It wasn’t long before the contest began. We disintegrated in the same way we had when the Alarendei Empire first abducted us ten months ago. A second later, my vision reformed from a vantage point above a vast, lush wilderness. A notification proclaimed this area as the Verdant Hills, along with a notice that I’d unlocked a map for this area.

I quickly opened my map interface to orient myself. I was towards the southern reaches of the Plateau of the Architects, and most of the map, aside from the Verdant Hills, was still obscured by a fog of war. One small section of the map to the northwest of my current location was uncovered, and a marker proclaimed this to be the Temple of Awakening.

I closed the map and tried to get the lay of the land using good old-fashioned eyesight. I quickly located the Temple of Awakening, which lay nestled at the bottom of a mountain range. A small pass led between the mountain range that cut the plateau in half, and beyond, there appeared to be a vast desert area. Towards the east of where I’d spawned was a wicked looking tower that screamed big bad evil guy, big bad evil lair.

A window popped up in my view.

Kaiser: Hello humans. Look at this! I can talk to you all.

I grinned. Of course Kaiser would figure out a way to communicate before anything else.

Macuahuitl: Whoa, the dog can talk? That’s rad!

Kaiser: I’m Kaiser, not ‘the dog’, thank you very much.

Macuahuitl: Sorry, bro. That’s rad though! I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to want to be able to talk but not have the gear.

Kaiser: Yes, barks and pissing on the carpet can only get you so far.

Hatchet: I knew you did that because you were angry at me!

Kaiser: You wouldn’t let me go to the park, and I needed to.

I shook my head in disbelief and amusement.

Hatchet: Does this interface let you actually talk for real, or are you limited to chatting with text?

Kaiser: Just chatting. I think the words and they appear, which means these aliens have a vast understanding of how cognitive function works across multiple species. They wouldn’t be able to display my speech without being able to read my mind and translate it into your language.

Hatchet: I wonder if it’s mind reading or just a part of their interface. Surely this can’t be a fair competition if they can tell what actions we’re about to take as we’re making decisions.

Spook: …

Hatchet: Spook, did you just think dot dot dot?

Spook: …

Hatchet: Okay, but we’ll need to talk things through if we’re going to work together.

Naginata: Just give her time. Hey, you should all add this to your favourite skills list. [Team Ping] It’s just like the team finder we used on our last EDGE Force mission. I can see you all. We’re not so far away from each other.

I activated the ability immediately, and a few icons appeared in different areas across the plateau. Kaiser was off to the west, somewhere between my location and the Temple of Awakening. He was pretty close to Spook, so hopefully they would find each other.

Big Mac was down in a valley to the east, almost in the shadow of the enormous dark tower that looked like it had been plucked right out of the pages of The Lord of the Rings. There was no great flaming eye at the top, but the architecture exuded danger and menace.

Naginata was the furthest from us. She was kilometres away in the north, in that dry desert looking area past the mountain range. Hadn’t Altessa said that area was a higher level than the southern areas?

Hatchet: I can see where everyone is. We should meet up again as soon as possible. Naginata, you be careful. That place to the north is supposed to be dangerous.

Naginata: Yes. I’m safe for now. The leader of the Reality Benders team, they call themselves X, spawned nearby. They’re figuring out a plan with their squad now.

Macuahuitl: This place is scary. There are all these weird suits of armour walking around with strange glowing runes on their chests. This is so not chill. I’ve got no equipment.

Kaiser: Check your skills. I started with a couple. [Canine Perception] and [Portal Master]

I looked at both skills. One outlined Kaiser’s heightened sense of smell, and the other let him open portals using mana to any named location he’d been.

Naginata: Linking skills is useful. EDGE Force never let us do that. Kaiser’s going to be able to let us cover vast distances in the blink of an eye.

Kaiser: I have to actually visit them first, but yes. You can also mark interesting things on your squad map. Check it out.

I opened the map. Most map markers Kaiser dropped showed locations of things that smelled nice, but one was marked as predator shit. Markers for the whole squad were there too, displayed as blinking white dots. A prompt appeared as I reviewed the map.

As squad leader, you can add points of interest to your squad map. These will show a column of light in your squad’s views. This will allow you to better coordinate.

I got halfway through sending a reply when the sound of something behind me made me spin.

Jaws snapped shut a moment after I leapt to the side and out of harm’s way. I summoned my Balaran Knight armour, which encased my entire body in a thick shell made of pure thickened anima. The end of each gauntleted finger was sharp and ready for battle. My blessing from Balaur – the Claws of the Dragon – provided me with weapons and armour even when I had none.

