Gods’ Games We Play, Vol. 5, page 3
“You’re up first.”
“Whaaaaaaaaat?!” Anita’s expression twisted in shock. Apparently she’d been convinced that she would get the same kind of special treatment. “But, Captain Ashlan—I mean, Commander-in-Chief! I’m desperate to be on the same team as my treasured sisters! Don’t you think it’s only appropriate that I should play in the second half?”
“If you survive the god team’s ‘rough play,’ you will.”
“But I don’t wanna be a sacrificial pawn!”
“C’mon, folks, let’s get going!” Captain Ashlan grabbed the blubbering Anita by the collar and dragged her away, pulling her until they stood directly under the referee—the meep. “I’m the overall leader here. For my starting lineup, I nominate myself and the nine people directly behind me.”
“Then you’re ready to play, yes?” The meep took out a shining, ochre-colored gourd and placed the opening to its lips, just as if it were a real whistle. “With Yggdrasil’s forest as its stage, this game of God-Tree-Fruit Basketball will now begin!”
The meep blew into the gourd, producing a blast of noise that reverberated all around the woods. The start signal!
Vs. The Guardians of the God-Tree’s Wood
Game: God-Tree-Fruit Basketball
Win Condition 1: First team to 50 points. The big trees in each area host the goals (flowers); points are scored by putting the balls (seeds) in the goals.
Win Condition 2: If the time limit is reached, the team with the most points wins. However, calculation of the “Minimum Penalty” will be enforced.
Other: The four balls are in play simultaneously. The green ball (1 kilogram) is worth 2 points; the blue ball (2 kilograms) is worth 3 points; the yellow ball (20 kilograms) is worth 10 points.
The red ball (infinite weight) is a bonus worth 100 million points.
The entire forest may be used as a “gimmick.”
“Wahoo! Ready, humans? Here we go!” the three nymphs cheered. “We know this forest up, down, and sideways, so we’ll give you four minutes of ‘study time.’ You can use it to strategize, check out the woods—whatever you think will help!”
“You hear that? They’re makin’ fun of us,” Captain Ashlan growled. “But we’ll take any help we can get!” As soon as he was sure that the gods’ team wasn’t moving from its side of the field, he gave his teammates his best, most valiant smile. “All right, huddle up! We’ve only got four minutes here. I say two minutes for planning, then two minutes to check out the tricks and traps this forest offers. Okay, plan first…”
“Captain Ashlan! If I may?” Nel called from off the court, where she stood beside Fay. “This is a game, but it’s also a sport! And in sports, positions are important. I think it would help to assign offense and defense!”
“Good thinking, Nel! How many for each?”
“I’m not sure…”
“Isn’t that the most important part?! Shit… Okay, we’ll figure it out during the game. Let’s start with five each. Who looks good for offense? Hmm… Zechey, Gratton, Dan, and me. How about you, Anita? Where do you want to be?”
“Just a second, Leader!” Anita said, putting a pause on the proceedings. “Aren’t you forgetting something important?”
“Like what?”
“This game has four balls. Handling four balls with five people on offense? Who are they going to pass to? They’ll just get taken out one by one, and the balls will wind up with the other team.”
“Huh?! Okay, more people on offense… There are four balls, so we need at least that many people, and they each need someone to pass to, so that would make eight people on offense!”
“Two defenders are never going to be enough.”
“W-well, what do you want me to do?!” Ashlan was almost tearing his hair out.
The nymphs were clutching their sides laughing at the human “commander-in-chief.”
“Tee-hee-hee! Four minutes go by in a flash, huh? You’re already halfway through!”
“Whaaat? Sh-shoot, time’s flying…”
Two minutes had passed with astonishing speed, and they hadn’t even figured out how many offensive and defensive players they should have.
One dryad crossed its arms and gave them a little smile.
