Prometheus continued running. He wouldn’t let the death of his other friends affect his mission. Even if it was hurting him. Sayuri was using [Enahncement] on each step to move faster, while Zilch had gone underground, still following the group. Unfortunately what they didn’t anticipate was a tier-thirteen attacking them. Theo looked back, and the old man was gone. Where?! Where is he?!

A mountain of Influence exploded up ahead. The enemy had moved on in front of them, crossing his arms and putting his hand above his eyes to look better. Why he hadn’t just intercepted the group was a mystery to Prometheus. The reason was made clear soon after, when a giant root the size of a building exploded right behind them, causing the three monsters and Giuseppe to fly into the air and crash down soon after. General Espanto had joined the pursuit, followed by the three majors right under him.

The Administrator wishes you good luck!

The other Gods are watching with anticipation!

Theo dismissed the notifications and righted his body, checking that his owners were safe and sound. Zilch and Sayuri were in the same situation, as they had also thankfully recovered. Behind them, explosions of Influence and giant roots occupied the plains, raising huge clouds of smoke, steel clashing against wood. Prometheus conjured the shoulder turret and put the red projectiles in it, for precaution. It probably wouldn’t do anything against such high-tiers, but it was better than nothing.

Two large chunks flew at the group, rolling on the ground and settling down with blood and leaves. It was Major Vine, cleanly bisected at the neck. They immediately ran past it, focusing only on moving as far away as possible. Prometheus shifted a dome of bone and carbon fiber to protect his passengers and made an opening to fit both Sayuri and Giuseppe inside. He collected any biomass to get bigger, allowing him to reach incredible speeds. He didn’t want to leave Zilch behind, so they continued at the same pace.

Theo had shifted eyes all around his head, to see everything in three-hundred-sixty degrees around him, which allowed him to spot a dot, far away in the back, rapidly approaching. A moment later, he realized what, or rather who, it was. The General fell hundreds of meters in front of Theo, deep gashes on the large gem in his chest, fluid spilling out of it. His eye-stalks somehow moved erratically to convey intense anger, and he angled his hand in the sky, from which another massive root exploded to intercept the human with the greatsword.

The two beings clashed, and Theo changed direction, moving perpendicular to the two enemies.

Warning! The Emperor of the Monster Army has been made aware of your treason! Your ‘Private of the Monster Army’ has transformed into ‘Deserter of the Monster Army’!

Deserter of the Monster Army: You will be harder to find by the Monster Army. Additionally, you are more resilient and deal more damage to any member of the Monster Army.

In the distance, still in the back, Prometheus saw a giant tree of Influence sprout from the General’s back, its roots moving kilometers in every direction. One of those roots was flying directly toward him, and he knew what it meant. Shit!

The General’s ability created a massive tree of Influence that temporarily absorbed a portion of everyone’s Influence to make the General stronger. Unfortunately, as he had seen in Golden Lake, if those who got affected by the ability were too weak, probably tier three and under, they would die. That’s the fate that awaited his family if he didn’t do anything about it.

The root of Influence moved ever closer, zipping in the air much faster than the shapeshifter could manage to run.

“Saul, I need our help,” He pled to his Soul.

“You always do, dumbass. What do you have in mind?” Saul responded.

“Help me create this crystalline structure with our Influence, and let’s make it as dense as possible. We need to shield the passengers inside,”

“What about Zilch?”

“He’s strong enough, it won’t kill him. Follow me,” Prometheus began to condense every scrap of Influence in his body in a single point, taking inspiration from all the other Technique Users he had seen in the past while layering it in a hexagonal configuration resembling graphene’s carbon arrangements.

Soul +2

The new points made his Influence a bit more abundant and dense. Theo aimed the shield at where the root was striking, which would be roughly Theo’s center of mass. His shield prepared to protect his passengers, while Theo gritted his teeth, hoping it would work.

The large root impacted with Theo’s shield like thunder, throwing off the shapeshifter, who tumbled on the ground, but the shield stood still. The root attached itself to Theo’s shield and began absorbing more and more Influence, draining more than ninety percent of his total Influence. After that, it retreated and returned back to the General. Prometheus weakly got up, as he was experiencing deep Soul-fatigue, but he still managed to do so.

He turned to see Zilch get out from the ground, just as exhausted as he was. The deathworm had thankfully survived.

“You alright?” Prometheus asked.

“Uff…no…I feel like dying…I can barely breathe…”

“We need to take…a break. Let’s move forward and take a rest. The General and that warrior will keep each other busy for a while, at least.”

