The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #12 a LitRPG (ATS)

by Alvin Atwater

  [School: Winter Break. Day 8 of 30.]

  [Current declared fiancée(s): Melody, Alice, Tear, Harumi, Chika, Natalia.]

  [Expecting: Harumi, Alice. Time left: Harumi, kitsune- 5 months until due. Alice, half-demoness, half-angel: 5 months until due. Alert! The time could shrink or increase as the infants absorb energy - and nature determines how powerful they are. Harumi, Alice week: 1.]

  [Card bearers in city: 1, Ming.]

  [Cook-off opponents in Nation Seat: Attincusburon, Alon: 1200. Harumi, Advanced Chef Yuki, Kitome, Alice. The rest are unknown.]

  [Adventure Quest: During the Winter Break, you must travel to the nation of Alon to give your blessing to the princess. Neko must be present. Her sister is an optional addition but will increase the awards. Beware of the wizard gang around this area. The troubling bunch may be the least of your problems if the Gargoyles are still around.]

  So much for the Alonian holiday, Clyde thought as he sat up, stretching. Silver-hair peeking from the covers on his left clued him in on who had spent the night in his hotel room. Alice held his right arm, her hair undone. She sometimes styled her twin tails, although when the young man joked about going for drills, Alice flicked his nose.

  A familiar clacking of buttons made the young man look to his right to see Natalia playing her game. The loli-witch was quite persistent when it came to greeting him every morning. The same went for his fiancées at different intervals. How long had the loli waited for him to awaken?

  “Good morning, husbando onii,” Natalia said, diving into him. She accidentally kicked Alice in the head.

  Pink aura surrounded the half-demoness as she rose to glare at the trembling loli.

  “Onii-chan,” Natalia began in a whiny voice, “Alice is going to bully me.” She snuggled tightly into the young man.

  “You know, Natalia, you could always try apologizing,” Clyde said. Alice’s aura intensified, causing the room the shake. “If you don’t,” the young man pulled her off, “oof, that’s going to hurt.”

  “I’m sorry!” Natalia quickly said to the half-demoness. “I didn’t mean to. I was just trying to be a good wife.”

  The words surprised Alice so much that she snapped out of her tired rage. Even Chika woke up to gape at her. Yuki entered the room with freshly folded clothes for Clyde, also with a surprised look. Sigh. He had told Yuki not to act as his maid and especially when they were out, but as usual, the demoness didn’t listen. Sometimes she even doubled down on her efforts.

  “Those words, from Natalia’s mouth?” Yuki said. “If only Tear was up to hear them.”

  Natalia slumped onto Alice’s chest, face first, blushing heavily. Alice grinned, pulling the loli into a hug.

  “Alright, party’s over, let’s get dressed,” the half-demoness said. “We’ll have time to tease my Nattie later.”

  Yuki chuckled. “She’s so adorable when embarrassed.”

  Clyde pet the loli before getting on with the morning. Seeing Alice’s toothpaste in sight, he smirked. He couldn’t get to it the prior night after the bath because most of his fiancées brushed with him.

  The hotel rooms were the size of apartments, decked out with their own living rooms and TVs and other things to fool someone rich into thinking that they were paying for value. But hey, it had a working heater.

  After breakfast, Clyde gathered the full team into the reserved room for a meeting. He stood while the others sat at table. They discussed yesterday’s events, devised plans, created theories and debunked some of them.

  “Airi, you will scout in one direction of their headquarters. Seth, you take the other,” Clyde said. “I don’t need to tell you guys what it means to scout, right?”

  “Quite frankly, I don’t mind,” Seth said. “I’m not keen on the idea of facing possibly thousands of fucking wizards by myself.”

  “Normally, I’d have a colorful remark to that,” Airi said, “but I agree. No pulling any Yusukes.”

  Yusuke glared at her.

  Undine laughed. “Don’t tease my ninja hero,” the reaperess said, dazzling smile making Yusuke blush.

