30. First Contact

I had appreciated the main Bank making an appearance. It had certainly been an essential part of my Crystal’s upgrade. Having it here, though, had been like having an important guest in my home. I’d been on my best behavior, and I hadn’t felt entirely comfortable with it around. Now it was gone, I could relax.

‘When you are ready, you are welcome to withdraw your roots,’ my Crystal requested of the Mark of the Lagerel. ‘I appreciate your support, and I can manage it from here.’

The Lagerel bowed as well as a tree can, and its roots started withdrawing from the walls. As it did, all the damage smoothed over and vanished. The doors flew back to their rightful place and rehung themselves. The spiral stairs reformed, and the fog misted away.

The same thing happened to the floor, and it soon looked like an earthquake had never occurred. Once the hall was together, I noticed that although it had the same things in the same places, it looked different. It took me a moment to realize that everything had a lot more detail now. Before, all the doors had been similar. Now, they had different wood grains and seemed to hang in slightly different ways. The tiles on the floor had a new texture, and every tile was different. Even the cushions on the couches were distinct from each other.

The entire hall felt more real, and although the difference was subtle, it made the place feel more comfortable and homey.

‘Thank you,’ my Crystal spoke to my Marks and my awakened charms. ‘I am deeply grateful to all of you for your assistance and encouragement in my time of need. I hope to one day return the favor. For now, please return to your normal activities. I can handle things from here.’

Penny bowed and left first with the Mark of the Deep Earth right behind her. The Mark of the Lagerel and Eggy gently touched the Crystal and had a few words in private. Then they left too.

Now that everyone had left, the hall seemed empty. I took a quick look around, but nothing remained broken. It was all back to normal.

I walked up to my Crystal and gave it a long hug. It seemed slightly warmer than it had been.

‘How are you?’ I asked.

‘I am changed,’ it replied. ‘I’m still me. But I’m different too. In some ways, I’m so much more. In others, I feel less than before. It is a strange feeling.’

‘I’m sure it is,’ I said sympathetically. ‘It’s probably going to take a while to get used to your new abilities.’

We stood there in silence for a moment.

‘I appreciate your concern,’ it said finally. ‘I would also appreciate it if we could conclude our business. This situation has been much more traumatic than I ever expected, and I’m looking forward to having some time to myself.’

The Crystal sounded more formal and reserved than normal. I guess it realized it sounded a bit dismissive as it hurried to add, ‘I feel like the hobbit that has had a long adventure, and now I’m ready for a spot of tea and a nap.’ Then it twinkled in laughter. ‘And maybe a second breakfast after that.’

The humor, more than anything, told me that my Crystal was going to be alright.

‘I can certainly appreciate a good nap,’ I replied lightly. ‘So let’s get down to business, shall we? We did all this to acquire the cartography skill, so let”s do it. You have my permission to spend the pearls.’

The Crystal flashed with light.

‘Done,’ it declared.

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Now, how long do you need to install the skill?’ I figured this was a bit like installing a new game. The Crystal probably needed to download the ‘software’, install it, and go through a setup. Even with a fast internet connection, that usually took a while.

‘It is installed,’ it declared.

‘Really!?’ I was shocked.

‘I’m surprised myself,’ it said. ‘The main Bank wasn’t wrong when it said I needed to upgrade.’

It twinkled, and a stream of lights directed my attention to part of the wall behind me. A bookcase had vanished, and in its place now hung a huge map. It wasn’t any ordinary map, though. It was a fantasy map with castles, stylized monsters, cool cartography symbols, and an insanely detailed border. The map itself had accents of gold, silver, copper, and cobalt. Best of all, it was alive. The monsters growled and moved about. Flags on the castles waved in the wind, and tiny wagons traveled the roads.

The closer I looked, the more details I saw, and the more impressed I became. I didn’t think the map represented any real place, but as an illustration of a skill, it was fascinating.

‘Even at level seven, this skill would have been a bit much,’ my Crystal continued. ‘With my current abilities, however, I find it simple to work with. Now, I have a few simple suggestions to get us started.

‘First, I would suggest you give Annabeth access to your maps as well as designate her as a special marker. You can also give access to John, Sandy, and Tyler, although you can’t put a marker on them until you see them again. Since I’m sharing my cartography ability, make sure my marker shows up as well.’

‘That sounds good,’ I said. ‘Make it so.’

