NEW WORLD — THE WORLD OF SIKALIA
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Chapter 62: Neverending Competition
Earlier That Day
“Ha! That’s five for five, and on the farthest target, too! That’ll be my win.”
“Oh, that’s bullshit!” Pierce retorted with a scowl as he glared down the range before him and Phoenix. A handful of targets were mounted at various spots down the green lane, and the target in the back had been pierced by ten short javelins — with five of them near the center of the target. “…You had an inherent advantage here,” Pierce argued, turning to glare at Phoenix. “You do javelin toss all the time, of course you’d win. This wasn’t a fair match.”
“Says the guy who was just bragging that his superspeed would help him claim the win?” Phoenix countered with a smug smirk. “Fat lot of good that did you, huh?”
“Well, he was kinda close a couple times…” Arn commented, only to freeze as Pierce and Phoenix both passed him the stink eye.
“Don’t stroke his ego,” Phoenix demanded. “That’s the last thing Pierce needs!”
“’Stroke my ego’ my ass, that was one hella condescending remark!” Pierce replied irately. “I don’t need your pity.”
“Pity or not, you both did better than I ever could,” Conrad remarked, stepping forward to peer down the range himself. “That target down there has to be a dozen meters away or so, right? Phoenix got more bulls-eyes, sure, but Pierce, you still hit it every time.”
“I agree, it is impressive,” Mark affirmed.
“Oh, this is nothing,” Phoenix replied airily. “These javelins are much smaller and lighter than what’s actually used in the javelin throw — not to mention there’s an actual target to aim for. This might as well be a different event entirely.” She then passed Pierce a smug look. “In a real throw, I’d kick your ass so hard, your head would be spinning — even with that superspeed of yours!”
“Alright, you smartass,” Pierce shot back, and then turned around and began marching off down the street. “Let’s see if you keep that attitude up when I beat your ass at the next game!” he shouted over his shoulder.
“Bring it on, you arrogant asshole!” Phoenix replied in kind as she jogged after him.
Arn stared at her retreating form incredulously. “But… I wanted to try this game, too…”
“Ha ha… well, that’s Phoenix, for you,” Conrad replied with a weary smile. He casually patted Arn on the back before sauntering off after Pierce and Phoenix. “C’mon, let’s not leave them alone.”
“Aw…” Arn muttered, finally setting off himself alongside Kestrel and Mark. “Well, I guess there’s always the next one…”
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“Time! That’s 2 minutes 40 — wow, that’s a record!”
“Damn straight!” Pierce grinned and pounded his chest once, nodding toward the timekeeper before turning around to look at the obstacle course behind him — just as Phoenix swung around the corner, leaped over the last hurdle, and crossed the finish line herself.
“2 minutes 56 — another sub-3 minute time?!” the timekeeper remarked incredulously, “wow! The average time on this course is supposed to be 4 minutes!”
“Damn… I still lost…” Phoenix muttered, her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. “Fuck…”
“Throwing shit might be your thing, but running is mine,” Pierce declared haughtily, barely sparing a glance to the side as Kestrel silently crossed the finish line herself. “Did you really think you could beat me here? Ha!”
“I came hella close,” Phoenix countered. “I bet you only won because of your superspeed!”
“If only that was the case — but you know as well as I do that this course has CENT fields!” Pierce’s grin settled into a smug smirk as he crossed his arms and looked down his nose at Phoenix. “What you just saw from me was pure athletic skill and training. All me, baby!”
“Oof… what the—?” Arn passed Pierce and Phoenix confused looks as he finally reached the finish line himself, with Mark alongside him. “You both finished? Already?!”
The timekeeper nodded from the side. “It was close, but very impressive—!”
“Don’t patronize me,” Phoenix snapped. “A loss is a loss… but I’ll win the next one, Pierce, guaranteed.”
“Ha! I’d like to see you fuckin’ try!” Pierce countered as the two rushed off into the crowds.
“Hey…! Wait a…! Oof…” Conrad panted out, finally crossing the line himself. He took several deep breaths as he watched Pierce and Phoenix leave, and then sighed warily. “Damn… so fast…!”
