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

We didn't notice it at this point, but Thyme had spread just a ridiculous amount of spores around that slowly reduced your thinking speed and made you more likely to dumb shit.

"It's likely why Mr E and Mr G decided on this. Perhaps Mr E thought he was stronger by himself so he left, and perhaps Mr G didn't stop to properly think about the fact that the door was weird just being there.

"And… well it's a bit embarrassing to admit but perhaps if the three of us had a bit more fait in our competitors we might have noticed the issue much earlier. As it was, we thought they were just stupid and didn't take any steps to negate the effects. It wasn't too strong in small doses, but it was everywhere.

"Thyme pointed it out later but their were flowers for this EVERYWHERE. I don't know how Thyme got permission to mess with the environment so much. I'm guessing either with assuring that they'd turn back time on the mountain, or if whatever was there before happened to be much deadlier.

"Still, I'm mostly going over this as setup. We didn't do anything too stupid just yet. Just… little things. We stopped to admire a statue along the way. Just for like, thirty seconds but we were in the middle of a race so stopping was a stupid thing to do. At least we got through the next few challenges without real trouble.

Just a few little things. We had to dodge some arrow traps and Estelle got nicked by one. Easily healed. The fire run? Looked much scarier then it was.

"The first thing that caused us issues? Running into a separate team of three. Now, they weren't on our path but our paths clearly crossed. There were signs that said 'do not leave your path' and the gravel shifted just before we reached the crossroads. The pathway beneath us went black, and the one for the other 'team' went white.

"And they mixed in the middle where we were crossing each other. Which… now that I think about it. Is super weird. Looking back on it, Thyme had to have messed with space and or time to ensure that we arrived at the crossing together. Not sure how that was allowed but I can take a few guesses.

"Anyway, the problem was that we were up against four guys. Two with bows, one with a sword and shield and one with a mace. It was a mix of races… I want to say two humans, an elf and a fae? But I could be wrong. It wasn't super important.

"So… we watched them as we all got closer to the centre and Skye called out 'we have no plans to attack you' and just kept moving at a calm sedate pace. They didn't respond, just walking forward as if we'd said nothing. I'd love to think they just didn't hear us for some reason…

"But the sword and shield guy had really loud armour and we could hear it easily, so it wasn't more shenanigans from Thyme. Plus, while it was loud, it wasn't quite loud enough for it to block all sound. Plus they were clearly looking at us. I kept a spell ready in the front of my mind, Estelle kept her right hand, the one they couldn't see properly on her staff and Skye just kept ready…

"And I didn't realise it in that moment but she has metal plates between the joints of her fingers so that she can really hurt people when she punches them. Not relevant yet but well… we kept going forward, and it was clear that we were going to cross paths. So Skye held up a hand, deciding it was better to let them pass without issue.

"Which… is really annoying because just as we, or rather, I thought we were safe one of the archers took a shot at Skye. She whipped out a massive steel covered book and blocked the shot. Where she pulled it from I've got no idea, but that's how the fight started. Completely ignoring the sign that told them not too, the melee dudes rushed us while the archers started to take pot shots,"

Blue managed to pull up a water replica of the scene. Four rough shapes with one clearly defined weapon each. The one figure that was supposed to have a sword and shield had more of a… sword and square arm. Still, it got the point across and soon the figures were moving alongside Blue's words… though it was a bit awkward without the other three fighters having their own representation.

"I threw up a water wall to kill most of the momentum, and Skye stepped forward to attack the pair. It was… kinda sad actually. They just straight up charged her and she managed to smash the first guy right in the face breaking his jaw and knocking him over.

Sadly the other one, the one with the mace managed to smash her in the side, activated some sort of protection she had but throwing her off to the side.

"I followed up by shooting a bunch of condensed water from my shield into the archers peppering them with attacks. Not something that would do serious damage, but it smarts something fierce and if I got one in their eye I might be able to take that out. So that was the archers dealt with for now…

"Estelle was shaking a bit but she stepped up. While Skye was still recovering from the blow Estelle stepped forward and tried to smack Mace Guy… it was kind of sad. Mace guy just backhanded Estelle's staff away nearly knocking it from her hands and he charged right in ready to bash her with the mace…

"Only for Skye to leap back into the fight feet first and hit the guy in face. Now he had a helmet on so it didn't take him out, but it was enough for me to dash forward and stab my spare dagger into him while he was stunned and not paying attention. I couldn't risk casting another spell, so dagger it was.

"I think I got him? He vanished when I stabbed at his neck so I'd guess so. Then it was a simple matter to clear up the archers. Skye needed to be healed, and I was super low on mana… but we didn't want to rest at the crossroads so we continued onwards for a bit until we found a suspiciously convenient hot spring instead of a trap.

"Of course, it was the trap… but I was missing a lot of mana, Skye our leader had two broken ribs despite her defences and was losing a decent amount of blood and Estelle was mostly just worrying constantly. So we didn't think anything of it. We slipped into the water to rest and heal up…

"And then BAM it was the middle of the night," Blue said, pausing in her story a bit to look around for some water to drink. Just to clear her throat. Sadly the only water nearby was the pool so Blue let out a sigh and summoned up some for her to drink. Blue gulped the water down greedily even as she cringed at the mana cost.

Blue summoned up a big moon and a few trees letting them surround a section of the pool. "So yeah we woke up and it was the middle of the night," explained Blue. "No idea if it's just been a few hours… or if it's been a few days and it just happened to be nighttime. We immediately scrambled out of the pool and found our stuff still around, but we were getting hungry and it was dark.

Which left the question of what we should do.

"Sure food was theoretically all around us… but leaving the path had already proven like a horrible idea. So far it hadn't worked out for anyone, not even those guys who tried to fight us. Perhaps leaving the path weakened them somehow because sure Skye and I did well… but honestly not THAT well you know?

"Was it just four people not used to working together… or something more? Anyway, whatever the truth we just weren't willing to leave the path for food… so what could we do? We weren't tired anymore, but it could be dangerous travelling the path at night. Worse, did we want to expend extra energy on the climb while we didn't have any ideas for getting food?

"Estelle ended up checking the springs we'd slept in for food, against both my wishes and Sykes… but it didn't matter in the end because there was no sign of fish in them at all. It might as well have been a fancy bathtub. Sure it had some plants, but nothing edible and it all looked fresh. No bits and pieces of it nibbled by wildlife that's for sure,"