Scarlet

“Welcome back everyone, to the third day of the competition!” King Oberon declares, his voice echoing throughout the stadium as the contractors within it cheer. And from what I heard when I left the universe last night, the sapient demons and humans all across Tartarus and Earth are no different. In fact, they tend to be even louder since they’re all regular humans and demons.

Although there aren’t very many demons that aren’t contracted. If any.

In fact, the only demons I see outside of this little universe are the non-sapient ones who have no reason to watch.

“Tomorrow will be the last day of the first round of the competition!” King Oberon continues, surprisingly a little. “We will be having the sixth, seventh, and eighth competitions today, and the ninth and tenth tomorrow. Then the fae and partner teamwork competitions will begin three days after that!”

At least we’re being given a break between them. Not that it would matter as much considering that the second round of the tournament isn’t directly combat related.

I glance at Tar who is on my shoulder as I briefly wonder what the third round would entail.

The king mentioned that you fae already know what will be in it, so are you able to tell me?

Tar shakes his head without saying anything.

Darn.

“Now let’s get to the competition!” King Oberon shouts with excitement clear in his voice right as the rules for the next competition appear at the center of the stadium.

Race to the Finish

Description: All Competitors will be placed in a puzzle house filled with monsters and puzzles where they must split off into teams of two. They will then be required to complete the puzzle in each room to move on to the next room. Meanwhile other teams may spend points to send monsters to the other competitors rooms or increase the difficulty of their puzzles.

Rules: Directly killing other competitors is not possible. Anti-death clause is allowed. Bonus Points will be granted on a speedrun basis, giving those who finish each room faster more points. Bonus Points are granted for killing monsters.

Goal: Reach the end of the puzzle house first.

Rewards: First place gets one hundred points. Second place gets seventy-five points. Third place gets fifty points. And all competitors may keep the points they accrued throughout the competition.

“This time around there will be no direct combat between the competitors! It will also be a team competition, so no one can complete this alone!” the king shouts, making me purse my lips slightly. Then the king snaps his fingers, making a large metal box appear beneath us with the walls partially see through. “There will be a total of fifteen different rooms, each filled with monsters who will try to stop you from completing the puzzles. And as the description says, competitors will be getting access to a new menu that they can use to either send monsters at other competitors or increase the difficulty of the other competitors puzzles. A much more indirect method of combat than the previous competitions, if I do say so myself.”

The audience seems to like it considering the excitement I can practically feel pulsing from them in their cheers.

But a team puzzle… I’m not gonna bother spending my points on other competitors, but… why do I get a bad feeling about this?

“Because everyone’s probably going to target you with their points,” Tar points out.

Right. Yeah. That’s gonna be annoying.

They’ll probably realize that sending monsters won’t be very effective against me rather quickly though, so it’ll probably just end up being them increasing the difficulty of my puzzles.

I was wanting to team up with Aria for this. She’s always been good at puzzles, and I’d be able to defend her from the monsters.

But if we’re gonna be targeted…

“Rowena just contacted me,” Tar says out of nowhere, making me glance towards where Aria is. “She said that Aria doesn’t care if you’re targeted. She doesn’t want to work with anyone other than you.”

Oh.

A smile spreads across my face.

In that case…

I nod my head towards Aria, still smiling. And she immediately pumps her fists into the air in excitement, which I notice Oberon glancing at without saying a word. Just smiling. If you can call that a smile, considering that he’s, well, in the form of a dragon.

Adorable.

The king seems to be waiting a bit for people to decide on teams, and after a few minutes have passed, he spreads his wings and exclaims, “Now that everyone has decided on their teams, let this competitioooooon…” I’m teleported into some sort of training hall looking room, “begin!”

I raise my head, feeling slightly surprised that I heard his voice even after entering the arena. But I don’t hear anything else from him or the audience, so it was probably just a one-time thing.

Anyways, I turn to find Aria fidgeting, clearly wanting to hug me but not daring to considering my Red Plague clothing. Which has made things a little awkward.

Thankfully she is a very smart child and knew not to hug or touch my clothes after I started wearing Red Plague clothes.

Even if she doesn’t like it.

I dismiss the clothing on my right sleeve and pat her on the head, making her smile brightly at me.

“This is where you shine, little one,” I tell her with a smile on my face. But to my surprise, she just shakes her head and grins rather maniacally.

As if she has something sneaky in mind.

I raise a brow in amusement.

This ought to be good.

Then again, despite how adorable she is, Aria really does have a devious mind. I know that just from how she fights in the Fractures I’ve followed her in just to make sure she knew how to fight. Since she kind of begged me, and the demons wouldn’t dare do anything too bad with me being there.

Even if it meant she didn’t get any EXP from it. Just the experience of fighting.

I wasn’t gonna let a child fight against demons on her own though, so it was a compromise.

She was very devious in how she handled it though.

“What do you have in mind?” I ask, a grin splitting my own face as well.