Chapter 106: Two realms, One Tournament

The girls didn’t care about their score temporarily and were thinking of their next move. With only 14 teams left and 2 of them being their ally schools, Nyxara deduced they really only needed to be the last ones standing and obtain the mythological crystal heart to win. The thing they couldn’t figure out is whether or not the tournament ended when the 7 days were over or when all the teams were eliminated. Those rules weren’t made clear.

In Dean Pritchett’s command center, he was considering the possibility of adding a timer to the tournament to give all teams a head’s up and the audience a better idea of when the forest would change again. He made several calls to the chairman, board of directors as well as the fellow deans before he finally decided to do it.

The girls were keeping an eye out for any potential teams while relaxing together in the cave. The scores had only slightly changed from beast kills and all 14 teams still remained. The top 5 teams remained the same, but they had fallen into last place. They heard a portal open and saw Tyler walk through, alone.

"Hey Tyler!" They screamed with joy.

"Hey ladies. Amanda is resting in Esper’s inn. I have to keep this portal open so we have to protect it at all costs. What do you think we should do to get some points?" He asked while hugging and kissing each of them.

"I’ll stand guard and watch if you want to go out and hunt down some beasts or teams," Kass suggested.

"We shouldn’t be alone. I’ll stay with you," Nyxara said sternly.

"Sophie and I will go fly out and scout the area for potential beasts and look for the golden heart. If there’s any sign of danger..." Tyler stopped because he didn’t have a plan for that. He didn’t think that far ahead.

"The portal stays open to Esper’s inn and only closes if you close it. Nyxara could teleport to you and go right back to the portal. You could send one of us with her and close it after she leaves," Ritsu suggested.

"That’s a good idea. That way, if anything, they’re in Esper’s inn and safe. It would be hard to win with just Sophie and I though, so we have to hope that doesn’t happen." Tyler said calmly.

"Hey Tyler, look!" Kass shouted, noticing an addition to the top of the scoreboard.

3 hours and 21 minutes until Day 3’s forest reset.

"Nice! Now we know when the forest changes itself. Alright, Sophie, let’s get going!" He said excitedly while grabbing her hand.

*****

Deep within the forest, the leader of the Eidolons looked into the sky, annoyed.

"So they’re giving their viewers and students a timer now. Interesting."

"Should we change it sooner?" One of the other seven high ranking Eidolons suggested while sitting next to the head Eidolon.

"No. We have specifically built this on a 24 hour cycle to spawn an endless supply of beasts. If we mess with the time, we don’t get an unlimited number of respawns at all the sights we’ve set up hives and clusters at."

"Very well. Any news from our inside source?" A smaller, less human-looking Eidolon, covered in blue scales asked.

"No. They’re blocked and locked in a cave right now and don’t seem to care that they’ve fallen to last place." The large, black scaled leader said.

"Should we send some hellspawns to make this a little more interesting?" One of the other Eidolons laughed.

*******

Tyler linked with Ash and was flying through the sky while mapping the area. He found it strange that an additional 2% was covered but they hadn’t seen anything but beasts, which they killed easily. They eventually noticed a large cluster of harpy’s flocked around their queen.

’Inspect the Harpy nest,’

[300 Guardian level harpy’s protecting the legendary Harpy Eidolon: ShiShi. Harpy’s are half human, half bird and will stop at nothing to protect their queen, despite all of them being female. They use high pitch screams and lightning magic.]

"Hey Sophie, do you think we should take down that nest of Harpy’s?" Tyler asked while screeching to a stop in the air.

"That’s a lot of them. I’m sure we could take them out, but their high pitched screeches might be a problem for our ears and it’ll give away our location. Why don’t you try summoning someone?"

"I was thinking about Leviathan but I don’t want to reveal one of my biggest summons so soon. Maybe I could have Ritsu go in her Gaia form and smother them with earth and sand?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, that would work. I could use some Qi-infused Earth magic as well but the second they see you, they’re going to fly to us very quickly," Sophie said calmly, not hesitant, but not eager to dive in and attack the nest either.

"Ritsu, I need you to use your Gaia form and cause a giant mudslide to pour from the sky. Shadow, Vivian, Maximus and Rex, I need you to attack from the different positions and I’m going to get out of the sky, link with Leviathan and have Ash use fire-based attacks to keep them away from me." Tyler ordered his group.

"Don’t link with me against a harpy next Tyler," Leviathan said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Oh, right...They’re lightning based and you’re water based."

"Not only that, you just said you didn’t want to reveal one of your biggest summons. Why would you then link with me?" Leviathan finally relaxed, thankful Tyler realized his flawed thinking.

Tyler shook his head, disappointed in himself. "I should know better. Sorry, this is mentally exhausting. I’m sure it isn’t for any of you either so I appreciate you being blunt and direct about it."

"Nope, if I’m being honest this tournament sucks!" Shadow complained.

"If any of you need to vent I’m all ears. I get it, being locked in this forest with a bunch of beasts and Eidolons and other schools killing everyone to try and get their own points pissed me off when it was announced."

"It’ll be ok Tyler. Just make sure we hit these harpy’s fast and hard otherwise we’re going to be calling up Leviathan to make a massive whirlpool and drown the bitches." Ash smirked.

"Sorry Sophie. Ok, we’re ready. I’m going to take us to the ground and we’re going to try and take them out as quickly as possible. You ready?"

"Yup! You weren’t spacing out for that long but I think it’s so cute when you’re talking to them." Sophie smiled, admitting that she didn’t mind waiting for him.

"Thanks babe." Tyler said as they landed on the ground and he deactivated his link with Ash.

"Now!" Tyler whispered, so Sophie heard the command. Each of his familiars took a different position while Ritsu floated into the sky before turning into her Gaia form and casting a large spell that caused a mudslide over the Harpy’s nest.

*****

"So, in two weeks we will marry Tyler. Are you nervous yet?" Kass asked Nyxara, blushing.

"No, are you?" She smirked.