Chapter 40

After the bout, we walked in a bit of a daze to the dining hall, still going over the events that had just transpired. Unlike the challenges we first went through, we had an idea of who our enemy was and what they could do. The environment was designed to allow the participants to sneak around and thus allow some use of tactics. It was also designed in a way to allow the use of the full power of the participants’ abilities.

If the landscape of our match is designed to allow sneaking, then it will be an interesting experience. We were still relatively quiet when we entered the room and got our food. I could tell that Darius was deep in thought and looked slightly troubled.

“Are you okay, Darius?” I asked as I walked over to him. “You seem to have a lot on your mind at the moment.”

He shook his head. “Just mulling over what we just saw. I mean, the match didn’t take half as long as I expected. It was quick, brutal and showed me what we have in store tomorrow.”

“Yeah, it was intense,” I replied. “They both were well versed enough to have a means of sending information to their fellow party members. The Minotaur could pick up their scents in the wind and used guttural noises to relate it to the group. To others it may have just sounded like grunts and groans of effort or frustration. The other team seemed to utilize some sort of spiritual power.”

Darius cocked his head to one side and said, “What do you mean, Pathios? I didn’t see him do anything.”

“That’s what I mean,” I answered with a smile. “The monk went into a form of meditation, out of sight of anyone. He was then able to not only see where the enemy was but was able to tell his members about it. That is the only guess I can come up with that will make sense. I have a feeling that our opponents will be able to communicate with one another, as well. If I had thought of it, I would have come up with something before we left.”

Darius gave a knowing grin and said, “Well I guess we are in luck. As long as Tyr can get this okayed, we may have our own means. Cassandra has been working on something ever since we got separated from the others on the fifth floor. She isn’t fully sure yet of the range but is confident she can improve upon it as her abilities and levels grow as a runesmith.”

He took two small boxes from the large pouches on his belt and placed them on the table. He opened each one and inside was what seemed to be an ornate piece of jewelry. It reminded me of some headphones that wrapped around the ear without actually needing to go inside of it.

“These are what I speak of,” Darius continued, gesturing to the open boxes. “These are designed to allow us to speak and have the rest of the party hear it, even if we are separated. You place them on whichever ear you choose, and press your finger against this rune,” gesturing to a rune at the bottom of the object, “which will allow the enchantment to pick up what you are saying and relay it to the rest of the group.”

Tyr scratched his chin, “I don’t foresee an issue from the Council as you had it prior to the challenge. I will check with them and let you know before the challenge tomorrow. For now, eat, plan and rest because tomorrow will be a big day.”

While we enjoyed our meal, we discussed possible means of attack against our adversaries. We were matched one for one on active members and if we could ensure that we all made it through this round, we would have a possible two-member advantage against the remaining Pact House. Before we left, Darius pulled me, Katie, and Tyr aside.

“Cassandra also worked on something else,” he said as he pulled out another box from a pouch on his belt.

He opened it to reveal two sets of crossbow bolts. One set had engravings along the shaft of the bolt and on the tip. The second was plain, but the tips were glass and looked to be removable.

Darius gestured at the box, “The engraved bolts are designed to double the concussion force of the projectile. Since Rhee is a field preventing it from being lethal, it could be a means to quickly deal with overpowering foes. The second set is a unique delivery system for potions. When you put a healing or mana potion in the vial and shoot someone with it, the enchantment administers the potion as if the individual drank it. Both are prototypes and we were not sure if they would be allowed.”

Darius turned to Tyr, “I wanted to talk with you about it and find out if we could possibly use it in the next two bouts.”

I will ask the Council of this as well, again, since it was created prior to the challenge, it may be allowed. Had they been found in Pathios’ armory, they would have been unusable, as Cassandra has access to the room as an official member of his party. There would be speculation on when they were made and if they had been created during the challenge to give an unfair advantage. I will put my support behind it, but both Enlil and Quetzalcoatl will possibly object to them as they are being brought into use after the first rounds were done.”

Darius nodded and handed the case to Katie, who looked on it with awe. She ran her hands gently over the contents of the case, before closing it and clasping it to her chest.

“Thank you, Darius,” she exclaimed, fighting back tears of happiness. “I will make sure to thank Cassandra when the Champion’s Challenge is over.”

