Chapter 250 – You are probably wondering how we got here

Chapter 250 – You are probably wondering how we got here

 

“Why are we not all drinking your blood?”

Lydia suddenly presented the question, moments after all of them had gotten on their usual positions around the table on their private platform. The question immediately raised eyebrows. Thana’s reaction was a little more intense.

“The fuck did you just say?!” Thana growled and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

The princess raised her hand in a calming gesture, “I have merely been entertaining the thought, so please don’t feel attacked.”

“I do, the suggestion has some...” Thana’s mouth opened and closed a few times, as she searched for the words. “Shit-pissing-fuck-trucking-earth-cracking-gay-ass-whore’s cock-sucking bad memories attached to it.”

“…I’ll have to inform you that this subject could be of importance to the outcome of this tournament,” Lydia carefully, and after a slight pause, pointed out.

Thana took a very deep breath. “Fine,” she spat out. “But after this we are even for what happened three days ago.”

“That proposal is acceptable,” the princess said.

John was listening intently himself. He had his reasons why he never brought this up or wanted to drink her blood under any circumstances (the main reason was called Travolta), but that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious now that it finally came up.

“So, reason number fucking one,” Thana tapped against her head. “My blood in your system means that you will get some sort of psychic connection to me. Don’t ask me why or how it fucking works, I have no clue, but the amount of people that were in my head while I was in that tank did NOT help my sanity. I will not repeat that shit. Besides, the ones that are already there are annoying enough.”

“Wait,” John interrupted; “There are people still linked with you?”

“Yeah, some fuckers in America. Probably some remainders of Bloodfallen. No idea, I can’t sense anything but the useless ass fact that they are there, from this distance,” Thana answered. “For the second fucking reason,” the blood mage turned to point at Rave. “APPARENTLY, you fuckers don’t even need it anymore.”

John nodded, but everyone else was confused. “Elaborate?” Momo requested.

John took it upon himself to answer. “After Thana’s blood was… extracted from Jane by SB, she only dropped a single level, and that was quickly reclaimed,” he explained, “so the bonus is barely noticeable on our level.”

“There you have it,” Thana agreed. “Last fucking reason, you get attached to my emotions, if my memories of people running amok like it’s time to raid some poor Jew’s homes, because they share my pain, is anything to go by.”

“That is a profound reason,” Lydia agreed. “I’d much prefer not being attached to your scrambled mind the next time you decide to be overly brutal.”

“Good to see we are in fucking agreement,” Thana said, opening and closing her fists in an agitated gesture. “Change of topic, ple-“

“WELCOME TO DAY FOUR OF THE SEVENTEENTH TOURNAMENT OF GERMAN RULERSHIP!” Jeff shouted into his microphone.

“Yes, we are back,” Dra added, opening his mouth but hesitating to add anything, as it seemed he was intently listening to something. “Apparently, you have scared contestant Thana with that sudden opening, Jeff,” Dra told his co-host. “I am hearing that you are a ‘cock-sucking, wanker of a shit-talker that should do some sort of build up before screaming around like that’… also your hair is stupid, she says”

“Well, in that case she clearly has no style,” Jeff returned with a laugh and produced a comb from nowhere, running it through his pillar of hair. Afterwards, he threw the comb into the crowd. “Also, Dra, I think that kind of talk is not really suitable for the kids in our audience,” Jeff commentated further.

“Well, Jeff, let me be very frank here,” Dra looked directly into the camera. “If you let your kids view a tournament that needs three layers of security so that no one dies from the horrid injuries that the unleashed powers of elite individuals can cause, you are a horrible parent.”

 “Fair enough, Dra,” Jeff conceded the point as the desk made its way over to Maximillian. “That little girl has quite the mouth though.”

“Oh, he did not just do that,” Thana laughed hysterically. “Did that fucker just call me a ‘little girl’? I will rip off his stupid scalp and staple it to his ass.” She already had her foot on the railing and was ready to jump. John hurried to hold her by the arm. In response he earned himself a pouty look. “I am not that small…” she sniffed and acted like she was wiping away a tear.

“Whatever you are, you are adorable,” John assured her.

Thana turned red enough that she almost lost the blue undertone. “R-really?” He nodded and she squeaked. Sometimes she was just that cute.

“Who are you going to send in today, Maximillian?” Jeff asked. “I hope you have a really good surprise planned for today. Aside from your initial victory in the quiz game, it seems like your fighters are thoroughly outmatched.”

“I am sure you will find today’s happening wildly surprising,” Maximillian answered. Despite being behind in points now, the king was as smug as ever. “And the way this tournament is set up may make it look like we are behind, but trust me, I am not getting worried over losing when the enemy picks the match-ups. Lydia has many faults, but making plans is a thing she can do very well. Also finances. If she just agreed to let this whole thing be bygone and surrendered her claim to the throne, I would be happy to have her in my cabinet as head of the ministry for finances. Today’s fighter, though, will be my close aide and friend Alexej.”

