Chapter 142: A Twisted Game

Within a forest of stone, a short man stood. The pillars of stone towered over him, and he giggled maniacally as he walked towards the assigned meeting place.

"Now, this will be fun." Krieg chuckled, his face twisted up and grimacing, like a demon wearing the skin of a human.

Krieg emerged onto a rocky outcrop, and gazed down at the gathered creatures; they were far fewer in number than when he had assigned the mission to begin with, but that was natural.

Portalling to unknown planes always carried an amount of risk, and even though there had been a stipulation to ensure cooperation, that didn't stop the Freemen from giving each other false and outright dangerous intel, leading them to the most hostile planes possible.

"Freemen!" Krieg yelled out, reminiscent of the first time he had gathered this strange collection of creatures. The mantis-like creatures, with its bladed claws and limbs stood tall amongst the creatures, and the reptilian in tan robes also remained. Krieg had pinned the two of them as the more powerful of the Freemen that had been summoned, and was not surprised at their survival.

Another one seemed to have come across some good fortune while searching for Kothar, this Freemen now held a stone sword, glowing with an eerie blue light. Upon further inspection, as Krieg looked more closely at the hand that grasped the sword, it seemed as though the Freeman's good fortune had masked a curse. The fingers grasping the hilt would deathly pale, and unlike most swordsmen, the man did not adjust his grip in the slightest as he walked, rather it was as if his fingers were tightly locked around the sword.

All of the gathered Freemen looked to the source of the voice, and some watched attentively, while others looked furious, wondering why they had been recalled during such a high stakes mission, with every second, the target might flee further through the myriad planes.

"The mission is over!" Krieg yelled, to answering cries of indignation and rage from the gathered Freemen, some even drew weapons, while another nocked an arrow to her enormous bow and drew it back.

"How dare you!" Krieg yelled out, his voice thundering out as he let loose the full weight of his pressure on the gathered Freemen. The crushing dark pressure weighed down on all of them, except for Sandstrider, the mantis and the man holding the cursed sword. The rest of the gathered Freemen fell to the ground, some even losing consciousness. 

"Their puny attacks could not have harmed you. Was there any need to display your domain?" The clicking noises uttered by the Mantis were translated by Krieg's pebble, and the mantis casually stabbed an unconscious figure, lifting it up high towards his jaws.

"Just showing how serious I can be, and besides, this should simplify what I'm planning to do next." Krieg grinned wide, as he opened up a menu screen on his Pebble.

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Mission Settings

-Mark as completed [Y/N].

-Edit mission parameters.

-Abort mission (A penalty will be deducted.) 

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Krieg grinned as he entered the new mission parameters, this was something he always enjoyed doing, sometimes even creating Pebble missions just for this.

A soft tone rang out from each of the Pebbles, harmonizing to create a resonant sound. The faces of many of those who were just recovered from Krieg's domain paled, and others screamed in horror and immediately activated portals, jumping through them blindly. 

"You can't be serious, this can't be permitted?" The woman who had been about to shoot Krieg had turned and now aimed her bow at the furious humanoid mole that was charging at her. She released the arrow, and it slammed into the moleman, exploding as it struck, ripping a hole right through his chest.

"Of course I can, what better entertainment can there be." Krieg laughed uproariously, this was the best. All he had to do was to change the mission parameters enforcing cooperation, and change the end goat to 'survival'. It was as simple as that.

The relatively peaceful clearing in the stone forest had transformed, in mere moments, into pandemonium. Those that had the spatial energy to power their Pebbles had teleported as soon as the message had appeared, but even some of them had been pursued, others seeing opportunity in those portals still open.,

A Freeman lay screaming on the ground, his arms had been cleanly removed by a closing portal as he had tried to pull a fleeing Freeman back.

Those that remained were one of two groups, those that were confident in their combat capabilities, and those that lacked the sufficient Spatial Energy to muster even a short range portal, to another plane within the same cluster. 

The mantis had let out a triumphant screech, the cooperation clause had been so stifling to it, and it charged into a clump of Freemen who were trying to broker an alliance, reducing them to shreds with a few swipes of its enormous claws.

Sandstrider, however, remained still, leaning against one of the stone pillars, appearing relaxing but with his trident gripped in one hand.

He watched astonished as the Freeman with the cursed blade was dragged around by his stone blade, as if he was the enormous tail on a tiny fish, as the bloodthirsty blade plunged through creature after creature, making no distinction between its targets, only avoiding those that radiated power far beyond what it could currently handle.

"New recruits, it's always the same." Sandstrider sighed, blowing out a small puff of green smoke. He watched as a group of Freemen in leather armor, with rabbit ears hopped speedily out of the clearing, bounding to where the stone trees were denser. 

As they did so, the mantis let out a joyous cry, this would only make the hunt that much more entertaining for him. The bladed mantis leapt high into the air, spreading out a pair of clear, membranous wings as it glided out over the stone forest, sweeping its head, looking for the most entertaining prey.