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THE FIRST TRIAL WAS MEANT to thin out the herd, get rid of competitors until only 10% remained.

It still remained to be said that I did not find this trial nearly as fun as I expected without my Valkyrie powers. 

The Gong-Man jerked his sword from the dirt. "Mortal, why do you evade the inevitable?"

Beau snatched a discarded axe a few feet from a dead body near us. "Alright, Faye. I'll hold him off, you run!"

I racked my brain for why this could be but nothing was coming up. I didn't understand what was going on! With my Valkyrie powers, I was meant to have a fighting chance but now that seemed unlikely. 

As the Gong-Man raised his sword for another strike, I decided that I didn't need the Valkyrie power if I knew all the moves. I just had to be quick thinking and agile to make up for my lack of godly strength.

I turned and grabbed the axe handle from Beau's chest and planted a kick to send him flying back out of range- against the door we entered from that was now sealed.  I turned to block the sword with the axe. My bones in my arm vibrated with the sheer force of the swing. 

"Join the souls of the damned." he tapped the gong strapped to his back. "I can read your soul- you are torn in two. I will give you peace."

I hid behind of the slow-moving floating rocks as he looked around. I kept a watchful eye on Beau as the Gong-man pulled out another sword. Every time he took a step away from the wall towards me I sent him a seething glare that warned hellfire if he moved an inch. 

"What do you mean, torn? And I'm not a mortal. I am a Valkyrie." I called out.

He laughed at that. "At last, clarity. You are ripping yourself in half. Your power is not you until you choose a side."

Valkyrie or human? That was the choice to be made.

"I will make the choice for you. I will take your soul for rebirth." he promised. His voice was calm and sweet, as if he was doing me a favor. 

My gut wrenched. His voice was also a lot closer than it was before. Pain burst from my shoulder. I looked down to see the tip of the blade cut through rock and onto my shoulder. I barely muffled my scream as he slowly jerked the blade out. I felt the sharp edge drag against my clavicle bone. The moment my shoulder was cleared I spun around and swung the axe into his neck- a chink between his helmet and his shoulder armor. 

His other hand dropped the second sword as he reached to cover the spurting blood. Beau's yell drew my eyes to his location. A blue female with multiple arms had him pinned against the wall as she leaned to rip into his neck.

Before the sword touched the ground I snatched it up and spun to launch it like a javelin at the female's head. She screeched and her limbs extended as if she had been electrocuted before she fell limp.

The coast was clear on the ground floor. All that remained was dead bodies. I looked up as the sound of clashing metal and war cries. The powerful players were playing higher in the sky among the floating rocks. They bounced with grace and fluidity between rocks as they cut down enemies.

I met Beau by the wall. "Here's the plan. We have to hide out. I can't protect you from everyone. The more kills I rank, the more of a target I become. I lose the element of being the weak little mortal." 

He tore off his armor instead of agreeing.

"Beau," I found myself growling. "Put your damn armor back on!"

"One second," he hissed back. "I'm trying to stop you from bleeding out.

He shrugged out of his longsleeve and tore one of the sleeves off. He wrapped it under my armpit and order my wound. 

"I honestly am too in shock to believe that this is happening." 

His fingers were shaking as he wrapped my wound.

"I know." I said gently. "But we're going to make it through this and then I'll explain everything to you okay?"

Beau reached out to brush my hair back from my sticky forehead. He smiled. "Okay. I trust you, Faye."

I reached down to grab his hand. "Let's find a place to lay low. The Trial will end once there's a slim number of us to proceed. The ground zone is a death box, so no one will be here if they can't help it which is perfect for us. We can just hide."

I scanned my wrists' barcode on the armor to transfer ownership to me. She had shoulder pads and a breast plate. No weapons on her. 

I bent to scan the Gong-man's armor. I took his shin guards and the twin sword harness.

"Faye, this fell out of your jacket." Beau lifted an object from the dirt floor, dusting it off.

It was the first gift from Poseidon, a pearl. 

My eyes widened. "The gifts! I can use the gifts for the Trials."

I popped the pearl into my mouth about to bite down and whisper the Sea God's name when I realized that I would be wasting a whole army now. 

I slipped the pearl out and placed it in my pocket. I couldn't afford to use that now. 

"New plan." I grinned, hope bubbling in me. "I can use Aphrodite's gift to finish this quick."

"Aphrodite's gift?" he looked down at my other two pockets as if I was going to reach in a pull it out.

"Charmspeak. I can make anyone do anything I say if I say it with enough conviction."

Beau pointed to something behind me, "Now's your chance."

Two high powers, no doubt teamed up despite from different mythologies. Probably to increase their odds of survival.

I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Hey! Over here!"

The duo spun on their heel. "Mortal!"

"Dibs on the kill!" the first hollered as he charged forward, racing with the other. 

I cleared my throat, hoping that the Charmspeak voice would be enough to pull them under my influence.

I dodge his strike and kicked off a rock, slipping to a floating rock next to the second man who was turning around slow. 

"Aren't you a team?" I whispered slow. 

He swung around, daggers in hand. I reached out to touch his face and he froze.

"You wouldn't let him win, would you? It's not fair. You deserve to rack up those kills." I leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Imagine the rank you'll get if you get rid of him now and take in his kills."

