Long Sunday

Smoke frome burning tobacco hits the air as its a little after nine in the morning, Vic is enjoying his morning cigarette finally. Leaning against the tree, enjoying the flavor of it away from the jester who’s still unconscious. The wind has been picking up but today is especially pretty and blue. People have been active in the area, Vic is a bit too smart for most of them. He’s set up traps to give him signals of which direction people are coming, and moves Hisoki accordingly if need be. Everything seems overall peaceful, Vic debates on bathing in the river and risk leaving Hisoki where he is. He flicks the used up cigarette and instead digs for some sphagnum moss, he takes off the top half of his clothing, wringing the moss of all of the dirt with the river water before soaking it again and scrubbing himself while trying his best not to splash too much to attract anyone.

“Not ideal, but, it’ll work.” Once he finishes he sits across from Hisoki, his top half exposed still while he works on the leather to his pauldron and other cloth like his sleeves. “Hope you’re not dealing with anything too serious in there, cause I can’t help you out here.”

Fixing the holes where the snake bit through his clothing. “Damn, I just noticed the leather is slightly singed from that fight with Sadi too, I can’t fix that right now,” touches it, ash rubs off on his fingers. “It’s a bit more than singed,” He cuts out the leather that is burned, leaving a hole in it but its honestly better than having the hard, scrunched, ashy material distracting him.

He puts everything back on but the pauldron and in an instant an arrow zips by and into the tree. Next to his head. “Are you alone?” He can hear a voice. “You have six seconds to answer, or the next one goes between your eyes.”

“I am,” Vic says dishonestly, the voice is coming from the arrow.

“I only saw you because of the glint from that armor. Berries. How many?”

“Three, I ate two earlier.”

“Three!? How the hell do you only have three.”

“Well, this woman came by and started hurling fireballs at me. So, I made a deal with her to spare my life for berries.”

“Sadi? She was here?”

“Yeah, few hours ago… I just cut some of the leather she burned off of my clothing.”

“Where did she go?”

“Don’t know, woman can teleport or something.”

“I thought she went this way, I considered you were her team member.”

“No, I’d put one between her eyes myself,” Vic isn’t entirely lying either.

“If you only have three berries. Then I’m guess you’re trying to survive the rest of the challenge.”

“Yeah, what’s your name any way? Mine’s Vic. No reason not to tell you. I’m in your sights.”

They pause for a moment. “Megan,” she says.

“I couldn’t tell you’re a woman, if you do let me keep my head arrow-free. Let me take you out for a drink if we both live through this.”

“A-are you flirting with me?!”

“Can ya blame me? I’ve been out here for days with no real privacy but also no companionship either.”

She grumbles, “C-Companionsh-I could just cripple you from here…”

“If that means I get a drink with you,” he stands and turns around, giving her access to his back. “Fire away.”

“I-What?! The hell are you-forget it! Ugh!”

Vic waits for a second, and then removes the arrow from the tree. Chucking it into the river. “That was close. Had a feeling she’d get flustered. Everyone else out here is so blood thirsty, my only thought was she might be alone. She shot an arrow just to talk to me. She didn’t want a fight, she wanted a conversation.”

He stretches a bit and crouches beside Hisoki. “Anything going on with you, sleeping bozo?” Not a sound besides breathing. “I need to get more wood for tonight, not to be rude but,” he takes off Hisoki’s bag. “Gonna borrow this for now, I won’t be far.”

Vic looks for wood within eye-shot of the tree where Hisoki rests, he can’t use anything in the bag except for the tube for the berries. It’s better that than have someone snatch it all. While he collects, he sees two people approaching where Hisoki is. “What the hell?” Vic mutters, almost leaping out into the open to get to the jester fast. The two people are clearly following something, as they aren’t even looking up when Vic jumps in front of them.

“Oh shit!” One of them says, pulling out a pretty big knife.

“We got careless!” The other says, opening a book.

“Hang on, hang on,” Vic says, his hands out. “Lets talk. What are you two doing?”

“Same as you, hunting for berries.”

“Yeah? Well, small issue. You’re near my camp.”

