The ground rumbled as a platform for everyone to stand up rose from the ground. Thyme made big waving gestures to get everyone who'd been competing to come over. It was just a short walk so that didn't take long. Once everyone was up on the platform Thyme asked. "Right, so, before we get to the judgement we need to decide if Asteodia is disqualified or not. The rule was NO MAGIC, not 'no magic used to cut the wood'. So even though Asteodia probably stood by the spirit of the rules, the letter of them were broken,"
*Oh. I didn't even realise that was a thing.* Kat just shrugged, "I think it's fine. She could've gotten ninety percent of the way there without magic and I think I'd rather have her not be disqualified," explained Kat.
Asteodia shook her head and said, "No thanks. I think if I really messed up something so simple I deserve to be disqualified. There wasn't many rules to begin with,"
"I'm with her on this one," said Nabras pointing to Asteodia. "It was a simple rule," and for Nabras it would also increase his chances of not coming last. Which was a big win.
March waved Nabras and Asteodia off. "I would not be so dishonourable to force someone out of the competition for such a small mistake. It was a great use of magic, and it was barely against the rules. There was no intentional slighting of them, I say she stays in,"
Mauve looked over everyone slowly and said, "I don't like that I seem to be the one with the deciding vote… but I suppose if I say that I want Asteodia thrown out what it really means is that I wasn't confident in my strategy. So… fine Asteodia can stay,"
Thyme clapped their hands together, pulling everyone's attention back to the. "Great, in that case we can go over how well everyone did one by one. The person who cut the most logs was… March, followed by Kat, with Asteodia in third, Mauve in fourth finally Nabras with the least amount of logs chopped,"
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm Kat's eyes narrowed. *I feel like these aren't the final results.* Kat stared at Thyme for a few seconds, as the quiet stretched on. Everyone else seemed to realise that something funny was going on as well. "I see you've all caught on. While that order is indeed correct… it's counting all of the logs that don't meet my criteria. So perhaps you'll be interested to know that….
"If we're going by ratio, Mauve had the best ratio of perfectly cut logs to duds, with Asteodia behind her, Kat in third and Nabras in fourth. Then, sadly, we had March in fifth. Quite the reversal 'ain't it?" explained Thyme. "So with that in mind… coming in last we have… Nabras. While your ratio was quite good, you really struggled to chop enough wood for the contest.
"In fourth, we have March. You cut by far the most amount of logs, but you just weren't careful enough with them. Your ratio of duds to successes was so bad that you nearly ended up in last place with Nabras only loosing out to you by a few logs," March looked somewhat chagrined. She knew it was a risk when she decided on her strategy, but didn't think it was so inefficient. Still, she knew going for clean cuts would've slowed her down too much for the win. Perhaps second place was on the table, but not first. Not with a 'proper' strategy.
"Then we have Asteodia in third. It means that the inclusion or exclusion of her based on breaking the rules didn't really matter. Which is a shame, because I thought it was a great strategy. Ultimately though, it just took up a bit too much time. Kat was faster when she dug that hole, and that was more efficient than the ramp. Perhaps if you all had an hour or longer Asteodia could've pulled ahead,"
Thyme sad with an overly dramatic frown on their face. "Truly, so close yet so far… because all of the top three contestants were really close. Within fifty successful logs in fact. With Mauve and Kat only sixteen off each other. Now though… who has won? Who has lost? The answer… is… Kat's the winner!"
A smile bloomed on Kat's face, even as Mauve kicked at the ground half-heartedly. "It really was close there at the end. Kat had a much better system for chopping logs quickly and managed to get the lead mostly through that. Mauve though, you only had a small handful of dud logs. This let you catch up to your competitors with consistency and simply not making mistakes. Still, good job everyone. I'll be taking you all over to the volleyball match… which still isn't finished I'm afraid.
"Hopefully that won't take too long. Once we're done, I'll give everyone two hours for food and then we can get on to the final game for the day. It'll run long, sadly, but it will need a good chunk of time and I'm not willing to compromise on that," said Thyme.
Kat shrugged as Lily sprinted over and hopped up into her arms. Not long after that, Thyme was clicking their fingers and sending everyone back to the volleyball court. When they got there, it was to see the people who stayed behind playing cards again, which wasn't really a surprise. Kat moved over to join in with the match as she looked over at the volleyball game.
Burgandy was the one most feeling the exhaustion. Marigold was covering for two thirds of the court now, and while Burgandy was doing her best, she was sweating a fair bit. Marigold looked… mostly ok despite the extra ground she needed to cover. So she likely figured out a better way to keep herself in the match. Gareth and Blue though… they were looking fine.
Gareth had made two sunshades, one for him and one for Blue, and was currently relaxing on the ground with his eyes closed. Blue was looking fine, despite the mana cost for moving the water for so long. It looked rather obvious who was going to win. Especially when Kat looked over at the score and saw that Blue and Gareth already had one point.
Which is indeed what happened in the end. After ANOTHER thirty minutes Marigold slipped on the ground, giving away another point. This was quickly followed by concerned looks from both members of that team. They still tried of course… but ten minutes later it was Burgandy on the ground, losing them that final point. "And we have a WINNER! With Blue in first place, that means Gareth and Marigold are in second. They'll each be awarded half a point," shouted Thyme.
*Honestly? That took way too long. I'm pretty sure nobody thought each match would take so long. I wondering where the extra time all came from. The use of magic, the extra large courts, heck maybe the courts were too small. It's just very unclear what caused the delay. I suppose using magic was at least partially responsible… but maybe if they could use magic on both sides of the net they could punch through Blue's wall properly? What do you think Lily?*
[It's got to be a bit of everything. Blue clearly dragged the games on long, but Marigold would've likely kept things going almost as long if she was allowed to use her magic on herself. Which… just based on how Thyme has ruled that sort of thing before… I'm guessing she could. You don't ever get in trouble for speeding yourself up with demonic energy after all.]
"Right, with that out of the way, everyone has two hours for lunch, then you can all come back here for the third and final game of the day. The food has been in stasis for a bit, but that should be no problem, I'm pretty good with those enchantments. So eat, drink, and be merry for the next two hours. The big mystery game will be revealed then! I'm very excited for it," said Thyme.
With that done, everyone started to make their way back the inn so they could stock up on food. Kat wasn't terribly hungry even despite the later time but she also knew that dinner would be late. This meant she was going to eat now, and skip dinner… probably. Lily was looking forward to some food of her own. Normally it wouldn't be overly necessary but with her internal clock a bit of a mess because they'd had to wait so long for a chance to eat. Making Lily think it was closer to dinner time.
Of course, while Kat and Lily were thinking about food, Gareth and Green were thinking about their promise to Blue. They'd both sidled up beside her, and Green asked, "So when do you want your massage?"
"What?" asked Blue.
"Your massage," said Gareth.
"WHAT?" shouted Blue.
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