CHAPTER 87: CHAPTER 87: A SLEEPY VICTORY.

A giant hourglass on the Scry-Screens showing only a few minutes remaining in the trial to end.

But The silent, passive-aggressive war in the Whispering Library still continued.

My Napping Ninjas were in their quiet reading alcove, locked in a silent, passive-aggressive war with The Archivist.

Zazu was in a deep, strategic slumber, his breathing even and his face a mask of pure serenity. I could feel his dream: he was on an endless, quiet beach, the gentle waves washing away all the stress of the tournament. Kaelen sank into a deep, still meditation, her mind like a calm, quiet lake.

Her assassin’s training had taught her to be aware of everything. She could hear the distant creak of a floorboard, the flutter of a book page in a magical draft. But where once she would have identified them as potential threats, now they were just... ripples on the surface of the silence. Even Sir Crumplebuns stood guard, his plushy hand resting on his Spoonblade, a silent, heroic protector.

The Archivist remained frozen, its glowing eyes fixed on the sleeping elf. Its logical mind was completely stumped. It was a battle of pure, weaponized patience, and one of the combatants was now drooling slightly on a wobbly knight.

(Elsewhere in the Library)

While my team was engaged in their sleepy siege, the only other remaining team was having a much more active, and much more disastrous, time.

The team from the Gloomfang Caverns, a grim-looking party of Serpent-Kin warriors, was in agony. The attacks from the Shush-Wraiths had left their minds ringing with a painful, magical silence. They were now desperately trying to sneak through the final, vast reading room, their every slithering movement a battle against their own frayed nerves.

The exit, a shimmering golden archway, was just in sight. It was so close. But the silence of the library was now their greatest enemy, amplifying every tiny sound they made into a potential death sentence.

"We’re almost there," the Serpent-Kin leader hissed to his comrades, his voice a dry whisper. "Just a few more feet. Be silent!"

He took a careful, sliding step. His foot landed on a loose floor tile.

CLICK.

The sound was tiny, almost unnoticeable. But in the dead silence of the Whispering Library, it was as loud and sharp as a ’snapping bowstring’ right next to your ear.

The air grew cold. Three shimmering, spectral Shush-Wraiths phased through the ceiling directly above them, their ghostly faces twisted in silent rage. The Serpent-Kin warriors looked up, their scaly faces pale with terror. They raised their weapons to fight.

(The Royal Arena)

The commentator’s voice was a hushed, excited whisper that echoed through the arena. "Folks, the Serpent-Kin from the Gloomfang Caverns are just feet from the exit! They’re going to make it and win this round! But wait... they’ve been spotted! The Shush-Wraiths are descending! Can they fight their way through in the final seconds?!"

The crowd watched as the Serpent-Kin warriors raised their poison-tipped daggers, preparing for a desperate final battle.

The Shush-Wraiths didn’t attack with claws or spells. They opened their ghostly mouths and unleashed their ultimate weapon. It wasn’t a sound; it was the absence of it. A wave of pure, magical silence washed over the Serpent-Kin warriors. For a moment, they just stood there, their faces going blank with confusion. The angry thoughts of battle, their desperate plans for escape—it all just... vanished from their minds, leaving a quiet, empty space. Their hands, no longer remembering why they were holding their weapons, went slack, and their poison-tipped daggers clattered uselessly to the marble floor.

On the Scry-Screens, a final, damning notification appeared.

[Team from ’The Gloomfang Caverns’ has been DISQUALIFIED for ’Attempting to Engage Librarians in Unsanctioned Combat’.]

A slow, confused murmur went through the stadium. The commentator’s voice was a hushed whisper, as if he were working out a very complicated math problem in his head. "Wait a minute, folks... Frank’s Buffet was disqualified earlier... and now the Gloomfang Caverns are out... which means, by process of elimination, the only team left in the trial is..."

A slow, collective realization dawned on the entire stadium. All eyes, and all the giant Scry-Screens in the kingdom, turned back to the quiet reading alcove where my Napping Ninjas were still fast asleep, completely unaware that they had just won by default.

The final grain of sand fell in the giant hourglass on the Scry-Screens. The trial was over.

The Archivist, who had been standing perfectly still, finally moved. It lowered its massive stone hands to its sides. It looked at the sleeping elf, then at the sign on the wall that read SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY.

With a final, psychic sigh of pure, defeated resignation that echoed in my mind, the ten-foot-tall golem turned around and silently walked away into the shadows of the library.

A golden notification then flashed on the Scry-Screens, confirming the absurd result.

[WINNER OF THE STEALTH AND SUBTLETY TRIAL: THE COMFY CORNER]

[Reason: The last team remaining.]

(The Comfy Corner)

FaeLina let out a triumphant psychic shriek that nearly shattered my core’s containment field.

’WE WON?! WE ACTUALLY WON?!’ she cheered in my mind. ’Our plan to do absolutely nothing worked! We won by default! This is the greatest, laziest victory in the history of the world!’

I allowed a quiet hum of satisfaction to resonate from my core. My ridiculous, insane plan had actually worked.

A new notification appeared, detailing the results of the group stage.

[Congratulations! You have won your second match in the Group Stage!]

[You are now the winner of Group C and will advance to the tournament ’Quarter-finals’ !]

[The next event for all quarter-finalists will be the ’Beast Taming’ trial.]

FaeLina saw the new notification, and her triumphant mood was immediately replaced by a new kind of panic.

’The quarter-finals?!’ her thought was a squeak of pure terror. ’Our next event is... Beast Taming?! Mochi, our most dangerous beast is a stone dragon that breathes cinnamon! We’re going to be disqualified for being too adorable! What are we going to do, now?!’

________

Author’s Note:

They did it! They won! The Napping Ninjas have won a stealth mission by being so lazy that all their opponents just failed around them. This is the most Mochi victory imaginable.

I love writing the idea of the Shush-Wraiths’ ultimate attack being a wave of pure, weaponized silence. The Whispering Library does not mess around with their rules.

But now the real challenge begins. Mochi has made it to the quarter-finals, and the next event is "Beast Taming." Our dungeon’s most dangerous beast is a stone dragon that breathes cinnamon. This should be interesting. Thanks for reading!