The blonde man stood up and walked onto the platform that formed. Whatever magic he was using to obscure John’s vision through Jack, it was not affecting the camera. Moments later, as Alexej was on his way to meet Luna in the middle of the arena, the microphone reached Lydia.

“I presume,” Dra spoke up, “that you are going to ignore Maximillian’s comment about surrendering?”

“No, I actually have an answer for him,” Lydia said; “Which is that I will happily offer to him the position as minister for domestic affairs once I have earned the crown.”

“Not asking for him to surrender?” The lizardman dug a bit deeper.

“I have no breath to waste on asking him. I respect his convictions. My fighter for the day is John Newman.”

‘Guess that’s where I step up,’ John thought and walked onto the blue platform that formed.

In the meantime, Jeff did his job, “Ah yes, John Newman. Unlike most candidates, we were actually able to dig up some facts on this guy. Dra, would you do us the honour of quickly walking us through while Luna puts the barriers in place.”

“Yes, but I want everyone to be sure to understand that this is unverified information from the Abyss Auction. It may be manipulated in some ways… with that warning out of the way,” Dra picked up a piece of paper from the desk. How it hadn’t been blown away during all of the flying they did was truly magical. “According to that information, John Newman has access to something called ‘Gamer Powers’ that make several aspects of him like he is in a videogame,” Dra said as he went over the page. “The exact details of how this works are unknown, but it seems he can acquire skills just like that. He first made his appearance to the Abyss in a city called Springfield in the USA, about 5 months back.”

“Wow, wow, wow,” Jeff interrupted. “You are telling me that this kid went from being a nobody to one of the most important happenings in modern history in that short amount of time?! That’s crazy!”

“It is indeed,” Dra said; “There is a detailed report of his aura developing throughout the first few weeks. Very professional images with lots of data. If this is fake, there is a lot of thought put into it.”

“Guess that’s what they call a Latebloomer,” Jeff commented as mentioned data scrolled over the screen above. John just sighed, he knew these images already as the casters were currently working through the obvious, and pretty much only, source of information on John. Herman’s old money-making machine, a ghost that would probably haunt him for the rest of his days.

Then again, maybe people working on old intel would become an advantage eventually? He could hope.

As he had read throughout those files himself, he knew that there was nothing really damaging in there. While it contained details about his private life that he would have much preferred to stay private, there was nothing in there that could really be used against him. Herman had written about his parents being normal, but not where they were and what they did, he wrote that he had a girlfriend, but blurred out Rave’s face, and what John did in his house stayed in his house.

Someone with enough dedication could probably find out about his parents though, but John wasn’t too worried. For most things, Gaia would protect them, for the case that some thug decided to threaten John with stabbing his parents normally in a dark alleyway… well, he wouldn’t get to make that threat come true if John was there to kill the guy.

In case he didn’t and that there was nothing he could do, John didn’t know what he would do then. Revenge was the obvious goal after the fact thought, but it was better to find some way to prevent it. John was already planning on that route. ‘A bodyguard would do,’ he pondered. ‘Just someone that can prevent normal world assaults, if the enemy uses magic Gaia steps in… now, how to get my parents to accept having a bodyguard…’

Beside his private life, there also were a few things about his abilities that Herman had made public, but the thing about that was that they were incredibly broad and incomplete, as Dra pointed out moments later.

“In contrast to his private life, his abilities are very low on details,” the lizardman said. “Supposedly, he has a way to look at people, and that will then give him some information. He has some sort of golem, that much we know as he is entering the tournament with an Artificial Spirit. He can use the Inanimate Control spell… and I am going to guess that the sparrow on his shoulder is the current target. He, supposedly, made deals with at least two elementals. That’s about all we have.”

“That information thing sounds like Reading Eye spell,” Jeff took over. “Otherwise, this list is bullshit. I mean, the claim that he learned one of these things in 5 months is crazy, but all of that?”

“Actually, this page only covers information from the first weeks of him having his powers,” Dra pointed out. “Whatever was added to his arsenal since is not in here.”

“Yeah, but however much can that be, really?” Jeff said.

“Literally a Latebloomer, Jeff, the list could be quite long.”

 “Well, whatever it is, I hope it is exciting!”

“Now for you, mister Newman,” Luna’s voice pulled John’s attention away from the commentators. She extended her hand, “Please remain calm,” she advised and lightly touched him on the forehead. He felt absolutely nothing, but the fact that a window opened was enough.

“Oh?” Luna made a curious noise when she pulled her hand back. She looked closely at John, inspecting him from all sides.

“Is there a problem?” John wanted to know.

