Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 844: Two Hammers

The front row was likely the weakest set of champions the Kaiju had, and it had taken two of his girls, two card buffs, and his Lust Stance to kill one of them in eight minutes.

’I need to be smarter about this.’

Spending all his cards in a 2v1 situation would quickly ruin their chances.

"Done."

The word came from behind his chair, small and proud.

Alexandra pulled her palms from his wrist with golden light fading from her fingertips, and the wound she’d been nursing since before the first turn was closed, new skin sealing what had been open.

Her first completed heal, and her hands weren’t even shaking anymore.

"Healed." She stared at her own handiwork like she couldn’t quite believe it. Then her face hardened. "And if you ever do that again, I will let you bleed."

"Noted."

"I mean it! And stop smiling!"

Kaiden did not stop smiling.

Alexandra huffed, folded her arms, and resumed her station behind his chair, where her indignation lasted roughly three seconds before she saw Luna bleeding on the board and her blue eyes went wide.

Golden light sputtered from her fingertips toward the tiny figure, stretching across the board’s surface.

Nothing reached her. The light hit the game’s boundary and dispersed.

She tried again, harder, both palms pushing forward. Same result.

"You can’t heal them, it appears. Would make the ’game’ rather cheap..." Kaiden sighed.

Alexandra’s hands dropped. She stared at Luna’s wounds from across the board, and the helplessness on her face was open enough that Kaiden made a decision.

He drew a blade across his other forearm, the one she hadn’t just finished healing. A significantly bigger red line opened on the skin.

"KAIDEN GREY!!!"

Golden light was already at her palms before she finished screaming his name, reflex overriding fury as she grabbed his arm and pressed down.

"You- I literally JUST- why would you-"

"You need to practice."

Kaiden wasn’t just trolling her. He knew she needed practice and he wasn’t fighting right now, so he thought he might as well.

It was not the time to have her stand around twiddling her thumbs when her healing capabilities could end up deciding life or death.

Alexandra’s healing hands didn’t stop while her glare could have scorched the board.

"You’re getting faster."

Her glare intensified.

[Board State - After Clash 1]

[♚ Claimant]

[Row 1: [] · C5(B) · C6(C) · C7(D) · C8(E) · []]

[Row 2: [] · [] · [] · C3(D) · C4(E) · []]

[Row 3: [] · [] · C2(C) · [] · [] · []]

[Row 4: Luna(A) · [] · Vespera(C) · Scarlet(D) · [] · []]

[Row 5: [] · Aria(B) · [] · [] · Calypso(E) · []]

[Row 6: [] · [] · Nyx(C) · Bastet(D) · Alice(E) · []]

[♔ Successor]

[Champion 1 (C1): The Siegehorn — ELIMINATED.]

[Defender Champions: 8/8. Claimant Champions: 7/8.]

[Cards remaining: 3 banked.]

"Kai."

Nyx’s voice carried up from her square, calm and precise. She’d been studying the same pieces from four inches tall and five rows closer.

"The front three will push forward next in a straight line, I think." She tilted her chin toward C2, C3, C4. "We can send ranged support the same way Aria joined the last fight. But its back four are likely much stronger than us four in the back... If it joins a fight and we match with our own ranged, it’s a 2v2 where their side outweighs ours."

She let that sit for a beat.

"And if we don’t match, it’s a 2v1 against whichever girl is in the arena."

The turns came fast after that.

C3 advanced one square. Kaiden answered by pushing Calypso forward to match, keeping the right flank covered.

C4 advanced one square. Kaiden moved Alice up behind Calypso into ranged support distance, mirroring the kill-lane pairing that had worked with Luna and Aria.

The front row was pushing exactly the way Nyx predicted, forward, no hesitation.

Kaiden was matching it, building his own pairs, setting up the flanking angles that would let him choose where the next clash happened.

Then the Kaiju did what it hadn’t done before.

[C7 advances.]

The Serpent uncoiled from Row 1 to Row 2 with a languid grace that made the advance look like stretching.

Light-refracting scales scattered fractured patterns across the board as it settled into its new square, and the motion was so smooth that it took Kaiden a full second to register what had happened.

A back-row piece had moved forward. The one Nyx had flagged before the first turn, coiled and watching since the board formed, had put itself within join range of every square in Row 3 and Row 4.

Row 4. Where Vespera stood. Where Scarlet stood.

"Damn it..." Nyx grumbled, unhappy they weren’t just being rushed by the front pieces. "Did it learn the importance of backing its pieces up?"

[Board State - Current]

[♚ Claimant]

[Row 1: [] · C5(B) · C6(C) · [] · C8(E) · []]

[Row 2: [] · [] · [] · C7(D) · [] · []]

[Row 3: [] · [] · C2(C) · C3(D) · C4(E) · []]

[Row 4: Luna(A) · [] · Vespera(C) · Scarlet(D) · Calypso(E) · []]

[Row 5: [] · Aria(B) · [] · [] · Alice(E) · []]

[Row 6: [] · [] · Nyx(C) · Bastet(D) · [] · []]

[♔ Successor]

[Defender Champions: 8/8. Claimant Champions: 7/8.]

[Cards remaining: 3 banked.]

The board held its breath. Eight girls and seven enemies, the distances shrinking with every turn, the Serpent’s new position casting a shadow across the center that hadn’t been there two moves ago.

"Send me in, cowboy."

Scarlet’s voice cut through the silence from D4, bright and unbothered. She cracked her knuckles with a grin that hadn’t dimmed since the match started.

"I’ll spearhead our victory. Just point me at whatever’s closest and watch the magic happen in real time."

"Son."

Vespera’s voice came from C4, one square to Scarlet’s left.

"Use me and Scarlet as your hammers. We’re the perfect sacrificial pieces."

"Wait." Scarlet’s grin vanished. "WHAT?"

Vespera didn’t acknowledge her. "Don’t use cards on us. Don’t send ranged support. The two of us will hold the front."

Scarlet’s eyes went very, very wry.

Kaiden looked at his mother and understood exactly what she was telling him.

She was confirming the strategy he’d already set in motion and naming the part of it he hadn’t wanted to say out loud.

Vespera and Scarlet were the two strongest fighters he had, able to dish out hurt and take it as well, and Vespera had understood that he also knew from the moment he’d placed her front and center without consulting anyone.

He didn’t like it. But...

"I understand."

Vespera nodded at him once.

Kaiden placed his hand flat on the board, palm down, and every girl on the grid looked up at him.

"Girls. It’s time we defeat this overgrown mountain and return to Earth."

And just like that, the most important board game in humanity’s history started to heat up!