“We can’t blame them, Nymph. This is quite different from human basketball.” What they said next wasn’t a sign of compassion, needless to say, but indicated absolute control of the situation: “They appear to be completely at a loss for what to do. Very well, humans, let us give you a hint about this game. May it be useful to you.”
The three dryads spread their arms wide.
“In this game, we gods always proceed according to a certain plan.”
“Say what?!”
“You could call it a strategy for our total and complete victory. We will proceed in such a way as to bring that plan to reality.”
“Gee, thanks for givin’ us a sense of what’s going on,” Ashlan said sarcastically, then swallowed so hard that his throat bobbed visibly. “What I’m hearing is, the gods’ plan doubles as their ‘rules.’ And we have to guess what those rules are. That might give us a chance of winning.”
“If you prefer to think so.” The dryad gave him that small smile again. “All’s fair in this game. Bring your wits, your physical skills, and your Arises to the challenge.”
“You bet! You want a challenge, you’ve got one!”
They were down to one minute of “study time.”
Captain Ashlan started right in: He practically kicked off the ground, throwing himself toward the four balls in center court. The members of Team Blaze were hot on his heels. From courtside, Pearl and Nel cheered at his gallant display. Meanwhile, Fay and Leshea, seated on nearby tree stumps, stayed silent.
“The gods’ plan, huh?” Fay mused. He was just as eager as Pearl and Nel to cheer for the human team, but instead he clenched his fists and forced the spectacle out of his awareness. He’d left this in Captain Ashlan’s hands; his role now wasn’t to cheer, but to observe and ponder.
Step 1: Figure out the gods’ plan.
Step 2: Figure out a plan that was better than theirs.
This game, he suspected, would be a battle against the clock.
“All right, people, we start with five on offense, five on defense. Same folks I named earlier. Let’s go!” Ashlan called as he dashed along the court. “Offensive players, follow me! That includes you, Anita!”
“Y-you know you’re headed straight for center court, right?!” Anita said, racing to catch up. She talked fast as she sprinted along. “Shouldn’t we investigate the forest tricks and traps now that we’ve got the positions settled?!”
“Doesn’t matter!”
“It doesn’t?!”
“We were forgetting something important. That thing will give us instant victory!”
Ashlan was pointing at the red ball—the ground-bound seed. It was the largest of the four balls and worth one hundred million points. Victory in a single stroke.
“We can use the last of our ‘study time’ to figure out exactly how heavy that thing is. Maybe we can’t pick it up, but if we could dribble it along like a soccer ball, that’d be all we need! Hnngh! Uh…h-huh?”
Ashlan stopped cold. He shoved the red ball, which was a good two meters across, as hard as he could, but it didn’t even budge.
“Grrr… Damn, that really is heavy! C’mon, guys, help me!”
The five offensive players pushed in unison but to no avail.
“Hnngh?! All right, everybody, tackle it!”
Ten humans piled against the red ball, and with all of them leaping at it, the ball finally moved…a few millimeters. It didn’t even seem like it was starting to roll.
“I think we need a bigger word than heavy for this thing!” Captain Ashlan exclaimed. He’d been expecting it to weigh a lot, but this was ridiculous. “This is hopeless! Yo, Meep!”
“Well, it is just a bonus.”
“Spare me the I-told-you-so’s. All right, guys, change of plan. We focus on the three smaller balls!”
Ashlan pointed at the other seeds—and at that moment, the god team leapt into action.
“Your four minutes are up. Doesn’t look like you were able to make much use of your study time,” a dryad said, setting off at a run across the grass. Its voice was calm and its movements elegant, but its speed was incredible.
The nymphs howled with laughter. “Wee-hee-hee! Your luck ran out when you got greedy and went right for the ground-bound fruit! All right, Treant, let’s go!” One nymph settled among the leaves of a treant’s branches, and the latter trundled toward the human side on its roots.
If the dryad’s movements had seemed almost instantaneous, the treant was like a wall thundering toward them.
“All right, Dryad, Treant! Start with Formation Eight!”
“What’s Formation Eight?!” Captain Ashlan said, grimacing.
