Speedrunning The Gauntlet

Ellen arrived where Laura and company were mowing down orcs one after another. They had pushed through several rooms already and had made it to a large open cavern where both sides' troops were going at one another. She shifted to Aubrey, so they would know it was her, and had Lucia send a message to Laura. “Aubrey, Chloe, and Mark are coming behind me at any moment. Hilde might be here soon too. Merida and Chloe suspected me, but I managed to deceive them for now at least.”

Ellen sent a few milk blade slashes at the soldiers near the others, so if the others came up behind her, they wouldn’t see her doing nothing. As she heard footsteps behind her, she turned and saw the three of them join her. Mark made use of some of the explosives Chloe had given him and lobbed them as hard as he could towards his own counterpart. They didn’t reach their intended target as Talia time bubbled each in midair above the orcs, and Laura blasted them, causing them to detonate prematurely.

Aubrey kept back from the frontline, afraid that if she fully engaged, Talia would manage to trap her in a bubble and Laura would blast her with her lust bolts that were coming out of her staff almost like a gatling gun. Instead, she launched blade after blade of milk through the air.

Ellen turned into Talia as quickly as she could and put down a bubble around the other team, only for it to be countered quickly by the real Talia.

Chloe launched flasks that exploded into clouds, causing Talia and Allie to pull back, afraid of getting infected. Mary and Laura did not let up, however.

Ellen reached out to Laura for Talia’s assistance, to time her open betrayal for greater effect. It wasn’t long before Hilde rushed into the room, opening her storage where Merigold and Mira stepped out and started casting buffs on everyone. Hilde then didn’t hesitate to dart across the cavern, but made sure to keep herself near several other people so Talia couldn’t pin her down as easily.

That was when Ellen struck, putting down several time bubbles with Talia overlapping them. They didn’t get Hilde, but Aubrey, Chloe, Mark, Mira, and Merigold all appeared nearly frozen in time.

Laura started blasting away at Aubrey and Mark, who Ellen pointed out were the best targets as they were the healers, even if that wasn’t the reason she wanted them taken out first. Ellen shifted to Sam’s form and used a lightning breath that would hit the two quickly when the bubbles popped.

Hilde saw parts of a lightning breath weapon arc past her from behind, and she turned to see what had happened and saw the time bubbles. She also saw Ellen in Sam’s body going after the orcs around her. Shit, shit, shit! Hilde made a split-second decision to go after Talia as she knew there was a limit to the number of bubbles she could have up at once. She put as much speed as she could muster in this enclosed space and practically flashed in front of Talia and landed a flying roundhouse kick to the side of her head, followed up by two spectral hooves flying towards her as she flew into a wall.

+20 CP Hilde Incapacitated Contestant.

Then several things happened at once. The time bubbles popped as Talia went unconscious, causing Mark and Aubrey to get hit with the lightning breath weapon, but it also arced past them and would have hit Allie had Mary not dove to protect her, taking the blast instead.

Mark collapsed to the ground from the surprise attack. Aubrey and the orcs were reeling from the area damage. Ellen moved to finish Aubrey off, catching Chloe, Mira, and Merigold by surprise. Ellen took out a vial Chloe had given her and smashed it over the back of Aubrey’s head, causing her to collapse to her knees but not become unconscious.

+7 CP Ellen Incapacitated Contestant (Betrayal Capped)
+4 CP Talia Incapacitation Assist
+3 CP Laura Incapacitation Assist

Seeing shit hit the fan, Mira grabbed Chloe and Mark’s bodies and teleported away. Hilde rushed back to try and save Aubrey, but Ellen ripped the crown off her head and then stabbed her in the back with Sam’s lightning-infused blade. Aubrey fell unconscious. Merigold saw Ellen was preparing to fight Hilde, and grabbed Aubrey’s body and teleported away with it.

