The first stage of the race had been in the middle of some city, though I still wasn’t sure if it was real or somehow created just for this contest. Considering the fact that I came to the end of the first stage, and the end of the city just a couple minutes after leaving March and Don, I was beginning to suspect the latter.

“Well, this came out of nowhere,” Matt commented.

Right in front of us, the city surroundings came to an abrupt end, and suddenly, there was a stretch of desert in front of us instead. The sandy ground was relatively flat, though I could see some dunes rippled across the landscape as well.

“Look,” Teri said, pointing to the distance. I could see several other champions racing across the desert, and a couple more who were fighting each other.

“It looks like we’re changing zones,” Matt said with a grim expression. He held up his paintball gun to check the ammo, then slung it back over his shoulder. “I suggest we avoid any more fights and just get through this as fast as we can.”

“That sounds good to me,” I agreed. Then I looked over the distance ahead of us and groaned. “I’m already tired. I definitely need to slot more stamina…”

Matt nodded at that. “Yeah, definitely.”

“I think I’m good,” Teri responded smugly, earning dirty glares from Matt and me both.

We began moving across the desert at a steady pace, realizing that this was a marathon instead of a sprint. Because we weren’t going as fast as we could, we saw a sand pit soon enough to go around it. If we’d been going any faster, we might not even have noticed it until we were caught in its pull and sucked under. However, that close encounter was enough to warn us that there would probably be other traps around too.

“Someone is coming towards us,” Matt pointed out a short time later.

I glanced over to where he was pointing and saw that someone was indeed coming towards us at a quick pace. It took me a few seconds before I could make out enough details to realize who it was.

“Mary,” I said. “She’s the ice chick who jumped Cassandra a couple days ago.”

“Well, she’s running right towards that scorpion pit we saw,” Matt pointed out.

Suddenly, Mary dropped down and out of sight, right around the area where we’d previously seen a huge nest of scorpions. When she didn’t come back into view, I shook my head, almost feeling sorry for the girl.

“And that is why we look before we leap,” I said, earning chuckles from Teri and Matt

After this, we continued on our way across the desert, finding a massive next of snakes, which we went around, and another sand pit, which we also avoided. Fortunately, no other champions tried to come after us, or if they did, the environment dealt with them before we’d even seen them. Either way, it took us little more than half an hour to get across the desert and to the next stage of the race.

In nearly the blink of an eye, we went from being in a desert to being in the mountains. There were several paths that went off in different directions, though all of them looked like they would be dangerous to stray from. The one we followed quickly led to a high granite wall on one side of us and a steep drop on the other. The only good thing was that the path was wide enough to drive a car down, if we’d actually had one.

“Damn,” Matt grumbled as we walked along the path. “It’s chilly up here…”

I looked over the side and peered down the cliff. If we fell off, there was no doubt that the fall would kill us. I was a little more concerned about that than I was the cold.

Teri looked a little green as she peered over the edge, then quickly backed away. “Is it too late to point out that I really don’t like heights?”

Matt smirked at that. “It’s not the fall that gets you. It’s the sudden stop at the end.”

“Bite me,” Teri responded, flipping him off.

I looked around, seeing no sign of any other champions, but I knew that this didn’t mean anything. If I’d learned one thing from the last couple contests, it was that threats could be hiding around each and every corner, and not all of those came from other champions.

With that in mind, I looked up at the granite wall beside me. It was steep and rough going, but I didn’t doubt that some people would be able to climb it. That meant we had to keep an eye up above us as well, because I didn’t want to get caught by surprise if someone decided to start dropping boulders on our heads.

“Let’s get out of here as quick as we can,” I said, glancing up again. I really didn’t like this situation.

A short distance further, the path widened out a great deal, which made me just a little nervous. This reminded me a little too much of the dungeon, where the paths led into chambers which contained the real threats. I looked around this larger space but didn’t see any threats. In fact, the only thing I saw were a bunch of large rocks scattered about, which looked like remnants of a rockslide.

“Careful,” I warned, looking up the cliff. “Someone might have dropped those rocks down here on purpose…”

A moment later, the hidden danger revealed itself, though not from the direction I expected. The scattered rocks all began to move, and then unfold almost like they were a bunch of stone armadillos.

“What the hell are those?” Teri demanded.

