"Quickstep! It's not your fault!"
"Exactly, you did your best!"
"Don't be discouraged! We got this! Dream Avenue will definitely win this guild war!"
"Dream Avenue!"
"Dream Avenue!"
It wasn't only Quickstep's friends who tried to cheer her up. The other guild members did the same, raising their own morale at the same time. After suddenly being more than three minutes behind first place some doubts sprouted in the players' hearts, which quickly had to be nipped in the bud!
The core members did their best to raise morale. When Cyclone and Balm asked the guild members to kill more zombies for points, they showed so much fervour that for a while no zombie made it up even half the hill.
Meanwhile the mood among the other guilds was naturally great. Standing among their eager members Sevrance and Miss I never Miss looked at each other with confident smirks.
"One out, two to go!"
"Beast Den is no real competition. We only need to think about how to deal with Infinito now. Let's win this f*cking war and make TwinThieves known throughout Falva Star!"
The guild members, rough men and women in preferably black clothes, cheered and mocked loudly. A few months ago, they, a bunch of gangsters and thieves living on the knife's edge, could have never imagined ever doing honest work. Their skillsets ranged from brawling to kidnapping. Who would have thought that there would come a time where such a skillset would be sought after.
And everything had been made possible thanks to the charismatic assassin in front of them, Sevrance. Many of the gangsters looked at him with obvious admiration, willing to follow him though mountains of blades and seas of fire.
Somehow Sevrance even managed to get sponsors for their guild consisting of gangsters. Although those were mostly shady companies themselves, why would the guild members care about that? Those morally righteous people online kept denouncing the guild, but the gangsters couldn't hear them as they were drowning in money. And everyone knew that if they could win this guild war against Dream Avenue, their rise was certain!
The other guilds had similar thoughts, but they didn't lose their caution. Both Beast Den and Infinito knew how strong Dream Avenue was. There were still six challenges left. A lot of time for Dream Avenue to make a comeback. Perhaps they would even do so now, as the ninth challenge started?
"Guilds. The ninth challenge begins. Choose a single candidate to participate in: City treasure hunt!"
Infinito were the first to see a change in their arena. Part of an ancient city suddenly covered the arena floor. It consisted of a few smaller houses at the edges and some tall, imposing buildings towards the centre. A square tower overshadowed the rest of the city, giving off an imposing feeling. But while the tower appeared to be mostly intact the rest of the city had been corroded by the power of time, with many walls turned to rubble and weeds overgrowing.
The name of the challenge was a clear indication of what the challenge was about. Mountain Lord frowned, knowing that he didn't have someone particularly suited for treasure hunting in his guild. He swiftly selected a nimble thief and sent her into the arena.
The petite elven woman appeared in the ancient ruins and C revealed the rules to her. It turned out there were 30 treasure chests hidden in the city. Opening a chest gave 20 points. After finding 5 chests the candidate could at any time decide to end the challenge or continue hunting. As always, the fastest team got rewarded with the most points.
As she listened, the thief scrunched her face. At this point the reward for first place were 375 points. This was a lot but if one were to discover all 30 chests they would receive 600 points. Clearly there was a strategic element at play here. However, the thief couldn't communicate with her guild while in the arena, leaving the decision hers to make.
The thief took a deep breath to focus her thoughts. She would simply decide what to do after gauging how difficult it was to find the chests. Thus, she ignored the issue for now and began to search. Starting from the edge of the arena she circled a few houses, peeking through the empty windows and lose doors.
After about a minute Infinito's candidate had just found the first chest when Beast Den and TwinThieves also began the challenge. While both Infinito and Beast Den didn't exude much confidence, the thief sent by TwinThieves was the exact opposite. He was a renowned treasure hunter. Even in real life his boss favoured him greatly for ability to find even the most hidden stash of valuables, almost like a sixth sense.
The man, who played the rare race of a Ratkin, narrowed his tiny eyes and began searching the city with a confident smile. It didn't take long until he found the first treasure chest fastened to the ceiling of a small house.
"What's that? Is C toying with us?!"
"Damn, chests can be hidden like that?!"
"Look closely! Don't forget to search unconventional spots!"
While surprised cries came from the other guilds, Cyclone smiled, realizing the advantage they had. She warned her candidate, a thief called Re4chr, to keep everything in his mind. Although they could already tell that the treasure chests prepared for the respective guilds weren't in the same spots, it was still an advantage to know what they had to search for.
Thus, Re4chr was quite confident when he entered the arena two minutes later. He instantly sprinted towards the nearby houses. Compared to Infinito's candidate earlier, who only glanced through the windows, Re4chr checked each house thoroughly. Soon, he found his first chest, delighting his guild members.
"Haha, great! Time to leave the others in the dust!"
"That's my brother! He definitely won't disappoint us!"
"Re4chr! Re4chr! Re4chr!"
Everyone on Dream Avenue cheered for the thief, even to the point where the zombies got awfully close to the stronghold. Liam soon had to remind them to focus on their jobs. However, he was glad to see that the guild was this united. Everyone firmly believed that Dream Avenue would win this guild war.
However, as the challenge progressed TwinThieves soon got a considerable lead. It was as if their candidate could sniff out any treasure chest, even finding one hiding below a pile of rubble. TwinThieves were the first to find five treasure chests, but the thief didn't stop there and continued searching.
Seeing this, the other guilds felt anxious. They wished they could communicate with their candidates, telling them to end as soon as they found the five chests.
It was extremely close between Dream Avenue, Beast Den, and Infinito. They respectively had three, three, and four chests while TwinThieves was already at number ten. For everyone watching it was inconceivable how the candidate of TwinThieves could find all these chests so quickly. Cyclone even told C to check if that guy was cheating. Yet this only earner her a stern rebuke as C told her it was impossible to cheat in Fate of Crunaboul.
The other guilds could only accept the reality. Soon, Infinito also gathered five chests.
"No, what is she doing?"
"Leave, quick!"
"Oh no she continues searching!"
Infinito's members wore frustrated expressions, nearly tearing their hair out as they watched their candidate continuing to search. By now the rules were already shown on the various screens, so everyone knew that the smartest thing to do for Infinito was to end the challenge right away. Only the players in the arena, unable to see the other candidates, were unable to tell.
However, a minute later there was a change in the situation. Infinito's candidate decided to trust her gut feeling. After gathering eight chests, she informed C that she wanted to complete the challenge. The elven thief was the first to be sent out of the arena, returning to her guild. Her fellow members praised her, but their smiles were somewhat strained as the candidate was rather slow in their eyes.
Another thirty seconds passed and TwinThieves's candidate also returned to his guild. But what left everyone astounded was that the Ratkin gathered the unbelievable number of twenty chests. Thus, it was already obvious that TwinThieves would receive the most points. Suddenly the guild was incredibly rich! Now it only remained to be seen who completed the challenge in the quickest time.
"C! I end the challenge now!"
Immediately the AI's mechanical voice reached the ears of every member of Dream Avenue.
"Congratulations for completing the ninth challenge. You have gathered five treasure chests. You will receive 100 points. Your time: 06:14:94."
A moment later Re4chr reappeared in the stronghold. Cheers came from all sides, causing the young man to stare in confusion. Even his sister, who always liked to argue with him, gave him a quick hug, leaving him completely embarrassed.
However, Dream Avenue's reaction was not surprising. Shortly after TwinThieves completed the challenge, Beast Den did so as well after a lucky stroke where they found two chests next to each other. And yet R3acher followed only forty seconds later. The time gap shrunk again and Dream Avenue even took first place in the ninth challenge!