“Stop!”
Octius, who had just been carefully listening to something in his earphone, interrupted the woman and made a gesture with his hand at his throat. The woman’s audio feed was switched off, but she kept shouting ever more forcefully. The gamesmaster tentatively patted her on the shoulder, smiled cordially, then spoke to all those who had become the demon’s lunch:
“My friends, we will pass this question to the company’s legal experts for you. They will meet with you after dinner.”
“What? What’s he saying?” The holocube showed the plaintiffs looking around in confusion, not knowing whether to celebrate or keep complaining.
“My dear Mr. Yaquint and Mrs. Borovski, and all the rest of you who fell victim to an unfortunate fate at the bottom of the Pitfall!” Octius placed a hand at his heart and spoke louder: “I promise you, we will find a compromise!”
The protesters roared in enthusiasm, started hugging each other and crying again, this time out of joy. Slapping each other on the back, they returned to their seats.
After waiting for them to leave, Octius finished speaking:
“That said, no matter what our lawyers decide, it was all part of the gameplay! The disincarnation of the characters whose souls were eaten by the boss on floor 666 is final and not subject to review!”
Lifting myself up a little, I saw the path to the stage now blocked by a ring of security droids and guards in black suits. The contestants who had just been celebrating their rescue started piping up again, tried to get back on the stage, but they weren’t just stopped, they were led out of the hall.
“Drama…” Octius shook his head and his tone turned tragic: “My heart bleeds every time I witness the like. Every time! But what can you do? It’s part of the game! Today’s surprise from the devs could have ended the Games before time, leaving only a few lucky contestants alive! But I’m getting ahead of myself…”
We were shown clips of all the contestants gathered by the Pitfall, the mages casting Feather on them. Some got a Gnomish Parachute from the engineers among them.
They jumped into the Pitfall from all sides, taking turns so they didn’t get in each other’s way. After floor 300, Hellfish’s group joined hands, holding themselves together apart from the others. Kart the warrior, as the heaviest, canceled his Feather, which sped up the group’s fall and let them outpace the rest. It went unnoticed because Kara the mage recast Feather on him a couple of seconds later, and they matched speed with the other players again, but now they were around fifteen feet lower.
Octius commentated the footage:
“Hellfish’s group has been acting aloof since the first day. Strange that the conspirators of this event didn’t take that into account. Or did they? Listen to what Quetzal said.”
The holocube brought up Renato Loyola, fresh out of the immersion zone. He exchanged glances with Marcus Jansson and approached the journalists with a frown.
“I was against this plot from the beginning!” he barked right away, without waiting for questions. “The kid proved his point, earned his chance!”
“Mr. Loyola, did you account for the fact that Modus and the Travelers might stab you in the back?” the familiar Axel Donovan asked.
“We accounted for everything! We knew those clans were allies of the Threat. There was a risk, and we were prepared for an attack from them. But what could a handful do against three hundred enemies?”
The video swapped to the bottom of the Pitfall.
“This, Mr. Loyola,” Octius said, chuckling. “Boom!”
There was the sound of a shot, stretched out by the slow-motion footage, which showed the bullet leaving Hellfish’s rifle, tearing space as it went and taking off the rhinoceros head of Messiah the shapeshifter. Then the angle changed to show Filex sticking someone in the back with his daggers, and Kara dispelling Feather from the dwarf girl Kimberley, who fell down and got impaled on the Iceblock.
Hellfish, also known as Vito Painter, declined to comment along with the rest of his group. Well… almost. The beautiful Anna couldn’t help but say a few words:
“It was just all so awful, you know! That poor boy, getting bullied every day! We decided we were going to fight the injustice!”
“Ah, so it’s nothing to do with the fact that the White Amazons are partners of Modus, who, alongside the Travelers, have entered into an alliance with the class-A Threat?” Guy Barron asked innocently, narrowing his eyes.
“No, no, of course not! If that were the case, then we would have been helping Scyth from the start!”
Octius chuckled, kissed Anna’s hand and returned to the stage:
“Well, let’s get back to the game designers’ surprise. I have no doubt that the shapeshifter Messiah was upset when he died. But if it weren’t for that trick with the coins from the great jeweler Meister, our players would have met disaster, and Messiah, Kimberley and the rest who died in the Slaughter at Rock Bottom, as this conflict has already been dubbed online, would have been the sole survivors! Yes, that’s right, the living would have envied the dead. So let’s have a round of applause for Mr. Joseph Rosenthal! A word from you, Meister!” the gamesmaster flew over to the jeweler’s table. “How did you figure it out?”
“Quod servabit,” the smiling old man answered mysteriously. Casting a glance over the hall, he smiled even wider, giggled and repeated it: “Quod servabit!”
“The inscription on the demonic coins!” someone shouted.