  Clyde laughed lightly. “Don’t worry about your ninja hero, he’s going on this mission too. Scouting in depth while in stealth. We’ll need to have our guards up while in this hotel, because I’m pretty damn sure there’s another attack coming. We’re not going to stop posting watches anytime soon. So, Tear, any luck yet?”

  “Still no hotels,” Tear said. “It’s best that we get to this Palona, then leave.”

  “True,” Clyde said. “It’s not like we can stop what could be years of ongoing political issues. But before we leave, we’re going to put a good dent in these fuckers.”

  He was starting to regret the decision to leave his lich behind more and more. She could’ve made them sleeping gas bombs or something to make capturing these bastards much easier. “Seth, Airi, Yusuke, move out. You know the drill.”

  Tapping on Clyde’s leg made him look to the side and down at kuudere, mismatched eyes. “Wizards are heading this way, onii-chan.”

  The young man nodded. He took the time to allow his earthly brain to question the bizarreness of having children in this situation. His normal brain reminded it that they were, in fact, not children and were older than him. The loli below was old enough to be a grandmother of many generations. He wouldn’t tell her that of course. The emotionless loli sometimes had just tiny glimpses of annoyance in her aura when it came to her age. The only reason why she let Fuyoko baby her was probably due to the free pampering. She hung out with Natalia, a genius witch stuck in her child form due to a curse, and the gothic loli vampire. One would think this was simply a collaboration of great minds. Could be. But Clyde knew damn well they talked mostly about anime and manga. That damned Natalia only took things seriously on her own terms.

  “We really don’t have time for this shit,” Clyde said, turning on his Area Sense. No red dots just yet - his range was limited at level two. Dera rushed into the room.

  “My sensors have detected-”

  “Yeah, yeah, we know, droid,” Kitome interrupted. “You’re too late.”

  “They’re golden robes,” Dera continued, ignoring the magical girl. “I picked up feed from a camera some blocks away. They’re in five vans. Some are armed with guns, and one has a rocket launcher. Estimated time of arrival is twelve minutes.”

  “Fuck!” Clyde snapped, “why did some people decide to come back to this hotel?”

  “Because they’re not smart, pervy husbando,” Natalia said.

  “Tear, Noona, Chika - get this place evacuated,” Clyde said. As if things couldn’t get any worse, a prompt flashed into his mind’s eye.

  [Emergency quest: Evacuate the Hotel! This quest is mandatory and cannot be refused. If you ignore this quest, you will receive a Game Over. ??? will be happy to toss you to the depths of Hell.]

  Well fuck, the stakes reveal themselves once again…

  Episode 61 (Part 4)

  Airi didn’t like Clyde’s order to send out the scouts, but she didn’t argue. As much as she wanted to stay behind and assist everyone, there were plenty of Team Stone to do just that. So she, Yusuke, and Seth caught a cab that would take them a block away from their destination.

  During the ride, they saw the five vans driving normally toward the hotel in a way that indicated the desire to not bring attention to themselves. Damn, did it unnerve the druid. If it wasn’t for the powerful barrier surrounding the vans, the young woman would’ve cast enough magic to topple them over. Sure, she could blow them up, but Airi didn’t want to kill anyone. What if there was an innocent inside? The reason why Clyde ordered non-lethal force meant only one thing. Their bold leader wasn’t sure which side was the right side.

  However, the android deaths, destruction of property, and the other crimes the terrorists committed made it easier to fight against them.

  Upon arrival at the destination, Airi paid the driver. She, Seth, and Yusuke went their separate ways. She had
to admit that she was quite proud of Seth, for growing a pair. She remembered a time where anything supernatural scared the hell out of him. Hell, she wouldn’t be surprised if Clyde’s first meeting with the blond was due to a supernatural occurrence. Years back, she hadn’t felt his latent magic, otherwise, she would’ve reached out to the young man for some training.

  [Airi activated Camouflage.]

