As soon as the conch sounded, Ploritan and his teammates ran back into the castle to see what weapons awaited them.
"Brot get weapon!!! Brot fight strong people!! Brot win!"
Brot ran, keeping up with the others, into the fortress.
Upon entering the fortress, there was a place that looked like a living room full with a fireplace and rug with a rack for the flags above it. It was a stone castle, and there were two rooms on either side along with a stairway to the roof. Of course, the fireplace was not lit as they were underwater.
Urphar went straight for the flag, grabbing it with a spike covered blob of flesh and placing it inside his body, completely hiding it from any intruders who wanted to steal it.
Ploritan pointed to the right side and barked out an order.
"Brot! Grab a weapon from that room and we move out to attack as soon as possible. Yuriel, come with me to take a look at whats in the left room and then head to the top to keep watch."
"Got it!"
"Brot go!"
Brot trotted off and the two rushed into the room to see a whole assortment of items. Potions, swords, spears, bows, staffs, magical books, charms and necklaces, armor, and all sorts of things were waiting for him to use.
Yuriel scanned the items before coming upon a set of claws.
They were made from a silver metal with a dark blue base.
"Somehow I feel that these will be of use to me... like they are compatible or something. I'm going to take these."
After throwing on a blue robe which enhanced ones ability to produce mana and equipping the claws, Yuriel ran out of the room to the top in order to keep watch. Urphar was waiting in the living room by the fireplace with a menacing glare, ready to scare off anyone who came in.
Ploritan was left in the room to look at all the items and decide on what he would use... however something seemed to shine, catching his eye.
It was a ring with a garnet on it. He didn't know what it would do, but he decided to equip it. When he did, he felt power flowing through his veins as if he was stronger than usual.
[Strength +10]
Ploritan looked at the assortment of spears before grabbing a short spear which was similarly colored to the claws Yuriel had chosen- with a blue handle and a silver tip.
He practiced a few swings with it to feel it out, and did a spin maneuver before nodding and heading out of the room. The spear felt light and he felt much stronger than usual- he was ready to fight.
However, by the time he exited the room, nobody was in the living room anymore.
"Brot go kill!!! Brot will win chief!!!"
He heard Brot screaming from a reasonable distance away, before hearing another scream.
"Ploritan!!! This is bad!!!"
Yuriel rushed down the stairs panting and pointing outside the door.
Ploritan rushed to the front door to see what was going on... to see something completely shocking.
Urphar was lying on the ground outside dead. Black fluids oozed from the pile of purple spikes, and Ploritan thought he even saw an eyeball in the mush. Brot was running off in the direction of who knows where, and meanwhile...
A black cloud of ink blocked his view in the direction towards the left fortress.
"The squid must have stolen the flag and is making a break for it!! If we don't get it back right now then we're in trouble!"
"Let's get on it!"
Brot was already far ahead of the two wielding a massive metal spiked club. His blubber couldn't stop from wobbling all over the place as he ran.
"BROT KILL YOU!"
The other two ran straight into the cloud of ink, which Brot had completely avoided to go around, and before long they were all at the same place running together.
After exiting the cloud of ink, the squid came into view, holding the flag. Next to him was the electric eel who seemed to have some cuts and holes in him which were bleeding, and they were swimming at an extremely fast pace towards their base.
"That eel must have taken out Urphar! Brot, take him on!"
"Brot kill now!!!"
Brot sped up to match the pace of the two in front of them, and soon caught up- letting his mace down with an enormous smash.
Dust and water flew all around, and the squid dodged to one side while the eel dived to the other.
"Better be careful here... you go on and get the flag to the base. I'll stall these guys.", the eel shouted to the squid.
"An awful heroic thing to say for someone who is only in this to take the position for themselves. I take it you're confident to win?", the squid replied.
"Of courssse. They can't attack me with their bodies like that urchin did.", the eel hissed.
"As if I'll let you escape with our flag!", Yuriel screamed, whipping out his claws from a distance.
At that moment, he brought down the claws in a slash instinctively... and as he did so, a concentrated vortex in the water spun out, headed straight for the squid.
The vortex sliced straight through the tentacle that was holding onto the flag, and it dropped to the seabed.
"Agh! Shit!", the squid yelled, rushing to grab the flag again with another tentacle.
