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

--- Lily ---

"Surely there's something we can do?" said Green. "I mean, you're pretty much just saying it's best to give up… but that if we do we might still be in trouble,"

"Yes indeed I am. It's not a simple issue," explained Nixilei.

"Well… why not make it simple?" retorted Green.

"Because we just don't know. We don't know who paid off the guards, how likely the lord of the land here is to allow us to mount a defence… and frankly if Kat's willing to wait there's a non-zero chance she makes it to the city ahead of us if she travels at fool speed. The greatest worry would be them barring her from entering once again… but that may be a step too far.

"The biggest problem is, technically, nothing illegal has be done. Legally questionable sure and if we were already in the city we could start the process to get some things sorted… but Kat wants to keep this all on the quieter side to avoid issues. Something I do commend her for… but doing anything is going to be a risk when we are without information," explained Nixilei with a sigh. "I did just go over this,"

"Well… why not throw our weight around a bit?" offered Green. "I get we don't want to cause issues… but if we have issues on the first day of the tournament because of this I will not be pleased. We can avoid a bit of disruption if we have to…"

Nixilei groaned. "Look, both your parents and Gareth are exceptionally powerful for the size of their holdings… but this is one of the major elven cities! The city lord, or rather, lady, is known as Mistress Fallow. She's a Rank 3 combatant herself and she married an elven archer of great renown known as the 'Silent Death' and some rumours suggest she's at Rank 4, and second only to Ulf's daughter in terms of archery prowess."

Nixilei sighed when she saw the concerned looks on the faces of everyone at that announcement. "Dammit did you guys not read any of the info cards I handed out? Why is this a surprise?"

"I did read it," shrugged Kress. "Not sure it had the part that the lady's wife was Rank 4 on it though… and well, there's a difference between a green Rank 4 and the 'Silent Death' Nix. That's not to mention the fact she's apparently close to Artema, known for being able to kill some Rank 5 monsters herself! There's a big fucking difference!"

"I didn't read it," admitted Green sheepishly.

Gareth sighed, "I had been meaning to, but after Green informed me she had read it I decided to skim the information and never got around to properly looking it over,"

Nixilei pulled her head into her hands and groaned. Lily walked her shadowy beanbag chair over to Nixilei and patted her on the back. "There, there,"

"I'm surrounded by morons," whined Nixilei.

"You love them anyway," mumbled Lily. '

"I do but hell they can be such idiots! I can't believe Kress is the only one who properly read the notes I handed out…" whined Nixilei.

"Hey! I resemble that remark!" hissed Kress with a grin on his face.

Lily rolled her eyes. "I get it. The situation is complicated and Kat will probably be fine if we just wait. I'm fine with this. Kat's not hurt, heck she's not even tied up. Plus she has her storage ring and a bunch of spare pillows. She will be fine and comfortable and out of the rain. Honestly, I'm more worried about after she gets out… but as you said there's not much to do right?"

Nixilei sighs, "Indeed. I wish I'd thought to ask who the guard was. He might just be doing a favour for a relative rather then on orders of the Lady, or perhaps somewhere else in the chain of command asked him to do it for a cut of the action. Having them cause issues for Kat due to her stay is still an issue…

"But the more I think about it the more I realise that Thyme should be, if not IN the city at least be watching or have someone doing so on his behalf. I think we can stop things from escalating… and honestly I'm not sure Kat would be all that scared of the people in charge as long as we can find a safe spot which… we can probably find?"

Gareth thought for a moment before asking, "Is it worth seeking an audience with the Lady of the city? We don't know she's against us… in fact do you know who we're up against for the final round? Surely that's obvious at this point?"

Nixilei turned to Lily and just gave her a pained look. "Why bother gathering intelligence for your team if it's just going to get ignored?" Lily shrugged and went back to patting Nixilei on the back. "I made pamphlets about this! I was planning to explain the teams to Kat once we got to the hotel… and now that's sort of been upended.

"Look, I'll give a brief overview now but the tent isn't really a proper place for me to bring out all of the information. Especially when we're all still wet. The deadliest team is essentially a team of beast tamers. Four of their five members have a familiar of some kind and the last team member is a demon as well. One they started with. They've been abusing those two boons to get a leg up on the competition.

"The next is a team of dwarves that have insanely high quality armour with enchantments strong enough to block Rank 3 attacks and a bunch of mana crystals to power it. Well, technically they aren't all dwarves. They have a human healer working with them and I'm not super clear on how friendly they all are with each other. The male healer seems like a bit of a last minute addition but who knows really,"

"The third team is a mixed team. It's got one member from every race except the humans. They're just a solid team of adventures. Nothing special about them really and they've gotten this far in part because they have good fundamentals and teamwork. They're also pushing the age limit on the tournament to its limits but no crossing it.

"The final team… well you might remember them. They fought they're way back into the tournament during the bonus round. It's Skye and her team, if you remember them," explained Nixilei.

Lily's eyes widened. "Wait the chick who betrayed Kat and Grace in the first round?"

Nixilei nodded. "Exactly. I've heard she's not made any friends during the tournament… but they trained ridiculously hard after getting eliminated and clawed their way back in. Not sure how untrustworthy they really are because the teams she beat out during the most recent rounds have been crying about how she obviously cheated… but I doubt any true cheating could get past Thyme,"

"Huh… bit of a surprise to hear that she's back into things," mumbled Lily.

Nixilei shrugged. "It's possible we've faced a lot of the toughest teams already… but I wouldn't count on it. The 'Familiar Team' as we'll call them is currently considered the front-runners for the grand prize, with the dwarves second place and us in third. Personally I think that we're tied for first, the mixed team is second with Skye's team coming next and the dwarves last,"

"Why is that?" asked Lily.

"The armour obviously," interjected Kress. "If they're basically just using money to drown the competition their skills are probably lacking somewhat. Our gear isn't horrible, and we've got Kat. If they were skilled enough to win without the armour they'd have saved it for a big surprise in this final round… the fact they needed it to get this far? That implies it's a crutch,"

Lily glanced over at Nixilei for confirmation and the fae nodded. "More or less. They do need to have at least some level of skill to have made it this far but I have a full writeup on the capabilities of all the things they've shown off. There is some concern that they will have a completely new set of arms and armour for the final round… but that might still be to our advantage,"

"Why is that?" asked Lily.

"It's because if they've completely changed up how all of the enchantments on their gear work they won't have time to get used to it. They will have a month or two at most while everyone else has trained with their gear for quite a lot longer. Green's jumping boots for example, have been with us for about five years," explained Nixilei.

"HEY!" growled Green. "Don't make it seem like I have dirty old shoes! I've needed to replace them once every three months or so. I just happen to get the same enchantments every time," Lily giggled at the response. Green was being silly. Lily had a good enough nose to know that her boots, did indeed, still stink.