Magical Engineering

“So we just tell Rabyn he's handling cooking himself then?” I asked as we exited the tent, following behind Brault.

“Yeah, that seems like it's probably for the best. It looks like they haven't switched anything up in the order, so at least that means he's going first and that will give us more time to plan things while he's working,” Pryte replied.

The planet we were on was seemingly one giant green field covered in random tents, tables, and pavilions. All around us were dozens of outdoor kitchens with every cooking appliance I could imagine. More people than I could count were buzzing about, quickly making last-minute preparations. This was certainly a very full contest.

With those new rules in place, that meant countless teams had their entire faction on the line. And here we were, gambling amongst them. I wasn't willing to entertain the idea that we were going to lose. We were here to secure the Twinoges' home world, and that left a giant question of what we'd do with everyone else's.

Brault stopped and pointed to the location of the rest of our group, all sitting around a table in a bright red and yellow gazebo. He then turned to us, gave his brother a half-hearted smile, and vanished back into the crowd, leaving us alone for the rest of our short walk.

“How do you think Rabyn is going to react to this news?” I asked, not sure the orc would be overly thrilled at the idea. But there was also the pretty strong possibility he'd be enthused at the idea of competing alone against everyone. He may pretend otherwise, but he did enjoy proving his skills.

“He already knows this is where he says to the greater spiral that he's still alive and thriving, so honestly, he might be happy to do this alone. He's the type that would want to throw everything he had at that wall and win while everyone's watching. And it will probably make a good showing for us when he does,” Pryte replied, as we stepped into the gazebo with the others.

“What will make a good showing for us?” Connie asked.

Pryte sighed. “We got the full details, at least as much as they're willing to provide for the events. So the big news is there's a new Mystery Sixth event. And along with that event, if we qualify for it and lose at it, we forfeit our home world, as does every single other competitor here.”

“I assume that hasn't altered our plans in the slightest?” Rabyn asked with a surprisingly determined smile.

That likely meant he really was looking forward to this. It was time for Rabyn to shine, and who was I to stop him? He had long since earned his way out of any of my initial distrust that had come with the rest of the Orcs that had invaded Earth. And now here he was ready to defend not only Earth but the Twinoges’ homeworld as well.

“It doesn't. But this is again a giant risk for everyone competing here. I know none of you are going to back down because I know all of you. At the same time, we do need to be aware of what's coming. There's also another change to what we've learned. We can not reuse any of our competitors across different events,” I answered, and explained some of the other news.

Pryte continued where I left off, as the others all stared at us with differing looks of annoyance and determination in their eyes. “And furthermore, the fewer people we use in an event, the higher our score will be. To that end, we will figure out exactly how we're gonna break that up for the other ones? Rabyn, are you willing to do this cooking event entirely alone?”

“Absolutely. If it helps to secure success and gives me a little bit of a moment to show off my knife skills, I think I am entirely willing.” His smile grew as he spoke. There was something else going on here that I wasn't aware of, possibly someone in the crowd he had spotted, but what those details were wasn't important at the moment. He'd tell us when he was ready.

A chat window popped into view as Rabyn finished speaking.