“No more Questions can be asked by the participants, round one has ended.”

  “Round two shall commence shortly.”

  “Waiting.”

  “Waiting.”

  “New order has been formed.”

  Krath Nixm

  Jacob Davidson

  Urg Floaw

  Second of the Snow

  Fifth of the Mist

  The system announces, the light above the Komodo brightening to indicate their turn. And they turned towards me, with what looked like spite.

  Then said, “What are all your core skills; Question?”

  At least be creative, you lizard brain, you’re just asking the same question over and over again!

  But I couldn’t deny its effectiveness as said, “I ain’t telling you shit, bug for brains, just call me out.”

  Krath looked at me, taking a moment to consider something, probably trying to find a trap, but after finding none, they still gleefully said, “Liar.”

  “Call Out from Krath Nixm to Jacob Davidson has been made.”

  “Call out is correct.”

  Then the turn passed to me, and I took my time to consider what I could do in this situation. I couldn’t find a way where I wouldn’t get questioned at all, but I could throw a wrench in the plan.

  “Krath Nixm,” I said, “What are all your core skills?”

  The lizard glared at me, while I did the same back.

  Ha! How do you like a taste of your own medicine!

  Then Krath said, “I concede, bug; Agreement.”

  “Liar!” I practically sing.

  “Call Out from Jacob Davidson to Krath Nixm has been made.”

  “Call out is correct.”

  Then the turn passes over to Urg Floaw, who now has to make the decision to either ask me a question and let the yellows ask a team mate a question. Or save Krath, but have the Yellows ask a question more suited to their needs.

  I didn’t actually expect anybody to try and ask any other question besides ‘What are all your core skills’ that seemed to be so in fashion. This was more to get an enemy to waste a question, or force them to leak information.

  The red teammates looked at each other, seeming to have another conversation completely with their body language.

  Seriously, how’d they do that? They must’ve just met each other unless they somehow knew each other back home. Even if their home world's population was even a tenth the size of mine, the odds would’ve still been astronomically low.

  But as I pondered that the two seemed to reach a conclusion, Urg saying, “Krath Nixm, what is your father's name.” they said without even the question suffix, which I suspected the absence was an indicator of frustration.

  “Krath Frix,” the Komodo dragon answers.

  Then it’s Second of the Snow’s turn.

  The six armed ape, wasting no time, saying, “Urg Floaw, what is your biggest weakness?” Much to my surprise.

  Urg Floaw takes their time to reply, running out the timer, saying, “Drying up, I am an amphibian, that’s my biggest weakness; Strong Agreement.”

  That seemed like a suspicious amount of doubling and tripling down, especially from someone who demonstrated to be such a good liar not that long ago.

  Then Second of the Snow said, “Liar.”

  “Call Out from Second of the Snow to Urg Floaw has been made.”

  “Call out is incorrect.”

  A sound of (from what I could tell was) frustration coming from the Ape, their teammate, Fifth of the mist, having to waste a question to save them.

  Then it went back to Krath Nixm, who immediately said, “Jacob Davidson, what are all of your core skills; Question?”

  Seriously, why do you keep asking that question? You could say ‘What are all your capabilities?’ and that would be so much better.

  But I don’t reveal my grievance as I answer, “My first skill allows me to subjugate other creatures, gaining control over them like a slave.”

  Ok, system, I know we’ve had our grievances in the past, but couldn’t you have forced me to phrase that any other way! I know it’s technically what I do, but they already outnumber me and have a grudge because of that loophole I exploited earlier. I don’t want them to feel morally justified!

  But I continued despite my complaints, “The second one makes it so I can gain a spiritual connection to my slaves, allowing the transfer of MP, EP, and skills. The third allows me to bend reality,” the body language of the people around me changing drastically at the last one.

  Hmm, I can do something with this.

  I continue offering information, even though I’m not being forced to now, “Allowing the subjugation process of my first Core Skill to take much less time, and make things more in my favor passively.” This little piece of unnecessary information making them less likely to make any bets against me. Which I judged to be more overall beneficial right now, while we were playing games, than detrimental when we were all out fighting in Phase Four.

