The enchantments Lee Seng had put on the room had slowly peeled off. He kept his hand hovered over the door. Those hellhounds were adapting way too quickly. They kept him up for hours. Day had quickly advanced. He didn't know how much time had passed and his mind was racing with possible scenarios.
Ritsuka's brother, Jiro, stirred. He groaned as he opened his eyes. Ritsuka turned to look at his brother, leaving Lee Seng to keep watch. Jiro slowly opened his eyes and noticed someone hovering over him. His blurred eyes saw Ritsuka and for a moment, he thought it was true.
"Ritsuka…?" Jiro quietly called out. The door pounded, snapping Jiro out of his blurred state. Ritsuka was hovering in front of him and the noises grew louder. "W-wait… Y-you're real."
"Jiro, we don't have much time." Ritsuka grabbed Jiro and lifted him up. Jiro's eyes shook as he stared at his brother.
"You… They said you…" Jiro stuttered. "What's happening?" The door pounded again and howls erupted. Lee Seng bit his lip. The hellhounds were growing stronger by the second and the runes were fading.
"Welcome to the Loser's Game. I hope you're alright because we might have to fight soon." Lee Seng spoke up. Jiro noticed an eight-tailed humanoid on one knee. He was slowly pushing himself up onto his feet as he kept a hand pointed at the door.
"A monster! Move Ritsuka!" Jiro began to push Ritsuka aside as the longsword appeared in his hand.
"No, he's a friend!" Ritsuka wrapped his arms around Jiro's only arm and held him in place.
"Let me go! That's a monster!"
"He's the one that watched over us while everything went to hell! Believe me!" Ritsuka shouted. The pounding grew. Dents appeared in the door and wall. Lee Seng cursed and summoned the Sun blade.
"That's a monster! Why would you protect a monster?" Jiro shouted. "Let go of me! We're going to die!"
"Jiro! You wouldn't remember it but this is Lee Seng Chang, the Creator's son! He's always looked like this minus the seven extra tails! He's in my group from two years ago and he's the reason we're alive!" Jiro stopped as Ritsuka fought for Lee Seng's life.
"What?"
"There's not enough time to explain it all! We're about to be swarmed." Lee Seng interrupted the brothers. He looked over at Jiro with his golden starry eyes. The reptile pupil slits in his eyes.
"I swear on my life that he's good. If I'm wrong, my life will be fit for my lies." Ritsuka blurted out. He had used the one thing his brothers and sisters taught him - a swear. The Yamada's came from a long line of unbroken promises they rarely made. Ritsuka knew swearing on his life meant the Soul Weapons would take it seriously. It was something strange that came to their family because of their lineage.
For a moment, Jiro saw it. He saw the many weapons inside his brother, pointing at his heart. The seriousness in his baby brother's eyes was enough.
"Fine." Jiro sighed. Ritsuka held onto his brother's arm for a moment longer. He listened to the pounds against the door and walls. He let go of his brother and stood up. He gave a hand to Jiro, who released his sword and grabbed it.
"What happened to your arm?" Ritsuka asked.
"Long story. Don't worry about me, I can do this." Jiro produced the longsword where his other arm used to be. It grew into a pseudo-arm. "Least I can manipulate what I need it to be. I think introductions are in order, hm?" He looked at his brother who nodded.
"Lee Seng, this is my older brother, Jiro. Jiro, this is Lee Seng." Ritsuka motioned back and forth.
"Thanks for not killing me." Lee Seng smiled. There was a calmness in Lee Seng's voice and mannerisms. Jiro nodded and looked at his brother who produced Obsidian Glass and a strange black and blue shield. That same calmness he saw on Lee Seng was now on his own brother.
'They must've been through a lot to be this calm.' Jiro thought.
"I see you've gotten a new weapon." Jiro pointed at the shield.
"Oh this?" Ritsuka lifted the shield up. "I got it on sale. The people selling it thought it was junk, but it's so much more than that." The doors busted open and Lee Seng immediately squashed four hellhounds in one go. Two hellhounds rushed into the room and Ritsuka sprinted off. Jiro's sirens rang as he watched his brother meet the hellhounds without an ounce of fear.
'He's smiling?' Jiro observed. Ritsuka lifted the shield, blocking the attack and swung Obsidian Glass straight into the side of the hellhound. He moved the sword straight through the hellhound, and watched it disintegrate into dust. Another hellhound flew at him and Jiro began to move when Lee Seng blasted the hound away. Jiro turned to look at Lee Seng who was shimmering in gold. He was attentively watching Ritsuka's back.
