at first, seeing the monster’s attack points were much lower than any of her own creatures. Aura surprised everyone by declaring an attack.
His Stingsquid attacked Lorin’s more powerful combatant, and as expected, it was destroyed. The crowd went ballistic, as Aura appeared to have lost on purpose.
Hakusho quickly declared Lorin the winner. The smug servant stood up, anxious to get some clothes back on. Another staffer dashed to the stage to deliver a robe, which she quickly put on. All the while Aura sat confidently, unmoving.
“You better remove that robe,” he said smugly, “because we’re not done here yet missie.”
The death toucher revealed his trump card, the Superior Stingsquid’s, special effect. He explained that any time it does battle with another combatant, the enemy takes damage as well. Not enough damage to make a difference in most cases, but this was a rare occasion when the amount didn’t matter. All he needed was to scrape her KP, and he’d get what he wanted.
“As the rules of the strip addendum clearly state: take damage, lose clothes . The damage has been done, but so far clothes have only been added .”
Lorin looked down at the comfy concealing robe she had on. The robe she didn’t want to lose. With no less than a thousand spectators staring at her, Lorin really didn’t feel like disrobing and then some. She grit her teeth and looked at Aura with disgust, who only made her angrier with his upbeat attitude about it all. She looked to her master in her private box, but Marni was too busy obsessing over the overwhelming popularity of her new invention.
Judging by the crowd’s reactions, the strip addendum was an incredibly popular and profitable tool she could add to her career-building arsenal. There were plenty of places in the Kingdom of Hell that you could go to see naked men and women, but her game gave everyone an equal chance at sexual exploitation.
She knew people would pay big skorch for such a service. Her mind ran wild with all sorts of marketing possibilities and monetary projections while her number one guard looked like a lost, sexy puppy down on the game stage.
Things looked ugly for a few minutes as Aura and Lorin stood on stage arguing while the referee looked over the rulebook to determine just what should be done. However, with no written word of the strip addendum yet, she found nothing helpful. Hakusho looked to Marni for the final word, but strangely it was not Marni who put an end to the situation.
“ Enough !” It was the roundish Noble Vashi Tansa, climbing the steps up to the gaming stage. “Enough of this nonsense! Both of you, down! Now!”
For his size and stature, the Noble moved gracefully. He took Lorin by the hand and guided her to the stairs. With her gone, he turned to face the disgruntled Aura. “You too, boy . Move along now.”
“Who gave you the right to call shots around here?” Aura asked, giving the red-bearded Noble the ol’ Draxler stink eye.
“ As the next competitor I will not stand for any more delays !”
Now that Vashi was involved, Marni sprang into action. Clutching her own megaphone, she quickly tried her hand at deescalating things.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you enjoyed that game, I’m pleased to announce more strip addendum games will be coming in the future! Please wait patiently and I promise to give you the best show for your skorch, guaranteed!”
Her promise was enough to instill calm in the crowd, but Aura still stood defiantly on stage. “I’m not leaving till I see the boobies I was promised. You gonna show me your boobies, old man?”
“ Watch it , Draxler…” the old Noble said through gritted teeth.
Vashi and Aura stared each other down intently, neither one willing to give any ground, growling like wild animals. Then a voice cried out, “ My turn ! My turn !” and Aura was bulldozed out of the way by a charging human.
“It’s finally my turn!” Ash said, throwing his hands in the air.
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