“We were hunting magic items while we were here. And we saw a few this way. So we were following our map to get them.”

“Uh huh, not that it matters to me, but how many?”

They seem to relax a bit and pull out a parchment that looks like a map, it glows with a path to magic items. “About… A hundred! More!” the other says.

“Where does it say they are? I’ve been all over the area, might be able to point you in the direction even.”

“I think it says, they are a few feet in front of us now,” they look up at Vic.

“Yeah, figured as much. Sadly, these items aren’t yours. They are mine, and they are attuned to me.”

“Attuned? Shit, we can’t sell attuned magic items,” he says to the other.

“If we can kill him they aren’t attuned anymore.”

“Look here, you two may think you’re clever, collect magic items, win or lose you make a profit. Seen it before. I can say for certain, you guys have one chance, or you both will get buried here in this forest. Leave my camp, don’t come back.”

They both slowly backup. “We have magic, we could just blow you up.”

“And I have items that could negate that explosion or ignore the damage. Take your pick.”

“We can’t take this gamble, come on… Let’s just go,” they leave by going the exact opposite direction and then all of the way around the clearing.

“I’m not sure I could’ve beat them both. Good thing I’m a decent poker player…” He sets the wood he gathered at camp. “Alright, we’ll make this work.”

Hours go by, Vic eats another berry in order to stop his stomach from making so much noise. He begins making the campfire and gets comfortable. “Tonight is starting to get a lot colder than normal. Might be because of how clear it is.”

He breathes out and cold breath appears. “Oh shit, that’s not good. Wait a second. It’s June, this is…” he stands and checks on Hisoki. No visible breath is coming from his mouth. “He’s not cold? That could only mean that this is some kind of curse. What’s it for? Why now? Maybe it’s simpler than that. Hisoki’s clothes could be enchanted.”

He steps in the clearing and looks out, seeing a tall white wispy pillar in the distance. It’s huge and it pouring wind from it. Especially the cold he’s feeling. Vic can only assume he has has to go and get rid of what is causing it. “I’ll be right back, don’t go anywhere. I’ll leave the fire going, even as irresponsible as it is, better chance you burning then dying from the cold. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

It takes quite a while to get to the massive pillar, it’s a solid piece of ice that is pouring cold from it, so much so that it’s starting to coat the ground in snow and ice. Not even from the actual act of snowfall. As he’s about to head up to it because he swears he can see someone next to it when something catches his eye by waving at him from a tree. Beckoning him over with a barely audible “Come here!’ Vic ignores him and a chunk of ice hits right before his foot and another hits the pauldron he’s wearing, he backs off and runs to that person calling out to him because it’s the closest cover he can find. The person reaches out and grabs his hand, pulling him to safety. “What were you thinking!” They say, its a man in a black full metal suit of armor with warmth pouring off of it as the insides glow orange.

“I thought I could just walk up there and deal with that problem.”

“Now you know that’s not possible at the moment. I’ve been timing the gusts of wind with attacks from that thing.”

“They’re linked?”

“Yes, although I realized it too late. When the wind stops every thirty minutes, we have five to get closer. I was gonna run out but then I saw you coming and realized I just lost my chance.”

“If I saw you run I probably thought you were some kind of scout for them.”

“No, my teammate is freezing so I’m here in their place.”

“Mine isn’t, but I left him because they are incapacitated at the moment and I rather the snow from this thing not get to him.”

“So, you wanna have a truce of sorts until we get this guy?” he extends a hand.

“Sounds good to me,” Vic takes and shakes his hand. “What’s your name?”

“Lycogalia.”

“I’m Vic.”

Waiting that thirty minutes seems like forever in this cold as more frost is collecting on the ground; the wind does die down. And they make a line for the hill where the pillar is, and just as they are half way up it, the wind picks up sooner than expected and Vic pushes the armored man behind a small stone wall; they have to sit to maintain cover.

“Shit, why did it pick up after just a couple minutes?” Vic asks.

“It’s not an exact thing, okay? I just timed it twice before I could even attempt to try it once.”

“You’re right. That was too damn close,” Vic checks his watch and sees it’s a little past eleven-thirty. “Shit,” he taps it. “I think my watch is done. The gears aren’t turning.”