“Exactly! It’s Latin. It means ‘that which saves’ or ‘what holds.’ Admittedly, it took me a while to figure out, but it was obvious to me that the new version of game currency, gold in the Demonic Games, was no mere whim of the art director. There was a riddle in the inscription, and when the demon started eating us, I remembered the coins…” Thundering applause washed over Meister and he bowed in all directions.
After the jeweler’s minute of fame was done, it was Kharmo’Lav’s turn. The paladin who broke the seal on the gates of floor 666 was practically as hated as I was for it, but he didn’t give a damn, just smiled happily.
“I’m going down in history!” he said proudly. “Anyway, I always felt sorry for Scyth. When I decided to break the seal, it was before he had the Aegis…”
“Which we will discuss later!” Octius interjected.
“So I thought: what if this helps out the Threat?” Kharmo’Lav turned toward me and waved a hand. “Hey, Scyth, hope you remember a good deed!”
“Mick!” the gamesmaster addressed the man. “Tell us, do you have no regrets at all for doing what you did, not even a little? You’ve seen the tears of those knocked out of the Games because of you, right?”
“Oh, I don’t care!” Mick-Kharmo’Lav said, waving a hand. “Firstly, I got knocked out too — the seal swallowed my soul! Secondly, why the hell did they jump to the bottom anyway? They wanted to get ahead by killing the Threat while he was helpless. They got what they deserved!”
To round off the evening, Octius finally got to the part that interested me the most.
“Another miraculous rescue occurred today, in a moment when even the most desperate player wouldn’t have bet a quarter of a phoenix on Scyth’s survival. Take a look…”
The holocube showed Destiny. The elf girl snarled as she pulled her bowstring taut. The silver-tipped arrow she released flew in slow motion through the spray of blood in the air, passed within half an inch of the ear of Enigma the saboteur in stealth, and almost reached my face…
But the veil of the Aegis blocked its path. Everyone gasped.
“Our viewers do not know who Scyth’s unexpected savior was. And not all the contestants saw it in the heat of the battle…” Octius paused. “Right now, we are performing an online survey of our viewers to find out who, in their opinion, saved Scyth.”
The holocube brought up the names of the suggested candidates who might have saved me:
Who saved Scyth after he lost all his shields?
53% — Scyth saved himself
11% — Paladin Kharmo’Lav
8% — Bard Infect or Priestess Tissa
6% — Curser Roman
4% — Magician Messiah
1% — Someone else
“Four percent of our viewers were watching the Games very inattentively,” Octius said, shaking his head. “By that time, Messiah was already in the graveyard. Scyth couldn’t have saved himself; Abaddon’s Curse took away not only all his abilities, but also his perks.”
“Tell us who it is!” shouted a contestant by the stage. “Enough suspense, Octius!”
The view switched to the part of the hall where Quetzal and Marcus’s group sat. Only now did I notice that the previously inseparable pair were sitting apart from each other. Marcus was staring hard at Quetzal, who made as if he didn’t notice.
Next to bruiser Marcus stood berserker Geyserix, dark knight Caville, light priest Inchito, jockey Frankie, spellcaster Youlang, saboteur Enigma and a dozen others.
The titan destroyer Quetzal had formed a small group around himself, including tamer Shemshur and rider Dave, paladins Blondiecat and Yermak, druid Naiterio and hunter Perant. Tissa, Infect and the paladin Kharmo’lav were with him too. At least two of that group had helped me. I suddenly figured it out, and once again found myself stunned by how wrong first impressions can be.
“One of them!” Octius said, continuing to draw out the intrigue. “By agreement with the company, members of raids cannot reveal information they obtain from raid logs. But they know! Any ideas, Scyth?”
Octius looked at me. Still sitting alone at my table, I shook my head.
“Very well. Then we will give your savior a chance to talk. Will they reveal their deed, or will they leave it for the judgment of their colleagues?”
Sharply pushing back his chair, the one who stood up was… Renato Loyola! Quetzal! I was right!
His voice was amplified for the whole hall to hear:
“I was the one who did it.”
“Idiot!” Marcus spat in fury, until now forced to hold back his emotions.
The gamesmaster was already next to Quetzal:
“Will you explain what for, Renato? Or rather, why?”
“The whole thing was too messed up, Guy,” Quetzal said calmly. “I couldn’t go against the others, but for myself I decided to protect the kid, and let the chips fall where they may. I couldn’t watch a crowd of people who think themselves worthy of imitation act that way — just kill a defenseless kid. Like a pack of jackals! It’s pathetic, dishonorable! The viewers gave him plenty of debuffs as it was, enough that he had no chance at all. How much do we have to humiliate him? Enough is enough!” And the next words he enunciated to hammer the point home: “This. Was. Dishonorable.”
Renato looked at me. I nodded my acknowledgment to him and he closed his eyes for an instant. In the meantime, Octius spoke excitedly:
“How entertaining! After all your direct conflicts with Alex, including the very first, at registration, the viewers couldn’t possibly have thought it was you, Renato! But all one had to do was think logically! Who could have used an ability like that, and at such low levels, on only the third day of the Games? Only someone with a best player’s reward! It couldn’t have been Tissa — we know what she got — and so, who remains? Roman the troll and Quetzal the titan! All very simple, ladies and gentlemen!”
