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

Gareth POV chapter

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The match, that had seemed to be a matter entirely based on endurance finally had someone slip up. It could be argued this was good planning on Blue's part, or poor planning on both Carl's and Marigolds. Blue managed, through a combination of luck and skill, to shoot the ball right at the edge of the area Carl 'patrolled'. Both Marigold and Carl went for the ball, not watching the rest of the court, simply acting on instinct…

And they smashed into each other, toppling to the ground. Carl's head was ringing and he would need at least a few moments to recover, but Marigold was running a low level of constant regeneration to keep herself running at peek performance. This meant she was recovered from the impact mere fractions of a second after it happened… the problem with that was she was still falling. Recovered or not she wasn't able to get up in time.

Oh sure made the attempt, but because of the impact Carl's arm was pushing her neck downwards and she wasn't able to both move her head out of the way and pull her legs in enough to kick of the ground so that she could recover and send the ball flying back. Instead it landed just a bit above them. Marigold tried to reach out with her hands, but they were just a tad short. "Point to Blue and Burgandy," said Thyme.

*FINALLY!* Gareth shouted mentally as he checked back into the match. That point alone had taken over thirty minutes. *Though… that does beg the question, can Blue keep up? If it's Marigold's endurance against Blue's who will fall first? Marigold is using mana to keep her stamina topped up but I don't know how efficient that is. Blue on the other hand is just using her mana. I suppose we'll just have to see.*

Blue was clearly having similar thoughts, because she used the short time between Thyme retrieving the ball and Marigold serving to sit down and closer her eyes. *Does that actually help with reducing the mana cost? I can't say I know enough know enough about magic… actually I can probably just ask Thyme.* So that's what Gareth did, "Hey Thyme, is whatever Blue's doing actually going to reduce the mana consumption of her spell?"

Thyme, not wanting to take their eyes off the action, popped off their head and then quickly regrew another one. Placing the first and now bodyless head down on the arm of the chair facing Gareth. Gareth ignored the twitching in his eye as the head spoke without any lungs. Clearly, chicanery was afoot. "Would you mind elaborating?" asked Thyme.

Gareth tried not to comment on it. It was a difficult trial, but Gareth managed. "I'm wondering if meditating actually helps with… I don't know… mana efficiency?"

"Well that really depends," said Thyme with a smile. "What Blue is doing MIGHT be good for her, but it also might not be. My guess would be that she's attempting to calm her mind and more efficiently make use of the mana she's already using, giving her 'more mana' to work with in the long run, even if the amount hasn't technically changed. Of course, it doesn't always work. The fact that she can't see the spell anymore might actually cause things to get more out of sync and costing her more mana."

"It is also possible she's trying to take in mana from t he world. It's a somewhat advanced technique that lets you recover mana more quickly. Though it's not taught to everyone. If done incorrectly in can damage your mana pathways and cause all sorts of issues. I would guess it's a little too advanced for Blue… but then again with the ocean right there if she's careful and she does know the technique taking in only water mana would reduce the strain.

"Of course, she could also be trying to stimulate her own production of mana. It won't work. Mana regenerates at a constant rate and there's nothing you can do to force your body to generate more or if, but some people DO believe it's possible. They'll even say as much. They're either delusional, or taking in external mana at least somewhat safely,"

"Wait… then what about mana potions? I always assumed they forced the body to regenerate mana just like you can get ones that force the body to heal itself. And wait, what about eating? That can give you a boost as well…" said Gareth.

Thyme shook his head, "You're misinterpreting the cause here. Mana potions don't force you to generate more mana, they either have mana in them that disperses slowly into the body, or the ones more focused on long term regeneration absorb external mana into your body for you, filtering out a lot of the issues. As for after eating? Eating a steak filled with mana works the same as drinking a liquid filled with it,"

Gareth nodded, "Huh… the more you know I guess. It's just never really come up. Just… one of those things that just works… though I guess not exactly huh?"

"One must always continue to investigate the small mysteries, lest the world become dull indeed," said Thyme 'mysteriously'. It was twice as effective considering they were just a talking head right now. Totally.

Gareth still nodded, not wanting to be impolite. Still there was obvious question to ask while Thyme was paying attention to him. "Soo… who do you think is going to win?"

Thyme shook their head. How they managed that without a neck, Gareth wasn't sure, but his guess was magic. Thyme answered with "I'm afraid I can't say. It's not that I do not have a guess, but announcing who I think is closer to victory is probably putting my hand a bit too far on the scale,"

"I'm not sure it's that different from talking about what Blue is doing," returned Gareth.

"Ah, but I simply listed the possibilities. Blue could be doing all of those things, none of those things or perhaps even something I haven't thought of," said Thyme.

Gareth frowned, "But you specifically said 'My guess would be that she's attempting to calm her mind' I feel like it doesn't get any more direct then that," retorted Gareth.

Thyme nodded, "Indeed I did say that… but it really is the most common thing people do when they're meditating, which it looks like Blue is doing. Still, I suppose saying it was 'my guess' was a bit of a lie. I have more than enough proficiency in sensing mana to know exactly what she's doing. I was merely pointing out that with no information about her, my guess would be the first. It's a common think among mages, though its effectiveness is quite varied,"

Gareth wasn't entirely sure he believed times response. *Might just be something Thyme felt the need to say to avoid getting caught up in the rules. Those do seem to rear their head on the occasion… and Thyme might just be trying to play it cool and pretend none of them were broken. I… could see it happening. It's a minor issue at best… hmm… I can't be certain. Sure I didn't see any sign Thyme was lying… but Thyme can control multiple bodies at once and they can all have different facial expressions. Making sure it looks like he isn't lying to me is probably easy for Thyme. So just going off of gut feeling probably won't help me here. You know what? It doesn't matter. I'll just assume Thyme was giving me an extra hint that they weren't really meant to and pretended to back off. Better for my sanity that way.*

While Gareth and Thyme were having their discussion the round was continuing without issue. Nothing interesting was happening. Well… that's not true. Burgandy was making a sandcastle to pass the time… and probably piss off the other team. It was somewhat working. Marigold was glaring daggers at Burgandy, but it hadn't caused her to miss any of the return shots just yet. Carl was keeping his chill and didn't care that Burgandy was messing around. If anything he was happy. It meant if they got through Blue they'd be certain to score.

Sadly it didn't seem like that chance would come any time soon. Marigold was still doing great work but she just didn't have the right angle to get through the water. Getting the ball over the net required either a lob that killed a lot of the momentum, or Marigold needed to risk a jump, guessing the trajectory early and slam the ball down… but it'd need to be at the PERFECT height for it to work. Too high and it wasn't much better then lobbing the ball back, so Marigold wasn't really going for those.

Marigold's current hope was that she could outlast Blue completely. Though if that would work… Gareth had no idea.