+8 CP Ellen Incapacitated Contestant (Betrayal Capped)
+5 CP Talia Incapacitation Assist
+4 CP Laura Incapacitation Assist

Hilde tried to take Ellen on, but thanks to her own efforts to help Ellen gain the technical skills of the forms she took, she was nearly as competent as Sam at fighting. Hilde took several blasts from Laura in the back and saw no choice but to flee, which she only managed to do thanks to a dozen orcs all charging Ellen at once, and even then she wasn’t in good condition as she fled to the workshop to meet Merida.

Ellen worked with the other team to dispatch the remaining orcs. The Empire soldiers weren’t keen on leaving her be, but Laura’s insistence made them let it go. Ellen moved over to Talia as Mary was about to have her drink a milkshake, but Ellen said, “Use this. Chloe gave it to me to use on Mark if he was taken out. It’ll remove the incapacitation.”

Mary shrugged and took the potion and gave it to Talia, who gasped as she regained consciousness.

Ellen gave Talia a hand up.

Talia rubbed the back of her neck. “How many of them did we get?”

Ellen replied, “We got both Aubrey and Mark. They’ll probably have gotten Mark back up and then Mark will likely use his ability to get Aubrey back up, but that’s all they have left to get rid of incaps, so from here on out if you take one out they should stay down.”

Talia asked, “Could you teleport us to the ritual chamber? Like copy Merida and just take us to the end or where the entire other team is?”

Ellen looked at Talia, “I could, but I’m not going to do that based on what you’ve offered. Besides…” Ellen looked at Allie, “I feel like some of you might want a chance at earning some more points by taking out the others, since they will definitely flee if you actually complete your quest.”

Allie nodded, “Yeah, Ellen can you tell me, besides Mark on your team, who has the current lowest point total and what is it?”

Ellen considered the request and pulled out her phone to check. “It’s Chloe and she has 94 CP.”

Allie’s shoulders sagged. Mary gave her a light squeeze of the hand to comfort her. Allie said, “Great… just great. Isa and I are going to take bottom two at this rate.”

Laura asked, “So what about now? Will you give us a map? You’ve sort of made it clear you’ve turned traitor.”

Ellen shrugged, “Fine I guess.” Ellen handed over a layout of the lair, and pointed when Talia laid it out. “We’re here. This is the main gate.”

“What’s this?” Talia asked about a sequential set of rooms.

“That is the gauntlet leading to the ritual chamber. We were told you had some temples that let you locate us. If they were like our dungeons to get the idols… think of it like that but each room is designed specifically to screw one or more of you over.”

Laura asked, “And you could let us skip all of this but won’t?”

“Maybe but probably not.” Ellen replied. “I should warn you, Merida has been cooking up some sort of surprise but hasn’t said what it is. I think it would be best for us to meet up with the other half of your team and press forward together.”

Talia nodded, “I think so too, but Laura could you check with Sam? Sadie said she was in charge of the attack.”

Laura did, and soon the groups were heading to regroup together as Sam’s group had been utterly destroying the orc defenders.

---

Merida saw as Mira and Merigold teleported into the workshop. Less than a minute later Hilde skidded to a stop next to her. Hilde pulled the cork off a vial with her teeth and then drained the contents of the vial down Mark’s throat.

Mark regained consciousness. “What happened?”

Hilde said, “No time, Master. Heal Aubrey.”

Mark turned and sighed as apparently he needed to sing her healing hymn in a morose tone, finishing it with a kiss on the lips. Aubrey took in a deep breath as she regained consciousness. She blinked a few times and then said, “That baaaa!” She frowned as she definitely shouldn’t already be full of milk again. “Baaa? Why am I baaaaa baaaaaa?”

Mark examined her. “Oh… that’s not good. And you aren’t going to like the solution my class is telling me right now.”

Aubrey scowled, “What’s baa baaaa?”

“You’re infected, and going to turn into an elite level cow-girl if we don’t get you treated soon. At least you aren’t cursed.” Mark replied.

One of Aubrey’s eyes twitched, “What’s baa solution?”

