Chapter 2: The Ride to Hanging Neck Island
Warm air blew across her exposed midriff, as Flein stepped onto the dock. In this secluded area, the number of demons she saw were too numerous to count. There were four-armed demons, demons with many eyes or even no eyes, demons with horns, demons of all different shapes and colors, and there were even demons hanging out near the water whose fins revealed their ability to swim with the fish. It had been a long time since Flein had been around this many demons, and an event like this seemed to draw them from all parts of Spirit World.
The only thing she wanted to do to prepare the night before is take off her always-mismatching pink knit cap and cut a hole in the back of her jeans, in order to let her ears and tail show freely. If she was going to have to be around demons for the majority of her time on Hanging Neck Island, she was going to take advantage of it. As well as cutting a hole in her jeans, she also cut off the legs section of the garment, transforming them into denim shorts. She knew if she had to fight, it was best to remove as many restrictions as possible.
Even though the demons were doing a variety of things- talking smack to each other, having dinner, playing card games- every one of them seemed to be on edge, as the time the boat should arrive was approaching. Flein spotted a remote area on the ground she could sit and headed there to wait. All different kinds of smells assaulted her nose as she walked through the immense crowd of strangers, most of them unpleasing. She tried not to gag as she ducked through a group of squabbling bird demons, and felt relief when her waiting spot was now only feet away, still untaken.
"Hey, girlie! How about ya take a seat over here, I'll show ya a good time!" roared someone behind her. Flein ignored this and continued walking, silently willing the stranger to leave her alone. "Hey, girlie, didja hear me?! What good are those pretty little ears?!" The demon's group of friends howled with laughter behind him, obviously drunk before the big event had even arrived. Flein continued to ignore them, and sat at her waiting spot as if it were a safe zone, facing the water so she wouldn't have to look at the drunk demons behind her. Eventually their obnoxious laughter ceased and they continued talking amongst themselves. Flein felt like she had successfully bored them enough to turn away from her. Even though she could guess that they were demons of a lower class, at least all of them had the intelligence not to pick a fight with her.
The boat's horn simultaneously silenced and invigorated the crowd of demons. Its form inched closer and closer to the dock before finally resting at a stopping point, opening a platform for the demons to board. Flein waited patiently for most of the boisterous herd of demons to board before her so she wouldn't have to be pushed around. Finally, she followed a group of cyclops onto the small boat and kept her eyes open for a new waiting spot, which ended up being an area near the railings of the boat. She leaned her back against the railings and relaxed as the boat set off for Hanging Neck Island. The demons' loudness increased along with their anticipation, and Flein had to resist holding her sensitive ears shut.
Across from her, sitting near the opposite side of the railings, was a young demon girl with long, braided black hair. She was staring passively at the lurching water underneath the boat, and Flein couldn't tell if she was upset, nervous, or simply bored.
Flein scanned the rest of the crowd. It just now occurred to her that she and this stranger are probably the only two females on the boat.
"There are so many demons here . . Are they all going to fight in the tournament?" Flein wondered. "Assuming there are multiple trips back and forth to Hanging Neck Island . . that has to be literally thousands of demons. There has to be a way to narrow us down . . I don't want to waste my time fighting these types of demons."
Then Flein remembered that she would eventually have to choose from this pool of demons if she ever wanted to have a full team of five members. She sighed. At least the girl sitting across from her looked alone, and she didn't seem as though she were from as low of a class either. Just as she was considering asking the girl if she wanted to join her team, the boat's captain walked into view with a loudspeaker.
"Listen up ya pile of low life scum!" he roared into the speaker, causing Flein's ears to bend back in pain. He sounded as if he had to already go through this speech several times already. "If ya didn't know it before, ya do now- this here boat is actually the preliminary rounds of the Dark Tournament! We can't have all of ya be joining the tournament, see? Not enough room, not enough time."
Confused voices floated through the air as the less intelligent demons were trying to figure out what the captain meant. But Flein smiled. Just as she thought, there had to be a way to separate the strong from the weak.
As if on cue, the floor split open underneath the demons converged in the middle of the boat, and they scurried to the side as the floor opened up and a circular tiled platform rose slowly into the air. There was no mistake- this platform was the kind meant to be covered in blood. This visual finally got through to all of the demons, and the boat erupted with hoots and excited laughing from the impatient demons and whimpers from the cowards.
"Shut ap, ya mangy group of dogs! I ain't finished yet!" the captain hollered into the loudspeaker. "Each one of ya are gonna pick ONE person- I said ONE!- of your team members to represent your team up there on that platform. Then ya gonna have a fight to the death-"
The boat's passengers erupted into loud cheering and excited talking, some groups already fighting amongst themselves over who gets to join in this battle royale.
