Cerf Grand-Veneur III

Stella had her right hand on the wall as she moved through the stone pathways. Every so often, her gaze darted toward above the stone walls. Navigation in here wasn’t really all that hard; the banners surrounding the arena acted almost like a compass rose, with her own acting as north. The first domesticated roses were from China 5,000 years ago, after which they traveled west. Journey to the West is a Buddhist epic staring son wukong. Dragon Ball is based on the journey to the West, and Goku had a son named Gohan. Gohan is the Japanese word for rice, but also meal, indicating the cultural importance of the crop…

Stella shook her head and ran her latex-covered fingers along the wall. The sensation of the latex rubbing against the surface of her fingers and then the stone was annoying enough to recenter her, though she wished she had the grounding presence of her bare skin on the stone. If this really were a labyrinth in nature, there would be no proper exit, but all paths should eventually lead toward the center if you were moving in the right direction. Stella knew she was; compass rose, dragon ball, all that.

She held her gun steady in her left hand and kept her gaze forward. She doubted that Caleb had moved too far from the center. Knowing him, he had wasted time at the start agonizing over which direction to go. Probably looked like a chicken with its head cut off, eyes all wide and panicky. Cute. He’d be taking this so seriously, too. Because of course he would, Lucian said he’d punish them if he didn’t, so he was gonna have tryhard mode engaged. What a geek. Cute.

She made her way to the end of the hallway, where the area opened up into a large circular area with numerous paths leading into it from the edge. This must be the center; Stella confirmed it by looking up and seeing the center of the dome lined up with the interior. The dome must be purely for Caleb’s benefit, wouldn’t do to have him panicking about during a challenge. While the Roman Empire did perfect the dome architectural structure, they wouldn't have been capable of making one on this scale, not with the tools they had.

Stella reached for the wall and was annoyed to find empty air. She pinched her fingers together and began to count the stone tiles on the far wall. She could try to deduce which path Caleb took, look for clues, all that, or…she could hazard a guess. Basic psychology would say that our responsibility-touting master would instinctively move toward the person he was most concerned about, and who was the sweetest cinnamon roll of the bunch? Her eyes looked toward the path underneath Maddy’s banner and started down it.

She kept moving down the path, right hand on wall, left hand on gun, until she reached a bend in the path. She slowly peered around and was satisfied to see Caleb at a crossroads, shoulders hunched, so tense, taking this so seriously. What a bum. Cute. Well, if he was distracted, then there was only one thing to do!

“Hey, Hey boytoy!” Stella grinned widely as she pulled the trigger, aiming for Caleb’s shoulder. In a jerky motion, Caleb turned, swinging the arm with the umbrella upward, and as if reacting to his instincts, the umbrella opened wide and took the shot, deflecting the bullet harmlessly into the nearby wall.

Caleb looked over the corner of the umbrella, “Dammit, Stella! You startled me!”

Stella smirked, Cute, “Yeah, that was kind of the point, Caleb. Element of surprise and all that?”

The master raised an eyebrow, “You called out as you fired, kinda voids the element of surprise.”

“Ah, yes, I guess, but come on, it's more fun that way.” Stella twirled her gun in her hand.

“Also, what the hell is up with that transformation you wrote, trying to give me more reasons not to go outside?” Caleb's tone was defensive, but Stella could hear the undercurrent of being amused, and her grin got bigger.

“Having a sexy vampire boyfriend is on my bucket list, you know?” The imp quipped, “plus I bet we could get you a sun-blocking umbrella. That’s your thing now, right?”

“You’re a walking disaster.” Caleb was smiling at this point, and Stella felt a lightness in her gut.

Bouncing slightly on her heels, Stella began to sidle closer. “SO now what, we go our separate ways until I shoot you again?”

“That doesn’t seem your style, “ Caleb remarked, keeping the shield of his umbrella aimed towards Stella.

“I’m a woman of multitudes, Caleb, you can’t open to page 32 of my life and think you know me.” Stella gripped the handle of her gun tightly while never letting her eyes leave Calebs.

