Bold: Alastor talking and emphasis on certain words or sentences.
(AN: Please comment; it makes me very happy to see people enjoying the BS that I write, and it motivates me to write. :)
(James POV)
My hands shakily open the main door, revealing Alastor in all his scary glory. He's a tall man, taller than most of the denizens of hell, standing at a whopping 7'2.
His skin was a light gray, looking almost sickly when compared to the bombastic red color of his suit. He wore a grin while looking at me that didn't quite meet his eyes, along with a small red monocle and cane that is styled as a microphone. (Seriously, why is everything red in this place!?").
"Why, hello, my blindfolded fellow. Are you one of the sinners the delusional princess has taken under her wing?" He says with a distorted voice, sounding like a glitchy radio is spitting out chopped-up sentences with barely any rhyme or reason. "Y-yeah, who the hell are you?" I reply with a fearful tone; I see his grin widen a tiny bit from my fear. Smug bastard.
"Oh, well I'm the man who's going to sponsor this 'hotel, of course!" He says enthusiastically before turning into shadows and phasing right through me like it was nothing. In his shadow were various voodoo symbols and eyes; I could swear a red one was looking right at me with interest.
He reformed in front of Charlie and took her hand. "Nice to meet you. I assume you are Charlotte Morningstar, the owner of this pointless hotel." Charlie gained a nervous grin on her face as she looked up at Alastor. "Nice to meet you too, Alastor. I didn't expect you of all people to come here… You know, being the Radio Demon that maims and tortures people."
"Well, my dear, I am so glad you asked!" Alastor exclaims before letting go of Charlie's hand, "I want to sponsor this hotel of yours." Charlie's face quickly lights up as she starts to shake Alastor's hand with more vigor. "Really? Oh my gosh, thank you so much!" Her smile drops a little. "But why are you, of all people, wanting to sponsor something like this?"
Alastor's grin widens as he lets go of Charlie's hand and animatedly throws his hands up in the air and exclaims in a tone chock full of glee, "I wish to sponsor this hotel because I find the greatest entertainment in seeing these deplorable sinners try to actually make something better of themselves only to fail miserably!"
…
"I walk towards Charlie and tap her on the shoulder to gesture her to walk a bit away from Alastor before whispering, "Charlie, as your first hotel resident, I feel as if I should have some say about what happens. For the love of GOD, do not let this brush-my-teeth-once-every-year demon in here." Charlie looks over at Alastor, who is simply smiling and staring at her without saying a word. "James, please, I feel really good about this. If a powerful overlord comes over here and sponsors the hotel, we can have more reach and influence to redeem others."
"Okay, Charlie I get what you're saying, but 2 things. 1. I am literally stronger than Alastor. 2…. He's super creepy, Charlie." I don't know why, but regardless of my fear of Alastor, I have a very strong urge to fight him or to "test my limits." So right now I'm trying to instigate a fight between me and Alastor.
"Oh?" I hear Alastor's chime in behind me with an amused tone with a hint of anger as he looms over my shoulder, slightly bent over due to my vertically challenged height. "I apologize, my good man; my ears must not be working as they should. After all, I just heard an overconfident sinner that hasn't been put in his place say he's stronger than me."
"Oh, don't worry; your ears are working just fine, Alastor. I'm stronger than you, with no doubt about it." Again, I really don't know where this confidence comes from; I just thought about how scary this guy looked, but something is just screaming at me to fight him for some reason.
Alastor's grin becomes noticeably more strained as voodoo symbols as his hand comes down on my shoulder and squeezes hard. I'm lucky I had the common sense to have a little bit of reinforcement on me at all times; it won't completely stop a bullet like yesterday, but I could definitely take a pistol clip and walk out with minor bruises at worst.
"Well, my good man, maybe we could see who's really stronger if you would… step outside?" Alastor says, goading me with the same strained grin on his face. "Okay, guys, this is going just a teeny bit too far—" Charlie's voice gets cut off. "Don't interfere, Charlie. When two men decide on a battle, nothing can change the minds of those men until they get done beating the hell out of each other." I say, interrupting Charlie, spouting bullshit to hopefully try and stun her enough to hurry up and go outside.
Thankfully it worked because as she tried to process my bullshit, I and Alastor went outside into the field just outside the hotel. "Last chance, boy, I do not think I'll be a good sponsor if I kill one of the residents," he says, using his hand to polish the front of his cane while I stretched and took off my blindfold with my eyes still closed. "Not a chance, Mr. I-wear-red-all-the-time."
Back in my old life, I took some self-defense classes back in middle school. It wasn't anything crazy like Judo or Krav Maga, but it taught me the basics of how to exploit openings and a basic fighting stance. I put my hands up to my face while studying Alastor, trying to analyze as much as I can before any of us makes the first move.