"Marco!" he screamed, face red. "You've been playing me, you're taking all the kills."

The first man turned around. "Polo? What are you talking about, we do this together. I kill, then you kill. We take turns."

"You killed last time!" Marco snarled. "It was my turn to kill the small mortal female and you called dibs."

I slinked behind Polo and touched his shoulder. He jerked but before he could turn around I put force into my voice. "Relax, it's just me. I'm on your side. Marco is getting greedy, isn't he? Imagine what lengths he'll go through to make up for any extra kills you did... maybe kill you to achieve a higher rank and absorb your kills. You don't need that happening, right?"

Polo turned around slow. His face was twisted in pain. "Marco wouldn't do that to me. We're partners."

I lifted Polo's hand with the dagger to my chest. "Are you though?"

I saw Marco's enraged expression at the sight of Polo with a weapon against me as the floating rock hiding us from view moved. He took two steps forward and reached around with dagger to drag the blade along Marco's neck. I stepped back to avoid even more blood sticking to my skin.

Polo's cloudy expression cleared and he dropped to the floor. "Marco? Marco? Shit!"

I reached around to touch his cheek. "He betrayed you. Don't worry about him, I'll be your partner. And I'll let you have all the kills you want as long as you protect my friend Beau."

He turned around to me, eyes glassy once more. Not with tears for his partner, but adoration for me. This Charmspeak thing was damn handy.

"Yes, I'll protect Beau for you." he said slowly.

He walked over to Beau who's jaw was slightly dropped. Beau grimaced at this proximity.

"Wow. That was kind of...cruel." he frowned. "They seemed close."

I glanced down at the body of Polo. "I can't afford to be sympathetic towards them. My main priority is keeping you alive and keeping both of our ranks down with no kills. The more Marco ranks up, the bigger the target he becomes."

"And what if he dies?" he snapped. "Then we have no one!"

I was getting kind of irritated at Beau questioning everything. "Let's make this clear. There is no we in this, Beau. If Marco dies, then I  Charmspeak whoever kills him to protect you."

"What about you-"

"There is no me!" I burst out. "Don't you understand, Beau? This isn't some game. You're representing Loki, and if you win you're going to give him an army to push forward Ragnarok."

He stumbled back. "What?"

I strolled deeper into the arena, looking up to see the scoreboard.  It was getting smaller and smaller by the second. Once 20 spots remained, the game would be finished. I just needed to hold off till then. 

Beau jogged up ahead with me, Marco hot on our trail. "Wait, so wouldn't it benefit you to, uh, murder me?"

I paused to search for a fast-moving floating rock to hitch a ride on. "No. Even though killing you would solve the issue of Ragnarok, I won't kill you or let anyone else harm you. You're my best friend. I'll figure out another way."

"I don't think there's another way." Beau choked. "You need to kill me."

I didn't like the tone of his voice. "Marco, make sure Beau doesn't make any attempts on his life."

"Of course," Marco said in dazed voice.

A decent sized rock flew towards us. "We're taking this one. Marco, grab Beau and jump on."

The brown rock swung by us just in time for me to latch a hand on and swing myself up onto the flat top. Marco jumped easily with Beau over his shoulder. 

"Okay. We stay here until someone else shows up." I nodded towards Marco and Beau.

The floating rocks had a color-coded system. The lighter the color, the fast the rock moved. Black rocks on the bottom didn't move, brown rocks moved quicker, tan moved at the speed of a horse trot, cream at full horsepower, and the white was too quick to describe. With mortal eyes, I couldn't place the speed. If I had switched to Valkyrie form then I could probably place the speed better.

"Marco, how many kills do you have?" I kept my voice in Charmspeak when addressing Marco, even for noninfluential conversations. I couldn't risk him falling out of the spell. 

"242. 485 now that I have Polo's kills."

I searched for Marco on the scoreboard. It was on the other end of the arena so I couldn't quite make it out.

"What rank are you?" Beau asked.

I slapped his shoulder, worried that he might draw Marco out of the spell. Instead Marco simply replied back in the same dazed voice.

"I am twelfth."

Twelfth? This idiot? "How many ranks are up?"

"Twenty nine." he squinted at the scoreboard. "Twenty eight."

"Who's first?" 

He squinted. "CrazyNymph69."

"Excuse me?" I whipped around to look high into the sky at the clashes of power.

I realized then that the scoreboard had gamer names. I wonder what name I was under. 

"What rank is Beau? He should have 0 kills."

Marco stood up to squint against the sunlight as the rock turned. "There is no Beau, but there is a tag name associated with zero kills. It's actually only one on the board with zero kills."

Then it had to be Beau. 

"What does it read?" Beau insisted, turning to copy Marco's shielded hand over his eyes.

"It reads... AceofSpades. Rank 28."

"I should be above him. I have one kill."

The sunset was over, leaving Marco to no longer shield his eyes. "The name above him is PrimaDonna, Rank 27."

I blew out a sigh of relief. "We need it to stay that way. Lower we are, the less competition we'll attract. We need to be silent hunters for this."

"Speak of," Beau pointed yet again to another Champion addressing his wounds on a tan rock heading towards us.

I smiled."Marco, kill him."

This was going to work out perfectly.