The God Contest Regina

“For them to perceive the advantage of defeating the enemy, they must also have their rewards.”

Sun Tzu

Bethany drank the contents of the vial in single swallow. It felt cool as it slid down her throat.

“Huh. Mint flavored,” Bethany remarked. A tingling sensation began to spread across her body, starting at the tips of her fingers and moving all the way to her toes. It passed through every muscle and every nerve of her body, and Bethany was about to start panicking when the feeling disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

In her surprise, Bethany dropped the empty vial. It fell through the air, careening towards the floor below.

Instinctively, Bethany reached down and caught the vial between two fingers before it reached her knee. Bethany stared down at the vial in surprise. She hadn’t even had time to look at it. Her hands moved with a quickness and precision she had never possessed before.

“How did I do that?” she whispered. She knew the answer. “The vial. I selected the feet, and it gave me better reflexes!”

Bethany focused, and her player screen appeared in front of her.

Name: Bethany Fox

Job: Player

Attributes:

Strength: 3

Agility: 5

Toughness: 6

Magic: 5

Attribute Coins: 1

Talents:

Oracle Eye (#error#)

Gift of Insight (Epic)

Hammer of Light (Rare)

Her agility score had increased by two, almost double what it was yesterday. She could feel the difference. It felt like she had been given a year’s worth of juggling lessons in an instant.

Bethany flipped the vial up into the air, a manic laughter erupting from her. She caught it between the same two fingers, then flicked it up again and again, faster and faster. Each time she caught it, her laughter and excitement grew. It felt amazing!

In Bethany’s elation, she lost focus and the vial finally slipped through her fingers and clattered on the floor, cracked but still whole. She leaned down and placed it carefully on a nearby table.

She took a deep breath, trying to quell her excitement. Diana had said there would be those that help along the way. First the golden disks, and now these silver attribute coins. Was this what she meant?

She held aloft her second silver coin. “If the hands and feet were agility, then strength would be the red muscles, toughness is the grey skin, and that leaves the blue head for magic. I think I know which to pick next.”

Bethany inserted the coin and pressed the muscles. She had felt so helpless when Daniel and Becka had held her down in the Arena of Dolos. She never wanted to feel that helpless ever again.

A vial filled with red liquid slid down into the pick-up slot. She steeled herself, then drank its contents. The tingling sensation spread throughout her body again, only this time it focused on her muscles. When the sensation ended, Bethany marveled at the difference. She felt as though she had been hitting the gym rat for a year.

Bethany looked at her reflection in the window. She was still the same Bethany, still gangly and awkward. “I guess the enhancements don’t change what you look like,” Bethany said, wondering what she would have looked like with toned muscles.

She walked up to the window, pressing her nose to the glass as she stared out at the city beyond.

“We’re going to need to earn more silver coins, if we want to survive,” Bethany whispered, remembering the monsters that roamed the city outside. “Talents from Arenas, attribute enhancements from fighting monsters. We can do this. I know we can.”

Bethany looked over at the lunchroom clock, hanging above the entranceway. It was four in the morning. The sun would begin to rise in an hour, and Bethany still had not had any sleep. Despite her excitement, she felt a yawn escape her.

“I won’t be in any condition to do any of that if I don’t get some sleep,” Bethany told herself.

As she dragged herself up the stairs to her bedroom, Bethany thought about how much her life had changed. Two days ago, she was applying for jobs and living out of her car, trying to build herself a new life. Now, she was mentally preparing herself to fight monsters in a contest of life and death.

At least now she did not have to do it alone.

She entered her room and collapsed onto her couch. She let her hammer drop to the floor and was asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

For the first time in a week, Bethany fell into a dreamless slumber.

* * *

Zachary Choi enjoyed danger. He enjoyed anarchy. It made him feel alive.

So when Zachary spotted the woman with shoulder-length blond hair and a strip of black fighting an orb creature with a black dagger, he thought it would be wicked fun to watch.

He leaned against the wall and watched her dance, ducking and dodging the monster’s blows. He smirked. It reminded Zachary of another life, a past life, in Korea, when he was Choi Mi-Cha, and his parents had forced onto him their hopes and dreams. His mother was a dancer. His father was a scholar. They expected him to be both, and he had excelled. But the structure and his parents’ crushing expectations had dulled him to his core. He'd felt no joy in either. The only joy he found was when he fought against it.

Perhaps that is why he didn’t attend the prestigious university his father had paid for. He'd simply disappeared the moment his feet touched American soil. Walking into the streets of New York, he'd left his old life behind. He never spoke to his parents again, and soon he left behind the name Choi Mi-Cha. He became Zachary Choi – the Illustrious Mr. Zee – and he spent the next five years riding the trains, seeking adventure.

When his latest train rolled into Regina, he found the greatest adventure of them all. The God Contest.

The woman with the black blade thrust forward, piercing the orb through its core. There was a metallic scream and a crack, and the orb shattered and scattered along the ground. Its carapace of scrap lumber fell to the ground, lifeless. The woman leaned down and picked up a silver coin from its remains, and then spotted him.

Zachary clapped his hands, slowly at first and then with increasing speed. He added an impressed whistle at the crescendo.

