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

Gareth POV chapter. 

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After calming Green down and escaping all the extra food, Gareth moved over to Burgandy who had somehow acquired a chair for herself. She was sitting off to the side awkwardly so he just crouched down beside her. "Sitting alone I see," said Gareth, trying to keep any recrimination out of his voice. 

Burgandy snorted. "Yup. Feel like a bit of a loner but it would be even worse if I tried to fit in with everyone else during the celebration. I've calmed down now, and I was a bit of an ass to Carl during out match… and I'm still not exactly 'calm'. I've got a few ideas for fighting Blue once it's my turn… but I don't know who I'm going to be paired up with next, so forgive me for not sharing," 

"Gareth," answered Thyme. 

Burgandy let out a yelp, jumping to her feet, fists ready to fight as she turned to face the Thyme that appeared next to her. It was one of the referee Thyme's, the female one specifically. Burgandy and Thyme stared at each other for a few moments, before Burgandy asked for clarification, "What do you mean?" 

"Nobody else is asking, but the next match is you and Gareth versus Carl and Blue," explained Thyme before they simply walked off, as if they no longer needed to be involved in the conversation. Which, Gareth supposed, they didn't. *Still mighty weird to just walk away after answering the one question but I suppose if we do have need of more answers Thyme would pop up again and provide them. Why just walk away like that though?*

Burgandy watched Thyme walk back over to their chair. Of course, Thyme being Thyme turned around to wink at them before teleporting up into the seat instead of climbing the ladder like a normal person. Gareth just rolled his eyes at the display. Not terribly surprised that Thyme would do something like that. 

"Right…" said Burgandy sitting down awkwardly, still somewhat rattled by Thyme's presence, and rather in-your-face proof that Thyme was usually listening, and certainly could listen anytime they wanted. "So… um… the plan I came up with for us would be to just raise the ground as high as we could. Then we could spike the ball down through the water, and Blue or Marigold would need to send it up high to get at us," 

Gareth rolled the idea over in his head for a few moments, and noticed a potential issue immediately. "I'm willing to be that if we raised the ground up past the net and then the ball smacked against the side of the platform, Thyme would count that as 'hitting the ground' otherwise it'd be unfair," explained Gareth. 

"What and that nonsense Blue has been doing with the water isn't unfair?" grumbled Burgandy. 

Gareth shrugged and responded, "I'm not saying that Blue's tactic is completely above board, but it's at least technically possible to get through. Sure your plan is to raise a platform, but imagine if we raised just a single wall stretching up high enough to block any jumps. Thyme would totally call us out on that. Plus, considering you almost lost an extra point against Marigold and I for a much tamer use of 'the ground' I'm willing to bet good money that we'd get in trouble for raising a wall on our side to stop the ball," 

Burgandy clicked her tongue but she didn't argue with Gareth's point. It made a lot of sense after all. "So… what, we just raised the wall up to the height of the net then?" 

Gare nodded, "Yeah, if we can manage it. If we can't maybe just try to raise the front half of it? I'm not a wizard so I've got no idea how much mana this is going to take," 

Burgandy nodded slowly and said, "I… can see it working out. I'm just not sure if we can spike the ball hard enough to get through the water. Sure it'll make returning shots easier, at least in theory, but can we even score going about it like this?"

"Hey this is your idea," defended Gareth. 

Burgandy glared back at him, "Yes, and I wasn't the one fighting against Blue last round, so I've got no idea about the amount of power required to get through the water wall. Unlike YOU. So I would like for you to provide some insight,"  I think you should take a look at

"Fair point. As for if we can do it… I'm going to say maybe? Carl and I got a few good hits in, and the ball sunk deep into the water… but it never looked that close to breaking out through the bottom. Still… with a good spike? I think it can be done, but it's going to be a fair bit of effort," said Gareth. 

Burgandy nodded and said, "So we have a plan then," 

"Indeed, I guess we do," agreed Gareth. With that Gareth left Burgandy to being a loner and spent some more time with Green. This time, she was resting on his chest, which was certainly more familiar then all the pampering. It felt like everything was right with the world. 

"Right, before I call this next game to begin, I'm going to make you all an offer. We can either start the log chopping event soonish, during the volleyball matches, or we can put them off until after lunch and allow people to do the log chopping event during the secret round that I have planned for the afternoon. Originally, I didn't want any overlap, but it's clear I wasn't factoring in enough time for the volleyball events.

"Now, not to sway you all too much, but I suspect that it would be preferable to most people if we move the log chopping event to the afternoon… but technically speaking it could put those people participating in the secret event at a disadvantage. That is mostly a technicality, and I don't want to explain why and ruin the surprise… just know that while it would mean missing out on less action, it will have other consequences," explained Thyme. 

Gareth looked down at Green who was resting and shrugged. Picking her up he walked over to where the rest of his team was gathered. Lily was asleep on Kat's head, sprawled out while Kat herself was keeping occupied by… turning her skin and muscles to water? It looked a bit weird. Nixilei was looking at Kat with a fascinated gaze while Kress looked like he was pretending to not be involved with those crazy people. "I think it'll be up to you Kress, what do you think?" 

Kress shrugged, "I don't really mind man. I'm not sure what it means that I could be at a disadvantage, but I have a strong feeling about the secret round. So I'm going to say that while technically it matters, I'm not sure it'll matter to ME specifically. Though maybe I'll be wrong. Who knows," 

"Right… so what's your answer then?" asked Gareth. 

Kress shrugged, "Let's do it later. This way we can all stick around and support you during the volleyball tournament. As I said, I'm not too worried about this disadvantage," 

Thyme popped up beside Kress and made a note, nearly causing the group to jump in surprise… but Kat wasn't paying attention, Nixilei was paying too much attention, Gareth had just seen that joke and Kress managed to supress his reaction well. 

Gareth left Green on the ground nearby, ignoring Kress' incredulous look as Thyme called together everyone once again. "Right, so the break is over, and we're getting back to it. Pretty much everyone agreed to host the log chopping contest later on, so that's what we're going to do. It wasn't unanimous, but I'm not going to say who had the contrary opinion, or if there were one or two teams that held it. Obviously, the majority wanted to do it later, so it can't be more than two. Anyway, Gareth and Burgandy, Versus Blue and Carl GO! Marigold who is serving?"

"Gareth and Burgandy. They're going to need the extra help," said Marigold with a smile. 

Burgandy growled but didn't deny it. Instead they used the chance to work together to raise up the ground beneath them. It took a lot of mana, but not all that much effort. With two earth aligned fighters and Thyme's enchantments it wasn't hard to get the mana down into the ground, and raising it up was taxing on their reserves but not their minds. 

By the time it was all done they even had a little staircase at the back so serving wouldn't be an issue. Blue was set up of course, but Gareth and Burgandy were ready. Gareth served basically blind, but he just needed it hit the ball towards the mass of water. Then he sprinted up the dirt. 

Burgandy and Gareth were both ready to face the ball. Ready to leap to whatever corner Blue shot it towards. They were certain they could compete with the speed. They watched the ball… and instead of being launched it was more of a plop. The ball just… dropped out of the water onto the stone platform barely clearing the net. "One point to Blue and Carl!" said Thyme. 

"I feel like kind of an idiot," said Burgandy. 

"I don't feel any better," agreed Gareth.