The True Endgame

Book 6: Chapter 22:

Fenrir’s opponent might have been caught, but Mister Smiles refused to surrender as he tried to break free from Fenrir’s chains. Though, all Mister Smiles looked like he was doing was wiggling around on the ground while wrapped up in the chains.

It looked very silly. Nobody was exactly sure how to react to the amusing sight. More importantly, they were interested in what Fenrir was going to do next.

And there was really only one thing for Fenrir to do.

Fenrir sat down on top of his enemy’s abdomen and the chains around it, raised a fist, and slammed it right into Mister Smiles’ oversized, smiling head. “I don’t have to do this if you surrender.”

Mister Smiles stopped moving around for a few moments, looked up at Fenrir’s face, and then continued trying to break free.

“Tabs, doesn’t this count as winning?” Fenrir asked.

“Not until he’s dead or given up!” Tabitha answered.

With a heavy sigh, Fenrir slammed another fist down into Mister Smiles’ face.

The sight became even sillier as every punch from Fenrir temporarily deflated the mask and pushed it inward, causing the smiling face to look like it was making a sour expression.

“You can’t fight back and I’m not letting go of you. Just give up,” Fenrir warned again.

Mister Smiles, once more, stopped what he was doing to look straight up at Fenrir.

And then Mister Smiles lifted both of his knees up to try and knee Fenrir in the back. Unfortunately for the masked fighter, there wasn’t nearly enough force in the “attack” to do any harm to Fenrir.

“Last warning,” Fenrir said.

Mister Smiles, for the third time, stopped what he was doing to look straight at Fenrir.

And then he headbutted Fenrir in the stomach.

“Alright then,” Fenrir said before mercilessly slamming fist after fist directly into Mister Smiles’ face.

Yet, no matter how much he fought Mister Smiles, the masked opponent refused to surrender and just would not die.

The sight was a combination of silly and brutal. Fenrir, sitting on top of his chained opponent, punched Mister Smiles over and over and over and over again without any more than a half second between blows. It looked as if he were trying to murder the masked enemy, and nothing about it seemed like a fair fight anymore. It seemed more like cruel torture if anything.

Fenrir paused for a moment when he felt a certain sensation.

“My girlfriend’s fetishes are kind of scary,” Fenrir thought to Saya as he turned to look over at Nell.

While most of the watching crowd were wishing the battle would just end at this point because of it either being boring or too brutal, Nell stood there with reddened cheeks as she fanned herself and eagerly waited for Fenrir’s brutality to continue.

“Why do I have a feeling she wishes she was the one underneath me right now instead?” Fenrir asked Saya.

“Because she’s lewd,” Saya answered. “Don’t you have a guy to punch more? You have to put on a good show for your girlfriend, onii-wan.”

“Put on a show? Alright, then I’ll do that.”

Sure, Fenrir was slightly intimidated by the bizarre fetish of Nell, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be a good boyfriend and try to give her even more to watch! Whatever the rest of the crowd thought didn’t matter. All that mattered to him at that point was showing off for Nell.

That was why he used the chain wrapped around Mister Smiles’ torso to also wrap around his neck.

The smiling head inflated to the point where it looked like it was about to pop as Fenrir strangled Mister Smiles with the chain.

“All you have to do is surrender! Just turn your head and look at Tabs if you’re ready to give up!” Fenrir shouted at Mister Smiles.

Mister Smiles turned his head in the opposite direction of Tabitha.

One more thing officially mattered to Fenrir than Nell’s excitement.

Putting Mister Smiles in his place.

“Alright. I’m killing you,” Fenrir said, tightening the chain as much as he could.

Never before had Fenrir had to deal with such a stubborn opponent who refused to die like this. Mister Smiles was, by far, the most stubborn enemy that Fenrir had ever faced. Not even Bonekraka was as stubborn as this during their old duels… plus it was usually Fenrir losing those.

“I’m starting to think he’s a masochist,” Fenrir thought. “I’m not actually pleasuring him, am I?”

“You could always look at his pants to see,” Saya answered.

