Chapter 365: Havin’ a Propaganda
{Holy Crap! Did you see that?! I didn’t think we could get that strong? Who are these guys?!}
{Are you stupid? They’re obviously the top level players! Look, the black haired one is the Baroness of Blood, She’s top of the charts!!}
{Who are the rest of them? I’ve never seen them before?}
{Obviously they are going to be joining Golden Princes. Who else would snatch up the best players?}
{Idiot! They aren’t Golden Prince chumps, they are totally with Pit Vipers, that’s that dungeon. Besides, my uncle works for them and he already introduced me to them!}
{Your uncle works as my ball cleaner more like}
{Yeah, that’s the oldest excuse in the book. Are you a baby with his first implants with that shit?}
{What did you say about me?! Fuck you!}
As it did with many things, regardless of the topic, the comment section of the stream rapidly dissolved into fruitless and pointless arguments based on pathetically fragile egos being wounded. But even if they were spending a lot of their time arguing, they were still watching, and even more where blasting comments of their amazement and speculation about the group.
Although a strong portion of the viewers remained silent, as dozens of guild representatives and nearly all of the local guild leaders watched with rapt attention.
They analytical eyes drinking in every piece of information at their disposal, not just about the Dungeon Boss and his attack patterns, but of the players who were beaatning this Giant like he was a petulant child.
Because whilst the idiots in the comments might have been just that, complete idiots, they were right about one thing. These were the players at the height of power in the real world, and it seemed that height extended even further in the world of Dawd.
It was clear, at least the guild leaders, that they would either have to recruit these players or face them in battle. Either option required information, as much of it as possible. From attack types, to habits, as well as any weaknesses and details of their abilities.
Anything that would give them an edge.
If only they knew that everything they were watching and all of the vital information they were smugly writing down, whilst chastising these players for being naive noobs stupid enough to stream such an important fight, was all tainted information.
All of it was carefully controlled and manipulated by Vestra, under the expert direction of Saige to create the perfect propaganda piece.
He didn’t just get her to leave out the other Giant, but he made sure to hide subtle pieces of crucial information. For instance when Lilith was kicked across the room like a soccer ball and slammed into the wall, she pulled herself out a moment later with barely a scratch. Her Aura protecting her body, making her nearly invincible at least until the hype of the battle died down.
But Vestra made sure to give her some scratches and cuts. Not enough to make her seem weak, that would work against them. But just enough to make them come to different conclusions of Lilith’s defence level and even increase her Aura in those moments.
Everyone loved a battered hero, after all.
And when Belladonna transformed, she hid that. Replacing it with the Blood Baroness transformation they were all used to, and attributing the flight she achieved with her new wings to her flaming feet instead.
But beyond that, Vestra didn’t just remove things. She also added some new stuff in, namely herself and Saige. She had them running around a little uselessly, attempting and failing to help, to set the bait that they were the weak links of the party. Simply the ones being carried by the true professionals.
While there was a touch of truth in that, as there was with the best lies, it was not because they were weak. Their strengths lay in different departments, such as this.
Saige knew everything that the professionals would be looking for, because he had spent over a decade in that same mindset and even struggled to pull himself out of it now. All he had to do was give Vestra the right notes, and she could conduct this fight into the perfect orchestral performance of deception.
If the government ever knew what Vestra was doing in these moments, they would be foaming at the mouth to get a hold of her abilities.
They already loved to alter videos to suit their needs and the stories they wanted to craft, even when they claimed they didn’t everyone always knew when it was the case. But this level of simple deception, onto a live broadcast.
It was a government’s dream for creating the ideal situations. One could turn a simple traffic jam into a riot, an argument into a political showdown. An innocent victim into a hardened criminal. Anything they wanted, they could create.
But such things were not on Vestra’s mind. She simply waved her wand, and conducted her orchestra. In fact, she found herself lost in the music of her own creation. Her mind experiencing the same serenity it had felt when she was under the Succubus’ control.
So much of the illusion had to be created on the fly, from instinct and experience. She didn’t have time to figure out perfectly, she just had to do it. It was that stress, that inability to overthink it all, that led Vestra further down the path of her magic.
She had improved so much that when Belladonna threw her next punch, slamming the Giant Demon back down to the ground where Lilith was waiting for him, even she did not see herself in her transformed state, nor did she consider anything wrong with that fact.
The Giant Demon, Red, however did. Although it was mainly because he was face down on the floor, with said face beaten black and blue by something a mere fraction of his size. Everything was wrong with that!
He quickly smacked Lilith away, not that it bothered the Demoness, before he let out a deafening roar.
His body began to shrink, compressing down to his regular size as the power of the lava he was constantly crashing into still coursed through his body.
He figured that since being Giant wasn’t helping him, that being closer to his enemies size would be better. After all, he was just a bigger target that was easier to put off balance when he was big. It’s main advantage was strength and intimidation, clearly neither of which were working.
It was honestly not a bad idea. It was just a shame that he forgot that he was already struggling with the pairs speed when he was huge, and they had more ground to cover. There was also the fact that all those blows he had been taking would be concentrated on specific parts of his body, turning what was akin to a small needle into being hit by a train.
So really, when Lilith appeared before him and completely shattered all of his ribs with the next punch, he should have seen it coming.