D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Current Match Score 1-0

Gareth POV chapter. 

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Marigold wasted no time once the ball was handed over. Blue made a small gap in the water wall and let Marigold smack the ball through. Carl and Gareth shared a look of annoyance. Gareth smacked the ball up as high as he could, damn the risk of it falling out of bounds they needed time to discuss. "What are we going to do? Is there any way to get through that nonsense?" asked Gareth. 

"I\'ve got a few ideas. First, we hit the ball back at the same time. It\'ll be ridiculously hard, but maybe we can get enough power behind it with the two of us. Second idea, I can pump as much mana as possible into a fireball that destabilises Blue\'s control over the damned thing… but she\'s a trained mage and I\'m not. So I\'m not even certain it\'ll work. My final idea would be to make another one of those paddles and we just smack the ball back and forth until someone runs out of mana…" Carl trailed off. 

"But once again, Blue is a mage and I\'m not. Plus I didn\'t exactly have time to fully recover from the first round, mana wise, so we\'re not necessarily going to win… plus I\'m not sure that the paddle will be big enough. Could you even lift something that covered so much area?" continued Gareth. 

"Probably not by myself but if we worked together and used two, or just shared the load for one big sign we might be able to make it," explained Carl. The ball was coming down. They didn\'t have much time to discuss longer. Gareth glared at Marigold and she blew a kiss back at him. 

*Dammit, we just didn\'t have any time between rounds. Marigold knew what she was doing. She can get a win as long as Blue\'s mana lasts, so she has to reduce the time it\'s being kept up as much as possible. Though… that does make me wonder… should we be using the paddles to smack things directly upwards instead? Make it a large flat stone that we both hold and then smack the ball upwards? No Thyme might count that as both of our \'touches\' of the ball. 

Still… would hitting things directly up save mana? Probably not? I\'d still have to reinforce everything as we held it so we\'d both be draining mana and I\'m not willing to believe that my bodged together stone reinforcement takes less mana then a real spell. That\'s one of the main reasons to actually use spells. The mana savings. Dammit. 

The next thing to consider is should I start trying to make something right now? Or should I wait for next round? If I start now and fail because I need to do something taxing… like say, chase the ball all the way to the corner, then I\'m just going to be wasting mana when I need to stop. On the other hand… we\'re probably going to lose this point if I can\'t come up with anything.*

Carl smacked the ball forwards and upwards, giving the team as much time as he could. Gareth sent a thumbs up his way. It wasn\'t much, but was something and it wasn\'t like Gareth had anything better to do in that moment. Neither of them liked how casual Blue was looking at the moment. It was looking like maintaining the water wasn\'t particularly draining on her reserves. 

*Then again, why would it be? We saw her pull the water out of the ocean, so she just needs to pay the mana cost for floating it instead of keeping it summoned and floating. I don\'t really know enough about spells to know just how small the amount is though. Hmm… I really wish there was a clearer solution to this problem. What else could I do?*

The ball was launched back but Gareth was watching it and ready. It was still a close run thing but he managed to get it up in the air before it hit the ground and give both him and Carl more time to think about the path forward. Carl wasn\'t saying anything either, but Gareth wasn\'t concerned. 

*So… I could throw rocks into the water? Not sure if that\'d help. Maybe it\'d increase the mana cost? But it\'d probably increase the cost of it more for me if I had to make them. So I\'d need to compress a bunch of sand into sandstone and then throw it in… but I don\'t know that it would really help. That\'s a lot of water and it\'s just sandstone. Though… would Blue need to pay extra mana to keep it up in the air? If she does maybe there\'s a point where the stone gets too much?I think you should take a look at

But what\'s stopping her from just shooting it off to the sides? Nothing. The fact she can accurately fire the ball probably means that I wouldn\'t get anywhere with that plan. Unless… could I just shove a bunch of sand into it? Would the sand absorb the water and make it harder to move around? Possibly, but once again we run into the issue of \'Blue can probably just fire it out\' which isn\'t what we need.*

Carl managed to make contact with the ball and hit it up and forward… maybe enough to get past the water wall if Blue didn\'t bother to move it. Gareth watched closely, interested to see what Blue would do in response. This meant that he was watching the moment Blue and Marigold realised that it didn\'t matter. Carl had hit it a bit too far forward. Blue didn\'t move the water, and Marigold didn\'t move to intercept it. The ball landed out-of-bounds behind the back line. 

"2-0 to Marigold and Blue," said Thyme as a vine stretched out and snatched the ball from the sand before handing it over to Gareth\'s team. Obviously, they weren\'t in any hurry to serve, and got into a huddle. 

"Have you got any plans? I\'ve been thinking and thinking but nothing I can think of would actually work," said Gareth with a scowl on his face. "Extra rocks to the water? She throws them out. Collect the water with sand? Same issue. Try to compete with the mana reserves of a mage using paddles? Fat chance. I wish there was something I was missing… but there just doesn\'t seem to be," said Gareth. 

Carl nodded along with Gareth\'s explanation before a spark came to his eyes. "Gareth. I have an idea. It\'s mean, and terribly rude… but it MIGHT work," 

"Right well… I guess we\'ll have to decide if it\'s wroth pissing of our future teammates, so… lay it on me," said Gareth. 

"Fire as much attack magic as we can… under the net, straight at Blue instead of trying to deal with the water. A good mage Blue might be, but I doubt she\'ll be able to keep such fine control of the water up and running while she needs to dodge boulders," explained Carl. 

*Hmm… It\'s not a terrible idea… but it\'s not going to make us any friends is it? I\'m… somewhat leaning towards not bothering… I wouldn\'t want Blue to win as many matches as she could… and then intentionally throw away the game for me, or me and Carl.* "I\'m not sure it\'s worth making an enemy of Blue like that. I mean… I can see it working… but I\'m not sure we SHOULD do it," said Gareth. 

"I know. I even somewhat agree with you… but I don\'t see any other part forward," said Carl. 

Gareth nodded in understanding. "I get what you\'re saying… but Thyme might even be annoyed with us for it. Remember, the whole point of this was to keep things casual. Plus… reinforcing a paddle is one thing, but throwing fireballs over the net? At a person? Thyme might decide that\'s casting spells \'on the other side of the net\' and give them a point for it," 

"Ah… yeah actually… no that would totally be casting spells on the other side of the net wouldn\'t it? Blue\'s been careful to keep the water just barely on her side of the net so… yeah we\'d probably be called out for it wouldn\'t we? Shit. Does that mean even our plans to disrupt the water might get us in trouble?" asked Carl. 

"Shit it does… I\'m surprised Blue has managed to be so… domineering for this match. I just… what else can we do?" asked Gareth.

"Nothing I think… we just gotta play it out and accept that Blue\'s team made a great call sending her up for this particularly event. It\'s basically a mage\'s paradise. She\'s got free reign, can\'t be attacked and her element is really good for this as well," said Carl.

"Right… well, might as well try to run her out of mana," said Gareth with a shrug, knowing how this was going to end.