Beginning of the Team Competition

The bonfire celebration that night was divided between two groups. Those that would be a part of the team events taking it easy and those that weren't going wild. Every guild was limited on how many teams they could enter based on their guild rank. Normal guilds were allowed one per division, B ranked were allowed two, and A ranked were allowed three. This was also a bit of a practicality since the better ranked the guild the more members it tended to have.

Freelancers weren't limited in the number of teams. They were even allowed to have adventurers that were members of guilds on their team as long as the team was three quarters freelancers. Most freelancer teams ended up having members of guilds on them. Since we had a member of the Silver Tongues we were considered allied with them for the team events. I was fine with this since the people who I needed to be impressed with my actions wouldn't care.

"When it comes to the C ranked teams, I think you guys have a really good chance." Borhildr said.

"Ha we had top finishers in two events, so of course we're going to do good." Sundri said.

"If someone had focused, we might have had top finishers in all three." Kay said.

Sundri just waved his hand dismissively.

"Well based on your team score from the individual events you'll be in the top ten of C ranked teams so you'll be later in the day which will give us an advantage." Borhildr said.

"What exactly is the team competition like? Are we going to have matches like the melee tournament?" I asked.

"It can vary from festival to festival but the first day is usually a team obstacle course to narrow down the number of teams." Adalgard said.

"Yep that's why it's good to go later in the day. You'll have a chance to see how other teams handle parts of the course, giving you an advantage." Borhildr said.

"From what I've seen in the individual competitions, our toughest competition this year will be the Rainbow Blades and the apprentices of Former Master Ragna. All people you happen to know Wilmaer. Is it going to be difficult competing against your girlfriend?" Thelora said.

"Ha ha. If she's my girlfriend, what does that make you?" I replied, to which she only gave me a seductive smile.

"The Rainbow Blades actually have good teams in each rank. There's a good chance they'll win C and B ranks." Adalgard said.

"What about A rank? Their guild leader won the melee and they had a good showing in the other events." I said.

"The officers of the Guardians of Ice don't compete in the individual events. They form a team for the team events and that's where they shine as a guild." Borhildr said.

"Plus even without their officers they had five in the finals of the ranged contest, three in the mage, and 26 in the melee tournament. Far more than any other guild. They're all monsters." Adalgard said.

"If their officers had competed, they would have swept all the top spots in the events with the possible exception of the melee." Borhildr said.

I was going to have to pay attention to them in the future. Even though they were a smaller guild in terms of size, they made up for it in skills with only A rankers. The guild I wanted to form was going to be similar, only accepting those of higher skills that I got along with.

Even though we were going later in the day, we still made it a point to head to bed early. I stopped by the Flask and Avnil stall to pick up my gauntlets on the way. I used a bit of my Osgar Lineage and found the connection with the enchantment to be slightly better than I had with my shield.

Early in the morning we made our way to the festival grounds to find it having been radically altered once again. Now the main area was surrounded by hills creating a bowl. A viewing platform was set up on the south side for the VIPs.

Inside the bowl were a number of obstacles that reminded me of various extreme races I had seen back on earth; climbing walls, mud crawls, balance beams, a few targets, and an area with tall grass. There were also a number of rune covered stone obelisks around the track.

A senior Union representative came out and gave instructions while a group of junior representatives, including Raginhard, made their way through the course as an example. In addition to the normal obstacle, the obelisks would send out spells that ranged from simple elemental projectiles to area effect spells. Hitting the targets could give bonuses and make the track easier but there was a limited time that they would be available to be hit.

There were nearly 30 teams in the C ranked division each having anywhere from five to eight members. As the first team started the crowd cheered. They struggled along the way even being injured. If a team didn't have someone with good healing magic, they were allowed one healing potion per member. After over 15 minutes they crossed the finish line.

The second group had been sent in about ten minutes after the first group started. The first dozen groups were all about the same in terms of skills and came in around the same time.

After that the times started to improve as the teams that were watching had better strategies and were familiar with the course. Once the 20th team started we made our way to the starting area.

We were the 22nd team to enter the course. I took the lead with Adalgard in the rear and Kay in the middle. The three of us were tasked with protecting the other three. Sundri was right behind me since he was the weakest and I had the best defense. Thelora was near Kay since neither were that focused on defense but weren't as vulnerable. Lariss was towards the back so that she'd have the best chance to hit the targets as we came to them.

The first obstacle we came to was a wall three people high. Sundri used his magic to make me lighter and with a boost from Kay and Adalgard I was able to jump to the top. I helped everyone else over and eased them down the other side.

When Lariss was on the top she saw a target light up and quickly had her bow out. With a near bullseye an orange mist covered the base of the wall and Adalgard found herself almost weightless to the point she was able to leap over the wall.

When we arrived to the mud crawl, Sundri and I used our earth motes to slightly dry the mud but kept it soft as we used our magic to move it along. It was less of a crawl for us than it was a conveyor belt of earth.

Through all of this I was on my toes intercepting elemental projectiles. What I couldn't stop were the area effects. The gaseous effects were blown away by those of us with air motes, while the damaging area effects were harder to handle. After a particularly nasty fireball, Adalgard used a Mass Invigorate spell to keep us going while a few of us drank our potions.

At the tall grass we proceed with caution. It was the only part of the course that we weren't able to see other teams tackle in detail. We could tell that there was some kind of hindrance that needed to be attacked but until we entered the area we couldn't tell what it was.

It turned out to be a mix of jackalopes and wolpertingers. The little rabbit-like monsters weren't difficult to handle. Even with the tall grass blocking our view, we were able to exit the other side in less than a minute.

Lariss was hitting targets as soon as she saw them light up. We received a speed bonus, a bit of healing, and the logs that we needed to jump over lowered themselves by half a foot.

At the balance beams, Sundri tried to freeze the water below them, but found it wasn't possible. While the rest of us handled it without much difficulty, he fell halfway through. Thelora had to jump in to help him swim to the other side.

In the end we finished the course in just under ten minutes, which was better than most of the previous teams. Sundri's swim was what kept us from getting under nine minutes.

After we were done we watched the last few teams, all of which got around nine minutes. The team with the best time was a seven person team from the Rainbow Blades that went last with just under eight minutes. On that team were Kalfr, Fulvia, and Vesta.

In the end we had the ninth best time and were able to advance with the top 12 for tomorrow's event.

Union representatives worked the track after the C rankers went, making the wall higher and other obstacles more difficult. I also noticed the spells from the obelisks were much more frequent and severe as the B rankers went. The tall grass also seemed to be fighting back when they entered.

The A rank division had similar increases in difficulty with the jackalopes and wolpertingers replaced by wolves. I was also able to see the officers of the Guardians of Ice in action. Their other two teams were on par with the best of the other top guilds, but the officers blew them all away.