  This type of stealth, commonly utilized by druids, would enable her presence to blend in with the surroundings. She’d be invisible to the naked eye of a human, but a non-human’s magic senses might detect her. This wasn’t meant for a breach, just a quick scouting. On her side of the building, she took note of the guards posted at each entry point, except one. Her senses detected it to be locked and unused.

  The tall building looked like any corporation at first glance, but a more cautious person would take note of how it was on the isolated side of town under the guise of a business no one really cared about. Hell, even a royal android woman walking this far out would most likely be shot down in these parts.

  Just then, a surprising text came from Yusuke.

  Yusuke: I just stepped out. Did about ten minutes of observation. There are a fucking ton of wizards in there. Blue robes seem to be the lowest grade, then going up the hierarchy is red, green, gold. The black robe isn’t here. Also, there are very few gray robes in here like maybe six out of the hundreds. Nobody’s bossing them around, so I’m guessing they may be wild cards like that lady yesterday.

  Seth: yeah, the tracking device detached itself in this building. Tetra’s fucking awesome.

  Airi: so are you guys. Seth, are you seeing what I’m seeing. Guards at every post.

  Seth: yep, my side too. They had a sniper, but something seem to have happened to him. I thought that was your doing.

  Yusuke: yeah he was annoying, so I took him out, bound him up to be found later. I put the card of a rival business in plain view to push the blame.

  Airi: how did you even find that information?

  Yusuke: Hinako told me.

  Seth: scratch that. How did you get past the guards?

  Yusuke: Scaled the wall and snuck through a window. Anyway, I’m long out of the building and heading toward the rallying point.

  Airi: Gotcha. See you there.

  Seth: yep yep. Easy job, but probably because they’ve got their eyes on two different things.

  Airi: or maybe something happened. I don’t know why I’ve got this bad feeling.

  Princess’s balcony…

  Late morning…

  Feeling a little tingly, Andrew nodded and listened to the princess’s plans to restore the Nation and even fix the wealthy-favored schooling system. She even admitted that things like that wouldn’t occur overnight, that the complete makeover would take some time - yet the passion and charisma in her words moved the Black Mask. She was exactly what this Nation needed, but Maverick was only thinking for himself, backed by the province leaders. Those who were monsters calling themselves mayors.

  “So, what are your plans?” the princess asked. “Is there anything you’d like me to do? Something to help diminish Maverick’s influence.”

  Andrew shrugged, the tingling sensation out of control, spreading into his eye. “I will do my best. I’m just glad I didn’t do anything stupid that would’ve helped Maverick out like harming anyone here or abusing my power to order you to kill your own androids.”

  Abruptly, the tingling in his eye peaked to a dull pain as his Ki forcibly activated. It happened so fast! Princess Kaguya did her best to fight against the command, hands on her head, tears streaming from her eyes. She begged the entity within not to make her do the act.

 

 

  “No, no - this isn’t what I wanted,” Andrew snapped, trying his best to cancel the Ki, but it was too late. Princess Kaguya went still. Then chilling words emerged from her mouth.

  “I will proceed to eliminating all androids,” she said in a chipper voice. She smiled cheerfully, eyes seeming to glow red. A black dragon symbol appeared on her forehead. “All androids shall be slain at once! Your mother orders your deaths.” She bolted into the palace. Andrew followed in stealth mode, a feeling of absolute dread consuming his very soul. He just wanted peace, nothing more. And he had finally come to an understanding with the one person who could carry it out. He had plans to leave the city, attend a college in a different province, and help spread the word of the princess’s plan. All of that ruined because of a glitch in his own powers. Something that had never happened to him before.

  And he watched in horror as a guard at the armory gave her an automatic rifle and a backpack full of magazines stuffed to the brim with special rounds. He seemed to be new and couldn’t disobey an order. Hell, he didn’t appear to care.

  The princess horrifically opened fire on every android in the palace, spilling their synthetic blood. “I shall eliminate those who support them, too.”

