Dee met with the rest of the group near the teleportation gates. She had been among the last to arrive even though there was still a lot of time before they actually had to leave. The number of people present was also larger than she had assumed. She had heard about the stipulation about only ten people taking part and there were almost thirty people here. One, in particular, drew her eye and not really in a good way. There was a man she had never seen before standing next to the seer that had started taking part in most of the discussions between the representatives.

What originally drew her attention was that the two started whispering something as soon as she approached. That could’ve been completely coincidental, but it still made it seem they were talking about her. What really made the man stand out though was the fact that he looked like a tanned human but he was definitely something else. That in itself wasn’t all that weird. Many races liked to take the form of a human as it was seen as convenient and neutral. Even the seer standing next to the man had taken a human form but was something else entirely. Dee’s ability to see the flow of power allowed her to see through forms like this. The problem was Dee had never seen anything quite like the man. He seemed to be some kind of energy being in a humanoid form.

Still. She had seen plenty of different races so far. The man was on the stranger end of things but so were plenty of other people. She pushed the duo out of her mind and approached the representatives standing in the center of the group. “Ah, there you are Dee!” Nyx greeted her.

“Aren’t you all a bit early? And what’s with all the people?” Dee asked while giving a small salute to Razark standing by the side of the group of representatives.

“We are still choosing who exactly goes. Also, this might be the first rank challenge you’ve taken part in so it’s not surprising if you aren’t aware. It’s rather customary for the loved ones of those taking part to come and say goodbye. The challenge can be fairly dangerous, even with the recent proclamation in place. Which reminds me. We all know you’re not exactly known for holding back despite your recent time in the Cauldron of Blood. So I’d like to remind you to hold back enough to not kill anyone.” Nyx explained, her chipper tone not really matching her words.

Dee just grunted in response. Well, even without killing she could take out her mood with copious amounts of violence. “So who’s going? You said you aren’t entirely sure of everyone just yet.”

“Well, we have it mostly hammered out. You and Razark, me, Shioko, Smoky, Kawhena, Amarog, and the man the Threads of Fate are sending. That makes eight. The Rakshasa wanted to send one of theirs as a kind of thank you, which would make it nine. The next strongest would be one of the Anshar warriors, but the seer said she can arrange for another person. We’re still waiting for him as well.” Just as Nyx finished talking, a flamboyantly dressed man flew down from the flying island of the Threads of Fate.

The armor and clothes colored with the reds and oranges of flames and the Phoenix motif made Dee laugh. Not because the man didn’t carry the armor with dignity, he actually looked quite dashing, but Dee was the only one that saw the irony in the situation. The nearby seer had walked closer and posed a question with a tone of voice that hinted at her own smile behind the veil. “What amuses you so? I find him funny as well, though I suspect for a different reason.”

“Let’s just say that the colors he is wearing and the decorations on his armor are very appropriate.” Dee said, barely containing her mirth with limited success.

This surprised the empress. She had heard rumors that the girl had sharp eyes, but had not realized it was to this extent. ‘She saw through my friend, so she probably also sees through you to an extent.’ She silently messaged the Young King.

‘She can see the power inside people.’ The Young King replied calmly. He knew Dee could not identify him. She simply knew he wasn’t what he appeared, which was not unusual.

‘And you know this because?’ The empress asked.

‘She isn’t the only one with the talent. It’s not a widely known skill, but the Assembly teaches their most promising members how to do it. I’m guessing she had some contact with them as a child. That might explain her odd heritage.’ The Young King had been surprised when Dee had appeared. He could tell at a glance that Dee was not a member of any race he had ever seen. She wasn’t even a half. At first, he had assumed the demons had created something new to use in the war against the angels just before their demise, but he recognized the technique used by the Assembly. The Assembly certainly had the knowledge to create something like the weird yet oddly fitting being in front of him.

‘The Assembly? What would one of theirs be doing here? Especially if she is one of their most promising members like you said.’ The empress questioned. This was outside her calculations. She had never forgotten the possibility of outside influence but had dismissed the possibility before.

‘That is the question. Maybe it has something to do with what you saw. You mentioned she has the chance to sink the Celestial Court, right? Maybe that’s why she’s here.’ The Young King suggested.

‘That’s a bit of a long shot. She has been here for over a decade according to the reports. My people made the first contact when she was a child and she was very weak then. It’s a bit much to throw someone like that into Pantheon on the vague hopes she would become strong enough to do something like that.’ The empress countered. There was a reason she had dismissed the possibility of outside influence.