“Pretty sure if I’m reading One Fish Two Fish, I get the idea.” The Master joked back

“Oh, haha, but you’d never know the good Dr. did porn and political cartoons. Also, Hotfoot!” The imp called out.

“Hotfoot? Oh-shi-” Caleb jumped back just in time to avoid being shot in the foot by Stella, and as he pulled back, retracted the umbrella, and with a slight pumping motion of his arm, caused it to fire off, colliding with Stella in the chest and sending her flying back.

Caleb made a slight sympathetic wince and then turned to move, “Sorry, Stella, not ready for the commitment of being a B-movie character yet!” With that, he darted off onto one of the paths, leaving Stella alone.

On the ground, Stella groaned and pressed her bare back against the wall, reaching up to massage he head. She looked down at the loose definition of underwear she had been left in and sighed. He ran off before he could even see it. Dumbass.

Her body was stiff and her limbs didn’t want to cooperate. By the time she was up, Caleb was nowhere to be seen. She could follow after him, but that wasn’t really her goal in all this. She’d shoot him if she had to. But now that she had…unless they were in danger of no one getting him, she could focus on points for a bit. And sabotages. That sounded like fun.

Caleb kept up at a loose jog for a while after leaving Stella behind. He eventually paused at a split in a path, but figured he shouldn’t take too long to consider his choices, given what had just happened. Speaking of, he now wondered who the hell had made this umbrella and why. It was almost like it reacted to his reflexes. So naturally did it swing open when he moved to parry or fire at the slightest movement of aggression…Caleb had assumed Lucian was joking at their expense, calling this a tool of an assassin, but he was faced with the uncomfortable prospect that the demon had been entirely in earnest.

The Master kept his movements light at a jog; he was too nervous that if he ran, he would be announcing his presence to the woman as he approached, and, while the umbrella was amazing, he didn’t think he could keep up with constant preemptive attacks. If Stella hadn’t announced hers, he was pessimistic if he could have avoided her attempts. Even if he had an assassin’s weapon and maybe his fencing reflexes were back, he was far from being some augmented or synthetic superhuman assassin.

The game was weighted against him; he could only potentially stun his assailants, and he couldn’t eliminate them. The clock was more of their enemy than he was. Which was good? He guessed. Ultimately, he should be rooting for the woman to do well in this competition. But also, he didnt want to be shot.

Ultimately, this game was designed to put him on the back foot, get the girls to compete, and in the end they’d all come out…well, only time would tell. Tensions were high even before the challenge started. Which was strange because it was also the most the group as a whole was getting along since they got here. Eggshell fine, he supposed, was the term.

He was about to turn a corner when he heard the sound of someone shifting around uncomfortably. He put his back to the wall and made out the slightly hunched figure of Maddy, a rapidly vanishing silver card in her hand. A sabotage? Well, things were already escalating if Maddy of all people was using those this early. Shit.

He was now faced with an impasse; he could turn around, running back into Stella to avoid Maddy’s detection, he could try to rush by and hope that she was so preoccupied she wouldn't take a shot, or he could preemptively clear the room. Caleb quietly cursed as he remembered Lucian’s phrasing; a good-faith effort might not count as avoiding conflict.

Gripping the umbrella tight, the master grit his teeth and turned the corner, and before Maddy could react, he aimed the shot at her backside and sent the blonde sprawling to the ground. Left in pink underwear, it was with great effort that she managed to raise her gaze and let out a quiet “Caleb…”

The launch forward was so violent that Caleb stopped in his tracks, worried that Maddy might actually be hurt. “Sorry, Maddy, I’ll make it up to you later.”

He went to move away and was surprised by the sound of a gunshot and felt the air move by his waist. Turning his gaze to Maddy on the ground, his eyes widened to see her shakily bracing her gun at her side and lining up to take another shot.

“Shit!” Caleb moved to hightail it out of there down the path before the chef could manage to take another shot. That was not what he had expected in the least. Wasn’t Maddy the sweet one? Then he remembered their outing on the island and was **** to reconcile that there was something of an intense focus in the woman that was extremely captivating. He just never imagined it manifesting at the end of a gun.

