The four women turned to look at her with unveiled disgust.

By now, the three beast heads were stinking so badly that not even Candi’s mask was helping much. They were also baking in the sun for hours, just waiting on this ragged red bird woman to finally appear and tempers were soaring.

“What happened to you, and where is your beast head?” Jenna scoffed at the red haired phoenix girl with the bald patches on her head.

Bethany glared at Jenna saying nothing.

“Your wings are all broken, Bethany.” Anaïse scoffed. “Did the lion beat you up and left you to die?”

Valeria chuffed and turned away. She was the one who had broken Bethany’s wings, but only because she had been attacked out of the sky.

Bethany would rather die than admit that though. Not only would it mean that Valeria was a much stronger warrior female, it would also mean that Bethany had attacked an Avgo contestant unprovoked.

Since Valeria had already gotten her own beast head, there would have been no reason for her to attack Bethany.

Candi did not even bother to glance at Bethany. After Olivia Faraday had been attacked by Bethany and had lost the first event because of her broken wing, Candi had completely ignored the phoenix woman.

The fact that Olivia Faraday had returned the favor by plucking out Bethany’s hair was karmic retribution, and one that Bethany sorely deserved.

Getting her wings snapped by Valeria Marakesh was something that she brought onto herself in her desperate attempt to win at all costs.

Candi only wanted this entire sordid event to end as quickly as possible.

Now that all five of them had made it to the stage, it would not be long before the old goat made his showing.

Sure enough, Lorem Ipsum chose that moment to arrive, saving Bethany from further heckling by the women on the dais.

“Ahhh. It looks like all the contestants have finally appeared on the platform!”

He hovered over to Jenna Natoli.

“A huge congratulations! You were the first to reach dais number one! The boar head can be stuffed and mounted to celebrate your victory in this round.”

The canned applause and shouts followed them from the bottom of the cliffside to the top of the plateau.

He moved through the next few contestants quickly, noting that they were all exhausted and needed rest and medical care.

Anaïse Paroles stood, cool and detached, watching him with indifference as he called out her second place.

Candi smiled but said nothing when he congratulated her on third place. She was truly glad he did not offer to stuff the Cobra head.

Valeria Marakesh was in too much pain to even manage a smile at Lorem Ipsum’s bright grinning face. Fourth place was nothing to celebrate, on top of a broken wing that needed splinting.

When he finally reached Bethany, at the last dais, he clicked his tongue with feigned sympathy.

“Tch. Tch. I see you were not able to kill the Majestic Lion within the forest.” He sighed. “Looks like it nearly killed you, instead.”

He waggled a finger.

“We released these beasts into the forest so you would have a Predator Beast to hunt, but since it’s still out there, it looks like we will have to send in the wardens to clear out this dangerous beast.”

“Luckily, since Helene forfeited her spot early on, each of you simply needed to show up on the platform and you would have been assured of a spot to continue the competition. Nevertheless, you’re all here and safe.”

Upon hearing that, Bethany’s shoulders slumped.

Lorem Ipsum turned back to the visuals-gathering pods.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed the Event. This concludes today’s Avgo Competition entitled Strength and Vitality.”

He opened his arms wide.

“Our next event will be held one week from today, at the Celestial Pantheon. The criteria will be Brilliance and Intellect. We hope to see you then!”

As the sounds of cheering and applause rose up into the silence of the forest clearing where the platform was placed, Lorem Ipsum raised a fist into the air, as if he was cheering on the contestants.

“That’s a wrap!”

The final sounds came from the visuals-gathering hover pods and they all ascended into the sky as one, returning to wherever they had come from.

The deep silence of the afternoon forest returned with the departure of the visuals-gathering pods.

Lorem Ipsum turned back to the women.

This time, his face was dark and full of anger.

“No more infighting!” He pointed to each of the contestants.

“There are five more competitions to go through. The next person who decides they’re going to go on a rampage is going to be the one that gets kicked out first.”

He turned to Bethany. “Do you understand?”

The red phoenix bird woman was clearly in the wrong and was barely hanging onto the event by ragged fingernails. The only reason why she was not thrown out completely was because there was a lack of evidence.

In an event where every second was media gold and all the contestants actions were captured from multiple angles by multiple visuals-gathering pods, there was not a single visual of Valeria and Bethany fighting at all.

Bethany’s world had completely bought out and paid off the entire visuals-gathering media pods.

Bethany turned her head, looking away into the distance. As long as she survived this round, her people would protect her.

The various worlds had already begun to descend to pick up the women. Five gleaming brass pods touched down and a dozen cougar humans swarmed out to meet up with Jenna.

Half a dozen black pods also flew in with winged raven humans. They brought a stretcher and carried Valeria away into the largest pod.

The phoenix people had also touched down with their red pods, pulling out a second stretcher for the incapacitated Bethany Dresden.

Meanwhile, pale blue glasslike spheres floated down to pick up the silicon glass Anaïse Paroles.

Thankfully, the Earth world group stayed away. Candace only had the one pod with the one Slate. His was among the first hovercrafts to land.

As soon as she saw the large muscular frame of the Seventh Prince of Erenveil emerged from the craft, Candi grinned broadly and pranced down off the platform, running towards him.

Her Prince had come for her!