The Young Master in the Shadows

Victor’s journey after killing that demon dog was suspiciously very smooth. Other than all the intersections offering him only one path forward, he encountered nothing of interest.

It was two hours later that he finally reached the end of the downward-going stone tunnels where a large oppressive feeling metal door stopped him. Behind it, he could feel the presence of other humans, in addition to many demons. MANY MANY MANY DEMONS!

“Emira… You have to get into the cauldron now… You promised!” he told the little girl as he took the cauldron from his storage space.

“...One…Moment…” she said as she looked at the door, then took two deep breaths. “Now… Can… Go..” she said as she touched the cauldron and went in immediately.

Did she absorb something again? For some strange reason, he could feel the ominous feeling around this area, which seemed to have lessened a lot. When he asked her about this earlier, she told him that she didn’t know what and just that it was something that she felt that she needed to do.

Interesting…

With that thought, and without making any extra creaking noises, he pushed the heavy door open.

Surprisingly, it was well-oiled and didn’t make any noise as it opened to reveal a large dim hallway with many columns that held its high vaulted stone ceiling.

In the middle, the other participants were standing wary of each other as if waiting for something. To the sides of the hall, beyond the columns, there was a large cell surrounding the entire hall. Behind its iron bars, ferocious large cat-sized Demonic rats were imprisoned, scratching at the bars and growling at the contestants.

No wait… The demonic rats were not the ones in the cage, the participants were! Victor could tell that as he noticed how big the place was. This hall was like a safe zone inside of a giant rat cage!

Although the demonic rats were only at level 5 at most and a trained knight was sure to be able to kill those easily, they made Victor very nervous. There were too many of them. If those guys were to swarm someone he was a definite gonner.

“Another one, ha…” a woman in a knight suit of armor exclaimed as soon as Victor entered. “You should be the last one…” she said. She was clearly the one officially in charge here. “Welcome to the demonic test chamber, here is your final…” she paused as she watched Victor turn back and open the door wanting to leave.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I… I am not intruding on something here right?” he asked nervously as he turned to look at her as any guy would do when he walked in on a couple making out.

“Intruding?” she didn’t get it. “I don’t know what you mean, but if you leave, you will be disqualified…” she directly said.

“Ah…” Victor said with a frown as he turned around and carefully began to look around at the participants who were looking back at him from behind their masks. They were all nobles to be eaten. That was except for one. Lyra was smirking in the back as she stood next to a large column and observed everyone. “... Do I really have to participate?” he asked in a worried tone as he gave the participants and then the demonic rats a look… “Are they in too?” he asked worriedly.

“In what?” the knight asked.

“Isn’t this an orgy…” Victor asked, he really needed to act like a pervert, he had a reputation to keep after all. And his actions here would definitely reach his family members.

“...” the knight finally got it as one of the very perverted contestants to her side exploded laughing. “PATHETIC! You can joke all you want, but let me remind you of something. This place is a life-or-death challenge… And your life is in my hands!” she spat hatefully as she pointed to herself.

“A handjob too?” Victor asked making all the participants, including those who didn’t want to laugh explode.

“...” the female knight almost exploded as she secretly looked at Lyra who signaled her to calm down. Then made a knife signal with her hand.

The female knight smirked as she looked back at Victor as if he was already just dead meat!

“Since everyone is here, I can start the explanation!” she said, clearing her throat. “This is one of the contest’s ending chambers, it contains a final test with a chance to achieve enough flags to finish the contest! You will…” she began to explain.

“Like I asked before, does it involve those demons in cages?” Victor interrupted. as he looked at the demonic rats surrounding the hall.

“Let me finish!” she spat. “In this hall the test is simple… All of you will have to go into the rat cage where flags are scattered at random. You will only be able to leave after your total number of flags reaches 30!” she said, making each of the contestants look at the flags that they had to stick to their belts according to the rules... Most had 10, and none had more than 20.

“Those who walk out will be considered to have won the contest!” she said. “...If you manage to stay there for 30 minutes you will be rescued, and although you would be considered to have failed, you would keep your sorry life!!” she added ominously.

“Can’t I not participate?” Victor asked.

“NO!” she replied directly. Everyone from the nobles here knew that they were here to fight for their lives. Unlike the commoners, They couldn't just forfeit.

“Are fighting between contestants allowed inside the cage?” one noble asked, it was none other than Ridgar but no one knew that except for Victor and Lyra of course.

“Yes, as long as you are in, feel free to do as you want…” she said, making all the contestants frown. Inside the cage, they would not only have to worry about the demons, but the other contestants trapping them. On the other hand, if they managed to knock out some of the weak ones, it would be quite easy to collect the flags easily without venturing deep.

“Once this stage finished, you will get the chance to cross the door behind me and make a bet with Princess Aerith using some of your flags or any other valuables that you might have… ” she said making Victor focus on the gate behind her, their he could feel the demonic presence he had been following since the beginning. Princess Aeirth? Oh…

“A bet?” someone asked.

“Yes! For every 10 flags you got, you will get one try, and if you are free to bet on anything, from marrying the princess to a chance to meet Her Highness, Princess Rosette!”

