Chapter 104: Run Dusk Run!

*What have you got in store for us now Thyme.* Kat pondered as she carefully scanned the arena. After the most recent challenge Kat wasn't sure what to expect. The food part was already weird, but it didn't directly involve the orb, it almost felt like a separate thing.

But with the spinning she had to endure Kat felt more and more like anything was on the table. I guess I should have been more prepared. *When I think about it only the obstacle course was even remotely normal. The maze had a bunch of weird stuff in it and certainly wasn't just a normal maze it had all sorts of weird stuff in it. Like that mystery room or the shark tank.*

Kat let out a long breath as she banished her thoughts and returned her focus to the arena. Pondering on what weird thing might happen wouldn't help her if she wasn't actually paying attention to what was actually happening.

Of course this was easier said then done. Kat's mind may have been improved by her transformation but even a demon was prone to distraction. As she hovered waiting for anything at all to happen it was easier to just enjoy the beat of her wings, or appreciate the strange and novel architecture Thyme had provided for each of the teams.

When Kat's eyes drifted over to the wall she noticed that the wooden ring actually had a number of really tiny carvings in them. Enhancing her eyes to get a better look Kat found a shocking sight, the walls actually depicted the events that had already passed. The section she was looking at contained pictures of Lynn doing each of the challenges until her eventual collapse at the start of the water section.

Letting her eyes roam she found that each individual had a carving section dedicated to themselves. Kat found her own section on the wall behind her but sadly her section was mostly made up of her standing awkwardly until the orb started throwing her around. *Such a shame my section of the wall is so boring, if only I had a way to liven up my section, I'd consider pointing it out to everyone.*

As Kat's eyes wandered over to the blank part next to her depictions the wall exploded outward. Pulling the orb behind her and narrowing her eyes with the other hand out Kat got ready to block whatever might come from the large whole in the wall.

Kat poured energy into her eyes hoping to see any trace of whatever had damaged it but saw nothing. *Perhaps it's just a spell? Thyme wouldn't let any monster into the area and maybe this was just a trick to scare us.*

As Kat turned around to face the centre but was shocked at what she saw. Jack was pulling large amounts of dirt to cover himself. A veritable wave of stone poured over him as it piled higher and higher until a stone dome covered him as he crouched down. The earth had been piled to about two metres in height and seemed to contain all the stone from a ten-metre radius.

Dusk was doing something funny, he was dashing left and right, occasionally shooting blasts of water behind him at nothing as they harmlessly splashed onto the ground after traveling a ways. Dusk held his orb close to his chest, in a pose similar to a rugby player as he shot spells behind with the other hand.

*Does he need his hands for that? Everyone else seemed to just cast wherever.* Then a sigil on the back of Dusk's robes blazed into existence as a massive torrent of water exploded out behind him coating the arena behind him in a wave of water that hit the wall and slowly started filling the arena.

Kat looked back towards her teammates for some clue as to what was going on but she only got more confused. Gareth had a look of horror on it, while Kress was frozen in shock. *What is there problem?*

Nixilei had the only reasonable reaction which was confusion, one Kat could emphasise with, but her eyes were glowing with a fierce light that Kat was uncomfortable looking at. *Wait why can't I look at it?*

Now it was Kat's turn to be confused, nothing had caused her eyes practically any amount of discomfort, especially not charged with energy like they currently were. *Ok what is going on.*

Kat flapped her wings and spun herself around taking in the expressions of the other groups. Jack and Dusk's groups both had the same look of horror that Gareth did while the elves seemed more scared then horrified, though Kat was shocked she could even see the difference.

Finally she let her eyes rest on Thyme, still thoroughly confused by this whole thing. When their eyes met Thyme's went wide, so he nodded a bit and tapped his shoulder. At the same time Kat felt a tap on her own, and when she turned she found a tiny Thyme with wings a suit made out of leaves.

"True Sight? Really?" asked the fairy Thyme.

Kat nodded her head in response.

"But that doesn't make any sense, you were able to watch my playback of the maze and the obstacle course just fine right?" asked Thyme

Kat nodded again

Both Thyme's let their mouths hang open as they stared at Kat.

"You know, Lynn's right. Your powers are dumb. Why the hell do you even have something like that at your age" said Thyme from Kat's shoulder

Keeping her voice quiet Kat whispered "I don't know, I just do? Why is this so weird?"

The fairy Thyme let out a sigh while the large one went back to looking at the other contestants. "Your other powers aren't that strange, your flying ability, and resistance to heat are both fairly common among demons, but True Sight is not something that anything should have at such a low level of power, no offence"

"None taken" said Kat *Honestly, it's served me well so far, but I don't quite understand why this is so important.*

"I see you don't quite understand, just know that True Sight is something not even I have with all my power. Granted most illusions would still fail against me, but whatever you have is much stronger than it should be. It's likely your most important ability, nurture it well" said Thyme before disappearing from her shoulder

*Is it really? What about my calming aura? I haven't used that yet so I bet Thyme doesn't know about it. Then again, they are making a big deal about this whole true sight thing so maybe it is a big deal?*

Kat turned her attention back to the arena. Dusk seemed to be on his last legs. The arena already had water up to his knees and his breath was coming in ragged bursts. Despite this he was still sprinting around with reckless abandoned, but he was coming up on Jack's dome.

Seeing the structure in front of him Dusk tried to sidestep it as he wasn't prepared for a hill to suddenly be in his way. Jumping to the left his foot slipped and Dusk started to fall to the side. Instinctively he dropped the orb and flung his hand down to block the fall.

As he fell Kat could see his hand desperately try to turn around as it went for the orb now slowly falling into the water beside him. As Dusk made contact with the water it splashed up obscuring the vision a little but Kat's enhanced sight pierced the cloud easily.

Kat watched as Dusk grasped the edge of the orb, only for it to slip out of his hands. Still though he didn't give up. As Dusk fell face first into the water he froze the area around the orb.

The ice was perfectly placed, the orb fell directly into the centre of the ice platform created just for this purpose. It was a shame then that it wasn't up to the task, the moment the orb came into contact with the ice it cracked and let the orb straight through.

Dusk and the orb made contact with the ground and nearly the same time, landing with a large thud in Dusks case. The mand didn't halt though, quickly pushing himself up her turned to face behind himself clearly looking for something but finding nothing there.

Thyme walked over to Dusk and offered him a hand as Dusk looked around with confusion. "I'm afraid you have been eliminated Dusk" said Thyme

"But…" said Dusk "Where… where is the wraith? It was chasing me for such a long time and my spells dealt practically no damage to it" said Dusk in between ragged breaths.

"I'm afraid this test was that of illusions. The other two have passed, with unorthodox methods both" said Thyme looking down at Dusk with an understanding expression.