‘Perhaps. Or perhaps she wasn’t given a specific goal like that. Perhaps she was just told to take opportunities to weaken us. In any case, her presence here might not be an accident or good for Pantheon. I’m not making a judgement, just raising the possibility. We should keep an eye on her. But then, you already have that covered. How convenient.’ The Young King mused. He would certainly not make a move on pure speculation like this. It just made him wary. One had to keep their eyes open when in his position. He had already detected an angel in the distance observing this place. An angel specialized in such covert observation to be exact.

“Alright, with everyone here, we can start moving. Keep your eyes open everyone. The second circle is far from a safe place even though most of the Night city forces are already withdrawing.” The Anshar representative announced.

“Should I…?” Dee asked and waved her hand meaningfully.

“No, we should do it the old-fashioned way. We’re not in a rush and your skill might turn out to be useful surprise factor later on.” He replied.

-----

As soon as the ten of them arrived at the agreed upon place, they noted that three of the four other groups had already arrived. As soon as one of the groups saw the Four Winds arrive, they decided this attempt was going to fail and started leaving. Nyx had already predicted this, so it didn’t come as a surprise. The remaining two groups looked at those leaving with some disdain. The leaving group had only been fishing for some luck but had come out empty handed.

The last group arrived twenty minutes later, and the heads of the four groups gathered to set up the rules for the challenge. In the meantime, Dee observed the other three groups. One of them was made up of large High Orcs. Dee found their presence a little calming because at least now there were some people taller than her present. Kawhena also had her beat but only barely. The High Orcs, on the other hand, were almost a head taller than her, and that made her much happier. They were also four times as wide if her wings were not counted, but that she didn’t care about. The green, brown, and black skinned orcs were mostly warriors, though at least two of them seemed to be either priests or mages of some sort.

One of the other groups was on the other extreme and was made up of dwarves and gnomes. They were barely taller than Nyx in fact. They were a mixed group of warriors and mages, with most of the latter coming from the gnomes. There seemed to be one dwarven cleric as well. The third group and the strongest of the three was made up of Saurians.

Nyx had mentioned that they were one of the new communities formed after the rampage of the Saurians had abated. They had found themselves in the second and third circles with a lot of power and some of them didn’t mind staying. Saurians came in a couple distinct varieties, ranging from the large and hulking Saauri to the thinner and more lithe Lizardfolk. The five large Saauri in the group were all just as big as the High Orcs, but they looked more intimidating with their scaly hides and maws full of sharp teeth. The smaller lizardfolk were equal in size with Shioko and seemed to emphasize speed over power. Not that the Saauri looked slow by any means. An interesting detail was that the Saauri were all of the same ruby red color with slight differences in shade, while even a lone Lizardfolk could have several different colors on their body.

Dee had spent some time with Mazatl who was one of the Saauri, though from the smaller end of the scale as she had become a priestess instead of a warrior. The warriors of their kind kept growing and becoming larger when others of their kind stopped, especially the males. There was a reason why their kind had been able to hack their way through the third circle, and most of that was thanks to the ferocity of the Saauri warrior caste. She could certainly see that, looking at the warriors standing nearby.

It didn’t take all that long for the Anshar representative to return. “It’s going to be a standard four-way king of the hill.” He explained briefly.

“A what now?” Dee asked a little confused.

Nyx gave a small chuckle before explaining. “It’s a fairly standard way of doing challenges peacefully when there are multiple communities involved. King of the hill is a format where the strongest person stays at the top of the hill and gets challenged until they are defeated. Four-way only means that any of the four communities involved can challenge them, even at the same time if they so choose.”

“Surely there’s more to it than that?” Dee asked, knowing that there were too many loopholes with the short explanation.

“Of course. Any person who loses is out of the competition for good. A community can send more than one person to challenge the others, but only one of them can stay on top and the others are considered eliminated. It’s a steep price that only gets paid when they absolutely need to get someone off the hill. To avoid everyone saving their strength until the end, the winner is not last person standing. Instead, every time you knock someone from the other communities out, your community gets a point. The one community with most points at the end wins. If you save your strength for too long, you risk letting an enemy run away with a large lead.” Nyx elaborated.

“What about the extra people that have to get off? Do they count for points?” Dee noticed another loophole.