Mark gave her a hand up and gestured towards the milking machine.

“Baaaaaaa! You baa’a be serious!”

“And I have to spank it out of you while you’re being milked.” Mark said while not meeting her gaze.

Aubrey’s hands went to her butt, remembering that her ass was still more sensitive from the envy dungeon. Mark grabbed her hand and led her to the machine. “I know you don’t like it, but if you don’t do this you’re likely becoming a cow-girl. Is that what you’d prefer?”

“Ba.” Aubrey pouted and let herself get hooked up to the machine.

While Mark was doing that Merida asked Chloe, “Hoo did she manage tae fool ye? Merigold said ye testit her.”

“I did.” Chloe said defensively. “I made her promise to tell me the truth, and directly asked her if she had anything to do with Kitty’s incap. She said she was there but didn’t attack her. She also said she hadn’t decided to take Cassandra’s offer either, but she was made an offer.”

Aubrey bleated out in pleasure as Mark smacked her ass. Mark said over the sounds of the milking machine. “It was likely Symbietta.”

Chloe said, “What?”

“Symbietta. She isn’t Ellen. I said this the other day at breakfast. You got Ellen to promise you to tell you the truth. Symbietta isn’t Ellen, and can speak without taking over Ellen’s body. I could see her fooling you that way.”

Chloe asked, “Why didn’t you tell us that before, if you suspected something?”

Mark frowned, “First, you’re assuming I suspected something. Second, even if I did, was I supposed to tip the scale in someone’s favor?”

Chloe scowled at Mark, “You’re supposed to be on our team! You said you wouldn’t help one team more than another. This you is supposed to be helping us, not the other team.”

“Ellen is on this team.” Mark countered. “I doubt that changed because she betrayed us. She’s going to suffer the consequences of losing the team portion just like the rest of you. Ellen could be playing a long game as a triple agent, or maybe she’s just playing for herself at this point. In any case, I can tell you my counterpart would only aid her in so much that it helps the other team, but if it was between anyone on the other team and Ellen, it wouldn’t be Ellen. I’m not going to help her attack any of you, or play along with her schemes.”

Chloe moved over to test the milk that was coming out of Aubrey as Mark continued to smack her rear every few seconds, and found it was indeed tainted.

Mira asked, “So what the fuck is the plan now? We’ve lost. No fucking way we’re winning if Ellen turned traitor.”

Merida said, “Than we sud focus on pynt gain or denial. Richt noo Aubrey went doon twice and Mark and Kitty anes. Dependin' on hoo the pynts for those war distributit we cud actually be in a guid place.”

Mark said, “Just a reminder that the main quest is certainly worth some amount of CP for the winning team.”

Merida frowned, “Sae we sud shoot for gettin' Chloe and me an incap if possible and then retreat.”

Mark unhooked Aubrey from the milking machine. She seemed slightly dazed and aroused. Aubrey said, “Baa, baa… but why?”

Merida explained, “Nane o' us are takin' first place. Probably nae even secont. Ellen micht but I nae langer care aboot her position. I canna be certain but based on the info I hae been gettin', the next seven spots are oor team and Talia, wi' Sadie, Allie, and Isa, in the bottom three. On average maist quests hae awardit atween three and five CP per person when we sent the correct nummer o' fowk. Let’s say the main quest is worth double the upper end at ten CP. That sud mean even wi' that amount Sadie, Allie, and Isa arena gaun tae surpass ony o' oor scores, but tae be safe the twa o' us sud try for an incap.”

Hilde said, “Seems reasonable. Though I would point out that if we get a few of them we actually could take first, but I agree that’s unlikely without losing several people ourselves.”

Chloe said, “If you want to get a takedown I suggest we use Meribelle’s strategy.”

Mark asked, “What strategy?”

Chloe said, “We give her a large explosive, she teleports to the enemy group and detonates it.”