“You still finished pretty quickly, yourself,” Mark pointed out, and gestured toward the clock on the side. “3 and a half minutes on a par-4 minute course? I have to admit, Conrad, you’re more athletic than I expected.”
“Common sentiment,” Kestrel remarked.
“Oh, shut up,” Conrad retorted.
“I guess we should go follow ‘em, though,” Arn commented as he nodded toward the crowd Pierce and Phoenix had disappeared into. “Let’s go…”
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“And the results are in… contestant number 3, with the red ribbon design, is our victor! Congratulations!”
“Yes!” Phoenix pumped her fist amid a small crowd of applause. At the front of the crowd was a large festival stand, featuring holograms of five identical trees with various different designs and decorations adorning them. A red ribbon — small enough to not overpower the lush green leaves of the tree itself, yet obvious enough to draw the eye — snaked its way around the trunk and branches of the third tree hologram, forming surprisingly intricate designs amongst the leaves.
“Ah, fuckin’ whatever,” Pierce muttered dismissively, his own design featuring a handful of plain blue ornaments. “Who cares about exterior design? This whole contest is subjective as fuck, anyways.”
“I dunno, the leader board says Phoenix got half of the votes,” Conrad pointed out.
“And there were five contestants,” Phoenix smugly added. “Face it, Pierce. You just don’t know the slightest thing about art and style.”
“Bullshit. My wardrobe is hella stylish,” Pierce insisted; at that moment, his outfit consisted of jeans, a blue v-neck short-sleeved shirt, and a black unbuttoned overshirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. While his clothing appeared plain on first glance, however, all of the articles fit him perfectly, with nary a wrinkle nor a blemish to be seen — and his rolled up sleeves emphasized his lean, though clearly toned forearms. His clean and swept-back dirty blond hair, combined with his short but well-trimmed goatee rounded out Pierce’s subtle, yet attractively well-kept appearance.
Phoenix, by contrast, was wearing a red crop top and blue jean capri pants, just tight enough to accentuate her shapely hips and legs — though loose enough to give her a full range of movement. Her black hair was immaculately well-kept, held in the front by a black headband and tied in the back into a ponytail that splayed out behind her head. Accompanying her style was a small braid that dropped down in front of her right ear and dangled on her chest, with small purple beads worked into the braid. A pair of subtle metal earrings rounded out her outfit, serving as aesthetic highlights. All together, it was clear that Phoenix put a lot of thought into her appearance, even if her outfit itself seemed uncomplicated at first glance.
Conrad glanced between Pierce and Phoenix, and then down at himself — and his plain gray t-shirt and jean shorts. Mark and Arn dressed similarly (though Mark also had a jacket), while Kestrel wore a thin yellow cardigan over a white summer dress, with a wide-brimmed straw hat to shade her face from the sun. Kestrel was easily the most stylish of the four, though Conrad knew the majority of her wardrobe had been picked out by Phoenix. “…As far as I’m concerned,” he eventually commented, drawing Pierce and Phoenix’s attention to himself, “the two of you have more ‘style’ than any of us ever will.”
“Damn straight,” Pierce remarked with a smirk.
“You still can’t hold a candle to me,” Phoenix retorted, to which Pierce’s smirk was immediately replaced with a scowl. “This decoration contest proves that. You just don’t have an eye for anything that isn’t yourself, Pierce.”
“Oh, get off your fuckin’ high horse,” Pierce countered. “So you won a popularity contest, so what?”
“Most of the people here don’t even know who I am!”
“I’m startin’ to wonder if I do…” Arn muttered under his breath.
Conrad chuckled in response to Arn’s comment, having heard it despite the Nimalian’s low tone. “Well,” Conrad then spoke up, his gaze drifting up to a nearby sun hologram — and the dial around it that indicated noontime. “It’s about time for lunch, now, isn’t it?”
“Mm…” Kestrel grunted in response, followed shortly by a growl emanating from her stomach. “…Hungry.”
“That makes three of us, then,” Mark declared. “I saw some nice stalls around here. Let’s take a break from all the competition, shall we?”
“Hmph.” Pierce and Phoenix responded in unison, and then turned to glare at each other.
“Good enough for me. Let’s go,” Conrad said as he stepped away from the stall and began leading the group down the crowded festival streets.
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“Thaf’s four! You can’f beaf me!”
