novelraw Chapter 298: The Last Game
Chapter 298: The Last Game
The punishment for losing the race came to Stanley just as the previous punishment had been. He had received the lowest punishment for the dancing game which had gotten rid of his ability to constantly view the future for 3 hours.
Receiving the highest level of punishment, Stanley had now learned that he was barred from using another one of his powers. It was his power to slow down time.
As for the duration of the punishment, there was no duration. Instead, there was a requirement to unlock it.
If Stanley wanted his powers back, he needed to kill 100 different people with power. Killing Novas counted for 10.
Stanley remained wide-eyed in the white room as he learned about his punishment, realizing just how horrible of a punishment it was.
Not only was what was possibly his best skill affected by the punishment, but he now had to kill people to make it work again. People... he did not want to kill anyone.
Even as he was clearly out of it, the disembodied voice that controlled the entire game seemed to not care about his internal issue.
"Now, onto the next game!"
The world around Stanley disappeared and he quickly looked around to try and see just where he had come onto. He found himself standing on top of solid ground, surrounded by a large audience that seemed to be sitting in what looked to be stadiums.
Once again, the people were hard to recognize, even if they were people at all.
Stanley quickly took a few deep breaths, realizing that he needed to put his focus into the game. He had received two punishments already. He could not afford to get a third one.
He threw away all of his worries and stress for the moment and focused on the moment.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to ’Till Death Will I Fight’. Your one and only fighting game where the challenger must fight progressively more difficult opponents as time goes on."
Cheers sounded from the audience all around Stanley, and something popped into existence above his head.
Stanley looked up and saw a green bar above his head below which was a tiny blue bar almost hidden within the green bar. He hadn’t played many video games in the real world, but he had learned just enough about them to know that the green bar usually represented his health.
’What is the blue bar then?’ he wondered. He was sure he would find out soon enough.
"Player, you have 20 seconds to choose your weapon!"
As soon as the voice spoke, three options appeared before Stanley, hovering next to him.
The first was a thin sword with a blade that was half black and half red. The crossguard of the sword was only about an inch in all directions. A red leather of some sort was wrapped around the handle, probably for better grip.
The second weapon was a pair of guns, blue in color, with some sort of blue gem in one and a missing section in the other one.
The final of the three weapons was a scythe that was longer than Stanley was tall. Could he even use such a thing? A thin green smoke came down from the blade of the scythe making him wonder what it was.
"You have 10 seconds!" the voice announced.
Stanley looked at the scythe for a final time before shaking his head. He was not trained in the scythe, so even if there was something interesting about it, for the sake of his own survival in this game, he couldn’t choose it.
The choice then became between the guns and the sword.
Stanley stood before the two, thinking about both options as carefully as he could. The gun would make things easier most likely in the earlier fights, but the game was supposed to get progressively harder as time went on.
’Can I even aim with the gun?’ Stanley thought. Most of the time, his aim usually came with him looking into the future, seeing if his shot hit the target, and then fixing his angle accordingly.
Normally, he wasn’t that good when it came to shooting.
"3, 2, 1!"
Stanley grabbed the sword. He had been trained in the sword by Max, who Stanley still didn’t know much about except that he was Amy’s brother somehow.
With the sword alone, he should be able to do well.
Stanley did not care about winning this game at all. He simply cared about not losing. So long as he went through 6 opponents, he should be more than fine.
"Congratulations on choosing the Three-Fold Sword. Your first opponent is here."
The world went silent as a figure materialized from the air. The one who appeared was a young man, no older than 20 years old, holding a bow in his hands. On his back was a quiver full of arrows.
A green bar appeared below his head as well. This was to be his opponent it seemed.
The young man pulled an arrow out of the quiver and nocked it onto the bow.
"3... 2... 1... FIGHT!"
The battle began and the young man released the arrow in Stanley’s direction.
Stanley dodged to the side, rolling on the ground before getting up and running toward the young man before him.
The young man nocked another arrow onto the bow and aimed at Stanley’s direction.
Stanley ran, looking directly at the arrow. His instinct told him to use his ability to slow down time, but that wasn’t possible here. He simply waited for the final moment and ducked.
The arrow went flying past his head, the whistling sound coming so close to his ear. Then, he arrived right on top of the young man.
The young man had no time to pull out another arrow and instead used his bow to attack back.
Stanley remained ducked, dodging the bow swing without doing anything.
While remaining low, he sliced through the young man’s leg before turning the blade around and cutting it diagonally upward, cleaving through his right arm and then through his chest in a single swing.