Mark nodded, “That’s not a horrible strategy but I feel like it might not work like you have planned. Cassandra had to have something in place to prevent that. Otherwise it would be too strong. Especially since Merida isn’t in any actual danger from that.”

Merigold said, “There is, actually. The teleport canna be that close tae an enemy unless ye hae line o' sicht. The only reason it workit yestreen was 'cause Meribelle didnae teleport; she swappit places wi' me usin' a different effect.”

An orc Freya ran into the room. “Champions! The heroes are plowing through our forces quickly. They will reach here in a few minutes at most. I fear unless your gauntlet can hold them to the ritual completion we’ve lost.”

Chloe said, “Merida… I know it’s risky but maybe we should just retreat. Deny them the chance to take us down for points. Instead we go and farm as many levels as we can while denying them more support. If they come to fight us we leave either leaving them fewer people to do the gauntlet with, or we don’t let them have a safe place to recharge.”

Merida sighed, “Very well, we sud get sum pynts if oor traps tak' them oot even if it is reducit.” Merida turned to Freya. Tell aw the orcs tae abandon the mountain, except for those we hae stationt within the gauntlet. Hae them flee and try tae attack the encampment at the base o' the mountain. It’s early efternoon already, if they cannae finish their task by this evenin', they’ll either be vulnerable tae assassination attempts or hae tae retreat tae the capital givin' them nearly nae time tae finish it taemorrow.”

Freya looked on gravely, nodded and went to relay her commands.

Hilde opened up her storage to make the teleport easier on Merida, and they fled their lair.

---

Since Ellen’s betrayal it seemed everything was going swimmingly for Team Fairy Castle. They found the workshop as Ellen called it as well as their personal quarters, but the opposing team was not to be found.

Ellen led them to the entrance of the gauntlet. “Here it is.”

Talia said, “You are going to help us with this if you want your full reward from us. I’m not going to deny you’ve helped, but you are helping here, do I make myself clear?”

Ellen shrugged, “Very well, but I can already tell Merida or Smug put something in place to prevent teleporting deeper than this point. Which I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised considering there are also anti-flight runes to prevent you from trivializing things.”

Sadie spoke up. “Ladies… not sure if we want to do something about this or not, but it seems some of the orcs made it out of the mountain and are attacking the encampment with the other team.”

Laura asked, “Do we even care?”

Sam shrugged. Hearing that they were going to meet up and travel as a group, Sam flew back to base super fast, and grabbed Brooke, so Mary could make her a revive milkshake so she would be able to help with the gauntlet. “I mean, the major thing would be if we care about resting, but I don’t think we’ll need that. Ellen, do you think we’ll need that?”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know. You have the plans I gave you, but I don’t know the surprise Merida planned, and I don’t actually know how strong Chieftain Slevia, Chieftain Freya, and High Shaman Maja are. I’m guessing strong, since it was decided to hold them and a few other elite orcs in reserve but your team is overpowered as hell.”

Sam consulted with Talia for a few minutes and they came to the conclusion that they wouldn’t worry about it and simply speed run this crap and end things tonight.

They pushed open the doors to the first room and found the pit they had kept Samantha in several days ago. There was still a pool of tainted, and now foul smelling milk far below. There were moving floating platforms with traps scattered throughout the room

Talia said, “I see several things not included on the blueprints.”

Ellen nodded, “Yeah, those are older ones. I know the invisible barrier in the middle was specifically put there with the hope Laura would try jumping the entire room and faceplanting into it and fall into the pit below.”

Isa asked, “I have to ask, why didn’t you just seal off access to the ritual room.”

Allie answered before Ellen could. “Because this is a LARP. A requirement of it would have to be that it is possible for us to win. Think of a video game, where the final boss was inaccessible except through a glitch, so it isn’t possible to win under normal circumstances. That would be a shitty game.”

Ellen glared at Allie’s use of profanity. Allie rolled her eyes and continued. “Same thing applies here, and in most actual LARPs where an objective is placed. There are rules about what sorts of obstacles you can put in the other team’s path. So even if it is hard, it is meant to be possible.”

