"Well… this is it," Lincoln nervously said as they arrived to the concert location where the game BelGaner was hosting was going to be held. He looked to his cellphone, the time reading 5:49pm, the sun had nearly set ready for the moon to take its place.
"The place isn't closed tonight. I think the same band from yesterday is playing again," Lynn presumed that BelGaner had somehow gotten another gig booked tonight with his perhaps disguised monster band members. She wondered how they were going to play any games here at all if many people were inside.
"Come on. You said it yourself that he's the general of strategy… He's got something in mind to keep this place to ourselves for however long this game goes on for," Lincoln took her hand in his for reassurance as they both made their way into the small concert stadium. They entered through the entrance, the double doors being closed behind them.
"Whoa… this place is packed!" Lynn gasped. A giant crowd gathered in the whole building, taking about every seat in the stand available, and the four men that were once seen playing on stage last night were there no longer. The only music playing was from one harmonica. BelGaner sat on the center stage, undisguised for all to see.
"…I know he hasn't done anything specifically toward the city yet, but how can any of the Xeran be liked by anybody?" Lynn rubbed her head in pain.
"No argument there," her brotherly boyfriend agreed. After fighting Xerest the other day, he had no clue how any human alive could trust a monstrous race from another dimension, that were bent on wiping them out and stealing all of the world's essence.
"BelGaner!" Lincoln and Lynn stood before the stage, but didn't catch his attention. They wondered if they were going to have to get closer or shout Louder. His girlfriend was ready to take that golden harmonica and throw it as far as her pitching arm would let her.
"Oh… We've got two minutes left," Lynn suddenly realized. When she looked at her phone it was not yet six in the evening. He rubbed his head, not able to tell if he should feel more concerned that they had to watch one of their biggest enemies perform for self entertainment, or the fact that they had to anxiously wait and were not allowed to see Lori until they won most likely. They could at least be glad that BelGaner was pretty good on that golden harmonica, almost like he had played it for a hundred years.
"Huh?" Lincoln heard the cheering crowds stop when BelGaner halted playing his harmonica. He put it on his left side, his flintlock revolver on his right side. The clock had finally struck six as the general of strategy stood up.
"Greetings, Red Star and Black Star… Allow me to give you a round of applause for your intelligence unraveling the riddle," BelGaner welcomed them. The sibling couple heard a lot of clapping. Suddenly, the hundreds of people prior in stands began to unveil themselves as nothing but disguised textoth. The Xeran general got the concert hall to himself with nothing but pure numbers.
"Wh…whoa… I've never seen so many," Lincoln tried to be brave, but things felt claustrophobic, even though these textoth were not making any motions toward them yet. He got out his red curved tipped star while Lynn got out her black rough-pointed star.
"Ease yourselves. The game I have in mind for tonight does not involve the slaughtering of hundreds of humans or textoth en masse. I told you, I have never been a monster of dishonesty or pure evil, nor have I ever been filled with bitter hatred. Fate is going to have a main hand in tonight's game," BelGaner repeated what his letter declared, looking for his Xeran Elite, but there was no sign of him.
"Gamban! It's time!" BelGaner called out, but no one appeared. He looked perplexed.
"Hmm… apologies for the delay, but something is not right… one moment," BelGaner pulled out his flintlock revolver, spun the chamber of the gun and aimed above.
"Type 7 Ammo fire," the general of strategy shot the air four times around in a circle, before the fifth hit the center, breaking the part of the sky like glass. Gamban appeared not by his own choice, screaming as he fell to the stage, with a few red ingots of metal with him scattering all over.
"Oouugh…" Gamban whined, lying on his back in pain with BelGaner standing before him.
"Do I dare ask what was so important that you ignored my call?" BelGaner's back was turned to the two guardians. Lincoln had picked up one of the ingots and looked to his girlfriend.
"Lynn… It's Gruynithil! Grab all you can and hide it in your bag!" Lincoln said in a hushed tone, not sure where this stuff came from but it was like a miracle, perhaps karma catching up to repay the two for their heroic works. Lynn had her small duffel bag on her side, which she only brought in case the game involved gathering items.
"O-Okay!" Lynn nodded. They had all the textoth watching them from the stands, but last time they checked they could not talk. The skeletal warriors only appeared to be able to make weird noises. By the time BelGaner returned his attention on the two, they were pretending to have not moved an inch, looking nervous.
