Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Countdown to the End

By the time I make it to a position not far from my allies the flames behind me have already spread far and wide. I can imagine that the game makers are not pleased that I have taken it upon myself to go ahead and terraform their arena, but I do not care. I want to go ahead and finish this, instead of twiddling my thumbs and doing nothing. 

The glow cast by the fire stretches far and wide, and the smoke it casts rises high until it hits the top of the dome we all are inside of, and from there the smoke stretches horizontally, creating a strange sort of pseudo-cloud. I am facing the cornucopia and peering at it curiously before I casually activate a power known as the “Sherlock Scan”. 

This power casts a weaker version of “Observe” on everything I can see and then drapes everything that is useful to me and would help me achieve my goals with a golden outline so I can more easily fetch whatever I need. Glimmer and Clove, the female tribute from District 2, are both draped in the golden glow, as are assorted weapons. I continue to peer at the cornucopia but I make no move to approach it from where I am at the moment.

I can afford to keep my back turned to the flaming forest because of a few powerful things mixing together. The first reason, and arguably the strongest, is that I can easily pinpoint the exact location of my foes thanks to the frightening potency of “Mini-Map”. But even beyond the potency of that particular perk, there was also the constant whispering I hear every passing second. 

In the back of my mind I can hear a quiet choir of voices that mix together quite beautifully. These voices tell me things about my immediate surroundings, and their words are warnings, words of caution, and whisperings of opportunities. This is the potent effect of the perk known as “Friends On The Other Side”. 

And those two perks were not the only reasons I was sure I would be safe. Some of the other perks synergized my senses and combined their individual strengths to the point that even from a distance I could taste the scents of others on the air around me at a fairly large range in every direction around me. 

My senses are now supercharged and heightened to a supernatural degree. The range from which I can detect even the subtlest scents or hear the faintest sounds is far beyond that of a human, to the point that I can actually hear the individual footfalls of the tributes panicking and attempting to flee the burning forest. Even in the middle of the forest as it burns around them, the panicked pitter-patter of their footfalls reveals their position to me as readily as my mini0map does. 

My keen senses coupled with my beyond-human brain actually give me a visual overlay of the world around me akin to an ultra-evolution of synesthesia. I can physically see scent trails as if they are footprints, allowing me to track scents much more easily. I can also consciously focus on sounds as far as away as a few miles away from me, and in focusing on them I can allow myself to amplify how clear they sound to me, while subtly dimming my conscious awareness of other noises to help me make sense of even the quietest sounds within range of my hearing. 

I possess a truly frightening level of awareness of my surroundings, and even though my current human form is weaker than some of the alt-forms I possess and could morph into with nothing more than a thought, I feel no need to go all out. 

As a few of the tributes who seek to escape the burning forest begin to inch closer and closer to me I gaze in the direction that they will be coming at me from. None of them are in groups which is a bit annoying as it’d actually be a bit easier for me if they came at me together. I am perhaps a minute away from the first tribute making it to the edge of the forest, judging from her speed in dashing towards me, and as she approaches I focus on where it seems that she’ll be most likely to appear. 

I peer into the forest and spot the child as she sprints out of the burning hellscape. I almost smile when I realize that it is none other than Rue, as I was not paying attention to my mini-map. I decide to be merciful and I take a single step toward the child while I focus on the devastating weapon I am about to unleash against her. 

In the back of my mind is where all of the information I gain through perks is stored, there is a veritable encyclopedia of information regarding the strange language known as “The Storm Tongue”, or more simply as the “Thu’um”. Every word in this language is a “Word of Power” that when spoken by an entity of power, like myself thanks to my nature as a dragon, can produce potent mystical effects. 

I mentally scanned the potent encyclopedia I possess. As I do I feel potent mastery of every single word that is waiting for me, and thanks to my nature as a dragon this turns each word into a mighty weapon in my arsenal. Every word in the ancient language of these particular dragons is now a weapon I can wield to terrifying effect. 

 

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 Rue sprints through a burning forest. Around her fires engulf gigantic trees as she hurriedly dashes towards the cornucopia. 

The fires that engulf the trees are energetic gouts of flame. They dance with unusual energy and cleverness, sometimes moving in ways so spectacularly frightening that they almost make the young girl fleeing from them freeze in place from raw, unpleasant surprise. But Rue is acrobatic and quick and she manages to dodge attempt after attempt of the fire to snake around and grab her. 

Soon she spots an area untouched by the fire! She can see the clearing around the cornucopia, but she is unaware of the strange figures dwelling in said clearing, waiting for her and her fellow tributes. 

Her heart pounds as she sprints towards the clearing. The glow of the arcane fires are burning even her eyes and so she cannot see the stranger waiting not far outside of the burning forest. And when she manages to dash past the last of the burning trees she does not find sanctuary and rest, but instead the calm tyrant of the career pack whose skin continues to glow in the dark, albeit quite gently. 

She gazes at the figure after letting out a quiet gasp when she first notices him. At the same time, in the distance, Rue also subtly notices the rest of the career pack, all of whom are content to watch Cossus fight against other tributes. Secretly they hope that he will fall before he has to fight them, but they are not holding their breath.

“Hello Rue.” Cossus whispers, his voice not quite loud enough to be heard by her over the crackle of the fire. When she doesn’t respond and only looks at the figure, exhaustion seeping into her face as she feels her adrenaline wearing down, Cossus smirks at her and utters potent words of power while staring at the young tribute.