“Don’t worry, mine is the same. That pillar is emitting magnetic forces. I can feel it pulling my armor and it’s resistant to those forces.”

“Shit… That’s even more of a problem,” Vic pulls out his weapon. “Just as I thought, my weapon entirely relies on a mainspring and a sear spring. In extreme cold, steel becomes brittle. The magnetic force pulls these internal levers against the frame, creating so much internal friction that I can’t even cock the hammer.”

“Wait, you can fight at range?”

“Yeah, but this pillar is literally my weapons weakness in every way,” he puts it away.

“I have a sword. It’s tough to pull out though.”

As the wind already begins to die down again, they don’t have the time to plan and bolt for the top of the hill. Vic pulling out his weapon, and Lycogalia pulls out his sword but it vibrates and sticks to the sides as he does. There’s a hum in the air, the wind picks up behind them. They are in the eye of this pillar’s storm. There’s a man there with his arms outstretched, chanting while he does the pillar keeps humming. “Ah, it seems a few of the remaining have come to me.”

“A friend of mine is suffering because of this cold right now, I came to ask you why you are doing this now? You could’ve been doing this from the very beginning!” Lycogalia asks waving his sword around. Honestly curious about the thought process.

“I tried to start this at the very beginning of the challenge! Freeze everything over, the berries would be preserved and I just walk out with a thousand in a single day!” He says angrily, “But that woman… Her fire spells destroyed my pillar so I had to spend a full day rebuilding it. Only for her to smash it again! Now things are different. I heard she left, so now she cannot challenge me! This entire forest will be cursed as a perfectly preserved tundra until I leave with my prize!”

“Not yet it won’t,” Vic points his weapon at him and slams the back of the pauldron on his forearm against the hammer, causing it to fire; however, it only hits the him in the stomach, going straight through.

“Gah!” He yells in pain, then laughs like a mad man. “You think that’s enough? One tiny piece of metal!?” He waves his hand over the wound and it just closes.

The knight begins charging him and the spellcaster snaps his fingers, causing that sword to shatter, but nothing visible struck it. “What?!” is all he can say before he’s slung against the pillar, stuck to it.

“You sit there and freeze to death!”

“You think that’s what is about to happen?” he starts grunting in that armor. “How do you think I’m staying warm genius? This armor can get hot… Really hot!” the orange glow turns a bright red. “Oh and it hurts me too, but I can say it’ll do a number on this shitty pillar!” and it does, he begins sinking into it.

“No way!” He tries pulling him with the same magnetic method as before but nothing is happening. “What? What’s going on!?”

“You can’t use your magnetic magic against something this hot!” He yells, burrowing deeper in the pillar before he has to pull himself back. “S-shit… Too much.” He backs off, and takes a knee beside Vic. “T-Too hot, I almost passed out.”

Vic is dumbfounded at the conviction seeing the massive hole in the pillar now. “Well, that thing has got a nice big weak spot now.”

“Your point?!” The spellcaster yells, pushing the cooled down knight to the dirt with the magnetic forces and pulling Vic’s weapon from his hand to this. “Now you have nothing! Do me a big favor and freeze to death soon,” as he looks over Vic’s weapon he’s unable to understand how to use it.

“Hey dumbass, I know you can’t work my weapon you’re holding; but, it’s practically a paperweight right now anyway.”

“Better in my hands than yours!” the wind swirls closer as he holds onto the pillar. “I normally keep the active area of the wind far from me, but as long as I stay right next to the pillar, you two will be stuck in its ice attacks!”

Vic already feels the wind on his back as an ice attack flies right over his head. He’s being dragged out of the eye and into the storm, Lycogalia grabs his hand and pulls him forward. “Not a chance! You need to beat him! I can’t move, but you can!”

Vic racks his brain as he’s yanked forward by the knight. “Shit… I’ve got nothing! I did everything I could. Lyco, I’ve not known you more than an hour. But, this might be it for us. Our teammates are screwed. I should’ve quit when that damn Sadi lady saved us…”

As Vic is coming to terms with this moment, he suddenly feels warm. Toasty even. And the wind, even though it’s over taken him and Lyco, it’s not even moving his hair or beard. “Who the hell are you?” The spellcaster said, very annoyed.

