Chapter One
The young boy Lok wouldn't be waiting for too long until his ears caught the sound of knocking from his door.
"Come in," Lok said.
Immediately opening the door was a familiar auburn-haired man in a light-brown trenchcoat.
"Hey Lok," the man stepped in. "Haven't seen you in quite a while."
"Good to see you again, Dante," Lok recognised
"So I heard something weird just happened."
"Yeah, I got a letter just today," Lok held up the invitation. "You ever hear of something called the 'Contest of Champions'?"
"Contest of Champions?" Dante repeated. "Oh, congratulations, kid."
"So you know about this? this is a thing? It's actually legit?"
"That's right, indeed," Dante shrugged as he grabbed a chair close by and sat down upon it. "I don't know if I should be surprised or not that you got such an invitation sooner than later. What they up to now, like 1000 or something?"
"1043rd, according to this letter," Lok recalled from the letter. "But I don't what it is exactly, and since you seem to know it, how come you never brought up something like this till now?"
"Well aside from the fact that we were dealing with the Betrayer and the Organisation Sure, it's not like every reality out there watches it."
"Every reality?" Lok repeated. "Like other dimensions?"
"If by dimensions you mean whole other universes, then yeah,"
"Okay, but what about this contest thing? What do you know about it?"
"Allright, a very very very long time ago, in some far-off dimension, there was this race of beings called the Temlins," Lok explained. "And over time, they ascended to a higher plane of existence. Got the whole package: god-like powers beyond even the most strongest of Titans, mastery over space and time, they were worshipped as gods, the whole 9 yards. But then after they explored the limits of what their grand power over all of existence could do, they got bored. Having all that power was boring to them and so they came up with a way to keep themselves entertained, the Contest of Champions. They invite potential champions from various parallel universes, have them battle it out over a prize, and we get to watch it all on broadcast if anyone wants to see it. It's basically a big sporting event, like wrestlers or gladiators; people put bets on each of the champions, there are interviews and speculation analysis on the fights, it's pretty damn incredible."
"So what, I'm supposed to fight a bunch of people?" Lok cocked a brow. "Not much different from what we usually do."
"Maybe. But you see, that's one fun bit about it. To keep it interesting, each and every match are varied and different. You're randomly assigned to fight against a different contestant and one of the two gets to decide what kind of battle it's gonna be."
"Really?" Lok cocked his head. "That means it could be something as simple as, say, an arm wrestle or something?"
"Pretty much and stuff like that has actually happened. You know, one time I saw a thumb war match once. Nearly half an hour of going back and forth. Of course there are rules to it though, while one of them gets to decide the type of match, they both have to agree on the general idea of how things are gonna work out. There has to be a reasonable chance that either one of them could win."
"How do they determine that?"
"The Temlins seem to figure it out. Don't know how though, but still," Dante shrugged. "You know, another nice part about being all-powerful, pretty easy to tell if someone's got as much a chance of winning as snowball surviving in hell of winning. Even better, no one's allowed to die. Get shot, stabbed, dismembered, even decapitated, those Temlins will fix you right up in no time."
"That's neat and all, but why the hell would I care about participating?"
"If not for the fun and excitement of it, then the prize."
"What is the prize?"
"I don't know what it is this time, but every contest has a different prize to it, something powerful and dangerous. Well, when I was in it, the prize was a staff that has power and control over many elements. You bet I wanted to get my hands on that, especially at a time when I was just to using the Caliban."
"You were in one?"
"Yep, many years ago, and I even managed to reach the second round. Got taken down by some robot mercenary. We was fighting in a city on another planet with a bunch of drones that he set up. Joke's on him though, he got taken out in his next battle against a guy that made him play a game of wizard chess."
"So am I allowed to ask these guys what the prize is in case I don't know or forget?"
"Sure, I don't see why not."
"Okay, mystery dude," Lok called out. "I like to know what exactly this the prize for this contest?"
As soon as he asked the question, a light flashed from nowhere, blinding the two humans. As it quickly cleared, the familiar hooded messenger returned.
"The prize, should you manage to win all rounds and emerge victorious, is an object simply known as the Resurrection Stone," the messenger revealed with a projection of a floating silver-grey octahedron crystal. "Originating from a far-off universe, this item grants its holder the power to recall and revive any individual being back from the dead, they recently deceased or long ago passed."
"Resurrection Stone?" Lok cocked his head and thought for a brief bit.
"Huh, I guess it does what it says on the tin," Dante commented. "They never skimp on these things."
"So why would god-like beings hand over things like a stone that brings the dead back to life?"
"Because they can, it's what makes the contest so famous and prestigious," Dante explained further. "Besides, I learnt that champions aren't necessarily good guys, they're just the ones either best suited for protecting their world, or at least powerful enough or worthy of such power. Well, that might mean someone like a warlord or a pacifist with mental powers, every universe has its unique needs apparently."
"Sounds like it could give you an unfair advantage the next time you participated,"
"Well, no worries there, if you don't win 1st place in one year, there's always a chance or two that you might be able to come back for the next or after that,"
"Hmm, something about this seems like a trap to me; find someone who's a potential threat, promise them great power, and then get rid of them once they're done."
