“I'm smarter
than the average bear.”
Benjamin
Vernon Lilly*
Today my family
went out to lunch and such and on the way home I got the new Pokemon
game. Any brevity of the flash fiction has absolutely nothing to do
with me getting the game today...possibly.
The Clash of
Magic, Computation, and Humanity
Lighting, fire
and ice. Among portals to other dimensions, angels and demons these
were some of the many things that appeared. It all happened in a
stadium. A stadium where an audience watched an awe as spells of all
kinds caused havoc in the area. Beautiful havoc. Intricate havoc.
Though any experienced wizard would know that every single happening
in the arena had a reason. There was a reason that dragons flew
about, and why each kind of dragon was summoned.
And beyond the
fact it was two wizards dueling. All the audience members knew it was
two dueling wizards. Experienced wizards knew why they were doing
each of their elaborate spells. Why they chose to call meteors from
the sky or ghosts from the Other Side.
The spells were
meant to bring control of the Spell Cube to one of the wizards. The
Spell Cube was something that started in the middle of the arena and
would be attracted to the wizard displaying the most power, like a
comet being pulled to the planet of bigger mass. The biggest trick
though was that spells could weaken the spells of the other wizard,
making it a constant battle of increasing the power of your own
magic, while weakening the power of the opponents.
Though this
match was special. It wasn't just two humans fighting. It was a
machine fighting a human. A machine built to be a wizard. One of the
best wizards. There had been machines built to be wizards before.
Given wands to cast magic before. But this one was built by one of
the largest magic corporations in the world and now dueled against
World Champion Wizard Duelist Yagrr Pavkoras.
Wizarding duels
were often filled with banter. Sometimes to psych out your opponent.
Often just for fun to add to the show. After all with spells flying
about why not add some quips and wit to it all and some jokes and
talk.
But not a joke
was said. The champion needed to concentrate. The computer was good.
Powerful. With its robotic arm it could move its wand with a perfect
elegance. Spell patterns couldn't be missed. It had a massive library
of spells and could search them for the best counters to his. He
didn't want to waste any concentration.
And the
computer didn't have any need or want for words.
Pavkoras tried
some strategies that commonly worked against robot wizards. Using low
level spells for a moment to throw it off and suddenly switching
back. This would make the computer go through algorithms in way it
wasn't prepared for, and make it shuffled through libraries for
spells for odd situations. Any complicated spells were derived from
smaller ones and to counter his it would have to pull from libraries
and derive some new move. Improvisation to mess with a computers
intended code worked against them...normally.
But this
computer could go through its libraries of spells so quickly it could
counter him. The super magical corporation had also programmed in
libraries of hundreds of documented matches that the World Champion
Pavkoras had participated in himself. It knew many, many of his
spells. And those of previous champions Pavkoras had played against
and champions that played before the champion was even born.
Some wizards in
the crowd debated how many wizards Pavkoras was actually dueling
against.
----
Wizard duels
are much shorter than they appear. Much shorter than the adrenaline
of watching the spells and the expressions of deep thought on the
players would make it feel. Well, player in this case as besides
Pavkoras the computer had no face behind the arm and wand. Just a
large camera to see the spells taking place and the plastic box
holding its giant mechanical brain with all its knowledge of spells
and their magic inside. Every nuance of magical dueling the magical
company could manage was made into 1010101000010100101101010.....
The matches
were short because they were timed to avoid overload of the Spell
Cube. Each duel had six of the rounds. A point was awarded at the end
of each match. If the cube was too close at time out for judges to
consider it close enough to a wizard and magically stable then the
match was considered a draw. Being close to a wizard wasn't enough.
It wasn't stable then something was “mid-spell” and unresolved so
a wizard couldn't win just by an inch all the time. A win was a
considered a single point, a draw was a half a point to each player.
After what the
audience considered to look like a magical apocalypse within a
stadium in each round the final score was as follows:
Three and one
half points to Two and one half points.
Which one won?
The machine.
It lost some rounds, so it was no immortal wizard. The wizard wanted full duel
rematch, but the company didn't give it to him, they disassembled the entire machine. So the machine died victorious, whatever the motives the company had for destroying it.
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