‘Second, I would recommend you let me integrate the skill into your heads-up display,’ it said. ‘Specifically, I would suggest integrating the Best Path subskill. That will show you the best places to step as you move through the tunnels. In addition, I would suggest integrating trap detection, monster detection—both neutral and hostile—as well as anything worth points.’

‘I like all that,’ I agreed. ‘Make it so.’ Using that catch phrase made me feel like Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek, which was a fun feeling. ‘In addition to that, just add in anything else you think might be useful as we move along. If it gets to be too much, I’ll let you know.’

‘Of course,’ my Crystal replied. It twinkled a bit but remained silent. I guess that was the end of the setup. Time for me to leave.

I sent one last feeling of warmth and support, and then let my focus return to the tunnel and the tournament. To my surprise, Bermuda was asleep in my back pouch, and Annabeth was sitting on the moss meditating.

“How long was I away?” I asked.

“About thirty minutes,” Annabeth replied. To my surprise, she didn’t sound upset. I knew I would have been if a teammate stopped for no obvious reason and just stood there for half an hour. I guess she was used to me being weird.

“So, how did it go?” she asked. “I’m still not sure what you were up to.”

“My Bank Stamp recommended I buy a cartography skill,” I said. “It was expensive as hell, and what I didn’t realize was that I’d need to upgrade my Crystal in order to run it.” I sent a message with images showing a condensed version of what had happened.

“Oh my goodness,” Annabeth laughed. “I can’t believe all that happened while you were standing there. No wonder it took a while.”

“I’m just glad it didn’t take any longer,” I grimaced. “I’m sorry to leave you hanging like that.”

“It was fine,” Annabeth brushed it off. “I used that time to meditate and run the healing cycle. I feel much better now. Anyway, have you turned your skill on? What does it look like?” She sounded excited, like she was getting a Christmas present.

“Hang on,” I said. Then I laughed as she gave me a poke to get my butt in gear. I quickly turned on my Heads-up Display––and gasped in shock.

I was looking at an insane amount of information. There was a scene in The Terminator where he walked into a bar and we got to see it from his eyes. As he looked around, items were highlighted with outlines complimented by text explaining the object.

This was like that, only on steroids.

It seemed like everything I looked at was outlined and calling for my attention. The moss, the flowers, the walls, the ceiling—it all was highlighted and begging for me to look at it.

It was all just too much.

‘Turn off the highlights!’ I commanded, and my Crystal quickly complied.

Whew. That was better. Now, what was going on here?

I focused on one tiny flower and allowed only that to highlight. As I read the description, I realized what had happened.

It was all worth points—the moss, the flowers, lichen, everything. It was only a tiny fraction of a point, but it still counted. I’d told my Crystal to highlight anything worth points, which was exactly what it had done.

‘I know your brain is now level twenty-four,’ I said to my Bank Crystal, ‘and you can easily process all this, but it is too much information for me. I think it’s amazing you can analyze and show everything you did. I know you’re getting used to your new abilities, and I’m so proud of how far you’ve come. But in the future, if you think what you are offering will be too much, then ask if I want to narrow down the criteria a bit more.

‘In this case, I know everything is worth points, but it would take a long while to harvest enough moss to even get to one point. We need lots of points to get out of the negative, so that wouldn’t be a good use of our time. Not to mention how much magic it would take to store all that in my throne room.’

‘Understood,’ my Crystal replied. ‘I will consider what is implied in your requests in the future. If I have questions, I will ask. Unless you are in a battle, of course.’

‘That sounds wonderful,’ I said and sent an image of two people working happily together.

‘Going forward, I will limit my highlights to items that are worth at least one point and that will be easy to harvest,’ my Crystal said. ‘In addition, I’ll also limit the highlights of living creatures to a size larger than a hamster. Unless, of course, I detect a swarm of hornets or something hostile like that. Also, if you run into a flock of bats, that would fit the criteria but still be overwhelming.’

‘I think you’re getting the idea,’ I chuckled. ‘Just do your best, and we’ll figure it out as we go along. Now go ahead and turn the highlights back on again.’

This time, what I saw was actually manageable and helpful.

The first thing that jumped out at me was a giant slug sitting on the wall right beside us. It was as long as a car and seemed freaky as hell. It gave me chills just looking at it.

I hadn’t noticed it because it was perfectly camouflaged with the rock and had almost no aura. Now I knew what I was looking at, I could easily see it with my magic sight.

