The Universe Key

Chapter 7: the Multi-blade Contest

Brilan takes Cearulen and Altem to look around the camp. The three of them find some planks of wood, some paint, and a few other assorted tools. They take these tools and the entire group goes out into the forest. They don't want to do what they need to do in the camp because it's still on fire a little bit and filled with dead bodies. So they all hike through the jungle until they find another clearing. 

A circular patch of flat grassland surrounded by trees that is a cozy little escape in the seemingly infinite tree patchwork of the jungle. It is here that they get to work and start to set up this contest. Brilan, Altem, and Cearulen cut the planks of wood into four inch by four inch squares. When they are done cutting they have ten wooden squares in all.

Once they have the squares they take some red paint and they paint targets on each of the squares. They paint a red circle in the middle, a circular ring just outside of it, and a ring just outside of that first ring. They paint the same thing on every one of the squares of wood so now the group has ten wooden targets. 

Brilan then looks around the clearing and approximates the exact center of the clearing. He paints a small dot in what he thinks is the center of the clearing. Once the dot is painted Brilan, Cearulen, and Altem take the Targets they made and place them all around the dot. Some targets they prop up on the ground. Some of them they nail to trees. Some of them they attach to extremely high tree branches. 

Some of them are close, some are far away, and some of them are even farther away but they all surround this one dot in the grass. Once all the targets are set up the contest is ready to begin. Brilan starts by explaining the rules of the contest to Ignis and Clara.

"Alright here's how the contest will go down. The contestant will stand in the middle of the clearing on this dot right here. If you step off the dot you forfeit. While you're on the dot you have to throw a knife at each one of the targets around you. There are ten targets so the contestant can only throw ten knives. Each target you hit has a point value attached to it. If you hit the center you get ten points, if you hit the middle ring you get five points, and if you hit the outer ring you get two points. If you miss the target completely you get no points. There are ten targets so there's a maximum score of one hundred points. Once each contestant has thrown their ten knives their score will be tallied, whoever has the highest is the winner and gets to keep the multi-blade. That's what I got what do you guys think?" Brilan says to the group explaining the rules of his game as if he were a referee of sorts

"That's perfect I'm in let's get started. You go first Ignis." Clara excitedly says.

"Hold on a minute I'm not going to risk my knife in a useless, unfair contest with an eight year old girl." Ignis says trying to bring some reason to the situation while at the same time trash talking his opponent.

"This isn't a risk or an unfair contest." Clara says to Ignis. "If you think you're so much better than me then this contest should be easy for you. Besides if god is really on your side then there's no way he'll let you lose to me. With him in your corner it should be a breeze. What do you say? If you win I'll give you this back without a fight and we can put this whole thing behind us." Clara continues to convince Ignis. With every word Clara undermines her own confidence while building up her opponent. Clara knows full well that what she is saying is true. Ignis has a lot more experience than her and she might not win.

Ignis' confidence in himself has only grown. His ego has been stroked a little bit by Clara's words. He thinks about what she said and he knows she's telling the truth. He has an overwhelming advantage and he knows it. He really wants to accept this challenge. "The girl has a lot of good points. You have a big advantage going into this." Altem says to Ignis to try to convince him to take the challenge.