Menrva jumped as high as she could, but she was easily surpassed by her rival, a man nearly two meters tall.
The rival struck the ball with his right elbow, throwing it backward toward his companions. However, before the two had even landed on the court, the man stabbed Menrva’s face with his elbow.
The goddess fell headfirst to the ground, spitting blood from the powerful blow. When she hit the ground, the back of her head slammed against the packed earth beneath her.
“Cheating!” Tul shouted furiously at the referee in Nahuatl, but he pretended not to understand the language the rabbit goddess was using.
The ball fell onto the hips of another man, and he, together with his companions, ran while bouncing the ball down the narrow corridor where Freyja stood in their way to stop them.
The Norse goddess tried to steal the ball from her opponent, but one of them savagely struck her in the stomach with his knee, causing her to fall to the ground while clutching her belly in pain.
“They’re cheating!” Tania shouted furiously from the stands.
“I believe it was obvious they would not play fairly,” Huitzilopochtli said, somewhat annoyed.
“It’s not fair!” Ana shouted, but when she turned to look at Xólotl with a challenging glare, the god simply ignored her.
“Let us see how the game proceeds,” Huitzilopochtli said, trying to calm the two goddesses, while Epona hugged her knees and became nervous again. Rodrigo tried to calm her down.
The two men ran toward where Tul was, and the rabbit goddess, with a swift movement of her hips, snatched the ball from them. However, the man who had elbowed Menrva quickly struck Tul with his hips, making the goddess crash violently into the stone wall and stealing the ball from her that way.
The player threw the ball to his companions, who were standing in front of Loki. One of those men struck the ball with his knee so intensely that he broke the Norse god’s hand when Loki tried to stop it, just as the ball crashed against the wall he was defending.
“Two points for the home team!” the referee shouted.
“Are you all right?” Menrva asked Tul, who was still hurt from the blow that had sent her crashing into the wall.
“Darn it! This game is sacred! How dare they defile it?!” Tul kept shouting after recovering from the blow, but no one paid any attention to her.
“Don’t worry, Tul,” Freyja said, having already stood up after the hit. “Now it’s our turn to strike back.”
Loki adjusted his hand to put it back in place.
“I’m fine, thank you for your concern,” he shouted at his companions.
“Now it is our turn to counterattack,” Anpiel said, still encouraged that things might improve.
The referee threw the ball to Orniskem’s team, and Tul caught it using her right hip.
The goddess, accompanied by Menrva, began bouncing the ball until they reached the narrow corridor where three of their rivals were waiting for them. But the rabbit goddess jumped over them as she threw the ball into the sky. Upon landing, Tul caught it with her knee and made it crash against the wall with an extremely elegant movement.
The men then tried to crush Menrva when they realized Tul was going to throw the ball to her, since she had already bounced it three times. But the Etruscan goddess, knowing their dirty tricks, slid across the floor and caught the ball Tul had thrown with her elbow.
Tul caught the ball again and gracefully threw it toward the wall beside the third opponent.
The ball ricocheted behind the player, and Tul immediately ran along the wall to reach it. Then she struck it, sending it toward the enemy goal.
However, to everyone’s surprise, the goalkeeper took a huge board and blocked Tul’s attack with it. The shot was redirected straight into Menrva’s face, hitting her devastatingly and causing the goddess to lose the ball and fall to the ground.
The referee shouted, “She lost the ball! Point for the home team!”
“Paddles are not used in this version of the game!” Tul shouted furiously, but the referee once again pretended he did not understand her.
“Don’t lose your temper, Tul,” Freyja said as she approached the Maya goddess.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Not long ago, I was in a similar situation, with a game completely stacked against us, and we still managed to overcome it,” she said.
“But this game represents the sacred movement of the stars… and these people don’t give a poop about that,” the rabbit goddess said, nearly crying as she bit her lips in frustration.
“Excuse me, Lord Xólotl,” Huitzilopochtli said in Nahuatl to the Zacateco king, “I believe the cheating by the home team is far too obvious, and I believe that breaks the sacred protocol of this game.”
Xólotl laughed quietly and, with his arm, gestured toward the Zacateco public, who were shouting and fervently supporting the home team.
“If they are in agreement with the result, why should it be illegal?” the Zacateco god said.
And indeed, all the people in the stands continued supporting the Zacateco players, and each time they struck the goddesses, they shouted with joy.
“I am sorry. He will not listen to reason,” the hummingbird god said to Rodrigo and the others.
“This doth ever befall us, for we persist in maintaining a diplomatic course,” Susanoo said irritably.
“It is not as if we can do much with these bracelets weakening our power,” Anpiel replied, frustrated.