The god team’s actions were always rooted in a certain “plan.” But based on what the nymph had just shouted, that plan had at least eight accompanying “formations.”
The gods had a lot of cards in their hands—and the humans had almost none!
“Dammit! We’ve got no idea what they’re planning!” Ashlan said, clutching his head.
“I tried to tell youuuuuu!” Anita yelled as she barreled past him. “First, we have to secure those balls, Leader! Whatever the gods are up to, if we have the balls, their plan won’t matter!”
“Let’s go for the ten-point ball, then!”
Their options were the two-point ball (one kilogram), the three-point ball (two kilograms), and the ten-point ball (twenty kilograms).
Captain Ashlan reached for the seed—but the moment he stretched out his hand, a treant’s roots whipped in from the side and smacked his hand away.
“Huh?!” he said.
“Treants’ tendrils are nimbler than they look!”
The ten-point ball went scuttling along the ground. Ashlan’s teammates didn’t have time to pick it up before it was in a dryad’s arms. The dryad lofted it high into the air like a volleyball serve.
“I’m passing to you, Nymph!”
“Wahoo! I’m ready! Leave it to me, Dryad!”
The nymph was right underneath the ball as it descended. Surely there was no way a creature hardly bigger than a human palm could catch a twenty-kilogram ball?
“O wind, spin up, spin up, spin up!” the nymph said, activating wind magic. A gust manifested and caught the ball in midair.
“You five on defense, don’t let that ball anywhere near our goal!” Ashlan shouted.
“Leader! Allow me to draw your attention to the fact that the gods are focusing their attention on the ten-point ball—the two- and three-point balls are still left!”
“Shoot, that’s right!”
Anita was dashing toward the remaining two seeds. Seven of the god team’s members had gone to get the ten-point ball, leaving the other two all but undefended.
“B-but then again, the two of them together are only five points! If they dunk on us with the ten-point ball, we’ll already be down by five!”
“Not at all! I have an idea!” Anita grabbed the two-point ball. “The real key to this game is none other than the correct ratio of points! Specifically, I have realized that a formation that achieves an average value of more than one-and-a-half points per person is the solution!”
Collectively, the three balls represented fifteen points (2 + 3 + 10), and there were ten people on each team. In other words, each player was worth about 1.5 points.
“The god team has dedicated seven of its members to the ten-point ball. Using seven players to get ten points would be an average of one-point-four. That’s actually inefficient!”
“So…so we just need to do the opposite!” Ashlan said.
“Exactly! The two- and three-point balls are wide open. If the two of us can score with them, that’s a whole two-and-a-half points per person! Our other eight players can try to slow down the gods and the ten-point ball!”
There was the plan.
The gods’ team had basically ignored the two- and three-point balls (worth five points altogether). Anita and Ashlan would gladly take them, while the other eight players on the human team climbed up their tree and mounted a staunch defense of the goal.
“With eight separate people guarding our ‘flower,’ even a team of gods will find it hard to score with that ten-point ball. Five points is all we need if they score zero!”
First things first. They had to get to the other two seeds before the god team.
“I got the three-point ball!” Ashlan said.
“And I have the two-pointer!” Anita replied. “Hee hee! Those greedy gods went right for the ten-point ball, but these lower-point ones are going to win us this game!”
The moment Ashlan and Anita had the balls, there was a rustle of grass, and two dryads came after them.
“Oops! Looks like a couple of balls got away from us. Do you really think you can throw them all the way to the flower?”
“Ngh!” Ashlan looked up at the flower fifty meters above his head. He made to throw the ball, but after an instant’s pause, he gritted his teeth and started running again. He was never going to be strong enough. Ashlan had a “Superhuman” Arise that granted him physical prowess, but flinging a two-kilogram ball all the way up to the goal was beyond him.
“Hey, Anita! Your Arise turns your body into iron or something, right?” he shouted.