Zilch nodded while breathing heavily, and the two monsters began moving forward, exhausted by the General’s ability. Prometheus sent a mental communication inside the dome on his back, which contained Arthur, his children, Sayuri, and Giuseppe, a large group overall. Theo’s stats allowed him to easily carry all of them. Then, a flash of light attracted his attention, prompting Prometheus to focus his vision backward once again. A massive mushroom cloud erupted into the air, while Green Influence exploded outward as if a giant dam holding it all back had been broken. The shockwave reached them soon after, destroying the humans’ eardrums, and making Theo stumble by the pure power of it. Doesn’t look like any radiation is being emitted. We should be safe, as long as all this Influence here isn’t actually dangerous.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

From the mushroom cloud, Theo’s incredible vision spotted a single, bipedal form standing in the air a kilometer away and looking directly at him. How did Theo know the man was looking at him? His Danger sense, a skill that he had used very little, was going crazy. Even against the Iron Champion it hadn’t gone off at all.

Prometheus prompted his worm friend to speed up, as they couldn’t stay in one spot for too long. The man in the cloud disappeared, and in its place a shockwave trailed outward, exploding in the air. The old man appeared twenty meters in front of the group, greatsword slung on his back.

Shit!

His torso had a large hole through it, and instead of the usual thoracic organs, veins bones, and organs made of Influence replaced them, allowing blood to flow through them. All his limbs were intact, but his neck was also missing. One made of Influence kept the head attached to the body. The old man’s head also wasn’t without damage, as the right half of his entire head was gone, including the jaw, the skull, and the face. Another substitute of Influence allowed the old man to live, even though some blood was still spilling out of him. The half-flesh half-Influence mouth curled up into a smile, and the human began speaking, “You really were quite annoying to find, huh? Especially after throwing a Monster General at me. At least I got rid of those annoying weeds.”

Theo noticed how the man didn’t move to fight them, igniting a spark of hope.

“What do you want?” he asked the man.

The old man’s smile disappeared. “What do I want? You have infiltrated the city of Iron Feather illegitimately, you have slaughtered Guard Giusi in cold blood without even leaving a corpse for her family to bury her properly, and then you have moved into the Iron Tournament to kidnap and murder the Iron Champion, Jose Francis. You didn’t believe that you could go unpunished, right? My Fate Technicians told me that it was your decision to kill them, not anyone in the Army. Their deaths stand solely on your shoulders.”

Prometheus pushed his owners from the back of his body, making them get out and instructing Giuseppe to take care of them and move them away, while Theo shifted himself into an armored rhinoceros with a thick exoskeleton. He didn’t feel safe by using elemental cells, as it might hurt his Soul even more. Zilch and Sayuri both jumped at his sides, ready to fight the man.

He chuckled with his half-face, saying, “I can’t execute you today. Besides, I can feel one of the Great Cataclysms nearby. Just remember: I’ll be coming for you.” He vanished, leaving behind only a shockwave from the pressure of his jump. A long pause ensued before Theo and his friends lowered their guard.

Zilch fell on the ground, shaking uncontrollably, while saying “We almost died..we almost died,” over and over, while Theo did his best to reassure the worm and comfort him. The humans returned to the dome on Theo’s back and the group continued walking forward. Just a couple of minutes later, the Unsafe Hours arrived, so he urged the others to go to sleep as soon as possible. Theo provided sleeping gas to whoever couldn’t fall asleep because of stress or anything else.

Before Arthur went to sleep, he turned to Theo and motioned for him to get closer. The bald man then whispered, “Theo, are we going to be alright?”

The shapeshifter nodded, “Absolutely. With me around, there’s physically nothing that can harm you!”

Arthur Fluffernutter chuckled slightly and nodded, falling back to his leather bed to sleep. Zilch burrowed most of his body underground and fell asleep like that, while Sayuri went to sleep in her usual manner, sitting with her legs crossed. Giuseppe didn’t fall asleep, and before Theo could give him something to help with that, the immortal man spoke, “What was that man talking about?”

Theo shook his head, “Nothing important, he just wanted to take out his anger with us for something I did,”

“What did you do to him?”

Prometheus looked at Giuseppe’s eyes, “Why do you care so much?”

“Just…I felt pain and sadness in his eyes. I could feel that he felt true grief for whatever happened,” Giuseppe continued.

“That might be true, but that’s not of our business. Go to sleep now, otherwise weird anomalies might eat you alive. And you wouldn’t die from that, so let’s not let it happen.”

Giuseppe nodded and went to sleep.

After checking that everyone had fallen asleep, Prometheus decided that it was time to turn off his systems too, and take a break. Finally, I can take a moment to…Mh? Someone had tapped his shoulder. Theo turned around. Two large yellow eyes with black slits were focusing intently on him, jumping from side to side. They rested upon a white, pale face with a face that looked cartoonish in how wide the smile was and how triangular the teeth looked. The face was sewn on the head below with dirty stitches, which dripped blood all over.

The person, if it was alive at all, was wearing a white tank top, blue swimming shorts, and an orange life ring around their hips. It had no other skin other than the face, which gave the anomaly a rancid stench following it all around, as it smelled of rotten flesh. Bare, bloody flesh drenched the tank top and shorts with a red hue, making them stick to the creature’s body with disgusting stickiness.

“Hi!” It said without moving its mouth.

Prometheus ignored it and walked as far away as possible from the others before responding to the anomaly, which was the most anomalous thing he had ever encountered, judging by his Supernality sense.

