Survival

  Congratulations, Competitor Foreman! You have reached the first stage of the Tournament! The twelve sentient species have been divided proportionally among 144 Arenas. The goals for this stage are twofold: the first is to build your strength and prepare yourself for the trials ahead, while the second is far simpler—survive! To aid you in the first task, the Arena has been seeded with Challenges of various sorts, whose completion will award you Class specific artifacts commensurate to the difficulty of the task. This stage of the Tournament will continue until each of the Arenas have condensed to 10,000 Competitors. You have been placed in the thirty-fourth Arena.

  Surviving Competitors: 68,197

  The white room flicks away to reveal an ancient forest. Trees surround me on all sides, thick enough to reduce my sightline to the small clearing I arrived in. The undergrowth, a strange collection of dagger-shaped leaves and twisting branches, looks like a nightmare to wander through. Luckily, or, most likely, unluckily, there is a single path leading forward into the forest. It bends out of sight to the right after a short distance.

  How quickly do I need to move out of here?

  “You have plenty of time, and very little, depending on how you look at it. You can spend whatever time is necessary to familiarize yourself with your abilities, but the longer you spend, the more Challenges will be completed by other Competitors, especially the easier ones. If you wish to have the best chance at survival, we’ll have to hurry.”

  Alright then. Let’s… try this out.

  Weaken Gravity. Nothing happens. I can feel the Skill’s channel leaking in my chest, and the little number displaying my available soul energy ticks down from 121 to 120, but there’s no other effect. More, I guess?

  “You need intention. Look at the Skill description, Competitor. What is your area of effect? Strength of effect?”

  Right. I’d like to affect, well, myself, and I’d like it to be… how do I even tell how strong it is?

  “Experiment,” Kora says flatly.

  Picturing a small circle around my feet, I mentally take hold of the fire burning in my chest and push it into the channel. My soul energy drops to 110. Nothing really happens, though. My organs feel a little weird, and I feel lighter, I guess, but nothing… my hair floats gracefully across my vision. Oh. It’s working.

  Crouching, I tentatively jump. I spring into the air, my stomach doing flips as I rise way too rapidly. I almost cancel the Skill, but stop myself when I realize how high I am already. My ascent slows. I finally come to a stop, the magical apex roughly at the height of the treetops. Slowly, feeling like an astronaut floating weightlessly in space, I begin to drift to the right, and, luckily, not down.

  Holy shit.

  I haven’t just weakened gravity, I’ve broken it. Can I just fly, at this poin—

  I fall. Hard, normal, fuck-I’m-falling fall. My legs slam into the earth, unbraced. There’s a crack loud enough to echo in the trees. My vision flashes black from the pain. Tears squeeze out of my eyes. I can't bring myself to look down at the ruin of my legs. Thirty seconds in, and I can't even walk.

  Achievement! “Tools of your own destruction!”

  You caused yourself significant, potentially life-threatening injuries with your own Skill! Keep it up, and Death might get his date after all!

  Reward: The boundaries and area of effect of your Skills will be clearly highlighted for you.

  I barely finish reading before my legs twist sharply of their own accord. The scream that tears from my throat feels like it comes from a different person. There's no way this is me, grunting and sobbing as my legs crunch and snap and—

  The pain vanishes. I'm left panting, teeth clenched tightly together. I finally let myself look down. My legs are fine. Totally fucking fine, like I didn't just survive a masochist’s wet dream. The soul energy number at the top of my vision blinks slowly.

  61/121

  I pull up my soul summary just to glare at the crisp words Psychic Telos. I mean, I'm grateful that I can walk and whatever, but do I have to feel every extraordinary microsecond of the healing?

  “That was an exciting first experiment.”

  Ha. Ha.

  “Do you understand what you did wrong?”

  Judging by the reward the achievement gave me, I'd guess that I left the area of the spell, and gravity reasserted itself.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Perfect. Now, up. You burned a lot of soul energy repairing your infantile blunder, but we need to test your other abilities and recover before we venture forth.”

  Trying and, judging by the crossed arms I can sense in the back of my mind, failing to hide the grumble at Kora’s consistently hurtful word choice, I scramble to my feet. Eyeing Strengthen Gravity warily, I imagine my intended area of effect a couple steps away from my imminently breakable bones. A translucent violet circle appears exactly where I imagined it.

  Whoa. With a thought, I shrink the circle until it's a pinprick, then broaden it to encompass the entire clearing. The sharp violet light responds instantly, precisely, changing shapes and sizes with the barest mental nudge.

  “That is really quite helpful,” Kora says, clearly surprised. “I do not believe that reward could possibly have been offered by the Seventh. Not after your immature, unwise, and idiotic antagonization. This reward must have been automated.”