"Looks like I gotto take that one out first, eh?", the eel stated.
The eel then slithered through the water at an insane speed, appearing right in front of Yuriel.
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"Yuriel!!:, Ploritan shouted.
However it was over in an instant.
Electricity flew as the eel wrapped himself around Yuriel and fried him to a crisp.
"AFHFHFFHFFHGHGH!!!!!"
Bzzzzzzztttttt
His eyes bulged out of their sockets, and his tongue started to emerge from his mouth. Foam had formed, and Yuriel propelled a chunk of vomit from his mouth while being electrocuted.
Yuriel dropped to the ground, lifeless.
"NO!!! YURIEL!!!"
Ploritan was devastated at seeing one of his most trusted guards drop dead right in front of him.
This wasn't how things were supposed to go.
Yuriel was still young and had a bright future ahead of him.
He couldn't just die like this.
But there he was.
Dead. So lifeless that he looked like a cruel wax statue on the sea floor.
However, just as Yuriel was executed, Brot appeared right behind the electric eel with his mace.
"AGH!!!! BROT KILL!!!"
The mace flew down on the eel, crushing both the eel and the dead body of Yuriel in an explosion of fleshy chunks.
The brains of the electric eel splattered all over the mace, and the electric charge flew up the weapon, however Brot retracted it quickly so as to only suffer a minor shock.
"Who's next!?"
Ploritan regained his senses to see that the squid had grabbed the flag and was running towards his home base.
"I won't let you escape... not after Yuriel died like that..."
Ploritan pushed himself forward and began swimming at a maximum speed.
The squid looked behind himself with wide eyes, and held up his tentacles to block the attack, but it was too late.
The face of the squid was inside Ploritan's mouth, and he bit down hard, completely tearing apart the top half of the squid's face from his body.
Blood filled the water and the body- with the flag- dropped to the ground, motionless.
Ploritan grabbed the flag and waved to Brot to continue moving.
Brot nodded and followed Ploritan, who had the flag in hand, to the enemy fortress.
"It's time to attack."
----
Claire was a bit shocked at the brutality of the fights.
'Uwahh... they are sure being brutal out there... all this for the position of chief?! I can't believe they would all go so far for this... heh... heh heh...'
Claire found herself laughing creepily as she enjoyed the slaughter that was occurring.
A screw was loose.
She had lost it. She didn't know when or how, but she no longer wanted to be a hero.
'What... what am I doing?! Am I laughing at this scene?!!? This is sickening!! I shouldn't be laughing at something like this... heh... heh heh... hehHAHAHA'
'Are you sure you shouldn't be laughing at something like this?'
'You will be the one causing these scenes soon enough'
Another voice made it's way into Claire's head- one that took her own voice yet a completely hidden dark side of her.
'Wha- what are you talking about!?! Of course I shouldn't be laughing at this!!! Wait... who was that?'
'Hahaha... who was that? You really do have a screw loose. You're talking to yourself, you nutjob.'
'Who's there!?! If this is a prank then I won't let you off easy!'
'A prank? The only joke here is you.'
'I- I just came here to save these people! I came here to help them! I shouldn't be laughing at their demise! That's right! I need to negotiate with their leader once this is over. Perhaps I will send some assistance from the dictatorship in order to protect these people from a war... we should negotiate a peace with the attacking Empire just like we did with the birdmen and the lizardmen!'
'But haven't you realized how that peace was attained!?! Are you really so dumb!?! Do I, you, have to explain it out for you, me?!'
'What do you mean!?!'
'That peace was only established through terror and domination. There is no such thing as a hero who can save the world from war.'
'N- no! That can't be!! I will lead the antiheroes to become those beacons of light for this world, and we will prevent war and terror forever!!'
'You really are naive... did you not learn anything from when you died?!?! We have to rule through terror, or people like THAT MAN will rule over you with chains of manipulation and cells of status. GET REAL. You cannot do anything to stop this.... unless you are willing to compromise. The antiheroes have already made that compromise. Why don't you get to it already?'
Claire was holding her head in anguish as her two selves fought each other within her mind.
If one were to look at her, she would look like an insane woman muttering to herself while laughing and agonizing quietly.
'It's time to quit this little hero game and accept your true self.'