Isa held up her hands satisfied with the explanation.

Sadie asked, “How far up and down does the barrier extend?”

Ellen said, “Up to the ceiling but I think only about down to the floor where we are now.”

Sadie whistled as she opened her golden companion cage. Mice started flooding out filling the floor of the hallway. Sadie then got out a rope and tied it around Cheddar. She picked up Cheddar and handed her over to Laura. “Think you can brace yourself on the edge here with one hand and toss her under the barrier to the opening over there?”

Laura didn’t even hesitate to hang off the pit, and tossed Cheddar like a beanbag as she had in the temple of temperance. Cheddar soared across the room and under the barrier and landed in the hallway on the other side. Laura easily climbed back up the edge. Laura asked, “Okay now what?” Sadie didn’t have to answer her question though as mice started to go across the rope, at first one at a time then in twos and threes and quickly they had a few hundred mice helping Cheddar anchor the rope on the far side. While that was happening Sadie was having Talia help her find the best place to drive in pitons as anchor points on their side. Then the mice started carrying over more rope and pitons and a hammer. In less than thirty minutes they had a makeshift rope bridge dangling below the barrier and out of the way of the traps.

Mary volunteered to cross it first being the smallest as long as there was a rope around her waist and found it easy to get across. Everyone crossed quickly with Laura actually being the trickiest as she had to crawl to get past the barrier due to her height.

The next room was a maze that had rotating walls, but since Ellen knew the pattern they passed that trial quickly as well. The next two rooms were the barracks rooms for the orcs where they found the elite orcs waiting for them. Chieftain Slevia stood cracking her neck from one side to the other. “Greeting Heroes, and traitor. Going to be honest at this point, I don’t care if Smug wins or not.” Slevia pointed towards Samantha with her greataxe. “I just want a good fight. You. Fight me one on one and I’ll let the rest of you pass regardless of the outcome. Otherwise… I’ll have to be a bit dishonorable with the goal of stopping as many of you as possible here and now. Starting with the weakest among you.”

Samantha replied, “Fine by me.”

Talia grabbed her shoulder. “Are you crazy? We can take all three easily as a team.”

Samantha replied, “There aren’t three of them. There are a lot more and I fully believe that they would take out at least one of us if not two. Especially since I can feel my flight is restricted, among other things. Let me handle this.”

Talia nodded.

Samantha said, “On your honor the others can go on if I fight you? You won’t attack them afterwards?”

Slevia said, “On my honor.” Slevia even stepped to the side and invited them to pass before the fight began.

The others began to pass. Slevia said, “A note if I should win. Even if they can restore you I won’t let that happen. I’ll be taking you with me.”

Mary froze in her steps and turned to stare at Slevia her pupils turning into tiny slits as her tail flicked behind her. Samantha saw what was about to happen and put both hands on Mary’s shoulders. “Mary… Get a hold of yourself. Slevia isn’t looking to steal from your hoard. Besides… Don't you have faith in me? I’m not going to lose.”

Mary took a few calming breaths, nodded her encouragement and walked to the next room without a word before she did something stupid. Laura gave Sam a hug, and Brooke gave her a smack on the butt to make sure she was in tip-top shape and everyone moved on, leaving Samantha to face Slevia alone.

Slevia smiled at Sam, and broke character slightly. “No tricks this time. No rules. Just the two of us. Slugging it out.”

Sam laughed, “Seriously still bitter about the arena match? I won that fair and square.”

“True, doesn’t mean I don’t want rematch. Also you made wise choice here. I’m the strongest NPC. Besides that damn cat. Well… except for Smug or Cassandra. Neither of them are meant to be fought.”

As the two spoke, Maja and Freya moved to the side of the room and took a seat on the top bunk of a bunkbed so they could watch what was about to unfold.

Sam asked, “Did you really teach Aubrey?”

