Round Five: The Camp of Demons

Pipi grinned maliciously, especially when the bodies of the higher demons were torn in one bite—seeing these once-proud creatures become food truly delighted him. But he soon stopped smiling as a huge black vortex appeared ahead of the Rage. Unlike ordinary vortices that pulled things inward, this one seemed to spin outward. The black waters of the River of Darkness churned as if boiling, constantly spewing corpses from its depths. It seemed this was the source of the numerous corpses of devils and demons floating on the river.
“What is this?” Stephanie asked the succubus.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen the River of Darkness so turbulent,” the succubus replied lazily. But Stephanie had no time to ponder this. These corpses undoubtedly came from another dimension. Could it be that there was an entrance connecting two different dimensions at the bottom of the River of Darkness?
His guess was soon partially confirmed.
Captain Jones avoided a bottom-dwelling demon fish that was happily feeding and directed the Rage toward the center of the vortex.
“Mages! You’d better go back to the cabin! We’re about to leave the abyss!” Jones took control of the wheel himself and shouted at Stephanie and the others.
So Stephanie, Vale, the succubus, and Pipi obediently returned to the cabin—by then, the Rage was already tilting as it spun.
Vale grabbed Pipi and reattached the chains to him. “Enough! Breaktime’s over!”
This angered Pipi greatly. How could he have forgotten?
Suddenly, the entire ship stood upright—Vale fell and rolled around with the metal man. Stephanie promptly used her Spider Walk spell, while the succubus hung limply on him. Pipi tugged at the chains desperately, trying not to get crushed under the minotaur. Water was already leaking into the cabin, and the ship was spinning wildly.
After what seemed like an eternity, the Rage stabilized again, seemingly floating on the surface of the River of Darkness.
“Cough! Cough!” Pipi coughed violently.
No one told them to come out.
Stephanie cautiously pushed the door open—the deck was covered in water. They had indeed just emerged from the vortex. There were still some remains on the deck, but the location seemed rather unpleasant.
“Hurry up, you newcomers!” A thunderous roar made the Rage shake. Stephanie was shocked to see a giant demon standing on the deck, about seventeen or eighteen feet tall, pressing down on the ship so heavily it could barely bear the weight.
It was extremely muscular, nearly pitch black in color, with a head similar to that of a jackal. Besides its massive arms with strong claws, it had two smaller pincers on its chest—though “smaller” was relative; in fact, they were much larger than Captain Jones’s left claw.
Where was Captain Jones? How had he silently brought the ship right in front of this demon?

Stephanie stopped Valerius from making a reckless attempt. The demon before them, known as the Temptation Demon, was clearly beyond their capabilities. Moreover, Stephanie saw many oddly shaped ships anchored around the Anger Ship, with passengers disembarking and joining the crowded crowd on shore…

“I’m sorry, have you got the wrong person…” Though she already had a hunch, Stephanie still tried one last time.

“Shut your mouth, fool.” The Temptation Demon bent slightly, its purple eyes emitting a mesmerizing glow. “Do you want to get off the ship quickly and join the queue? Or do you prefer to turn into a pile of stinky mud in the River of Darkness because of your nonsense?”

“There’s another one in the cabin! A great warrior! He can be used once heated!”

Stephanie saw Jones—he was holding a bulging bag that occasionally puffed out, clearly filled with larvae.

“It seems Jones sold us… and for a good price.” The demon continued to whisper in Stephanie’s ear, ignoring whether she was interested or not. “Welcome to the Blood Battle, Mr. Stephanie.”

Pipi looked gloomy—he was another scout for the Blood Battle.

When a few fear demons carried out the metal man, it caused a wave of astonishment—the new recruits were clearly shocked by it as well.

But the Temptation Demon didn’t react strongly. In the Blood Battle, even if you were made of diamonds, it made no difference. There was no beginning, no end, no victors, no lucky ones… only fodder.

The demon built a camp in the wasteland of this unknown dimension. From above, its structure resembled a complex web, half on land and half in water. There were no standardized defensive structures like walls or fortresses. It seemed the place had been built haphazardly from the start, with additions here and there, creating a maze-like mess that was rough and dilapidated, even though it was packed with creatures.

This wasn’t the first layer of hell, nor the Abyssal Plains at the top of the Bottomless Abyss, nor the main battlefield of the Lower Realms, the Gray Wasteland. In fact, it probably had no strategic value—but that didn’t matter, and no one cared. Perhaps it was because a long time ago, a Tanar’ri demon encountered a Batzu demon here and they clashed by chance, or maybe for some even more trivial reason. Anyway, it was turned into a battlefield, as the Blood Battle only needed sacrifices and a place for them to fight each other.

The second time Stephanie saw the metal man, he was sitting on a demon’s corpse, stuffing its bloody heart into a wound in his own chest.

The people around him watched him in fear, clearly leaving a space of respect around him.

Stephanie rubbed the new ring on her finger—it was something she had taken from a warrior of half-purgatorial bloodline, providing some protection against fire. That guy could barely walk when he saw the demon, so Stephanie “generously” offered him this deal: the demon would accompany him for a day in exchange for the ring.

Should he be called foolish or shrewd? Was it worth paying the price of a day of ecstatic pleasure in exchange for something that might keep him alive on the battlefield for just one more moment?
“That’s not it…” The metal man muttered to himself in Common, his voice resonant. He slowly raised his head and looked around, causing panic.
“Has he been awakened again…” Stephanie thought. This metal construct was clearly a better guard than Vale… though it was unknown whether its original owner was still alive…
“Get up! You fools! Time to go to battle!” The Temptation Demon—one of the camp’s commanders—roared at the ragtag troops gathered from all directions. His gaze paused on the metal man: “Stop playing around with that guy’s corpse! I brought you to life with the Burning Hand so you could kill those stinking Batzu demons! Get up! Rip open their chests and take out their hearts!”
The metal man silently stood up and followed the group forward.
Stephanie followed him—Vale followed Stephanie.
As they left the camp, Stephanie suddenly felt like laughing. Was that unlucky guy who had just taken the succubus to bed also following this group, filled with resentment?
That carefree mood vanished quickly within minutes after engaging with the demons.