We were now facing about two dozen creatures, each of which was between two to three feet tall and made of stone. They consisted of torsos, with beady little eyes and huge mouths that were full of jagged teeth. Arms and legs came out of the torsos, though there was no sign that they possessed necks or heads. In fact, they reminded me a little of the Tasmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes, but hairless and made of rock.

Matt reacted first and opened fire with his paintball gun. Ball bearings hit several of the creatures and bounced off, causing a couple of chips, but not much more.

Teri swung her baseball bat at the nearest creature, then let out a loud yelp. “It’s like a hitting a stupid rock…”

“I think they are rock,” I pointed out, not bothering to attack any of them with my spear. Instead, I put shields on Matt and Teri, then backed up a little.

A couple of the creatures charged right at me, their mounts wide open and showing rows of stone teeth, that looked almost looked like a bunch of flint arrowheads. I put up a shield wall and then ran into it, then kept trying to bite through the thing. Matt and Teri came up to either side of me, trying to keep the stone creatures from going around my shield, though they’d already proven that they couldn’t do a whole lot of damage to things.

Matt threw his black dagger at one of the creatures, since it could do three times the damage when thrown. However, in spite of practicing for the last couple days, he wasn’t very good at throwing knives, and hit the thing hilt first. I didn’t know if it actually did do three times the damage, though a couple stone teeth were knocked out, which only seemed to piss the creature off even more.

I spent the next several minutes alternating between shielding my friends and creating shield walls. These creatures were tough enough that they were forcing us to play defense, though for me, that was nothing unusual. My powers were made for defense. However, once I’d blocked enough of their attacks, I was ready for a counter-attack.

“Gotcha,” I exclaimed, lunging at the nearest creature with my spear.

Normally, my spear wouldn’t have been any more effective than Teri’s bat or Matt’s knives, but I’d built up a nice damage buff during this fight. I hit the creature with my spear, and suddenly, it shattered, cracking into a half dozen chunks that fell to the ground.

“One down,” I announced. “Two dozen to go…”

“I don’t think we’ll be able to take all of them that way,” Matt pointed out.

“It’ll take WAY too long,” Teri agreed.

“And I don’t have the mana to keep this up for that long,” I added with a grimace.

More of the creatures leapt at my shield wall and bounced off. Each hit was another little charge, waiting for my next attack. However, as I’d just pointed out, I didn’t’ have enough mana to keep throwing up shield after shield. We had to find another way of dealing with these guys.

“Too bad my shield is stuck in one spot,” I growled in frustration.

Then I paused as an idea suddenly hit me. What if it wasn’t? Every time I’d created a shield wall before, it had been anchored in place, but what if it didn’t have to be? What if it was only anchored to that spot because I assumed it had to be?

I held my spear out in front of me, lengthwise, while gripping it firmly with both hands. What I was trying to do was an act of inspiration…and desperation. As soon as my shield wall faded, I activated another one, though this time I focused on anchoring it to my spear instead of the ground. A couple seconds later, I stepped forward, and to my delight, my shield wall moved forward as well.

SHIELD WALL HAS INCREASED TO RANK 6

I ignored the popup and focused on pushing forward. Fortunately, this didn’t seem to rely on my physical strength, though unfortunately, it was using my mana instead. My mana continued to drop, much like when I used Maelyne’s shield, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for too long.

Teri gasped in surprise and blurted out, “I didn’t know you could do this.”

“Me either,” I admitted, still focusing on my shield and pushing forward.

“You’re pushing those rock things,” Matt exclaimed.

“Like a freaking bulldozer,” I agreed.

A couple seconds later, I reached the edge of the cliff and pushed a half dozen of those creatures over the edge. I let my shield drop so I wouldn’t keep using up mana, then threw shields on Matt and Teri so we could move back from the cliff and get into a better position.

The remaining rock creatures were pissed and came charging at us, though Matt and Teri held them off long enough for me to catch my breath. Once I was sure that I had enough mana, I made another shield wall and repeated the bulldozer trick, taking out another five.

When I was finished with my second bulldozer move, and was trying to recover enough mana to make one more attempt, one of the rock creatures got past Teri and Matt and came charging at me. I hit it with my spear, though I didn’t have as much damage storied up as I had during my last attack, so instead of shattering it, I only split it in two. Still, it was enough to do the job.

