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

Thyme spared a glance at Green and noticed the fae girl was still asleep decided to return their gaze to Kress. Sensing the eye contact Kress looked up and sighed. "It's a bit of a tough call… but I have to go for the bat leather. I don't exactly set out to take hits and if I'm getting hit, it's probably not my intention. I'll need what armour I can get and if it saves my life a time or two… well… I'll just have to work out how to repair it,"

Thyme nodded and pulled a bag out from behind themself, and threw it towards Kress. Kress caught it and let the weight carry the bag down to the ground. Kress wasn't exactly confident to take the full weight of a set of armour, but putting it down gently was certainly possible. "What about Green?" asked Thyme, "Shall you wake your companion or are you willing to take responsibility for asking a request on her behalf?"

Gareth nodded, "Yes, I suppose I can. I doubt she will complain considering it means I don't have to wake her up. I know what she was after anyway. Green was looking for some kind of enchanted headpiece that would protect her without obstructed her vision at all. Perhaps enhance her vision a bit as well, but that's a secondary concern,"

Thyme nodded and said, "Yeah both of those together would be out of your price range… but I have two different items I can offer that might interest you. The first is a helm enchanted to be invisible and resizing. You have to be a bit careful because it doesn't have a faceplate at all. It's basically a metal bucket for your head. It's able to stay invisible basically forever because of the material, but it shouldn't be forgotten that it is still a helmet. One that might make breathing or seeing a little difficult if not worn properly or while bleeding. Remember, no faceplate so blood from head wounds just gets stuck inside. If the helmet gets covered inside or out they won't be able to see at all.

"Now as for the second item, it's a circlet enchanted to activate automatically to prevent blows to the head. The issue is that it only works once every 24 hours or so. No storing charge in advance. It's designed to block 1 attack and only one. It'll deal with most things up to around 4th circle, and maybe some 5th circle spells depending, but it'll trigger for anything that can cause injury. If I threw a rock hard enough to break skin it'd trigger just as surely as an arrow enhanced with wing magic,"

Gareth paused at that. "Hmm… yeah I might actually have to wake Green up for that… I don't actually know what she'd prefer," Gareth let out a long sigh, shaking Green's body to wake her up. When her eyes finally cracked open she gave a big yawn, a plague that spread to a few of the watchers and Lily.

"Yes? What's up?" asked Green.

"I couldn't decide between two helmet options for you, so I had to wake you up," explained Gareth.

Green nodded and rubbed her eyes a few times before letting out another yawn and turning to Thyme. "So what are the options Thyme?" asked Green. Of course, Thyme quickly repeated the explanation for Green. "Hmm… so I can either have a good helmet I can see out of most of the time, or a great defence that only works once a day. I think I'll go for the circlet,"

"Really?" asked Nixilei, "Taking an item with only one charge to a fight seems a little risky,"

"Well Nix, it's not like I have a helmet at all right now. I also don't think I've been hit in the head except a few times in training. It's a big weakness, but not one I've had exploited against me all that often. I want it for that one lucky shot you know? It just feels like the better option. The invisible helmet seems likely to cause a few issues… and what if I dropped it or something? I'd never find the thing again!" said Green cheerily.

Nixilei grimaced realising that was probably the real reason. Nixilei knew that if Green really had gone for the helmet, it would've been lost before the end of the week if she didn't help Green with it, and likely a month of keeping track of it would be her limit as well before Green left it somewhere and Nixilei wasn't around to notice.

"Well," said Thyme with a clap to grab everyone's attention. "That's everything dealt with. The winners have triumphed over their competition, the prizes have been handed out. Unless anyone would like to take this as a chance to say something, we can all head home for now!"

Irwin stood up, taking the chance to say, "Nixilei, thank you for going on easy on us in regards to rules. You are one scary woman and I'm glad I didn't need to fight you while you still had access to a dagger."

Blue glanced at the rest of her team and took the chance as well, "Well… Irwin was a bit… well never mind. I want to say that thing was actually really cool. I liked working with all the different teams, for each and every event. It was weird working with people who weren't the teammates I know and love, but working together with new people is not an experience I'll soon forget. It makes me think adventurers should occasionally mix around their team compositions. Not for serious high level jobs of course, but to keep things fresh.

"Kat, it was great working with you. I wasn't ever scared while you protected me and I feel a lot more comfortable with the recent unbanning of demonic summoning. You took good care of me and I'll not forget that. I don't really have anything to say about a single person in Irwin's team, but it was an interesting game. As for the numbers… sorry I used all my mana up so quickly. Looking back on it… might not have been the best plan, but I got one enemy team out, which is probably the best I could hope for so I'm not too mad at myself,"

After Blue's speech everyone looked over to 'The Numbers' expecting them to say something. After an awkward thirty seconds of staring though, nothing had been said. It took a full minute but One eventually stood forward, only to say, "What? We've got nothing to say. Let us go so we can have a good drink,"

Thyme seemed to be expecting this answer, but everyone else had their jaws drop, even Fir the other dwarf in this round of the tournament was surprised. Thyme sent them off with a wave and their balcony disappeared alongside them. Irwin raised an eyebrow and gave a nod to Thyme. A moment later they'd disappeared as well.

Nell glanced at her team. "Well, I guess if everyone else is heading out we might as well. It was nice seeing you. Shame we lost, but hey, we might be able to make our way back in through the loser's bracket or something,"

*Wait we have a loser bracket?* Thyme just waved another hand and the last team, and Kat voiced her question. "Do… do we have a loser's bracket? That… that seems like an odd thing to have for a tournament like this…"

Thyme gave a 'so-so' gesture. "We offer a difficult task for all the eliminated teams to complete. It's announced after the semi-final match happens. There's two spots for those who've been eliminated. It might be… which team can climb this mountain the fastest, or who can survive the longest in a desert. I can't say what it will be this year, as it's possible for you all to end up in it still.

"Not everybody bothers though. The loser's tasks tend to be somewhat deadly. We also don't keep a judge on standby like myself. It's mostly automatic. This means that if they get injured or, in an extreme case, die, there's nothing to be done about it. Sometimes the judge will be in the area at the time and help, but not always. Most of it is just recorded with special spells from a distance, whatever the task may be.

"The loser's challenge is only for people who are desperate or confident. The normal tournament, while still brutal, always has a judge on hand and regularly has a healer on hand as well. You could have your head chopped off with me nearby and still recover. It makes things dangerous, but not deadly, painful, but not crippling, at least not in any permanent manner. The tournament is to strengthen bonds and test adventurers. The prizes are just incentives to do well for the most part…

"But of course, for some it's more then that. And when the chips are down… well we like to give those people a chance too,"