“Thaf’s disgusfing,” Phoenix retorted around a mouthful of food, only to quickly swallow and stuff her face once more. “Don’f falk wif your mouf full!”
“I could say the same to you,” Conrad deadpanned as he watched Pierce and Phoenix both stuff themselves with kifas — palm-sized doughnut-like pastries with a spicy topping and bits of meat within. “How did you two manage to turn lunch into a contest?”
“Shuf up,” Pierce retorted, chewing on what was now his fifth kifa. “Haffa win!”
“No you won’f!” Phoenix countered around another kifa, this one her fourth.
“This is… somethin’,” Arn responded flatly from his seat next to Phoenix.
“Yeah… I really think you two could use a break,” Mark insisted, glancing between Pierce and Phoenix with concern. “I get that you both want to win, but this seems like a little… much.”
Phoenix swallowed, clearing her mouth for just a moment as she replied, “don’t worry, this isn’t the first time we’ve had an eating contest. We’ll be fine!”
“Really,” Conrad deadpanned, his eyes dropping to Pierce and Phoenix’s waistlines. Neither of them were overweight by any means — both of them had fairly lean figures, in fact, with the exception of Phoenix’s lower proportions. Pierce, nonetheless, had almost a full foot of height over Phoenix; there was no denying that their difference in size was a handicap for the latter. “…When was the last time you had an eating contest, exactly?”
Pierce swallowed loudly and took a massive swig out of a nearby water bottle before replying, “three years ago, senior year. And if I recall correctly…” He shot Phoenix a smug glance. “I won.”
“Shuf… shuf up,” Phoenix retorted, and then swallowed her current mouthful of food — though her movement seemed a bit more sluggish than before as she reached for the next kifa. “You only win this kind of contest because you’re bigger than I am.”
“Which is exactly why you’re going to lose today,” Pierce shot back, and then stuffed his mouth with another kifa.
“Hmph…” Phoenix passed him the stink eye. “Today isn’t over, yet. You might win this contest, but so what? I’m still ahead of you.”
“Bullshit, after this we’re 2-and-2,” Pierce argued.
“That’s what you think,” Phoenix replied, adopting a subtle smirk as she sidled up next to Arn.
“You…!” Pierce scowled and passed Arn a glare; Arn simply responded with a clueless stare.
“Is that an admission of defeat, then?” Mark questioned, his attention on Phoenix as she leaned back and heaved a sigh.
“…Damn.” Phoenix eyed the pile of kifas in the center of the table, and then shrugged in resignation. “It might as well be. I’ll never be a match for Pierce the glutton, I suppose.”
“Hey, you fucking suggested this,” Pierce countered irately.
“At least the rest of us can eat in peace, now,” Conrad remarked. “You might not expect this, but watching someone else just wolf down spicy doughnuts really nukes your appetite.”
“Mmhmm.” Kestrel quickly affirmed with a nod.
Mark sighed with relief. “I was legitimately worried that one of you might start choking, with how fast you were eating…”
“Us? Choke? Ha!” Pierce scoffed. “As if I could fall to something so lame!”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“That’s not exactly an encouraging attitude…”
“Anyways, the rest of you should hurry up,” Phoenix insisted. “We still have more festival time ahead of us!”
Conrad simply shook his head in resignation as he replied in a deadpan tone, “oh boy, I can’t wait…”
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“I can’t believe you guys are turning this into a contest.”
“Even games of chance have strategy,” Pierce replied, slowly stroking his trimmed beard as he watched the Nimalian vendor in front of him set up a game with three opaque boxes.
Conrad shrugged in response. “Whatever, man.”
“Wait, I don’t get it,” Arn commented, glancing between Pierce and Phoenix in confusion. “This game is totally random, ain’t it? The prize is in one box, you guess the box, if you’re right, you win. What’s the strategy?”
“You’re forgetting the most important part,” Phoenix declared, and pointed at the rules of the game posted on the side of the stand. “After you pick, the vendor opens up one of the boxes that you didn’t pick — and that box is always a losing box. And at that point, you can choose to switch to the remaining unopened box, or stick with the one you already chose.”