Another creature came at me a couple seconds later, though I didn’t bother trying to impale it. Instead, I used my spear like a staff and swept its legs out from beneath it, then gave it a good shove in the direction of the cliff edge.

“Go for the legs,” Matt announced, having noticed my brief fight. “They seem to be the weak spot…”

“Good to know,” Teri responded, swinging her baseball bat low and trying to hit a creature’s legs. It worked, knocking the creature to the ground where it was easier to deal with.

It took us a couple more minutes, along with one more bulldozer move, to finish off the last of the stone creatures. Once the last one was gone, a crystal sphere appeared on the ground, though it was only one of the smaller ones.

“A blue one,” I said before crushing the crystal in my hands.

YOU HAVE CLAIMED A BONUS PRIZE: +1 AGILITY.

“Agility isn’t bad,” I said, though there were other stats I might have preferred. As it was, I might have to try out gymnastics or yoga, just so I could see what I was capable of now. “Maybe I can get Cassandra to take a gymnastics class with me…” I chuckled at that.

While I was doing this, Matt was scrounging around, picking up some of the ball bearings that he’d shot at the creatures so he could reuse the ammunition. That was one of the advantages that this stuff had over bullets.

About ten minutes later, we reached the spot where this stage of the race ended and the next began. We left the mountains and stepped right into a jungle, which was rich with thick green vegetation. There was a path for us to follow, but it twisted and turned enough so that we couldn’t see very far ahead.

“Careful,” I warned my friends. “This place is great for an ambush.”

Suddenly, almost as if using those words as its cue, a tiger leapt out of the brush. Matt responded in an instant, throwing his dagger and then slashing out with his bowie knife. He hit the tiger in the side and neck, so it collapsed to the ground dead, a few seconds later.

“That was close,” I said, shaking a little since I didn’t even have time to throw out any of my shields. If matt had been any slower, he could have been killed.

“And you want to get a cat,” Matt teased Teri, who flipped him off.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Teri said. “Maybe a dog… A little one.”

I took a good look at the tiger, then at the ground around it. There were no signs of any loot dropping this time. So with a shrug, I started walking down the path, hoping that we could get this over with before we had any more problems. Somehow, I didn’t think we’d be that lucky.

The jungle stage was dangerous and we’d already learned not to underestimate it. We found two traps on the trail that we might have walked right into if we hadn’t been looking for them, along with another trap that someone had already tripped.

We were probably about halfway through the jungle area when we heard another champion up ahead of us. At least, I assumed it was a champion since all I could really tell for sure, was that it was some guy, who was swearing loudly. But then, the cursing turned into a scream which was abruptly cut off.

“Careful,” I warned Matt and Teri.

Matt went first, because out of all of us, he was the one with the best reflexes and agility. He’d already proven that he could get out of the way at the first sign of trouble, faster than either Teri or I could.

A minute later, we came to another pit trap that had been tripped. There was blood all over the spikes, but no sign of a body. Either the victim had somehow managed to escape that, which seemed unlikely, or they’d died and their body had been transported away. I was pretty confident that it was the second option.

Once we finally stepped out of the jungle, I let out a sigh of relief. “This is the last stage,” I said, wondering how many champions had made it this far, and how many there were ahead of us. We were closing in on the end of the race, which meant that someone else could be crossing the finish line at any moment.

The new stage looked like we were in a desert again, but not the barren and sandy desert from before. This one was flat, with mountains in the distance, and scrub brush all over the place. There were even a few cacti and tumbleweeds. Of course, even more noticeable than that, was the fact that we were at the entrance of what looked to be a town from the old west. We were staring straight down the main street through town, perhaps the ONLY street, and it was lined on both sides by very old-fashioned wooden buildings.

Matt snorted. “Why do I get the feeling that this is going to come down to a shootout at high noon?”

“I wonder if there are any horses,” Teri mused, looking around with an excited gleam in her eyes.

“If there are, they’re probably fire-breathing monsters,” I pointed out wryly.

“We’re not the first ones here,” Matt said a moment later, about the same time that I saw the other champions.

The town wasn’t very large, and I could actually see the finish line on the other side of it. However, the champion version of a shootout was going on right between us and the finishing line. Axe Guy and the samurai wannabe were going at it right in the middle of the street. At the same time, the magical girl was going at it with Harker, bouncing from one rooftop to another.