“I’ll have to pass on that.”

Fenrir forced as much strength into his arms as he could. The more power he forced into his arms, the stiffer and spikier the fur coating them looked.

Of course, to everybody watching who couldn’t see the finer details, it only looked like the fur around his arms got puffier like an upset cat’s tail.

This continued for a couple of more minutes.

“Alright, we’re gettin’ bored here. You playin’ around or somethin’, wolf?” Tabitha asked Fenrir.

“I’m trying here! He won’t die!” Fenrir explained, even going so far as to headbutt his opponent while strangling him.

That really made the sensation he was picking up from Nell intensify.

“Oi, smiles, look over here so we can end this. We’ve still got a main show to put on,” Tabitha said.

Mister Smiles slowly, ever so slowly, turned his head toward Tabitha.

But then looked the other direction right before his eyes could reach her.

“I think he’s screwin’ with us,” Tabitha said. “Try breakin’ his neck or somethin’.”

“It would’ve broke by now if it could,” Fenrir said.

“Use your hands and make him look this way then. I’ll count it as him surrenderin’ since nobody wants to watch this.”

“Why don’t you just end the match? Does anybody think I haven’t won?”

“The rules are the rules. Ya gotta respect them.”

Fenrir sighed again as he grabbed Mister Smiles by the sides of his head and twisted it to face Tabitha.

Only… the head stopped turning as soon as its eyes were close to facing Tabitha.

“It won’t budge?” Fenrir asked, feeling like he was trying to twist solid steel.

“Alright, now I’m startin’ to think that you’re screwin’ with us, too,” Tabitha said.

“I promise you I’m not.”

“Just use your sword.”

“I – wait, you’re right. I do have a sword.” Fenrir pulled his hands away from Mister’s Smiles neck to draw his blade and press the metal edge of it down against his opponent’s neck. “I’d rather not kill you, but you’re leaving me no choice here.”

And so, Fenrir pushed his blade down into Mister Smiles’ neck.

Except it was stopped.

The smiling headpiece reached down to the bottom of Mister Smiles’ neck, and Fenrir’s blade was not even enough to cut through the fabric.

“Seriously?! How?! Is this stupid smiling mask some legendary item or something?!” Fenrir shouted.

Fenrir had never seen such bullshit before.

Sure, gag items were always a thing in any MMO worth playing, but they were just for gags! Those items were never actually good! And sure, in some MMOs, it was possible to make one item look like another to get the look of one with the stats and effects of the other, but it just wasn’t fair if some small, legendary helmet was able to have its effect amplified by being made to look like some oversized gag item!

“Pupaya, are they hacking?” Fenrir asked.

“Even asking that is an insult to virtual assistants everywhere, and an insult to the overseer,” Saya answered. “A-and don’t just randomly call me Pupaya! I have a name!”

“I know you do, Pupaya.”

Fenrir tossed his blade to the side and stared down at his opponent who kept on trying to knee and headbutt him.

“Your refusal to give up would be funny if you were actually getting hurt. You’re like a wannabe black knight,” Fenrir told his seemingly immortal opponent.

Mister Smiles stopped to look at Fenrir for a few moments longer than usual after hearing that.

“Well, there’s only one more thing that I can think of. If this doesn’t kill you then I have no idea what will. Wait, who beat him before and how?” Fenrir asked, looking over to his friends and girlfriends.

“Oh, I zapped him,” Eva answered. “I think he’s weak to lightning.”

“Great.”

It wasn’t great. Fenrir had no way of performing any sort of electricity-based attack.

There was one last thing he could try.

He could trust those bestial instincts that wished to break free whenever he really got into fights.

Sure, he’d rather bite into the necks of his girlfriends instead of some beefy, muscular, mostly naked man with only underwear and a smiling headpiece on, and in a sexual way rather than a violent way, but it was all that he could think of.

And so, Fenrir lowered his head toward his opponent’s neck and sunk his sharp canines into the part of the headpiece covering Mister Smiles’ neck.