“Ah, I see…” Mark nodded in understanding as he watched from the side. “I think I’ve heard of this game before…”
Arn looked over at Mark, utter cluelessness wrought across his face. “…What? …I still don’t get it.”
“Most people think this game is entirely chance, but that’s because they’re idiots who don’t understand probability,” Pierce remarked. “There is a strategy, and that strategy is to always switch after a box is revealed.”
“But why? There’s only one prize, so you only have a 1 in 3 chance of winnin’. What does switchin’ change…?”
“The switching itself doesn’t change anything,” Phoenix explained, “it’s the fact that the vendor only opens a losing box that does. He never reveals the prize.”
“So?”
“Think about it like this: you pick a box at the start. Then, the vendor reveals the one remaining losing box. If the box you picked was a losing box, then the remaining box is the prize one — and vice versa, if you picked the winning box, then the remaining box is a losing one. But you have a 2 in 3 chance of picking a losing box at the very beginning, which means that 2 out of 3 times, you’re guaranteed a win by switching!”
“Pretty simple, if you think about it,” Pierce remarked.
“Yeah… but there’s one problem,” Conrad pointed out. “If both of you use the strategy, then literally all that remains is chance!”
“Exactly. This is a contest to see which of us is the luckiest.”
“What? But that’s exactly the opposite of what you—! Agh, whatever.” Conrad threw up his hands in resignation. “I don’t know why I try reasoning with you guys.”
“I still don’t get it, though…” Arn muttered, his brow furrowed in thought. “If switching makes you win, then why’d you lose, Phoenix?”
“Ugh…” She grimaced in response. “That was just… poor chance.”
“And I’m going to have better chance,” Pierce insisted, just as the vendor indicated that the boxes were ready. With an overly dramatic gesture, Pierce pointed at the leftmost box. “This one!”
“So you think that’s the prize…?” Arn questioned.
“Nope,” Pierce replied, watching the vendor open the middle box — revealing nothing inside. Before the vendor even prompted him, Pierce pointed at the rightmost box as he declared, “I think this one is the prize box!”
“…Congratulations, sir,” the vendor replied, opening the rightmost box to reveal a small sun-shaped plushie inside. “It isn’t often I see such confidence from a player of this game!”
“Ha! Well, few people know what they’re doing as well as I do,” Pierce responded with a smirk, readily accepting the plushie before tossing it toward Kestrel, who wordlessly caught it. He then turned to give Phoenix a haughty stare. “I do believe this is my win.”
“Oh shut up, it’s just a game of chance,” Phoenix retorted.
Conrad opened his mouth to reply, only to stop himself and sigh wearily instead.
“If you knew that was the winnin’ box, though, then why not just pick that at the start?” Arn questioned.
“Have you been listening? The whole point is that you learn something from what box the vendor opens up!” Pierce exclaimed. “C’mon, dude, it’s so simple!”
“O-oh…”
“Anyways…” Mark spoke up, already beginning to back away from the stand as he gestured down the street. “There’s still plenty else to see, and several hours left in the day.”
“And several more opportunities to kick your ass,” Phoenix remarked, shooting Pierce a glare. “I won’t let you win the day!”
“Same to you,” Pierce retorted as the two barged off into the crowd, once again leaving the rest of the group to follow in their tracks.
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“Ha! A perfect score! Take that, Pierce!”
“Bullshit, I was only off by one question,” Pierce retorted, scowling as he looked up at an answer sheet on the side of a trivia stall. “That one question was bullshit, anyways.”
“Most of these questions were out there,” Conrad remarked, looking over the answers himself before glancing between Pierce and Phoenix. “This trivia was entirely about the Nimalian Union… how’d you guys know so much?”
“You knew even more than I did…” Arn grumbled.
“Well, we did spend the summer on a Nimalian planet,” Phoenix pointed out. “We learned a lot, out there.”
“Apparently, not enough…” Pierce muttered irately. “But c’mon, that one question was bullshit, right? I mean, how the hell are we supposed to know the highest grossing food product on Nimalia, huh?! You totally guessed on that one!”
Phoenix crossed her arms, a smug grin crossing her face. “And if I did? A win is a win, Pierce.”
“You don’t get perfect scores entirely through chance, anyways,” Mark pointed out. “Pierce, the fact that you were only one off is still impressive on its own, especially over a pool of 25 questions.”
