Chapter 116: Deal or No Deal?

The battle continued, but with Kass and Amanda now conscious and attacking, it was only a matter of time before fireworks blasted into the sky. The Victorian captain destroyed their box of potions and gear, not wanting to leave anything behind for Tyler’s team to take. This surprised Tyler and his fiancees. They weren’t asking for handouts, but they didn’t understand why they would want Armitage to have three teams left without them having any.

The captain smirked before Nyx teleported behind him and knocked him out. She brushed her hands off and they relaxed momentarily.

"Nice job Nyx! Good work everyone. Only a few teams left. We got this!" Tyler encouraged his group, who came up, hugging and kissing him.

"I love you all too!" Tyler smiled as he returned each one of their kisses and hugs, trying to keep up with the consistent barrage of love.

"I can’t wait until this thing is over and we get back to our normal rotation!" Kass said cheerfully.

"Me neither...I mean this has been fun and all, but it’d be nice to have alone time with Tyler too," Sophie grinned.

"You’re telling me!" Nyx blushed slightly.

"You can have my day, I got alone time with him..." Amanda giggled.

"No, we’re keeping the rotation as it is." Sophie rolled her eyes.

"There’s still three days left, I’m sure he can sneak off with one of us, somewhere!" She laughed.

"I’ll do what I can but I also don’t want to leave any of you at a disadvantage! We don’t know who is behind all of this forest nonsense and I’d hate to be away..." Tyler started to say in a charming way before he was cut-off.

"We can just teleport when in danger, genius!" Nyx playfully pleased, causing everyone to laugh, until something caused them to jump.

Bang-Bang-Pew!

Fireworks shot off to the sky, but before Tyler and his harem could celebrate, Tim and Blake’s squad noticed them. One of the members caused the ground underneath Ability 1 team’s feet to shake, knocking them off balance.

"Ash, our box of stuff!" Tyler said anxiously.

Ash flew out of Tyler’s chest rapidly, swooped in and grabbed the box before the other Ability Academy team could get it. He flew far away, searching for somewhere to make another hideout. While scouting a nearby area, Ash noticed Armitage Academy’s three teams cornering the remaining BloodCrest group, slowly overwhelming them.

"Phoenix douche! We have a score to settle," Blake taunted while Gaia appeared, offsetting the shaking Vexarran surface.

"I’m not interested in a petty duel because you’re upset that you got what you deserved. Do you even care about our school at all? There’s 3 Armitage teams left and I haven’t seen your group doing very much eliminating. Just run around, kill beasts, loot others and hide?" Tyler said sarcastically. He was trying not to get too pissed off but noticed the girls didn’t look happy either.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Armitage is surrounding BloodCrest. It’s just going to be the 5 teams left shortly. Either strike a deal with them or get out because Armitage will third party us. I found a cave about a mile southwest, just past where the other groups are fighting. You could set up shop there and get some rest." Ash suggested after setting down their crate and burning the cave’s inhabitants.

[Ping! 50 gold wolves killed.]

"Just give us the heart and we’ll walk away and won’t fight you," Tim said, grinning widely.

"Not a chance in hell. It’s not even possible." Tyler said while shaking his head.

"Oh?" A student said while using a spell to magnetically pull the staff to his hand. As soon as the staff hit his hand, it burned him and he howled in pain.

[Error: Staff incompatible with metallic ability user.]

Tyler smirked as another student picked it up, only to drop it quickly like someone who accidentally touched a hot stove, just for a second.

"How do they know, though?" Vivian asked Tyler.

"Not sure. Maybe they have someone who has a scouting beast. It would make sense. They found us quickly and I don’t think it was a coincidence we walked past them the first time we saw them," he said calmly.

[Error: Staff incompatible with Paladin class.]

"Stop touching it you morons!" Blake snarled while unleashing several dragons that quickly flew towards Tyler.

Nyx appeared in front of them, blocking the onslaught of elemental attacks with her ’form 47’ requip.

Tyler was grateful Nyx was quick to defend his team so quickly, but was left imagining how much power his staff would gain from all of the dragon’s elemental attacks being absorbed into Crescens.

’Can’t be upset I have someone so powerful on my team. I can always power it up later.’ Tyler thought with a smile.

"Give Nyx a location to teleport us. I don’t really care if it gives us away. If they want us, come get us." Tyler informed Ash.

Ash shot a giant fireball into the air and the sound created a massive boom.

Nyx saw the location and Gaia immediately enclosed them. Everyone grabbed onto Nyx who teleported them to the cave. They quickly rushed in and touched the crystal hearts while Tyler sealed the entrance. He and Sophie did their usual setup, creating small airholes and several hidden exits.

"Gaia, please hide this cave as best you can and can you create a few more that look exactly the same to throw them off a bit?"

"My pleasure," she said as she slid out of Tyler’s chest and into the dirt.

Bang-Bang-Pew!

Another set of fireworks blasted into the sky as Arimitage finally took out the remaining BloodCrest school, stealing their stash of potions, food, hunting equipment and some minor luxuries. They laughed and cheered like children while drinking the potions, eating flesh, food capsules and drinking blood.

While Tyler and his group were preparing everything, one of the tamers from an Armitage school’s falcon returned and gave them the location of the Ability 2 team.

"That’s close. Let’s go!" The Armitage 1 captain said enthusiastically. They tucked away their belongings and one of the members used a sealing spell to hide them from the naked eye.

Tim and Blake were arguing about letting Tyler slip away when the Arimitage teams surrounded them. They didn’t hesitate and quickly bombarded the Ability Academy team with precision and teamwork.

"What the fuck?! Cheap fucking bastards!" Janice, another third year student on Ability’s team angrily screamed.

Blake’s dragons weren’t enough and despite having powerful allies, 15 against 5 was simply too much for them to handle. Beasts charged from both schools, clashing in battle.

One by one they dropped to the Dean’s displeasure as he stood watching, biting his nails again.

’At least they’re putting up a good fight and causing some of them to consume potions. Hopefully they’re smart and destroy their stuff...’ Dean Pritchett thought while pacing back and forth, watching everything unfold. There were still 3 days left in the tournament, but if one team ended it before the week was over, the event would end.

Bang-Bang-Pew.

"Huh?" Tyler said as he heard the fireworks shooting into the sky. He peeled away the top layer of his wall, staring at the scoreboard floating in the sky.

******

"Damnit!" Dean Pritchett shouted. "I mean, congratulations to the Armitage teams! We have something special for the final four so stay tuned!"