“N-nngh…”

Fenrir’s eyes shot open as he lifted his head up to look down at Mister Smiles.

That was definitely a moan.

And it was a moan from a man.

It sounded like a very feminine and soft moan.

Nobody else seemed to have heard anything going by the crowd’s bored expressions still.

Was he just imagining it? Was he just so used to his girlfriends’ noises whenever he bit their necks that he imagined one coming from this overly-masculine, smiling person?

Whatever just happened… biting the neck of Mister Smiles stopped him from moving and trying to fight back. Instead, he stayed perfectly still staring up at Fenrir’s face.

That was when Fenrir got an idea.

All he had to do to get Mister Smiles to “surrender” was to turn his head enough to look at Tabitha.

So, Fenrir lowered his mouth down to the side of Mister Smiles’ neck opposite from Tabitha.

Mister Smiles tried to tilt his head to block Fenrir from reaching his neck, but it didn’t work. Fenrir sunk his fangs against the elastic surface of the headpiece and bit as hard as he could.

“A-ah!”

Fenrir was definitely hearing things. Only Cassiel moaned so much from him biting her neck.

He shook the sound out of his head and continued biting. Yet, no matter how hard he bit, his fangs couldn’t penetrate the surface. It felt more like he was biting on a squishy chewtone than somebody’s neck.

And, apparently, Nell was more than happy with the sight of her lover sinking his fangs into an even larger man’s neck.

Fenrir was already beyond the point of no return. He figured he might as well try to give Nell a good show still by biting his opponent into defeat.

Though, he didn’t want to know just what he was imagining in her head. He was sure that it involved far more than only biting the larger man.

“Nn – ah… h-har—nngh!”

“I feel like I’m going crazy,” Fenrir thought to Saya.

“Have fun with that,” Saya replied.

The longer that Fenrir bit into his opponent’s neck, the more Mister Smile turned his head to the side toward Tabitha as if to give Fenrir more space.

Though, as far as Fenrir was concerned, Mister Smiles was only trying to get away from his fangs.

It was then that he felt something.

Looking down between their bodies, with his fangs still latched onto Mister Smiles’ neck, Fenrir could have sworn that he felt something touch his leg.

But there was nothing there.

It felt like something slid up against his leg, and he was worried that it might have been a certain something of Mister Smiles, but he was nowhere near that. His legs were to the sides of Mister Smiles’ torso. Mister Smiles’ arms were tied behind his back, so there was no way that any part of Mister Smiles could have caused that sensation Fenrir felt.

First, Fenrir heard feminine moans. Then, he felt what almost felt like a hand grazing his inner thigh.

He must have been seriously conditioned by playing with his girlfriends if he was both hearing phantom noises and feeling phantom touches.

“Cl-close—I-I’m… a-almost—”

Fenrir was starting to get disturbed by the mental conditioning affecting him. He felt another touch against his inner thigh, too. It was almost as if something inside of Mister Smiles’ skin was reaching up to touch him.

“Just give up,” Fenrir said in a low voice that almost sounded like a growl as his words came from around his fangs closed on Mister Smiles’ neck.

“Ha-haah—!”

Mister Smiles’ body jerked underneath Fenrir in one final attempt to throw Fenrir off of his body.

Or so Fenrir assumed.

Once the violent thrashings of Mister Smiles were over with, Tabitha shouted with a voice full of relief, “The wolf wins! Mister Smiles surrended by lookin’ at me!”

The crowd cheered, but not because they were happy that Fenrir was the champion of the losers.

They were just really happy that the fight was finally over.

“Finally,” Fenrir said and retracted his chains from Mister Smiles’ body. “You still alive?”

All he could see from Mister Smiles was that he must have been breathing heavily going by his rising and falling chest.

Fenrir offered a hand to Mister Smiles. “Here.”

Mister Smiles looked hesitant to accept Fenrir’s help. The large, muscular fingers of Mister Smiles hesitated to actually touch Fenrir once they were close enough.

It was Fenrir who had to go the rest of the way to grab Mister Smiles’ hand to help him up.

