Septagon Horse Race

Welpen woke up to everyone in the room sitting up in their chairs perfectly fine and awaiting the next game.

Welpen: “Ahh! Wh- Astro? Izumi? Wh-What happened? I’m not bleeding? What the–”

Izumi: “Welpen! You’re back! I’m so excited.”

Welpen: “Back? What do you mean?”

Izumi: “Well…Umm…”

Astro: “Don’t sugarcoat it. You died kid. Don’t you remember?”

Welpen thought back to the moment before he perished sitting in the chair remembering all the things he didn’t want to think about. ‘You jerk,’ he thought, but then quickly thought positive of Astro because of the kind words that he had told him.

Welpen: “I died? I mean, I died?!”

Izumi chuckled.

“Yes. You did die.”

Welpen: “Wow! I don’t know if I should feel sad, happy, excited, upset, angry, anxious, or, or–”

Izumi hugged him to stop him from talking so much, but she was excited that her friend was back. Welpen looked above the chairs to everyone’s numbers. Not many had gone up, meaning that a lot of people had lost the game. He looked at Astro’s whose number increased from before.

Welpen: “You won?”

Astro: “Yeah. Why don’t you look up at your score?”

Welpen looked above to see his number on the wall. To his surprise, the number 5 appeared above him. Welpen smiled, but also didn’t know what to think of it. He wasn’t ecstatic because he didn’t want to die again, but he was somewhat thrilled to know that he had death tokens for whatever they were used for.

Astro had been surveying the room for a while now. While Welpen and Izumi had been talking, Astro had been watching 2 chairs all along. The man and lady that had been taken away earlier had not returned. Welpen hadn’t noticed it as he was too strung up on what had happened with him. He probably wasn’t going to notice at all.

‘What is this place?’ Astro thought in a calm anger.

Death Bringer: “Okay! Okay! The next game will be starting soon. This will be the 5th game of the day. We are nearing a close on the games today. As we approach these later rounds, please look up at your scores and remind yourself of the number posted. If you would like to increase your score, there will be an opportunity in the upcoming bonus round. However, let us move on to this round. The next game will be…Septagon Horse Race! Please allow me to explain the rules. You will round up in groups of 7 and go through the doors to the platforms from previous rounds. You will arrive in a room where there will be large square spaces numbered 1-7 with 7 different colors. The spaces and colors do not matter, however if you demand that you want a certain color, then you may argue that with the others. You may even kill if you so desire, however once you step onto the color, then you will be locked into that spot. Each person will be given a large die with 8 sides numbering 1-7. When the light in front of you turns green, then everyone will roll at the same time. Your starting square is number 0. You may only progress to the next square if the number on the die allotted is the same as the next square. For example, the next square for everyone is the 1st square, so you would have to roll a 1 to advance. Then, after that you will need to roll a 2 to advance and so on. However, there is an 8th side to the die. On this die is a black skull image. This is a bonus feature to this game. If you roll this side, then you may choose 4 different options. The first option is to take a step forward on the board. The other 3 options are different ways of dying. You may be frozen in place, drink a poison, or use your own weapon to kill youself. All 3 ways offer an option of receiving extra death tokens, unless you have already killed yourself with your own weapon of course in these games. You must choose one of these 4 every time that you roll this symbol. However, you may not choose to go forward more than once. The first 3 that cross the finish line will win this game.”

Welpen thought about the rules, but it was very confusing for him. He decided to ask Astro and Izumi.

Astro: “All you need to focus on Welpen is not getting the next number for each square. You need to stay as far back in the line as possible. However, if you do end up getting that bonus side, then you will have to move forward. The alternative is you dying regardless.”

Izumi: “Yeah, but if you get all 3 deaths and then roll again, then you get no more death tokens for them, right?”

Astro: “Yeah. I’m assuming that’s how that works. You can’t get death tokens for deaths that you have already experienced in these games. That means that you could die a thousand times over and over again and not get death tokens…Izumi?”