"Now where was I?" BelGaner groaned, holding his head, Gamban getting up off the ground and picking his fedora up.
"Y-you were saying fate was going to have a main hand in tonight's game?" Lynn asked. The Gruynithil that they had gathered out of it all, wherever it had come from, was not much. Ingots of it were nowhere near as large as a sheet or pure ore for this alien material, but they hoped Lisa would be happy with this nonetheless.
"Correct… Now then, Gamban… summon your friends," BelGaner ordered.
"Yes, sir," his Xeran Elite monster nodded, making four cards slide out from his sleeves, two cards sliding into both hands. He then showed them the four; the king, the queen, the jack and joker cards.
"The game is simple, with a special twist from the gambling master himself. The game you two are going to handle, is Hide and Seek… and these are the hiders!" Gamban threw the cards on the ground, and out sprung four, weirdly royal elite textoth, each one seeming to match up to their card pretty well.
"Hide and Seek?" Lincoln chirped.
"Uhh… I don't recall there being any gambling in hide and seek, either," Lynn commented. The textoth dressed up in royal clothing was humorous, though. One was in a king's outfit, another was dressed like a queen, and the last two looked more or less like twin jesters; while one kept the clownish appearance, the other stayed in royal attire. The four textoth vanished to an unknown location, through random portals that had appeared under their feet instantly.
"Allow me to explain. You see, those four textoth have scattered all over Royal Woods and are now disguised as regular humans… They've mastered that style of disguise for a game like this. To find them, you're going to be given four riddles. The answer is the key to finding their location," BelGaner explained. The Loud siblings wondered, why riddles of all things. They had a hard enough time finding this place, and that took them nearly four days alone, now they had to find four textoth hidden amongst hundreds of thousands of Royal Woods's population, with the riddles as their only clues.
"Well… at least it sounds fairer than being ambushed by this," Lincoln pointed a thumb to the stands where the hundreds of Xeran skeleton minions were.
"There's a catch to this, right?" Lynn asked BelGaner, "Then tell us already! You said there's gambling involved, and I know you mean more than our 'Blue Star'." She added, referring to Lori the same way he would.
"Isn't it obvious?" Gamban snickered. They could hear the textoth cackling.
"The risk in gambling today is lives… Not lives of your blue star nor of your own lives' black and red stars, but the lives of the people you claim to fight for… Because once you solve the riddle, it won't make the textoth reveal itself. You have to take the risk to kill whoever you think it is on the spot, and if you're wrong and the person you attack isn't the textoth… then they die, and if the textoth survives said attack and escapes, you lose instantly," BelGaner explained. The sibling couple felt their hearts sink.
"Wha…what?! Are you insane?! You said this was going to be a fair game!" Lincoln angrily reminded the general of strategy.
"It is. This is a game of fate and minds, with no luck involved here. I have done my best to make luck a non factor for you red and black stars," BelGaner insisted. He hated random luck being the main factor to victory. Skill and brains was what he liked to believe in. "But do not fear. I will not restrain you from aid of any form. A riddle is only as complex as one's mind likes to believe. Sometimes, it is too complex. Otherwise, it is too simple. That is what this game was built upon."
Gamban brought the couple a few small white cards. Lynn took two and Lincoln took two. They certainly knew the frustration with solving riddles. The three days they spent trying to find the place the game was going to be hosted was difficult enough for them.
"The game ends at six a.m.! Let's give our gamblers a round of applause!" Gamban shouted. The textoth in the stands clapped aloud. BelGaner was pleased with the results of all their hard work.
"Good luck, Black Star and Red Star… and allow me to help you on your way to prove myself as a machine of my word. Black Star's second card is the easiest of them all, and if you do find and eliminate all four textoth, there is a surprise afterwards that will make itself clear," BelGaner informed them. It was confusing to the teenage sibling couple they were thinking that it almost was like the general of strategy wanted them to win, or at least earn their trust. Out of all the majesty's generals, BelGaner seemed like the sanest and calmest one of all, and they didn't know why.
"Type 7 Ammo fire," the mechanical Xeran spun the chamber of his flintlock revolver and began shooting around Lincoln and Lynn's feet, tearing a portal open beneath them. They held onto each other as they fell in, the portal closed shut after.
"Let the games begin!" He announced to the cheering crowds, before noticing Gamban looking around confused.
"Hey, I'm missing half of my Gruynithil..."