'And when I do that... people will be saved... through terror and fear....'
'Exactly.'
'Heh heh....'
"Heh heh... Hahahaha.... HAHAHA!!!!!"
Claire burst into an insane fit of laughter from the VIP room, completely alone in her insanity.
The guard stationed outside her room merely listened in from outside, and froze with fear as he heard the Determined laughing so loudly at the brutal massacre that was occurring within the arena.
'That woman... she truly is a monster....'
-----
Brot and Ploritan trudged forward towards the base of the team which had attacked them. It was time to take their flag. It was not only strategically advantageous to attack the team who had lost two members, but also their safest bet on getting a flag without dying or losing. Not to mention, they were already a good chunk of the way there to their base due to chasing after them, and because Ploritan had their own flag, they weren't leaving it unguarded.
However... when Brot and Ploritan arrived at the scene outside the castle of the enemy team...
There was a gulper eel who had engulfed what looked like the crabman, who was flailing his claw and trying to get a grip on the eel but unable to.
The snapping turtle was across the field running at the eel, however when he noticed Brot and Ploritan, he instead turned around and made a dash to grab his own flag back in the fortress.
'If I can protect my flag and grab that one right there, I win!', he thought, stuffing the flag inside his shell.
'And if my teammate dies, then that will be one less foe to face in the next round... heh heh... this is just perfect....I can just ignore the fight going on over there and focus only on that flag!'
The turtle ignored his comrade in need to focus on Ploritan, who was making his way over.
'We have to get that flag in the chaos....'
Ploritan began swimming and sped over to the snapping turtle.
He thrust his spear at him on the charge, and after the turtle swiftly dodged a few attacks and managed to maneuver a couple of them over to the shell so that he wouldn't be damaged by them, Ploritan heard a loud yell.
"ARGHHH!!! BROT IS MELTING!!!!"
A muffled scream coming from Brot, who was currently inside the gulper eel, being digested just as that crabman had. He had dropped his mace, and was trying to pry himself out.
"BROT CAN'T MOVE!!!"
In that instant, Ploritan was distracted, and the snapping turtle used it as his chance to snap at the hand of Ploritan which was holding the flag.
Snap!!!
Ploritan's hand was sliced clean off, and with a spray of blood that dispersed into the water, the flag fell to the ground.
"Agh..."
The turtle dived to grab the flag with his mouth, however Ploritan returned to his senses at that time, and predicting the movements of the turtle... made a stab with his spear right at the base of the flag.
The spear thrusted right into the head of the snapping turtle, which was moving forward to grab the spear, and bits of the snapping turtle's brains exploded into the water.
"Grr!!! Blegh!!!"
The turtle fell down on top of the flag with another sound as chunks of his brain flew out when Ploritan extracted the spear.
Ploritan made a dive for the flag, and reached into the shell of the turtle to grab the opponent's flag as well. As he did this, he heard a large punching sound.
"BROT WON'T BE MADE INTO DINNER!!!"
Looking over, Brot had pryed open the jaws of the gulper eel and punched him away, so that the eel was in a daze.
Brot's entire body looked like it was melting, and he was covered in acid burns from being sprayed with digestive fluids. He looked more disgusting than even before, yet he seemed to be excited to resume the fight.
"Were heading back Brot! Pull back!!!"
Brot thought for a second with disappointment, before nodding and the two swam away quickly.
And so, they arrived at their base and placed the two flags in the holder.
-----
"What an outstanding match!!!! There are only 4 living participants who will be able to advance to the next round!!! Marvelous!!! What an insane turn of events, however both the current chief Ploritan and the former chief Kota have managed to make it through this round!!! What kind of battle will be be shown in the next round!?! Only time will tell!!!"
Claire sat back after having gone through her fit of insanity.
'Ah... look at them... pathetic... barely any of them even survived...'
'Don't say something like that! They all tried so hard, and fought like warriors. I think the ones who died all deserve an applause.'
'Hahaha! Surely you joke. Scum like them are only in this for their own personal gains.'
'No, I'm sure of it. They all died as fine warriors, and fighting for what they believed is right.'
'You are too optimistic, and you believe that people are naturally good at heart. That is not the case.'
'Hahaha... we shall see....'
'Indeed we shall....'