Izumi: “Yes?”

Astro: “I’ve been wondering for a while now. You’ve played before. There have only been a few instances where people have tried to kill others. 2 of them were me and Welpen. How come more people don’t try to kill each other?”

Izumi: “Uhm, it’s not that they don’t want to kill people, but everyone has played so many times, that they can’t think of new ways to kill people. Some of these guys have been here over a hundred times, some thousands. In fact, because of the tournament that is coming up, death tokens are boosted even in the normal games. Usually, we don’t even get 1/10 of a death token per death. They are definitely ramping it up.”

Welpen: “Huh?!”

Astro: “We don’t really know if that’s a high amount.”

Izumi: “Well, look at your score now. It’s already more than you have and you have been playing for hours. Nobody wants to give others that big of an advantage, especially with the tournament coming up. Usually, you will still get a few people that kill each other for fun, but that isn’t the case right now. Although, I assume stuff like this has already happened with people like Kunikise and Kael. Even though you guys haven’t seen it, they have probably been cutting people up so they can regenerate and then kill them again over and over.”

Welpen: “Th-That’s not right!”

Izumi: “Yeah, but that’s technically allowed. You just have to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.”

Death Bringer: “Please everyone make your way to the doors with groups of 7.”

Izumi, Welpen, and Astro obviously formed together, but they needed 4 more. They were a popular group apparently. They were able to get 4 people easily. 2 of them being people that they played with before, Hoshi Boa and Violet Kocho. Welpen didn’t want to play with them, as he remembered how cruel Violet was. He looked away from her and frowned.

Violet: “Oh? Did I pinch a nerve kid? Make that face at me again. I dare you to.”

Welpen turned around and stuck his tongue out at her and then turned his back towards her again.

Violet: “You bastard!”

Violet went to send her snakes flying at him, but immediately was shut down by Hoshi.

Hoshi: “Stop it, Violet. This kid is new here. If he joins the tournament with us, then you’re just giving him free items.”

2 more people approached them that were familiar. Naoki and his friend with the pink hair and glasses. He introduced himself confidently with his thumb pointing at his head.

“Hey. I’m Souta Yuu. Nice to meet you.”

Welpen: “I’m Welpen! Nice to meet you!”

Souta: “Oh. He’s lively Naoki. I like him.”

Violet: “What are you two losers doing over here?”

Souta: “Us? Losers? Why, this is the first time that we have played. I don’t see the need for hostility.”

Welpen: “Huh? This is your guys first time playing? How are you so good?”

Souta: “We are pretty lucky, I guess.”

Izumi: “Now that I think about it. I haven’t seen either of you here before. Why am I just now noticing that?”

Souta wrapped his arms around the group and smiled.

Souta: “Ah! Let’s get going! The doors might close on us everyone.”

They all headed to the doors and the platforms that were within. Once they were all on, it jolted upwards quickly to a floor that they haven’t been on before. It was big. As big as the roof that they were on previously. The walls looked spray painted to visualize clouds and a sun, kind of like a children’s bedroom. The ground was brown gravel and in the middle was 7 different colored sections like Death Bringer had explained. Above it, at the end of the square panels on the floor, was a checkered finish line and a large stoplight with red and green colors. Nobody rushed to the colors, but just observed the room. Eventually, they each had to pick a different space.

Welpen wanted to be next to Astro and Izumi so they all took their spots in the middle. Welpen stood in the middle, Izumi on the left, and Astro on the right. To the right of Astro, Naoki and Souta took their places. To the left of Izumi, Violet and Hoshi stood. The colors lit up as the game began to start. Welpen tried to jump over to Astro’s square, but was blocked by a wall the same color as the square that extended all the way down to the finish line. He laid on the floor and rubbed his chest as everyone now understood what Death Bringer meant by being locked into your spots. The game was about to commence!