The Tale of Dragons and Dungeons

Chapter 8: The Contest

Cold wind blew in the door of the Rook and all inhabitants of said building shivered as it spread around. Blader's wings shrank a little as he tucked them into his jacket, wincing a bit as he adjusted to touching his sensitive wings for a long period of time. A snowstorm was coming close to Staadsvar, and they were planning at staying at the Rook until the storm left. Oznerol was drinking a jug of warm apple juice, Naunia was sitting in a corner reading a medical book, Gene was talking to Stinell, Lightning Heart was hiding on the rafters, Dedrater was walking out in the cold, Lucy was walking over to cuddle with Blader (To which Blader protested a bit, they were at a public inn so it was kind of embarrassing, despite being the only people there) Lani was sitting somewhere deeper in the building, and Stella was sitting with her. They were all just sitting there. Eventually, the snow on the roof was giving too much additional weight to the building, and the roof collapsed. A bunch of roof and ceiling bits and snow landing on top of Blader. "Well... That's just cold." Blader said as even more snow filled the room, blowing freezing wind all around and making everyone shiver uncontrollably. They eventually couldn't stand it and went to another room. Blader was still entirely covered in snow. They moved over to one of the warmer areas; one of the bedrooms. They all took off their winter gear and got into their beds, Lucy and Blader being together of course. After that they lied around and made small talk. After that they realized it must have been pretty late and all decided to go to sleep.

"Come one, come all! Enter the amazing contest with as large a group as you want!" Stella lazily opened one eye as booming drum beats sent vibrations through the entirety of the Rook. She looked around and saw Blader, as usual already awake and fully dressed, poking everyone in the face lightly. He looked over and saw her awake. He put a finger to his lips for silence. Stella was too tired to care, the sun wasn't up and she didn't feel like interrupting Blader's odd habits. She tried going back to sleep but was awakened by the drums again. She didn't understand how the rest of them could sleep so soundly.

Oznerol woke up a little after sunrise began. Blader had satisfied himself and was relaxing on his bed. Stella had mindlessly drifted off into sleep a short while before Blader had stopped, managing to sleep through the beats. The beats were continuing and actually seemed to be getting louder, as if it was approaching their room. It eventually stopped but the call of the same line kept going out across seemingly all of Staadsvar. He eventually lightly tapped Blader's shoulder. He seemed to ignore him, so Oznerol slapped him across the face. Blader looked over, a red hand mark on his face. "What's so important?" "There's something going on outside." Blader's eyes lit up with a look of understanding. "They've been blasting that off for about 6 hours now."  Both sat up and listened intently to the voice. "So do you think we should enter?" Blader asked. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course we should enter!" Oznerol answered. He slid his helmet on. "Let's get the others up." Blader lightly flicked Lucy's delicate face as Oznerol pulled the covers off of Dedrater's bed, causing a comical shiver and discomforted face from the young blonde. Blader stuck a knife into Gene's mattress right in front of his face, giving the young dirt conjurer quite a fright. They worked together to tip Naunia off of her bed and straighten her into a standing position.  Lucy rolled Stella off of her bed, much to the noble's protest, Lani was kneed off of her bed by Oznerol, and Blader sparta-kicked Lightning Heart's bed through a wall in order to wake her up. After they were all awake and equipped, Blader and Oznerol explained why they woke them up. They all nodded and walked to the signup table. They filled out their sheets.

Name: Isaac ←-GRRR Slaybane

Nickname?: Blader

Interests: Swords, Murder, Knives, Black, Leather, Gold, Fire, and Science.

Spouse/Girl/Boyfriend?: <3Lucy Heartfilia<3

Ideal Weapon: Sword

Worst Weapon: Blunt Objects

Notable Achievements: Assisted in the destruction of Crossdraugr Lake Killed way out of Hell Angel of Bhaal Saved Nwotslrig from a Weretiger Gotten a "home run" with Lucy

(...The rest...)

