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Gareth POV chapter

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In the end, the next point, and the point that quickly followed after, were lost not because of a major mistake or a dramatic moment, but a slow steady decline that was somewhat inevitable. A great number of factors all came together for things to end this way… but it wasn\'t exactly thrilling how things shook out. Perhaps if the others had realised how long this was going to take, they would\'ve opted to go do some wood chopping.

Alas, it was not to be. After around an hour things weren\'t going so well. Burgandy had abandoned her poorly formed sandcastle and was just sleeping at this point. Carl was bored. It was rude to say, especially while Marigold was doing so much work, but he was. He only had to cover a small area, and while that was nice for his physical fatigue, the fact he still had to stay focused the whole time just in case the ball did head his way meant the mental toll was adding up. Blue wasn\'t doing all that well either, her mind felt like putty and the constant drain on her mana was starting to ache somewhat, even if her reserves weren\'t empty.

And Marigold… poor Marigold was struggling with a number of factors. The first is that she too was getting bored. She could only hurl herself around the field for so long with an intense focus that had started to flake away. Her body was starting to slow down, requiring MORE effort to keep up with the ball not less and her mana reserves were just about empty.

While Gareth didn\'t know to ask, Marigold\'s choice to heal her fatigue was catching up to her. Especially because of how she did it. Marigold kept a constant, extremely small amount of mana healing her just be default. It helped prevent disease and minor issues that can crop up over a lifetime. It was an exceptionally good practice to get into if you planned to live for a long time, and as an elf that was already a guarantee.

The problem with this method, was that the \'best\' way to heal yourself when using it was to simply use more mana to heal the whole body instead of focusing too much on a specific area. On top of that, healing fatigue is really not what regeneration magic is for. It works sure, but it isn\'t exactly mana efficient. Perhaps if Marigold new more ways to use her power, or if she hadn\'t been keeping up the constant repairs and instead healed herself every ten or so minutes to stay in top shape things would\'ve been better for her…

But by the time this became apparent it was much too late. Her mana was mostly out, and her body was running low on energy. Constantly healing herself either took a lot more mana… or taking in nutrients to offset the cost. At least when you weren\'t a demon like Kat, where their bodies made minimal sense, and their demonic fire laughed at the limitations of mana. Alas, Marigold was not a demon, and she hadn\'t anticipated the need for more food. The snacks she\'d had earlier helped, but they just weren\'t enough.

That\'s not to say Marigold was exhausted, far from it. Her body was trained exceptionally well, and if this had been a more normal volleyball game she could\'ve outlasted everyone by a huge margin. The issue was, she\'d been taking over a lot of Carl\'s work, and she was slowing down. Just a bit… but that little bit was adding up. Blue sent her running around the area, over and over, keeping the elf on the move. Marigold had returned the ball thousands of times at this point. It was a monumental effort… but it just wasn\'t enough.

Marigold had just smacked the ball back slamming it down with us much force as she could manage. She was right at the front of the net and that slam would give her a bit of time. As she was running back to the centre, Blue shifted the ball and shot it out towards the other side of the court at the front. Marigold\'s feet dug deeply into the sand as she turned and rushed towards the ball, desperate to get there in time… but she was just too slow.

Marigold dived for the ball, fingertips just barely brushing the side of the ball… and pushing it off and out of the court instead of upwards. "2-0 to Blue and Burgandy!" said Thyme.

Marigold clicked her tongue but stood up, not able to properly enjoy just how irritating the sand was on her skin. The taste of failure bitter on her tongue. She wanted to plan, to discuss things properly with Carl and come up with a real solution to her problem. Alas, Burgandy wasn\'t going to be so kind. She\'d been woken by the announcement and was serving as soon as she could.

Carl spared a concerned look for Marigold who grimaced back. Marigold ran for the ball, knocking it back as she thought of a solution. "I can\'t cover most of the court, you\'ll have to take half now," said Marigold after barely returning the next three balls. The admittance not one she wanted to make. Despite that though, Carl didn\'t complain he just got to work, covering his half of the court as best he could.

Which was sadly a step down from Marigold. Despite having a much reduced area to cover his mind was largely spent and his body while less exhausted, was simply not trained to the insane levels of someone with Marigold\'s passion for training and affinity for regeneration. Blue was able to quickly see that he was the weak link and got him started on running from the front of the court to the back.

Marigold cursed herself. She couldn\'t even run over to help him properly because she knew that if she did Blue would send the ball her way and take her out. Of course, if Marigold thought about it for more than a few seconds she\'d realise that Blue wasn\'t paying enough attention for that. Blue had her eyes closed and was focused on keeping her spell going through one method or another. She only occasionally took a look at the field and Marigold could help for at least a bit as long as Blue didn\'t open her eyes.

In the end though, Carl just couldn\'t quite keep up. When ball was sent straight up above him, his mind wasn\'t quite working as it should be. He looked straight up at the ball… and the blazing hot sun. Causing him to close his eyes and wince. Which wasn\'t a great thing to do when a ball was heading towards you. "CARL!" Marigold shouted, trying her best to get him to… react or open his eyes or something.

Carl opened his eyes, but they were filled with tears and he couldn\'t really see. His arms flailed out towards the ball and they HIT but it sent the ball not over the net, but into it. "The round goes to Burgandy and Blue!" shouted Thyme.

"The final match will be Gareth and Blue against Burgandy and Marigold, with Carl taking a break. Though, I have to ask. Do the teams want me to provide mana restoratives for the final round?" asked Thyme.

Blue collapsed backwards letting the water fall down. Most of it went into that bowl Burgandy had made, but a good deal of it splashed over Blue as well. She didn\'t even blink. "Urgh I don\'t want to do this for another hour. I can, and I will but I REALLY don\'t want to," said Blue.

Marigold let herself fall back onto her ass, hitting the sand with more force then strictly necessary which improved her mood a bit. "I somewhat agree. It\'s really not the good kind of torture it\'s just boring. If I could risk running out of mana completely or really shredding my muscles it\'d be more interesting but I can\'t run fast enough like that. So… urgh… I don\'t know. Burgandy?" grumbled Marigold.

Burgandy had sat back down after serving, and she was still at the back of court. Turning to Marigold she shrugged and said, "I just slept through the last match so… I certainly could make the attempt as is. I\'m not too confident we could win, but even if I DID win it wouldn\'t matter because you\'d get second, and it feels like a massive slog for nothing on my part. Gareth?"

"Can you girls stop putting these kinds of big decisions on me? It makes me feel like I\'m going to be the bad guy. However… I should probably just give me vote to Blue. She\'s the one that would be carrying me to victor for this last round if it happens, so I think I\'ll just pass the buck on to her," said Gareth.

Blue groaned. "I could forfeit you know? Horrible sportsmanship but I could do it. Marigold would be tied with me for first but I\'m not sure I care enough to go through this whole song and dance again,"

Thyme rubbed their chin a few times before saying. "I can see everyone is a bit underwhelmed with the idea of an extra match, even if it is FAIR to have one more. Give me a moment to think on things,"