My magic gave me almost too much information about the world around me. I had to filter it out, just like a mundane did with regular sight. I couldn’t notice everything all the time.

Except now, it looked like my Crystal could do just that. It could take all this information I was receiving and process it better than I could. That was going to be a huge advantage moving forward.

I pointed out the slug to Annabeth, and she couldn’t figure out what I meant—it was camouflaged that well. Then she spotted it and got the heebie-jeebies just like me. We quickly moved several steps down the tunnel to get away from it. It didn’t seem hostile at all. But still, ewww.

The next thing I paid attention to was a tiny, luminescent flower that showed it was worth 1.223 points. It was slightly brighter than the other lights scattered around it, but that was the only additional clue that it had some value.

“Are there a lot more like it?” Annabeth asked after I pointed it out.

“I see two more,” I said, looking up and down the tunnel.

“I don’t know if it will be worth our time stopping to pick them,” Annabeth said thoughtfully. “Can you have one of your soul creations gather them for us?”

“Maybe,” I replied and asked one of the Surfer Dudes to harvest the flower and bring it to me. My concern was that even though the flowers were small, the stems they were attached to seemed thick and tough. To my surprise, my Dude had no problems performing the task.

For some reason, I thought of my soul creations as weak and barely able to lift anything. They were great with magic, of course, but lifting real world things wasn’t their forte.

‘You’re still used to the soul creations from before you became a supernatural,’ my Analytical Side spoke up. ‘Your punch rocket could barely tap the call button of an elevator, and you had to use all your power to levitate a penny or flick a lock. But you’ve moved beyond that now.

‘These soul creations have real forms with lots of detail, and they hold hundreds of times more magic than your old ones. They are much stronger and more powerful than before. You just haven’t really thought about it and adjusted your expectations.

‘After all, the Miners carved an entire tunnel through a cave for you. And your Ass Blaster 2000s carted away all the rock chips. I know you used thousands of soul creations for the job, but they still have a lot of power. You need to give them more credit.’

‘You’re right,’ I said, surprised. ‘That makes total sense. I wonder what else I could use them for?’

My mind started to wander, but I quickly pulled it back. I could run tests and figure out the limits of my creations at a later time. For now, we needed to get going.

‘Penny, can you store these flowers when the Surfers bring them to you?’ I asked.

‘Of course,’ she replied brightly.

My Surfers were fast, and it took less than a second for them to gather the other two glowing flowers. Penny stored them in special cubes in my Throne Room, and with that, we were ready to head out.

“Hop on,” I told Annabeth. “I’ve taken enough time. We can figure out the rest on the move.”

Bermuda grumbled at being disturbed, but Annabeth murmured soft words, and he settled back down again. Our guide seemed ready to go, and it wasn’t long before we were running through the tunnels again. After standing so long, it felt good to stretch my legs and run.

As soon as I started moving, my new Best Path feature showed up, and it took me a while to get used to it. It was super helpful and showed exactly where I needed to step for maximum stability and efficiency.

It was almost too helpful, though. My mind started going crazy trying to match where I was stepping to the exact footprint on the ground. I was sure the new skill was showing the best place to land, but it was throwing off my stride. I just needed to get in a rhythm and run.

Once again, my Crystal was very helpful, and we quickly settled on a new system. It showed a dashed line on the ground indicating the best path to progress down the tunnel. Anything dangerous, like a hole or trap, was highlighted in red. Any place it thought would be useful was highlighted in green.

That worked much better, and soon I picked up the pace. The floor was smooth, and the moss made it easy to run on, so I didn’t think much of the Best Path feature until we ran into our first traps.

Apparently, not all the slugs ate rocks. Some of them liked tasty creatures, although they weren’t fast enough to hunt them down. To compensate, they hid large drops of clear liquid among the moss to trap them. They worked like super glue. Once a creature stepped in the liquid, it hardened, sticking them to the floor. The slug then came out and slowly devoured the living morsel at its leisure.

Needless to say, our worker ant slowed down a lot and stepped very carefully through this area. At one point, I took the lead and expanded the Best Path skill. It charted the best route not only for a human, but also for an ant.

I became extra grateful for my new skill as we passed an ant that had been caught and was in the process of being devoured. I knew this was the circle of life and all, but it seemed like a horrible death. It was a vivid reminder that it wasn’t just the supernatural world that was brutal at times.