Party Name: The Black Cats

Party Members: Isaac "Blader" Slaybane Eden "Oznerol" Venomscythe Naunia Goldenpotato Stella Chipmunk, Gene Dirtpsych Lightning Heart Lani Goldenpotato Lucy Heartfilia Dedrater Fakename

Party Familiars: Steve the Crow(Blader)Chuckles the Talking Skull (Oznerol)Oda the Dragon (Naunia)Sofia the Squirrel (Stella)Jimmy the Dirtball (Gene)A random puppy (Lightning Heart)Edolas the Cursed Soul (Lucy)A bag of Steve's poop (Dedrater)

"Alright! We have our 8 parties! You are all going to participate in several competitive activities, and the winners will all get Legendary items!" All of the 8 parties walked to size each other up. Blader was being nice to them, shaking their hands and allowing them to pet Steve without having their hands pecked off. "Now, the rules are simple. When the competition ends, the party with the most points wins! Get caught attacking other parties out of the competition or sabotaging the competition itself and you'll get a 10 point deduction! Let's all have some fun, eh?" The small man who was the host reached into a box and pulled out a slip of paper. He smiled. "First up is a cool off! The parties must pick one member of their group and send them forward. The parties will vote who looks the coolest. In order to make this absolutely fair, the parties are not allowed to vote for their own teammates. Now, pick your member parties!" All of the people in the group looked to Blader who was mindlessly eating a slice of watermelon. "Hmm?" He looked over. "Me? Okay." He walked up and looked at all the other members. Steve flew onto his shoulder. He spread his small wings. The others were saying cliche cool lines. "Looks like my competition..." one began, tossing up a pair of sunglasses to his eyes. "Just got iced." Blader remained silent with a weathered look on his face. Some were putting chains on their arms and flipping up black hoods, but Blader remained in his regular everyday outfit. The other groups cast their votes. "One vote for Shawn Emanekaf of the Hollow Pumpkin group... and seven votes for Isaac Slaybane of the Black Cats!" The use of his real name made Blader's hair stand up in a spiked fashion, shooting up almost like an open flame. "NEVER USE MY REAL NAME. ARE WE CLEAR?" He was near strangling the gnome with his cold stare. "Uh... Yeah..." Blader turned his gaze away and his hair relaxed. "And next we have knife juggling!" The group put Lani forward. Everyone began juggling sharpened blades in the air. It took a while-and a couple contestants losing fingers-but eventually she won. They decided to put Naunia forward for trivia, but she failed almost immediately with the question 2x2, as no one in the group knew what math was. Oznerol was put forward for getting a date. 1 girl was seated at a desk. This was speed dating. She asked the contestants quick questions about them. Some of them knew nothing about what she was asking them, some couldn't hear her speaking or understand her quick voice. Oznerol got every word and answered back just as quickly. He sat down at the desk across from her. "So what made you join this competition?" He answered swiftly; "Me and Blader thought we could win easily." "What are your interests?" "Magic, swords, and going out with you." He answered, clearly trying to sucker her in. "Talk to me in your most attractive voice with your most attractive face on." Oznerol passed his hand across his face and immediately changed to look like a supermodel. "What do you wanna do today? Your choice." He said in the voice of Morgan Freeman (Morgan Freeman was a mighty warlock hailed from Staadsvar, work with me here readers.) The girl's face turned flush as she stared into Oznerol's eyes. "It seems we have a winner!" The announcer called out, stopping the intense staring contest the two were having. Oznerol's face returned to normal and he ran back, giving Blader a high-five. Gene competed in a dirt sculpting contest. He won, sculpting a naked lady that won the announcer really easily. All of the girls in the group slapped him across the face for being so perverted, while the rest of the guys (excluding Blader, who was eating a sandwich) were staring at it longingly. Dedrater lost musical chairs when he didn't know how to play. After a bunch of small and stupid things, Hollow Pumpkin and the Black Cats were tied. They went into the final round, a battle royale between parties. Long story short, knife knife knife, throwing pick, sword sword, and explosive fireball. They won.

Everyone got Legendary weapons and armor, while Blader, already having Legendary equipment, got a collection of Mega Rare swords, which he stored in a pocket dimension for safekeeping.