“I told you there’d be a shootout,” Matt said, holding out his paintball gun and looking like he wanted to jump right in. But then he grimaced and said, “Maybe we should go around.”

“Good idea,” Teri said. “For once.”

I nodded agreement, then started to move around the backside of the buildings, avoiding main street entirely. However, I quickly hit an invisible wall that wouldn’t let me past.

“Crap,” I grumbled.

There might be ways around that wall, but I had a feeling that using them wouldn’t be a good idea. In fact, I was pretty sure that going that way would earn us a visit from the Referee, which wouldn’t be good.

“I guess they want us to go this way,” I said with a grimace, gesturing down the center of the street.

“I can probably sneak through,” Matt said with a smirk. “I can steal this bitch…”

“But I’m pretty sure that I have to be the one to cross the finish line,” I pointed out. “Not one of my companions.”

A couple seconds later, I saw a blur of darkness emerge from a doorway and rush towards the finish line. Cloak was trying to make it through without fighting, and I felt my heart jump as it looked like he was about to win the race.

Suddenly, someone emerged from the ground in the middle of the street, almost popping up out of the dirt. This newcomer wore green and brown clothes, which included some kind of poncho, hood, and bandanna over his face. He opened fire with a crossbow, shooting right at Cloak. But unlike during our fight in the dungeon, when Cassandra kept missing, Crossbow got him. The darkness vanished and Cloak collapsed to the ground with a bolt sticking right out of his chest.

“Okay, sneaking through might not work,” Matt admitted with a grimace.

Crossbow fired at another champion who was trying to make a dash towards the finish line. Suddenly, Crossbow was hit with a blast of wind that sent him flying back, well away from the finish line. Harker dropped to the ground where Crossbow had been standing, then had to immediately leap away again as the magical girl came after her.

“Let’s go,” I said, throwing shields on Matt and Teri, then starting down the street, intentionally going to one side, where we could move along the sidewalk and hopefully receive less attention.

We hadn’t gone very far before someone yelled out, “YOU!”

“Not good,” I said, seeing Spear Chick charging towards us.

There was a flash of light, and suddenly we were facing eight copies of Spear Chick. She was using her illusion ability again, and she was charging at all three of us before we had a chance to figure out which was the real one.

“Gotcha,” Teri exclaiming, swinging her bat at a Spear Chick, and going right through it.

Matt opened fire with his paintball gun, hitting two of the Spear Chicks and revealing that they were two more illusions. I threw up a shield wall to block two of the others. However, the remaining Spear Chicks were going around my shield and attacking me.

“I don’t think so,” I exclaimed, blocking an attack, only to find that there was nothing there. I felt burst of pain in my back as the real Spear Chick impaled me from behind. I screamed.

“JERI!” Matt cried out.

Matt and Teri rushed to my aid and Spear Chick was forced to back off. I dropped to my knees, grimacing in pain, though thankful for my friends. With Spear Chick off my back, I managed to heal myself.

“Time to get serious,” Matt announced, stepping back and then fading from view as he activated his stealth ability.

Matt moved around to try getting Spear Chick from behind, but she snapped around and lunged at him with her spear. Apparently, she had no problems seeing him, even with his stealth. Either she had a high enough awareness to see him, or she had a special ability that did something similar.

With a yelp of surprise, Matt shifted position and only barely avoided being hit. He backed up, looking shaken by how close he’d come to getting stabbed. He had been getting a bit cocky with his new abilities, and Spear Chick had just burst that bubble.

“So, you’ve got a new weapon,” Spear Chick announced, staring at my spear. “Good choice…”

“You do have good taste in weapons,” I responded.

Spear Chick came at me again, and though I could have blocked her with my shield wall, I wanted a chance to test my skills out against her again. I blocked her attack then gave a brief lunge of my own. When she came at me again, I dodged to the side, thankful for my new agility. However, I realized that I still needed to react faster or she was going to get me anyway.

“Reflexes,” I muttered under my breath. “I need more reflexes…”

In spite of my improved skills, Spear Chick was still stronger and better than I was. But of course, I wasn’t about to just give up. All I had to do was land one good hit and I could surprise her with the damage.

