?


    The rest of Blue''s story would have to wait forter, for now, it was time to scope out the otherpetition. Kat looked over to the team that took the middle pier all by themselves and was a bit surprised at what she saw. They were close to being a mirror of her own team.


    Firstly the humans, both were women in contrast to Kat''s team of two female fae. Despite that, they still mirrored Kat''s counterparts well. Without knowing their names, Kat could onlybel them as Fake Gareth and Fake Kress, or GarethF and KressF. In truth, their names were March and Willow.


    March was still built like a tank, in fact, March was actually taller then the real Gareth. With muscles like tree trunks. March was monstrous for a human, towering over the rest of her team, and all of the other contestants with muscles unmatched even by Nell a bear beastkin. The only thing that wasn''trge were her breasts. Though even that was admittedly in contention, as her thick te armour covered thempletely. Still, there didn''t seem to be any additional room for them, matching Gareth''s in style.


    Willow took the opposite approaching, shorter, scrappier, and with two long daggers that were more like short swords in her hands. If halflings were a thing in this world, Kat would have some suspicions about Willow''s heritage. Perhaps she was at least part dwarven, but her rail thin build made that unlikely. Willow seemed more like someone that would be knocked over by a strong wind then someone that could stand against earthquakes.


    Next there were the two fae, where the mirroring was disrupted somewhat. Instead of two men as a true mirror, it was a man and a woman, though based on their appearances, Kat was guessing that the Green stand in was the woman, while Nixilei got a man to represent her counterpart. This guess was fuelled by the man''s sses, and the bow on the woman''s back. Katbelled them GreenF and NixileiF but might have guessed their real names based on fae naming convention.


    Chartreuse, the male fae had green hair a noticeably different shade to Green''s. It was in fact, Chartreuse, but Kat wasn''t interested enough in colours or art to recognise that fact. He had arge heavy book that was reinforced with deadly looking metal corners. Kat''s eyes were good enough to see that the metal edging actually stuck out a bit and had been sharpened to a fine point. It wasn''t just a fancy book Chartreuse carried around, but also a real, if unconventional weapon.


    He wore a light blue robe with green dots with fading around the edges that blended them into the blue where they appeared. His sses were thinly framed but glowing slightly, hinting that they were certainly enchanted, and might simply be an additional gadget rather than a medical aid. His boots were notable as well, for their metal tips on the end. It was clear, that even if he was a healer and needed to keep light on the metal, he was making use of as much as he could get away with.


    Next up was their archer. Though Kat might never guess the archer''s name based on hair colour. They were called Burgandy but they had orange hair. Bright orange hair resembling closely the citrus the colour was named for. They had thin leathers on that covered their chest and legs but left their arms free. Kat questioned that choice, especially considering they had a bow. Said bow was made of a reddish wood with streaks of ck. There were cracks in the wood that showed glowing red masses of energy that drew the eye.


    Their final member, and one that made Kat somewhat concerned, even as Lily transformed back and started to rub her face against Kat''s own… was a demon. He was almost certainly a Subus, but that was more a guess due to his mostly human appearance. Kat wouldter learn that he liked to be called Stan, but never his real name. Which happened to be Sanamoth the Destroyer. Yes, his parents added ''the Destroyer'' to his birth certificate. Also yes, they were very drunk at the time but were too prideful to change itter.


    He a swimmer''s body with notable, but not overly prominent muscles. He had his chestpletely exposed, not bothering at all with a shirt, instead he had a ne with a speckled green stone set into a goldish metal that shined with a distinctly red light when hit by the sun. His skin looked tan at first nce but was actually closer to worked copper under more thorough examination. His golden hair was longer than Kat''s, flowing all the way down to the small of his back with just a slight curl to it.


    The horns on Stan''s head were set pointing forward once they left his head, with only the one curve at their base. They extended a touch passed his forehead and meant that anyone looking to headbutt him, except maybe Kat, were going to need to watch their eyes when making the attempt. His tail was much shorter then Kat''s, but it was covered in interlocking bony tes that gave it a very unique appearance. He had no wings that Kat could see, and might be a major disadvantage in the contests.


    His pants were simple jeans, making Kat wonder if he''d ever been to Earth. He hadn''t of course, and the material wasn''t actually denim, but it was close enough that the difference would be semantic were the materials properlypared. The main difference was their slightly green colouring instead of blue. It was not a dye, the process for making them simply resulting in that colouring naturally.


    All five walked with confidence in their bearing. It was like all five had total confidence in their ability to win the entire tournament… or they had great acting sses at some point along the line. *Huh. Looks like I''m not the only demon around this time. I wonder what Rank he is? 1? 2? 3? 4? I doubt it would be five. I had expected to get some sort of a sign. Like… I was expecting to feel his demonic energy or… something. I just feel like I should know how strong he is?*<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [It''s possible that you do have that ability but he''s too far away, or suppressing his demonic energy… or he might just be weak. If you have exponentially more demonic energy you might push his away just by virtue of being that much stronger. There''s no way to know. Unless demons does?]


    D.E.M.O.N.S will not assist User when confronting another User in conflicting Contracts. All information on potential enemy User has beenpleted restricted. Most other questions have been restricted.


    *Gonna be honest… not what I was expecting as an answer.*


    [It''s what I expected though. The only way for D.E.M.O.N.S to be fair is to either share everything or share nothing, and I imagine that people wouldin a lot more if D.E.M.O.N.S was handing out info on everyone. It''s a shame we don''t know how easy it is to sense demonic energy, but it guess it''s like a pop quiz. If you didn''t study it''s your fault.]


    *Yeah well I don''t exactly like the feeling that I forgot to study for a test. Especially a test I didn''t know I was going to have! Urgh. I wonder if he is a response to my own sess or if somebody else just had the ideapletely independently. Both are possible, and I don''t know what is more likely… it is a bit freaky how closely they mirror us though.*


    [Eh… A demon, two humans, and two fae but that''s basically it. The genders aren''t split, it''s still two men, two women… though now that I''m thinking that out loud perhaps they are somewhat simr? Still, it was bound to happen, that we''d see simr teams. Though… perhaps not the demon part. I wonder how many demons are in the whole tournament?]


    *Not many. Remember demon summoning was only recently allowed, so even if people were doing it before this, they wouldn''t want to advertise the fact. Though… huh, considering demon summoning used to be illegal, Kress is the only person that had issues with demons.*


    [Huh… maybe it was just the humannds that changed it?]


    *Maybe…*


    [Well, other than that, I think most of the teams were groups before the tournament was announced. They''ve all been training for a while, and adding some random to that could screw with the dynamic. Our team members were lucky you''re so nice. If you only gave the minimal effort then we might never have gotten this far. Not against a team that has coordination.]


    *Not totally sure I buy that. Even if I just had to try duringbat I think I''d still manage to snag a few wins… but I suppose if the demon was trying to be really difficult.*