Abi and Clem took my right flank on the stage, while Eric and Hagar took my left. We hadn’t rehearsed this at all and yet managed to come together in perfect unison. We clasped hands and raised our fists overhead.
Fireworks exploded in the air above the courtyard, and our fellow students went wild. They roared and applauded, while my team beamed at them with pride and confidence. We were as ready for this fight as we would ever be, and I couldn’t wait for it to begin.
“Assembled teams, prepare.” Elushinithoc’s voice was flat and emotionless, as if he wanted to hide his true feelings. “A blue portal will appear before each team. Your time will start when your team enters its portal.”
The dragon’s words stifled the crowd’s cheers and applause. Silence cloaked the courtyard, and bands of tension surrounded every team on the stage. There was no more grandstanding, no more false bravado. The challenge of our lives was about to begin.
Breathe, I reminded myself.
The portals appeared before us in the space between heartbeats. One moment, I was looking down at the upturned faces of my fellow students. The next, a brilliant blue oval consumed my vision.
Without a second thought, I stepped through the portal.
The Challenge
THE PORTAL DROPPED me in a circular arena roughly thirty yards across. I scanned my surroundings for any clue how to win the challenge. The reward from the Empyrean Flame was the only hope I had of curing my broken core. I couldn’t afford to lose even a single event.
The ground was a smooth expanse of red clay, its surface broken only by a white painted circle, five yards across, at its center. A crimson, fist-sized ball sat on the ground within that hard circle. Three holes, each a yard wide and a yard off the ground, pierced the arena’s wall across from the portal. Those holes were outlined in glowing red circles, and I found a matching set of blue outlined circles behind us. The ceiling, twenty feet overhead, glowed with a stark white light that illuminated every inch of the arena.
“This is the weirdest soccer field I’ve ever seen,” Eric said quietly. “Where’s the other team?”
“I think we’re about to find out,” Hagar said. She was the last one through the portal, and it vanished with a faint electric hiss the instant she had both feet on the clay.
“The Challenge of Swords. Defend your goal. Establish dominance. Three points ends the game.” The announcer’s voice was loud enough to hear, and no louder. It said the words without inflection or emphasis. For such a momentous event, I’d expected to hear a little excitement, not abject boredom.
A scoreboard flashed to life above us. It held a blue zero and a red zero, each surrounded by three white circles.
“No timer on the scoreboard.” Abi shrugged. “I guess we have as long as we need to wrap this up.”
“Just because there isn’t a timer doesn’t mean we aren’t being judged on how quickly we complete the challenge,” I reminded the team. “I’m willing to bet they’ll break ties based on speed. Let’s be quick with this.”
“Here come the bad guys,” Clem said.
Three figures materialized from thin air on the opposite side of the arena. They were tall and thin, with long legs and arms that ended in wide, six-fingered hands. Their torsos were thin cones, and they had no heads or eyes that I saw. Their bodies were faceted, like crystals, and threads of jinsei that held them together and animated their forms glowed inside their torsos.
Four more constructs, these with thicker torsos, shorter legs, and heavier arms than the first trio, formed a second line. Finally, three more broad-bodied crystalline constructs appeared directly in front of each of the holes on the far wall.
They stood motionless, the weight of their attention pushing against my core for long seconds before it passed me by. Judging by the looks on the faces of my teammates, we were all being sized up by the opposition.
“Football.” Abi chuckled. “Or something close to it. Hardly seems like the best way to decide who gets to watch over the Grand Design.”
“There has to be more to the challenge.” I analyzed the opposing constructs closely and found no clues there. They were simple creatures, the scrivenings in their bodies limited to the specific task they’d been created to perform. Unfortunately, at this distance and at my level of skill, I wasn’t sure what that task was.
“If we need to get that ball through one of those holes, it’s going to be a very tight fit,” Clem said.
She was right. The ball in the center of the court was so close to the same size as the holes that I wasn’t sure it would fit. If the purpose of the challenge was to score a goal, we’d have to be up close and personal to do that.
“Look at the hands on their goalies,” Hagar groaned. “They’re the size of pizza paddles.”
“That hardly seems fair. They’re only constructs, though.” Eric strode toward the ball at the center of the field, chest puffed out with confidence. “Let’s see if they can keep up with me.”
“I’ll cover our goals.” Abi retreated toward the central hole in the wall on our side, then shrugged. “Not that they’ll get past Eric.”
“I’m on the left flank,” Clem said. “Just in case.”
“Good call,” Hagar said. “I’ve got the right side.”
“I’ll stick in the middle.”