“If they get knocked out, then yes. If they stand with the king and have to get off due to the rules, then they don’t give points. Also, the whole thing goes in rounds, and the communities don’t have to send someone every round. The king also gets an extra point for every round they stand at the top. If no one challenges a king for two rounds while the other communities have people remaining, they are declared the winner by default.” Nyx finished her explanation.

“Sounds easy enough. Now, where do we find a hill?” Dee looked around and the area was perfectly flat.

Nyx struggled to keep herself from laughing. “The hill part is just an expression. There doesn’t need to be an actual hill involved. Though personally, I’m a little partial to having one.”

“Alright, if you’re done with the explanations, we should probably come up with a strategy.” The Anshar representative stated as their leader.

“We could just overpower them.” The flamboyantly dressed man stated simply while looking at the other three groups.

“My, aren’t we confident.” Shioko stated. “Still, you’re not entirely wrong. We are the strongest out of the four communities involved. The problem is, the others probably also noticed the same. It’s likely they will work together against us.”

“They all seem to be heavy on the warriors.” Dee suddenly pointed out staring at the three groups.

“That’s not surprising. Ki is the most commonly used source of power, so it’s not uncommon to have more warriors as immortals either.” The Anshar representative stated.

“Though I don’t think they’re all immortal.” Nyx muttered with a small frown. The dwarves had brought along a rank nine warrior, as they were the weakest of the four groups and likely couldn’t field a group of ten immortals.

“In any case, there are many ways of pushing through plans like our enemies working together. The simplest one is to just stand firm and show that their cooperation will not be enough to deter us. This is the hardest way to do it, but it would also solidify our position.” Kawhena stated. “In that case, it’s important to make a statement right from the beginning.”

“Then I will go.” The Anshar representative stated. The four communities had pulled quite a bit of distance from each other, leaving the center open for the battles. They had chosen an open location with no important resources because they knew there would be damage to the surroundings.

As the Anshar representative walked to the center, they all noted that the leaders of the other three groups had also chosen to be the first ones. It was clear they were planning on suppressing the Four Winds from the start. Before the battle started, one of the High Orcs pulled out a large hide drum and the others started chanting a war song of sorts. Dee noticed that the purpose was essentially to buff their fighter with the power of their ritual. The dwarven cleric also blessed their fighter before the battle.

“I see, so that how they want to play it.” Dee mumbled. She could do the same, except that the Anshar representative had already entered the makeshift arena and Dee couldn’t interfere anymore. The other fighters had waited for the support before entering the arena.

Dee looked at the others before instructing. “Remember to wait a bit before your turn comes. I can cast supportive spells on you before you go in.”

“Oh, I was wondering what the singing was for.” Nyx commented. She could not see the supportive power surrounding the High Orc fighter. She had seen the cleric’s actions but had not been worried as the dwarven representative was the weakest of the four in the arena. She had considered the support an equalizer of sorts.

It had to be said that the Anshar representative had earned his position. Despite the three others ganging up on him, he emerged victorious from the fight. During the fight, it occurred to Dee that they now had several fire-based fighters in their group, though they were all different in many ways as well. The Anshar representative was the most traditional fire type, in that he almost became a high ranking fire elemental during his fight, throwing around many fire and heat-related skills.

The flamboyantly dressed man seemed to be a Phoenix, and his style would most likely differ from the Anshar representative’s. Dee was not sure what the other strange man was like exactly, but she got the feeling of extreme heat from him as well. Just being near him made the air seem warmer. Even Dee herself could be counted to some degree with her black flames. Made them seem a little one-note in her opinion.

“I’m not sure if this is a good result or not.” Kawhena commented. They had won the first round and even gained three points, but the Anshar representative had paid a price. The Saauri warrior in particular had managed to put up a big fight and had exhausted the Anshar, even wounding him rather heavily. Immortals like the Anshar representative could recover quickly, but it was not instant.

“Does he have to stay on the hill?” Dee suddenly asked.

“No, but if he steps down then we lose the point for retaining control of the hill.” Nyx replied.

“Have him step down. He won’t win the next fight anyway.” Dee stated firmly. It would be better to send in someone else than have their ostensive leader lose the next fight. “They were aiming for him anyway, and they reached the goal they wanted to a certain degree. Instead of giving them the satisfaction of taking him down, let’s show them that the rest of us should not be ignored either.”

Dee decided to set an example and marched toward the arena. She signaled for the Anshar representative to leave. With a tired nod, he decided to comply. “Well, then. Who wants to play?” Dee asked with a feral grin as the light of buffs flashed around her.