Chapter 56

“It’s rare for you to miss even a single round,” Felicia Thundershnauf said. The black mask-wearing ball of snow-white hair said with her back toward the newly arrived, white mask-wearing trio. Unlike the other times she spoke, this time her voice was not magnified for all the crowds to hear, which allowed speaking discretely with the privileged.

All three figures that arrived through one of many secret tunnels behind them wore fiery-red robes. All three had hoods on their heads to conceal even their hairstyles, though the masks were fully visible. Two—the tallest figures that stood behind, at either side of the middle figure—held their hands behind their backs, with straight and proper posture, chest out, shoulders wide. A posture of guards at their post.

“Bah! That annoying old hag had her fucking—shit! Fuck! Forget it!” the shortest of the three white masks cursed repeatedly as she walked up to the railings next to the white-haired announcer. The voice clearly belonged to a young female, and even the hanging fiery red robes could not fully hide her developed body. Short as the female white mask was compared to the other two, the girl still had a full head over the hairball who barely reached five feet.

“I hope I didn’t miss anything particularly exciting,” the girl sighed and casually rested against the metal bars: elbows on the metal, head in hands. “Usually, the first round is just to get rid of the boring shitters, so it should be fine.”

Though the girl’s expression was fully hidden behind the mask, her frustration radiated from her voice and posture. She looked down to the crowds, in the same direction that the announcer was looking.

The announcer of the games paid little attention to the swearing or complaining of the white-masked girl. She simply continued watching the debauchery of the citizens of Klapsus with slight amusement. “Like children eating dirt, aren’t they?”

“H-What!?” the white mask looked at the back of the white hairball.

“Ah, right ... My bad! Terribly sorry for the poor joke,” Felicia made a half-assed apology after a moment’s pause and continued observing the arena and the participants that slowly returned to it. Number Seven was among the first to arrive, well in advance of the time limit, even before the white masks arrived.

“Not much need for rest for that one?” Felicia giggled. “I hope he doesn’t have ‘performance issues’ in the bedroom. Though it would explain the overcompensation on the battlefield, wouldn’t it?”

“Is he someone worth paying attention to?” the white mask girl asked and studied the muscle mountain with mild curiosity.

“He is among the favorites to win ... Yeah, you did miss some fun stuff.”

“FUCKING SHIT, I knew it!!” the girl cursed and slammed her fists against the rails. She cursed loud enough to form a small echo in the dark mines despite the immense noise pollution created by the crowds that were concluding their intermission activities and returning with excitement to watch the next round of games.

“Calm down, the others will hear!” Felicia finally turned to the potty mouth girl.

“Who the fuck you think you’re talking to!?”

“ ... I’m sorry, Your Highness,” Felicia bowed slightly. “All that I meant is that you should try and preserve the image and the mythical aura of the white masks. Those that get upset easily are...”

The white-masked girl breathed deep and clenched the bars as she got a hold of herself. “If it wasn’t for that annoying ... It’s fine! I’m fine! Not a piece of some-ARGH! FUCKING OLD GEEZER!”

Felicia stood nearby silently. Neither recoiling nor moving closer to calm the girl. She did not so much as flinch. Felicia had already voiced her concern once, there was no point repeating herself as none of the white masks had short-term memory issues, as far as she was aware.

But seeing that her suggestion was thoroughly ignored, Felicia simply cast a dampening spell. It was a simple spell that worked in exactly opposite way to her voice enhancement spell that allowed Felicia to do her job here so efficiently. Now, with the invisible dampening barrier created around the platform they stood on, Felicia no longer had to worry that any unnecessary information would be given away.

“ ... Is this it?” the girl asked as she viewed the participants that had gathered in the arena.

“Hmm? Almost, yes,” Felicia nodded as she counted the participants who were already in the arena along with their shirtless, kilt-wearing escorts. “A couple more are on their way. See? On those three paths?”

“ ... Wasn’t there a couple participating tonight? Both wore fur, the woman had glasses...”

“Oh, yes! They’re dead.”

“WHAT!? ... Really? After all the trouble I went through ... I was sure that it would have at least some effect...”

“What effect?” Felicia’s tone of voice changed abruptly, no longer the playful one.

“I guess none if they kicked it against these shitters!” the girl exhaled in frustration.

“Your highness, may I ask what you were expecting from those two?” Felicia insistently probed for information.

The girl turned her head toward the little hairball and looked down on the announcer. “What. Did. I. Miss?”

“Are you perhaps referring to the nine or ten feet tall, four-armed, two-headed mutant?”

“Two-headed?” the white mask girl asked with rising excitement.

“Correct,” Felicia nodded.

“Yes!” the girl cheered and clenched her fist with excitement, confirming Felicia’s previous question. The description of the mutant was everything the girl could have hoped for and more! But her excitement died as quickly as it came to life. Because of the simple fact that the mutant was nowhere to be seen. “What happened? You have to give me all the details!”

“But the next round—”

“Can wait! If any of those useless shitters dares to complain I’ll gut them myself!”

“I see.”

“See what? Hurry up! You’re starting to remind me of a certain rodent. Why was there only one monster? Did the other idiot die before they transformed? How much did the mutant improve in strength? How did it act? Was it still human? Was it a demon? Something in between? What abilities did it have? How did it behave?”

