“What about you?” I asked in confusion.
“These dinners are for contestants only,” Kerry answered. “Don’t worry, I had a bite to eat. Go on, dig in!”
Feeling the pressure of angry eyes, I started wolfing down my dinner. The droid served me some roast meat and a heap of vegetables. There were technically several dishes on the table, but it was all vegetables, salad and meat. I ate with my head bowed over the table and no doubt in my mind that I was being discussed, and no doubt abused left and right. But I managed to hold back and not show any concern. And that was easily done, as if I had a skill to place a forcefield around me and cut myself off from the atmosphere of hate. The Nether taught me that.
Kerry went away somewhere, so I finished eating alone, then drank some cold fermented tea as I waited for the vote.
Finally, Guy Barron Octius appeared. Less dramatically than last time, but still with flair. The light in the hall went out and holographic candles lit up and started floating through the air. A massive holocube flashed into motion beneath the ceiling, projecting a perfect three-dimensional image to all angles of view.
“Good evening, contestants!” Octius greeted us. “The first day of the Demonic Games brought us many surprises. Let’s watch the most memorable moments alongside our viewers!”
My scenes weren’t the only ones to make the cut. The holocube showed Quetzal and Marcus’s raid easily taking down the first boss. I’d seen the corpse of Cerberus, the huge hellish three-headed dog, in person, but it was fun to see him in battle. The boss regenerated quickly, and at the end it summoned a pack of Hellhounds, nearly wiping the raid. But Quetzal showed the advantage of his Destroyer class, striking the earth with a fist and stunning the pack, then splitting the skull of the nearest hound. At the point of the strike, space twisted and broke and the distortion passed through in a chain to the other hounds.
“A deadly ability!” Octius spluttered in amazement.
I watched with great interest, studying my foes, demons and players alike.
The second boss, Devilment, looked like a stunted Diablo, like a high demon in miniature. Near the end of the battle he transformed, grew into an eighteen-foot monster and would have crushed the raid if it weren’t for the veterans from Modus and Travelers.
The tenth boss, Alpha Ryukitsu, fell ingloriously at the hands of Quetzal and Marcus — the champion and the finalist of the Adult Arena apparently had perks stronger than Junior Gladiator. I saw Tissa and Infect in their raid. Maybe they were taken in for their Junior Gladiator bonuses.
The titan destroyer, already bound in plate armor, didn’t bother moving in on level ten — he led his group straight down to the eleventh boss instead, Hellbunny. A little joke from the game designers: the tiny rabbit with its huge mouth and burning eyes sighted on dark knight Caville, jumped at him, sank its teethe into his throat and started ragging its prey like a bulldog. That enemy down, the bunny jumped at light priest Inchito, then de-throated a few more. Chaos descended: the rest of the raid tried to beat the rabbit off their allies, but missed the nimble boss, hitting their own and making the monster’s job easier as it worked its jaws through the raid. A sense of deja vu hit me.
Then things got even messier; Hellfish’s raid came along and attacked the Quetzal-Marcus raid from behind. Quetzal and his allies fell, and the second group finished off the bunny.
“It is clear that Hellfish, right hand of Horvac from the Travelers, has taken a firm grasp on leadership,” Guy Barron said. “Incredibly, although he was the only member of his clan there, he still took the lead of a group formed mainly from Modus! Remember, Modus are the Travelers’ fiercest foes! But back to Quetzal and Marcus’s group…”
After returning from the graveyard, Quetzal’s raid skipped floor 11 and broke the seal on the gates of floor 12. Sinner, the floor’s boss, was easy prey — an ordinary skeleton in rags, with twin blades. That floor was the lowest reached that day.
After analyzing all the boss fights, Octius started his overview of the main bulk of the contestants, who hadn’t taken part in the top players’ raids.
Roman the curser united with Meister the jeweler and other non-combat players. The mighty raid methodically farmed the first floor, rooting out every mob and chest until, by the end of the day, they had heroically cleared the level. Once done, all the survivors headed to the village to divide the loot and prepare for the second floor.
But it was something else that really stood out. The singer Michelle, an elegant dryad, played a central role in the group by stunning the world with her altruism. Roman got distracted with a philosophical debate with Meister. The others joined in, and in the end the group accidentally pulled several packs of mobs. Roman’s curse didn’t do the job, and soon the Hellhounds were calling other mobs from all across the floor. Michelle started singing and took aggro, drew them away. She saved the group, but died herself. Unfortunately, for the second time that day. Michelle was knocked out of the Demonic Games.
The overview dragged on for an hour. This was peak viewing time for the stream of the Games. The viewers voted for the best and worst players of the day based on what they saw in the highlights.
Octius declared the results of the vote. There were no surprises: he called out the best player, Quetzal, and the worst — me. And there was only a two-percent gap between me and Destiny Windsor in the vote. Such a shame that non-citizens had no right to vote; I might have had a chance with them… As for what my reward was exactly, that I would learn tomorrow in the Cursed Chasm.
