--- Kat ---
"So at this point it was just the three of us... a mage and two healers. Pretty terrible party composition but we were willing to do our best," said Blue. "Skye kept us focused, and we headed off. Though the focus was actually a lot more important.
We didn't notice it at this point, but Thyme had spread just a ridiculous amount of spores around that slowly reduced your thinking speed and made you more likely to dumb shit.
"It's likely why Mr E and Mr G decided on this. Perhaps Mr E thought he was stronger by himself so he left, and perhaps Mr G didn't stop to properly think about the fact that the door was weird just being there.
"And... well it's a bit embarrassing to admit but perhaps if the three of us had a bit more fait in our competitors we might have noticed the issue much earlier. As it was, we thought they were just stupid and didn't take any steps to negate the effects. It wasn't too strong in small doses, but it was everywhere.
"Thyme pointed it out later but their were flowers for this EVERYWHERE. I don't know how Thyme got permission to mess with the environment so much. I'm guessing either with assuring that they'd turn back time on the mountain, or if whatever was there before happened to be much deadlier.
"Still, I'm mostly going over this as setup. We didn't do anything too stupid just yet. Just... little things. We stopped to admire a statue along the way. Just for like, thirty seconds but we were in the middle of a race so stopping was a stupid thing to do. At least we got through the next few challenges without real trouble.
Just a few little things. We had to dodge some arrow traps and Estelle got nicked by one. Easily healed. The fire run? Looked much scarier then it was.
"The first thing that caused us issues? Running into a separate team of three. Now, they weren't on our path but our paths clearly crossed. There were signs that said 'do not leave your path' and the gravel shifted just before we reached the crossroads. The pathway beneath us went black, and the one for the other 'team' went white.
"Estelle was shaking a bit but she stepped up. While Skye was still recovering from the blow Estelle stepped forward and tried to smack Mace Guy... it was kind of sad. Mace guy just backhanded Estelle's staff away nearly knocking it from her hands and he charged right in ready to bash her with the mace...
"Only for Skye to leap back into the fight feet first and hit the guy in face. Now he had a helmet on so it didn't take him out, but it was enough for me to dash forward and stab my spare dagger into him while he was stunned and not paying attention. I couldn't risk casting another spell, so dagger it was.
"I think I got him? He vanished when I stabbed at his neck so I'd guess so. Then it was a simple matter to clear up the archers. Skye needed to be healed, and I was super low on mana... but we didn't want to rest at the crossroads so we continued onwards for a bit until we found a suspiciously convenient hot spring instead of a trap.
"Of course, it was the trap... but I was missing a lot of mana, Skye our leader had two broken ribs despite her defences and was losing a decent amount of blood and Estelle was mostly just worrying constantly. So we didn't think anything of it. We slipped into the water to rest and heal up...
"And then BAM it was the middle of the night," Blue said, pausing in her story a bit to look around for some water to drink. Just to clear her throat. Sadly the only water nearby was the pool so Blue let out a sigh and summoned up some for her to drink. Blue gulped the water down greedily even as she cringed at the mana cost.
Blue summoned up a big moon and a few trees letting them surround a section of the pool. "So yeah we woke up and it was the middle of the night," explained Blue. "No idea if it's just been a few hours... or if it's been a few days and it just happened to be nighttime. We immediately scrambled out of the pool and found our stuff still around, but we were getting hungry and it was dark.
Which left the question of what we should do.
"Sure food was theoretically all around us... but leaving the path had already proven like a horrible idea. So far it hadn't worked out for anyone, not even those guys who tried to fight us. Perhaps leaving the path weakened them somehow because sure Skye and I did well... but honestly not THAT well you know?
"Was it just four people not used to working together... or something more? Anyway, whatever the truth we just weren't willing to leave the path for food... so what could we do? We weren't tired anymore, but it could be dangerous travelling the path at night. Worse, did we want to expend extra energy on the climb while we didn't have any ideas for getting food?
"Estelle ended up checking the springs we'd slept in for food, against both my wishes and Sykes... but it didn't matter in the end because there was no sign of fish in them at all. It might as well have been a fancy bathtub. Sure it had some plants, but nothing edible and it all looked fresh. No bits and pieces of it nibbled by wildlife that's for sure,"