“I can’t believe I lost a Nimalia trivia quiz to outsiders…” Arn muttered.
“Oh, shut up. I don’t need your pity,” Pierce retorted, ignoring Arn’s comment to pass Mark an annoyed glance. “Trivia — by definition! — is useless information, anyways. It doesn’t even test how smart you are, it just tests your rote memorization skills, which is super fucking basic.”
“Sounds like someone’s sore that he lost,” Phoenix taunted.
“Pot, meet kettle,” Conrad retorted under his breath, just quietly enough to escape Pierce or Phoenix’s notice.
“Ah ha ha ha…” Mark laughed uneasily. “You two really are into this, huh? You remind me of Mote and Kate, in a way…”
“Ah, fuck that asshole,” Pierce countered with a scowl, and then turned to glare at Phoenix. “But just you wait, I’ll get your ass on the next one, whatever it is!”
“Good fucking luck, then, ‘cause you’ll need it!” Phoenix shot back, the two of them already walking off into the crowded streets.
“Still going…” Kestrel muttered as she watched them leave.
“It’s almost impressive,” Mark commented, “if not for the fact that they’re so openly antagonizing each other…”
“Eh, you get used to it.” Conrad shrugged, and then began following after Pierce and Phoenix. “Well, c’mon. Let’s get goin’…”
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“Wait, you can’t move there! …Can you? Is that a legal move?”
“Of course it’s legal. This is the Skypiece, right?” Pierce narrowed his eyes as he stared down at the game board sitting in between him and Phoenix, decorated with blue and white hexes and adorned with two dozen game pieces. His hand hovered warily over one piece that was shaped vaguely like a cloud, unsure of what to do next. “…The Skypiece can go over other pieces, right? That’s the whole point of the cloud imagery, right?”
“I mean, maybe? But there’s a Sun- and a Moonpiece, too. Surely they can’t all leapfrog each other…” Phoenix’s brow scrunched up with confusion as she looked down at a small tablet in her left hand, using her right to scroll through the virtual rulebook. An impatient scowl crossed her face while she remarked, “why are there so many damn rules to this game…?”
“Well, Chess has a lot of rules, too, sort of,” Mark replied, standing off to the side with Conrad, Kestrel, and Arn as they watched Pierce and Phoenix’s game. “This seems like the Nimalian version of Chess, so…”
“Chess’s rules are pretty fucking simple,” Pierce retorted. “They could fit on a single page. It’s the strategies that take up entire books. Still, I’m not going to let learning a new game get in the way of my inevitable victory!”
“Shut the hell up,” Phoenix shot back, finally setting her tablet down on the table. She then moved her hand over to a board piece shaped like a mountain, and begin moving it to an adjacent hex. “You hadn’t even heard of Skycross until I pointed out this stall.”
“As if this isn’t your first time playing this game, either.”
“I heard a couple things from Brikén. I bet I know more strategy than you do!”
“Then fucking bring it! I can’t be happy with a win if I don’t crush you at your best!”
“Ugh…” Conrad sighed wearily, briefly passing a glance up at the nearest sun hologram as he did. The dial around it now indicated that there were only a few hours of daylight left. “Man… the two of you have been at this all day,” he complained as he turned back to Pierce and Phoenix. “Can’t you just call it a draw at this point—?”
“No,” Pierce and Phoenix firmly replied in unison, only to pass each other challenging glares afterward.
“Right. Should’ve expected that,” Conrad deadpanned. He then glanced over at Kestrel, and then Mark, and Arn. “…Don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting tired of playing babysitter. Let’s go check something else out.”
“Mm.” Kestrel nodded affirmatively.
“…I suppose leaving them alone couldn’t hurt,” Mark commented, watching Pierce and Phoenix for a couple seconds as their attentions became laser-focused on the game between then. “As competitive as they are, they haven’t really been self-destructive or dangerous about it…”
Conrad smirked in bitter amusement. “Not exactly a high bar, huh?” He then glanced toward Arn again. “You’re free to join us.”
Arn frowned, and then looked over at Phoenix. “…Phoenix—?”
“Shush, I’m focusing,” she immediately retorted, not once diverting her attention from the game board.
