Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 848: Difficult Predicament

On the viewing pane, Bastet’s dominion field flared outward and the arena floor cracked in widening rings from her feet, stone buckling under a force that hadn’t been there seconds ago. Her ears flicked once and a faint purr carried through the boundary that was entirely too satisfied for the situation she was standing in.

”Master’s warmth... In the middle of combat.” She exhaled, heat rippling the air around her. ”I might just get addicted...”

She was smiling. ”Well, I already was, so... Even more addicted?”

Vespera glanced sideways at the catgirl, then at the three enemies arrayed across the arena, and the calculation behind her eyes was immediate.

She stepped back until her shoulder was two meters from Bastet’s, close enough to overlap the dominion field, and her shadows pooled into a lattice beneath both of them.

They weren’t going to attack carelessly.

So long as they took off three pieces from the enemy, it was a net positive. The worst they could do is get eliminated quick.

Thus, it was on the enemy to end combat and return to the board as soon as possible.

The Rampart registered the shift before the other two did.

It lowered its tusks and charged from thirty meters out, hooves splitting stone in a line aimed straight at the gap between the two women, and the mass of it shook the arena floor hard enough that the Bone Weaver’s reassembling fragments scattered for a moment from the vibration alone.

Bastet met it with everything she had.

The ground beneath the Rampart’s hooves erupted upward in a pillar of superheated rock that caught the quadruped mid-stride, molten stone spraying across its plating and searing into the joints between the plates.

A second eruption followed beneath its hind legs, then a third under its belly, the ground splitting open in a chain of detonations that would have buried anything short of an S-tier boss in a grave of magma.

The Rampart walked through it.

Its plating glowed orange where the magma had pooled in the seams, and smoke poured off its hide in thick sheets, but the creature didn’t slow.

It shook once, like a dog shedding water, and the cooling slag broke off its body in chunks as it kept advancing.

Bastet stared at it. She was sin-fused, her dominion boosted by Kaiden’s Lust Stance, every eruption hitting harder than anything she’d produced in her whole life, and the thing had walked through her attacks like they were scenery.

”You’re joking,” she whispered.

It was truly a brutal boss monster, the kind Vespera rarely if ever faced before today.

And even if she had, she was backed up by her whole support crew in New Dawn.

Now, they weren’t just facing down such a terrible creature on their lonesome, but there were multiple of them.

The Rampart lowered its tusks.

A hand closed around the back of Bastet’s hair and yanked her sideways before the charge arrived, and the catgirl left the ground with a startled yelp as Vespera dragged her out of the Rampart’s path by her scalp the way a mother cat carries a kitten by the scruff.

The Rampart’s tusks split the air where Bastet had been standing and gouged a trench through the arena floor that ran fifteen meters before the creature slowed.

”Play the role of support,” Vespera said, still holding Bastet off the ground by her hair. ”Don’t try to kill them, it’s a futile effort.”

Bastet dangled from her grip, feet swinging two inches above the stone, and nodded so fast her ears blurred. ”Yes, Shadow Mommy!”

Vespera set her down and turned back toward the three enemies with the same flat expression she’d been wearing since the arena formed.

”You can call me Vespera.”

Bastet’s eyes went wide and wet in a way that had nothing to do with the three boss monsters bearing down on them. ”Does... does that mean you don’t like when I...”

”...Whatever makes you happy.” Vespera didn’t look at her.

Bastet’s eyes went from wet to sparkling so fast it should have made a sound, and her tail shot straight up behind her as dominion pulsed outward from her feet in a wave that split the floor in every direction.

”Now focus.”

”Yes, Shadow Mommy!”

The Serpent lunged and Bastet’s dominion caught it mid-strike, crushing pressure slamming down on the creature’s coils and pinning it to the arena floor for the two mere moments Vespera needed to make her next move.

The Rampart came again, and Bastet didn’t try to stop it this time. She tilted the ground beneath its hooves instead, superheated floor angling sideways just enough to send the charge wide by three meters, and Vespera sidestepped the tusks without breaking stride.

They were not aiming to deliver a decisive killing blow for now, instead playing the waiting game.

Of course, neither Vespera nor Bastet would ever aim to lose slowly. Both ladies fully intended to return to the board.

They were just not going to commit stupid mistakes that’d ruin everything.

...

The turn timer pulsed at Kaiden’s periphery. The viewing pane showed his mother and Bastet maneuvering masterfully while three boss monsters pressed them from every angle, and for a moment his hand hovered over the board without purpose.

Then he looked at the rest of his pieces, standing tall against four enemies on a board that had never been more open.

It was time to go on the attack and finish this match.

[Defender Turn.]

He reached for Calypso’s square at E4 and moved her toward Scarlet’s position at D4, half expecting the board to reject it the way it had rejected Alice.

[Ensnared piece detected at target location. Ensnared piece will be displaced to a random adjacent square upon removing status.]

’It works. Is it because Calypso is a melee piece? Or because I tried to get Alice to join the arena itself, while I sent Calypso to occupy the spot?’

Either way, this was great news because Calypso went from being the flanking piece to the only piece capable of properly tanking enemy hits. She needed to be close to the action.

Calypso cracked her knuckles from the center of the board and grinned up at Kaiden.

”I’m ready no matter what comes for me, Darling.”

[Board State]

[♚ Claimant]

[Row 1: [] · [] · [] · [] · [] · []]

[Row 2: [] · C5(B) · [] · [] · C8(E) · []]

[Row 3: [] · [] · [] · C3(D) · C4(E) · []]

[Row 4: Luna(A) · [] · [] · Calypso(D) · [] · []]

[Row 5: [] · Aria(B) · Nyx(C) · [] · Alice(E) · []]

[Row 6: [] · [] · [] · [] · [] · []]

[♔ Successor]

[Claimant Turn.]

[Champion 5 advances to B3.]

The Bladed Stalker slid one square forward toward Luna’s lane, joints bending the wrong way as it settled into its new position.

’It’s being careful, aware how little pieces it has at its disposal.’ Kaiden watched the humanoid settle into B3 with its compound eyes fixed on Luna, no longer showing pure animalistic aggression but concern.

He smirked. ’That hesitation might just cost you everything.’

[Defender Turn.]