Toward the end there was a minor sensation: the viewers saved Michelle the dryad from ejection, which required over 90% votes in her favor. That happened rarely, as the people liked eliminations and their resulting drama. Few liked the Demonic Games to go on too long, either. Michelle burst into happy tears and her raid flipped their table in joy.
Then there was the interview, but almost all the questions were formulations of the same — what was I doing at the bottom of the Pitfall?
“I was getting ready to fight the last boss,” I answered. It wasn’t untrue. What was all this for, after all?
After the interview, Kerry walked me to my room and asked if I wanted her to keep me company. She seemed to be suffering more from my enforced solitude than I was.
“It’s fine, Kerry. Go rest. I need to be alone.”
“Think of something, Alex! I wish you heard what they all say to me!”
‘They all’ were the other assistants, taking out their dislike of me on Kerry.
I fell asleep in a sea of roiling thoughts. It was hard to plan without knowing what ailment my character would be saddled with next. Keep leveling up Meditation? Develop my spirit? One more day and I might not catch up to anyone. They’d clear all the bosses I might be able to handle, and then there wouldn’t even be any mobs left to scrape any experience from.
I couldn’t think of anything. I started leafing through Disgardium Daily to see what they were saying about the Games.
Falling short and disowned by his friends
Is the Class-A Threat a nothingburger?
Several journalists contributed to the main material for Disgardium Daily. Clark Katz himself had taken up the pen. Ian Mitchell and Axel Donovan were among the names I recognized. My answers to Ian’s questions the day before were part of the material in separate blurbs, and without the part about the punishments. At least they left Aaron Quan’s name in. And Denise Le Bon even responded. In a five-second holo video, the famous model said:
“I’ll gladly send Aaron Quan a t-shirt from my new clothing line…”
Axel Donovan set the Snowstorm-approved tone right from the start of the article:
Alex Sheppard’s vain entry into the Demonic Games has lifted the rose-tinted glasses from many of his fans’ eyes. It couldn’t have been any other way in the sterile conditions of the Cursed Chasm. You can’t become a real champion without team spirit, true camaraderie and support in the face of opponents. Sheppard has lost all that,
and it’s his own fault…
It was pointless reading the top comments. I’d suspected for a long time that Disgardium Daily cleverly manipulated public opinion in favor of the preventers and the corporation. It wasn’t hard to figure out that the comments they liked the most got the most votes.
Winwald | +9.62m | 2 hours ago
This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. Seriously, folks, remember that battle that didn’t happen at the temple in the desert. Scyth ran away then, and he ran away today. When he attacked Destiny’s raid, I spat out my beer. I mean, seriously bro? Get a grip! But then what happened? The pathetic loser just sat at the bottom of the Pitfall all day long like a frightened puppy!
Sha Nin | +6.35m | 3 hours ago
It’s embarrassing! Both for the other contestants and the class-A. There’s nothing happening, it’s boring! BORING! Primitive tactics, predictable maneuvers. Scyth at the bottom of the Pitfall? Haha! Call out some NPCs, send ‘em upstairs!
Parturnax | +5.84m | 1 hour ago
Remember how I said I was going to send my wife and kids to the in-laws so I could watch the Games in peace? Well, the wife suspected something and came back. Alone. She probably thought she was going to find me with another woman, hahaha! Anyway, she and I have decided to have ourselves another honeymoon while we have the chance, and I missed the first day. Looks like I made the right choice. I watched the highlights and saw enough to know that Scyth is a waste of skin.
There were comments of support for me too. I was praised for escaping the graveyard, for catching Destiny’s group unawares, for trying to fight the Alpha. But all those had so many downvotes that they were at the top of a different leaderboard — of the lowest rated comments.
As I drifted off, I remembered that I wanted to learn the source of my new perk. I opened Scyth’s profile through my comm and found my assumption was correct.
Unlocked achievement Ordeal!
It’s not every day you make it through a divine trial by fire. Only the survivor is considered worthy. But the reward is generous too! The gods drew lots for the right to gift you their blessing. Rindzin, Ruler of Dragons, was the winner.
Reward: Rindzin’s Ghostly Talon perk.
And that’s when it hit me.
Chapter 9. Ghastly Howl
THE SECOND DAY of the Demonic Games began for me at the bottom of the Pitfall. I felt better, inspired and ready to level up Meditation and then test out a couple of ideas. Like Uncle Nick would have said, I was full of barely restrained optimism.
And here’s why. In greater Dis, Unarmed Combat leveled up in battle against equal or stronger enemies with each successful strike. In the Cursed Chasm, this principle had changed: the combat skill’s progress didn’t depend on landing hits, but on the damage dealt when they landed. This made sense, because there were no penalties for accuracy due to level differences. A level one contestant could theoretically deal damage even to the level 666 final boss, even if only to its armor. Any smart damage-dealer could set up behind, for example, the level 300 boss and keep dealing damage to it while the tank held the aggro. With the mechanics of big Dis, anyone who did that would have leveled up his battle skill by several ranks, considering the difference in levels.
