Cerf Grand-Veneur VI

Running always made Caleb feel calmer; the burning in his calves and chest was an odd comfort as he raced down the stone paths and through the cobblestone walls of the labyrinth. It gave him something to focus on other than the challenge itself, other than the sick situation they were all trapped in. When he was running, all he needed to focus on was to keep running. Even so, while his transformation was making this manageable, having been running solidly for almost two solid hours was catching up; his body was soaked in sweat, and his muscles were crying out from exertion.

His chest heaved as he slowed to catch his breath, fingers tight around the closed umbrella as he tried to place where he currently was.

Under an hour was left on the clock, and if he kept this up…then everyone would lose points. He could feel the panic at the root of his brain begin to take hold and shook his head. It would be worse for them all if he didn’t keep trying. He just had to keep having faith in the woman here that they could overcome this and that one of them would shoot him. Which was a kind of fucked up thing to be hoping for, but that’s where they were kind of at at this point

He began to move again, conserving energy at a steady jog but ready to burst into a run if he ran across anyone. He was closing in on where he started the challenge, he realized, back at the center. Not a bad place to be, he could listen for sounds of activity and take the route that seemed least likely to lead to an encounter, giving him some time to recoup before having to deal with another situation like Mira and Eliza.

The central area was by far the largest open area that Caleb had seen in the Labyrinth, a large circular area that allowed you to see the domed room up above with myriad paths at the edges all leading in different directions. He slowed his steps, walking toward the center of the room, listening for the sound of yells, hurried footsteps, anything that would indicate danger in any direction.

Annoyingly, as he closed his eyes and tried to focus, he could barely make anything out. He felt like he could detect running, but any time he tried to hone in on what direction it was coming from it felt like it shifted. With sudden realization, he realized they were all different sources. Multiple groups were closing in on his location and fast. He went to open his eyes ready to move.

What he was not ready for was Maya, just a few feet away, crouched low to the ground, completely naked, eyes filled with laser focus, and making her steps as quiet as possible as she had been approaching him.

“Shit!” The master exclaimed as he turned to run. Behind him, Maya moved to run too, pushing off from her crouched position into a leap. This was bad. Caught unawares like this, it wouldn't take much for her to keep up with Caleb, and he still needed to unfold the umbrella to block any oncoming fire.

So it was with startled relief that he reacted when, as Maya’s feet touched ground again in the center of the arena, it glowed a bright gold before dissolving into liquid, sending Maya plummeting into its sticky depths with a strangled cry of frustration.

Not knowing what was going on, but not feeling comfortable enough to stick around to find out, Caleb kept moving only to find his paths blocked off in two different directions. From the North East came a hurried Noemi and Amy, from the South came Lily and Stella, and from the west were Mira and Eliza.

Caleb’s eyes darted around, and he searched for an opening as Mira called out, “Everyone fire! He can’t dodge them all!”

Caleb only had one hope as he watched several of the women lift their pistols up to train them on him. He crouched down to make himself a smaller target and prepped to leap and hopefully out of the blast range as he heard several shots go off.

He leapt and hurtled through the air, expecting to see the crisscross of bullets beneath him or to feel the impact of at least one colliding with him. Instead, he, and those who fired- Lily, Eliza, Noemi, and Mira watched as Mira’s bullet flew wide and three bullets collided with her body. All the others found their hands twitch at the last second from their mark on Caleb to focus solely on the agent.

The effect was instantaneous as Mira let out a bloodcurdling shriek as her body convulsed. She fell down to her knees, her hips thrusting, seeking out any friction they could find as her eyes rolled to the back of her skull. Even after the initial shockwave hit, her body wouldn't stop shaking from the aftershocks, leaving her face a glazed, thoughtless expression before her body hit the ground.

