Back inside the north facing VIP room of the Dead Man's Arena, Artia stood on the tips of her toes as she watched Pebble go rampaging through a tiny lake of green little goblins. At first, she was a little apprehensive about the idea of Pebble fighting 86 goblins at once, but now it looked like they might not have brought enough. Her Coin of Communication has been buzzing non-stop as multiple gods were now seeking stake in the new Hero.
She looked over to the Throne Holder and her breath left her lips involuntarily as this was the first time she's ever seen the man smile. His fingertips danced over the fingers in his other hand in a menacing fashion.
"Yes, yes. This is good! He's a natural!" He looked over at Artia and continued to smile. "You and I may need to get more acquainted. It looks like our mutual friend has a lot of potential."
Artia's heart was pounding. She was eyeing everything in the room as she scanned for threats. Seeing the Throne Holder act so out of character sent her into fight or flight.
There was a loud pounding on the door and Artia jumped in surprise. Within a second, she summoned her bow and sent several arrows into the door. The Throne Holder shook his head and the smile turned into a twisted expression of shock.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked.
A voice could be heard through the door, "OPEN UP, IT ME, REEKI!"
Artia relaxed her tense shoulders, "I'm sorry, you freaked me out. What's wrong with you?" She pressed, "what in the thirteen realms was that creepy little look on your face, was that a smile?"
"You have no idea how much effort I put into this, and it all hinged on fate at the end. Forgive me for being just a little excited that my work might actually pay off." The Throne holder rolled his eyes and walked over to the still pounding door and opened it.
Reeki came into the room like a thunder storm and before the Throne Holder could close the door, Glurt pushed in as well.
"REEKI WANT MORE INVOLVEMENT NOW IN LIGHT OF… THAT!" Reeki pointed through the glass at Pebble who was now in the middle of the entire village of goblins. Pebble roared and swung his axe but missed entirely. The goblins seized the opportunity to push in and a smile re-appeared on Pebble's face. Even though his axe was stuck in the ground, as soon as the goblins were close enough, the axe disappeared from the ground and flashed into a position to Pebble's right as if he had already swung. Blood sprayed out as at least 6 goblins and a few theater chairs were cut clean in half.
"My, my… he is one impressive specimen. I've already expressed my interest to Artia, but now that I'm in your presence, Throne Holder, you should know that I'm here to stay!" Glurt announced.
The Throne holder winced, "Reeki can stay if he wants, but what do you have to offer, Glurt? What do we gain from including you?"
Glurt looked a little hurt, but he was expecting this, "You might be forgetting, but I'm the designated guardian of Tiamat. Right now, your boy is on my chess board. I have access to all the pieces and every tile, as a figure of speech." Glurt reached out his hand and summoned a glass of bourbon. He put out his other hand and a similar glass appeared. He offered the glass to the Throne Holder.
Glurt leaned in as he offered the drink, "Also, what if I told you that I'm not really interested in being a stickler for the rules right now. I'm way more interested in witnessing history before it is written."
The Throne holder took the drink, "Welcome to the team."
"REEKI GLAD WE ALL ON BOARD!" Said the Great Mountain God.
—
Meanwhile, the theater where Lil' Jubu and his family gathered had changed from a peaceful scene to one of brutal carnage. The screen and walls were adorned with gore. Several limbs and decapitated heads were strewn about without any sort of order.
There were still at least 60 goblins left, but they no longer wanted to fight. They simply wanted to leave this unexpected slaughter. Unfortunately for them, Pebble wasn't really in control. His body had entered some form of autopilot as his muscles were actually moving on their own. It was a brutal cycle. First, his muscles would burn so hot that his skin would start to melt. Red misty steam would continuously plume out of his body. He would then seek out and murder any possible victim to get the Life on Kill skill to heal him.
His movements have become entirely different as well. The whole audience could tell that the current Pebble didn't fight anything like the Pebble from the last two rooms. Right now, he's a stone cold killer. There was absolutely no hesitation. He was able to take a life as easily as blinking. His movements were fast and violent and they were also backed by inhuman strength.