Spear Chick gave me an evil grin, and suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light that blinded me. I yelped in surprise, then felt another sharp pain in my side.

“I can’t see,” Teri cried out, swinging her baseball bat around wildly. I could barely make her out.

“Time to finish you off,” Spear Chick announced, “earn some extra points, and then go for the big prize…”

“I don’t think so,” I exclaimed, forming a shield wall in front of me.

There was another sharp pain in my side as Spear Chick was further to my side than I’d realized. I might have activated Maelyne’s shield, but Spear Chick was too close and probably would have been caught inside the shield with me, which would have defeated the purpose.

Just as my vision was starting to return, Spear Chick lunged at me, clearly intending to finish me off before I could fight back. But then, she suddenly screamed in pain, giving me the opening I needed to run my spear right into her stomach. I hadn’t saved up a lot of damage this time, but what I did have was enough to blow a hole in her stomach.

“Crap,” I exclaimed, horrified by the damage.

I stepped back, wincing in pain and only then noticing the arrow sticking out of her shoulder. I looked around but didn’t see any sign of Cassandra, who was the obvious source.

“Thanks,” I called out while I healed myself. I’d been down to 64% health, so it took a couple hits with my lesser healing to get back to normal.

“Are you okay?” Cassandra called out, drawing my attention to where she stood across the street.

“Yeah,” I responded with a wince of pain. “Thanks…”

“I felt bad for leaving you like that,” Cassandra called back, “when I know those guys are gunning for you.”

Suddenly, Spear Chick lunged at me with her spear again, her face a grimace of pain. Teri’s baseball bat smacked her alongside the head, laying her out on the ground.

YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATED AN OPPOSING CHAMPION.

REWARD: +20 MANA POOL, +20 MANA RECOVERY, +20 HEALTH, AND +20 REGENERATION. YOUR COMPANIONS GAIN +20 HEALTH AND +20 REGENERATION.

With that popup, I knew that Spear Chick really was down this time. I just wondered if Cassandra got any points from this, for her part in the fight.

Cassandra and I stared at each other from across the road, remembering that we were still competitors as well as friends. At the same time, we both looked to the finish line, saw that the path was currently clear, and then we began to run.

“Come on,” I gasped to myself, running down my side of the street as fast as I could while Cassandra ran down the other. I seemed to have the lead at the moment, though not by much. “Cardio… I definitely need to work on my cardio…”

All of the other champions were occupied with their own opponents and didn’t seem to realize that Cassandra and I were both racing for the win. Or at least, that was my assumption until Crossbow leaned out of a doorway ahead of me and took aim at Cassandra. He didn’t even seem to notice me coming up on him.

For a brief moment, I realized that Crossbow was about to inadvertently help me. Once he took out Cassandra, I’d have an open path to win. Even if he only delayed her, that would be all the help I needed. However, that moment quickly passed.

Even as I launched myself at Crossbow, bringing my spear down across his arms to make him drop is weapon, I knew it would cost me the race. But at that moment, I didn’t care. I couldn’t let him shoot Cassandra.

“What…?” Crossbow gasped in surprise.

“What are you doing?” Matt demanded of me. “The race…”

Crossbow snapped around and sent a blast of dust and sand into my face, though I made a shield wall and blocked the rest of the attack. Matt and Teri rushed to my side and were about to attack Crossbow, when the popup appeared.

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. CEASE ALL HOSTILITIES.

WINNER: THE CHAMPION OF ARMESTIA, GODDESS OF SECRETS, ROMANCE, AND THE MOON.

“What?” Teri asked, looking around in surprise. “Did we lose?”

“Yes,” Matt answered, giving me a look of disapproval. “We could have won…”

“I know,” I responded, looking towards the finish line, which Cassandra had already crossed. “But he would have shot her…”

“And she would have come back,” Matt reminded me. “Her patron would have rezzed her…”

I turned to glare at Matt. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not about to just stand there while someone kills a friend, just because they MIGHT come back. Trust me, dying isn’t something I want any of my friends to go through, even if they can come back…”

Matt grunted in acknowledgement, but he still didn’t look happy. When it came to video games, he’d always been pretty competitive, so it was no surprise it was carrying over into this game as well.

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. PREPARE TO BE TRANSPORTED.

“We’ll win next time,” I promised Matt and Teri, right before we were sent back home.