“It’s called Iron Heart, and it doesn’t turn me into iron, it makes me as hard as iron!”
“So it’s Superhuman. Think you can throw the ball up there?”
“It’d be close!”
“Yeah, me too. Let’s hoof it to that flower, then!”
Ashlan clutched the ball to his side and ran.
The ground was uneven, as one would expect of a natural forest. The roots of giant trees poked out here and there, and the slightest lapse in concentration could result in them tripping and tumbling to the ground.
“Hurry! That dryad behind you is quick! I don’t want to think about what’ll happen if they catch you!”
“Captain Ashlan! What about your Arise, Safe Driver?”
“It makes my voice louder! And my hearing gets a little sharper!”
“That’s it?!”
“Don’t say that! In a game like this, it might just help. Hey, you guys!” he shouted to his teammates behind him.
Ashlan’s Arise, Safe Driver, effectively turned him into a walking megaphone. The gods’ games were played across huge fields, and communication was often a real problem. If they couldn’t hear their allies because the field of play was too large, they couldn’t coordinate or share ideas.
Ashlan’s Arise solved that problem. He could talk over a tidal wave, a storm, or a roaring avalanche—virtually any natural sound.
“Let us handle the offense!” he said. “The rest of you, guard that goal like your lives depend on it!”
Fifty meters behind him, his teammates nodded in unison, then jumped for the leaves above their heads. Yggdrasil’s branches were as large as logs, and the humans went from one to the next, climbing steadily. The branches didn’t even flex under their weight.
Eight human team members arranged themselves in front of the flower goal.
They could tell that the god team was coming.
“Wahoo! Go for it, Treant—charge ’em!” The nymph tossed the ten-point ball into the air on the magical gust. From behind the tiny deity came thunderous footsteps, and the massive trunks, the treants, appeared.
“They’re so fast!”
“Did they just run straight up Yggdrasil’s trunk?!”
Whereas the human defenders had needed to climb from branch to branch, the treants simply walked up, perpendicular to Yggdrasil’s massive length.
“Wahoo! Goooo, Treant!”
The three treants barreled toward the human goal like rampaging tanks—and crashed into the defenders.
“Yiiikes!” the humans cried; members of Blaze went flying this way and that all along Yggdrasil’s branches, thrown aside by the treants’ assault.
“Ha-ha-ha! Now your flower’s defenseless! Alley-oop!” The nymph flung the ball toward the goal flower, which stood wide open. Propelled by a whirlwind, the ten-point ball drew an arc straight to it—but the instant before it would have gone into the goal, it stopped in midair.
A wind is blowing from the opposite direction. The gust trying to push the ball into the goal, and the one trying to push it back out, met in the middle.
“What’s all this?”
“You gods…aren’t the only ones who can use wind magic!” said a silver-haired girl lying prone on a branch. The treants’ attack had knocked her aside, but she’d still stuck out her hands and was using her Magical Arise for all she was worth. It was wind magic versus wind magic. A divine gust versus a human one, fighting for control of the ball.
“I’m a new recruit here on Team Blaze,” the girl said. “I hope you’ll be so kind as to remember me!”
“Way to go, Rax! You may be a rookie, but you’re pulling your weight!” Captain Ashlan cheered.
“Captain, please hurry!” Rax said—it was great that Ashlan was happy with her and all, but she was clearly using every bit of strength she had. “I’m losing this battle! I can’t keep this up for long… Hurry up and score!”
“I’m on it!” Captain Ashlan looked down. Then he discovered that two dryads had snuck up on him, their rich green color blending with the leaves of the tree.
“Oops! Spotted us?”
“Hurry up, Anita!” Ashlan called, lunging for one of the horizontal vines. It swung wildly, but he ran across it as if he were walking a tightrope, heading for the god team’s flower.
“Grrroooohhh!” came a beastlike roar. Something huge and brown came hurtling through the copious foliage.
“What the hell?!”
“C-Captain, it’s that thing! The Beast of Defense…”