Saliva nodded, “Yes. Good student. Decently trained.”

“Only decently?” Sam feigned offence.

Slevia grunted as she hefted her axe into a fighting stance. “You’ll discover soon. You’re not much better, in terms of skill.”

“I’m going to make you eat those words.” Sam gave Slevia predatory grin, “And then maybe I’ll have you between my legs.”

The two stopped with their foreplay and their clash began. Steel clashed against one another as both went at one another with abandon. If Sam had watched more anime she might have thought Talia had hung around to turn their fight into something out of a shonen manga as they deflected one another’s attacks just to cause massive cracks in the foundation and walls.

The only part of the room that seemed unharmed was the bed Maja and Freya were sitting on and that was because Maja was shielding them from stray attacks.

Both of them were grinning, like the pair of battle junkies that they were.

---

The others heard the clash of steel, and felt an occasional tremor from the previous room but did their best to ignore it.

The next room confused everyone as there didn’t appear to be an exit, and was filled with a transparent pink liquid.

Talia asked, “I see on the blueprints that the exit is supposed to be right there.” Talia pointed to a normal patch of wall. “Why isn’t it?”

Ellen replied, “Down there.” She pointed into the water. “There are four switches that need to be flipped within a limited time span for the door to open.”

Everyone looked down into the water and saw the outline of something swimming in the waters below.

Ellen then pointed to a lever at the entrance to the room. “Mary, this is a switch just for you. You can pull it and skip the room by yourself. Though it has some random cost to someone on your team.”

Mary asked, “Why does this room need a switch like that?”

A large tentacle shot out of the water towards them to be slashed away by Allie with her claws.

Ellen said, “That’s why.” Laura was about to start blasting with her lust bolts, but Ellen stopped her. “This room was literally to stop you, more than anyone else. That water is an aphrodisiac, and those squids in there are essentially immune to most arousal damage, which your lust bolts are.”

Laura just started laughing. “And let me guess the water was meant as a counter to everyone else right?” Ellen nodded. Laura stood at the edge of the water and waited for a squid to attack her. When it launched a tentacle at her she let it wrap around her forearm as she gripped onto it tightly and pulled. Everyone was alarmed at first but quickly realized Laura was winning the tug of war. As soon as Mary and Allie started pulling on Laura’s waist the squid was quickly being pulled out of the water, and the group easily defeated the first one. The second and third squids suffered the same fate. Laura stuffed them in her rucksack and when she got curious glances she replied. “I love squid. I’ll have to see if we have stuff to prepare them later.”

Allie asked, “Okay so we took care of the giant squids what now? I really don’t want to go in there.”

Laura shrugged, “Not needed.” Laura dove in without hesitation and quickly swam between the levers and pulled them. A walkway appeared to let everyone walk across the room as the pathway opened. Laura climbed onto it, caused her clothes to vanish then reappear to get rid of the moisture from them.

Brooke asked, “You good, or would you like me to hit you a few times to clear that stuff from your system?”

“I’m fine, that stuff didn’t have an effect on me. Also thank you for actually asking and not just hitting me.”

Brooke did not look at Laura as she said, “I told Sam I’d stop, unless it’s challenge related.”

“I’m glad to see you understand it’s a problem.”

Brooke rolled her eyes, “Laura, the reason it’s a problem in my book is because Sam doesn’t want me doing it. Personally I don’t think it’s actually a problem, and think you need to get over it, as it’s helping people.” Brooke saw Laura about to retort angrily and held up a hand. “That doesn’t matter though. Sam asked me to stop, and so I’m stopping. We aren’t getting into it now.” Brooke gestured towards the next room making it clear she wasn’t dealing with this now.

Laura let out a huff and moved to the next room with everyone else following. Mary immediately noticed another lever that was meant for her. Mary asked, “Do I even want to know?”

Talia asked, “Do you know what this room is? There weren't any plans for it.”