“Right…” Shoulders slumped, Arn turned toward Conrad. “Guess I’m with y’all…”
“Ha ha… yeah…” Conrad chuckled uneasily before turning around, his hands in his pockets as he led Kestrel, Mark, and Arn down the street. Once out of earshot of Pierce and Phoenix, Conrad released a hefty sigh and turned his gaze skyward; late afternoon sunlight cast long shadows on the streets and buildings, but the fluffy white clouds hanging above were just as bright as ever against the deep blue backdrop of the sky. “…Sorry about them,” Conrad said, and then brought his attention down to look at Mark and Arn. “When they get like this, there’s nothing that’ll stop them.”
Kestrel shook her head. “Too competitive…”
“It certainly does seem that way…” Mark commented with a wary frown. “Is it really fine leaving them alone like this, though?”
“The only way they’ll cool off is when they tire each other out,” Conrad replied, and then adopted a wry smile as he added, “that, or until they realize we abandoned them.”
“Huh? Are you sayin’ they didn’t notice us leave?” Arn questioned.
“They probably saw us leave, but they’ll never expect us to stay gone,” Conrad answered. “Or, I guess, they won’t actually think about us being gone until they reach a lull in their competition.”
“How do you know this?” Mark asked. “Has this happened before?”
Kestrel nodded. “Several times.”
“They’re really competitive,” Conrad remarked.
“They sure do, uh… care about each other a lot,” Arn muttered, only to jump when Conrad responded with a boisterous laugh.
“Ah ha ha ha ha!! Oh man, that’s one way to put it.” Conrad grinned as he wiped a tear from his eye. “They’ve always seemed to care about beating each other more than beating other people. Don’t know if I’d say they ‘care about’ each other, though, not anymore than regular friends.”
“Doesn’t seem that way to me,” Arn countered.
“Wait… are you suggesting that they like each other?” Mark questioned incredulously. “That can’t be. Right?”
“Yeah, I agree,” Conrad declared. “The likelihood of Pierce and Phoenix becoming an item is nil. And even if they did get together, can you imagine how toxic that relationship would be? Hoo boy.”
“Need more maturity,” Kestrel commented.
“Among other things,” Conrad replied, and then released another lofty sigh. “Well, at least this spat between them seems to have made Pierce forget about Austin. Poor guy.”
“You know…” Mark looked between Conrad and Kestrel with unease. “The way you two are talking about Pierce and Phoenix… are you guys really, well…”
“You’re trying to ask why we’re friends with them, aren’t you?” Conrad replied, and then exchanged a glance with Kestrel before shrugging. “Hard to say. I guess this is just one of the lows of being friends with them. There are times when it’s pretty fun, this just isn’t it.”
“Mm…” Kestrel grunted in acknowledgment.
“That doesn’t sound very encouraging,” Mark pointed out.
“Hey, I could say the same about you and Mote,” Conrad shot back. “You had to’ve noticed how that guy just condescends down to everyone, right? Kinda similar to Pierce, actually, but somehow way more grating. Like, Pierce will at least challenge you to a fight, and encourage you to do your best — even if only so he can try to crush you. But Mote seems to think that he’s above all of that, like other people aren’t even worth the chance. Bit much, if you ask me.”
“That’s not fair to say,” Mark countered. “I agree that Mote can be a little too strait-laced sometimes, but there’s a whole compassionate side to him that you haven’t had the chance to see.”
“Sure, I guess.” Conrad shrugged. “And I’d say something similar about Pierce and Phoenix.”
“Pierce? Compassionate?” Arn echoed incredulously.
“Ha ha ha, I don’t blame you for having that response. And I agree, it’s hard to see. But it’s there. Sometimes you really have to look for it, but it’s there. Maybe you’ll see it, one day.”
“I hope so,” Mark replied.
“Yep.” Conrad then yawned broadly, stretching his arms skyward as he did. “Anyways… we’ve been talking a lot about Pierce and Phoenix. Let’s change the subject to something else, yeah?”
“Talent show?” Kestrel suggested.
“Hey, yeah, good idea. Those Chaotics are supposed to be on soon, or something, right? Let’s go check that out,” Conrad declared, briefly adjusting his orientation to lead the group through the busy streets of Ilia.