That was what I remembered when I read the text of the Ordeal achievement. Rindzin’s Ghostly Talon scaled based on the opponent’s level! I could attack melee bosses under Clarity, then quickly get away with Flight. All I needed now was a training dummy.
But all my great ideas, as they seemed to me, collapsed when I saw the new debuff I was getting for the rank of worst player of day one:
Paralysis
You are paralyzed.
The debuff activated as soon as I logged in. As I fell to the floor of the Pitfall like a rag doll, a great many curse words came to mind, but I could say none of them. The Paralysis was total. At least my lungs still worked and my heart was still beating. Thanks, viewers! Thanks, Snowstorm!
First, panic overtook me; this meant I was easy prey even for Meister the jeweler! But common sense prevailed. Flight!
A bathtub could have flown with more elegance than my limp body. The force of attraction did its magic — I soared upwards, a ragdoll, twisted, my limbs and head hanging. Even my face was slack. I looked like Trixie when he was thinking hard. My tongue hung out and I started drooling — now the resemblance was definitely there.
A second disaster followed the first — Meditation wasn’t working! It turned out I couldn’t just up and start training it! I had to be in the right pose! Bastards, I thought. The insult brought scant satisfaction. What now?
Fly into the sky and hide there until tomorrow? Or…
An idea came to me and demanded testing. All the contestants had left their characters in the tavern yesterday, in their private rooms. You could log out outside, but spending the night in a bed gave you a one-hour buff to experience. Nobody would have neglected that. So by the time I reached floor 50, there wasn’t anyone in the Pitfall yet.
I froze before the gates. It took a long time to spin my body just right to touch the seal with my wrist. Once I managed it, my hand arranged itself correctly, my palm placed itself… A piercing pain shot through me, even stronger than yesterday.
Resilience level increased: +4. Current level: 7.
Glancing at my health bar, I let out a sigh of relief. It worked! The seal didn’t take 50%, but 48%. I still had questions about how the seals’ damage was calculated, but that didn’t dampen my mood.
Although I didn’t have long to celebrate; the gates were open, it was time to go. But wait…
Peering into the dusky gloom beyond the gates, I saw nothing. Two lanterns burned green on the wall by the entrance. I flew closer, stopping on the threshold. My head fell to my chest and my view dropped to the floor before me, and then something started pulling me inside. Turning my body, I shot away.
“Y-o-o-o-u-u-u!”
“M-o-o-r-r-r-t-a-a-l!
“Mi-i-i-ine!”
“O-o-u-u-u-r-r-s!”
The three voiced hissed behind me. I couldn’t see a damn thing because my head was lolling like a bobblehead, but the situation was dire: three blades of an unknown weapon pierced into my back at once. Turning, I saw harpoons on green energy chains, their ends held by three bosses:
First Companion, Demon, level 50 Gate Guardian
Dungeon Boss.
Second Companion, Demon, level 50 Gate Guardian
Dungeon Boss.
Third Companion, Demon, level 50 Gate Guardian
Dungeon Boss.
“Come he-e-e-e-r-r-e!” all the Companions groaned in unison.
This looked bad. My health wasn’t dropping, but it was just a matter of time — until the bosses dragged me in, across the threshold of the gates.
“He-er-rre!”
“No-o-oow!”
“Foo-oo-ood!”
The hissing grew louder, the voices got more and more excited… I darted downwards, activating maximum Flight speed. The chains pulled taut like strings, rang out, but held. More than that, the Companions, still hissing, began to pull me back up toward them. I didn’t have enough strength to pull away from the three level 50 bosses.
“There he is!” came an echoing cry from above.
“We found Scyth!”
“Gotcha, bitch!”
Turning my body over to look upward, I saw six mages heading down toward me. It looked like they’d reached level 10 and leveled up Levitation to full-fledged flight! Nether. Now I had nowhere to hide! The mages’ hands lit up and crackled with elemental spells: fire, lightning, ice, something else…
“Come h-e-e-e-r-r-r-e!” the Companions groaned in unison, redoubling their efforts.
My ribs were broken and my spine was split by a harpoon, but thanks to the game mechanics, the damage didn’t count.
With a whine and a whistle, a fireball and a huge icicle shot toward me. A charge of forked lightning crackled. I activated Stoneskin. It didn’t save me from the
harmful magic; the first wave of spells slashed into my health, bringing it down into the red.
The mage who cast the lightning spell shouted victoriously, stretched a hand out toward me, fired an orb crackling with energy. My heart stopped. This was the end, clear as day… Clarity! The ball lightning froze. Its fingers of energy, one of which had almost reached me, stopped, and I flew to the side as far as my chains allowed.
Time sped back up. The lightning passed me by and exploded, cutting into the wall. Drooling and somersaulting in the air, I managed to catch a moment when enemies were within my visibility, and activated Ghastly Howl. The spell from Crusher the wolf overcame the paralysis debuff, twisting my mouth and making me howl piercingly! The fear that overtook the mages interrupted their casts of a second wave of spells and broke Levitation!
The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series Page 14