“It seems your Innate Ability has integrated my spell,” Luna told him and touched his forehead again. “I will have to make sure it works correctly, apologies.” Silver light softly glowed from her fingertips as she mustered him closely.

This time, he felt the mana moving through his body. If John had any expectations about how Luna’s mana would feel, it would have been a gentle, cool stream. What he got instead was the feeling as if someone was threading needles through his blood vessels. Thousands of small piercing stings that went through him as Luna checked his body.

While not tormentingly painful, there was no way the procedure could be described as pleasant. “Are you about done?” John said in a tone that showed his impatience. He couldn’t just slap away her arm, both for social and physical reasons, but he knew that she was digging deeper than she had any need to. The pain didn’t bother him all that much, but this blatant studying of his abilities pissed him off.

Luna nodded and pulled her hand away. It looked like she knew full well that she had been caught, but a sly look in her eyes made it clear that she wasn’t feeling guilty because of that. “Your ability adjusted what I did for you, but it will still work as intended. We can proceed.”

“You heard it folks!” Jeff took over; “Let’s spin the biome wheel!”

John looked at Alexej. As always, the short-haired blond man was wearing a plain robe that belonged in a monastery more than an arena. Then again, John in his suit, with a feathered fedora on top, wasn’t one to talk. Just out of interest, John checked both Observe and his opponent’s aura. The former yielded no result, as was expected, while the latter just showed a very small aura.

John actually wasn’t surprised. Aura was a good way to gauge if someone was part of the abyss, but it turned out that it wasn’t a good tool to check on someone’s power on higher levels, as it was not only highly variable on each person but everyone also displayed it differently. Thana’s aura, for example, was always turned up all the way while Lydia’s barely even broke out of her skin.

It was like trying to gauge a person’s muscle mass by the shape of their footprint. Sure, you could make an educated guess by looking at the depth of it in soft ground, but what if the person was just fat? Or maybe the ground wasn’t soft at all? Maybe the person actually had been taking light steps? It was a good tool, but, like everything else convenient in John’s information getting arsenal, easy to fault. In other words, he didn’t trust the purple mist-like aura that stuck closely to Alexej’s body and turned off the aura sight again.

“I expected you to at least do some trash talk,” John said while the wheel continued to spin.

“Mhm, not today, I am just going to enjoy this next part,” Alexej grinned, his arms hidden from view as he had stuck them into the wide sleeves of his robe.

The wheel came to a halt. “It’s a mountain fight!” Jeff shouted, and the ground underneath John’s feet vibrated. Changing colour from the light brown of sand to the grey of mountainous stone, with layers of snow and withered trees appearing from nowhere. He and Alexej were carried upwards by the elevating floor.

At the end they were standing roughly halfway up a mountain that couldn’t have possibly fit into the arena. The air was also surprisingly cold, which could only be an advantage to John, as he had ways to keep himself warm in the form of Salamander.

“Let’s count down!” Jeff shouted. “5!”

‘Okay, I want all of you to get ready to materialize only when you see an opening to exploit or if really necessary,’ John hastily conveyed his battle plan once more. This wasn’t the first time he had gone over this, but he wanted to make sure everyone remembered.

“4!”

‘Momo, feel free to fly off at the start, you being safe is more important than whatever surprise attack you could launch with your limited offensive power. Gnome, be ready to intercept whatever first strike he is going to launch.’

‘Sure.’

‘G-got it!’

“3!”

‘Sylph, you will be launching a surprise attack first. Salamander, enter the fray later, once he is sure Sylph is the only aggressive elemental I have.’

‘I will bam and then wham and then whoosh him!’

‘Urgh, fucking boring, but fine.’

“2!”

‘Undine, you stay incorporeal until someone is injured. If he has some ability to hurt you while you are incorporeal, like Touch of the Abyss or some other spell, take physical form and look for some nearby shelter.’

An understanding feeling swept over his thoughts.

“1!”

‘Siena… don’t be a bitch and help me.’

‘I will think about it,’ Siena teasingly answered.

‘No, you won’t,’ John vehemently lashed out, ‘because this isn’t me grinding, where you being annoying is a minor inconvenience. This is important. If you fuck me over today, I will turn your sadistic ass into my my permanent cum dumpster, and that will only be the start of your punishments. Are we clear?’

‘…Crystal,’ the nightmare elemental hissed with a mixture of anger and impressed acknowledgment.

“GO!!” Jeff screamed, and Purgatory’s fire engulfed John’s arm as he took a ready stance that allowed him to dodge into whatever direction as fast as possible.

Alexej raised his left hand up to the sky at rapid speed and shouted, “I give up.”

Jack almost nose dived off John’s shoulder in surprise. The arena went from excited cheers into a baffled silence…

…then a wave of boo’s crashed over them.