And then he felt something strange.

The texture of Mister Smiles’ hand did not feel human at all. It felt… elastic? It almost felt as if he were touching a balloon, just like when he was punching the smiling headpiece.

Not only that, but Mister Smiles couldn’t look in Fenrir’s direction at all.

Regardless, Fenrir helped Mister Smiles up. “Good fight,” he said. “But you really should have saved us the time and surrendered sooner.”

Mister Smiles turned his head just a tiny bit as if to look at Fenrir, but he stopped before their eyes could meet.

Well, before Mister Smiles’ fake, round, black eyes could meet Fenrir’s actual eyes.

Mister Smiles then reached a hand up to his neck where he was bit and touched it in an almost tender manner as he walked away without saying a single word.

Before Fenrir could think any harder about what just happened, a certain girlfriend of his rushed up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“What’s wrong? You seem pretty excited,” Fenrir said, looking down at Nell.

She smiled up at him and said, “How could I not be, my ravenous hero? I could tell that you were putting on such a show for me! It was a very, very delightful show. There will be another showing of it, yes? Perhaps with a replacement for the other actor?”

“And just who would this replacement be?”

“Why, none other than I, of course! Though, I may not be able to stay silent the whole time like he did.”

“You didn’t hear him say anything?”

“Hmm? We could not hear a single noise other than yours.”

“Got it. Well, I’m glad you enjoyed the show at least. I feel like I have to wash my mouth out now.”

Serra walked up to join them. “That looked super lewd,” she said.

“Please don’t make it any worse than it already is.”

“You can have a boyfriend if you want one. We don’t want another, but you can have one.”

“I don’t want a boyfriend.”

“But you were doing lewd things to him.”

“I was biting him.”

“Biting is lewd,” Serra said and looked at Cassiel.

“W-why do you have to look at me after saying that?” Cassiel asked.

“You know why.”

“She has a point,” Fenrir said.

Even Azalabulia and Nell looked at Cassiel.

“I-it’s not my fault,” Cassiel said. “I can’t help what noises I make…”

“Never change, Cass Cass,” Fenrir said.

“I—”

“Oi!” Tabitha shouted. “The people are waitin’! Cass, Eva, get out there!”

Cassiel and Eva looked straight into each other’s eyes and headed out into the center of where the crowd was gathered around. Meanwhile, Fenrir and the rest got back to the sidelines where they could stand and watch the battle that was about to play out.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have flustered her right before the match,” Fenrir said.

“Cass Cass is fine,” Serra said.

Looking Cassiel over, Fenrir did notice that any of the red previously in her cheeks was already gone as she looked Eva in the eyes.

“Wait, this seems more serious than I thought it’d be,” Fenrir said.

Serra looked away and said, “My bad.”

“What did you do?”

“Ah, my hero, Serra sparked the flame of conflict between them while you repeatedly, wonderfully, punched your fists into your opponent’s face,” Nell explained.

“How?”

“She said she could not guess who would win! Cassiel was not very happy about not having Serra’s unconditional faith in her victory. She declared that she would win without any effort! I think she must have forgotten that Eva was standing right next to her, so Eva took that as a challenge.”

“So… they’re actually going to fight – I mean, like really, seriously fight?”

“I believe so!”

Sparks of electricity came off of Eva’s thunderbird wing while Cassiel drew her blade and got into a fighting stance.

“The fight hasn’t even begun yet,” Fenrir said.

“I don’t think they’ll wait,” Serra said. “I still don’t know who will win.”

“Eva has the advantage,” Azalabulia said, finally speaking up.

“What makes you say that?” Fenrir asked.

“Magic and flying. Cassiel has no ranged attacks and is stuck on the ground. Eva can both fly and, while she doesn’t have any magical attacks, her body parts essentially allow her to use long-ranged skills identical to using magic.”

“I would’ve thought that you’d go into Azalabulia fangirl darkness mode over their battle. Instead you’re like a sports analyst, not that I know much about sports.”

