Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 846: Protect the Shadow Mommy

Vespera was alone at the front now with three enemies one row ahead and three ranged behind them. The plan Kaiden had built around two center hammers was dead, and the board didn’t care about his feelings on the matter.

[Defender Turn.]

Two new cards joined his orbit, bringing his hand to five, and two of them clicked together before the second finished arriving.

Scout. Resolute.

Information plus protection. If the Kaiju was willing to use cards surgically now, he needed to see what else it was holding.

[Card Played: Scout. Reveal all enemy banked cards.]

The Kaiju’s constellation flickered and inverted, faces turning visible for three heartbeats. Five cards orbiting the creature’s silhouette, and Kaiden’s eyes found the threat.

Sunder. Minus thirty percent defense.

’Resolute blocks debuffs cast after its activation, but not those cast before it. The buff is invisible and the opponent won’t know who received it. A mind game...’ He glanced at the second card still orbiting his hand. ’If I can read who it’s aiming at, I can shut the Sunder down before it lands.’

His gaze dropped to the board. Obsidian at E3, Calypso at E4. One advance and they’d clash. If the Kaiju played Sunder on Calypso before that fight, it stripped her tank advantage entirely. The escalation race against Obsidian was built on her durability. She’d break before Carnage kicked in.

’Resolute on Calypso and send her in. Block the-’

He stopped. His gaze shifted from Calypso to Vespera at C4, holding up the middle with Scarlet frozen in a cage and three enemies one row ahead. If the Kaiju played Sunder on her instead and attacked aggressively, the center would collapse.

’I can’t protect both of them.’

Calypso was the play his heart was telling him. Obsidian was right there, the threat practically drawn in crayon.

But his brain...

Vespera was the center pillar, and without Scarlet the entire middle rested on her. If she went into the next fight debuffed...

His mind moved toward Calypso’s square, and then it moved to Vespera’s.

[Card Played: Resolute. Target: Vespera. Immune to debuffs.]

The shimmer wrapped around his mother’s frame instead of Calypso’s.

Vespera glanced down at the golden light, then up at her son, and the look that passed between them said everything neither of them would.

Calypso watched the shimmer settle on Vespera.

She looked back at Kaiden, and the tilt of her horns said she’d read the board faster than he’d expected.

”Smart call, Darling. Shadow Mommy is our ace, I know that.”

The guilt sat behind his sternum, but he didn’t waver.

”You won’t die after getting eliminated from the match...” Bastet purred.

The demoness sent the cat a wry look, her tail flicking in disapproval. ”Who said I’m getting eliminated, you tits for brains felinid?”

”...”

Kaiden decided not to move a piece, because his board was already set up and he wanted to stall for time until Scarlet returned.

[Claimant Turn.]

[Card Played: Sunder. Target: Vespera.]

’...Phew.’ An immense weight left Kaiden’s chest, though the sting of guilt remained.

[Sunder negated. Resolute active.]

The debuff dissolved against the shimmer wrapping Vespera’s frame, dark energy scattering off the protective field.

Kaiden stared at the board. The Kaiju hadn’t gone for Calypso at all. It had targeted Vespera, the same piece he’d agonized over protecting, and his last-second switch had intercepted a play he wasn’t even trying to counter.

[Champion 2 advances. Bone Weaver moves to C4.]

[Clash initiated: C2 (Bone Weaver) vs Vespera.]

The skeletal construct slid into Vespera’s square with four arms spread and bone fragments already whirring in orbit around its torso.

The support notification pulsed at Kaiden’s wrist before the dust settled. Multiple allies in range to back her up: Bastet at D5, Nyx at C5, Aria at B5. Either one or all three could technically join the same fight, such was the advantage that ranged pieces held.

His hand hovered over Bastet’s square.

’Don’t use cards on us. Don’t send ranged support.’

Vespera’s words sounded in his head, calm and absolute. She’d told him to use her as a hammer. No backup. No wasted resources. Everything saved for his girls.

His hand stayed where it was.

”With Scarlet in jail and you entering combat, Luna and Calypso are the only ones left to hold the front, and Luna’s not built for that. I’ll send Bastet to back you up so you can end it quick.”

He committed her, and three pieces vanished from the board.

[2v1 Clash: Vespera + Bastet vs Champion 2 (Bone Weaver).]

Then the second notification hit, and Kaiden’s stomach dropped before he finished reading it.

[Ranged enemy within join distance. Champion 7 (The Serpent) joins this clash.]

The Serpent vanished from D2. The viewing pane split wider as the arena expanded for a fourth combatant.

[2v2 Clash: Vespera + Bastet vs C2 (Bone Weaver) + C7 (The Serpent).]

...

Same floor, same white sky, but the arena was twice the size of the first.

Vespera stood at the near end with her gaze already locked on the Bone Weaver forty meters away.

The construct was clicking into offensive configuration, four skeletal arms spreading wide while bone shards spun from its shoulders like a living ammunition belt.

Bastet landed beside her barefoot on the white ground, Manifestation of Dominion radiating from her in visible waves of heat and pressure that pressed outward across the arena floor.

Vespera glanced at her. The look was brief yet uncharacteristically sly.

”It appears my child is entering a second rebellious phase. First he leaves home and starts shooting adult content - using the globally-recognized Ashborn family name - and now he ignores my explicit requests...”

Bastet’s ears flicked, surprised this cold woman clearly finding Kaiden’s decision heart-warming somehow. She didn’t know how to respond properly, so she just nodded eagerly. ”We can spank Master together when this is done, Shadow Mommy.”

”...” Vespera seemed not to hear the catgirl’s words as her expression hardened. ”Do what you can. I’ll eliminate the bone construct first.”

Vespera moved first.

The Bone Weaver fired before she’d closed half the distance, bone fragments from all four arms in a spread designed to cover the arena floor.

Vespera moved through the salvo without breaking stride, shards flying at her with breakneck speed yet she easily parried them with her shadow tendrils.

The Serpent struck from the flank.

It had crossed twenty meters in the time she took three steps, light-refracting scales blurring its outline until the lunge was already arriving, a coiling strike aimed at the gap between her ribs and hip.

Vespera’s shadow lattice erupted from the ground beneath her, snapping into a wall that blocked the first strike, through extreme strain.

”Don’t you dare think of killing the Shadow Mommy, nasty snake,” Bastet hissed and planted her bare feet and the ground split beneath them, heat radiating from her skin in visible waves. ”I’ll protect her with all I have until she sees me under the altar kissing her son and screaming ’YES, I SWEAR!!!’.”

She raised one hand and a pillar of concentrated solar fire erupted from her palm, blinding white-gold light that crossed the arena in a straight line and struck the Serpent’s flank.

At the same time, Vespera reached the construct and tore into it.

Seven strikes in a single moment, each landing on a different joint, each joint folding inward as the skeletal frame buckled under impacts that would have cratered stone.

The Bone Weaver’s four arms snapped one after another, projectiles scattering across the floor, and its torso began caving around the sixth hit.

[Ranged enemy within join distance. Champion 6 (The Rampart) joins this clash.]

The arena wall exploded inward.