Soon all the hundred and thirty six people were standing in the grounds, even a tied up Jack was present.
In front of them all was Annabeth who looked a little down that she hadn’t been able to convince the people of the village that Lucifer was a harmless little kid.
"Alright everyone!! Gather around!!" Enrique shouted so that everyone present could hear him, prompting everyone to make a half circle and stand close to him and the tree from which the demon dummy was hanging.
"Since we don’t know how long we’ll be waiting until the dungeon core is destroyed, we have made a new training method for you all to train yourselves!"
"Today we want your feedback on how much better it is than your usual training methods!"
"Training...?" Someone interrupted disinterestedly but Enrique ignored them.
"It is a game called Pinata Smash!!! So brace yourselves!! One by one, everyone in this village, from the littlest children to the oldest will all participate in this training method!"
"And remember, those that do the best and cross certain milestones set will be rewarded with rare artefacts that I rarely give to people!"
"Are you ready!!???" Enrique asked out loud.
"Yeah....." The response from everyone was already unwhelming and half hearted once they realised they would be training.
Especially the children who were usually free from all this and could play all they wanted.
"Alright... who wants to go first!?" Enrique shouted out loud to ask everyone.
But no one raised their hands.
So in the end, Enrique picked a child to go first.
The child was slightly dumb looking with snot hanging out of his nose and didn’t quite want to go first in front of everyone else.
But being picked by Enrique he had no choice so he stood in front of the demon dummy and looked at Enrique with confusion, "What am I supposed to do?"
Enrique handed the little boy two things.
"Here, put this over your eyes to cover it and then beat the demon using this stick. You just have to keep hitting the demon until the timer on it beeps."
"If you hit the demon enough times before the timer beeps, you’ll be rewarded."
"That’s it?" The little guy asked the question on everyone’s minds at that moment. It seemed like their training was going to be even more disappointing than they’d expected.
The boy held the stick in his hand and put on the blindfold properly. Once Enrique was satisfied the boy could no longer see, he let the boy stand in front of the demon dummy that was hanging from the tree.
"Isn’t this just a pinata?" Someone in the audience commented. "Looks like it..." someone else responded with a disappointed sigh.
"Alright... you may begin in... three... two... one!!!" Enrique announced and the boy instantly swung his wooden stick! Only in the next second he embarrassingly whiffed.
His stick slipped right past the demon dummy’s small head and hit nothing.
Several people broke into a soft smile seeing this remembering their childhood memories fondly.
Just as a few people among everyone in the crowd were about to say something to encourage the kid further, the mouth of the demon dummy fell open and a sound byte played out.
"I bet you wouldn’t miss if it was your mother tied up here... but I guess she’s so fat the string holding me up would’ve broken if it was her."
GASP!!!!!
Several gasps rang through the crowd as they heard the demon speaking. The voice was clearly Enrique’s but he’d tried to at least sound like the Warden.
The one that it affected the most was obviously the little kid who had just whiffed.
Firstly he’d missed in front of everyone, then the demon dummy had gone ahead and made fun of him in front of everyone! It was a double blow! And a low one at that!
’Hehehe... how do you like those sarcastic quotes to motivate you!? A staple of rage games!’ Lucifer thought as he looked at the kid.
"YOU DONKEY!!!!" The little kid shouted out loud and tried hitting the demon dummy once again but-
-he whiffed! Again!
"Congratulations. You’ve now hit me as many times as the number of humans I’ve left alive after encountering me, which is none."
Since the timer hadn’t buzzed yet, the boy swung his stick again.
But since he was blind folded and already off after swinging his stick and pointing in a completely different direction, he whiffed, again.
For a third time!
"I almost felt a breeze that time!"
Whiffed again!
"No wonder humanity keeps losing against demons if they’ve got heroes like you in it."
Whiffed again!
"The only thing you’re killing is my boredom."
Whiffed again and again!
"Stand proud for you are the safest human to be around for a demon."
Whiffed again!
"Should I stop moving?! Oh wait... I’m not moving already."
Whiffed again!
"Achievement Unlocked : Air slayer!"
BUZZZZZZZZ!
Finally the demon’s mouth opened and out came a strong buzz. The round was over.
The little kid instantly pulled off his blindfold and then turned around to face the demon.
His white face was red.
He was out for blood.
He rushed up to the demon and raised his stick to smash it instantly but Enrique quickly grabbed the stick and pulled the child back.
The demon dummy however wasn’t done.
"Evaluation : You’d lose to a training dummy."
"Goddamn it!!! Come here you donkey!!! Fight me fair!!!" The child shouted out loud while in Enrique’s arms as the people around began softly laughing at the kid’s performance.
The kid desperately flailed his arms as he tried escaping Enrique’s grasp to regain his lost honor among everyone but Enrique’s grip was firm, not letting the kid get anywhere near the demon dummy anymore.
Instead he said something the kid instantly obeyed, "If you want to fight with it some more, you should get back in the line, once everyone finishes their turn, you can have your own turn."
The kid huffed loudly and went and stood behind everyone else in the semi circle that had formed around the training dummy, creating the start of the retry line.
Of course the adults made sure the kid could still see the game being played in front of them by creating some space for him.
"Me next!!!" another child eagerly shouted out loud as the adults laughed slightly wondering if this kid would do any better.
It was at this moment that a system notification flashed before Lucifer’s eyes.
[Player played game, emotional value generated +1.]
’So little!?’ Lucifer lampooned. ’With so little it’ll take years to get a single days extension on my life!’
’I’ll be long dead before then! What’s the use of this system then!?’
’Goddamn it ROB I want a refund!’