D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Nixilei ---

"No questions then?" said Thyme, too-wide smile and booming voice going full force. "That's ok, that's ok. We can move right along to the main event!" *It's not that I have no questions at all, just that I'm waiting until after I see these contraptions. Though the rules do seem quite self explanatory.* 

Thyme bent down and pulled a miniature hang glider from the ground below them before spinning it around and letting it explode in size up on the stage. The wingspan was massive now. Nixilei was pretty sure her whole team, Lily included, could lay head to toe across the whole wingspan and still not cover the whole thing. Thyme bent down a second time, this time grabbing a full sized harness with one hand, and a pair of boots with the other. 

"So, first off, before we get to the good stuff, this is the safety harness. It comes standard with all contraptions. It's got a teeny tiny connection to me inside of it. This provides it mana, and lets me feel how far away you are with shocking accuracy. It is there to protect you in case something horrible happens. In this case though, I can enforce the safety rules further. 

"Taking off the harness means I'm no longer tracking your distance accurately. If I'm not tracking your distance accurately, that means you could, theoretically, be cheating. So taking off your safety harness is grounds for disqualification. Now, don't worry about it getting damaged. I said I'm providing it mana? Well that will give it more than enough strength to survive just about anything. That includes monster attacks," 

Thyme waited for the shocked looks across the competitors. "Yes that's right. Currently we aren't too close to that island paradise you remember, no we're right in the middle of a monster hotspot! Sure most of them are stuck on the ground but the few that fly? Well they're aggressive little buggers so do be careful. I wouldn't want any of you to get hurt on my watch." Thyme's smile widened even further. Their face was more smile then face at this point and Nixilei could almost feel a headache coming on. 

*Shit. That's the twist! Sure you could fight with your competitors, but it would be better for everyone if we just flew off in random directions… except if we DO that means we're going to end up getting attacked by monsters all by ourselves. Shit.*

Nixilei scanned the room. Most people were still in shock, or too busy glaring at Thyme… but Asteodia was looking around just as she was. Their eyes met and Nixilei held up one finger on each hand and joined them together. Asteodia's eyes shone for a second before nodding and turning back to Thyme. The pair hoped nobody else had seen their small interaction, hopefully too busy looking at Thyme. 

*Right. Asteodia's got a creative head on her shoulders. I'm not sure how trustworthy she's going to be… but I think we can work together for at the very least the first hour. It just wouldn't be profitable to screw each other over before that. As for what we'll do afterwards… I guess we'll just have to see.*

"Just a bit of trivia before we begin. This whole ensemble, boots, glider, and harness were the initial design for this trial. All other flying options you'll be offered came after this setup. Sure the harness has been made standard and upgraded massively, and the boots and glider have a lot of features they didn't when we started… but it all began here! The glider, the boots, the idea of spending as long as possible in the air! If you just can't decide, let the gold standard decide for you and pick the glider getup!

"Now, I'm sure your all interested in the glider itself, but let's look at these boots first," Thyme said as he slapped the heavy duty looking shoes. "These babies can be set to unleash either a short burst of high pressure air, or a nice long constant stream to keep you moving forward. They are the real engine of this glider… but that's not all! Enemies in your way? Why, you can unleash a deadly cutting wind to slice through them all. Not as mana efficient as the short burst, or the long constant stream, but if you need to kill something… well that's how you do it quick and easy!" 

*Seems a bit cumbersome honestly. The glider itself is has such large wingspan coverage that you'd need to fly OVER the enemy and unhook your feet to have a chance at a proper attack. That seems… rather bad honestly.*

"Ah, I see not many of you are impressed. I suppose I should pick up the star of the show!" Thyme slapped the tight material that made up the glider's wingspan. "This little baby might look simple, but in between the membrane that makes up the wings is an enchanters wet dream. It's packed with dozens of little optimisations to make the ride as smooth as possible. It's quite durable, and basic slashing or biting attacks won't be able to take it out of the air. 

"In addition, the surface is designed to take in what wind attuned mana it can, which is fairly abundant this high up, and use it to provide a small updraft, providing additional lift and keeping it up in the air just a bit longer! Then you have the arm bar, the straps, and the foot rest. All enchanted for maximum comfort and using not a drop of your own mana! You'll barely even feel the miles as you fly! 

"But…" Thyme's smile finally dropped. Their eyes sharpened as they looked around at the ensembled people one by one. "Sometimes, a comfortable, efficient ride isn't enough. Sometimes your under attack, and the boots aren't doing you any good? Well… if you twist these front handles…" Thyme lifted the glider up to show the bar. "For the small price of your mana, this little baby will shoot out high speed arrows from the front to tear through your enemies!" 

Thyme twisted the bar and a hail of small arrows that were basically just arrow-tips shot from the front of the glider, flying off the side of the platform and continuing into nothing. "But, that's not all… if you really, REALLY need something dead, you find these buttons on the side," Thyme showed off the cherry red buttons on the outside of the gliders hold. "It's not cheap on the mana, and I can't demonstrate it here… but the glider will summon a large explosive projectile guaranteed to take out whatever you're pointing at… 

"Just be careful not to fire it when said thing is too close to you. It is a massive explosion after all. While your harness can definitely survive it, the glider itself might not. It's mildly fire resistant, but that mostly comes from its ability to defend itself slightly from attacks. I'm afraid proper fire immunity would take more mana to keep active, or even on standby," 

"Of course, while we didn't manage to pack in fire immunity, we did manage to do something about the rain… and it didn't even take any extra enchanting! Courtesy of a rather crazy dryad friend of mine," *Does Thyme mean themselves because they're playing a character? Or is there another crazy inventor dryad.* "water just bounces right off. Spray a bit of this coating across the whole glider, and no amount of water is ever getting through the coat.

"Snow and rain aren't likely, but if you did run into either know it will be no problem at all. Even lightning is only a minor worry because the glider is designed to harmlessly bring the take the lightning and fire it out the back of the glider harmlessly. Of course, if it did come down to it, your trusty safety harness would protect you for everything," 

*That's… interesting. We'll have to see what the others are like but this seems like a strong start. Fighting with it could be awkward, and despite Thyme's claims of great mana efficiency I'm not entirely sure that I can make it two hours on the glider. Sure I'd need to test it to be sure… but I just have the feeling that two hours is too long. 

The fact this is the first design, and possibly how the entire event was tested is interesting to note. I'm not really sure what that means though. Is it the best option, as the challenge was designed with this in mind? Or the worst, because the challenged was designed with this glider in mind. I'm not sure I'll have the time to figure it out once I've seen all the options that are being presented here.

At least Asteodia seems willing to work with me. Though… will that mean we should chose the same method of flying? If we pick different ones, we might not be able to stick together too well. I suppose it depends what the other are. Not much to go off just yet… but plenty to be on the lookout for.*