A too-large midday sun washes out a landscape of broken rock in a weird green tint, almost like a colored filter has been placed over the world. The cloudless sky remains blue in spite of the strange light. An eroded cliff blocks the view to my left. Spread across the flat expanse of stony ground in its shadow, the boulders of an old collapse look frozen mid tumble. The land slopes away gently to my right until it disappears into a haze of dust in the near distance. It is both familiar and alien, a landscape that could exist on Earth and I'm quite certain doesn't.

  There's nothing in sight, even for my enhanced perception. Scanning the horizon proves fruitless. The god said he was going to make sure this time, and, as much as I'd like to pretend otherwise, the thought terrifies me. I've survived purely on luck and bullshit so far, but this arena doesn't look like it offers nearly as much opportunity for wiggle room fuckery. Minutes crawl by, but still nothing appears.

  My hands start to shake. My heart quickens until I can hardly hear over its pounding rhythm.

  Why can't it just show up? Why do I have to wait? Just get it over with, just get it over with…

  Something scratches at the edge of my consciousness, familiar, like a voice in the back of my head. Cocking my ear, I try to listen over the sound of my gasping breaths. It almost sounds like words…

  “Fight it, Competitor! Fight!”

  Kora?

  “Quickly! Focus! You have to break free!”

  Her voice dwindles to a whisper. Break free? Of what? For the barest instant, something flickers in my vision. A face, wider than I am tall, bone and bleached skin. It leers down at me, relish written across its cadaver’s face. And, in the barest instant of seeing it, my Identification Skill triggers.

  Identification: Avatar of Fear

  Level: 253

  Strengths: ???

  Weaknesses: ???

  Avatars are physical manifestations of powerful emotions. Evolve Identification or reduce level disparity to learn more.

  “Impossible! You go too far! I invoke the Right of…”

  Kora keeps shouting, but I can't hear her over the scream building in my chest. My heart beats so fast it begins to skip erratically. Cold sweat pours from every pore in my body. The scream builds, but I can't unclench my teeth to let it out. The pressure builds and builds, my heart races faster and faster, my mind screams in—

  I'm lying on the stone, the same knobby rock digging into my back. The broken earth and tumbled boulders remain, though the nightmare face is nowhere to be seen. Gently, softly, my heart slows, and the trembling weakness leaves my body.

  Announcement! Your Mentor has invoked the Right of Parity in formal challenge to your treatment in the Tournament. The Twelve have decided, on a vote of ten to two, that your treatment has indeed broken the Law of Parity. The Seventh has been Censured, and your challenge ameliorated. Good luck, Competitor Foreman!

  There is a sound like a large soap bubble popping. A gentle squeak of surprise breaks the stillness. I sit up, ignoring the sweat soaking my shredded clothing. A hamster sits frozen on the bare stone, its wiggling whiskers and beady eyes the only sign it's alive. My Identification decides that this ‘threat’ is worth assessing.

  Identification: Peanut, Pet Hamster

  Level: 0

  Strengths: Sigh

  Weaknesses: Rough Children

  Your common Earth hamster. Generally dies due to stress caused by moving, or slight changes in temperature, or breathing too heavily. Seriously, these things have a lower life expectancy than carnival goldfish ‘lucky’ enough to be won by a preschooler with a casual interest in homicide.

  I lie for a second, stunned, just letting the words and the relief wash over me. What was all that? Law of Parity? Censure?

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I'll tell you later. Now that the Provings are finished, we will have some time to breathe. Well, once you finish this one.”

  Uh. Wait. Can't I just go back to the white room? I really have to… come on.

  “Yes, Competitor,” Kora says tiredly. “The Proving must be to the death.”

  Sighing, I get to my feet. Peanut watches me with warranted suspicion, then seems to relax when he recognizes what I am. With a skittish little jerk, he comes up and places his tiny hands on my shoe with crushing cuteness.

  God damn it. I wince. I should probably watch what I ask a god to damn. Apparently there's someone actually listening when I…

  Wait… yeah. God damn this particular moment.

