He rolled his eyes and pointed at the door behind him. I waved at Emelia, opened the door, and walked through. My entire display went completely white for a second before the environment around me formed and I found myself in a small room with a large puffy couch in the middle. As far as I could tell there weren't any windows or doors, so I figured I had been transported to some sort of waiting room. I took a seat on the couch and a large display popped up on the wall in front of me. A small orb of black flame appeared and I was immediately reminded of the glowing orb Mercy that had helped me when I made my first character.
"Greetings Demon Lord Allexus. My name is Cruelty. I will be your guide as we begin the tournament. I can show you rankings, information about other competitors, and offer helpful advice as we proceed. Before we get started, let me congratulate you on making it to the fourth round. Do you have questions for me?"
"During the team battles I noticed that my character's strength and speed had been drastically reduced. While I understand the need to keep everyone on a level playing field during a team-based activity, I would think in an elimination style tournament designed to pit us against each other to prove who's the strongest it would make sense to allow our characters to fight at their best. Am I still going to have to compete with only a portion of my power?"
"What an excellent question. While character levels have been completely removed and stats of each competitor have been balanced as if they were the same level, during the elimination tournament all skills and abilities that do not use level as a reference will remain at full power. Did that answer your question?"
I nodded and grinned wickedly. Having my full range of demonic abilities would give me the opportunity to really have some fun. I had Cruelty show me the matches for the 1st round of the Elimination Tournament and I studied each one intently. I was pleased that none of my clan members had been pitted against each other in the 1st round, and I looked at the different matchups. My first opponent had the unusual name 17 and I pulled up his character information.
It listed his class as
Deceiver
, and showed that he had chosen all three paths. As I looked at the image of his character, I tried to guess at his abilities from the way he was dressed. He stood about 6' tall and just going by the top half of his face that was visible, he had a warm complexion and steel gray eyes. The rest of his body, from the lower half of his face down to his black boots was covered in a thick smoke colored cloth. It was hard to tell beneath the layers of heavy cloth, but it appeared that he didn't wear any type of armor. The simple short-sword that hung from his hip appeared to be his only weapon, and I reluctantly admitted that I had absolutely no idea what kind of skills he used just going by his equipment.
"Lady Allexus, the first round of the tournament will begin in 30 seconds. Was there anything else you needed before then?"
I shook my head and stood up. The waiting room faded and was replaced by a colossal arena, complete with stands filled with thousands of spectators. I toned out the noise of the crowds and focused on the figure on the other end of the arena. An incredibly voluptuous female demon who's naked body oozed sex appeal materialized in the center of the arena.
"Our first match will be the Paladin Commander, Demon Lord Allexus versus the Deceiver, 17. Good luck to both competitors!"
She held up one hand and black sparks shot from her extended fingertip high into the air.
"Begin!"
2.15: ♥1v1 Elimination Round 1: Allexus vs. 17
The sexy demon disappeared and I surged forward instantly. With both of my swords drawn I closed the distance between me and my opponent in a split second, but I thought it was strange he was making no attempts to move. I slashed with both blades but I nearly stumbled over when they encountered no resistance. I dug my heel in to stop my momentum and spread my wings. I blasted off the ground and spun in mid-air. As I scanned the area for my opponent, I blinked a few times in disbelief.
Spread throughout the arena were dozens of identical copies of 17, all of them staring up at me with a blank expression.
Illusion magic... OK. That would explain the class name. If I attack the wrong one there's a chance the real one will have an opening to attack me. If that's the case I just need to attack them all at once.
I sheathed both of my swords and cast a spell with each hand as I flew towards the middle of the arena. My feet passed through the illusion of my opponent as I touched down and I placed each hand on the ground. My demon warriors and mages appeared in front of me and I immediately started casting two more spells. Several copies of 17 moved to attack me while I was casting and my demons spread out to intercept them. As my assassin appeared she swung her katana in a wide arc at an enemy that was approaching me from behind. My paladin stood behind me to keep me covered from the rear and I wasted no time in casting my remaining two summoning spells.
"Enchanter, buff the warriors with anything and everything you can. Paladin, keep the healers covered and do not engage unless something moves towards them. Mages, offensive magic only, we're not giving the enemy a chance to put us on defense. Assassin, as there's really no shadows for you to hide in, stick by the paladin and attack anything that gets close. Healers, conserve MP as much as possible, but don't let anyone drop below 50% health."