One thing I enjoyed as we covered more ground was seeing my map fill in. As I moved along, it recorded everything around me. And I do mean everything. If my magic sight could sense it, then it got recorded.

The map itself was full 3D and lurked in the upper right of my HUD as a faint outline. If I wanted, I could give it focus and play with it as I ran along. It stayed translucent, so I could still see where I was going. The detail was simply insane, and I had a lot of fun zooming in close and looking at a section of the tunnel we’d passed from a strange angle.

This would have been fantastic at Indifies’. I could have searched her whole house while sitting in the kitchen sipping tea.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying the map. My Crystal interfaced with Annabeth’s Stamp, and soon she was getting all the map info as well. Her interface was blocky compared to mine, but then her Stamp was still at level one. That didn’t stop her from having fun, though, and I think she relaxed a bit, knowing we could navigate better now.

We heard the sounds of fighting long before we saw them. We figured we”d found another team as the battle cries sounded human. They also sounded intense, like maybe a couple teams were taking on a whole cavern of monsters.

This was a perfect time to see how the new cartography skill worked with my soul creations, so I sent a Surfer Dude ahead of us to scout it out.

It turned out we were partially right—there was more than one team fighting. It seemed like two partial teams, team Everlasting Snow and team Immovable, had joined up to pool their talents.

Where we were wrong was that they weren”t fighting a whole cavern of red-eyes. They were fighting just one.

“That”s embarrassing,” Annabeth noted as we got closer. “Seven mages fighting one red-eye? There is no way they can be premier teams.”

“We”ll see in a minute,” I said. “They are having a rough time of it, though. They”ve already lost two members.”

I highlighted the two bodies on the ground. They had auras and seemed real, not placeholders, so I figured they weren’t out of the tournament yet. Maybe they had just been knocked out.

As for the cartography skill, it did an excellent job—updating the map like I was already there.

We both watched the fight as I ran closer, and it seemed like the two teams worked well together. Team Immovable followed the Path of the Protector and used large summoned shields to keep their opponent at bay. The other team, Everlasting Snow, followed the Path of Snow, and they were attacking from a distance with some sort of frost ray.

If they had been fighting a mage, they probably would have done pretty well. They were fighting a level two red-eye, though, and he was giving as good as he got.

As we knew well, it had a low center of gravity, giving it a powerful charge and the ability to stop and turn on a dime. That was giving the protection team fits. Between the three of them, they kept trying to box it in and contain it. But the red-eye wasn”t having it.

It slammed into their shields, easily knocking them back. It also used its powerful legs to grab their shields and attempted to yank them away. It succeeded more than once, leaving two protectors scrambling to defend as the third hurriedly summoned another shield.

It was easy to see how this could go very wrong, and it looked like it already had, as the two mages on the ground were from Team Immovable.

The Snow mages didn”t seem to be doing much better. The red-eye”s chitin was tough, and their frost bolts weren”t doing much damage. They were able to crack it a bit, but it wasn”t slowing the red-eye down at all.

Their saving grace was that the red-eye was all rage and no sense. More than once it had a protector backed into a corner and it could have finished him off, only to be distracted by another fighter.

It wasn”t long before we arrived at the fight. We settled against the wall to watch it firsthand. Annabeth switched from watching the map to using her new echolocation ability. There was so much noise already nobody seemed to notice the pings Annabeth was making. We were fairly close to the action, but since our super suits were gray and blended into the rock around us, nobody noticed we had arrived.

“All we need now is some popcorn,” Annabeth said jokingly.

The thought of fresh popcorn smothered in butter sounded delicious and made me realize how hungry I was.

“I don’t have popcorn, but I do have sandwiches,” I said brightly, pulling out a ham sandwich from my Throne Room.

“Oh my god! That sounds wonderful!” Annabeth grabbed the sandwich and took a huge bite. I pulled out another sandwich and followed suit.

It was made with ham, mustard, and pickles, which wasn’t a combination I’d normally go for. But it was delicious.

Before I knew it, I’d finished it off, licked my fingers clean, and started on my next one. Annabeth was right behind me.

For the next few minutes, I ate, watched, and enjoyed some of the best moments since I’d entered the underground. Watching someone else fight was a lot more fun than doing it myself.

Both teams were burning through a lot of magic. The Protector’s shields were high quality and big enough to cover them from head to toe, so when the red-eye ripped one of them away, it took a lot of magic to make a new one.

