Chapter 729

After Thyme’s explanation on the losers challenge there was nothing else for the gang, and they were teleported back to the clearing they’d been taken from. Gareth took out the enchanted carriage, placing it on the road. Kat hoped onto the top, Lily in tow, but Gareth spoke up and said “I’d like everyone inside so we can have a bit of a chat about how the tournament went down,”

“As much as I might like that,” said Kat as she flexed her wings, “The carriage isn’t exactly ideal for someone with wings like myself. I mean, we can squeeze in if we want to, but I just don’t think it’ll work,”

“I suppose you’re right Kat. Just choose one of the nearby trees and we can gather around it. I’ll just pack the carriage up again and we can head over,” said Gareth. Kat nodded and headed over to the edge of the clearing, followed by the others. Well, Gareth was still carrying Green, but everyone else headed for the marked area.

Once Gareth had the carriage shrunk, he headed over as well, leaning Green up against the tree and taking a seat on the nearby grass. Nixilei and Kress had grabbed other nearby trees while Kat was just sitting down cross-legged with Lily sitting in the gap. “So, I suppose the first question is, was everybody happy with their performance in a general sense,” asked Gareth.

“I’m a little annoyed I couldn’t take Irwin. I didn’t manage to do anything against the guy... he just... I feel rather outclassed. He shouldn’t be that much better but he was and I messed up in that fight. I’m still process my annoyance over that... but... I think we did well. I didn’t get to do much against the fire, but I didn’t sign up to be a firefighter, I’m an adventurer,” said Kress.

“I have similar feelings I suppose,” said Nixilei, “The fire stage was mostly hit and miss. I think we as a team did rather well, but I didn’t really get to contribute much. Any fool with half a brain can give basic orders as long as they avoid panicking. I’m also a bit annoyed none of the pressure points I know work on Irwin. It seems I’ve been lax in studying other races. I’ve specialised too heavily into Fae and Human networks.

“I’m not a martial artist, so perhaps that looked forgivable to you all, but that’s not why it’s a problem. I should still know where they are for my healing. To have such a large oversight in my toolkit is making me wonder what other obvious things have I missed. Pressure points for dwarves almost surely, and dryads... well I don’t know if they count.

.....

“I’m a little annoyed I couldn’t come up with a way to prove myself as real in the duplicate round. I suppose the issue was that Thyme was also accounting for my intelligence and not just the looks but I’m not sure that’s really an excuse. I should have had some creative way to prove it like Kat, even if her way was a rather unique. The mansion was fine. I didn’t feel lacking there, and it seemed as much a matter of luck as anything else. The group fight was... fine. I didn’t really need to or get the chance to heal, it was over much too fast,”

Gareth nodded and took the chance to speak next, “I’m a little annoyed with how I handled the clone round. I think I could have done better. I’m also pretty sure I could have done better combating the fire. The mansion... well... that was annoying and I don’t think I performed all that well with my partner. We got stuck on the chessboard for quite some time and then had to open doors for at least an hour trying to find the bedrooms,”

Kat continued to give Lily scritches, distracting the Memphis from the magical book she’d stuck into her sash. Lily would want to dive into its contents but Kat was equally sure it was best to go home first. Less mana in the air. Less chance of doing something nobody wanted it. “I guess that makes me next. Hmm... I don’t really have the experience with these things... I’d say I’m disappointed with my performance during the fire round. I didn’t tackle the houses all that fast or well and I had a particularly obstinate family that ate up a bunch of time talking to. In the mansion... no I’ll do that last.

“In the clone one I think I did really well. My unique blood was clearly something Thyme didn’t account for. Not sure about my regeneration other me didn’t really get a chance to prove things one way or the other. The fighting was... alright? I mean... I learnt I can’t just brute force things so much, and that I can be overpowered...

“But I had that stupid bracelet on...” Kat glanced at her wrist to double check and confirmed it had been removed. When exactly that was, Kat was unsure, her current guess was during the teleportation, “and that was limiting me a fair bit. Speed was always my go to just as much as strength. With my speed supressed punching things looked like a better idea, especially while I had someone else tied to me. Ugh, working with Kevin ended up being such a pain.

“The final fight... well I think I did good. Maybe not perfect, but good enough. The mansion... hooo boy. I don’t know how similar it was to your experience but first off, I didn’t get taken out by the sleeping drugs, then I had to fight ninja butlers, until I got chocked out. Then I woke up, not bound in rope like Blue but bound in metal wire instead. So... got Blue free, or well she got herself free mostly. Used my nails as a file and then chopped my hands off because I was tied up a lot more...

“Then we managed to travel the dungeons for a bit until we found this weird screaming monster that could leap out of shadows and seemed hell-bent on trying to bit chunks out of the closest person to it. I took quite a few hits but that was because I didn’t want to risk Blue. In the end though, it’s scream got us good... so we had to find the nurses office before finally finding a room. It was a bit hectic, but we did it.”

The rest of the group gaped open mouthed at Kat. “You... you ah...” Gareth struggled to find the words to properly explain just how different Kat’s mansion adventure was from his, and based on the looks on Nixilei’s and Kress’ faces they were in the same position.

In the end, he couldn’t say anything before Nixilei spoke up, “Was the chess match really that bad? It seems your experience was much deadlier than mine. I mostly snuck around and sure the chess set came alive but I just played well enough that it wasn’t an issue. I don’t even know what happened if you failed... Gareth, Kress?”

“I didn’t get stuck on the chess set,” said Kress a little smugly, though more subdued then the normal smug because it was Gareth. He still couldn’t help himself completely though.

“No... I mean... well... if you failed the chess set beat you up for a while and then tossed you back to the side of the room you came from. It wasn’t... ideal but not the worse thing ever. Mostly just bruises and stuff you know?” said Gareth.

Nixilei gave a ‘see what I mean’ look towards Kat who just shrugged, “Look it wasn’t ideal in the end but I’m not all that confident in my chess playing, that’s more Sylvie’s shtick. Blue and I agreed it was probably best we found a way around it. We managed it, and even got a map for our troubles,”

“Wait you got a map?!” shouted Kress. Green stirred slightly at the shout, but just rolled over before nodding off completely again. Kat nodded in answer to Kress’ question, “What was it like?”

“I mean... it seems cool to hear about but the map kept switching things up, changing all the time. There were a few patterns but it wasn’t as useful as it sounds,” said Kat.

“Oh” said Kress disappointed, shoulders dropping upon hearing that. Kat quirked an eyebrow at the reaction. She’d assumed Kress would be happy to find out the map didn’t give her that much of a leg up. Disappointment wasn’t really on the list of plausible reactions.

“Kat,” said Gareth slowly, “I think I speak for the rest of the team when I say... despite the map not being all that important... you seem to have the weirdest luck sometimes,”

Kat shrugged. *Not as lucky as the test of how long you could hold that forever changing metal object last time around. The fact I could just casually hold it after the temperature increased was probably the luckiest I’ve been in quite a while. If we don’t count Lily of course.*