by Vic Connor
Last, but obviously not least, a girl in a fluffy, frilly yellow-and-black dress skipped out from the smoke to uproarious cheers. She had white stockings, white ribbons tying up a pair of pom pigtails, and a white wand ending in a heart decorated with faerie-wings. She did a dramatic sweep with her wand, finishing it with a snappy pose where she poked her own cheek, winking. The crowd went wild. Precious skipped after her team toward their side of the stage. As she did, Niko noticed a little black stinger affixed to the back of her dress at the base of her spine just under the corset laces.
She arrived on the stage with the rest of the Stingers, and they got a shot of the whole team together before cutting back to the announcer. “And now, give a warm Hunting Ground welcome to last year’s Phaeton champions, the number one team on both worlds, theeeeeee Enders!”
A metal song thrummed out over the crowd, and Erica roared her approval. The camera cut to another smoky hallway, this one swathed in a sepulchral purple. A swarthy man with a massive anchor on his shoulders strutted out into view. His long, shaggy hair hung down from an asymmetrical admiral’s hat, his dark skin so colorless it was almost grey. He grinned from beneath a curved mustache. His coat, decorated in ornate patterns, looked somewhere between 18th-century European military and a tunic. His shoes had curly toes.
“Give a warm arena welcome to the Enders’ Tank and team captain,” Melissa’s voiceover crowed, “the human typhoon, Tayfun Davy!”
Tayfun pointed the barnacled anchor at the audience. The spectators did a wave motion, following the path of the anchor as he turned in the circle. He laughed boisterously, then slung the anchor back on his shoulder.
Tayfun strolled out of frame, and following after him was a woman in a long, flowing black dress. There were no feet at the bottom; the dress ended in billowing smoke, allowing her to float a few inches above the floor. She opened her mouth, revealing that her teeth were long, sharp needles. Erica cheered loudly a few seats down; and beside Niko, Jeny rolled her eyes.
“And here comes the Ender’s ranged DPS,” Melissa announced, “the beautiful and terrifying Bianca Chaichua!”
Bianca became a cloud of smoke, blowing past the camera with a spectral whisper.
Next came a man shrouded in a hoodie made of a thin knit, giving the impression of a spiderweb. A few girls in the crowd screamed approval as he pushed down his hood to show an exceptionally handsome young man, dark makeup painted on his lower eyelids.
“And the specter that haunts every lady’s dreams, the Ender’s star melee DPS, Guk-Doo Yi!”
Guk-Doo spun a clawed hammer in one hand, slashing across his body, then smiling for the camera, earning him another roar of enthusiastic screams.
“And now—the Ender’s healer. Raise your voices for Ariana Ali!”
A tall, thin woman emerged in a French Rococo dress, ripped to reveal thigh-high boots and fishnet stockings. She had a white veil over her face, making the black lipstick she wore underneath contrast starkly. Her fingers ended in long claws. She smiled in a dark crescent at the camera, then model-walked past and up to the stage.
The camera did a wide shot of both teams on a stage, weapons ready, eying their opponents. Melissa spoke over the shot. “All right, Cygni and Phaetonites, it’s time for the teams to head to their starting barracks. I’ll meet you back at the announcer’s table.”
The teams split off, and the camera cut back to the panelists’ table, focused on a guy with glasses and goatee. “Enders vs. Stingers, a classic rivalry here in Phaeton’s Hunting Grounds tonight. But the Stingers almost didn’t make it into this season, isn’t that right, Melissa?”
“That’s right, Reggie.” Melissa was seated at the panelists’ table now, a few feet down from the guy with the glasses. “The Stingers were plagued last season by a number of strange occurrences.” The screen cut to what Niko surmised was footage from a previous game. It showed the Stingers in a red expanse of craggy rock and steam vents, near a pool of steaming, clear-blue water. A geyser rose up from the pool, a dozen of those sharp, pyramid shapes jutting out of it and moving as if they were alive.