“A few things!” a voice says with a familiar cap and mask walks by Vic and Lyco. “An entertainer, a very heavy sleeper, and well…” He looks at Vic. “Here now.”

“What the hell are you doing here! It would take you hours to get here!” Vic yells.

“There was this guy was looking for his armored teammate, I told him I was looking for mine too. He said he teleported his teammate and was afraid he got hurt at this pillar. I offered to take a look, told them that if I knew my teammate, he’d be here too.”

“Hisoki,” Vic takes off the bag and hands it to him. “I’m gonna need your help here.”

“I got it! Just leave it to me!” He slings the bag over his hip and faces the caster.

“You’re expecting me to be afraid of someone dressed like that! Just because you can warm up your friend and negate the wind for him doesn’t mean I can’t just take your weapon!” And he does, magnetically taking Hisoki’s sword. “There! Now try and bring out something else for me to steal!”

Hisoki looks over his tattered gloved hand with bandages underneath. “It’s not like I could use it anyway.” He reaches in his bag for a wand and a scroll. The wand isn’t wood, it’s clear. Like a quartz. “Question for you, can you negate spells that aren’t cast?”

“Huh??? All spells are cast you fool!”

“Oh?” Hisoki unravels the scroll. “Release Fireball,” a giant fireball is shot toward the pillar, melting the ground as it burns toward it.

He drops the weapons to cast; “Counterspell!” he says before the explosion erases the pillar. “How!?”

“That spell that I just released was captured a few days ago. A woman slung it at Vic and I so I just took it. It was sitting in a stasis waiting to be used again,” the scroll dissolves away in his hand.

“T-that’s… I’ve never heard of that! Ever! I’ve practice the pinnacle of magic!” The caster watches the pillars effects fade away from the land.

“Oh! Then let me show you what this does!” Hisoki waves the wand. “Midusta!” A bolt rings out and hits the caster in the chest. “I almost wanted to ask your name so I could engrave it on you,” the spellcaster has been turned into a gold statue instantly. “It seems he was worth more dead than alive!”

Lyco, who’s barely standing laughs so hard from this very morbid joke. The laughter echos so much in his armor. “I like you! You don’t wear that getup for nothing!”

“Getup? These are my work clothes!”

Lyco is laughing once again, Vic holds up his hands in confusion. “Hisoki, you do know what you just did isn’t exactly legal. Right?”

“It’s illegal?” He thinks with a genuinely confused look on his face. “Turning someone into gold is illegal?”

“Transmuting anything living thing into a rare mineral is illegal.”

“But! That’s all this wand works on is living things! It only works once a month too!”

Lyco catching his breath, “Phew… Yeah, Vic is right. That is quite illegal, so you may wanna watch when using that, my name is Lycogalia, but Vic here called me Lyco.”

Hisoki looks very mortified at having to be told this. “Although, I doubt anyone could even prove he did it,” Vic says to Lyco.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, there’s so many spells capable of doing the same thing. Whatever happens in these challenges just stays here.”

“Right. I’ll try not to rely on this thing,” Hisoki says and puts away the wand.

“Lets head back, would you want to rest at our camp, Lyco?” Vic offers.

“As nice as that would be, I’ve got someone waiting on me. Oh, before I forget!” He takes out a bag of berries. “For saving my life. It’s about five hundred.”

Hisoki’s expression gets so excited. “We only need roughly six-hundred now!”

“Not exactly. Sadi gave us seven-hundred. This puts us at twenty-one hundred.”

“Huh? Why would she do that?” the jester asks. “Wait… We’re done?” taking the final berries from Lyco.

Vic walks over, picking up his weapon and Hisoki’s. The jester is too awestruck that it’s over to notice Vic handing him his saber, having to nudge him to get him to take it. “Come on, clown. Lets get going.”

“Right!” Putting away the berries temporarily in his bag. Sheathing that sword and following Vic.

“Vic and Hisoki,” Lycogalia says to himself. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you both.”