“Gaan Lah Haas!” The mighty warrior powerfully shouts, and his voice explodes out of his throat in the form of a purple projectile that speeds in the direction of the much younger tribute. Every blade of grass that is touched by the potent shout shrivels and perishes in the wake of contact with the parasitic thu’um. 

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Rue’s eyes widen as she sees the projectile speed out of Cossus. She is frozen in place when the shout collides with her and she lets out a soft whimper as the shout begins to forcefully tear her vitality out of her diminutive frame. She feels intense pain, but also a growing numbness that begins to spread upward from her toes. The numbness is comforting as she attempts to writhe in pain and finds that she cannot move a muscle thanks to the eerie effects of the shout that was used on her. 

As Cossus’s power takes hold of the youth and energy of his latest victim that same energy is invisibly secreted away and infuses the killer. Even as Rue fades away, her very lifeforce stolen from her, her suffering empowers her killer. She visibly wastes away, her body thinning and her clothes losing some of their mass and weight as they too atrophy at the hands of her supernatural slayer. 

Cossus feels the athleticism and climbing abilities of his enemy seep into him, even as a “Skill book” appears in the invisible, hammerspace inventory he possesses, which chooses that moment to reveal itself to him. The book appears in a “slot” right next to books that carry some of the skills of Katniss and Peeta, his other victims. 

As Rue perishes, Cossus stands a little taller and basks in the fact that with every life he steals he grows in power. At the same time, the darker nature of one of Cossus’s alt-forms rears its grim head. 

Cossus feels another tribute perish, this time to the wicked power of the fire he lit with his thu’um. The tribute in question is the sly redhead known as “Foxface”, who Cossus knows kills herself near the end of the Games in the original timeline where Marvel is the male tribute from District 1. 

Cossus has to resist falling to his knees as he feels his fire mystically transfer the potent lifeblood that once flowed through Foxface’s veins into his own. That is one of the powers of a Fire Vampire, one of a few breeds of vampires whose strains of vampirism have hybridized and fused into the potent vampire Cossus has become. 

The lifeblood that now seeps into Cossus is giving him a rush of power that manifests in the form of his eyes filling with fiery power. His eyes go from dark to fiery for a few moments as he radiates the terrible power of a specific breed of vampire from the very same setting from which Ether Zombies originate. 

The body of Foxface is incinerated in the burning forest, and in the minutes to come a few other tributes will share in her dark fate. By the time Thresh manages to escape from the forest he is the last warrior left who is not a part of the career pack. And Cossus stands near the entrance, a smile on his face as he calmly greets the potent titan. 

As Ghriza watches this she smirks, but vanishes from the interior of President Snow’s presidential estate. She is returning to the void from which she was once birthed. 

As she does this she excitedly begins to mutter to herself. The time for her champion to visit her home and birthplace draws near! Soon it will be Cossus’s turn to visit the mythical planet Nirn, and she is so excited to bring her champion to the place where she spent her very first days of life, in the distant past.

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“Hey, there Thresh. It’s good to see you.” I utter calmly, as the potent titan of a warrior sprints out of the forest and glares at me. He angles his sprint so that he will tackle me and I can hear how his heart pounds in his chest, beating faster and faster as he nears me. 

He is an onyx-skinned teenager with muscles bigger than the heads of lesser men. His armor is burned, singed, and kissed by the fires that I had inflicted on the forest, but he himself is mostly untouched by the raging wildfire. 

As he charges towards me I laugh quietly and with a single flick of my wrist stop the titan cold. He freezes in place, as his blood obeys me and refuses to do anything more than flow where it needs to to keep the man alive and conscious. He looks around in panicked confusion, and I smile sadistically at him. 

“Sorry friend. I have a task for you. You’re gonna help Glimmer and I make it to the final two.” I say, confidently. As I do I wander over to him and allow my eyes to fill with the scarlet fluids I had stolen from the victims of my wildfire. My eyes turn into scarlet orbs, filled with the unholy power of a fire vampire, and I activate one of the most dreaded powers possessed by a vampire: the power to dominate. 

My draconic and vampiric blood surge to the forefront of my brain as I attempt to make Thresh my ally. As a vampire and as a dragon I am filled with powerful urges that compel me to dominate others, be it through potent magic, genuine piety, or astonishing charisma. I can feel my blood empowering my mind as I mentally reach out across the space that separates the two of us. 

As my eyes stare into his I feel our minds connecting and touching subtly. I can do all of this, and more, thanks to the raw potency and utility of perks. When I sense Thresh’s mind I reach out across that connection and I take Thresh’s mind in my mental hands and squeeze the thing, to give him sharply painful but short-lived headaches. The mental me can feel his brain attempting to keep me out, but I know that I am stronger than him and I don’t mind doing permanent damage to his psyche. 

He nobly resists my potent psionic ability for a few moments but quickly enough succumbs to my domination and his eyes widen in awe as he looks at me. As he becomes mine, for the moment anyway, I turn and tilt my head towards the distant pack of career tributes. I then utter a single word. 

“Kill.” I say, simply and commandingly. Thresh’s eyes widen and I can sense his elation at my commands. It is almost a shame that he will never know what happened to Rue, but I fully plan for him to have fun as he slays our mutual foes. 

The final countdown begins. The number of living tributes that remain alive is just 7. The career pack, plus the boy tribute from District 11… 

When Thresh gets up and begins to walk towards the cornucopia I accompany him. All that is left is to finish off the career pack and Thresh, and fortunately for me they’ll readily finish each other off if I just give them the chance to do so.

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