While I had summoned my demon army, the enemy had been busy making more and more illusion clones. I ordered my group to move out and attack everything in our path. The illusory enemies dissipated as my warriors hacked and slashed, but there seemed to be no end to them. The sound of metal on metal caught my attention, and I was about to move to engage, when all around us the enemies started striking at us with very real attacks. I had anticipated something like this, and I put the next part of my plan into action.
I spread my wings just enough to carry me over my demons as I leapt into the fray. I cast my [Demonfire] spell and then drew both of my swords. The jagged Voidsteel blades erupted into flames and I held them out in front of me. I released each sword from my grasp but quickly cast my [Demonic Chains] spell and wrapped the ends of the chain around the handles of each flaming weapon. I focused my energy on speed and strength as I started to twist and turn my body. As I spun, the chains coming from my hands extended and the swords started slicing through the air in a dangerous arc. I cast my [Demonfire] spell again and flames poured from my hands down the length of the chain. All around me I saw my blades slice through anything that got in my way, and I forced my body to move faster and hit harder. As I spun faster and faster, the flaming chains extended even longer so I was soon cutting huge swathes of enemies down in a 30-foot diameter.
While I was clearing all the enemies out of one area, my demons had spread out and were mowing down everything in another. We closed the gap between us and I pulled the chains in and grabbed each of my swords as they were reeled into my palm. My devastating attack had completely depleted my MP, but it had also eliminated over half of the illusion clones. My demons had moved efficiently and viciously to cut down all but a small handful, and we spread out to surround the rest of the enemies. I ordered my army to form a semi-circle around the cluster of enemies, and I stepped forward.
"Don't attack them unless any try to escape. I'm going to finish this myself."
I moved as fast as I could and cut down the closest enemy to me. The others closed in on me, but instead of blocking I focused on taking them all out as quickly as I could.
Slice through the head and stab through the chest of one. Drop shoulder to deflect incoming sword attack while using that momentum to slice through opponent's leg. Elbow next enemy in the face while sweeping other blade low to finish off the previous one. Extend arm and cut horizontally across the enemy's face. Let armor absorb the blow from one attack at your back and use sword in right hand to block the blade aimed at your neck. Turn right arm and sever the attacker's hand, stab side of his head with left sword and kick body backwards while pulling blade back. Five enemies left. Allow attack from front to hit while driving left sword into attacker's gut. Shove previous enemy back with shoulder and follow up with overhead swing onto next one's exposed neck. Double horizontal slash to cut one enemy in half, and use momentum to do a reverse horizontal slash on the next. The incoming attack directed at your face left the last opponent open. HP is high enough to allow attack to hit while driving both blades at once into the enemy's chest.
Pain tore through my face and my vision on my left side blackened as 17's sword sliced through my face and grazed along the side of my skull. He grunted as the hilt's of both of my swords bumped against his chest and his dark gray face mask turned red as he coughed up blood. I pulled both of my swords out of his chest and dropped them at my feet. The bodies of the clones spread around the arena disappeared at once as the real enemy's body hit the ground. Exhaustion was starting to creep in and my body felt sluggish. The attack I took literally head on had inflicted a lot more damage than I had expected, and I staggered over to my demons.
The sexy demon from before appeared next to me and she ran a finger along my chest plate before grabbing my arm and holding it high.
"We have a winner! Let's hear it for the Demon Lord Allexus!"
Cheers erupted around me from the stands but it was all I could do to keep myself from collapsing.
"It was an absolute pleasure to watch you, Demon Lord Allexus... I'd love for you to come find me after you win this tournament. I promise it will be a night you'll never forget!"
The idea of fucking this blonde bimbo fangirl senseless really appealed to me, and my demonic body seemed thrilled with the thought. I was about to respond when the demoness leaned in close and licked my earlobe. My entire body reacted instantly and I was nearly overcome with arousal.
I growled in irritation as the arena faded and I found myself standing back in my waiting room. Thanks to that demon woman's machinations my entire body was thrumming with sexual excitement.
"Cruelty, how many more matches are still underway?"
"So far only two matches have been completed. So there are still six ongoing."
I eased back onto the sofa and waved my hand in front of my body. My clothing evaporated and I spread my legs wide. The shaft between my legs was diamond-hard and I wrapped my hand around it and groaned softly. As I slid my palm up and down a few times, it was strange to think of natural this felt. Due to my preference of playing male characters, I had experienced having a hard cock between my legs a few times; but this was so different. The N-Vision's ability to safely "hijack" the input from the wearer's neural cortex is what allowed them to experience the gameplay as if they were in the game in person. Everything that the player's virtual body experiences is translated as input directly to their brain the same as if it were happening to their physical body; with thousands upon thousands of safeties in place to prevent any actual harm to them.