"Nah, after I lost, I waited around to find out who did win and I tried to steal the prize from him."
Lok looked at him with a silent cocked brow.
"What? It was back when I was a recent member of the Seekers," Dante defended. "But yeah, that guy was ready for me when I encountered him again. Fortunately, he didn't use that device to vapourise me or anything, it's too secure and protected, under safe lock and key, so I just gave up on that. Apparently he didn't want to use that thing at all, just wanted to make sure no one else would be able to use it."
"Well I know what I'm gonna do here," Lok announced.
"Really?" Dante cocked his own brow.
"Maybe if I do win this, I might be able to bring back my father," Lok realised
"You really think that's possible?" Dante asked.
"Well this may be my one chance and opportunity, and this time it would be out of a deal with the Betrayer or anything," Lok said before he turned to the cloaked figure. "Alright mystery guy, I accept your invitation to be in this tournament!"
"Welcome, Lok Lambert, to the Contest of Champions!" the cloaked figure spoke.
"Woah wait, hang on kid, are you sure you're ready for-" Dante panicked.
"Preliminary round begins now;" the host interrupted. "Your opponent is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. Battlefield has been selected as the Island of Berk." As soon as the host figure finished his announcement, he vanished from sight.
"Preliminary round?" Lok briefly recalled and pondered.
"That's what I was trying to tell you," Dante panicked. "Before you start things proper, you gotta fight-"
But before Dante could finish, an envelopment of light surrounded Lok and spirited him out of sight. He quickly looked and searched around the room to see where the boy had gone, if even anywhere at all.
Within an instant, Lok soon found himself in the centre of a vast arena of grey bricks. He quickly looked around the place, expecting to see his opponent show up somewhere. However, he saw a gate slowly open, unveiling pitch darkness. Lok struck a pose, almost expecting the worst to come. Out of the dark, came a brown-haired boy of roughly similar age, dressed in Viking-esque garb and a strange-looking metal peg leg, and beside him a black dragon with dark teal eyes and bits of armour attached on.
"So you're the Lok guy, right?" the Viking boy asked with a rather nasal voice.
"In the flesh," Lok confirmed. "And you're Hiccup, I presume?"
"Pretty much," the boy named Hiccup said. "And this is my dragon, Toothless."
"He reminds me bit of the Titans back where I'm from. But anyways, let's get this showdown going," Lok said before striking a pose and pulling out an amulet from his pocket. "Let's go, Kipperin!"
A green moth-like creature emerged from the amulet and powerbonded with Lok, metamorphing into an elaborate set of armour, complete with a cape that spread into a wing shape. Having been fused, Lok then whipped out a strong sword, the Willblade.
"Interesting," Hiccup complimented as he observed this otherworldly transformation, hopped onto his dragon's saddle, and pulled out a flame-covered sword.
The two opponents immediately took off to the air, and soared towards each other with weapons aimed like lancers. With mighty swings, their swords clashed with determined fury, emitting quick flashes and sparks. Making another distance, Lok made a big swing with the Willblade, and created a bright blue wave of energy towards Hiccup and Toothless who managed to dodge the incoming attack.
Toothless let out a big stream of blazing fire towards Lok, who too dashed out of the line and threw another swing of energy. As Toothless spun around, Hiccup still gripped on tightly to the saddle. Lok noticed the arena wall right behind him and the boy and dragon heading towards him with a charge. With this, Lok steadied his position, then at the last second, flew upward, leaving Hiccup and Toothless to hit headfirst into the wall.
The disorientation left Toothless dazed for a few moments as Hiccup called for him to snap up again, letting the distraction last just long enough for Lok to fly towards the boy and knock him off the saddle with a swinging kick, landing onto the ground a few feet down. In spite of a painful thud, the fall was short enough that not only could Hiccup survive, but also get back up onto his feet soon enough.
Both Lok and Toothless flew back down and landed, the latter went near Hiccup and sheltered him from the opponent with scowling eyes and growling teeth. However, before they could fight even further, between the two, the hooded figure returned to greet them.
"Preliminary round has ended. The victor is Lok Lambert," the figure announced. "You're both champions worthy of being in this great tournament. Now, you must await your summoning for the first true round. Information and dossiers about other participants in this tournament will be made available to you soon, relative to your own universes' timescales. Welcome, once again, to the Contest of Champions."
Once the hooded figure had finished its speech, it faded out of sight one last time. Afterwards, Hiccup walked over to Lok and extended a hand, which Lok took to shake.
"I gotta say, you weren't half-bad," Hiccup admitted.
"Same for you," Lok returned.
"Good luck," Hiccup said with a nod of respect to Lok before walking away with Toothless to leave the Arena.
With that, Lok soon found himself warped back from this world of berk and to his universe, in his room where Dante still stood by, waiting.
"Ah you're back," Dante sighed with relief. "So what happened in your round?"
"I met and fought a Viking-looking guy with a dragon," Lok briefly explained. "They were kinda nice actually."
"Seems you made a new friend already," Dante chuckled. "So this might be a tournament arc?"
"Maybe so," Lok nodded, looking out the window and reminiscing back at what just happened with a proud smile in his face. "and I look forward to it."
To be continued...