Chapter 50

“GWAAAARGH!” the bearkin, Number Sixty-one roared in tearful agony, as he was helpless to stop Number Seven from torturing him, limb by limb. Each attempt at defense was countered with such brutality, that the bearkin resigned to simply endure the unavoidable torture without doubling it with fruitless provocations.

As Number Seven worked over his two potential opponents, he left The Cleaver on the ground between the bearkin and the leopardkin. In one last act of defiance, the leopardkin grabbed the long weapon that broke his knees and used it to strike at Number Seven’s knees, but unlike how Number Seven did it, the leopardkin kept the sharp edge toward the target.

However, the attack proved futile as Number Seven simply stepped on the weapon, slamming it on the ground. That alone was enough to completely neuter the attack of such a weakened opponent.

As punishment, Number Seven hacked off the leopardkin’s left foot. The beastkin screeched in agony, but before he could bleed out, Number Seven heated up The Cleaver in one of the nearby fire circles and pressed the glowing, red hot blade against the leopardkin’s wound, cauterizing it.

The bearkin watched this brutal punishment with relief that he finally got a moment’s rest at the expense of his duel opponent. It wasn’t like he had any ill will toward the leopardkin. The bearkin’s mind simply operated on survival mode, grasping at anything that would prolong its rest from the mind-breaking pain.

But, with the timer above the arena slowly approaching the final minutes, Number Seven calculated that he could proceed with more fatal torture methods, as his targets only needed to survive for some minutes more.

The bearkin were known for their endurance, and Number Seven decided to use it to his advantage.

“You know what you have to do to make this stop,” Number Seven said to the bearkin, took The Cleaver into his hand, and cut open the bearkin’s stomach with the hot blade to another broken cry. He then pulled out the bearkin’s intestine, ripped it apart, tied one end around the handle of his weapon, and began spinning it around the handle, slowly pulling more and more out of the bearkin.

“WHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” the bearkin cried. By now he was ready to do anything to make the agony stop.

Gathering what little strength he had, the bearkin turned to his side and sloooowly, painfully pulled away from the torturer, inadvertently aiding in his own disembowelment. However, this allowed the bearkin to reach the leopardkin and, with a single bite, rip apart the jugular veins of the leopardkin, killing him.

“THERE! DONE! JUST—PLEASE—NO MORE!!” the bearkin cried out for mercy.

“Was that so hard?” Number Seven asked. “If you had fought to the death from the beginning like you were supposed to, I would not have had to do this!”

Number Seven halted the torture of the bearkin and waited for the leopardkin to bleed out. The moment that the torturer confirmed the death of the leopardkin, he cut off the head of the bearkin, ending the suffering of his final opponent of this round in a single strike.

“Finally, Number Seven secures the killing blow and advances to the next round!” Thelicia cheerfully announced. “It took a while, but Number Seven proved to be not only strong but also resourceful! A true favorite in these games, unlike those two trash lovebirds!”

Beatrice turned her head and saw a circle of fire surround “the Fridge”. Another victor as the time ran out.

While Beatrice’s head was turned, another cloud of dark fumes was unleashed at the succubus’s blind spot. Beatrice dodged the fumes just in the nick of time and jumped in the opposite direction to increase the distance from the toxins as fast as possible while avoiding several circles of fire that multiplied in the arena, protecting the victors of this round.

That was when Number Sixty-six appeared behind Beatrice, anticipating the safest route Beatrice would take, and opened her mouth to vomit deadly acid all over Beatrice, just like she did with the monster. The snake lady already had her fingers down her throat, when Beatrice turned around, closed the distance, and cut off the snake lady’s arm in a single swipe.

“GHYAAAAA~!!” Number Sixty-six screamed as she tumbled to the ground, spraying blood uncontrollably from the open wound.

“Sorry,” Beatrice said as she walked toward her wounded opponent. Beatrice then kneeled next to her handpicked teammate and said, “Compared to whatever that thing was, your movements seem so slow that you might as well be standing still.”

“DIE!!” the snake lady screamed and opened her mouth to unleash another attack right in Beatrice’s face. However, Beatrice simply pointed her index finger right inside the snake lady’s mouth and used her [Extend Claws] Skill to pierce straight through to the girl’s brain, swiftly ending the girl’s life.

Level up!

Additional Skill Point available!

Beatrice was greeted with familiar notifications in her mind’s eye the very next moment after she penetrated the snake lady’s brain with her claw, swiftly and irreversibly terminating the snake lady as the last semblance of life faded from her snake-like eyes.

I never did find out her name, Beatrice realized, thinking back to how much more of a formidable force Peter and Wendy turned out to be once they revealed their names.

“And over here, out of our two little roaches, the big-boobed one ends up the victor, and the tenth participant to advance to the next round, after unceremoniously penetrating Number Sixty-six’s brain,” Thelicia commented in her echoing voice, without much enthusiasm. “Not quite the type of penetration that we were hoping for Number Sixty-nine to participate in!”

Thelicia’s degrading joke at Beatrice’s expense netted some laughs and jeers, however, there were also some genuine cheers amongst the crowd for the succubus, shouting her number, and/or assets.

“Of course, the big-boobed one would win over the flat board!”

“The vomiting one? Good riddance! What a disgusting one she was!”

“Sixty-nine, let’s go!”