A few more clips played as the announcers discussed the oddities. “The most notorious, however, came during playoffs last year against the Enders. One of the Hunting Grounds’ monsters appeared to float across the Great Ravine, here, in the Mideast quadrant.” The screen showed a map of the Phaeton Hunting Grounds, lighting up the middle right square. Then, it cut to the footage of a massive, black dog, its fur looking sharp as porcupine quills. As described, it ran off a cliff and continued stampeding, as if it was running across an invisible bridge. It closed in on the member of the Enders, the handsome Korean kid with the hammer that all the girls had cheered for, Guk-Doo.
“The Enders were forced to fight the beast after what should have been a strategic escape. The Enders’ star DPS, Guk-Doo, got knocked out in the encounter. Though the Enders ultimately came out with a victory against the Stingers, the incident put them at a distinct disadvantage.”
The screen cut to a shot of the Enders in their barracks, hunched together in a scrum. Then, it swapped to the Stingers, similarly engaged in pre-game strategy.
“Phaeton League officials launched an in-depth investigation after the incident but found no evidence that the Stingers had any control over these odd events,” Reggie reported. “Both their coach and team manager vehemently insist that no member of the Stingers is responsible.”
“And yet, my team went on to be the Binary System Champions.” Erica’s voice snapped Niko’s attention away from the screen. She was leaning around Tim to smirk at Jeny. “Despite any unscrupulous actions of certain other teams.”
“Yeah, right,” Jeny crowed, leaning around Niko. “All the other weird stuff was totally random. If anything, someone’s trying to discredit them so they don’t have to face them on the field.”
“Please. Unlike the Stingers, the Enders don’t need to cheat to win.”
Jeny stuck her tongue out. The announcers, Melissa and Reggie, started the countdown, and the two girls turned back to watch the game.
The countdown hit zero, and a split-screen view showed both teams fly from the barracks, emerging into their respective starting quadrants.
“Yes!” Jeny cried. “The Stingers are in the northeastern quad!”
“Is that good?” Niko asked.
“It gives you a minor advantage on this map,” Hunk said.
“They need all the advantages they can get,” Erica muttered.
On the screen, both teams split off without a word. It was amazing watching their coordination, almost like they could intuit their captain’s calls. While Niko had noticed the map was laid out differently, actually seeing Phaeton’s landscape was shocking. It was vastly different from Cygnus’ ghost pines, peaks, and crystal waters. The map seemed to be encased entirely in a massive crater. The red ground was covered in scrub. Wide, open vistas of distant mountains and plateaus contrasted with thick forests of massive redwoods, which grew black leaves that blotted out the sun. Bubbling springs of boiled-clear water pocked stretches of red shale.
For a long while, the teams avoided one another, focusing more on defeating the area’s monsters and collecting their items. Those, too, were different from Phaeton. Huge, terrible stallions with flaming eyes charged them in the open fields; chimerical creatures leapt down on them from the black treetops. The Enders climbed a peak to fight a massive, painted bird, which roared like a lion and made lightning crack around them.
“Where is your team even going, Jeny?” Erica taunted, waving a hand at the screen.
Jeny, instead of rising to the bait, leaned forward, watching the screen. “I’m not sure. They’re ahead, but…there’s no monsters that way. Maybe they’re looking for the Enders to start an early team fight?”
On the map, the Stingers—represented by four yellow blips—all converged on one area. It was a forest clearing at the edge of an escarpment framed by a river of rapids. The tall, relatively fl
at cliffside dominated the view, almost like the backdrop in a play. The last members of the Stingers arrived, but they made no moves to leave.
“Why are they just sitting there?” Jacob asked.
“Check the timers,” Tim said. “Maybe a monster spawns there.”
“No. There aren’t any at those coordinates,” Hunk said. “Drag is just east of there, but it doesn’t spawn for another three minutes.”
“They’ll lose their lead by then,” Jeny growled, twisting her scarf in her hands.
“Hey,” Jacob began. “Whoa, look!”
Niko squinted at the screen as Jacob pointed and the crowd murmured. The camera zoomed in on the river at the base of the escarpment. It had stopped flowing. Not calmed, but frozen in place, splashes of white water and jumping trout suspended midair. Wayan, the massive frost giant with the white beard, pointed to it. He and Made, the Rangda woman, exchanged a silent look.
“It’s another anomaly,” Hunk breathed.
“A glitch,” Niko whispered.
