Nebbie made his way out of the ring and helped Borlo to his feet, Borlo thanked him for the fight, and walked to the crowd, where he was greeted by his peers with gusto, Nebbie walked Back to the contestant area and sat in the grass as Ginger called out two names he didn't recognize and two trolls entered the ring.
Waiting until he recognized someone to invest his attention in a fight Nebbie began knitting his hands together to make string, once had a good thick thread he walked to the back of the contestant group and searched the trees, all of the trees in the area where large and thick, but soon he found one that had another massive tree across the clearing, Nebbie set to work using his threads to tie around the tree trunk, unsure exactly what he was doing was called, he called it a tree wrap since he was wrapping the threads around the tree.
Some of the contestants watched him with interest as the two trolls had a slugging contest, each one taking turns punching the other as hard as they could. Once he was certain his threads had wrapped fully around the tree and wouldn't come loose, Nebbie hopped down and walked across the field to the tree opposite of the first one he had worked on and began doing the same thing to that one.
The Trolls were still going strong once he finished and he made another thick rope and began slowly weaving it as he walked across the field with one end attached to the tree wrap. The threads around the trees were sticky like super spider webs, but the thread he was trailing was about as sticky as a rope.
Upon reaching the first tree Nebbie climbed back up and pulled the rope taught before slowly wrapping it around the tree.
A tightrope now hung over the clearing as Nebbie got to work covering the first tree entirely in his webs along with some of the ground at its base to make sure it would hold steady for his plans.
Once the first tree was a pillar of white, Nebbie stepped onto the rope and walked across it to the other tree, giving it the same treatment.
Nebbie had just finished the second tree when one of the Trolls finally knocked the other one over, the one on the ground held up his fist as Borlo had done, and the one still standing held up his as Nebbie had.
"Gron has won the second match," Ginger cheered as the losing Troll and Gron both went to the medical team to get some help with their bruises.
"I would like to take this quick moment between matching to say, What are you doing up there Nebbie?"
With a match no longer taking place all attention went to Nebbie as he began making a second rope, the first one was set against the side of the tree close to the ring, while the new one was on the further side.
"Making a viewing platform," Nebbie called back down, "Once it's done the winners of each round will come sit up here, that way there's a visual way for the audience to see how much longer the first round will be, and also so the winners can sit on something, since the ground is hard," Nebbie continued knitting his thread rope and connected it to the other tree before calling down, "While I have your attention, Do any of you guys got some spare wood down there? I could use some planks," Several goblins began grabbing some bits of log from the tree pile, Nebbie took one of them up upon the goblins request to measure the area, and within a minute of measuring the goblin told his fellows exactly how wide the planks needed to be, and how many would be needed.
"Coming through," A Voice called from below, Nebbie looked to it and saw a few Otter people passing out drinks in wooden cups, having apparently either made a water run, or brought water with them to the event.
"Hey, could I get some of that?" Nebbie called down, "I have had nothing to eat or drink since yesterday," Nebbie received a cup of water and a cloth full of berries along with his planks, He drank the cup and popped a few berries in his mouth, he placed the remaining berries in his item box along with the cup before he got to work setting up the planks, and used his sticky threads to coat the entire plank, once firmly in place he coated the sticky parts with non stick thread that stuck to the stick threat and got to work making a nice place to sit.
"Time for the third round," Ginger called out once the Otters finished passing out water and berries to the crowd and contestants, Gron the troll looked up to Nebbie who motioned for him to climb up the tree behind the Contestants, Gron easily complied and sat on the end of the bridge, neither tree shaking past the bridge swaying at the movement.
"Bonza! it works," Nebbie cheered as he continued his bridge project, finishing just in time to see the end of the third round, A Man-beast Alligator man held his arm up in victory as the Ogre he had bested wished Jo-Ro luck in his fight before joining the crowd.
"Carl wins the third round," Ginger declared as Carl the Gator made his way to the tree, he struggled a little but made it up, the Bridge now done, Nebbie sat at the far end with both Gron and Carl moving down to him.
"Good view," Gron noted.