  When she stepped outside, she mowed down both android and civilian, ruthlessly. Screams of pain, sorrow, and confusion filled the area. And there were so many people around. The rounds were the finest, most brutal, most powerful. One shot could take off an entire limb. Body parts… were flying. Even children were caught, most of them not shot, just trampled by fleeing people. The androids didn’t run, they just bowed and accepted their fate.

  “If Mother commands it, then I no longer have a will to live,” an android said. “Without her love, I am nothing. I will willingly deactivate myself.” And from there, a mass self-deactivation of androids occurred. Andrew didn’t even know they had such a capability.

  Tears streamed from the princess’s eyes as she brutally murdered her own people. She didn’t just stay in one place, she dashed down the blocks with unnatural speed and killed everything in sight. After emptying a magazine, she reloaded as if she had the skills all along.

  She caught up to an approaching news crew, eyes on the assisting android. The android that was deactivating itself, no longer feeling the will to live.

  “I command all guards to kill all of the androids.”

  “I have to stop this,” Andrew said, charging Ki into his trembling hands. He so desperately wanted to avoid killing her, but that command was permanent. She’d be on a never-ending quest to eliminate the androids and their supporters.

  Without the princess, Andrew was stuck with Maverick. He’d have to use this moment in the public’s eye to buy time until he figured out what to do. Even if this next accusation was going to make him sick, he had to do it. Otherwise, if Maverick killed him, no one would know the truth.

  Andrew suppressed the desire to just let Kaguya shoot him down. This major screw up would not go unnoticed by Maverick and the provinces.

  HOW COULD THINGS COME TO THIS?

  Hotel…

  Clyde and Team Stone worked together to make sure everyone was out of the hotel. Thankfully, not every guest returned after the previous wizard attack. They completely evacuated the entire hotel with time to spare.

  “Good thing we didn’t offload our belongings,” Harumi said.

  “After the attack with the monsters, I decided it was best if we left most of our belongings on the bus, if not all of it, except the immediate change of clothes and morning stuff,” Clyde said.

  “You get to keep most of your stuff in your inventory,” Natalia said, pouting. “It’s not fair.”

  “Listen up,” Clyde said, “I’d like for the hotel owner to keep his business, so let’s surprise these fuckers with a preemptive attack. Tear, don’t hold back. We don’t need them using the rocket launcher. Support Team and any human who can’t create a personal barrier against the bullets, on the bus you go. Take it a little out of this area and wait for the okay from us.”

  After that a
rrangement, they set off. Clyde could see red dots approaching through the mini-map. The strength of the buffs automatically activating made him a little giddy inside.

  The young man found it odd that the android dispatch, the nine-one-one equivalent, didn’t answer his call. Were they that busy? What if there was a true emergency? They had plenty of staff to cover everyone, right? Fuck.

  “Don’t hold back, Tear, but don’t kill them either,” Clyde said. “Yuki, you too. Misaka, use your Phoenix Fire to melt their tires. It’s unaffected by barriers, right? Kind of like Ki.”

  Airi’s information greatly improved his takedown plan. He started off freezing as much of the road as possible, but knew that wouldn’t exactly be enough. Misaka needed the experience and her Phoenix Fire had its uses.

  The only thing that worried him was the fact that the quest wasn’t completed. He and the team checked every nook and cranny, every office, kicked down all doors, including the bathrooms. Hell, the fire alarm and bomb threat idea helped propel them out. The answer to his question appeared as the prompt flashed.

  [Quest update: First, defeat the wizards, then tune to the news broadcast. Defeat them as quickly as possible.]

  The sounds of tires screeching and attempting to come to a halt was music to Clyde’s ears as the first moment of his improved plan came to fruition. Misaka’s Phoenix Fire felt like fucking lava as it heated up the air upon summoning. When she launched it, the Phoenix Fire instantly devoured the tires, causing an abrupt halt, buses falling to the side as physics took over.

  [Your party has entered combat!]