I held out my hand and used my Sensate abilities to examine a bottle filled with yellow liquid that was labeled "ten". My tactile magic drawback made the process difficult. At a distance, I couldn't tell exactly what liquid was inside the glass. I was forced to use a telekinesis spell to float the bottle over to me before I could evaluate it. The bottle floated up off the table and into my hand without difficulty. The physical connection enabled me to determine that this concoction was pure grain alcohol.

  Seeing as nothing in the rules seemed to prevent me from refusing to drink a bottle I'd selected, I set the bottle down and grabbed the other ten-point bottle from my part of the table. This one was filled with a watered-down alcoholic beverage, so I set it aside and started examining the five-point bottles. There were four of the five-point bottles: one containing pure alcohol, one with a substance I couldn't identify, and two that were watered down.

  I checked the clock to find that we still had a bit more than a minute left, so I grabbed two three-point bottles at random. One of them had water, which I immediately chugged as I levitated the next bottle over. This one was watered-down alcohol; I drank it as soon as I had finished the first bottle. With the remaining forty-five seconds, I chugged the other three bottles that I'd deemed suitable before unleashing a very unladylike belch. There wasn't enough time to grab any more bottles, so I looked over at how my competitors were doing. Narabel the Turtle, true to his namesake, had turned an awful shade of green as he fought to guzzle down a ten-point bottle. Red was trying (and failing) to focus enough to levitate another bottle her way. Several of the larger bottles lay empty next to her. Finally, Pinky had fallen over and seemed to be fast asleep. As the time reached zero, a buzzing sound echoed across the stage.

  "Time's up!" shouted Alcazar as his floating disc swooped down low to hover over the table. "Let's have a look at how our contestants have fared!"

  He zoomed over to Narabel first and smiled.

  "How are you feeling, Narabel the Turtle? I think you had the misfortune of grabbing a ten-point bottle of pure grain alcohol right out the gate."

  Narabel tried to smile, but his attempt turned into a grimace and he swallowed hard.

  "Well, that's all right. You managed to finish it and scored ten points! Let's get that up on the board!"

  Up where the timer had been, 'Narabel - 10' appeared in green letters.

  "All right, let's go check on another contestant!" our umpire announced as he zoomed over to me. "Arabella Unbound, you look like you've weathered round two pretty well. And you managed to avoid the worst of the bottles, very good! Hold them up for me, if you would."

  I held up each bottle in turn as Alcazar tallied my score.

  "Twenty-six points, quite impressive! Let's get that up on the scoreboard right away!"

  My name appeared in white above Narabel's as unelicited applause rippled through the audience. Alcazar held out his hands for calm and went on to check on Pinky.

  "Mia, can you tell how affected I'm going to be by all this junk?"

  "Insufficient information. Accelerating metabolism to flush system is advised. Recommended spell: 'Vagus Overdrive'."

  It took me a moment to recall the spell from among the hundreds of others I'd read in Bosco's Big Book and activate it. As I did, I felt the familiar rumbling of having gained an insight. When I was finished, Alcazar was already moving toward Red, who had either collapsed or decided to lie down. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw 'Naiya - 25' written in pink lights just underneath my name. I finally had a name to call her besides 'Pinky'.

  "Alright!" Alcazar enthused as he hovered over the girl in red. "Let's take a look at what you've managed to down, Scintillating Seraphina. Besides yourself, I mean. If you're OK, please give us a thumbs up!"

  Seraphina managed to raise the hand not covering her eyes into the air and stuck up a finger that was definitely not her thumb.

  "Well, she's got some life in her yet," Alcazar chuckled. "And I see two ten-point bottles finished along with a three-point bottle. That'll put you just behind Naiya the Newcomer." Her score appeared in red below Naiya's, pushing Narabel's down a slot.

  I had a bad feeling when I realized that Alcazar had saved Darlene for last on purpose. She probably scored more points than I did on round two. Sure enough, Alcazar seemed impressed as he hovered over to her.

  "Last but certainly not least, we have Darlene Indominus! And what a formidable performance she gave us here, everyone! Hold up your bottles for everyone to see, please. Two ten-point bottles and three five-point ones! How are you feeling?"

  "I feel...I feel great! Woooooo!!!" Darlene shouted.

  "Awesome, simply awesome!" Alcazar beamed. "Let's go ahead and get Darlene's score up there!"

  All our names moved down a slot as Darlene's name and score appeared at the top of the cube, written in purple.

  "And there you have it, folks! Round two is over, and we're going to move immediately to round three!"

  I could hear Narabel urp and swallow hard again, while Seraphina moaned from the floor. I was doing a lot better than they were. Sure, I was a bit unsteady on my feet, but the Vagus Overdrive spell was flushing the intoxicants from my system almost as quickly as they were being absorbed by the lining in my stomach. Still, it never hurt to be prepared.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Mia, is there anything else I can do here? I can't quite keep up with the pace my body is absorbing all the alcohol."

  "A further option is available. However, this solution may create complications."

  Mia sometimes had a frustrating way of answering a question without really answering the question.

  "So, what is it?"

  "You could induce vomiting."

  "That is true," I admitted, "But I'd rather turn my stomach to stone than hurl in front of everyone here."

  "That action would not be advisable."

  "Forget it," I grouched as I tore my attention away from my internal conversation and focused again on the outside world, where five golden boxes with wings were descending from the ceiling. Alcazar gestured towards the boxes.

  "Fellow Citizens, round three will begin as soon as our contestants receive their puzzle boxes. The instructions are simple. Solve the puzzle and open the box!"

  The box finished winging its way toward me and hovered in the air half an arm's length away.

  "Competitors, begin!