“Ohhh…” everyone looked at each other, this meant that if they got more flags they would get more chances. Still, this sounded too good to be true…

“And what if we were to lose?” The one who asked was none other than Dario.

“The contest would have already finished by that point…” she said. ”It would depend on your bet, the higher you go, the steeper the price!”

“Oh…” Everyone got excited.

“What is the game we will use to bet with Princess Aerith?” another noble asked nervously.

“It is too early to tell you that, but… It would be of no harm to tell you…” the knight said. “It can be any challenge, from fighting, fencing, painting, or making her fall for you…” she explained with a smile, making all the nobles relax as they glared at each other.

Watching them, Lyra’s grin grew wider! She wanted this contest to be fierce.

“Now… Let’s begin… Head toward cell gates scattered around the hall, and once all of you are in place then we will open them up and activate the arrays.… You will have 20 seconds to enter, any who stays behind will be ‘Eliminated’” she declared.

Slowly the nobles who looked at each other began to arrange themselves randomly. Since they couldn’t recognize each other, there was no point in thinking about it. Still, many of them seemed to be eyeing Victor. They thought he was a weakling as he tried to have some side conversation with them as they got into poison.

“Is that Aerith pretty?” he asked. “Is she married? I am not really into married women, but I wouldn’t mind trying new things…” he added.

No one replied to him. They just swore to kick his ass once they were inside!

Making sure that everyone was in place the knight, who was having a hard time ignoring Victor’s remarks, nodded. “START!” she said directly, making all the iron gates start to fade out, strangely enough, none of the demons walked out on the contrary they stepped away from the gates as if some kind of energy was repelling them.

The moment the bars vanished completely the participants, including Victor ran inside.

All had one idea in mind, to wait for others to grab enough flags before attacking them!

“ATTACK!”

“FIGHT!”

BAM!

BAM!

The battle started immediately as the rats jumped the contestants, forcing them to pause and fend themselves… That was with the expectation of one.

SQUEEK SQUEEK.

Making his armor squeak as much as possible, Victor directly crossed the other wary nobles and the rats who avoided him as he dived deep into the cell, then spotting the first flag, he ran and grabbed it before jumping to the side and avoiding the rats as he sped in a random direction where he spotted another.

He had just noticed something, although the squeaking noise seemed to be repelling the rats to a degree, the flags seemed to contain some kind of smell that was too inciting for them… This place was definitely a death trap!

SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK.

Victor was not dismayed at all as he made his armor squeak harder while making his way to the third flag.

Lyra, who was also inside the cage fighting with ease, smirked, she knew that the squeaking would not work at all after someone grabbed a flag, it is… She paused. It was working, the demon rats at the front were running away from him…

WTF?

The poor girl had no idea that Victor was using his domenic bloodline to scare the shit out of those poor rats in front of him, and disguising it as the squeaking effect. If this cage was clean enough, and she were to look down, she would really see all the shit that fell from them as they ran away from him!

The other contestants who noticed what Victor seemed to finally understand something as they quickly started to make their armor squeak… Although it was not as effective, it really helped lessen the pressure on them!

Lyra who watched all this frowned… Bastard… This would make too many people survive but she only wanted the strongest 10, the ones who could survive Aeirth’s demonic skill!

She had to finish things on her own. It seemed…

SQUEEK SQUEEK SQUEEK

“WATCH OUT!” Victor out of nowhere ran right past her bumping into her then scurried away followed by an army of angry rats.

“SHIT!” she cursed as she hurried to fight the rats before turning to look at Victor… He was running toward the exit!

Wait. Did he get enough flags already?

NO! DAMN IT! HE TOOK HERS! JUST NOW WHEN HE BUMPED INTO HER!

Looking around she noticed that she was not the only one who was looking at him hatefully. Two other participants who were unlucky enough to be on his way seemed to have had their flags snatched too!

There were others too who were keeping an eye on Victor to steal his flags from the beginning…

Too bad none of them had the gall to go and try and attack him with an entire tsunami of crazy Rats behind him, running after him as if he was the one who raped their mother and killed their father, yet in front of him, none could be found!

HOW COULD THIS BE?

SQUEEK SQUEEK … SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

Everyone could only watch as he reached the gate and jumped out! The array shimmered, clouding his flags before letting him pass.

“FIRST!” he shouted as his feet touched the ground outside!

“WHAT?”

“ALREADY?”

“DAMN IT!”

Many participants who only noticed now turned to look at him. This included Rigar who yelled in anger.

Victor ignored them as he ran toward the female knight and presented her with the flags. “I got them! Can I go an fuck… ehm. Meet Princess Aerith now?” he asked in a loud voice.

“WHA…”

“THE FUCK!”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…” one of them was so distracted hearing him that he let his guard down and was shredded into pieces by the demonic rats.

“FIGHT…”

Victor ignored them as he looked at the female knight with anticipating eyes.

“Ehm… well done… Please wait until the others finish… You will go in according to your numbers…” She said hatefully. “You will be going in last!” she added with disgust.

“Good point!” he said with a knowing nod. “Once she got a taste of this, she would never care about anything else!” he said with a perverted smile, making not only the female knight but also Lyra who heard him almost explode with anger! Too bad she was now without flags, and would need to fish for some before she could go out and kick his ass!

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