Gunnar stood up miraculously engorged and took another sword from the pile standing on the side of the pit. Then he went over the neck again with his eyes closed.
The god who protects children and fools must have been watching, for the sword slid in like a needle through butter and the Elephine looked startled, stared at him unbelievably and dropped like a deflated balloon.
They paid him ten thousand credits and his collar bone healed in practically no time. More mail including a passionate invitation from an Aorian girl in New Bayou, which he ignored.
And they asked him to appear on another show.
By then he had lost some of his innocence. He was now fully aware that he had almost killed for pocket money. The big loot lay ahead. Now he wanted to be almost killed for something worthwhile.
So he appeared on Steam, sponsored by Fry Skinners. In head helmet, respirator, gravity belt and knife, he slipped into the warm waters of Crosk’s moon with four other contestants, followed by a force field protected crew.
The idea was to find and bring up the treasure the sponsor had hidden there.
Helmet diving isn’t special hazardous. But the sponsor had added some frills for public interest. The area was sown with giant spiderlike clams, Cromos eels and of course several kinds of flesh eater full of teeth giants with many poisonous tentacles and other dangers of the galaxy’s waters.
It was a stirring contest. A lizardoid from Camer II actually found the treasure early in a deep crevice but a Cromos eel found him. Another diver took the treasure from the dying Camerian and a spiderlike clam took him.
The odd pink green water became cloudy dark blue with the blood of the Camerian which rolled well on the streaming services. In the meantime the treasure slipped to the bottom and Gunnar plugged after it popping a glove in the process. Ten meters form the top he had to fight another diver for the treasure.
They feinted back and forth with their knives. The purple creature struck, slashing Gunnar across the chest. But Gunnar with the self-possession of an old contestant dropped his knife and tore the man’s respirator out of his helmet.
That did it.
Gunnar surfaced and presented the treasure at the standing by floating ship. It turned out to be an airtight canister with Fry Skinners hot sauce. ‘The greatest treasure of all’ according to the sponsor’s network message.
That netted Gunnar twenty-two thousands credits in cash and prizes and over a thousand of fan mails and a new proposition from a girl from Glasr, which he seriously considered. He received free hospitalization for his knife slash and a burst eardrum plus injections for poison water infection. But best of all he was invited to appear on the biggest of the streaming shows. Risk.
And that was when the real trouble began.
Thanos' Pulp Fiction 