Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 847: Playing It Smart

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

The arena wall exploded inward.

The Rampart came through the breach at full gallop, plating cracking the arena floor under its hooves, and the mass of the thing caught Vespera mid-strike before she could land the seventh hit on the Bone Weaver’s caving torso.

She braced with shadows coiling around her legs but the impact drove her sideways fifteen meters before she stopped the slide with one hand on the ground.

The Bone Weaver was still standing. Four arms broken, torso caved, the spinning bone fragments scattered dead across the floor, but the construct pulled itself upright on legs that hadn’t been touched and the shards began sliding back across the stone toward its torso, clicking into place one by one as the skeletal frame started reassembling itself.

Vespera straightened and looked at the three enemies now occupying the same space as her and Bastet, and her expression didn’t change at all, save for the small hint of annoyance in her eyes as she watched her almost dead enemy pick itself back up.

[2v3 Clash: Vespera + Bastet vs C2 (Bone Weaver) + C6 (Rampart) + C7 (Serpent).]

...

On the viewing pane, Kaiden watched as the two back-row champions joined the frontliner that refused to die.

”Kai.”

Nyx’s voice came, and the single word carried everything she wasn’t saying.

He knew. He’d known the moment the Rampart crashed in.

Two of the Kaiju’s four strongest pieces were locked in that arena now, and the arena wouldn’t end until one side was fully eliminated.

No tricks could change that. The one it pulled on Scarlet had worked because Ensnare removed her from combat status, which let the Ravager walk out of an active clash, because it was no longer deemed active.

But Vespera had Resolute cast on her, making her immune to such effects, and the Kaiju had already burned through most of its hand.

Unless it had another way to take both of them out of combat, those three champions were stuck in there for as long as Vespera and Bastet kept fighting.

Three pieces off the board. Almost half of what the Kaiju had left.

And Scarlet’s fist hit the crystalline band again on the viewing pane’s edge, the crack spreading wider than the last, holding a full second before it sealed.

’She’s getting closer every second.’

Even if the worst came to pass, which was both Vespera and Bastet being eliminated and the three monsters returning to the board, as long as Scarlet broke free beforehand, he could push every piece forward at once.

Scarlet, Luna, Aria, Calypso, Nyx, Alice - six against four on the open board while the Kaiju’s strongest were trapped in a cage with his mother and felinid lover.

A blitz. The kind of play you make once and either win or lose everything.

But for that to work, he couldn’t send backup. He had to leave them in there.

His hand hovered over the board. Vespera’s words from before the match echoed in his skull, the same ones she’d said when she volunteered for the front.

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

He’d already ignored that once by committing Bastet. She’d called it a rebellious phase and fought alongside the catgirl without complaint, because Vespera understood something Kaiden was only now catching up to: she’d always planned to hold this line until it broke her, letting him bring home victory using her sacrifice.

”Mom. Bastet.”

He didn’t finish.

On the viewing pane, Vespera glanced up at his voice through the arena boundary, and smiled softly.

”It’s okay, son.”

Bastet planted her bare feet wider and the ground split beneath them as dominion pulsed outward in a fresh wave. She didn’t look up at the viewing pane, but her ears flicked toward Kaiden’s voice and that was enough.

”Master, I expect a great deal of pampering when this is done.” Her tail curled once behind her, slow and sure. ”A great deal.”

Kaiden smiled, and it sat wrong on his face.

Eliminated pieces wouldn’t die, just get taken out of the ’game’.

He’d told himself that three times already because the math was right and the play was right and Vespera had asked him to make exactly this call. But he was still asking his mother and the woman who called him Master with the most affectionate of voices to stand in front of three boss monsters and to bear with it so everyone else could win fast.

’This is the play.’

He felt sure of it.

”Kai, hold on.” Luna’s voice cut up from A4, loud enough to carry across the whole grid. ”I don’t think this’ll work, but we need to make sure.”

She pointed at the small viewing pane showing Scarlet hammering at her cage. ”The Ensnare card. It said ’until attacked or status is broken,’ right? Until ATTACKED.”

Kaiden’s hand froze over the board.

’Until attacked. It doesn’t say until attacked by an enemy.’

How had he not thought of this before? Scarlet had been punching her way out for turns because neither of them had questioned the assumption that she had to free herself. But if the condition was just ’attacked,’ period, then friendly fire would trigger it the same as hostile.

He reached for Alice’s square at E5.

[Invalid action. Piece ’Alice’ is classified as Ranged. Ranged pieces may only join active clashes within support distance. No active clash at target location.]

His hand pulled back from the square as the notification faded, and on the board Alice looked up at him with blue eyes that had already understood.

”I’m sorry, big brother. I can’t reach her.”

”Hey, don’t make that face, unhinged little sis,” Luna shrugged from her square with a sigh. ”Was worth a shot.”

”I’m not unhinged,” Alice scoffed.

She was ignored.

Kaiden reached into Lust Stance and pushed warmth through the bond toward the arena. He’d learned the shape of it during Luna and Aria’s fight, how to channel it along the paths each girl had already carved instead of flooding raw power like a firehose.

Bastet’s path was nothing like either of theirs.

Luna had burned like a live wire. Aria had pressed like dense moonlight.

Bastet sat in his chest like gravity itself, a slow, crushing weight that pulled everything toward her and didn’t let go.

Dominion wasn’t fast or sharp. It was the sun bearing down on a world that had no choice but to orbit.

He pushed pressure into her.