The Snow mages were using the most power, though. Their frost bolts were filled with magic, but they still didn’t seem to do that much damage. The bolts themselves were slow and lacking details. If both teams didn’t change their tactics soon, they were going to lose.

“Do you think we should help them?” I said. I was joking, of course. I had no desire to get hit with more penalties.

“I wish we could,” Annabeth replied, taking me more seriously than I’d intended.

I gave her leg a gentle pat. “You are too kindhearted for your own good.”

“I know,” she sighed. “Well, that and I’d kind of like to show them how it’s done. I can’t believe they are doing this badly with that many mages!”

“I take it all back,” I laughed. “You’re just a bloodthirsty battle brawler.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she chuckled. “I just feel a strong urge to ‘teach the children.’ Isn’t that how the drag queens say it?”

“If you”re gonna quote drag queens, you gotta add some snaps or tongue pops into the mix,” I said, giving her three snaps in a Z formation. Annabeth tried that herself, but it came off hopelessly muddled. Mainly because she was still riding me like a backpack. That doesn’t give a whole lot of room for a sassy attitude.

We both laughed and switched over to tongue pops, which worked out a lot better. We were having so much fun, we almost missed when the battle shifted.

Team Everlasting Snow realized they needed to do something different. So rather than peppering the ant anywhere they could, they got in closer and started focusing on the joints where its legs joined its body. That seemed to finally do the trick, and the red-eye started slowing down.

That let Team Immovable get more aggressive, and they were able to shield bash its front legs and knock them off. That was the beginning of the end for the red-eye. They bashed and blasted two more legs and then eventually beat it into submission.

The largest Protector finally wound up and smashed the ant over the head with everything he had, and it stopped moving. Most of the mages were so tired they immediately sank to the ground with grateful groans.

For a moment, all was peaceful. The teams had a drink to rehydrate themselves, and one of them even pulled out a candy bar for a snack. There were only two of them still on their feet, one Snow and one Protector, when the red-eye woke up and made its final move.

It rolled over top of a Snow mage and started savaging him with its mandibles. Entrails and blood went flying everywhere. The remaining mages shrieked in terror and surprise. Everyone jumped to their feet and let loose with everything they had left. This time they didn’t stop until the red-eye was truly vanquished and one of the team leaders had collected the points.

I knew what it was like to be tired and make mistakes. Yet, I still couldn’t help but feel that someone should have noticed the ant wasn’t dead. Now they were down one more team member.

“Damn it!” said the woman who I was pretty sure was the leader of Everlasting Snow. “This round has been so much tougher than I expected. I’m almost out of magic.”

“It”s been rough for us too,” said the main guy of team Immovable. “We’re down two teammates as well. I didn’t think these bloody ants would be so challenging.”

He went over and checked on one of the unconscious bodies. I guess he didn’t like what he saw because he swore in obvious frustration. Finally, he put his hand in the air and announced aloud, “As the leader for my team, I declare his surrender.”

There was a faint pop as the mage disappeared. He was now out of the tournament and getting the medical attention he needed.

“I didn’t know we could do that,” Annabeth said softly as the team leader went to check on the second unconscious mage. Once more, he declared his teammate’s surrender, and the mage vanished.

Again, it got quiet as the mages took a quick break. I thought they would be discouraged, but somehow most of them seemed happy. Two of them started talking, and I heard something like “At least we made it to round two.” I guess they were lower ranked teams and just making it as far as they had was a victory.

“What do you want to do now?” Annabeth asked.

I wasn’t entirely sure. The teams hadn’t seen us yet, so maybe we could backtrack a bit and go around them. Or maybe they were friendly enough that we could just walk past them with a pleasant “hello.”

Or maybe we could strike up a conversation and they would tell us where the exit was? I’d feel much better hunting down more red-eyes if we knew for sure how to get out of here when round two was finished.

I was about to ask Annabeth what she thought when one of the Snow mages screamed “Monster!!” and threw a frost bolt.

What?

Where?

I quickly scanned the space with my magic sight.

I didn’t see anything. There was just Annabeth, me, and our guide at this end of the tunnel.

Our guide!!!

The damn mage had shot at our worker!

As quick as thought, I sent what I needed to my Surfers, and they sprang into action. My Surfer Dudes are blazingly fast, and they easily caught the frost bolt and pushed it to the side.

