New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Beasts of all kinds that had been chasing Astaroth started arriving where he was. Strangely, they all stopped running at him when they saw the man before him.

Astaroth even saw some of them lower their heads in submission. He was half expecting them to keep dashing at him madly, but apparently, they had enough brain cells to realize when to simmer down.

Astaroth could see the blue dots of his allies at the edge of his minimap. They were just a bit behind the last row of red dots.

He doubted they could push through to him in time to help, so he would have to deal with this on his own. Unless he could force the boss to let them rejoin.

A glimpse of a plan brushed his mind.

‘Would it work? Won’t know until I try…’

Astaroth smiled smugly.

“So I take it you’re the strongest one around.”

The beast-man looked at him before puffing out his chest.

“Isn’t that obvious?!”

Astaroth’s smile widened.

‘Good. He’s prideful.’

“Then would you care for a wager?”

“Hah! What could a pitiful humanoid like you offer me, the king of beasts?!”

“A free meal?”

“I already have one, standing right there,” the boss said, pointing at him.

“I don’t believe I am enough to sate your hunger. I have something better.”

The beast-man seemed suddenly interested. He looked at Astaroth with curiosity.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll tell you only if you accept my wager.”

Leon huffed, angered at his deviousness.

“Fine. I will eat you anyway. What is it you want to wager?”

“I want my group and I to have a fair fight against you. If you allow us that, and we defeat you, I want you to join our guild.”

“As if I would ever lose to the likes of you! Hah!”

“That remains to be seen.”

“I like your courage, appetizer. What about when I win?”

“IF you win, I will divulge the location of a city with many more people to feast on. I can guess you never bothered with the ones outside since they are too few. Am I wrong?”

“The humanoids outside are cattle. I am waiting for them to grow in numbers before I devour them.”

“Then I am right. But I know of a place with many humanoids you could easily gnaw on.”

“Aren’t you cold towards your own race? That doesn’t sound like one of you humanoids.”

“The place I talk about doesn’t have people of my race. And I would gladly serve them up for you.”

Of course, Astaroth was lying. He would never sell out hundreds of thousands of people to a beast, simply to get the chance to fight him.

He had no intention of giving him the location of an actual city. But he hoped the bait of it would be enough to lure the beast-man into accepting the wager.

Astaroth had faith that he and his party could take on the boss if the other monsters did not interrupt them. He could see the gleam of hunger flash across the beast-man’s eyes.

The beast-man wasn’t blindly going to believe him, but he had his ways of enforcing this deal if he so wanted. And to prove that to Astaroth, he waved his hand at a nearby beast.

The beast walked forward, its head hung low. When it was next to Leon, the beast-man swung its claws at it, severing the body of the beast into two pieces.

A cry of agony echoed all around, as the creature fell to the ground, bleeding heavily. Leon then pointed his hand at it, as fire danced off his finger, setting the beast ablaze.

Astaroth thought the boss was trying to show him how powerful he was to intimidate him. But what he saw next made his blood freeze.

The beast which had been set ablaze rose from the ground, in not two pieces, but as a whole. The wound on it was gone, and Astaroth could see that its health was all back.

When the boss noticed Astaroth’s complexion change, he figured his threat had found purchase.

“I can keep you from dying forever if I want to. All the while inflicting unimaginable pain on you. Do not think you can trick me.”

Astaroth almost backpedalled out of the wager. The thought of dying in a game didn’t scare him.

But the thought of torture was a whole different matter. Especially since the pain felt so real in here.

Before Astaroth could start speaking again and change his terms, the beast-man spoke again.

“I accept your wager. If you win, I will join your ‘Guild’. But when I win, I expect you to keep your word, and give me the location for that tasty meal.”

To make matters worse, a scroll appeared in the air between the two. Words started writing themselves on it before it burst into flames.

Astaroth had time to read what was written, and his face paled.

‘Did New Eden just enforce my wager with a boss monster?! What the fuck?!’

The beast-man started laughing loudly.

“Rrah ha ha ha! You didn’t think the gods would take your word for it, did you? A wager with a legendary creature is not a simple matter!”

Astaroth cried inwardly. If he had known this, he wouldn’t have offered something so ridiculous.

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“I… I was simply surprised. That is all. Can your… subjects let my friends through now?”

“Yes, yes.”

The beast-man turned his head, looking in the direction the rest of Astaroth’s party was, and gave a low growl. All the beasts in the way started parting, making a clear path that Astaroth’s party members could use to reach him.

It surprised them just as much as him, but he explained the situation in the party chat. Two people were very unhappy with his bid.

Athena and I’die both cursed him for putting the lives of innocent Elves in danger for a stupid battle. But they also understood the situation they were in.

They needed this place to be theirs, and they couldn’t do that without fighting this boss. If they left here empty-handed, they would have to go to a guild management building and reapply for another permit, since they didn’t have a building for their base.

And buying a building was just not possible with their money, either.

So, even after some cursing and angry rebukes, they still followed his plan.

All they had to do was win, right?