New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Athena watched on in half horror as the gnome plummeted from the sky, only to transform into a gut pancake. She squirmed a little after the impact, her stomach lightly churning, but she kept cool.

It was her turn next, so she changed her mindset to one of battle, as she got ready to face her opponent. When the teleport brought her to the arena, she pulled out her bow.

Her adversary this time was a Human Mage, that seemed to specialize in wind magic, from the spells he had been casting since the start. This would bum her a bit, since he could erect a wind wall, to block her arrows.

She would have to be creative about her attacks to make sure they all reached their target. Not that she worried.

Athena had much experience with bows. Her mind wandered to memories of her youth.

Hours spent down at the shooting range. Perfecting her aim.

She had seen more of her targets than her friends in those years. All of it to satisfy her parent's feeble pride.

She had never wanted to focus on archery, but since she had a talent for it, her parents had forced her down that path. The days spent training and others in competitions.

She had learned so many firing techniques she could shoot her bow in most conditions and still hit the bullseye. Her aim had been praised so many times.

That was, until she lost her first competition. From then on, her parents ridiculed her.

Pointing out how she had missed such an easy shot for her skills. And how she had lost to someone younger and less experienced than her.

The day that happened, she had been under intense stress, and her mind had wandered off while she was aiming, missing the target entirely.

Athena shook her head, washing away the bitter memories. That was the reason she had started playing New Eden.

Her parents had stopped forcing her into competitions after that, so it had freed her time up quite a lot. That's when she discovered her love for video games.

When she found this new game coming out, she begged her parents to buy her a headset. They had complied, wanting to occupy her mind.

She had been moping around a lot before that, and it irked them. They were so disappointed with her.

But this had led her to New Eden. And in this game, she made peace with archery once again.

She went on adventures, healing her wounded heart. She made friends, curing her loneliness.

And with this competition, she might make her parents proud of her again. That was what she hoped for.

*Gong!*

The sound of the gong snapped her thoughts back to the present. She nocked an arrow on her string, sliding it slightly towards the top.

When she pointed her bow at the player across from her, the mage lifted his hand, conjuring a wall of wind. Athena loosed her arrow.

When the arrow left the bowstring, it curved over to the right, before going around the wall and into the mage's shoulder. Athena was happy to hit her target with tricks she had learned, but her aim was off.

She had aimed at his throat. Her next arrows were all shot in a trick shot fashion, keeping the mage on his toes. He never knew in which direction the arrows would come, so he hesitated to fire spells at his opponent.

This hesitation allowed Athena to consecutively fire at him, not allowing him a moment's respite. The poor guy started panicking after ten arrows had pierced his body.

He stopped defending and started launching wind blades at Athena, but it was too little, too late. His health was already at a dangerous threshold, and Athena used a piercing shot to fire through the wind wall.

The arrow spun at incredible speeds, as it bore through the wind wall, and into the player's head. He dropped dead with a hole from one side to the other of his forehead.

I'die was cheering loudly, from the loser's side, clapping and shouting, as Athena was teleported back to the stands. When she appeared there, she dropped to her seat, sweat pouring from her forehead.

She hadn't practiced these trick shots in a long time, and having to fire all her arrows in such a fashion required a lot of calculations. The height of the nock on her string, the angle of her bow, and how far to pull the string.

All those calculations had to be done quickly, lest her opponent bank on her pauses to throw some magic around. Luckily for her, she hadn't lost her touch.

Astaroth patted her shoulder, smiling at her.

"Nice shooting in there. I take it you have a lot of experience with bows?" He said.

"Ahh. Yes, I do. Used to be in competitions. It's all in the past though," she responded, looking at her shaking hands.

She knew if she had missed any of those arrows, the mage player against her would have shredded her to pieces. The only wind blade he had thrown had taken close to a quarter of her health pool.

Athena was happy she had won, but now another problem arose. Her next opponent.

She would face Khalor next, and his undead summons terrified her. She had never been a fan of scary movies, and the thought of being swarmed by zombies sent shivers down her spine.

She turned her head slightly, taking a peek at the man, and he was looking at her.

"Eek!" she yelped out.

Khalor chuckled at her reaction and nodded at her.

He wasn't unaware of how she had been looking at him, and he understood his appearance most likely scared her. Of course, that changed nothing to what would happen.

He needed to win the tournament, so he would still take her down. But he was thinking of quick ways to do so, so he didn't mentally scar her for life.

After all, she still had a role to play in what was to come. They all did.

His mind drifted off to his memories, reliving events of horror untold. Losing friends and loved ones.

His face became sombre.

'Never again,' he said in his mind.