The goblins couldn't even drop their weapons in time, he was moving between victims like a pinball in an arcade. It looked as if his axe was a paintbrush and the theater was a canvas as he created a masterpiece with blood.
His body had been pierced and fractured many times by the hordes of enemies, but they just couldn't seal the deal. Everytime they got close, he became stronger and more violent. The goblins were now pushed back into a corner.
While he was on a rampage physically, mentally he was simply witnessing his actions. He had no control, but was fully conscious as he ripped a goblin in half and laughed. Or when one begged him to stop and he simply sent a rock into their brain. He felt horrible. He no longer questioned if he was a bad guy.
He knew he was. How could he not be after doing this?
The part that was driving Pebble absolutely crazy was the fact that during his massacre, the band began singing. They had a vocalist and he was screaming along to the heavy metal music. The instrument players would sing softer back up lyrics as well. A mesh of metal chains appeared above the audience and the band members, minus the drummer, could be seen walking around on the chains above them. The audience was eating it up.
Pebble began subconsciously syncing his murder spree to the music, 'I'm watching my own cringy frag montage…' He thought. He was a little worried about his mental state. 'Is this a temporary thing, or am I just a raging lunatic now?' He couldn't do anything else, so he continued to count the number of goblins he's killed.
'31, 32, 33, 34… 35…' if he could sigh, he would. He watched as his own hand grabbed the 36th goblin and squeezed his windpipe. The poor guy fell to his knees and looked at the horrible sight that surrounded him. His face looked defeated and he resigned himself to his fate. Pebble brought the axe down, cutting the goblin in half vertically.
Pebble was now level 5. He once again blew through the menus while on autopilot. He watched as the skill tree opened and Sprint was selected. It followed the nodes from there and Pebble saw that the two skill options after Sprint were Leap and Brace. He didn't even have time to consider his options as Leap was immediately unlocked.
'Whatever bro, you better have a plan if you're going to put points in my damn skill tree.' Pebble wasn't a fan of this behavior at all, but honestly, he was shooting in the dark anyways. So, what's the difference? Not to mention that he didn't even know who to be mad at. Was someone controlling him or was this his own subconscious at the wheel? 'If I had more than 5 intelligence points, then maybe I could actually come up with some answers.'
Pebble grabbed a theater seat and ripped it out of the ground. He then proceeded to rip the seat in half and beat both cushions with his fists. "AHHHHH" he screamed at the dead seat in rage and looked for his next victim.
'Holy sh*t, I'm stupid.' Pebble concluded.
The next moment, Pebble was about 2 stories in the air as he had activated his new Leap skill. If he wanted to, he could probably reach up and grab the chains that the band was currently standing on. Pebble had an idea of where this was going and it wasn't going to be pretty. He could feel his face tighten as it twisted into a wild grin. He landed with a double stomp and activated his trusty Rock Throw. Pebble waited for the punch and shotgun combo that he used against Becky's partner, but it never came. The autopilot instead chose to grab the boulder with both arms and hold it. It then activated the Sprint skill and ran him into the corner where most of the goblins were cowering with a maniacal laugh.
<25 Exp>
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…
In one swift moment, Pebble ended the journey of dozens of goblins. He ran them over with the boulder, crushing them on impact, pinching a crowd of them against the walls like a mortar and pestle.
The band was playing a guitar breakdown but the vocalist took the mic and pointed at Pebble, "Let's make some noise for our new brutal boy! Give it up for Pebble!"
Pebble never ceased for any fanfare, he simply continued hunting down the stragglers. There were only about a dozen or so remaining and their numbers were dwindling quickly. After Pebble used Cleave a couple more times, there was only one goblin remaining. It was the elder.
Glurt's voice could be heard, but this time it was coming from the VIP box, "KICK HIS ASS!"
The goblin looked at the VIP box with pure bewilderment, "All of this…" he choked, "...my whole bloodline, because of a projector?" he sobbed, but Pebble ended his pain with a quick chop of his axe.
The band abruptly stopped and loud trumpets started playing, "WINNER!" came an over enthusiastic voice that sounded like an 80's video game announcer.