A new condition overtook me.
[Condition - Enthralled. While you are in the multicolored mist, Lady the Cat controls where you walk. You are otherwise unable to move. When you take damage, the condition ends. 3 minute duration.]
Three minutes?! Nothing I’ve seen came close to being that absurdly strong. Not outside of 6E12 and Alice herself.
No. That couldn’t be right. If she truly were utterly overpowered, she wouldn’t be in Gold with us. There must be a catch somehow.
The cat raised its paw, pointed at Lore, and motioned. Like a marionette, Lore lumbered over to Reens, until they stood face to face.
“I heard you wanted to talk,” the cat said to Lore. “Make it quick.”
Reens’ eyes darted back and forth. I felt the panic in them.
Lore gave a soft sigh. “I just wanted to set things straight before anyone dies,” he said. To Reens, mostly, but also to the rest of us it felt like.
“I’m shocked it was you, Reens,” Lore said. “To be the one to betray me. My own security guard. I always treated you fairly, right? I wouldn’t call us friends…but acquaintances, surely?”
“It’s not about you,” Reens replied coldly, he form unmoving in the mist.
Exasperation crept across Lore’s face. “So what is it you want? Power? Money? Safety?” He grunted out a curt laugh. “You could’ve just asked. Do I seem unreasonable?”
“It’s not about me, either,” Reens said.
“Oh. I get it,” Lore spat. “You backstabbed us to please the bitch over there.” He tried to glance in my direction, as far as he could turn while frozen in place.
“No. I am doing this for everyone we’ve killed,” Reens said. “And for everyone we would kill. When I win, I will disband the Bounty Hall.”
“That does it,” Lore sighed. “Looks like I really have to kill you then.”
Lady tilted her head. “You considered sparing her?”
“I don’t know!” Lore shouted. “Look, I didn’t sign up for this nonsense!”
The whole time, Anastasia stood still in her dark red coat, her face veiled by her circular disk of a mask, her hands firm around her spear-tipped halberd.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Sophia and Atlas, right?” Lore looked towards the two of us. “Do you have no ambition? You’d let Reens do as she wills? Or let me guess. Had you all avoided the topic of what happens after this match?”
“Reens can disband the Bounty Hall,” I said. “Serves them right.”
“A massive organization, gone to complete waste,” Lore protested to Mr. Atlas. “Surely you see reason better than those two?”
Mr. Atlas shrugged. “My job is to be here for them,” he said flatly.
“Cool,” Lore huffed. “You know what, I’m done. Hopeless, the lot of you. Let’s get this over with. Lady, we’ll take out the ice mage for good.”
“She’s mine,” Lady said with a curl of her lips. “She dies last.”
Lore shook his head. “You really are a cat. Let’s take out their healer, then.”
The cat began to weave its paw in the air, back and forth, like a conductor facing an orchestra. My legs moved unwillingly, and carried me toward the mouth of the cave. Mr. Atlas joined me there. Meanwhile, Reens walked stiffly to the dead end on the opposite side, as deep as the cave went. A host of mice scurried up and surrounded her.
“Reens!” I shouted.
“Run!” her voice echoed to us. “We can regroup!”
Lore and Anastasia closed in on her as well.
“Dispel,” Lady commanded. The multicolored mist thinned and faded, and sensation returned to my limbs.
Deep inside the cave, the mice exploded one after another. I heard Reens scream. Lore and Anastasia and Lady all charged in toward her.
Mr. Atlas aimed his gauntlet at the cat. “Get over here –”
From the barrel affixed to the top of his forearm, a grappling hook shot out. It latched on to the cat’s fur. With a tug of his wrist, the wire extending from the barrel snapped back, lightning-fast. The hook reeled Lady in at breakneck speed.
Mr. Atlas caught the beast as it flew into his hand like a baseball. He slammed it down into the earth.
“Now!” he yelled at me.
I unloaded my full barrage of spells on to the cat, chipping away its HP and freezing it solid.
「Red team has slain an enemy.」
They killed Reens. Her Death Ward would bring her back, but only this once. We wouldn’t let her loss be in vain.
Mr. Atlas brought his axe overhead, and a red aura lit the weapon ablaze. With a roar, he slashed down upon the frozen animal. The steel of the axe found purchase, blasting apart the ground beneath with sheer force. The shockwave of the blow exploded outward, shattering stones and felling trees in its path.
Not one moment later, mice sprang out of thin air at Atlas’ feet and exploded into red vapor. I backed away blindly, and only heard blasts fired from Atlas’s gauntlet-shotgun. With teary eyes and burning throat, I stumbled away, peppering a few last shots at where I heard the cat’s steps upon fallen leaves.
「Green team has slain an enemy.」
Atlas barged out of the toxic cloud, not too far away from me. His HP was horribly low, barely above 100, and taking damage over time.
He coughed out blood. But with a rasped voice he said, “We got it.”
The cat was dead. Or at least, we depleted its Death Ward. That left two Wards on their side, and none on ours. We no longer had margin for error, no second chances. But if we played this out carefully, we could yet win.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said. We were in no condition to face the remaining two enemies. Atlas and I made a run for our base.
One-for-one. An equal trade of Death Wards. We were finally catching up to them. I got plenty of XP from killing the cat and had leveled up to 5. Once I hit 6 and get my Ultimate, I’m sure we could retaliate for real –
A halberd sailed through the air and plunged into Mr. Atlas’s back. It cleaved through his corroded armor and pierced out from his chest.
Mr. Atlas fell to his knees with a soft thud.
[HP: 0/1100]