"Indeed," Carl cheered as Nebbie pulled his berries out of the item box and ate them, "I wonder who I'll fight in the next round?"
"Usually there's a set roster," Nebbie replied, "But this was very last minute, maybe next time I do this I should plan it out a few weeks in advance?"
"Now then let's get round four underway!" Ginger called out the names and the next round commenced. Nebbie spaced out a little as dozens of fights took place before his eyes. His attention, eventually, was fully regained when he recognized a name called out.
"Time for the twelfth round, Jo-Ro!" Jo-ro and the Man-beast Bear took the stage and Ginger called out the Bear's name, "Foggy, You may begin the fight," The two looked at one another before both turning and looking up at Nebbie.
"If we may," Foggy replied, "We have a question for the master of the games," not fully able to hear them, Nebbie pointed at himself, and then raised his hands to his ears and shook his head.
"They have a question," Ginger called out, Nebbie jumped down without thinking, and nearly had a heart attack before landing flat on his feet without so much as hurting a toe.
"Nice form," Hellanor called from the group waiting to battle, Nebbie walked up and let them present their question.
"Is magic allowed?" Jo-Ro asked.
"That is a great question," Nebbie smiled before turning around and calling out loudly, "Let's put this to a vote, who here thinks magic should be allowed?" A scream of approval rang out and Nebbie shrugged, "Well that rule varies from Tournament to Tournament, but as this is the Might Fight I say if you have the Might use it to Fight!"
"The Master of the games has decreed that if you have the Might you may use it to Fight, all magic and skills are allowed in the games," Nebbie quickly whispered something to GInger after she made the called and she added it, "That said, outside weapons and armor are prohibited, only basic none enchanted gear and only weapons that you create with a skill or a spell!"
"Put on a hell of a show, boys," Nebbie called out before racing to the furthest of the two trees and returning to his seat.
"Now, let the match begin," Ginger took a few steps back as Jo-Ro and Foggy stared on another down, The two lunged at one another without warning and swung their fists at each other's faces.
"Focus Force," Foggy called out.
"Rawhide," Jo-Ro countered, Jo-Ro's skin turned silvery as Foggy's arm turned red, after a moment Foggy was the one who was sent sliding back when Jo-Ro punched him, almost out of the ring. Foggy rubbed at his cheek as both of their spells wore off, Jo-Ro no worse for wear.
"Rawhide huh?" Foggy asked before spitting, "Alright you got blunt force covered, lets see how you do against something slightly sharper!" Nebbie watched the fight, as Jo-Ro dodged a slash attack Nebbie suddenly felt an odd tingling feeling, he couldn't place what it was, but the longer he felt it, the more amped he started feeling more the fight, and indeed fighting in general.
As though he had been hit by a brick Nebbie felt a jolt surge across his body as the idea of winning, of being named the Tournament Champion, suddenly felt like a serious trial, "The hell just happened?" He pondered, he reached into his magical senses, and realized that his Beast-man form had just separated from Mimicry, and attacked itself to a completely different skill, without a skill to tell him he had no way of knowing what had just happened without using it.
"But I'm a spectator!" He practically cried to himself, Gron the troll noticed his fidgeting and chuckled.
"I feel your pain," The Troll said in a consoling tone, "I want to fight again to, this Tournament thing is really getting the blood pumping, I treated my round as a joke, but now I can't wait to use some skills, really show off my Might,"
"Yeah," Carl the Man-Beast Gator suddenly got to his feet and began cheering, "Show us your Might, Give a good fight!" The other competitors who had won their first match began joining in, and Nebbie, who was usually so good at remaining stoney face, wasn't able to stop himself from joining in on the cheer.
As excitement began to pick up with the chanting the crowd began talking, no longer just splitting into groups and picking one of the two in the ring, people began to take their guess at who would win, most tossed around the names of Hellanor the elemental demon who lived on the mountains peak, Jo-Ro leader of the Ogre tribe, the mysterious Rocko, and Nebbie himself had the largest group, mostly consisting of Goblins and the one Woman-Beast Vixen who had cheered for him at the start.