At the end, Octius examined a few other less important events, such as Roman’s reflected curse, for which the troll got it in the neck from Destiny Windsor. Even I didn’t like hearing what she had to say about the curser. Then the gamesmaster reviewed the moment when the hobbit Dave and the dryad Michelle helped me, but it remained unclear who had put up the shields. Nobody made any admissions.
“I couldn’t not help,” said the dryad, who had turned out not only to be a singer, but also a healer. “It isn’t about Scyth, I don’t even like him. But I’m a simple girl — I see someone hurt, I heal them. I want to sing, I sing…”
“What did your group say?” Octius asked.
“The group can shove its opinion up its ass. I saved them and even got knocked out of the Games thanks to those clumsy assholes!” The girl’s gentle voice contrasted sharply with her manner of speech.
“I just wanted to fight that awful woman,” Dave said, pointing at Destiny. “I don’t give a damn who I fight, she was just the closest!”
Meister was named the best player of the third day, and I had to agree that he deserved it.
“According to our viewers, the worst player of the day is…” Octius smiled, cast a fleeting glance at me. “Joker the engineer! He found himself in the spotlight when he tried to blow up Scyth and succeeded only in detonating his own raid!”
Really? Had the viewers finally seen the light, or was Snowstorm afraid of the online uproar? Whatever the case, tomorrow I would have a chance… Although… If the Aegis remained active, I could take the opportunity to level up my spirit as much as I needed! And nobody could hurt me, not even the demon!
When the show ended, I stayed at the table instead of hurrying back to my room. The journalists had plenty of victims without me: the players eaten by the demon; Kharmo’Lav; Meister; Quetzal and Marcus, who had fallen out and fractured the leading group in the process; the Modus members with their treacherous betrayal, Anna and Hellfish… Even Kimberley. The dwarf girl who had landed on the tip of my icy shield got her share of attention after the highlights, becoming a hero of memes, and was now happily giving comments.
As for me, despite all that had happened, I felt a rush of excitement, albeit restrained. Today, for the first time since I got to the Games, I realized I wasn’t alone. Modus, the Travelers and Anna were on my side. Quetzal’s group weren’t quite allies, but they weren’t quite enemies either. And then Michelle, Dave, the mysterious benefactors who covered me with shields. Maybe it was worth changing my strategy?
It was time to socialize. Talk. Find out who I could rely on and who to join forces with. Kerry was right when she gave me that sage advice. Where was she, anyway?
Speak of the devil. She showed up as soon as I thought of her. The defense droids rolled in behind her.
“Alex!” she said, her face beaming. “Behold! Before you stands a new Kerry Hunter, not the old one you knew. That Kerry was boring and unwealthy…”
“Where’ve you been, Hunter?”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” She leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. She smelled of wine.
“Been celebrating something?”
“I’ll say! But ssshhh!” Kerry put a finger to her lips and whispered: “Keep it between us, yeah? This morning I bet my month’s salary that you’d last the day! With things the way they were this morning, literally EVERYONE bet against me! All the assistants! I’m a rich girl now!”
Her outlandish gesticulations were starting to draw attention. Some security guards whispered something to each other, then started toward us.
“Come on, Kerry, time to go. You can tell me all about it later.”
“We goin’ to the media center?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, deciding to selfishly take advantage of her condition. “But first, help me contact my friends. You can do that, right? For me.”
“Nah, I can’t,” Kerry answered, her voice more sober now. “You can’t talk to the outside world, Alex.”
“Damn, shame…”
I found Hellfish in the media center. One of the leaders of the Travelers was telling the reporters that the group made their decision to help me the previous day. Supposedly neither Horvac nor Hinterleaf had given any such instructions. After all, despite the alliance of their clans and the Awoken, there could still only be one winner, and helping Scyth could threaten Hellfish’s group.
“That’s all for now,” someone said quietly behind me. I turned and saw Kara. The mage who had protected me with Iceblock shrugged: “Sorry, but you’re on your own from here. We have to get as high as we can on the leader
board, that’s our orders from the top. The Games give a serious boost to the clan rankings. If we babysit you, we’ll be cut out. There are too few of us. Our progress is going to slow down tomorrow as it is. They’re not going to forgive us so easy. No hard feelings, right?”
“Every man for himself, and the demon take the hindmost,” I said, repeating something I’d heard Uncle Nick say once. “Thanks for today.”
I’d celebrated too soon… Kerry didn’t give me time to finish the thought before dragging me off for question time. That said, the journalists tortured me only for a few minutes, mostly asking what I felt when I was unexpectedly saved.
After the interview, we went up to my room.
“Can I use your bathroom, Alex?” Kerry asked. “I’m bursting!”
The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series Page 19