“I – I’m too tired from my battle with Nell. That drained my ability to be dramatic for the day.”

“That’s alright. I love when you’re normal, too.”

Cassiel wasn’t blushing anymore, so that obviously meant he had to make Azalabulia blush instead. And she blushed. A lot.

“Yeah. Normal Azawaza is nice,” Serra joined in, causing Azalabulia to turn an even darker shade of red.

Even Nell could not resist smiling and saying, “You are even more endearing when you are not acting like my rival, my dearest Azalabulia.”

But Nell’s words had a different expect on Azalabulia than she expected them to have.

Rather than turn an even darker shade of red yet, Azalabulia stared at Nell with excited eyes and asked, “Rival?”

“Of course!” Nell answered. “Our earlier battle was a draw. Does this not make us rivals until one or the other overwhelms the other?”

“Heh… hehehe… that is exactly what it means! It may have only been due to miraculous chance that you survived my ultimate attack, but you will be my rival until the day that I defeat you once and for all! Any who dare to oppose me and survive may have the honor of considering themselves my rival!”

“I thought you were drained of dramaticism for the day?” Fenrir asked.

“Never! The dark and the wicked cannot rest for as long as there are those who wish to oppose them! Every last ray of light must be snuffed out until the world is blanketed in darkness!”

“Ah,” Nell said, “that… backfired. Rather, while I am happy to be your rival, I intended to fluster you as the others did.”

“Fluster me? Nonsense! It is impossible to—”

“Oh! I just remembered! The last picture you sent me – what mascara were you wearing? It looked wonderful!”

Azalabulia went from high and mighty to deflated and blushing in the span of a second. “I – I – wha—”

“Your mascara! I would love to try the same brand.”

“It – it was just some cheap brand I ordered online after seeing a video of my favorite makeup artist use it…”

“I would still love to know what it is. May you please share it with me later so that I may look into it?”

“I – yeah, I can…”

“Wonderful!” Nell said, clapping her hands together and tilting her head with a gentle smile.

Fenrir no longer felt any lust coming from Nell.

But he did sense a large amount of pride coming from her.

He was sure that Nell was genuine in what she was saying… but he was also sure that she only brought it up when she did in order to fluster Azalabulia.

And it worked. Azalabulia was more of a blushing and mumbling mess than – well, since he had sex with her for the first time.

Apparently, Azalabulia could not handle the little and innocent sort of praise like that – the kind of praise that most people wouldn’t think twice about and would never be a big deal.

If Azalabulia was that unused to getting such praise, Fenrir would have to—

“I remembered something,” Serra said. “I liked the dress you wore. The one you wore for that—”

“Th-the one I wore for that mixer?! I – was that picture – it – it was still online?” Azalabulia asked, holding her hands over her face.

“Yeah. You looked really pretty. Oh, and I’m happy you didn’t find anybody there. We wouldn’t have you if you did.”

“The – the—”

“I hope you still have the dress. You looked really beautiful.”

Azalabulia’s eyes spun around as she swayed from side to side.

Fenrir could not feel Serra’s emotions like he could with Nell, but it was more than obvious to him what Serra was doing.

Well, it was more than obvious to everybody other than Azalabulia.

“Ah! I just remembered another thing!” Nell said. “That picture you had with the red contact lenses?”

“That – that is – how did you see that?!” Azalabulia shouted as she entered full-blown panic mode.

“It was public! I found myself going down the rabbit hole of your social media posts – ah, that makes me sound like a stalker, does it not? My apologies, but I could not resist! I wanted to learn more about you since I felt that we have not spent much time together.”

Azalabulia’s eyes watered up, though none of them could really be sure why they were watering. There were too many possible explanations for it to choose just one. “My – my… my costume – h-how many pictures were – were available?” she asked.

“Do you mean from the convention you attended? The local one? I must admit, I was not impressed by the amateur level of most costumes there, as rude as that may make me sound, but your costume was wonderful! It was so detailed, and it was abundantly clear that you poured your love and time into it!”

There was only one thing for Azalabulia to do at that point.