"Oh his fur is so cute," The Fox cried out as she watched Nebbie hop from one foot to another while cheering, "I wonder if he'll stay after the tournament? I bet I could find a good trade for some fur, I bet it would make wonderful bedding,"
"Did you see his stone work?" One of the goblins asked, "And that thread, that beautiful thread!"
"If that poncho thing is anything to go off of his sowing needs work, but he turned a jagged rock into a flat sheet over night, Imagine how fast he could carve out a cave, weeks of work done in a night or two, and he can produce so much thread, sure it's an easy skill to learn, but he can produce enough to just craft ropes on the spot, I've been using that spell for years and I can only make a spool, maybe a spool and a-half on a good day, and he can make it sticky!!"
"Hellanor has been living here for years, she killed that hord of humans trying to burn us out of our mountain, She'll take that Nebbie down easily,"
"Jo-Ro once hunted down an entire pack of direwolves alone, what's a single wolf beast-man gonna do?"
"I'm just saying, He's a Tiger. Beast-men are super strong sure but that Nebbie guy looks like one of them snow wolves, and Tiger beats wolf,"
Noticing the crowd was too busy speculating to pay attention to the fight Ginger decided to try something.
"Foggy throws a punch, powered up by Focus Force, oh but Jo-Ro uses Rawhide once…woah wait!" He commentary got the crowd's attention again, "Foggy opened up his hand mid swig, Jo-Ro has received a serious scratch, oh but in trade he's slammed both of his Ironhide inflicted hands against the sides of Foggy's skull, Foggy has fallen, Can he get back up?" The crowd was silent as Foggy tried to get back to his feet, but fell to the ground.
"Foggy doesn't seem to be getting back up, Foggy can you stand?," Foggy managed to roll over onto his back, and held his fist up, the sign that had become the hand signal that the match was over, Jo-Ro raised his fist to the sky and the crowd cheered as he helped Foggy to his feet and escorted him to the medical area.
"Jo-Ro is the winner!" The Crowd cheered, with the Jo-Ro supporters using the win to add to their speculations of him winning the Tournament.
"He beat a bear beast," One of Jo-Ro's Ogre's who had already been eliminated from the tournament cheered "And Foggy was a tough bastard even by bear beast standards, He's got this in the bag!"
Jo-Ro let his fans cheer for him a little before climbing up the tree and taking his place on the pathway above as Ginger called out for Lars, with Nelson hot on his tail, there was an odd look in Nelson's eyes, boredom maybe, it was clear Nelson was respecting Lars decision to help make sure everyone got to participate, but it was also no surprise that when Lars threw his first blow, he was the one who was injured by his own attack.
Nebbie had been told a lot about Goblins by Mary during his study on monsters, mostly a lot of nasty stories about them, and while thus far most had been proven as false to him in this one day, one thing that seemed to have been true was that Goblins lacked the ability to protect themselves, and would usually rally beneath a Hobgoblin for protection in exchange for menial labor.
"But I swear I heard someone mention Hobgoblins were enemies of Goblins?" Keeping the question in the back of his mind for later Nebbie watched as Lars tried a few more times to fight before Nelson spoke.
"We couldn't have had this tournament without you," He informed Lars before effortlessly swatting the Goblin out of bounds with his tail, "And for that you are a champion in your own right," Lars managed to hold up his fist as Nelson did his and the Otter man made sure Lars made it to the medics before taking his place next to Jo-Ro. Ginger looked up to Nebbie who gave her a thumbs up before she could even ask.
"One more time, can we get a cheer for Lars?" The crowd, and all competitors both on the ground and on the tree bridge called out to Lars thanking him for making sure everyone else got the chance to compete. Lars managed to give one more thumbs up before the beast folk acting as medics had him lie down, having apparently injured one of his legs during either his attack or Nelson's.
Nebbie watched as the fights grew in excitement, two more Ogres lost against two of the elemental demons. A Troll was flattened by a Mountain Lion Manbeast, just as things seemed to be heating up Nebbie could feel fatigue starting to hit him, the sun was beginning it's decent, Nebbie jumped down just as a Fox Man-beast was being helped into the medical tent by the Ogre who had beaten him.