  Then Krath's turn was over, mine coming next. I look over to Urg Floaw, a devious idea floating in my head.

  “Urg Floaw, hey buddy, so… what’s the most embarrassing and shameful thing you’ve ever done?”

  The Axolotl takes a moment answering, running out the clock, they say, “I killed my mother…”

  I take a moment to callously consider the answer.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  It was too emotionlessly delivered, even for the automatic translation of the system. The truth spell would’ve forced more out of it, like how it did to me earlier. And, it was just such a soap opera answer that I couldn’t help disbelieving it. Also, this would’ve been a damn good cover up for the real most embarrassing thing they’ve ever done, shaming me into not calling it out.

  But I had little of such a thing, so I said, “Liar.”

  The system responding.

  “Call Out from Jacob Davidson to Urg Floaw has been made.”

  “Call out is correct.”

  Ha, knew it! You don’t act that way when you kill your own family.

  Then it was Urg Floaw's turn, glaring at me, said, "Jacob Davidson, please give a detailed description of your third Core Skill.”

  You know, you could’ve just said all my core skills? This game is rather shoddy. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a size restriction to the questions.

  But I once again don’t offer that information as I answered, “It’s called Royal Will, and it gives me authority from a god. Making all I say, be, though I do have to do the work to make sure that it happens.”

  They look at me with glee, catching onto the little trap I had set, saying, “Liar.”

  “Call Out from Urg Floaw to Jacob Davidson has been made.”

  “Call out is incorrect.”

  “What!” the Axolotl screamed, “How, you said earlier when you had to tell the truth that the skill was passive; disrespect! Now you’re saying you have to do something to make the skill work; confusion!”

  “Hmm, I never said anything like that?” I said in the most innocent voice I could

  Urg Floaw descended into their pool, swimming and splashing around aggressively, as they were forced to truthfully answer two questions from the yellow team.

  Second of the Snow asking, “What is your strongest attack?”

  The answer being, “I can create a sentient storm of acid.”

  Fifth of the Mist asking, ”What would be the best method to beat you?”

  The answer being, “I have certain functions that I must keep up with at all times, so if my EP and MP dry up, I’ll easily die, and physically drying out drains my EP and MP.”

  Then the system announced.

  “No more Questions can be asked by the participants, round two has ended.”

  “Round three shall commence shortly.”

  “Waiting.”

  “Waiting.”

  “New order has been formed.”

  Second of the Snow

  Krath Nixm

  Jacob Davidson

  Fifth of the Mist

  Urg Floaw

  The Light above the Ape turns on, but before Second of the snow can speak, Krath does.

  “Wait, I believe we should all be reconsidering something.”

  “And what would that be?” Fifth of the Mist says.

  “I think we should maybe change games.”

  “Can we even do that?” Second of the snow asks.

  The komodo dragon looks up, saying, “System, can you open a vote for all of us to end the game; Question?”

  “Voting enabled.”

  “Change games. Yes or No?”

  The system answers

  “Well,” Fifth of the Mist says, “Why would we even want to do that?

  Krath turned to me, “That one, you heard their core skill description. They can bend reality to some extent, enough that maybe it could bend the truth spell here a bit.”

  “Hey,” I shout out, feeling targeted, but the stare of everyone weighs me down, and I try to make myself look smaller. Saying in a barely audible volume, “Sorry, sorry… uh, it’s… it’s nothing, just ignoring me… please.”

  Maybe this wasn’t a bad thing for me, actually; it seemed great. I was not doing anywhere near as well as I thought I would, the game being a lot more cornering and limiting than I thought. All I needed to do is pray that there’s more than two games.

  Then Fifth of the Mist responds to Krath, “Maybe, but that’s a big assumption.”

  The two argued back and forth, and while they were doing so, I stealthily put my vote in. Favoring us staying, they didn’t notice at first, but it was pretty obvious when they did, as the discussion got less and less energetic. And finally, they voted in favor of leaving, the other two following their lead.