“But how can the people not see that the game is rigged and still support their players’ cheating?” Epona asked in frustration.
“Some time ago,” Anpiel said, “in the city of Byzantium, in the Eastern Roman Empire, there was a civil uprising during a chariot race simply because the team supported by the emperor cheated in the game. The rival teams understood how rigged the games were and took up arms.”
“Yes, Anpiel. I already know that story,” Epona replied.
“What I mean, mare,” Anpiel continued, “is that people always become passionate about the team they feel represents them. No matter how dirty or badly they play, they will defend them. It is the nature of both humans and us gods.”
“And Xólotl knows that. He knows how to give his people bread and circuses,” Ana added.
“So we are just entertainment for all these people?” Rodrigo asked.
“Well, it is possible they will not sacrifice you because of your resemblance to that man,” Epona said.
“Cease thy incessant whining, mina-san!” Susanoo shouted furiously. “f we should suffer defeat, then we shall all fight on until the very end, whatsoever may befall us.”
“We won’t lose,” Ana said calmly.
“How are you so sure?” Tania asked angrily.
“Loki. Loki will make us win. You’ll see!” the Irish goddess replied excitedly. Though she quickly became embarrassed when everyone looked at her with disappointment and surprise.
“Besides, do not worry,” the hummingbird god added. “Trust Big Brother Huitzilopochtli. I will help you escape from here if you lose.”
Meanwhile, the third round was already beginning, and the referee threw the ball to the home team. They quickly brought the ball down with their hips, and two of them began advancing through the narrow corridor of the playing area, where Menrva and Freyja were preparing to stop them.
However, one of the men slapped Freyja’s buttocks with a lecherous expression. Furious, the goddess punched the man.
“Infraction!” the referee shouted, pointing at Freyja. “One more and you are out of the game!”
“Hold on! I did that in self-defense!” Freyja shouted in frustration, but since she could only speak the divine tongue, the referee simply ignored her.
The man, while the game remained paused, slapped Freyja again. The goddess was so furious that she wanted to kill the man right then and there, but Menrva stopped her.
“Wait until the end of the game, Freyja,” she told her.
The game continued. Tul tried once again to take the ball from the men, but at that moment, she felt a dart lodge itself in her left arm. The goddess then felt numb as the two men crushed her against the left wall of the narrow corridor.
Freyja turned toward the stands and saw that one of the men there had shot that dart with a blowgun. The goddess was so furious that she nearly made her fists bleed from clenching them so tightly.
The men ran toward Loki while bouncing the ball, but there was little the Norse god could do. They hurled the ball at him with such force that it struck him in the face, knocking out one of his teeth on impact. The ball scored again.
“Two points for the home team! They have five in total!” the referee shouted.
Menrva went to check on Tul, who had been badly hurt by the men’s tackle. The rabbit goddess was covered in blood and had tears in her eyes.
“I’ve never… felt so much hate, not even when they locked me in Cahokia with all that poop,” Tul said, then looked at the Etruscan goddess.
Freyja approached Tul and pulled the dart from her arm.
“They are even using tactics of this kind against us,” the Norse goddess said, pointing toward the man in the stands who had attacked the rabbit goddess.
The men threw the ball to the referee and returned to their area of the playing field, not before slapping all three goddesses’ buttocks while mocking them.
“Those beasts think they can mock us simply because they awakened their divine power,” Freyja said furiously.
“And as long as the referee and the crowd are against us, there is nothing we can do,” Menrva replied.
However, Tul turned to look at Loki, who had merely wiped his face clean and did not appear frustrated or angry.
“Why is he so calm?” she wondered.
The game restarted once more. With the home team’s constant cheating, they managed to reach a total of nine points, only one point away from victory.
And despite the obvious cheating, the crowd continued happily supporting the home team.
“We’re dead,” Epona said in frustration.
At that moment, Huitzilopochtli stood up furiously from his seat. The sunset sky made him shine a dull orange. His gaze was full of frustration and anger.
“Zacateco people! Are you truly not ashamed of these cowardly acts against such a sacred game?!” the god shouted in Nahuatl at the public, but they only booed him and shouted back for him to leave their kingdom.
Xólotl then began to laugh.
“Tell me, Huitzil. Do you not think it is about time you left my kingdom?” he said to the hummingbird god.
“Out! Leave! Foreigner!” the people began shouting at Huitzilopochtli.
The god said nothing more and sat down again, though his gaze still showed signs of frustration.
“Only a miracle can save us,” Ana said sadly as she looked at Loki, hoping the god would do something.
Then Loki removed the goalkeeper’s headdress and shouted:
“I quit!”
His companions looked at him with uncertainty.