Blood Lines — William R. Burkett Jr.

The all-brain cyborg known as Ball and I are old friends. We met as big-game hunters, stalking the most vicious creature in the Universe'the Pondoro Wolverine, also known as the greer.

Now we're on the planet Ptolemy for an even more dangerous contest'a ritual renga competition (plus a little sport shooting of dragons). First prize is a parasitic life-form with hyper-Newtonian communicative abilities.

The loser gets Death.

The winner gets to envy the loser.

And the game is about to begin....