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

Chapter 1338 Chapter 1338 Kress-Prep

?— Kress — Moments before the next round

Kress and Stan were relaxed as they made their way towards the stands for the next round. Kress wasn’t planning to win at all, so his stress was completely gone. Well, that and one other thing…

Stan was just as relaxed. He didn’t even know if the boats would WORK for someone with demonic energy instead of mana. Sure he could trade it off for some extra money, but that also seemed like a waste. Really, the only reason he was even attempting to win was so because it meant a chance to work with Kress. “So you remember the plan?”

“Plan?” asked Kress, some fake annoyance leaking into his voice. “We barely have a plan! We spent the whole time making out instead of planning,”

“Hey, you kissed me first,” said Stan, trying to excuse himself of the responsibility.

“I was just being a good boyfriend. Even if we’re not there just yet that IS the goal after all. It just makes sense I’d kiss you before getting into the reason I was there. No sense in getting to the heavy stuff first,” explained Kress.

“Yes indeed… but as the good boyfriend I am, I had to kiss back thoroughly,” answered Stan.

Kress blushed and looked off towards the distance. *Yeah and he’s pretty damn good at it. Not sure why I thought I could come out on top of a battle like that with an Incubus but damn did I try. Oh boy I tried. Certainly fun making the attempt. Might have to try and look for some more cloud powder if it can keep me this chill for so long. Well, assuming the effects of that batch weren’t permanent. Really helped me loosen up and I’ve got a shot at a boyfriend. Totally worth looking stupid for an afternoon.

Of course, we still don’t have a plan. Nothing more than ‘Kress distract them while I race’ which sure, sounds good on paper but who am I distracting? Am I trying to guarantee second place for your team or do I need to keep up enough to try and ensure you get the win? Distracting someone is going to allow everyone else a chance to catch up and if I get stuck at the back I can’t help anymore.

So should I wait until I find a good moment? Race normally and then only start messing with people right at the end when they least expect it? Go after whoever is in first or perhaps second place if Stan is in the lead? All questions that I’d love to know the answers to, but don’t want to ask aloud in case on of the elves overhears me. Dammit, we had a chance to plan and we blew it.

Granted, I can’t say we wasted time exactly… I’d probably do it all over again if I had the chance. I shouldn’t, but I totally would. So I guess I have to just use my own judgement. Not like that’s ever gotten me into mountains of trouble before dammit. Urgh, I guess I’ll wait and see who we’re up against.*

Kress let out a sigh, but couldn’t truly keep the smile off his face. Stan and Kress split up as the seats came into view. No reason to give away the game before they had to. Kress quickly found his seat and got read for the countdown. He still had a couple of minutes, but there wasn’t really much to say. Not while they could be overheard.

When the timer disappeared nothing seemed to happen for a few moments. Then suddenly Kress could hear a sort of odd growling sound accompanied by a few pops as Thyme came puttering around the bend on a small wooden boat with quite a few holes in the side and a waterwheel spinning rapidly at the back. Thyme had on a captain’s cap with a pipe in their mouth. They had a coat on that was acting more like a cape, as it was completely open at the front and Thyme hadn’t even bothered to put the sleeves on. At least the pants and shoes were normal.

“Ahoy there yee landlubbers. Come aboard me mighty vessel and I shall tell you the rules for this here race you’ll be participating in!” announced Thyme.

Kress eyed the boat sceptically. *I’m pretty sure that there isn’t even enough room for a full team of five let alone everyone else here.* Kress’ confusion was replaced with annoyance soon. He’d made a critical error in forgetting that Thyme was a powerful space manipulator, as proved when Marigold rushed onto the boat and quickly shrunk down as she stepped on the gangplank.

Marigold looked up at the ‘giant’ time and let out a giggle, before running onto the boat. Seeing this, everyone else quickly followed in an orderly manner, shrinking as they made their way down the gangplank. Kress decided it was very strange just how normal it felt. Every step made them shrink by around a third of their height, and yet it didn’t feel the slightest bit weird.

Once they got inside everyone started taking up a spot on the rickety looking wooden beams. Of course, they only looked like that while at normal height. When you were tiny, all the little nicks and scratches turned into surprisingly comfy seats. Once everyone had found some crevice to rest in the boat started moving again, sounding much more impressive from their shorter height.

The now giant sized pipe in Thyme’s mouth was shaken out over the contestants as a smaller Thyme fell out. This one was dressed in a matching outfit to the one above, just a much more reasonable size. “Once again, I give ya an honest ahoy. Yee have yar own boat ta be winning so I best be going over da rules! Hehehe, best be droppin the funny talk as well,”

Thyme shook their whole body out from head to toe, water leaking out… somehow as they did it. Eventually Thyme nodded, satisfied with the lack of water and began speaking again, “Right so it’s all going to be very simple here. This is a straight up race to the end, where interference will be met with a time penalty proportional to how much, and how intentionally you were messing with your competition.

“The only other rule is to stay inside of the boundary for the race, and the first person to finish will win. Of course, there are quite a few smaller details worth mentioning. The first section will be a swim. You’ll be dropped off a relatively short distance before your jet-skis and your best bet is to swim towards them as fast as possible. Everything is allowed, magic, strength, whatever as long as it doesn’t interfere with your competition.

“Once you get on the jet-skis, follow the marked path as far as you can until you find a rock formation. At that point you’ll need to ditch the jet-ski and dive into the water to finish the race. You can try to keep them with you if you want, but I’m telling you now, it’s probably not worth the effort.

“From there, you’ll need to swim underwater, ducking in and out of the air pockets that I’ve set up for you to ensure nobody drowns. There will be a giant air pocket at the bottom of the cave, so if you ever NEED air desperately remember to swim towards it. Just know that if you fall completely out of the water, you’ll be outside the course, and that may be considered a forfeit on your part. Ducking down there for a bit of air is fine, but the current means you’ll want to stay away from it if you can.

“This will eventually lead you up and out of the tunnels to a short stretch of open air, and the finish line. It will be rather obvious. A big checkered flag stretched out in front of a floating dock with this boat parked behind it. Yes, everyone not participating in the round will be moved over there to watch the race.

“Now, there will be some traps and roadblocks along your way. They should be easy to spot and you can avoid or remove them however you like as long as you stay in bounds, and once again, don’t overly interfere with your competition. A little pushing and shoving will be allowed as long as your just trying to make your way forward, but if it gets too much you’ll start getting seconds added to your final time.

“Of course… just to add a bit of extra incentive to ignore my previous warnings, the person who makes it to the finish line first will have all of their penalty time HALVED. So you’ll want to either keep it real clean, or make sure that you really are the first person past the line. Do you have any questions?”

Kress felt himself relaxing backwards into the wood. The rules, mostly, favoured their plan. If someone else got ‘first place’ it could give them the win even with Kress’ disruption, but when his own penalty score didn’t matter… well that seemed like quite the edge.

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