He let out a slow breath. He had no idea how much time had passed, but the thought of keeping this up for three hours was already seeming like more of an arduous task than he had imagined. There was nowhere to hide, just running, and hoping that when he encountered someone, he shot them before they shot him.

Still, he remembered the first challenge, watching from the audience and feeling so powerless to do anything while he watched as the game that Lucian designed tore the group apart. His fingers flexed around the umbrella’s handle. This was better, maybe it was stressful, maybe it was nerve-wracking, but this was better than being a voiceless spectator.

Turning his gaze down the next path, Caleb took up a jog and began to move again, keeping his eyes peeled for whoever he might run across next.

Lily didn’t know how long she had been moving since her encounter with Noemi, only that she had heard the scattered sounds of gunshots from farther away in the arena. She swallowed hard. Part of her had hoped that there would be some sort of loophole to getting around this, but now that shots were being fired, she was **** to accept that the only way she was making it through this was by using the gun that weighed so heavily in her hands.

Eventually, she found herself in a triangular-shaped alcove; no one else was here but in the corner where the point of the triangle was, and illuminated in a pillar of light was a floating bullet.

“Shit” was all Lily could think. She currently had full ammunition, but there was no doubt that this was a high-value drop and that if anyone else got it, it would be used against her. Maybe she could just carry it around with her until she had taken a shot and needed to reload. She made a move towards it and then realized, to her horror, that she heard footsteps rapidly approaching.

She made her move towards the bullet, but before she could grab it, the purple locks of Maya rounded the corner and locked eyes with her. When they finally came across each other, Lily had expected that Maya would have a big grin on her face as she enjoyed the “game” they were playing. So when she saw the strict look of determination, it not only caught her offguard but made her heart sink.

Maya paused momentarily, but didn’t immediately move for her gun; instead, she regarded Lily carefully and then asked, “Is that an extra bullet?”

“Um, yeah, yeah, I guess it is,” Lily said evenly and realized to her horror she heard another set of uneven footsteps.

Maya moved her hand down towards he gun, “Are you taking it?”

“Shit!” Lily moved to her own gun but was surprised as rounding the corner, a strange sight appeared.

Dressed in only her black bra and panties, stumbling like half drunk and with hair dyed a shade of blonde, Mira appeared. It also took Lily a moment to register that she had acrylic nails on, but they were plainly visible as she held her gun aloft and looked the other women down. Lily cursed her bad luck that two of the people she was supposed to be targeting now had her cornered.

A sabotage, that’s what it had to be. And while Lily might not know it, she was totally correct.

SABOTAGE! Full Clip, Empty Head: The target loses the ability to think strategically for the next hour, dedicating themselves to a run-and-gun style of play and giving them like such a cute make over!

Mira opened her mouth, and her voice was around an octave higher than normal. “Omigosh, you guys, like, I can’t believe I ran into both of you here. Its such a coinikydink. But like I need to get through so bang bang y’know?” She raised her gun and lazily fired off two shots.

While Lily moved to get out of the way of the bullet and narrowly dodged as it clipped by her shoulder, Maya made no move to dodge but instead leapt towards the floating extra bullet on the platform. Grabbing hold of it, she took the bullet to the back and collided with the wall as her latex dissolved and left her in purple lingerie on the ground, chest heaving.

“Goddamn shit!” Lily cursed mentally and pointed her gun at Mira, who stared wide-eyed as the bullet hit her and sent her to the ground, as her remaining clothes vanished.

Lily didn’t stick around to gawk. Maya had the extra bullet now, and she was still outnumbered and outgunned. She needed to get out of here and retackle the situation on different terms. Whatever was going on with Mira made it difficult to deal with her, as she seemed to be shooting first and asking questions later.

And whatever was going on with Maya? Lily swallowed. She had come far in her understanding of the lottery winner and understood now that she wasn’t an inherently malicious person, even if her thoughts and reasoning were alien to her. But the emotion she had seen in the woman’s eyes just made her…sad.

But she couldn’t focus on that now. She needed distance, she needed to find Caleb, and she needed…to get through this.