Nixilei recap:
Blue – Left Leg Yellow, Left Hand Red, Right Leg Green, Right Hand Red (Top right corner)
Nixilei – Right leg Green, Left Hand blue, Right hand Red (Laying sideways across bottom of mat)
Marigold – Right Leg Green Left Leg Red, Right Hand Green, Left Hand Yellow (At the top)
Stan – Right Hand Green, Left Hand Green, Left Leg Red (Lying down in the middle really) [Stan's turn again]
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"So Stan… what have we got… it's… oh dammit really?" said Thyme. "Right leg anywhere. Just… do whatever you want. After the dry spell with the 'any' selection it's coming back with a vengeance. At least it's a new limb,"
Thyme might be pleased by the introduction of a new limb, but despite the slight issues it was currently causing, Stan wasn't all that pleased with the change if he was being completely honest. Part of him wanted to use up that last red space, taking it over for himself so that it would be causing problems…
But Thyme had never made a rule specifying what would happen if all the spaces of a given colour were occupied. It would also make it impossible to recover should he next roll a leg to green. So with that in mind, he decided to take one of the free blue dots, the one third from the bottom of the mat to be precise.
"Left leg red Blue," said Thyme after the wheel decreed it so.
"Dammit, that means I'm out doesn't it?" grumbled Blue. With one hand taking up the top red slot, Marigold taking up the next, then stan and Nixilei both occupying space as well, the only free dot on the red side was the one second from the bottom of the mat. Blue knew that she simply wasn't tall enough to keep one leg on green and one on red with the extra distance involved. "Thyme… can I ask… am I even tall enough for this?"
Thyme, curious as the to answer, used a quick spatial magic spell to check the answer. "No, you're not. Your legs are too short by a decent amount. If you include both Marigold and Stan's bodies and the extra distance that creates you are over twenty centimetres too short,"
"Right so… get me out of here then," grumbled Blue as she vanished. Blue sighed as Nell pulled her into a hug.
"Hey, it's fine Blue. You just got unlucky. I'm impressed you hung in there. Quite a few of your spins were really difficult to deal with, so the fact you managed to stick in there means a lot to us. Besides, this wasn't you failing, just you getting unlucky. Thyme even said as much. It was impossible for you to do better" explained Nell, as the rest of the team came in for a group hug.
Rather sweet, even if it's a sad way to get knocked out. I also wasn't expecting Blue to make such liberal use of Marigold's body to stick in and make it this far. Her determination is quite impressive. She would've made an excellent spy. Now I suppose I should focus on what Thyme has in store for me…
"It's a shame to see her go… but honestly with a name like Blue? It would've got confusing at one point or another so this might be for the best," said Thyme with fake tears streaming from their eyes. Nell glared at Thyme for the comment, but the dryad didn't react. "Left leg Green for Nixilei it seems!"
Nixilei frowned at the request. *Not hard for me. The dot just above the one I'm using is free… but it does put my in an awkward position. Way too many people have been taken out of the game this way. I swear on the faery queen if I roll left or right leg red after this I will RIOT.* Despite her budding anger, Nixilei completed the move without issue.
"Right hand yellow Marigold," said Thyme. No extra commentary. Just a statement of fact. It was an easy move for Marigold. She just walked the hand a bit and took up the top yellow spot now that Blue wasn't using it.
"Just do it, I know you want to," said Thyme when the next spun come up right leg Blue. Stan was looking at the mat though… so he didn't want to do it. He couldn't see. It took a few awkward seconds for Thyme to realise that. "Woops, sorry. No eyes in the back of your head. Stan, it's right leg blue but…" Stan nodded, lifting and lowering is leg with no issue.
"Right, we're already back to Nixilei. Maybe I should double time these spins, or give people countdowns. Anyway, Nixilei you've got… right hand green!" said Thyme. *Dammit that means I'm out doesn't it? I can't reach up to the upper green squares and Stan has taken the middle ones. Dammit. Not sure there's anything I could've done to prevent this.*
"Same issue as Blue?" asked Nixilei.
"Yup, your arms a way too short. Don't even need a spell to see that," said Thyme as they teleported Nixilei away. "With Nixilei gone I'm going to slice of the bottom of the mat! Might cut more of later, but for now just the bottom row!"
*Not sure how long this game will go on now. Blue and I both got unlucky. I'm not sure there was much we could do. I mean, how did things even end up this way? Basically everyone has been split across the entire map and it kept getting too much.*
"There there," said Kress condescendingly as he patted Nixilei's hair. Nixilei batted the offending appendage away.
"I'm perfectly fine Kress. It's just how this is sometimes. I suppose I'm a little disappointed in not gaining any points for the team, but I'll live with the disappointment," returned Nixilei dryly.
Kress just kept trying to pat Nixilei on the head while she dodged or batted the arm away. Eventually, Nixilei just picked up Gareth and put him in the way, and Kress was too lazy to move around the armoured target.
"Rapid fire then, let's go. Right leg red," said Thyme. Marigold swung her leg around, using the fact she had too hands on yellow to keep herself stabilised as she swung her leg behind her. Then she just had to shift her torso down a bit and place her leg on the upper right corner of red. Nobody was using it now Blue was gone, so it was free game.
"Right leg green," shot Thyme.
"Ah shit," grumbled Stan. *Dammit! I was so CLOSE.* Stan made a decent effort. He first pushed himself, stretching to the limit to get a bit of space below himself. Then he pulled his right leg into his chest, before flinging it out towards green. He had to go upwards to deal with the space issues… but as he tried to get his heel in place he found he just wasn't quite tall enough.
He pressed forward, inching closer to the ground as he stretch forward… then that ridiculous question from earlier came into play. Right as his foot managed to hit the green dot, he felt something cold down below. Thyme burst out into laughter. "I can't believe it! Oh Stan what a question. Hahahahaha, I was getting a bit miffed there at the end, because we got a whole bunch of people that were forced to retire just by lucky but… hahahaha… oh this makes up for it all!"
Stan grumbled as he was teleported away, and to a standing position. Marigold was teleported shortly afterwards, but she dropped straight to the ground, her breathing heavy as her body finally relaxed and she stopped burning mana to keep herself functional. Not too much… but the constant drain and the burning had been doing something, and while enjoyable, did mean Marigold was somewhat tired now.
"So… how exactly did you lose?" asked Willow. "I'm confused…" Everyone in the room starred at Stan, waiting to see if he'd say it. Willow paled, and looked around at everyone whose focus had suddenly shifted. Not just in her own team… but everyone else? Willow was even more confused, and didn't know what to make of things. She had zoned out a bit earlier… was she missing something important?
Stan glared at everyone all around him, until his eyes settled on Willow. She collapsed further under Stan's intense gaze, feeling suddenly horrible for asking. Which of course caused Stan to crack immediately. "Fine… fine… you want to know?" asked Stan.
"Um… no it's fine?" offered Willow, really not wanting to cause trouble, especially seeing as she somehow managed to cause a whole bunch of it already, without meaning to.
Stan let out a sigh, "It's because my balls are too big," whispered Stan.
"What?" asked Willow confused. She hadn't heard the whispered answer.
"You making fun of me now?" asked Stan a touch annoyed, not realising that his idea of a whisper was barely anything because he'd grown up around demons. Willow genuinely didn't hear.
"Um… no… er… why would you?" Willow tried to say but just panicked.
Stan sighed again, realising that he was technically in the wrong. "Fine..." said Stan, at a normal volume, "I guess I'll tell you," Stan continued, razing the volume further. "I lost because MY BALLS ARE TOO BIG," Of course. Everyone except Willow burst out laughing.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