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

--- Kat ---

Around lunchtime Posey flipped open the grass on the ground to reveal a trapdoor, halting the spar and grabbing everyone's attention. "Nixilei has requested your presence for a meeting," said Posey.

Kat glanced at Lily. *Was… was that always there?*

[No. I did feel something shifting in the space before she arrived but I had no idea what it was. It wasn't until she opened the trapdoor… if it can even be called that… that I felt the space snap into place.]

Weird… but I guess we can take a look if we follow her? "Thanks for delivering the message… do we like follow you back to the room or make our own way there?" asked Kat.

"If you are willing to follow me immediately I can make a slight detour to your rooms before heading back to my post," answered Posey.

"Cool, we'll follow you then," said Kat as Lily jumped into her arms and Eleanora came over from her post watching the door. Posey nodded at them all and stepped downwards, leaving the trapdoor open when she did so. Kat glanced down the hole and saw that Posey had climbed up the railings for a staircase to get to them. The railings were rather wide and clearly meant to be stood on if you knew about the door… but who knew about the door?

Regardless, Kat hopped down onto the staircase proper wincing a bit when the wood groaned under her weight. Posey didn't even bother turning around, she just kept moving forward towards their destination. It didn't take long. They finished going down the stairs, ducked through a closet and came out underneath a fish tank, then slid a bookcase to the side and suddenly they were back outside of their rooms. Kat nodded to Posey and stepped inside as the maybe ghost elf left them to it.

Eleanora paused at the edge of the doorway, causing Kat to turn back. "What's up?"

"I suspect Nixilei wants to speak on the tournament tomorrow. I can offer to go get food from one of the more distant restaurants so as to have an excuse to be absent for much of the discussion," said Eleanora.

"I'm not sure that's necessary…" said Kat.

"But it IS something I'm offering. I can also do a few other things such as check in with Malve, and I am quite confident you will be fine from outside influence here… but I suspect Nixilei would be less then impressed if I showed up for the strategy meeting alongside you," stated Eleanora.

"Look, maybe that IS true… and I'm not sure it is… but why not come in first and we can all suggest a place together or something? Maybe let her see you being thoughtful with her own eyes?" offered Kat.

"If that's what you wish mistress," smiled Eleanora.

Kat sighed and walked over to the connecting door, pulling it open. She was surprised to note that Kress was currently missing from the room. Kat didn't know what that meant but she decided to make the offer now, "Eleanora's just offered to go grab some food from across the city so that she's away for a while… anywhere you want to get food from? And is that something you guys want?"

Gareth looked uncertain but Nixilei jumped at the chance, "Yes please. I would like for you to get as the banquet option at Sliding Vines,"

Eleanora bowed and simply walked away after the order was given. When the doors were heard shutting Gareth glared and said, "Really? Sending her to the one restaurant you know is on the opposite side of the city?"

Nixilei shrugged. "She can teleport it's fine,"

Gareth's frown lessened a bit but didn't go away. "Alright… but why not just give her a time to be away for instead of sending her so far away?"

Nixilei shrugged, "Because that's not really how the game is played? We can all say I made a slightly unreasonable request but I didn't just remove her from the meeting? Truthfully I doubt it matters much with Eleanora but her reports will probably be read at some point so this is more for them instead. Arguably I am also being a bit cautious… but not all that much I suppose,"

"Alright… next question then, where's Kress?" asked Kat.

"On his way," answered Gareth. "Posey should've delivered the message to him at this point… though we don't really know what travel time is like here. Green and I haven't really gone anywhere,"

Kat nodded and made her way to one of the open chairs to wait for Kress. Once she sat down Nixilei shrugged and said, "Right so… Kress already knows a bit of what we're discussing here but the idea is to try and work out a plan for the final round of the tournament based on what we know,"

"Why not do this earlier?" asked Kat.

"Because the final rounds of the tournament tend to be fairly distinct and none of us truly felt like we could guess what Thyme will have planned out for us. This is more… a study session for the past. The idea was to do it once we were safely in the city more as a teamwork and brainstorming exercise then a serious planning session and… you saw how that turned out," explained Nixilei.

"Alright fair," sighed Kat. "So… just going over the previous final rounds?"

Nixilei nodded. "Yes. See… the issue is that the final round is usually one of two things. It's either a major escalation of the previous rounds… or something completely different. Yet Thyme has managed to make each of their rounds fairly distinct and… honestly quite close to what we'd expect from a final round in previous tournaments. Plenty of them were simply one on one, or team based fights in various arenas with a final tournament in a similar vein.

"You have to understand Kat, that for all the prestige of the tournament it isn't usually… quite so complex. Even the more unique ones we have had in the past never quite reached the scale Thyme has set down. The fancier ones tended to get re-used a few times either within their own tournaments or in the years to come. Usually through deals to justify the cost…

"Thyme really didn't need to do ANY of that so… it's hard to work out what Thyme is thinking here. Considering we've already had 'final round' levels of uniqueness and spectacle it's really hard to work out how things could be pushed further forward," Kat glanced back at Kress who stepped into the room as Nixilei was finishing up her explanation. He was wearing swim trunks and had clearly been in the pool because he was still dripping water on the floor.

Kress nodded to them all and then dashed into one of the other rooms for a few moments. With Green yawning and waking up a bit. Perhaps Gareth had nudged her when Kat wasn't looking? Regardless, it just took a few minutes for Kress to get back outside and take a chair himself.

"So… as I was saying, studying the past might get us some ideas but I'm not holding out any hope," sighed Nixilei. "The easiest ones to examine are the ones that are just straight up tournaments. Either team based or individual based, and how the fights went down. Anyone want to chime in with a bit of strategy for them?"

Kress shrugged, "I'm not sure how much it would matter. Usually they're fights that come after a series of previous fights. People should have an idea of how you fight at that point. The only thing you can do is work on a trump card or two… but not everyone can just pull one of those out their ass,"

Nixilei grimaced but nodded. "Crude but not entirely wrong. I do thing there's some strategy to explore here but… I can see that it's not the most interesting thing to examine,"

"Well," Green hopped up. "Another suggestion could be, especially in the group rounds, to have just Kat beat people up?" Nixilei gave Green a deadpan look. "No, no I'm serious. Not only would it hide our abilities but it would piss of our opponents. I'm confident Kat can beat them even with her physical abilities restrained and if they ever DO manage to get the best of her I could be ready to snipe them and then we all jump in… but I bet we could take out one or two teams before really needing to try,"

"Green… do remember this is supposed to be the finals, where only the best of the best teams are found. If we assume it's a round robin that's still on four fights, and we might fight the toughest opponents first," grumbled Nixilei.

Green shrugged, "I still think Kat can beat them… but sure, what about going the other way? Have Kat mostly just harass people from the air while we deal with everyone else? Make Kat's role as minimal as possible for the first one or two rounds before she takes on more responsibility?"

"Hmm… not guaranteed to work but it is an interesting plan," added Gareth.

Nixilei sighed, "Let's just go over some of the other final rounds…"