Chapter 693: Chapter 692 Dinner for Twenty?
With that declaration the fakes were caught in a bright flash of light before disappearing and leaving only the scent of ozone behind. Thyme was hit by a similar light and came out of it looking mostly normal. They had a green suit and tie combination, clear boobs and long flowing hair but a sharp chin. When they spoke it was with a soft, androgynous voice that carried non the less. “Congratulations I suppose. You managed to get through the round relatively intact without losing too many of your real members along the way. It’s all time for dinner so we’ll be meeting up,”
Thyme clapped twice and the light surrounded everyone again, Kat felt the pull of teleportation alongside some bile rising up in her throat. The rapid fire teleportation had finally reached a critical mass and while she could push the feeling down it still wasn’t a good one. *I thought Thyme had improved the teleporting by so much more than this. Why does it keep getting worse? Is it a threshold thing? I wish I understood what the problem actually was because then I could STAB IT.*
Before Kat could get too annoyed though she was dropped gently onto a nice chair. Looking around she was at a fancy dining table with everyone else. The room actually had two tables, Kat’s team were on the same side as her, and she was on the edge with Green next to her, Gareth after that, and then Kress and finally Nixilei. Across the table was ‘The Wild Ones’ team. Kat was across from Nell, the bear beastkin girl with the wolf siblings next to her, then Blue and finally their elf Ellenell.
The other table in the room had the remaining teams, with the dwarves all lined up in order and the guys with the crazy hats positioned based on which had the tallest hat by the looks of things. The tables themselves were finely decorated with silver cutlery lined with gold. There was two candelabras burning on each table and a bouquet of blue roses in the middle of Kat’s table, and green roses on the other.
The walls were a soft white that had the slightest pink tinge to it and the ceiling depicted a... ‘great battle’... well, if you could call a food fight a ‘great battle’. It contained at least a hundred variant Thymes all fighting over a large cake that came out of the picture and acted like a chandelier for the room. All the troops were ‘armed’ with various dishes, from chicken leg nunchakus to pie slings and throwing star pancakes. The uniforms all looked like they were painted on with icing and had various candies as adornments and the two generals of both armies had a baguette carved into a sceptre and a hat made out of whipped cream shaped into a cone. There was a river of chocolate separating the two sides but connected by a bridge made of cookies in the south and a zipline made of liquorice in the north.
It was a rather silly looking scene, painted in an overly serious manner despite the fight being about food of all things. Kat felt like the longer she looked the more hidden details she found, like the two Thymes from opposite teams kissing in once corner, or the small childlike Thyme that wasn’t event trying to fight and was eating their uniform. *I wonder if Thyme painted this themself or they commissioned it. This is really impressive. The scale is massive and the details are so clear. When I really look I can see individual brush strokes so this isn’t just an image Thyme made using magic this is a real painting.*
Kat’s attention was called away from the ceiling when a loud pop sounded out. Whipping her head around Kat saw Thyme appear in a burst of confetti. It was the same appearance as before, with the same androgynous voice. “Welcome welcome. I’m here to catch everyone up on where you all stand in the competition after the first two rounds. Those of you on top, don’t relax just yet, and for those of you behind, well there’s still game left to be played. Let me explain the scoring system. Each round has it’s own scoring system to help determine which team or teams, is in front. First place in a round nets you 4 points, second nets you 3 points, and both 3rd and 4th net you 2 points for both... for the solo rounds.
.....
“For the double rounds, you’ll either earn 3 points, or 1 lonely point depending on if you placed first or second with the chance to earn bonus points if you’re paying attention. Now, onto the scores. In the first round it was actually quite close between all our teams. You all managed to score above eighty, even if The Numbers only managed 81. Still a very respectable score and as such they have 1 point.
“Next we have 85, The Wild Ones. A good showing, but only enough for third place. Demon and the Misfits managed to just barely get second place with 87. That means, in first place, with a total of 91... is the Men With Hats, give them a hand,” Thyme waited for the applause, when it took a couple of seconds Thyme pointedly stared at people who weren’t clapping yet, “yes that’s great.”
“Now the second round, it was an interesting affair, and very close. In the end though, The Wild Ones and Men With Hats managed to guess one more correct in the final round while having the same number of people, making them the clear winners. This means that we have Men With Hats in first place with 6 points, really pulling ahead there. That’s two more than the next highest team, Demon and the Misfits and there 4 points. Finally, we have a tie for third place with both The Wild Ones and The Numbers.”
Thyme smiled and gave a small clap while trying to look cute, “Wonderful wonderful. I’m quite happy to have that out of the way... though, I’m a little sad nobody gave me a chance to bring out the special prize for the team that eliminated their rivals,” said Thyme with a pout. *Oh yeah there was something about that...*
While Thyme was pouting, they reached down into their suit and pulled out something from between their boobs, or more likely, used the action to disguise a teleport. When Thyme’s hand became visible once again they were holding a pair of jet black handcuffs, then with another flick of the wrist, Thyme was holding a set of five, “We didn’t get to play with these at all... top of the line deep iron handcuffs. Weighing in at 200kg for each hand and another 50 for the chain, all enchanted to absorb mana!”
The teams all paled drastically, even Kat felt a shiver down her spine despite not using mana. *I am so glad we ended up with an even number of people. I mean, I mostly forgot about that little detail but I am so glad either through luck or intentions from the others we don’t have to deal with that.* “Remember all, this is the TEAMWORK Tournament. A little punishment for naughty boys and girls that aren’t willing to work together. Fabulous, fabulous. Still, it warms my cold rooty heart to see everyone getting along.”
Thyme gave another clap and the handcuffs vanished, “Well, with that I suppose I should leave you all to your meals. Wouldn’t want you to get any funny ideas about other things you could eat. Have a good meal everyone!” Thyme gave a sly grin as they finished speaking and spun around once more heading for the exit.
As they did so Kat glanced around the room once again and frowned. *Hey Thyme? Is Lily not here? I thought we were on break?* As Thyme walked past Kat’s section of the table their eyes locked, the question clear in Kat’s... and in Thyme’s there was nothing but mischief. Their smile even widened as they walked past as they gave the slightest shake of their head. Kat felt another chill run down her spine, her tail wrapping itself around the surprisingly sturdy chair leg as she attempted to crush it.
*This isn’t a break. This ‘peaceful dinner’ is likely going to be anything but...* Kat pursed her lips. *I guess it’s actually a good thing she isn’t here. I’d have let me guard down and she might have been hurt... *
Kat didn’t make any other moves as Thyme slipped out of the door letting it close softly behind them. Nixilei and Nell noticed Kat’s rapid change in demeanour and started to scan the room more closely but they couldn’t find anything strange. Unlike Kat, they were missing the biggest clue, and hadn’t met Thyme’s eyes. They had no idea what was in store for them... and really... neither did Kat.
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