"QUIT YER YAMMERIN'! I STILL AIN'T FINISHED!" the captain roared into the loudspeaker, and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Flein could tell he was already considering going into another line of work. The demons quieted down, but the silence was a tense one. "After all of ya on that platform are dead meat and there's one of ya's left standin', the team who that member belongs to will be the only team that is elig- . . eligib- . . eligibul- . . is allowed to enter the Dark Tournament."
A roar of outrage and angry yelling broke the silence again. Flein was almost sure that the demons were going to throw the captain himself off the boat. The demon girl across from her was standing now, listening intently, her silence creating a stark contrast to the rest of the passengers.
"PIPE DOWN! Them's the rules! Now pick one of ya sorry asses to go up there and fight!" The captain took a swig of whatever alcoholic liquid was in his drinking pouch, looking grateful that this whole mess was almost over. The boat erupted into heated discussion again, as teams either logically thought it out or just plain fought each other for the chance to be the team's representative.
"Well, this looks like an easy decision for me." Flein thought bemused, and sprung onto the fighting platform. Only a couple demons were already there, including the demon girl who was across from her only moments before. It looked like it had been an easy decision for her as well.
"Looks like she won't be a team member after all, considering now she'll probably attack me." Flein thought. "Too late to ask her to be part of my team now."
After a few minutes of heated debate, more and more demons started to trickle onto the fighting platform.
"HURRY UP YA STINKING BRUTES, I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY" the captain screamed at the top of his lungs. Once a considerable amount of fighters were on the platform to constitute a battle royale, the captain's patience was at an end and figured it was good enough without taking a head count. "All right, ya ready to shed some blood?!"
The demons roared approval, shouting for their team member to tear everyone limb from limb. "PICK OFF THE WOMEN FIRST!" Flein could hear from the crowd, and she turned to glare in the general direction it came from. In the corner of her eye, she thought she saw movement of the demon girl beside her doing the same.
"All right . . Ready, set . . FIGHT!" the captain yelled, before sitting down and taking another swig of alcohol.
Everyone seemed to spring at once, and while Flein at first thought it was her imagination, it seemed like a third of the competitors launched towards her. She immediately switched to defensive tactics and put a barrier up just as the majority of the demons crashed into it full force. Some bodies sprang back from the barrier like bouncy balls while others with a quicker reaction time skidded to a stop just before colliding into it. Those who weren't cheaply picked off after being knocked to the ground stood back up and started punching and kicking at Flein's barrier. Soon she was surrounded by demons attempting to break her barrier, screaming obsceneties at her.
"What the hell?! Why are they all after me?" Flein thought, gritting her teeth and keeping her focus. She turned to glance at the other side of the platform and saw the other female of the group having a similar time, her long black braid swinging behind her as she dodged multiple pursuers at once.
"KILL THE WOMEN! Only the strong survive!" the audience was screaming with a bloodthirsty look in their eyes. "Show 'em their place! KILL THEM!"
Anger and frustration boiled up in Flein's stomach. "Sorry to break it to you, but I'm not dying here!" she hissed, and put down her barrier while simultaneously jumping into the air. Demons collided into each other, and those on the outskirts of the crowd reached up their clawed hands to grab her.
She landed gracefully behind a four-armed ogre, and without looking behind her, turned and aimed a kick into his back, sending the large beast onto several smaller demons who squirmed and suffocated under his weight. She dodged kicks and punches, and in turn returned them back, only she was fast enough to land them. She dug her claws into a horned demon's face, only to turn around and dig them into the chest of a hairy giant. The cluster around here was utter chaos, as mislanded punches caused some of the demons around her to fight against each other. Blood started to pool underneath her from her enemies' cuts and she had to concentrate on not slipping on it, which would give the others an opening that might be fatal when outnumbered. She started to put them down little by little, which meant she could dodge less and attack more- in no time, most of the competitors were collapsed, bleeding out. Even when outnumbered, these lower class demons were no challenge for her, and she didn't like to waste her energy on them with any of her stronger attacks.
Flein had been so focused on fighting that she hadn't noticed that the screaming from the audience was reaching deafening levels. As she was inflicting more lacerations on her last two pursuers, she noticed that most of the platform was cleared out. It felt like an hour but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Putting down the final fighter in front of her with one fatal slash to the forehead, he collapsed in front of her, unblocking her vision of the sole fighter left on the platform other than her- the demon girl.