I don't know that much about Alastor; the show only finished its first season when I came here, but I do know that he has some kind of voodoo powers and magic along with eldritch-like tentacles. I don't remember him actually using his hands to fight, only using summoned minions, magic, and tentacles. I reinforce my body with more cursed energy, especially my legs and arms, before rushing towards Alastor.
[Quest: Duel of Egos]
[Description: You have challenged Alastor to a fight. Win and reap the rewards and superiority over the Radio Demon.
[Rewards: Power Upgrade Card]
Suddenly the system screen interrupted my rush towards Alastor, and the next thing I know, a sharp pain erupted in my gut as my breath got taken away from me. I get launched back a few feet back to where I was and see Alastor filing his nails with his grin being wider than ever. 4 tentacles were around him, 3 being right next to him and the fourth being in the same spot where it hit me.
I dismissed the system windows and got up while rubbing my stomach, 'Man, I really need to learn the reverse cursed technique soon.'. I reinforce my body even more, spreading it evenly throughout my body while it takes a considerable drain on my reserves; the six eyes made me an expert in control. If I kept this level of reinforcement up, I estimate I could keep fighting for about 2 hours nonstop.
I let out an exhale as I rushed at Alastor again, this time keeping my closed eyes on his tentacles and his posture. Although it seems like he's relaxed, his hands move firmer, likely because I just tanked an attack that should have pierced any other regular sinner. The fourth tentacle quickly goes for my head this time, but I dodge out of the way and try to rip it from the ground.
The tentacle doesn't come out from the ground but simply dispels into shadows, and judging by the look on Alastor's face, it hurts him a bit too. His eyes narrow at me as the tentacles by him pick him up and stare me down, but now I have a legitimate strategy.
Judging by how he uses his tentacles and magic, he's obviously a mid-range to long-range fighter, and aside from my earthbending, I don't have any long-range attacks. So the idea here is to make him believe I can only fight at close range until the perfect moment, where I distract him by using my earthbending, then I knock his ass out.
Is this an overcomplicated idea that is unnecessary? Yes
Am I still going to do it anyway? Hell yeah!
I focus my cursed energy into my foot and stomp on the ground, causing spider web-like cracks in the ground, knocking Alastor's tentacles off balance, and rocks getting shot up. I grabbed a rock and channeled my cursed energy into the rock before spiking it at one of the tentacles holding Alastor.
Now the tentacles truly lost their balance, as Alastor fell to the ground and quickly got back up with his smile not meeting his eyes, full of rage. "You insolent FUCK!" He yells as I cross my arms into a block and add extra reinforcement before a mass of tentacles shoots up from the ground and into my stomach, sending me flying.
I realize too soon that I truly underestimated Alastor's power as the tentacles hit me way harder than I thought they would, sending me flying way into the nearby town of Sin City. I looked back while in the air and saw me heading towards an apartment building. I quickly reinforced my back as I crashed into the apartment.
I cough and wave my hand to disperse the smoke of the debris as I look around and take in my surroundings. I had landed on a purple couch in front of a box TV. There were many paintings and photos on the wall depicting mostly 3 imps: a male one wearing a suit and a red bowtie with white hair, freckles, and an annoyed expression in almost every picture; a female one with black hair and overalls with yellow buttons; and finally, a lanky one with white scars that look like burn marks wearing a suit with a skull on it.
"Hey, what the fuck, who the hell are you?" I hear a voice behind me yell. I turn around and see a hellhound almost as tall as Alastor (meaning I'm still the shortest person out of everyone I've seen so far). She wore a black choker and a crop top containing her big breasts along with a skirt covering her massive hips.
(AN: But do you know what else is MASSIVE?)
"Sorry, I… y'know, crashed into your house. I'm fighting the Radio Demon right now, and well, you know him; he doesn't really take too kindly to anyone who's stronger than him." I say as I get up and try to do a traditional earthbending pose. Trying to mimic Toph from Avatar, the wall that I crashed through slowly starts to mend itself, the grey walls becoming a little discolored but repairing nonetheless.
I go to the balcony through the glass door, but not before looking back at the woman and winking (which for me was just opening an eye) while doing a finger gun. "See you later, alligator." I say, relishing her confused expression before jumping down into the streets.
The wink I did back up there gave me some insights into Alastor's location, which is rapidly approaching mine. I smirk a little before reaching the ground in a superhero pose, making my knees hurt like hell (hehehe), before seeing sinners run away behind me. I look around and see a giant Alastor on all fours and antlers coming out of his head.
'I guess you could say this is an Attack on Titan… Eh… eh?' I joke in my mind before running at Alastor with my cursed energy condensed in my fists, making it barely visible for anybody watching.
YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A BAD CLIFFHANGER, BUT IT WAS ME, DIO!!!!!