Our poor five-legged friend quickly turned around and started racing back out of danger. Meanwhile, the other mages jumped to their feet and started slinging frost bolts.

“Stop!” Annabeth shouted as I ran in between the mages and our worker. The Surfers made sure none of the bolts hit our guide, and Red took care of the bolts that hit us.

‘Tasty!’ Red crowed eagerly. ‘Like a frosty mug of beer! Bring it on!’

The mages were still firing, so Annabeth put her new skill to use.

“STOP!” she commanded, but this time she didn’t use her voice. Instead, she made the sounds using her magic like she did for echolocation, and the volume was at jet plane level. I had no idea how many decibels it was, but it shook my whole body.

Needless to say, that got their attention, and they all froze.

“Who are you?” the leader of team Immovable roared. Or he tried to. After Annabeth’s shout, he sounded thin and wimpy. “Where did you come from, and why are you defending that monster?”

“I’m Jason, and this is Annabeth,” I said. I tried to sound as friendly as possible, as I’d love to ask them a few questions. I was about to explain more of our situation and why I was carrying Annabeth when I suddenly realized it might not be a good thing to show weakness.

“We’re conjoined twins,” I explained. “Have been since birth.”

They all just stared at us in disbelief.

Annabeth snickered. She was used to my sense of humor, and fortunately, she thought I was funny.

“Mama always said it was efficient,” I continued. “She said it made it easier to spank both our butts at the same time.”

I smiled at them innocently as Annabeth snorted and almost lost it.

“Good one, kid,” the Immovable leader said. “I’m glad someone has enough energy left to be a smartass. Now get out of our way. We have a monster to kill.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” I said. “She’s with us.”

Again, everyone just stared at me like they couldn’t believe their ears.

“She’s not a red-eye,” I explained. “She’s a worker ant, not a monster. Even if you did kill her, she wouldn’t give you any points.”

“How the hell is she with you?” the leader growled.

“She’s our guide,” I said simply. “And our friend.”

The Immovable leader scowled and was about to say something else when he was interrupted by the Snow leader.

“Look! They”re the House team.”

I sighed as everyone’s gaze shifted to our identification. Sure enough, their expressions changed from incredulous to condescending.

“This could be our final score,” the Snow leader suggested. She was beyond condescending. Now she looked calculating and ruthless.

“They can’t put up much of a fight, being House rats and all. Plus, I don’t think they’re conjoined at all. They don’t even look like twins. I bet she’s injured and he has to carry her around.”

The Immovable leader nodded in agreement. “Injured or not, they are still worth the same points.”

“You don’t want to do this,” I said firmly, but I could already see that their other team members liked the idea.

“The monster looked much smaller than the one we just finished off, so it should be a lot easier to handle,” the Snow leader said. “Including these two, we could net sixty points, at least.”

“That would be a nice ending to our tournament,” the Immovable leader said.

“Very nice,” the Snow leader agreed, licking his lips in anticipation.

“I think we are going to have to kick some ass,” Annabeth said happily. The battle mistress was obviously ready to rumble. Despite being such a sweetheart, she really did have a bloodthirsty side.

“It’s time to teach the children,” I declared as the other mages looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

“Shields up!” the Immovable leader called.

It looked like this was happening. Oh well. More points for us.

“Since you haven’t charged up your shield charm, I suggest we continue to fight together,” I said to Annabeth.

“That works for me,” she replied, summoning her shillelaghs in both hands. “All hands to battle stations! Red Alert! Shields up!”

“Aye aye, captain,” I laughed. Someone had been watching too much Star Trek.

“Ready Phasers! Load the Photon Torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” Annabeth was having way too much fun.

Team Immovable finished summoning their shields and got into formation. Team Everlasting Snow spread out behind them so they had a clear field of fire.

They really were nice big shields. It was a shame they wouldn’t help them at all.

“Advance!” the Immovable leader called, and the three defenders started moving forward in lock step.

“Fire!” the Snow leader called, and the three remaining ranged mages began summoning their frost bolts.

Now it was my turn.

“Let there be Light!” I called—and my Flashers lit up the space like the surface of the sun.

The Snow mages screamed and fell back. They’d been looking right at me, so they’d gotten the worst of it. That took care of their ranged support.

To my surprise, team Immovable wasn’t affected at all. Maybe their shields had some sort of light protection?

Regardless, this just made the fight more interesting.

