, though - he feels no need to involve the rest of his party members.” A VGN broadcaster began shouting out from a voice-amplified staff. He was standing adjacent to Yumily on her raised platform, which gave Yumily a break from her speaking.
>
> “With her druidic skills, her transformation into that black-furred lynx beast grants her potent status effects that may allow her to contest Seraxus. She’s able to keep up with his speed, and with his weapons locked up in ice, as long as she’s able to avoid his sword, she might be able to deal some serious damage.” The caster continued.
“It’s so one-sided and hopeless it’s not even funny. No caster can spin it any other way.” Hae-won shook her head at the match disapprovingly. “Three people aren’t even fighting, and he’s won the match.”
Hae-won was correct in her assessment, as within the next 30 seconds, Seraxus had killed Starcry’s last two party members, resulting in the ice spell on his floating weapons disappearing. Instead, though, he didn’t bother controlling them and let them fall to the ground.
In her Lynx form, Starcry squared off with Seraxus, growling menacingly and baring her fangs as she began pacing around to get a better angle of attack.
“Come on. Really? A Beastshift Druid?” Seraxus shouted mockingly, speaking as loudly as possible so the entire arena could hear him. “How’d you even get to the finals? Did your zerg guild just pay off all of your opponents? Or did they simp for you ‘cause you look a little cute?” Seraxus asked, followed by a condescending laugh.
This provoked Starcry into lunging forward at him, but rather than take a fighting stance, Seraxus surprisingly sheathed his sword of hatred on his back and sidestepped the pounce attack. While sidestepping, he raised his hand and pulled it back, then whipped it out at Starcry’s Lynx form as it crashed into the tiled ground of the arena where he’d been standing. His open hand impacted the side of her Lynx’s face, making a loud slapping sound as the force from the strike was enough to throw her off balance somewhat.
“Hahaha!” Seraxus laughed while jumping backward to dodge a retaliatory swipe attack from her claws. “Imma beat you with slaps, just to prove how much you don’t belong here. You’re gonna be the first player to ever be slapped to death in a gladiator tournament.” Seraxus explained while dodging another swipe, and landing another open-handed strike on her Lynx form, causing her to wince - the damage being dealt was very minor.
> “I.. uhh..” The caster anxiously tried to react to these words as the crowds of Vindicators erupted in roars of rage. “If Seraxus refuses to use the sword of hatred to finish off Starcry, then she might have a chance. A beast-shift druid will borrow the health pool of the beast they shift into, and his unarmed strikes are not doing very much damage. This will grant her many opportunities to adjust to his fighting style, as she’ll die very… uh… slowly at this rate.” The broadcaster announced hesitantly, clearly regretting the final words of his sentence.
“At least think about what you’re saying first,” Hae-won grumbled to herself in frustration, once again looking away from the match-up at Yumily on the stage.
“Don’t mind, Starcry, you can do it!” Yumily tried encouraging her, but her voice was drowned out by the shouts of booing and anger as Seraxus landed several more slaps on Starcry.
“Just forfeit, you idiot,” Hae-won growled towards the arena.
“Hahaha!” Seraxus continued to laugh as his black wings solidified more and more, and a dark, misty aura began to emanate from the sword. The final tipping point for Hae-won, though, was as Seraxus jumped over a pounce attack from Starcry and landed on her back, grabbing onto her fur and mockingly mounting her beast form. “Yee-haw! Giddy up horsey!” He laughed as his wings hardened. Within a few seconds of this, his wings and aura had reverted to the state they had been in before Aegis arrived in Tarolas - he had everyone absolutely hating him.
The hatred in the arena made the game world air heavy, almost weighing down on Hae-won.
“Okay.” Hae-won tweaked her neck. “That’s enough. Time to take over this show.” She huffed out in frustration before taking off towards the raised platform Yumily stood on.
It took a few moments for Hae-won to make her way around the large arena to reach the bottom of the stone stairs that lead up to Yumily’s platform. At the base of it stood Kenji, keeping guard to prevent any unwanted guests from disturbing Yumily and her band. At this time, Starcry had taken Hae-won’s advice despite not hearing it and had forfeited the first round, prompting the VGN caster to announce the winner and begin talking of ways for Starcry’s group to come back in the next match.
“Hold on. No one is allowed up here at the moment.” Kenji held out his hand to stop Hae-won.
“You recognize me, don’t you? I’m from Kalmoore.”
“Yes, you came in with Aegis, and you saved our dancers… but currently, Yumily is working…” Kenji replied hesitantly.
“You gotta let me talk to her before this gets any worse.”
“I can’t. I’ve been instructed not to let anyone up. I’ve also been specifically instructed not to let your party interact with Yumily anymore, or she might be punished.”
“Really?” Hae-won leaned back and widened her eyes in disbelief. “You’re gonna follow those instructions like a good little dog?”
“I don’t like it, but Yumily's under contract…” Kenji replied apologetically.
“If you let things keep going like this, it’s over. You can’t tell me you’re okay with how things are going, right? Look at her.” Hae-won pointed up at the platform at the top of the stairs, where Kenji stood guard, and Yumily was anxiously standing at the edge, looking somewhat lost as the VGN caster had momentarily taken over for her.
“It’s only the first match…” Kenji replied.
“Really?” Hae-won rolled her eyes at him.
“If I let you up there, it will be chaos.”
“It’s already chaos.”
“I mean, for Yumily, outside of the game.”
“What is more important to her? Making VGN happy, or spreading happiness and stopping that asshole?” Hae-won asked while angrily gesturing down into the arena where Seraxus stood, triumphantly walking back to his side of the arena as Starcry’s party members were returned to life and began reappearing on her side of the arena - the 2nd match beginning shortly. “I’m a huge fan of Yumily. Maybe the hugest. So I know the answer to that question. And as one of her band members and bodyguards, I know goddamn well that you know the answer too. Let me through. I’m here to help.” Hae-won declared firmly, locking eyes with Kenji.
Kenji stared back at her with great hesitation but eventually let out a sigh and stepped to the side.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t worry, I’m a professional,” Hae-won replied before marching up the stairs to reach Yumily’s stage.