Darius simply smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder before leaving the hall with Tyr. Katie and I soon followed, returning to our room, where she immediately went to our armory door. I silently followed her as she moved through the armory to where her crossbow equipment was stored. She grabbed two empty bolt containers and set them down on a nearby worktable. Katie then placed her wooden container next to them, opening it to reveal the bolts inside. She quickly took a chisel, as well as a small mallet, and made a mark I didn’t recognize on the bolt container. Once she was done marking the container, Katie picked up the engraved bolts and began loading them into the magazine. With that done, she set that loaded container aside and found the other one. She repeated the marking process, though this time, it looked like a plus symbol which was the universal symbol for health here. After preparing the markings on the container, she set it aside and turned her focus on the second set of bolts. She picked on up and looked closely at the tip. I leaned forward to do the same, trying to see just how it worked. Instead of a pointed tip, the head looked blunt with a piece of glass between the tip and the shaft.

Katie took up her spare crossbow, which sat unstrung in its spot on her shelf and placed one of the blots into its place. She slid it along the channel the bolt traveled to launch slowly, watching as it moved. I figured Katie was looking to make sure there was no chance of the glass breaking during its travel out of the crossbow.

There were seven of these bolts instead of six, so she took her strung crossbow and picked up one of the bolts. She carefully removed the head and poured a little of the tracking fluid I kept on me, which was yellow in color. Once she reattached the filled head, she loaded the bolt and aimed at a nearby part of exposed wall. She fired the bolt and we watched as it sailed through the air, striking the wall. The fluid splashed all over the impact point and a quick glance at the crossbow showed no sign of the liquid. With that test successfully completed, Katie took some of her prepared potions and filled the remaining bolts with her reserves. She carefully loaded them into her designated container and set it aside as well.

She turned to me and smiled, “I am so happy with them, I can’t wait to test them in battle. Hopefully Tyr will get them approved by the Council, so that there are no issues from our competitors. For now, I am going to write a nice thank you letter to Cassandra for making them. I still plan to thank her again in person, but I want her to know how her work is appreciated.”

I smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead, leaving her to the task she gave herself, I left to see if there was a training area that was available for us. I found the usual guard outside our door and asked the question. He wasn’t sure and asked me to wait in my room while he left to ask his superior. It took around twenty minutes before he returned with the news that they had separate training grounds for the remaining members. I asked the guard to please relay a message to the others in my Pact House to meet in the training ground within the hour. He promised to get the message to the others, and I returned to the room. I decided to relax while I waited, asking Katie to wake me fifteen minutes before we were supposed to get there.

I didn’t fall asleep, only rested my eyes, and gathered my thoughts for tomorrow. It felt like not much time had passed before I felt a shake of my shoulder and opened my eyes to see Katie smiling over me. I thanked her and we had the guard escort us to the training grounds where the others would meet us. We arrived around five minutes before we were expected, but the others were there waiting for us. I couldn’t help but chuckle at their eagerness.

“We felt that there was no time to waste,” Darius explained with a shrug. “I brought the earpieces to practice with, just so we can be accustomed to them should we get the okay to use them.”

I smiled and nodded before turning my focus to the rest of the room. It was far larger than the training room near our quarters in the Pact House. There was a training mat taking up part of the floor close to the door, with racks of weapons on either side of it. Past the mat, there looked to be a large obstacle course which reminded me of some of the close quarters areas used in paintball. The various rooms, structures and levels would allow us to test the range and sensitivity of the earpieces. Darius handed them out and we all put them into position on our dominant side. We then began to split up and moved to various areas of the huge training area and waited a few minutes.

I placed my finger on the rune and said softly, “Hello there, can anyone hear me through this thing.”

I waited a moment or two before I heard Dilbar reply, “Yeah I can hear you, Pathios. I’ll be damned if Darius wasn’t right about these things. I am still near the door, and I can hear you as clear as if you were right beside me. I hope that we get to use these because they will be a serious help.”

Over the next ten minutes we tested more of the range, whether multiple walls affect the clarity and how sensitive they were in picking up speech. We were able to confirm that we could pick up speech from anywhere in the training area, as well as that the earpiece could pick up whispers very clearly. We tested it by having one person hide and relay information to someone near the door while hiding from the others. We were able to make that work with all our members and no one was able to pick up on the whispered words. That meant that we could relay information to the other members and keep almost completely quiet. Once that was done, we paired off and began to spar. We made sure everyone worked with any and all weapons that would be used within the challenge tomorrow. I even put in some time with Katie’s crossbow to make sure that, if I needed to, I could use it competently.