I quickly closed the distance between us as the three shield-bearers set their shields in the ground and braced for impact. If I’d been a mindless red-eye, that would have been a good strategy. But against an agile opponent, it was a terrible move.

I selected the guy on the right and ran right up to his shield. Then I pigeon-stepped around it. His eyes grew wide with shock as he realized there was nothing between him and me.

I punched him in the ribs, expecting his shield charm to kick in. To my utter surprise, it didn’t.

These guys had shields but no shield charms? That wasn’t very smart.

My first punch only knocked the breath out of him. I’d been expecting resistance, so I hadn’t focused my punch properly.

Fortunately, my second punch was already on the way. This time my relax-and-tense-on-contact was perfect. My fist crashed through his ribs and spread a shockwave of pure force inside him.

I rolled my punches, making them fly so fast he didn’t have time to scream or react before the third blow hit him. I felt more things break.

Before my fourth punch could land, the magic of the tournament whisked him away.

I couldn’t help but grin with the excitement of it all. This was what I’d trained for. This was how I expected a fight to go.

Fighting red-eyed monsters was rough. This was a lot more fun.

I thought the other two defenders would pause in surprise, but they were better trained than that. The guy who had been in the middle was now closest to me, and he lunged forward with a shield bash.

I could have easily pigeon-stepped around it as well, but I thought I’d let Annabeth have some fun too. I set myself in the earth, giving me stability even greater than the red-eyes, and grabbed his shield—stopping him cold.

He had too much momentum, and he almost ran into his own shield. He tried to recover and pull back, but Annabeth was having none of it.

She leaned forward over the top of his shield and thumped him with her shillelaghs.

Bap! Bap! Bap!

His skull rang like an empty nut. And just like that, he was out of the tournament as well.

Only one Immovable shield-bearer remained.

To my complete surprise, he grew his shield upward so it formed a dome over his head. Then he grew the shield around him so he was completely encased in a magical barrier.

I could have easily reached him before he was finished, but I let him continue, as I was curious to see what he was up to. I was always open to new ideas and strategies.

Once the last protector was completely encased, I continued waiting to see what he would do next. Nothing happened, so I waited a few moments more.

Still nothing.

I guess that was the extent of his strategy. I think maybe he hoped I’d just bash on his shell while the other mages used the time to recover their sight? If so, that was a terrible idea.

That might work well for an enraged monster that liked to hit things. However, another mage would just find easier targets. And that was exactly what I did.

There were three other mages, team Everlasting Snow, and they were still stumbling around blindly. The Flashers had been so bright that I figured it would be a long time before their eyes recovered enough to see in the dim light of the moss flowers again. And I wasn’t going to give them that chance.

I raced over to the nearest Snow mage and punched her out. The next mage I gave to Annabeth. I realized she was knocking them out of the tournament with a lot fewer injuries than I caused. They’d have a sore head for a few days, but they’d recover faster from that than broken ribs and bruised organs.

I didn’t particularly like this group—they had attacked us after all—but I didn’t hate them either. They were just playing by the rules of the game. There was no need to punish them or cause extra damage, so I asked Annabeth to also take care of the last Snow mage.

Frosty the Snow leader either heard us coming or remembered that she had mage sight, as she started shooting in our direction. The frost bolts were easy to dodge, however, as they were poorly formed and traveled slowly.

Even my Surfer Dudes thought they were slow, as they had fun surfing rings around them. The Dudes were usually a bit more serious, so it was nice seeing them have some fun. Once we reached Frosty, Annabeth quickly bapped her out of the tournament, leaving one mage remaining.

I jogged back to our turtling Protector and took a moment to examine his shield. In the front, where the regular shield part would have been, it was pretty detailed and solid. The rest of it was crap. His shell wouldn’t have stood up to a red-eye for long.

Annabeth gestured for me to take down his shell, and that is exactly what I did. I was in the mood to throw some punches and let off some steam. So I picked the best part of the shell, instead of the worst, and got to work. It was fun punching at high speed, and it brought back fond memories of hammering on Sparkles’ sandy chest. When all this was over, I was looking forward to training on the beach again.

Protector Turtle was no Sparkles, though. It only took about eight punches for his shell to waver. At twelve punches, it was flexing wildly. At a mere fourteen punches, it fell. The darn thing only stood up for about three seconds. That was hardly any fun at all.

Annabeth bapped him out of the tournament, and that finished up the fight. The dragonfly had already collected our points, so we were good to go.