“See?” Erica pressed. “They are cheating. Look! They all went to this random spot, waited around, and now this. They obviously knew something weird was going to happen.”
“It does seem kind of suspicious,” Tim said.
There was a low rumble, then rocks from the side of the cliff started tumbling away. The Stingers had to move back to avoid the debris. Massive rocks fell into the river with what should have been huge splashes. Instead, they just phased under the surface. As the rubble peeled off the cliff face, shapes started to form.
“Are those…words?” Tim asked aloud. And indeed, as more fell away, they revealed a phrase carved in the side of the cliff. It read “Kings 14:23. 23d. 11pm.”
Everyone gasped, but none more than Niko, who clutched his cross as if someone might take it from him. Touch this, his mother had said, and remember that you are not alone. The message was impossible to interpret for anyone else in Territoria, their memories reshaped to fit the world’s lore. As far as Niko knew, he alone recognized that Kings 14:23 was a Bible verse. For they also built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree.
Like a shot, the Stingers ran from the scene, their group of yellow dots racing to the eastern side of the map. The announcers were whipped into a frenzy, announcing that they were going for Drag. “Despite another strange occurrence around the Stingers, they seem to still be in the game, their eyes on those drakeskin cloaks,” Melissa said. “But look, here come the Enders, and they’re going for Drag as well. They will arrive after the Stingers, and the Ult timer has unlocked, which means we’ve got team fights coming soon, folks. In the time taken at that cliff, the Enders have closed the statistical gap. If the Stingers take too much damage from Drag, it might give the Enders the edge they’re looking for.”
The Stingers arrived at the mouth of a cave that was belching fetid steam, readying their weapons. Made the Rangda commanded them to take certain positions around it. Gabriella the shark girl hoisted herself up onto the crags above the cave mouth. Precious kept a safe distance, as Wayan hefted his shield and stood ready directly in front of it.
“And here’s the tick to thirty minutes,” Melissa announced, “which means, here comes the Dragon.”
“Wait,” Niko said, “That’s what ‘Drag’ means?”
As he spoke, a deep growl rumbled out from the cave, and two animal eyes reflected the sunlight outside. With a snort of smoke, an honest-to-God dragon slithered out from the cave mouth. Its golden, gem-encrusted hide glittered in the sun. It stomped its clawed feet on the ground, the camera’s view shaking with the impact. A huge, iron cuff was fixed around its neck, attached to a thick chain that disappeared back down into the cave.
The beast flared its nostrils, taking a deep gulp of air that filled a stretchy membrane at its throat. It glowed red inside. The dragon belched out a plume of flame. Wayan blocked it with his shield as Gabriella leapt down from her vantage above the cave mouth. She landed on the dragon’s back, riding her wooden board down its ridged spine, raking her claws across its scales as she did so. They left long, bloody gashes down the dragon’s side. Its scales flew off, clanging to the ground in the form of gold coins.
The dragon roared in anger, swiping out with its claws at Wayan. It caught the man across the middle, leaving deep, red marks and knocking Wayan to his knees. The pop-star Precious, as if anticipating the damage, shot a beam of healing into his back with her winged wand. The camera cut.
“Oh, but look out, Stingers, here come the Enders and they want a piece of the action,” Melissa crowed. Sure enough, the screen showed the Enders closing on the Stingers’ position.
“I think this is a little too early for them to jump in here, Melissa, I don’t think the dragon’s been taken down enough—oh!”
As the announcers gasped, Ariana, the Enders’ veiled and corseted healer, took a deep breath, then howled, ear-splitting even through the projection speakers. Ariana’s wail took form, the jagged, purple lines spreading in a cone over the Stingers’ whole team.
“Ariana opening with her Ultimate, Herald of Doom, and now Tayfun is coming in and oh, he’s dropped the Depths!” On the screen, the captain of the Enders Tayfun swung his massive anchor in a circle above his head. A whirlpool formed under the Stingers’ feet. “That’s bad news for the Stingers, they’re still in damage range for the Drag, but oh my stars and planets! Precious Love dropped Bubbles just moments before the attack. Gabriella got hit, but the rest of the Stingers were protected from the CC, negating Ariana’s Ult with just a regular cooldown. That’s exactly the kind of preternatural reaction time we’ve come to expect from Ms. Love.”