Ellen shook her head. “I just know this is Merida’s and Chloe’s idea and they designed it with the explicit intention to force Mary to pull that lever.”

The room started to light up and it was a massive room that seemed to go down forever, into pitch blackness. There was a small beam about two inches wide that snaked around the room. They were clearly meant to balance on the beam all the way across. While there were also holes for dart traps in the walls, and spikes on the ceiling that seemed like they could come down and impale them, among many other obstacles.

Talia stuck a foot in on the beam, then she took a step out balancing on the beam. She quickly returned to the hallway. Talia said, “Well that’s devious. The beams are a weight trigger. They cause the ceiling to lower, with the speed based on how much weight is on the beams at once.”

Allie tossed a rock into the blackness and watched as it left their sight, and then a good thirty to forty seconds later they heard a splash echoing up from the darkness. Laura looked at the gap of the room and could already tell it was too long for her to simply jump it without her flight.

Isa was the one to take rope out of her bag this time. She handed one end to Laura and then just leaped out into the room landing on a beam and making another deft leap and another, until she was all the way across. She took out a piton and hammered it into a wall, tied off the rope. Laura did the same and after a brief back and forth they had rope lines between both sides that would allow them to cross without touching the beams.

Ellen said, “Okay… I’ve got to admit, I really expected that room to be harder for you guys.”

Talia said, “I didn’t know Isa could do that… Laura, do you think you could have done that?”

“I don’t think so. I feel like I would have over shot one or more of the jumps.”

Isa looked incredibly proud and her tail was wagging fiercely behind her. (That’s right. Isa is impressive. Tell Isa she is the best girl. Mary will tell her that right…?) Isa kept looking at Mary hoping for a response of some kind.

Mary decided to humor her and stroked her back and tail. “Isa is very talented. I’m sure she’ll win best in show and athletics for years to come.”

“MARY!” Isa said, stomping her foot embarrassed. (Praise Isa more!)

Mary said, “Seems the lady doth protest too much.”

Isa walked forward, tail wagging behind her.

The next room had been a puzzle room, which they had hoped Talia would have been dealt with before it was gotten to. She wasn’t so it took the group ten minutes to solve and that’s only because it required pressing a long sequence of bricks.

The final room everyone even Ellen was surprised by as it contained nine statues. These were statues just like in the temples and dungeons both teams had encountered.

There was a statue for Talia, Samantha, Mary, Laura, Brooke, Hilde, Aubrey, a second Samantha, and Sadie on top of Bertha.

Ellen said, “Well… I guess we found Merida's surprise, because I hadn’t heard anything about these.”

Talia said, “Shouldn’t matter this is essentially a mirror match except Allie and Isa are replaced by Hilde and Aubrey. The statues have never been more powerful than us individually. Even if we are down Sam.”

The first difference became apparent when the Talia statue laughed as she cast a time bubble, not waiting for them to enter the room.

Talia saw the motion and luckily for her team managed to counter the action. Both sides sprinted into action, and Talia was right individually the statues were slightly less powerful than the real thing, but the Aubrey and Hilde statues were a better fit for their team than Allie and Isa were for theirs. That and the statues had two Samanthas to their one with Ellen in her form at the moment. This caused the statues to have the upper hand, until Talia decided to activate her time stop, and completely lock down the Talia statue, dumping half of the time she built up skipping the prior afternoon to do so.

The tide of battle turned quickly with Talia able to hamper another statue as needed. The fight dragged on for a while, until finally the first casualties occurred. The Laura statue, and Sadie statue were destroyed.

This quickly caused the statues to move into a death spiral as the Heroes gained a greater and greater advantage.

The statues quickly fell after that as the number advantage shifted against them. Once the only statute that remained was Talia’s, they released the time bubble and the massive number of attacks landed on it destroying it completely. They took a breather to heal up, with Mary passing out snacks to everyone to speed the recovery, when Mary and Laura both looked back the way they had come at the same time.

Both said at the same time, a little shocked. “Sam just lost.”