Caleb tumbled as he hit the ground, moving into a somersault with the honey pit behind him. Scrambling to his feet, he didn’t know how long he had until another volley would be fired. And as if responding to the thought, he saw that Noemi was quickly turning the barrel of her gun and brought it to aim squarely at him.

Moving desperately to try and get back to his feet, Caleb scurried like a roach across the ground, trying to right his posture. He needn’t have been so panicked, as while he was moving to right himself, a red blur crossed the arena and tackled Noemi and pinned her against the wall.

Noemi squirmed around the imp’s grip, “Stella!? What are you doing?”

“I mean, don’t take this the wrong way, girlie, but if I have my druthers, I’m not letting your transformation take the win.” Stella wrapped her arms suggestively around Noemi’s waist as Noemi tried to keep her gun out of reach, wincing under the other woman’s grasp.

“What the hell! I’m just trying to do what’s best for everyone!” Noemi let out a yelp as Stella let her weight go limp to cause both of them to tumble to the side on the ground.

“Yeah, babies ever after? Never been a fan of the trope. You want to get knocked up, that’s your business, but I’m not letting that be a unilateral decision on Caleb’s part. Sorry boyo!” The Imp scrambled to sit on the other woman’s chest as she reached down to keep her arms from moving, which, given the weight difference between the two, was causing quite the struggle.

Caleb didn’t make out anything that was said, though, and turned to go to the only open direction. He would need to jump the honey pit, but the path beyond it was open. Had been open, because as he turned, he saw Maddy with her muzzle trained on him and ready to fire, having snuck into the room during the chaos just prior.

The Chef kept her gun trained on him, and while Caleb could swing his umbrella forward to block off the attack, he felt his hair stand on end as, behind him, he detected movement. He had a split second to make a call, and he hesitated, and as he stood frozen, suddenly a surge came from the honey pit and rising upward, gasping for air was Maya, her body shuddering as she reached for the side for support.

It didn’t take long after her rise that her gaze met Maddy’s, and Maya let out an aggressive “NO!” before turning and firing on the chef and yelping as the recoil moved through her newly sensitive flesh and sent her bending over.

Maddy moved to run, but not possessing any enhanced reflexes at the short distance, she couldn't move out of the way in time, and she was sent hurtling to the ground, her underwear dissolving and leaving her naked. Maddy hit her fist against the ground as the rest of her body was stunned, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, “damnit!”

No longer distracted by the threat in front of him, Caleb moved to see the source of the threat behind, only to find that Amy had closed the distance between them and now lunged forward. The oni reasoned that, without being able to coordinate offensives at this point, the best chance was to remove Caleb’s defenses and fire at close range. She locked her gun arm under Caleb’s armpit, freezing him in place.

She reached out with her other hand and seized the umbrella, twisting it from his grasp she sent it to the side, bouncing along the ground.

Caleb twisted his shoulder trying to break away, but even if he wasn’t exhausted, his strength paled in comparison to the monstrous strength afforded to Amy by her Oni transformation. That being said, even if he couldn't compare to her strength, physics could still be on his side. He twisted his back, making the joint under his arm the fulcrum and sending them both crashing to the ground.

Caleb coughed as the impact knocked the wind out of his chest, but was satisfied to hear Amy also gasp out for air as she collided with the hard stone. Loosening her hold on him for just a moment. Caleb tried to wriggle free of her grip, but even in her slackened grasp, temporarily, he was unable to wrench himself out.

Amy dropped her gun, using her hand to brace Caleb’s head and keep him from moving. If she could just immobilize him, she could grab her gun in a second and finish it off. She only needed a second, so if she could just keep Caleb from moving for long enough, and keep him away from the umbrella, she had this.

However, Amy had miscalculated, or rather, she hadn’t been operating on complete information. As she had been sneaking close to Caleb to grab him, she hadn’t been able to see the honey pit in front of him, and when Maddy had gone down, she had assumed that Caleb had fired on her with his umbrella. So as she wrapped her other arm around Caleb and bent her head over his shoulder, her eyes went wide.