  I reached out and cupped the box with both hands. Its wings evaporated into a sparkling mist, leaving no trace of having been attached to the box. Using my abilities as a Sensate enhanced by Tactile Magic, I was able to divine that the cube would open when the center of each face was pressed in the correct order. Each face depicted both a figure and contained a clue as to what order it should be pressed. A quick examination of each clue made the puzzle trivial: the order was Sun, Dragon, Goat, Terra, Empress, Moon.

  As soon as I pressed the sixth and final face, the box popped open, revealing a small golden bell that began ringing instantly.

  "We.....we have a winner!" Alcazar cried. "That's one of the fastest wins I've ever seen! Maybe even faster than Manticore Niraza and Jezelle the Prodigy! What an Oathtaking this has been, folks!"

  A woman's voice called out from among the crowd, loud and clear above the cheers.

  "That's because I scored forty-four points on round two! I was seeing double for the rest of the night!"

  Alcazar didn't seem to mind the interruption.

  "I am sure you were, Ascended One. All right, contestants, round three is over! Round four will begin momentarily."

  The puzzle cube I was holding closed itself again, silencing the ringer. It once again sprouted wings and flew up and out of sight.

  "Mia, do you have any idea who that was?" I asked as I watched the cube vanish through a hole that opened up in the ceiling.

  "Based on the context, there is a high probability that the speaker was Manticore Niraza, the other Emancipate."

  "She's here?! I can't wait to meet her!"

  My internal dialogue was cut short by Alcazar's next announcement.

  "All right, folks! That's three rounds down. Arabella Unbound is in the lead with two victories, but Darlene Indominus still has the chance to take first prize, because round four counts double in the event of a tie! Can anyone from the audience remind me what round four is?"

  Alcazar paused theatrically, both he and the crowd knew perfectly well what round four was. The answer was roared back by the multitude.

  "Feats! Of! Strength!"

  "That's what is, right! I always seem to forget. Well then, contestants. You must perform feats of strength! The rules of this match are perhaps the simplest of any round. Pin your opponent to the floor without getting pinned yourself! Now, since Arabella Unbound is currently in the lead, she gets to sit out the first match. Everyone else, begin!"

  The table in the center of the stage that had held the drinks from round two had descended into the stage, allowing me to see what was going on with Darlene. As the wall that separated her from Narabel descended, she sprang over it and palmed poor Narabel's face. Shards of the stage flew into the air as the back of Narabel's skull impacted the floor. The unhesitating violence made me shudder.

  I turned away and looked for Naiya and Seraphina, who were more or less still incapacitated by all the alcohol they had guzzled in round two. Seraphina was staggering over towards Naiya, who was still lying on the floor with her eyes closed.

  As Seraphina flopped down to pin Naiya, the latter made her move, grabbing Seraphina and flipping her around so that Naiya landed on top. The sudden movements were too much for Seraphina's overburdened stomach to handle, and she vomited. Right into Naiya's face.

  "Gross!" Naiya shouted as she released Seraphina and began to wipe the mess out of her eyes. Seraphina took advantage of the distraction and pushed Naiya off of her. The pair rolled away from each other and squared off. Choosing a tactic that had already worked once, Seraphina unleashed another gout of projectile vomit into Naiya's face, tackling her to the ground as she screamed.

  "I give up, just stop!" Naiya screamed. Seraphina pressed her victim to the ground a few more seconds before relenting and springing to her feet. The crowd roared with laughter as she put both fists in the air and celebrated her victory.

  Alcazar's voice filled the arena as the laughter died down. "Well, well, well! That was quite a first match. Darlene Indominus and Scintillating Seraphina will continue onward. But let's get someone to check out Narabel, just in case. Thank you."

  The familiar figure of Quill N. Squib ascended through a hole that opened in the arena floor. She picked up the prone form of Narabel the Turtle and descended back through the floor with him. I hoped he was okay.

  "Moving on to match two," Alcazar announced, "Darlene Indominus will get to sit this one out. Arabella Unbound will face off against Scintillating Seraphina. Begin!"

  I really didn't relish the idea of fighting someone who thought projectile vomit was a neat idea, but I wanted the mana that came with the grand prize. So I faced off with Seraphina, trying to size her up. I knew that I was stronger than she was, but trying to pin someone required more than brute strength. Well, it did if you were trying to do it without beating the other person senseless first. I already felt bad about smashing Seraphina right in the face earlier, I didn't want to hurt her any more than I had to.

  "You all done throwing up?" I asked.

  "Wouldn't you like to know?" Seraphina retorted. "Maybe, maybe not."

  "Great," I muttered as I made hasty preparations to engage. There wasn't enough time for real spellcasting, so I had to be content with forcing raw mana into my nerves, muscles, and skin, a crude but relatively effective way to increase my physical attributes without wasting time.

  I took two large steps forward, keeping my eyes fixed on Seraphina's midsection. Not only would focusing on her middle help predict her next movement, but it would also give me a bit of warning if she decided to throw up on me. My increased speed must have caught her off guard because she made no movement at all until I had already slipped inside her guard. If I had been planning to seriously hurt her, it would have been over right then and there. Fortunately for her, I was not. I leaned back to avoid her hastily thrown right hook, then turned her momentum against her to sweep her off her feet. She hit the floor with a thud and winced.

  "Sorry," I found myself saying as I moved in for the pin. "Just stay down and this'll be over."

  Seraphina struggled for a moment as I straddled her stomach, trying to punch or kick me, but I easily caught her hands and forced them to the ground.

  "We have a winner!" Alcazar called out from above. "Oh my goodness, my dear friends! This is the moment we've all been hoping for, folks. Arabella Unbound and Darlene Indominus pitted against each other in the Feats of Strength finale. Let's hear how excited you all are to witness this historic occasion with me!"