  I scoop Peanut up and hold him gently in my hands. I can feel him trembling, his whole body vibrating. Poor little bastard. He didn't ask to be put here any more than I did. I don't want to break his innocent little body. I don't think I can. This is bullsh—

  He bites me. My hands jerk upwards. Peanut launches into a high arc. I run to catch him, but he twists suddenly in the air, sailing between my hands and hitting the ground with a sound like dry twigs snapping. With a last, pathetic gasp, he dies, his beady eyes staring up at me in accusation.

  What the fuck, Peanut, why?

  Achievement! “Living on the edge!”

  You spent every scrap of your usable soul energy, bringing yourself to the edge of soul annihilation and the forfeiture of any potential afterlife!

  Reward: Your soul energy will be quantified for you to help you avoid nonexistence.

  A small number appears in the upper corner of my vision, crisp and clear in translucent blue.

  Soul Energy: 3/121

  How'd that one happen? I don't remember doing anything that would eat up my, uh, soul?

  “Your second Boon spent every bit of it to return your body to its proper Telos. I imagine it isn't done, either.”

  Achievement! “Flirting with the grave!”

  You encountered an enemy that should have resulted in your immediate death, and you survived against all odds! If you keep teasing the Reaper like this, he's going to think you don't want to date him.

  Reward: Gain a moderate resistance to magical fear and fearlike soul attacks.

  Achievement! “What goes up…”

  You threw an enemy so high that the resulting fall dealt them lethal damage! Additionally, you’ve defeated an enemy with a fall from a great height, and you’ve defeated an enemy by dropping something on them from above. You should give gravity a gift for all the help she's been giving you. Seriously.

  Reward (Pending): Soul Expression (Common) evolves to Soul Expression, Gravity Aspected (Uncommon)!

  If accepted, your soul is able to manipulate gravitational forces with greater efficacy and efficiency. This choice may close you off from future aspects depending upon your Class and Skills.

  That seems… really interesting. Gravity? I wasn’t particularly down to go gung-ho with claws sticking out of my hands, but dropping people? Dropping stuff on people? That, I may be able to get behind.

  “It is not a common path,” Kora says thoughtfully. “I can’t remember a true gravity aspected fighter. Maybe as a secondary or tertiary expression. If you go that path, my particular knowledge will likely not be of much help. Hold off on the choice. We will see what Classes you are offered.”

  Achievement! “Childhood sociopath!”

  You killed a helpless creature that trusted you, torturing it for your own sadistic pleasure!

  Reward: Soul crushing guilt if this was an accident. Some sort of fucked up pleasure if it wasn't. We both know which one is true for you. Psycho.

  Addendum! You just had to run to mommy and daddy, didn't you? What, can't handle your own battles? Whatever. I don't know why I bothered. You're just a human. You never stood a chance anyway.

  “Hey, fuck you, man,” I find myself saying. Kora gasps in the back of my mind, but no one is more surprised than I am. This isn’t who I am; Sam Foreman doesn't say what she feels. But there's anger burning deep in my heart, anger turning to hatred for this faceless asshole who decided he wanted to murder me over a simple mistake, and has murdered almost two hundred thousand people. I desperately try to hold the words in, but my wayward mouth bulls ahead. “You broke the rules to kill me, ‘just a human,’ and I kicked your ass so thoroughly you got in trouble. I don't know what “Censure” means, but I hope it sucks.”

  Your words carry the weight of an insect believing its strength significant.

  “Whatever you say, dickhead. Just don't forget. When I didn’t choose a weapon, you said you'd come up with a reward ‘if I survived.’ Well, I'm still standing. Considering what you put me through, I expect the reward to be pretty damn special.”

  “Oh, you fool,” Kora groans. “He was surrendering the fight under Censure. He would have left you alone. But this is the Seventh. He doesn't forget, and he doesn't forgive. He will do everything in his power to end you.”

  A huge part of me agrees with her. What am I thinking? Why can’t I control my damn mouth? I’m dealing with a god, here. A god with the power to make my life a living hell, whose divine mandate is to wipe out millions of thinking beings until there is only one left. Antagonizing him is perhaps the dumbest thing I can possibly do if I want to survive.

  But there is that other part of me. Strong, silent, satisfied with what I said. The gods made us for sport? To watch us kill each other? Is that all human history has been?

  Yeah, fuck that, and fuck them.

  The Seventh, though, remains silent. From what little I know of him, that, above all else, makes me afraid.