"We'll have to call it for the night," Nebbie told Ginger, "If we keep going we risk the fighters being too tired, thirsty, or hungry to fight properly,"
"The Master of the Games has made his decree," Ginger called out, "This, the first round, will have to be put on hold and finished tomorrow, all fighters must eat well, drink well, and rest well for tomorrow!"
The crowd didn't seem all too thrilled but even as they complained Nebbie could easily spy some of the Goblins were about to fall asleep on their feet.
"Come now, lets not forget Hellanor hasn't even had her fight yet, and I'm sure she wants her opponent to be at his finest when they fight,"
"The dog man makes a fantastic point," Hellanor called back, "Goblins, how goes the campsite?"
"We finished setting them up hours ago," One of the Goblins called out, "Please, those who live on the opposite side of the mountain or simply want to make sure they don't miss any of the fighting follow us, we've set up more than enough space near the river, and we thank all who brought food for sharing they shall be handed out soon after arrival,"
As he had no home on the mountain Nebbie followed the group, consisting of just about every creature who had watched the fight or participated, he saw Borlo heading out with a female Warthog beast, upon noticing Nebbie Borlo gave a thumbs up that told Nebbie the two hadn't come as a pair, even being the first loser it appeared was enough to get Borlo some attention that he seemed to be loving.
That fact seemed true for all participating in the Tournament, He spotted Lars being taken care of by a fair few female goblins, and Nelson had few Man-Beasts and other Bipedal Otter's talking to him with interest.
Even Ginger seemed to have a few goblins trying to get her attention but she gave no indication she noticed them as she b-lined for Nebbie.
"Where did you ever learn to weave threads like that?" She asked in awe once Nebbie made it clear she had his attention.
"My Mary taught me,"
"Your Mary?" Ginger asked, her eyes narrowing at the description, "She's someone very close to you I presume?"
"She's like a mother to me," Nebbie sighed as he looked up at the sky, stars twinkling above the migrating monsters, "I wonder how she's doing,"
"If she's anything like you I'm sure she's a hell of a trooper," Ginger assured Nebbie, "Sooo, do you…do you wash your fur with something or just lick yourself clean?" Nebbie wasn't sure how to respond to that question as they arrived at the camping grounds, despite her best effort Ginger had to leave Nebbie's side so she could use her Generals skill to direct people to open lots and keep the chaos to a minimum as all contestants who had won a match where given the best spots near the river for easy drinking access.
Each Camping spot was a small circular area picked clean of grass, a small blanket was provided in each area, the Otters helped the Goblins hand out food and Drinks, Nebbie had just sat down when several creatures crowded around him, The Vixen beast-woman who had been cheering him on began asking about his fur as a few female goblins asked him the same question Ginger had asked him.
Before he could even properly get overwhelmed by their attention Hellanor and Jo-Ro saved him by shooing them all off before taking the spots neighboring Nebbie.
"I find your fighting style interesting," Jo-Ro informed Nebbie, "But judging from what Borlo mentioned you where more just letting him have his moment over actual fighting all out, no worries I'll be sure to give you a solid fight before knocking you out,"
"Bold words," Nebbie chuckled, "But we've yet to reach the final round, and who knows how strong Rocko is,"
"So he holds your attention as well, huh?" Hellanor asked as she looked up towards the farthest end of the clearing, where Rocko was showing the Goblins his advanced technological marvel known as a tent. "He and you are different breed, I can tell, despite the basic similarities you smell faintly of Demon while he smells of an animal,"
"Direwolf," Nebbie informed Hellanor, who found the statement fascinating beyond belief.
"Truly?" She looked him over with what he thought might have been a look of wonder but was hard to really pin down with how her face worked, "What a fascinating creature you are, Even if you are a Beast-man I heard their power come from their breed, and as a Direwolf Beast-man you far surpass my expectations, A Warthog Man beast should have been a challenge but you didn't even bother punching him, how ever did you grow so strong?"
"Who knows," Nebbie chuckled, "must have been something I ate,"