I got back to my feet and saw the beast. It resembled a gorilla in its posture but was completely hairless. Its face was split right down the centre by an enormous cutting wedge of exposed bone. A window appeared next to the beast that had just tried to kill me.

Level 3 Ornery Bladeface

Danger level: Medium

The bladeface walked on its knuckles like a gorilla, but that was where the similarity ended. It had no mouth I could see but had two pairs of eyes on either side of the bone wedge in the centre of its face. It galloped towards me with a speed that I didn’t expect.

I leapt to the side again and quickly formulated a plan. The bladeface had closed its eyes the moment it thought it was going to smash into me. If I could trick it into crashing into something else with its eyes closed, I could daze it and slay the beast before it had time to react. While keeping my distance, I took stock of the world around me.

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The bladeface had come from a thicket of trees behind me. It wasn’t dense enough to call a forest, but some interesting rocky outcroppings were hidden amongst the trunks. They were like rocky steppes, almost like they’d been arranged that way.

Then the realisation hit me. They had been placed here like that.

This whole place was a giant battlefield, built by someone else's hands. I couldn't be sure whether it was the Architects themselves or the Alarendei Empire.

What I was sure of was that if I didn’t figure out a way to kill this bladeface, I might not make it very far on day one of this seven-day contest.

I ran towards the boulder pile and made sure that the monster followed. I ran straight towards the first stone rise, looking over my shoulder as I ran. The bladeface was still a few metres behind me. If I could fake it out, this might just work…

When I reached the rock, which was about waist height, I fumbled my grip and slipped down again. I grunted with frustration, hopefully goading the beast into thinking it had me dead to rights before I rolled to the side.

Bits of rock sprayed as the bladeface’s head smashed into the giant boulder. It grunted in frustration as it tried to pull itself free, but my plan had worked. It was stuck! The bone wedge was sharp enough and wielded with such force that it had cracked the boulder. If it had slammed into me, it’d be bye-bye JD Rideout until the dawn of the next day.

I circled around the back of the monster and lashed out at the bladeface with my claws. Strips of flesh tore away as I raked at the creature, but it couldn’t do a damn thing to escape.

When the fight started to go out of the beast, I sunk my claws into it and drew, hoping to suck the essence out of it. I breathed a sigh of relief when it worked. The familiar fullness of anima sliding into my internal anima tank was a great comfort. It also answered a question that lingered in the back of my mind. Were the enemies used by the Alarendei Empire in this contest anima constructs?

The answer was yes.

My chat window reappeared to a slew of panicked messages when I hadn’t replied earlier, accompanied by a notice that I’d received experience points for killing the beast.

Hatchet: It’s okay – it looks like the interface automatically hides the squad chat window when you’re in combat. I’m fine, but the bladeface I just killed isn’t. These things are anima constructs, by the way. I can drain anima from them.

Before anyone else could reply, a notification went out on the global channel.

Astrid McKillop has been slain by the Gargonath.

The Gargonath grows in strength.

Macuahuitl: Okay, what the hell is an anima construct, and what the hell is a Gargonath?

Naginata: It’s that monster Altessa talked about. If the Gargonath is slain, it rises again the next day like us, and learns from its defeat. But it looks like it also grows in power if it kills any of us combatants in the meantime, which was a fact that Altessa did not explain.

Kaiser: Poor Astrid. I liked her perfume. She smelled nice.

Hatchet: Which squad was she a part of?

Naginata: She’s with X and the Reality Benders. He’s not happy.

Hatchet: I really don’t want any of us to die on the first day.

Naginata: I don’t plan on dying until we defeat every single one of these champions.

Kaiser: We need to meet up. I found Spook, but she’s scared. I can smell the fear coming off her. I’m going to try to clear out this place so there’s a safe way out, but I’m not strong alone.

Hatchet: You don’t need to be strong by yourself, mate. Use your own gifts. Do you remember how quiet you can be when you want to sneak treats while I’m working in the office?

Kaiser: …

Hatchet: Wait, did you just think dot dot dot too?

Spook: :)

Hatchet: And Spook’s thinking in emoticons. Right. This is just too weird. Anyway, treat whatever obstacle that lies in front of you like it’s sitting between you and a big, juicy plate of bacon. You can get through without being seen. I know it.

Kaiser: I like it when you say nice things about me.

Hatchet: There’s a lot of good things to say, even if you pissed on my carpet. I’m going to mark a safe location as soon as I can find one on everyone’s squad maps. You’ll be able to follow the marker to a safe place when I find one.

Speaking of which, getting to the top of this rocky outcropping would give me a much better view of the surrounding area. But first, I needed to figure out if this bladeface would give me any loot.