  Sure. Yeah. Let's focus on the automated part. Making the area a small circle a few feet across, I pour a bit of soul energy into the Skill. The area takes on a hazy purple glow, clearly marking the edge of the effect. A few second's search yields a pebble, and I throw it towards the Skill. The second it reaches the edge of the violet light, it curves sharply down and plunks into the grassy meadow with a weighty thunk. Neat. I cancel the Skill before my soul energy dips below 55.

  “Now the last.”

  Shouldn't I be conserving what I've got? I seem to remember something about soul annihilation or extinction or whatever.

  “It will always be a risk, especially with your healing Skill using it at such a precipitous rate. But it is a risk you'll need to grow comfortable with if you're to survive very long.”

  Easy for you to say. You just go back to Mentoring if I blink out of existence.

  “Use the last Skill, and then you can rest.”

  Artless dodge, Kora.

  “Competitor.”

  Fine.

  So. Shifting gravity to a new direction. There's some weird implications there. Is it the same strength? Weaker? Any direction at all?

  Well, we're experimenting, I guess. I picture gravity turning sideways, definitively across the clearing from me. There’s something different about the violet cylinder that appears. I can spin it any direction I want, but no matter how I concentrate, it stays the same size. Judging by the Skill description, this one has a singular energy cost, which means I lose some flexibility. Shrugging, I activate Gravity Shift.

  Two things happen at once. First, a wave of weariness crashes down on my shoulders, and my healthy 55 soul energy drains instantly to 25. And second, there is a startled squeak as a strange looking animal flies sideways out of a tree bordering the clearing. Part green fur, part blinding cuteness, time seems to slow as it flies—no, falls—past, its tiny eyes meeting mine with terror. In a split second I'm certain shouldn’t be long enough, my Identification activates.

  Identification: A Goenta of Sartuna

  Level: 0

  Strengths: Innocence

  Weaknesses: Young Psychopaths

  The goenta are an apt analog to the Earth squirrel, but half as dangerous. Perhaps the most innocent, easily domesticated animal in all the Twelve Worlds, even natural predators eat them last to avoid the soul-crushing guilt of consuming such a pure creature.

  The squirrel thing falls sideways, writhing to keep its head up, which is actually down. It flits across and smashes against the far treeline with a sad squeak. Its neck snaps on the impact with a pathetic crack that doesn't leave the clearing. My shoulders droop, knowing what's—

  Achievement! “Childhood Sociopath II”

  You killed another helpless creature, and this one was literally minding its business, living its carefree little life. At least you had a reason to kill Peanut.

  Reward! You deal increased damage against creatures at or below level 1. To help you with your kink. Psycho.

  I can't hold in a sigh. All things considered, I guess it's some benefit. And Dickhead is getting back to his snarky ways, which is vaguely comforting. The field of shifted gravity fades without my prompting about fifteen seconds after I activated the Skill. Duration, cost, and area seem to be set. All I have to do is choose a place and have at it.

  My exhaustion makes itself known as my legs collapse underneath me. Laying on my back in the glade, staring into a blue sky clear of any cloud, I feel my eyelids get heavy. God, how long has it been since I slept? What time is it? Or what time would it have been?

  My heart spikes as I jerk awake. It's only been a split second, but fear wars against the tide of exhaustion.

  Come on, Sam. Keep it together.

  “Rest, Competitor.”

  What if something comes?

  “Your soul energy is exhausted, and you lack any weapons or armaments. If something comes, better to be asleep.”

  Damn, that was really morbid, Kora.

  “It was a joke.”

  How come you aren't laughing then?

  “I am.”

  Sighing again, I start to muster the energy to force myself to sit when she speaks again.

  “I was joking about dying in your sleep, not about sleeping in general. Don't worry, Competitor. Though I rely on your senses, I can use them while you sleep better than you can awake. Sleep, rest, recover. I will wake you if anything comes.”

  Strangely, I don't feel super tired anymore. Not sleepy, at least. I am comfortable, though. Kora seems to think for a moment.

  “Very well. Perhaps a distraction is in order. Forgive me if I overstep, but would you tell me a story of your lost love? You think of this Katie often, and loudly. She must have been something remarkable.”

  She was. Brilliant, beautiful… everything was effortless for her.

  “How did you meet?”

  I snort, then I laugh. The question isn't really funny, but at the same time it is. Here I am, lying on a bed of alien grass staring up at an alien sky with a pantheon of alien gods gunning for me, and my mind spirit companion asks me a question you'd expect at a dinner party. It might as well be Aunt Gloria at the Thanksgiving table, blissfully unaware that I brought my guy friend because his family doesn't do holidays, not because I was attracted to him.

  “I'm glad I amuse you,” Kora says, sounding ruffled.

  No, I just… I don't know what to feel anymore. I should be terrified, or angry, or worried. I'm not. I'm just here. I don't know when I accepted this fever dream is real, but all I can do is live it. God, what a fucking day.

  “Competitor, this day is over. The next awaits, and it will likely not be kind.”

  Sure, but I owe you a Katie story. Let me think…