“My dear, my beautiful lady, that was a work of art. A real pleasure to have witnessed,” he exclaimed as he gave her a flirtatious smile and tipped his imaginary hat. “May I have your name, that I may sing it to the heavens? The Gods are watching us, you know, so I would have a captivated audience.”

The woman looked unamused and rolled her eyes, and Zachary let loose a boisterous laugh in response. The woman marched towards Zachary, her blade clutched threateningly in her hands. He smiled and did not move.

The blade was at his throat in an instant, pressed against his skin. Zachary looked her in the eye and his smile grew wider. “Ah, to die at the hands of a lady such as you. This contest truly is a dream.”

The blade cut into Zachary’s skin with each world uttered, drawing blood. Still, a little pain had never stopped him from talking before. A lot of pain? Well, that was something else entirely.

“But then again, perhaps it’s better to die with said lady, don’t you think?” His eyes flashed down to her waist, where he held the tip of a silver dagger against her ribs. “Then perhaps we shall keep each other company as we explore what lay beyond this world?”

The woman stared into Zachary’s eyes, calculating. Zachary stood perfectly still, his smile still stretched across his handsome face.

The woman withdrew her blade and stepped backwards.

“Ha!” exclaimed Zachary, pulling back his long black trench coat and sliding the dagger into its inside pocket. “Marvelous. We shall become fast friends. And mayhap more than that?” He inflected his final question suggestively, and laughed again when the woman gave a haughty scoff.

“They call me Mr. Zee. The Illustrious Mr. Zee. May I know your name, my sweet plum blossom?” Zachary said, spreading his arms wide to give an exaggerated bow.

“No,” said the woman with the black blade, as she strode past him with confidence.

“Now, now, now, don’t be in such a rush,” Zachary said cheerfully, following the woman. “There are monsters out here, you know. Ones that can rip you to shreds, no matter how well you wield that fine dagger. Surely you do not mind my company in such times?”

The woman stared ahead, into the darkness, her ear cocked as if she were listening to a voice only she could hear. She tilted her head slightly, beckoning Zachary to follow.

The woman moved in a manner that avoided attention, moving from buildings to building in the shadows, avoiding the light. She did not say a word, and Zachary began to grow bored. So when they passed by a flower shop, he could not help but pick up a metal trashcan and smash the storefront window. He hopped inside and emerged shortly after with a bouquet of roses. He handed them to her with a flourish. She grabbed them and dropped them unceremoniously at her feet, and kept on walking.

“Shame. Women are supposed to like flowers,” Zachary laughed, his amusement rekindled if only for a short while.

A few twists and turns later, they arrived at the end of a dark alley. Its sole occupant was a black vending machine with a surface that resembled the night sky and a colored image of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

Zachary raised a curious eyebrow. “Did someone steal this from a circus?”

“It is used for these,” the woman said, displaying the three silver coins resting in her palm. “Just watch.”

The woman inserted one of the silver coins, touched the muscles of the Vitruvian man, and received a red vial. She inserted the second coin and selected the Vitruvian man’s hands, and for the third she picked the skin. Zachary watched as she withdrew the cork from all three vials and drank them together. Her body shuttered for a second, and then she lifted her head and gave him a mischievous smile. She hurled the vials against the alleyway wall with surprising speed and strength, and flecks of shattered glass rained down on the concrete below.

“Curious. Very curious. I’ve tried many drugs in my days, but this might be the most… unique. Care to give your new friend a hit of that?” Zachary said, hands miming empty pockets.

The woman scoffed and shouldered past him. “Figure that out on your own. I’m done with you.”

“Until our paths cross again, my love. Perhaps next time you see me, I shall be worthy of knowing your name,” shouted Zachary with regal flourish as she rounded the corner and was lost in the night.

Zachary Choi did not pursue her. He reached into his pockets and drew out four silver coins. His own prizes from the Contest.

“It looks like there is power in mayhem,” he said. “Now, Mr. Mercury, let’s see what you have to offer me.”

Becka watched from the shadows across the street as the man retrieved four vials and drank them all at once. Zachary fell to the ground, limbs twitching, as the transformation worked its way through his body.

“He is a fool,” Becka whispered, her voice laced with irritation.

“He is human. All humans are fools. But he shall be useful.”

“He does not deserve your attention,” protested Becka. “He is…”

“Silence, mortal! Do you think you deserve my attention either? Do you think any of you are deserving of me? You paid the sacrifice in exchange for your life, and now you serve me. You serve Al Puch."

Becka did not move. She could feel the sweat on her brow as Al Puch spoke into her mind. His voice felt like sandpaper being scrapped across her skull.

"Death is my domain, human, and I grow stronger when souls make thier way to my realm. That man is anarchy and chaos manifested, and he will send many souls my way.”

“I understand,” Bethany whispered, chastised.

“You understand…,” Al Puch said expectantly.

“I understand, master.”

“You do not understand. It is not your place to understand the plans that unfold around you. You must simply know your role and play it flawlessly. I shall call on you when I have need of you. Do not die in the meantime, Becka, or you shall regret it when your soul arrives on my doorstep.”

The voice in the darkness was gone, and Becka felt alone once more.

Name: Bethany Fox

Job: Player

Attributes:

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Toughness: 6

Magic: 5

Attribute Coins: 0

Talents:

Oracle Eye (#error#)

Gift of Insight (Epic)

Hammer of Light (Rare)