  Ha, reverse psychology bitches!

  Then we were teleported again, my stomach once again not handling the situation well. Everyone else seeming to do the same as we all took a minute to dry heave, then took another moment to compose ourselves. The system patiently waiting with a screen in front of us, displaying our options.

  “Possible options for the Second game.”

  Lucky Leg: There will be a deck of cards with markings on them, denominating their value ranging from 1-10. There are two unique cards called the ‘Jack Pot’ and ‘Pit Fall’. The Jack Pot is a card worth 12 points, and the Pit Fall is worth -7 points; there are two of each.

  Every round, the players are dealt five cards, but are only allowed to play three, discarding the other two. In the event you draw a Pit Fall, you are forced to either play it or keep it ( Other Players can see this action ) and forced to play it the next round. If you draw a Jack Pot with a Pit fall, they cancel each other out.

  If you draw a Jack Pot, you have the option to hold it ( Other Players can see this action ), and its value will increase to 17 points ( You can only hold it for one round ). In the event you pull a Pit Fall with a holding a Jack Pot, you have to discard the Jack Pot and play the Pit Fall.

  At the beginning of the game, players are given three chips each that they can put into the pot. And the Player with the highest score gains all inside the pot. The two lowest scoring players will have to answer all questions the other players ask, or sacrifice a token to avoid the question ( This can only be done before the question is asked ).

  A round will end when either five turns have elapsed or when only six tokens remain. The game lasting a maximum of three rounds.

  This is war: The game is played on a board in real time, and every player shall be given a flag that the other player must steal and get back to their base to get a question from the player. This is done via minions given to the player, the original five minions, each containing one Core Skill of the player.

  More minions can be gained by taking free ones found at random spots in the wild on the board. The original minions can be revived after they die after a one minute downtime, and only one can be revived at a time.

  A player can’t steal a flag from another if their last flag was stolen by the same player. After every stolen flag, the player will have a two minute invulnerability period, where they can’t attack or be attacked, but only heal their base and army.

  The game lasting four hours in total.

  Hey God, you know when I asked for there to not be only two games, I didn’t exactly mean there to just be three. That’s kinda the bare minimum…. No, no. I’m not trying to be mean, the game ‘This is War’ seems practically made for me. But the other is like… very much not.

  Then Krath says something, breaking the silence after everyone is done reading, “I believe that we should all pick ‘Lucky Leg’.”

  Hey, don’t get everybody to go against me!

  Then Fifth of the Mist says, “I would disagree."

  Woo! I love you, Fifth of the Mist! Despite being a bug, and a wasp… and just sort of everything about you.

  “You remember Jacob Davidson's core skills, correct; Question? They’re practically made for this game; they would dominate all of us.”

  “Yes, but that seems like an issue we could solve. Lucky Leg is a game of luck. And with how Royal Will seems to work, I think that it would rig the game in their favor.”

  Wait, could I?

  “Fair, but remember last time we voted. They actively chose Call Out, and to not leave that game,” Krath rebutted, “Unless they weren’t paying attention, it would seem that Royal Will would not be as effective in manipulating luck.”

  “I still don’t agree.”

  Fifth of the Mist said, picking This is War, and I joined him. The Yellow side picking Lucky Leg, coming to a tie, only one person's vote remaining. Second of the Snow.

  “Come on, pick This is War,” Fifth of the Mist said

  “Sorry,” the ape said, crossing their arms, “I agree with Krath Nixm.”

  Then the two seemed to have a conversation without words.

  Seriously, how did they do that? Could they talk to each other without anyone else hearing… wait, is that it? None of us were talking without mouths or any other parts, it all seemed ot be mental. And we couldn’t seem to hear each other before all of the statues turned and announced themselves. So we could probably talk to each other one on one if we wanted. And I just hadn’t figured that out since I had no one I needed to privately talk to.

  I was brought out of my thoughts when Second of the Snow said, “Sorry, but I don’t.”

  Then the tie on the leader board was broken, the horrible sensation of teleporting coming over me.