There in the golden pit of honey, skin gleaming with the sticky substance, eyes shaded as she stared down the barrel of the gun with killer focus, was Maya, with an intensity that made Amy shiver involuntarily.

Amy panicked; she had less than a second to react as Maya had her gun pointed at the two reclined on the ground. She moved to flip Caleb out of the way so she could scramble for her gun, but it was too late. With a thunderous crack, the purple-haired woman’s gun fired and collided with the Master’s chest that the oni had offered unintentionally.

As the bullet made contact, Caleb felt all wind leave his chest, and he and Amy were both sent hurtling backward, tumbling on the ground. Then, on all fours, everyone watched as Caleb’s body was consumed with purples flames, searing into his form without burning him as the transformation took root, and Caleb could feel something, a layer that he hadn’t known had been protecting him, was peeled back.

There was a pervasive silence amongst the group as the reality sank in, and then there was the sound of trumpeting fanfare, a disembodied choir and orchestra broke out into music as all around them the walls that they had been trapped in for two plus hours sank into the ground. The banners on display burned up from the bottom to the top until only one remained

No Gods, No Masters: Before now, Caleb was held separate from his harem in terms of the game; no longer. Caleb will now receive a stipend of BP each round and only be able to make purchases using it. He will also be treated as a contestant for the purposes of transformations, including Sabotages, and be able to use Sabotages himself.

Everyone began to rise to their feet, dusting themselves off. It was over. Whatever conflict that had happened between them in the maze was over. Hopefully. Caleb rose up and walked to the pit of liquid gold that Maya was still sunk into and reached down with his arm. He wanted to show their was no hard feelings so he smiled

“You really pulled through there at the end, when everything was chaos.” Caleb kept his hand outstretched.

Maya gave a silent nod without acknowledging Caleb or his hand reaching out to her. Slightly concerned, Caleb tilted his head, “Can I help you out?”

“Oh,” Maya broke out of whatever trance she had been in and seemed to finally recognize that Caleb was standing there, “Yes, thank you.” She took his arm but then immediately let out a gasp that was far more sensual than either had been expecting. Meeting his eyes for a second, Maya blushed, “It’s the honey…I’m…sensitive.”

“O-okay” Caleb managed to remark as he assisted Maya out of the hole, trying to ignore the light mewling sounds escaping her lips as she climbed out.

In the background, he could faintly hear Noemi tearing into Stella for tackling her but was relieved to hear no real vitriol, just frustration. Everyone was gathering themselves up in various states of undress. Caleb gave Maya another look as she stood up, “I thought you’d be happier about winning the game, you seem…out of it?”

Maya blinked and clutched her hands to her chest “I-I am happy its just…” She suddenly turned to Caleb, “Caleb, before the game-”

She was cut off by Lucian's voice as the demon floated over, accompanied by Andrea and the still caged up Reyna, “Well, well! Looks like our resident gamer girl isn’t all bark, everyone! Let’s give it up for Maya Quinn! Not only did she manage to land the shot on our master, but she also managed to earn quite a few VP on top of it! Let’s take a gander at those final scores!”

In the air like a see-through chalkboard, a full breakdown of everyone’s points appeared.

Twirling his slapstick, Lucian continued, “Of course, not only that, but Maya has earned herself immunity for this round's transformations. But that does lead us neatly into our next segment-” The demon’s voice rose

Right, of course, amongst the challenge and adrenaline, it was easy to forget the worst was yet to come. But as Lucian was about to declare, he was interrupted by Reyna.

“Um, Lucy…? Remember the AMA message thing? It’s blinking.” The fox chirped up.

The host rounded on her irritably, “What, that’s not possible, I turned those off.. I” He stared down, looking at the small book, which was indeed blinking in the corner. The demon clicked his tongue, “One moment, folks, it appears a glitch has happened. We’ll sort this out and be right back.”