“After quick and disgraceful losses, participants Number Twenty-five and Twenty-six unleashed a wave of dark energy and combined inside it into a single creature with two heads,” Felicia reported in a near-monotone voice. “The creature far exceeded any combat capabilities the participants had displayed before. Though the creature appeared sentient, to the point of talking with itself, it was more demon than human. Immense physical strength, durability, and speed, as well as morphing capabilities. Easily agitated, hard to put down.”

“But it was put down,” the white mask girl sighed. “How? Why? Was-was it simply too powerful? The black masks had to put it down?”

“No, we did no such thing,” Felicia shook her head. “Your experiment was put down in combat by another participant.”

“Seriously!? One of these shitters!?” the girl was shocked as she grabbed the railing and leaned over it, looking at the sixteen participants that were gathered below. “Which one?”

“A little cockroach,” Felicia said dismissively. “Participant Number Sixty-nine. The one with giant tits and a skirt shorter than your temper.”

“Cute,” the girl said and studied the monster-killer. “ ... Do you have any idea who she is?”

“No.”

“Neither do I. Strange, isn’t it?”

“You hardly ever leave the palace.”

“And you hardly ever leave the streets. So how could neither of us have ever met that big-breasted bimbo?”

“The population of this city is still respectable. And we do still have fresh, legal meat appear in this city from time to time as they grow up.”

“Or sneak in...”

“Either way she is a dead girl walking, with plenty of time to study her in detail,” Felicia dismissed the importance of participant Number Sixty-Nine. “However, a demonic mutant suddenly appearing out of thin air in my arena—”

“‘Your’ arena?”

Felicia’s eye twitched visibly, through the holes in her mask. “My apologies, Your Highness! I am but a humble overseer. But you must understand that this is no small matter! Even though I downplayed such a bizarre creature suddenly appearing, and even most of the citizens here are too drunk, horny, or stupid to pay any mind to it, and some to even remember—”

“Just another spectacle of the gory Forge of Champions! Nothing more.”

“I see,” wheels turned in the little hairball’s head. “A pair of strange magicians found their way into the city. Were they seeking fame and glory? A little excitement? A secure position? Their goals were unknown, but their arrogance and stupidity proved to be their downfall in the very first round of the brutal death games. A few rumors of powerful magicians could appear, or perhaps aberrant spawn of the Demon Horde? Something to talk about...”

“Exactly! Yet one of the reasons you’re so favored!” the white mask girl laughed and patted Felicia on the shoulder. “Though, without a doubt, your best qualities are your loyalty and discretion...”

The white mask girl dashed toward the other two white mask figures and gutted them like pigs with two quick, deep slashes through the robes across their bellies, and two more across their throats.

“Your High-ghalrh!

“Glhrughlf—!”

Both men that stood silently in the background like loyal guards now found themselves bleeding out, covering their assassin with a fountain of blood from their throats while warm guts spilled out of their bellies and splashed against the rocks under the rocks, oozing outward in all directions across the platform as the dead meat of two persons fell over.

“Ew!! No!” Felicia protested.

“Ah! I’m sorry,” the girl said with absolutely no remorse as she spread her arms and moaned sweetly while she let the blood pour over her body. She held a curved stainless steel dagger in her right hand, its ruby crystal coated in the blood of its victims. “I had completely forgotten that while I could trust you with a secret, I most certainly could not trust my mother’s lapdogs!”

As the two bodies cooled on the rocks in a pool of their own blood and guts, in the shadows of the cave-like platform, away from the public eye, Felicia stepped away from the encroaching blood, pressing against the railings to avoid even a drop touching her naked feet or her snow-white hair that reached the ground.

“Why did you do that!?” Felicia protested the masked girl’s actions.

“Since when did you develop hearing problems? Are those stupidly long ears just for show?” the masked girl asked while she still basked in the aftermath of her bloody killings. Her moans of pleasure grew rarer and quieter, rather, she now seemed to purr like a cat while warm blood soaked through her robes, seeped through the holes of her white mask, and dripped on her closed eyes, flowing across her face like bloody tears that she licked up with joy, savoring its metallic taste.

This lasted for far too long as far as Felicia was concerned, yet far too briefly for the blood-drenched girl. She breathed in and out, slowly, deeply, enjoying the final moments of the passing excitement. With her back toward Felicia, the girl lifted up her mask and licked a little bit of blood off the blade of her dagger. But it was already different. The thrill of the kill came and went, the blood on her blade had already cooled. With her high passing, the blood on the blade was now no better than the blood under her feet, cold and dirty, nothing like when it is freshly spilled from a warm, living, breathing body, pumped out through cut arteries by a failing heart.

The girl sighed, and—finally turning her attention to Felicia—said, “I told you, didn’t I? They would have ratted me out as soon as we returned to the palace.”

“But why kill them here? You could have just gotten rid of them somewhere in the tunnels later! What If somebody saw you from below?”

“ ... So?”

“‘So?’ You risk ruining the mysterious image of the supreme overseers of the games!”

“Oh, give me a break! Every single shitter here knows that this entire event is run by the Guild! ‘Thelicia Fundershnauf’? Ha!”

“That’s the point!” Felicia hissed through grit teeth in a low voice, letting her frustration show too obviously.

“You forget yourself!” the girl said and slowly lifted her bloodied curved dagger, pointing the pointy end at Felicia’s face. She held her dagger like that for a couple of seconds. Felicia did not flinch. She did not even blink. The bloody assassin sighed, lowered the dagger, and said, “You ruined the moment. Let’s just get back to the games.”