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

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As Kress stepped into the spatial enhanced box Thyme had hidden under the stairs, his eyes raked over his competition. After deciding on roles, Kress had ducked back to his room to remove his leather armour and put on some more comfortable clothes. He felt naked standing amongst competitors with just a cotton shirt and pants. He'd kept his boots though. Sturdy things that could break knees if necessary. 

Nixilei had the same idea. She'd swapped her normal robes out for a pair of close-fitting pants and a loose shirt. Kress' gaze didn't linger long on her, instead, he was trying not to laugh at Gareth. He was currently glaring at his two friends… because he was still in plate armour. Green was asleep over his shoulder already and couldn't be relied on to help, so he had to glare uselessly. 

Kat was of course in her normal kimono. Kress had never seen the demon wearing anything else. Rain, hail, shine, sleepy, injured, it was always the same outfit. Kress would wonder how she kept it in such good condition if he didn't know it could be resummoned at will. Lily was resting in Kat's arms. The little kitten, that was apparently a young woman, spent more time sleeping then Green. It explained why Kat never made a fuss about Green's habits. They were clearly familiar to the demon. 

Kress let out a long breath as he shook his head to disguise his glances at the rest of the competitors. Most had stuck with their original outfits, but some had changed. Kress didn't know any of their names, but the big gorilla woman had stripped her armour off and now wore a dress that was at least a size too small and looked ready to rip any time she twitched. Stan was wiggling his eyebrows, but in the same clothes, so apparently Kress' quick glance wasn't as subtle as he thought. 

*Still not sure what to make of it. If I didn't know Kat couldn't lie, I'd think she was just fucking with me. Not sure what I'm going to do about it either. Stan's a good looking dude, but he's a demon… and I'm not sure I'd be ready for the type of commitment it would require for him to stick around…

I'm also really not used to being pursued, so this is going to be weird.* Kress moved to lean against the wall so he could see the whole room and hopefully keep his investigations a bit subtler this time. 

Kress noted that quite a few weapons had been left behind even if the armour had not. It seemed that Thyme was trusted enough for that. The only other competitor of note was that floating dwarf, they were still floating, and kept their outfit as it was. Kress had heard her complaints earlier about not wanting to leave it behind… but it was unclear how that would apply to some of the events. 

Finally, the door to the room opened and everyone stepped out into a large hall. In the centre, was a tiny little brown table that had been made of a single slab of wood and then polished to a mirror sheen. There was a net about the height of Kress' hands if he held them palms together. There was a paddle on each side, and a basket of paddles underneath, though based on the rules that basket might not see much use. 

The little table was very small compared to the rest of the room, which had also been polished to a mirror shine, though it was made up of closely packed slats of wood instead of a single piece. Kress noted that little detail. With Thyme's ability to manipulate wood, making the whole floor a singular piece might not have been impossible, so perhaps there was some reasoning behind the choice. 

The ceiling in the room was high, making Kress wonder just how far underground Thyme had taken them. It was easily higher then the building resting above it, and Kress wonder what the point of it being so high was. Certainly, it had no bearing on this game. The table was just so small that even if the ball was hit hard and directly down, the table would break before the ball had the power to hit the ceiling. 

Thyme was walking around with a board, and pointing at it, Kress narrowed his eyes as he watched… but he couldn't here any of the responses. The reason why was quickly revealed when Thyme got to their group and asked, "So who's participating in what event?"

As Nixilei gave the answers, Kress noticed that while people were looking over here now, they couldn't hear them. Thyme must have done something to prevent the other teams from overhearing the line-ups. *Interesting. I wonder how Thyme is managing such a thing?* The answer to Kress' question, was that Thyme was showing off to the magically inclined. 

Thyme was manipulating space so that the group he was standing around were just slightly out of sync with the dimension. This left them still visible, but unable to be heard. The level of control needed to shift everyone just the right amount 'to the left' for the effect was astronomical. It showed a mastery of space magic that surpassed what many thought was possible… and Thyme was using it casually as a silence spell. Most people couldn't tell what was being done, but for Thyme that was fine, if not funnier. 

Once Thyme had gone around and collected all the answers, a blackboard rose out from the ground with the draw on it. "The first round will start in a moment. This is the round robin draw. The order was decided randomly, and if you have any questions asked them now,"

Kress looked at the board and saw his name was up first. He'd be someone called Willow, after which Vanya would fight Romilda, with Bonas, the female wolf sibling Kress remembered from the previous round would be getting the first by. There was also a few arrows on the chart, showing how the round would move afterwards. 

Kress would be the first up, again, in the second round and fighting Bonas, then Vanya would fight Willow, with Romilda getting the by. How things would shake out after that Kress wasn't entirely sure, but Thyme could figure that part out if he wanted. 

Kress stood and moved over towards the table, with Willow following suit. Kress could now see that she was from the same team as Stan who was currently pouting. *Probably hoping I'd sign up for the twister game.* They stood across the table from each other, and Thyme said. "You have five minutes to familiarise yourself with the equipment. You can break ONE paddle during this testing round, but not anything else… well, except the ball but I doubt you can manage that," 

Thyme then dropped a ball on either side of the table and Kress took the chance to examine it. It was made of a wooden lattice that kept it in a rounded shape but left it hollow. Kress picked the ball up and threw it between his hands a few times. It was light, exceptionally so, and didn't seem to be bending much from this light handling. 

Kress watched Willow do the same, so he quickly picked up the paddle and made his way over to the wall. Kress through the ball up and whacked it against the wall, surprised when the ball shot back at great speed. Kress stumbled back as he struggled to hit the ball a second time, but he managed it. Then a third. 

Soon he was using all of his training to keep the ball bouncing back and forth between the paddle and the wall. Willow was imitating him, though with less success. Her movements just weren't quite as fluid as his, once Kress recovered of course. Willow always seemed to be aiming just a little higher then the ball actually was, leading to some issues. 

Kat pursed his lips, he knew he didn't have long to test things so he sped up. He kept trying to hit the ball back to the same section so they he could bounce it between the paddle and the wall, faster and faster. Kress didn't need to up his strength, the ball was speeding up all on its own… but that wasn't the point. Kress slammed into the ball with as much force as he could muster, and heard a cracking sound. The paddle had cracks spreading out from the centre but it wasn't quite broken just yet. 

Kress smacked the ball again, lightly, at heard the paddle creak. *Hmm… that's not quite natural is it? I think Thyme has give us a bit of a hint here.* Kress smacked the ball back a few more times, the paddle gaining just a touch more damage, before Kress' eyes sharped and he smacked the ball as hard as he could, the paddle splintering in his hands. Kress had to look away from Willow, to hide the smile on his face. *This is going to be easy.*