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“Ah ha! With my Sunpiece, I finally wipe out your last Cloudpiece! Give up yet?”
“What? That can’t be right,” Phoenix countered irately, her eyes sweeping back and forth across the playing field between her and Pierce. She then snapped her attention to the tablet by her side and began furiously scrolling through the rules again. “Was that a legal move? That can’t be a legal move. You can’t move the sun through the moon…”
“What? It makes perfect sense,” Pierce countered. “This whole game is built around altitudes. The sun is higher up than the moon, so, the sun can pass over the moon. Easy.”
“Yeah, but that would make the Sunpiece way too overpowered if it could move wherever it wanted and capture any piece it wanted.” Phoenix scowled. “We have to be missing something…”
Pierce sat back, his arms crossed as he adopted a smug grin. “Just don’t want to admit defeat that hard, huh?”
“Not if we’re using the rules wrong. And we are, you dumbass!” Phoenix tossed the tablet toward Pierce, who easily snatched it out of the air. “Look at the rules for moving the Sunpiece.”
“What, that it can only move 1 hex at a time? You know it says right here that it can move any number of hexes in a straight line if it’s going over your own pieces, right?”
“After that. The Sunpiece isn’t allowed to go closer to any edge of the board than any of your other pieces, and that’s exactly what you just did!”
“What?!” Pierce’s grin rapidly collapsed into a scowl as he scanned through the rules himself. “The fuck…? Why didn’t I see that before?!”
“Heh.” Phoenix smirked in the face of Pierce’s own frustration. “So the only way you can beat me is by cheating, huh?”
“Cheating my ass, that’s a stupid rule,” Pierce countered. “This board only has six hexes on a side, and there’s only a dozen game pieces! How are you supposed to do anything with the Sunpiece with that rule?!”
“Don’t ask me, but why don’t you take back that last move of yours?” Phoenix retorted.
“Hmph…” Pierce begrudgingly began to reach over the board to move his piece back to where it was originally located, but he stopped when he felt his watch vibrate once. Reflexively, he turned his watch face toward him to check the notification.
“Now you’re stalling, too?” Phoenix questioned incredulously.
“Oh, shut up,” Pierce muttered. “Conrad just sent me a message. …They’re waiting for us at the Talent Show venue?”
“Huh?” Phoenix’s eyebrows perked up, at which point she began swiveling her head to and fro to search her surroundings. “Wait, they’re all gone? When did they leave?!”
“That’s just… hmph.” Pierce snorted as he looked about himself as well. Several small tables surrounded them, featuring a handful of different board games and dozens of players engrossed in them — but all amongst the crowd, Conrad, Kestrel, Mark, and Arn were no where to be seen. “…Impatient bastards,” Pierce eventually muttered.
“Oh, that’s rich, coming from you,” Phoenix retorted.
“Say what you like about my patience, but I don’t just abandon people in the middle of a festival,” Pierce shot back. “I bet this is all because of that Arn guy. You really know how to pick ‘em.”
“Alright, you asshole, that’s—!” Phoenix stopped herself mid-sentence and pursed her lips, her brow furrowed into a glare at Pierce. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, at which point she stood up from her chair.
“And where are you going?” Pierce pressed as Phoenix turned away from the table. “Forfeiting our match already?”
“Call it whatever the fuck you want, I just need a break from your toxic ass,” Phoenix shot back. “I’m going after Arn. Don’t get in my way.”
“Hmph…” Pierce scowled as he watched Phoenix’s retreating form until she disappeared into the crowds on the street. He then turned to glare down at the game board in front of him, and the pieces remaining on it. Before his illegal move, he and Phoenix had been tied — six silver pieces on her side, and six cerulean pieces on his. “Fucking… ugh.”
With that irritated exhalation, Pierce stood up himself, and began looking around — only for his scowl to deepen when he realized that he was now alone. In hindsight, I guess Phoenix and I really were going at each other hard today, but… argh. I can’t just leave things at this! He passed an irate glare in the direction that Phoenix had left, only to shake his head and storm off in the opposite direction. …Whatever. I’ll just go cool my head back at my room, for a bit. But this day isn’t over, yet. I’ll pull out a win against someone, you just watch…