Chapter 210: Team Gathering (CURRENT NOVELIZATION PROGRESS)

Chapter 210: Team Gathering

In the VIP suites.

“Now dat was a fantastic match,” Glen says with a smile as he blows out a puff of smoke.

Sergon rolls his eyes in disgust. “Any fight that Zeth wins should not be considered fantastic!”

“You really shouldn’t take Medusa’s death too personal,” Sue suggests. “Anyone who enters this tournament understands the risk.”

Sergon hisses before shouting, “It’s not even just about my daughter! Zeth is the spawn of the Light Goddess! He should be eliminated for that reason regardless!”

Sue sighs. “Yeah, whatever.”

***

In the stadium tunnels.

Keith helps Emily walk while Zeth helps Sasha walk.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to take five of them out like I wanted to,” Sasha says.

“You’re fine,” Zeth replies. “It all worked out. We just need to rest for the semifinals.”

“That said, we should probably watch the rest of the quarterfinals so we know something about the team we will end up fighting next, even if we don’t know which team will be yet,” Keith suggests.

Zeth looks at Sasha and then glances at Emily. “You’re right, but I’m less concerned about the next team and more concerned about our overall team health. Joe and Kurt are still technically recovering, and now Emily and Sasha are pretty banged up.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Emily interjects. “Once this blasted poison clears out of my system, I’ll be good to go.”

“It still infuriates me what Zonbi did to us,” Sasha mutters. “Making us fight two consecutive rounds and then limiting our number of fighters for the second.”

“Zonbi better hold the other teams to the same rules…” Zeth utters with a hint of frustration in his voice.

***

Later, in the stands.

Zeth, Sasha, Keith, and Emily sit in the stands, watching the rest of the quarterfinals.

“These winning teams are quite strong,” Keith says. “Our opponents in the semifinals will be tough.”

“The worst part is Crimson’s team is still winning quite easily, even with the limitations imposed on this round,” Zeth adds.

In the arena, Crimson meets a large gray ogre demon in the middle. The ogre demon wears nothing but a vest and some raggedy pants.

There are statues holding axes throughout the edges of the arena.

“No one as small as you could ever hope to beat me!” the ogre demon declares.

Crimson smirks. “Size isn’t everything, you overgrown blob.”

The ogre frowns and pounds his fists against each other, charging his magic energy with a large green aura flowing around him. “You’re nothing!”

Crimson launches forward, thrusting his foot straight into the ogre’s gut, smashing into it with so much force that the ogre’s eyes bulge out. The ogre tumbles backward and lands on his back, coughing up blood. Two statues begin moving toward him, readying their axes. They swing downward, carving into the ogre’s belly. He screams in pain before flailing his arms around, knocking the statues away with their axes still stuck in his belly.

“You bastard!” the ogre screams as he rips the axes out. “I’ll kill you!!”

He throws the axes straight for Crimson, who easily jumps out of the way to dodge. The axes fly out of the arena and into the stands, where they slice through a handful of demons in the audience, causing an audible gasp from the demons near them.

“You’re not Zeth so I don’t need you alive,” Crimson states as he rushes forward. He jumps up and smashes his fist into the ogre’s face, knocking him into the zombie pit surrounding the arena. The ogre presses his hands against his face as he screams in agony. He’s helpless to stop the zombies from feasting on him. Crimson watches as the ogre’s life comes to an end, smiling with satisfaction. Once the zombies finish, the ogre rises as a zombie himself, completely mindless.

“Crimson is the winner!” Zonbi announces.

The crowd cheers as Crimson’s gaze shifts toward the stands, where he makes eye contact with Zeth. Zeth clenches his teeth in response.

“It won’t be long, Zeth…” Crimson mumbles with confidence.

***

Later, in the Heroes’ team room.

Zeth, Sasha, Keith, and Emily join Kurt, Joe, and Nick at the table. Nick’s fedora lies on the table just in front of him.

“I’m taking it that you guys returning here means we made it to the quarterfinals,” Kurt says.

“Actually, we made it to the semifinals,” Zeth replies.

“Huh!?” Kurt and Joe shout in unison.

“Zonbi tries to screw us over,” Keith says. “First, she sends everyone into a dungeon. Then, once the dungeon was over with five teams being wiped out, she redid the bracket and had us do the second round and the quarterfinals immediately after. Emily and I ‘fought’ in the second round and then were forbidden from taking part in the quarterfinals due to some bogus rule she probably made up on the spot.”

“What the hell!?” Kurt and Joe again shout in unison.

“Yeah, Sasha and I had to take on the quarterfinals all by ourselves,” Zeth states.

“Thankfully, we were able to handle it,” Sasha adds.

“That’s crazy,” Joe replies.

“That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Nick interjects. “Zonbi will use any trick to make the tournament more interesting.”

“At least the captain of the opposing team, Maskodon, is a surprisingly nice guy and even surrendered instead of fighting to the death,” Zeth says.

“I think since they caught us up on what they went through, we should catch them up on what we went through, including the information about those business partners,” Kurt suggests.

Nick nods.

***

Following Nick’s explanation.

“Great, more problems to worry about,” Zeth laments.

“It doesn’t stop there,” Nick says. “While the business partners are very powerful, Zonbi is even stronger than them.”

“How strong are we talking here?” Zeth asks.

Nick looks at all of them with his eyes narrowed into a serious expression. “She’s on par with Hell’s strongest demons.”

The heroes gasp in response.

Nick continues. “The only reason she is not a Council of Demons member is because she is not on good terms with the Dark Goddess.”

“Council of Demons?” Zeth wonders.

“As a little girl, I didn’t really pay attention to that stuff, but I vaguely remember it being the Dark Goddess’s most elite and trusted demons that she consults when making decisions,” Sasha answers.

“That is correct,” Nick confirms. “Do not try to fight Zonbi. You would all be slaughtered.”

The heroes all glance down at the table, each feeling a bit disheartened.

Zeth quickly turns his head to face Nick again. “We’ll try to avoid it but we’re not leaving without RAG.”

Nick smiles. “Then allow me to resume my investigation.” He picks up his fedora, places it on his head, and walks out the door.

He thinks, “I will do what I must. Perhaps I can get some help.”

Chapter 210 END

To be Continued in Chapter 211: Zaydra in Pursuit of Korobu

TEMPORARY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: While my novelization continues, I'm preparing to launch this story on Royal Road and also use Patreon. Having advanced chapters on Patreon is the reason why I'm pausing the novelization updates for Honeyfeed on the Royal Road postings get this far. Once that happens, novelizations will be posted daily.