“Hello,” Theo replied. The anomaly had silently followed Theo’s side until the shapeshifter turned to it.

“Wanna play a game?” It asked, its eyes never blinking.

“What kind of game?”

“A cooking game,” It said, looking straight at Theo’s face.

“Uh oh, I have a bad feeling about this one, Theo,” Saul said.

“I could tell on my own,” Theo replied internally.

“I’m sorry, but I’m busy,” Theo replied to the anomaly.

“You can’t refuse,” It insisted. It raised a skinned hand and snapped its fingers, causing Arthur and his children to reappear on chairs, which weren’t there before. Its smile went up a tiny bit more.

Fuck.

Prometheus growled, lowering his body to the ground, ready to pounce. The creature didn’t move an inch, continuing to look at The’s face without blinking or having any facial expressions.

“What are the rules?” Theo said through gritted teeth.

“You cook with other cooks. The three best cooks can go free.”

“What happens to the others?” he asked, half-knowing the other answer.

It smiled a bit more, and didn’t reply.

“What happens if I don’t accept to play?”

A bloody finger pointed at the children, and that was enough to set Theo’s mind to focus on one single task: eliminating this thing. Prometheus immediately conjured the cannon on his shoulder with the red bullets, aiming it at the anomaly. Before he could make another thought, he found himself on the ground, faceplanted on the dirt with a wet hand holding him down, blood dripping down toward Theo’s face. His cells were completely immobile, he couldn’t move even an eyeball, and his Influence was just as frozen.

“The game will start now,”

Theo’s world went black.

- - -

“Hello everyone and welcome back to Cook Masters!”, Theo heard a voice say. It somehow reminded him of the announcer back in the arena, but it was higher-pitched and it did waver more, almost as if someone who barely knew English was speaking.

Analyzing his surroundings, Theo noticed that he was in front of a kitchen workstation, with various ovens and many shelves full of cooking utensils. On his left, the workstation continued to the side until it connected to another identical one, where another person stood in front of them like he was.

It was a middle-aged woman looking around with wide eyes. In front of him, a massive crowd of moving forms shifted around like water in the ocean. They were skinless humanoid creatures, like the one he had encountered earlier, except without a face and without any clothes. They were all toothless and eyeless. Since the crowd was on a lower level than the kitchens, he knew they were on a raised platform, and to the side, on the edge of the platform, another skinless creature stood there, microphone in hand. The modern kind of microphone.

This one was dressed in a black and white suit, holding its chest out while gesturing his arms, so it continued speaking, “Today, we have a unique cast of novice chefs! First off, an ever-changing creature, Prometheus!” The crowd then clapped and cheered, but without skin on their hands, the claps sounded wet and quiet.

The announcer then went on to describe every other contestant, and he noticed that behind him other contestants stood in front of their respective kitchens, Arthur being one of them. The children stood right next to him, awake and panicked. Theo moved to get closer to them, but a barrier bordering around his working space prevented him from doing so. He began striking the barrier with every tool he had, claws, fangs, pure punches, organic guns, and techniques, but they were all useless and ineffective. His subspace ability was still on cooldown, so he couldn’t use that.

He growled, loud enough to overpower the announcer’s voice. It didn’t care, continuing to speak, “For our new viewers, the rules are simple! Each Chef…oops, I meant Cook! Each cook will be provided with some ingredients, and will have to prepare the best possible dish in ten minutes! The three best cooks will become Masterch…Master cooks! And will be able to leave our game. Now then, can we have a brief introduction from each of the contestants?”

The announcer walked up to each contestant, starting from the back, holding the microphone to their mouths. Most of them didn’t say anything and instead backed off from the announcer in fear. When the announcer walked over to Arthur, he said, “I am Arthur, and I will win this competition,” The announcer smiled, as much as a skinless and toothless creature could, before moving on to the other people. All of them either screamed or tried to run away, blocked off by the invisible barrier.

When the announcer came to Prometheus, it asked, “What about you, big guy? What’s your story?”

Prometheus tried chomping down on the announcer’s head, but another barrier prevented him from doing so, so he closed in on the microphone, speaking in a deep voice, “I am Prometheus, and I will kill, slaughter, and imprison each and every one of you ugly freaks. If killing you doesn’t work, I will imprison you in an empty and endless prison from which you won’t even be able to think of escaping. Remember my name,” With that, Prometheus backed off.

The announcer stumbled slightly but immediately went back to his post, continuing his announcement, “There you have it, folks! Bring in the ingredients!”

Many skinless creatures walked into the room with large trays, big enough to fit what was on top of them. Charred corpses. A strong smell of blood and burnt meat emanated around the room, which Theo filtered off by removing his olfactory senses. He heard the other humans in the room puke and cry at seeing the corpses, which was understandable. A very faint sound shocked Theo, and that was a slight heartbeat coming from the corpses. The realization dawned on the shapeshifter.

These people are still alive, and they’re getting used as ingredients for a cooking show.