“I’d love to sixty-nine the hell out of her!”

Hearing some moderate excitement for Number Sixty-nine amongst the crowd who quickly forgot both Peter and Wendy, Thelicia added, “If nothing else, the Number Sixty-nine seems to be pleasing to the eye. And who knows, there’s still a chance for us to see some reliable alpha specimen put the little roach in her place! A sight that our dear audience was so wrongfully deprived of, hehe!”

One day, you will fuck yourself! Beatrice made a silent vow as she glared at the little masked furball just before the barrier of flames encircled her like it did all the other victors of this round.

“As the remaining time allotted for this round dwindles, so does the number of participants still fighting for the right to compete further!” Thelicia continued her commentary in a much livelier tone than just a moment ago. “With less than seven minutes left in this bloody first round, we have fifteen—scratch that, assuming you know how to write—fourteen participants still competing for the last six possible spots!”

I wonder if Olivia already made it further? Beatrice thought as she completely lost track of what happened around her while she was busy fighting for her life. Not that Beatrice would know if Olivia’s number was announced as Beatrice realized that she did not recall what number Olivia even had on her armband. She wouldn’t die in the very first round, right? Beatrice wondered while deciding not to dwell on the fact that she herself nearly died in the very first round. A victory was a victory. And with several level-ups!

Beatrice’s combat leveling got off to a fine start. Much more dangerous, painful, and nowhere near as orgasmingly pleasant as her usual way of leveling up, nevertheless Beatrice found a strange satisfaction in both her victories. Overcoming the seemingly impossible odds was exhilarating and gave Beatrice a new type of high, but a curb stomp victory was also satisfying in its own way as it demonstrated the progress in her combat power in a tangible way, something that simple numbers could not convey.

The third level-up was surprising, but that probably just means that the Peter/Wendy mutation gave me so much experience that it put me just on the edge of another level-up, Beatrice theorized, as the difference in threat and strength between the monster and the snake lady was too great to be worth only double in levels and experience.

The fact that this time the mysterious system ended up rewarding Beatrice with one level per kill did not escape Beatrice, even though it was nearly certainly a plain coincidence. Beatrice brought up her information to confirm her up-to-date stats.

Information

NameBeatrice

Age18

ClassSuccubus

Level21 (3%)

Health Points560/560 (+1.00/sec)

Arousal Points84/318 (+0.01/sec)

Stamina Points220/220 (+0.55/sec)

Physical Attack19

Physical Defense23

Magic Attack22

Magic Defense36

Speed19

A full Health Point per second! Beatrice smiled. Whether that will be a lot or not going forward remained to be seen, but it certainly felt nice to have such a rapid passive regen.

“Ouch! A pike right through the crotch! No mercy there!” Thelicia’s commentary was heard by every participant that advanced, even if they could not see the action. “Just put him out of his misery, already! No point in torturing the emasculated sheepkin more than is necessary! We still have one of those going on! Number Fifty-eight advances!”

As such announcements meant very little to Beatrice, she decided to spend her time skimming through her potential future Skills.

Skill Points

Total Skill Points32

Unused Skill Points4

Skill Points in Combat Craft6

Skill Points in Mischief Craft4

Skill Points in Eros Craft18

With a substantial buffer of Skill Points acquired, Beatrice promised herself to this time keep them for the next round at the very least, to be able to adjust to the developing situation. And with the decision to hold off on spending, all that was left was fantasizing of things to come, while the succubus waited for the first round to be over.

“Aaaand Number Ten! Beating both her opponents to death with nothing but her fists! Impressive!” Thelicia commented. “No doubt, she would have been one of the first to advance if not for all the time-wasting by the other two in her bracket. As it is, she advances to the next round with only a couple of minutes left. Perhaps she would’ve been served well to borrow Number Seven’s tactic?

That leaves us with ... Oh, she’s still at it?”

With the fighting in the arena drawing to a close, one participant kept delaying the moment of her victory.

“PHLEEAAAAAASHH! EEEEEND IIIIIIIIIIIIIIITT!” Aldrich bawled with a contorted, mutilated face, covered in open wounds, blood, and tears. His body was torn to shreds. In several places, the meat was ripped clean off, all the way to the bone. Aldrich continued to beg for the end, but neither the bald eagle nor its master showed any mercy. “I WAS-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WRONG! COWARD! BUAHAHAAAAA!! PATHETIC!! PLEASE MERCY!! PLEASE-UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! ANYTHING! I’LL DO ANYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!”

“Bring George back to life!” Uma demanded and gave her summon the signal to snap and eat another of Aldrich’s fingers. He had only two remaining on his left hand, and three toes on his right foot.

“Hey, hey, hey, she couldn’t be one of the Anderson’s, could she?” someone in the crowd spoke when the giant sphere’s screen returned to Uma.

“Who?”

“They used to be a powerful clan, until Lord Belmot The Great all but eradicated them!”

“Wasn’t that like fifty years ago?”

“Yeah, why would you even think of that clan? Were they known for their white and blue outfits?”

“N-no, I just ... Whenever me and my sister caused trouble, our granddad would tell horror stories about how the Andersons and describe in vivid detail the day-long torture techniques they developed that prevented the victims from dying or even passing out! He used to grumble how their kids would never even think of misbehaving after they lost a toe or two.”