Wake from virtual reality, dig through all of her social media, and delete every single picture of her from before the past month since none of them could be trusted to not be embarrassing. Ever since she entered a relationship, she stopped uploading so many pictures of her online because she got all the attention that she needed from her boyfriend and girlfriends.

She could have sworn that she deleted the few embarrassing pictures that she left up.

But there were far more pictures than she remembered.

And they were all available for public viewing.

Just as she was about to wake from virtual reality, though, the crowd’s cheers interrupted her.

She and the others looked at what they were cheering at and saw that the battle between Cassiel and Eva was raging on without them even realizing that it started!

Fenrir and the others got so sucked into flustering Azalabulia that they had no idea what was happening.

And now, Eva was struggling to stay in the air as blood dripped from her arms.

Cassiel was in rough shape, too. Her skirt was burnt and frayed, her ponytail came loose so there was nothing to stop her hair from going everywhere, and there was a bloodied scratch going horizontal across her right cheek.

“Just look at this fight, ladies, gents, and everybody else!” Tabitha shouted. “They’re evenly matched! I bet you’re getting’ nervous if ya bet any coin!”

For once, Tabitha didn’t bet on the outcome of the fight.

There was just no way for her to tell who would win between the two. Besides, she wanted to support both of them. It was easy to bet on the girls when they were going up against men, but how could she bet between two fellow girls?

As for the opposing women, neither cared about who bet on who. All they cared about was winning.

Eva thrust her thunderbird wing out toward Cassiel, sending electricity directly at her.

Cassiel backflipped to avoid the first attack and then dodged to the side to avoid the other.

One more attack of electricity was coming straight at her, but she didn’t bother trying to dodge it.

Two attacks could not be tanked.

One attack could be.

And for as long as Eva was committed to an attack using her wings, she couldn’t dodge as Cassiel figured out.

Leaping into the air, Cassiel allowed the lightning to travel through her. It locked her muscles into place, but that was alright.

She already had her sword aimed straight for Eva’s abdomen. Cassiel’s muscles getting locked up only meant that she wouldn’t miss her attack so long as Eva didn’t move, and Eva couldn’t move.

By the time that Eva was able to use her wings for maneuvering again, Cassiel was already right in front of her.

Cassiel’s sword pierced Eva’s abdomen and reached all the way through her. The moment that Cassiel could move her muscles again, she twisted the blade inside of Eva and forced her down to the ground.

Eva crashed onto her back. Cassiel used Eva’s body as a cushion for the fall and was quick to withdraw her blade so that she could point it at Eva’s neck before she could get up.

“Give up,” Cassiel ordered in an even more serious tone than anything Fenrir was using earlier.

Not only that… but their battle seemed way more brutal despite Fenrir trying to beat the everliving shit out of Mister Smiles before trying to strangle him with chains.

“Not going to lie,” Fenrir said, “this is really hot.”

“Yeah,” Serra agreed. “We’re doing lots of lewd things after this.”

“I must admit that I prefer the hands-on method that you employed, my hero, but this is delightful as well!” Nell joined in.

But one of them was less aroused than the others. “It’s not over yet,” Azalabulia said.

Eva reached up to try and grab onto Cassiel’s blade. As long as she could disarm Cassiel, there was no chance for Cassiel to defeat her.

But Cassiel had no interest in allowing that to happen, nor did she mind killing her friend. Especially because she knew that Eva had a habit of putting herself into dangerous situations and dying as a result of them in the first place. Dying and respawning was no big deal to Eva.

But that was also why Eva did what she did.

Eva moved her neck just enough to allow Cassiel’s blade to penetrate it off-center so that it would do the least amount of damage possible, grabbed onto Cassiel’s blade, and looked directly at her opponent with her hybrid eyes.

The electricity of her thunderbird wing wasn’t the only attack that she had, but it was the only one she used so far.

Cassiel managed to convince her to use the rest of her arsenal now, too.

Meanwhile, a certain smiling figure stood in the background behind all the other players, but they were not watching the battle.

They were watching Fenrir.