I held out my hand in front of the beast’s corpse and was happy to see a window appear, which contained loot. There was a bunch of meat on the loot table, which I was dubious about. Did I really want to eat alien meat from an anima construct? I wouldn’t get very far dying of starvation, so I might not have much of a choice. I slipped all the meat into my inventory.

A couple of crafting materials appeared on the loot table too. A single bone blade and two thick hides transferred across, and I would need to figure out how to turn them into something useful. The bladeface’s bone weapon would make an excellent hatchet blade.

A pair of boots on the loot table were better than the ones I had equipped. This gear had an armour value, and the edge of the item window was blue in colour, which looked to equate to the item's rarity: Uncommon. It increased my Strength and Constitution, both very different statistics than what EDGE Force had used in previous missions.

But then again, this wasn’t an EDGE Force mission.

Meadow Stompers

Level 1 Uncommon Boots

Upgrade Level 0

Bind on Equip

+2 Armour

+2 Strength

+1 Constitution

The fact that they were Bind on Equip gave me pause. I wasn’t sure what that meant. If I put these on, would I be stuck wearing them for the rest of the contest?

I decided to consult my team.

Hatchet: Does anyone know what Bind on Equip means?

Naginata: I assume it means we can trade gear whenever we want before we equip it, but when we equip it, we can no longer trade it between squad members.

Hatchet: Oh, I thought it meant we were stuck with it until the end of the contest.

Spook: … :’D

Hatchet: Did you just laugh cry emoticon at me?

Spook: They’re called emojis now, grandpa.

I grinned. Spook had actually communicated with us using actual words! I didn’t even really care that she used it to make fun of me.

Hatchet: You’d get along well with my daughter, Spook. You follow Kaiser and get out of whatever trouble you’re in, okay?

Spook: :)

Naginata: Just equip whatever you find that’s better than your starting gear. We need to get as strong as possible. X and I have just noticed that some higher danger level monsters are wandering around with the normal danger level monsters.

Hatchet: If X is in the Reality Benders, and Astrid was killed by the Gargonath, can X see where she was before she was killed?

Naginata: I’ll ask. Hang on.

I hung on, but I also got to work scaling the rocks that the bladeface was still embedded in. I felt a little too exposed here, even though all was quiet. While I lifted myself up the fourth boulder, another message came through from Naginata.

Naginata: X says that Astrid was in Verdant Hills.

My blood ran cold.

Hatchet: That’s where I am.

Naginata: Then be very careful.

Hatchet: What kind of abilities did Astrid have? Was she a warrior?

Naginata’s response came back about a minute later, and by then, I was almost at the top of the rock formation. There was no way this was natural. This felt like it was the high ground in a video game. It would give me a great view of the world around me, but I would also be exposed if I stood up on the top for too long.

Naginata: Astrid was a dreamwalker. She can spirit walk out of her body when she sleeps, but she doesn’t have any combat abilities. X says that the Gargonath hunted her down once it saw her. It didn’t give up until she was dead.

Hatchet: Good to know. I’ll see if I can locate the beast from my new vantage point.

Naginata: Just don’t get seen. If it sees you it won’t stop until you’re dead.

I crawled out on the rock on my belly, trying to keep my silhouette from attracting unwanted attention from beasts or warriors from the Alarendei Empire. There was no telling who or what might be watching.

This new vantage point only gave me a little better view of the zone in front of me. The rolling hills became vast plainlands, which were bisected by a river. Herds of something grazed on the grass of the plains, but I couldn’t make out exactly what they were.

There was a ruin of some kind on this side of the river. There was no telling whether it was crawling with enemies or not, but it looked much more defensible than being out in the open. If we needed to survive overnight, we’d need somewhere to fortify. Building on an existing structure would be easier than building something from scratch.

A bridge crossed the river close to this ruin, but something stood sentinel in the centre of the bridge. If the herd animals were the size of cattle, then this thing standing in the centre of the bridge was at least double the height of a normal human. It also held a long-handled weapon in its hands, which would give it a considerable reach against anyone approaching it from either direction.

The dark tower was where Macuahuitl had spawned, and now I could see that it was also on the other side of the river.

I marked the ruins, the bridge, and the herd animals as points of interest. The river was wide and ran swiftly, which meant it would be tough to cross in any way other than that bridge. Whatever that sentinel was, it stood between Naginata, Big Mac, and us.

That bridge sentinel was our main priority, and if my plan worked, we’d need people on both sides of the bridge to pull it off.

Hatchet: Okay, this might sound crazy, but hear me out…