'They're a well-oiled machine. Lee Seng's watching Ritsuka's back while Ritsuka deals with the hounds with ease. I can't believe that Lee Seng Chang is actually protecting my baby brother.' Jiro thought.
"Watch out." Lee Seng alerted Jiro. A shield produced to the left of Jiro, blocking the hellhound from pouncing on Ritsuka's older brother. Jiro snapped out of it and thrusted his arm outwards, easily moving past the shield and grabbed the hellhound. He squeezed, filling the hound with sharp shards as the soul arm turned into blades. The hellhound turned to dust and Jiro moved onto the next one.
'It's true that Lee Seng's a Specialist. I thought he was a Fighter/Glass Specialist. How can he protect me so easily?' Jiro upper-cutted a hellhound and shifted his arm into a sword. He pierced the hound as Lee Seng blasted two more hounds away from Jiro and Ritsuka.
Ritsuka lifted his shield taking a hard stance as a hellhound pounced on him. An energy blasted around him, sending the hound into the wall and splattering it into dust. He grinned as he rushed forward and slammed the shield into another hound and slashed it to bits.
"I haven't shown you what the shield can do yet, Lee Seng?" Ritsuka asked.
"No, but I think I understand." Lee Seng slashed the golden sword in the air and released a bright light that dissolved four hounds. Ritsuka jumped away from a hound and pointed Obsidian Glass at it. He released four void bolts and watched it turn to dust.
[Hellhounds have been killed. You've gained 9000 souls for a total of 403,754/1,000,000.]
It grew quiet as the hound's dust turned to nothing. Ritsuka poked his head out of the room and scanned the halls. He could hear distant howls, but they were no longer in danger.
"I think we're good for now." Ritsuka turned. He noticed Jiro was a bit uncomfortable with his arm situation. "So what really happened with your arm, Jiro? Did that crazy woman cut it off?"
"Something like that… If only we could've found it, I could've used the stitches to put it back together…" Jiro sighed. "I lost it fighting that crazy woman… To think they'd let a murderer out."
"She was a murderer?" Lee Seng asked, turning to look at both brothers. Jiro nodded letting the soul arm fade away. He clutched his shoulder, clearly missing his arm.
"A lot of us were randomly pulled into the Academy. I was helping Ryu but we fell into a trap. I disappeared and ended up here. We have to play these childish games to survive. It feels like some horrible TV show… I met that murderer in a pile of dead people… She had somehow gotten out and managed to get her weapon too… Ah, this place has gone to shit so fast." Jiro explained.
"So people were teleported here?" Lee Seng asked.
"It feels like that. What happened to the murderer?"
"She's dead."
"You killed her?"
"Yeah. She was a bitch to fight, though." Lee Seng sighed. Jiro looked at Ritsuka.
"You've grown stronger since I last saw you. W-what even happened? The Academy th-they said you and your teammates disappeared. Th-they even framed you as te-terrorists." Jiro asked Ritsuka. Ritsuka sighed and released his hold on his weapons.
"We were forced to disappear. We went to Olivia's village. She's our teammate. She wanted to say goodbye before we fled far away from this place. Things went south and those Deimons showed up there, too." Ritsuka began to explain.
"Demons? Actual demons?"
"D-E-I-M-O-N. They're those D31 guys."
"How do you know about them?" Jiro asked. "I thought there wasn't much information on them online."
"We found some through a Guild we were in." Ritsuka answered. "Lee Seng fell into a coma so we had to flee… but when we fled, we were attacked… If it wasn't for Keng, Lee Seng's brother, we wouldn't have gotten away…" Ritsuka grew extremely quiet bringing up this part of the past. "We went somewhere far away and trained. We waited for Lee Seng to wake up and when he did… He wanted to come here after physical therapy."
"Why? Why didn't you just stay away? It's dangerous here!" Jiro's voice rose. Lee Seng looked at Ritsuka who didn't lift his head right away. Jiro moved towards his brother and put a hand on Ritsuka's shoulder. "You shouldn't have come back. It's dangerous. What if you did—"
"I came back so I could see if you guys were okay!" Ritsuka lifted his head and shouted. His eyes were filled with tears as he fought to stop the sobs. "I was worried sick about you for the last two years! Weren't you worried about me?!?" Jiro pulled his brother in and squeezed him tight. Ritsuka sobbed and Lee Seng scribbled some runes and silenced the room. He moved and lifted the door back to its place and held it there while the brother's talked it out.