“What’s CC?” Niko asked Hunk.
“Crowd control,” Hunk whispered back. “It means any ability that can stun someone.”
Reggie, the other announcer, jumped in. “Precious and Made still have to escape Tayfun’s whirlpool though, Melissa, and—oh, look! There’s the chain from Wayan! He’s grabbed his sister Made and he’s pulling her out of the whirlpool, but what about fan-favorite Precious Love?”
“I think I know what she’s about to—and yes, that’s the Ultimate from Precious Love! Cygni and Phaetonites, look at her go!”
On the screen, Precious bent forward, and four translucent wings peeled off the back of her frilly dress. They fluttered to life, and she lifted up and out of the whirlpool, darting through the air, dropping sparkles as she went. She flew directly at Gabriella, who had been tanking the dragon while Wayan pulled Made out of the whirlpool with a chain.
“That’s one Ult out for the Stingers, two Ults out for Enders, but look out! Bianca has used Mist to reposition so she can get some shots at Precious Love. She may be safe from Tayfun’s Ult up there, but not from Bianca’s ranged attacks.” The ghostly woman in the long, flowing black dress—the Enders’ ranged DPS Bianca—had moved in past Wayan and Made, and was taking shots at Precious in the back line. Precious squeaked in pain, waving her arms.
“Ms. Love’s health is being chipped away. She’s calling for help from her teammates, but Wayan and Made are too tied up with the rest of the Enders—ah! But here comes Gabriella!” The woman with the grey skin and red Mohawk—Gabriella, the Stinger’s melee DPS—surfed in on a wave that seemed to create itself just for her. “She’s surfing in toward Bianca,” Melissa went on, “and ugh! She just kicked the board into her jaw. I can feel that from here, Reggie.”
“But now it looks like Gabriella is retreating—oh no!” Fire filled the screen, swallowing the woman in the black dress. “Bianca just took a spout of flame directly to the face, and there’s the call!”
As the last of the dragon’s flames dissipated, a graphic stating “DOWN” flew across the screen. Erica snarled, making fists at her side.
“You can’t forget about that dragon in these fights or you’ll end up paying for it, Reggie. And now this fight is 4 vs 3; I don’t like those odds for the Enders.”
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“And don’t forget, Melissa, the Stingers still have three Ults left and look! Speaking of, there’s the Ult from Made, Air of Destruction.” A cloud, red as blood, spewed from Made’s hands, pouring over their captain with the anchor, and the handsome kid with the hammer. “That red mist is bad news if it touches you,” Reggie’s voiceover explained as it happened, “and oh no! It has hit both Tayfun and Guk-Doo!” Behind them, out of its range, the girl in the veil was desperately casting healing spells. “Ariana is trying to keep them alive but that’s a lot of outcoming damage from Made.”
“Yes, but let’s not forget,” Melissa said, “the Stingers right now are split in two, and there’s a whole dragon in between.”
“Well, dragons aren’t much trouble if you can fly, Melissa. Here comes Precious Love, using the last of her Ult to make it over to Wayan and Made, and given Gabriella’s freedom of movement, I don’t think the dragon will be a problem.”
The rest of the match happened in a flash. The remaining three members of the Enders couldn’t reach Bianca before she was knocked out. Gabriella surfed around the dragon to join the rest of the Stingers, and together they knocked out the remaining three Enders in a fast succession. Melissa and Reggie enthusiastically declared the Stingers the winners of the game.
QUEST COMPLETE: WATCH YOUR FIRST PHAETON LEAGUE GAME
300 EXPERIENCE GAINED
PASSIVE EFFECT: 300*1.5 = 450 XP
4000/4500 XP
Jeny went ecstatic, standing, cheering and stomping her feet. Hunk beamed over at Erica and Tim. “That was such a good game! I’m actually kind of glad Enders had a chance to catch up before the team fight. It made it a lot more exciting!”
Erica gave Hunk a suspicious look. “You sound like an after-school special, Hunk,” she teased. “But…yeah, I guess you’re right. Ugh, can’t believe I’m going to have to root for the Stingers in the semifinals.”
“And the finals, too,” Jeny insisted. “They’re going to go all the way this year, I know it.”
