Chapter 723

“Is it possible to simply come up with a fresh quiz?” asked Blue, “I mean, it seems like the quiz was supposed to be the last round and even if the rest of us don’t participate, a two team quiz show seems like it could be interesting...”

Thyme seemed to consider the option for a few moments, but realistically, Thyme probably spent much longer internally considering the idea, “Hmm... I don’t think it would work. All the questions I prepped aren’t really built for a quiz show and I’d need to prepare a fresh suite of them. I could cobble it together yes, but...

“Turns out people are a lot pickier about quiz shows being included in things like this, especially when it comes for performance reviews. I need to balance the difficulty of the questions, ensure that each race has questions they are likely to find easy but still hard enough that other races are unlikely to have the answer.

“You have to avoid stereotypes, have to throw in a few math questions or similar things that are more about computational power. Then there are history questions... it took ages to get approval for them last time. While history is largely agreed on between the races, the kind of obscure trivia you want for a gameshow are less concrete. Even if I personally was around for the event in question it can still be an international incident waiting to happen.

“In fact, I’m not sure if Green remembers,” Thyme looked over to spot Green sleeping, “well never mind I won’t talk about the riddles. Umm... hmm... no probably shouldn’t bring up that quiz either. Blue... the quiz for you really wasn’t the same, it was about memorising parts of the maze and remembering details to be brought up later so not really applicable”

Thyme frowned at this, seeing as the examples weren’t really the best. “It seems I am lacking in easy examples. That’s fine. The point remains, that it’s much more complex then you might think to set up a quiz. I can and will do it, they’re fun, but I don’t really have the time if we want to wrap this up before the end of the day.”

“Well what is possible?” asked Irwin, “It hardly makes sense for us to keep suggesting things outside of your capabilities... I was never quite clear on exactly what you CAN do.”

.....

Thyme tapped their chin a few times. It would be a normal scene if Thyme hadn’t extended their finger into a vine to tap their chin without moving their hands to do it. “Hmm... well... I can construct things in a matter of moments but not design them, so if we had to re-use older sets that’s possible. Of course, you know I can heal you up from the brink of death” Thyme paused to whisper, “and a little past it.” before continuing, “I’ve got several islands that have never been properly explored before available for wilderness survival...

“Hmm... what else... I can teleport you just about anywhere though that takes a little bit of time to set up for long distances only like five or so minutes so that’s not a major issue. The permission to use wherever we go is more likely to be a problem. Hmm... I have a large storage warehouse with practically infinite food... probably a few other things. I think I’ve covered most of the important ones. My combat capabilities and other such things probably won’t come up...”

“They could if we were to fight ya,” said One, “Might be a challenge to see who can last the longest!”

Thyme frowned heavily, “I have Time Affinity though. I can just... stop time and throw you out of the ring. Nobody here is really strong enough to stop it. Even if I didn’t use it, I’m still so much faster that it wouldn’t make all that much of a difference. It’d also be very hard to limit myself in strength to your level... because I’m not entirely sure I was ever conscious and as weak as you all. So hard to judge really,”

The room descended into silence again. Nobody on the two ‘winning’ teams really liked One’s idea, but at least it was an idea. “Still, why don’t we just fight?” said Kress, “Either a one on one, a serious of one on ones, maybe do a last man standing solo match? There are all sorts of fights we could do, and they’re simple to set up. Just need a basic arena and some rules.”

Irwin took a deep breath and looked over at his teammates. Sandy looked ready to go, not really able to contribute much last round. Fir had similar thoughts though was trying to hide it, and failing in front of Irwin’s gaze. Merick wasn’t terribly concerned either way... but Kevin. Kevin saw the type of punishment Kat had taken, and still wasn’t sure that final hit knocked her out. He’d been burnt pretty badly just from being NEAR Nell’s final last ditch effort and was not keen to fight after seeing Kat’s strength.

“What do you all think?” asked Irwin in a whisper. Thyme snapped his fingers to set up a sound barrier around the group, blocking those like Kat with excellent hearing.

“I want nothing to do with a fight,” said Kevin. “You didn’t see Kat fighting. I don’t think any one of us could actually beat her in a fight. In a group, I can’t imagine it would be much better. She can disrupt us in so many ways...”

Fir slapped him on the back, “Don’t be a wuss lad. Sure we’d have to fight the demon chick but if we petition for ‘ring out’ as a condition that could be a big point in our favour. Don’t fight her, just get Irwin to throw her out of the ring. Problem solved. She might be tough but she’s a dainty thing.”

Irwin nodded but didn’t say anything, looking over at the human brothers. Sandy was about to speak when Merick jumped in first, mostly just because he could, “I don’t really care one way or the other. We have to fight them in some way. I’d rather it be simple. A contest of strength, a battle, whatever it doesn’t really matter.”

Sandy glared at his brother and made his opinion known, “I’d like to go for the fight, a smaller ring this time. My sand can shred through any of them I’m sure. We just need another chance to show them whose the boss,”

“I’m telling you guys, we’re gonna lose if it comes down to a fight,” hissed Kevin.

“You can’t even hold onto a spear,” laughed Fir, “why should we trust ya to correctly evaluate a threat?”

Irwin slammed his hand on the railing, a loud thump that got everyone’s attention before things could escalate. “Stop trying to bait Kevin into accepting when he doesn’t want to. Kevin, everyone else seems either interested or ambivalent. If we do accept a martial contest can you keep your head on straight and do well?”

Kevin bit his lip hard, drawing a slight bit of blood as he tried to calm himself down. “I... I can. I know I’m not going to die. It’s not fear that prevents me from acting,” which was a lie, they could all see it. “but certainty that I couldn’t beat her. If we DO decide on a fight or a series of fights or whatever... I’m willing to put forth my full effort. I just don’t want to be fighting Kat. Or Gareth really. Maybe I should just fight the healer...”

“Ay ya pansy, sure we’ll let you loose to the healer,” snorted Fir.

Irwin glared at the dwarf who just kept his smug grin. Irwin sighed, running a hand over his face. He wondered sometimes, why he put up with the amount of work it took to keep the team together. Then he remembered how much worse the standard adventurer rabble was and promptly threw away that idea. Especially with fools like the ones who used dynamite underground managed to get to this round.

Over back at Kat’s area Kress was coming up with more good ideas for once. “I’ve got it. How about this, we agree to a fight, but each team gets to add one rule. Five rules each, and we announce them one after the other. So say... we start as basic free for all as a baseline. Lose condition everyone is unconscious or temporarily cripple,

“Then say... they add in that... fighters fight one at a time. We fire back with winner stays in the arena or something. They add in... o... I dunno, after five minutes you can add another fighter or something and things keep going like that. It makes it as much about adding in beneficial rules as it is about the fight.”

“I hate to agree with Kress... but that actually sounds like a wonderful idea,” said Nixilei.

The group looked over at Green, saw she was sleeping, and turned their eyes to Kat, knowing that Gareth would mediate if necessary. It wasn’t though, because Kat also liked the idea, “I’m with Kress as well. Sounds good,”

Green let out a light sneeze and everyone froze, as if scared to wake her up. For about half a second. *Wait why am I worried? Green can sleep through Thyme’s speech she can sleep through some minor chatter.*