Who's It?

Jack let out a laugh, holding his hands high up like he was on a rollercoaster.

"Woooo! I'm flyingggg! Haha haaa!"

He was mostly just enjoying being carried by the monster, caring little for the coyote chasing after him in a rage. However, the monster at least appeared to be taking advantage of the rage that the coyote felt.

If the coyote held back running a little bit, it would've been able to turn much easier. However, it was far too emotionally distraught to think logically now, and just ran towards Jack and the monster at full speed, unable to think of anything other than tearing him apart as fast as possible.

It was a rather delicate process, The monster made sure not to change directions too early so that the coyote only had to turn somewhat to catch up. If they did, then that was just effectively letting them get closer for no reason.

However, the monster also turned early enough, so that the wolf couldn't get a good hit on them while running away. Albeit, the monster was still injured every time that it did this.

But in consideration of the difference in speed, the monster was doing a pretty damn good job.

But as good of a job as it was doing, by the third round, the monster was already heavily bleeding out. Although its speed wasn't affected too much, it was starting to have difficulty holding onto Jack, and that wasn't just because he was swinging back and forth with both hands in the air.

The monster continued to move forward, going in the direction that Jack came from. By the fourth hit, several of his hands were directly lopped off, littering the ground.

It was reaching its limits. Unfortunately, while Jack healed his leg fairly quickly, it slowed down tremendously when it came to his foot. Although it wouldn't be impossible to walk on stubs, it definitely wasn't practical enough to get away from the blitzing coyote, or even run in the first place.

Though Jack, as always, was completely oblivious to his dangerous situation.

And a few moments later, the coyote slashed at the monster's legs, mangling one and directly snapping the other off. As much as the monster wanted, it could no longer continue running. But in a last-ditch effort, it used its remaining hands to throw Jack forward.

Right afterwards, the coyote slammed its foot down on the monster, crushing its rib cage and promptly ending its life. A few moments later, the gorey mess dissipated into the air in the form of a red mist. Then ten seconds later, there was no longer any trace of the monster even being there.

But wondering about that was not what Jack was focusing on. Although he tried to stand up, he fell right back down, unable to keep his balance. Once he landed on his rear, he happened to be facing the furious coyote. With a smile, Jack waved his hand.

"Ah, hi again! It looks like you're about to catch me and I can't do anything about it! Wow, congratulations!"

Though while Jack was being congratulatory, the coyote cared little for that, growling at him. It crouched down, getting ready to pounce. As it was doing that, Jack suddenly let out a concerned gasp.

"Ah, mister dog sir, sorry to interrupt our game of tag, but..."

The coyote cared little for what he was saying, letting out a roar and pouncing.

"...it looks like someone else wants to join!"

With a roar of his own, Seedy suddenly burst out of the ground, entangling the coyote in vines while it was in the middle of the air, and pulled the beast back down to the ground. Although Seedy's body was far smaller than what it was normally, the vines were still enough for a basic restraint. At the same time, various vines began greedily burrowing within the wolf's skin, along with one of the heads.

As for Seedy's other head, it turned to look at Jack and waved happily. This prompted Jack to giggle and wave back.

"Hey Seedy! Mister dog sir was the last one it, so you're it now. Have fun!"

Seedy gave an approving nod before turning back to focus on the coyote. On the other hand, the beast was writhing in pain, struggling rather violently. Yet, even after it broke off the restraints, there was nothing it could do to stop the vines from invading his body.

It was already game over.

While Seedy had extreme trouble dealing with the tree roots, losing half of its body in a matter of seconds, the tables turned very quickly the moment the coyote was simply made out of flesh.

The sounds of cracking bones reverberated, as the movements of the coyote gradually slowed down, almost like how a ball slowly rolls to a stop.

Suddenly, two vines burst out from the coyote's eyes, prompting the various limbs it had to hang lifelessly. A few moments later, Seedy's head came back to the surface, appearing out of the coyote's mouth and looking around with excitement.

Jack tilted his head and rubbed his chin in confusion.

"Hm... does this make mister dog man it, or Seedy it?... Ah, whatever, good job Seedy!"

In response, Seedy nodded fervently with both heads, before going back to consuming the rest of the corpse.

Jack simply scratched the side of his head, watching it. He soon got disinterested, attempting to stand up once more. Though despite his best efforts to balance, he only swayed back and forth for a second before falling down to the ground again.

Mia and Jessica hurried over to him, while Emma followed at a casual pace.

"Are you ok, Jack?"

"You aren't too badly hurt, are you?"

Although Jessica and Mia originally came with a lot of enthusiasm, remembering their last encounter with him, they found themselves hesitant to move any closer. Jack looked at them before letting out a laugh.

"Do you guys want to play the game?"

The two of them flinched, taking a step back.

"N-No thanks."

"E-Er, not this time, Jack."

Jack tilted his head to the side in confusion but didn't push any further when they indicated their lack of interest. The man in a suit appeared on a tree next to them, that didn't seem to be there before.

"Well... that is the first round concluded. Is there anyone that wants to volunteer to go next?"

It was at this point that Emma raised her hand slowly. Mia scratched the side of her head with a pout.

"I guess I could go."

Emma slowly turned to Mia, her smile widening ever so slightly.

"My advice would be for you to not do such a thing."

Mia looked at her rather strangely, unsure of what to make of it. Though before she could say anything else, Jessica suddenly grabbed onto her hand.

"...Let her go instead."

She had an oddly serious look on her face, prompting Mia to nod slowly.

"U-Um... alright."

As for the man in a suit, he let out a sigh while giving Emma a gloomy look.

"Using that kind of ability is unfair, you know?"

Though she only brought up her fingers to cover her face and giggled.

"Oh, my. I don't remember it being against the rules though?"

The man in a suit clicked his tongue as he took a card off the top of the deck.

"...Fine."

With a flick, the card shot out, while Emma caught it easily. She turned it over to reveal it, not so much for herself but for the others around her.

It was an Ace of clubs.

Mia let out a gasp.

"You wanted this card to have an easier time for yourself?"

She was under the impression that an Ace had to be one of the easiest monsters. After all, it was the lowest card available. Though before she could complain any further, Jessica strongly gripped her hand.

Mia looked at her with confusion.

"What's wrong?"

Jessica merely shook her head, prompting Mia to calm down. Though she was still quite peeved.

The man in a suit didn't care about their conversation, letting out a sigh.

"Well, since it's an Ace, you can't lower it any further. Since there's not much of a point in giving you time to search, I will simply give you the cage directly."

Like a magic trick, he put his hand behind his back, and when it came back out, there was a small cage with a handle on top. The man in a suit handed it over to Emma, who let out a giggle seeing the creature inside.

It was a tiny lizard. Even though the cage was small, it still had a considerable amount of space relative to its own size.

Upon seeing such a thing, Mia furrowed her brows. Though Jessica started to pull Mia away, much to her confusion. Still, she didn't go against it, deciding to follow her.

Emma casually inserted her Ace of clubs into the padlock, unlocking the cage.