The elf lady now smiled on everyone and said, “For this next trial, we want to see you dance with reckless abandon. Once the music begins, you will have your designated couples dance for the safety of your tribes! Those two groups whose champions do not perform satisfactorily will find themselves and their people disposed of.”

“They all say the same thing, just differently,” Trick muttered.

“Yeah, I’ve picked up on that, too,” Naomi agreed. “And that is an important clue. I feel like there is a deeper purpose to the systematic removal of the different parties.”

Again, the fae stood ready to play their strange instruments. At a signal from the large, flying elf the hundreds of fae began playing their music. It mixed with the song that emitted from the speakers. Speakers, which Trick saw, that were now covered with creeping vines.

“Ballroom Blitz,” Naomi mumbled.

Trick could think of some cool dance moves for this song. Some breakdancing and a lot of flips. Normally, he would not be capable of such feats, but with Trickster again a part of him, he knew he could do it!

“I got this,” Trick said confidently, a bit of swag entering his voice.

He started stepping, spinning, and waving his body to the frantic pace. Naomi looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

The paladin shook her head and said, “In the sanctuaries we learned how to dance in the high courts. It was not a part of our customs to dance with… reckless abandon.”

“The just follow my lead! Doing something that is not within your comfort zone is practically the definition of reckless abandon,” Trick pointed out.

“Well, practically and is are two very different things,” Naomi countered. “But you make a good enough of a point.”

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Together they once again cut a very strange picture. A human dressed in strange clothes dancing like a maniac next to a half elf, half-orc paladin sporting a bright red mohawk. Naomi had just been teasing Trick. The real her knew how to cut loose, but combined with refined grace of her paladin avatar, she made it look refined.

They honestly had no clue why they were dancing the way they were, but they just got lost in the music and moved with it. The fae got caught up in it, too. They spun and flew about and laughed as they watched the students again frantically dance in a desperate effort to try and stay alive.

“You know, I’ve always enjoyed this song,” Trick admitted. “But I never thought it would make a good ballroom song.”

“Haven't they played it already on Dancing with the Stars?”

Trick shook his head, which as he danced crazily made it kind of flop about. “Not to my knowledge.”

“It would be interesting to see what it would like for professionals to keep up with the tempo. I bet they could really pull it off.”

“That would be incredible to watch! Maybe one day we should try and get tickets, or something.”

“Or something?”

“I don’t know! I’m not sure how anyone goes about getting into the audience of that show,” Trick protested.

Naomi laughed and said, “This is just too weird! Here we are, dancing to stay alive but we are talking about pointless, impossible things like getting tickets to a reality T.V. show.”

“It’s probably best not to think too hard on it,” Trick said, waving a hand.

“Too late. Already done.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the pealing sound of a gong. All of the nerds suddenly winked out in a bright flash of light. People yelped and danced with greater fervor. The song came to its final chorus and everyone gave it their all. One kid went too hard and started puking on the grass.

The music finally ended, and the gong sounded once more. More students vanished in bright flashes of pale blue light. With six cliques entirely vanished, the overgrown room was becoming scarily empty. With all of the plant life and mythical fae around, the large room was becoming cramped. But with the humans now outnumbered, it gave Trick a growing feeling of isolation.

“Well done,” the woman commended and she floated back into the shadow of the grove.

Trick and Naomi watched her go. Silence fell on the crowd and an audible silence fell over the room. The jocks were the first to move. They inspected where the nerds had previously been. Trick noticed that few of them had the same gloves that the geeks had sported.

“Hey, wait! Put those down,” he commanded. “Those are dangerous!”

“Oh, we know,” one of the jocks said unconcernedly. “Thanks to you two, though, our plan is going way better than we had expected. We thought we would have to challenge those damn nerds to the very end of the dance to defeat them. But you guys basically did it all for us! Thanks!”

“Hold on, are we missing something,” Naomi began to say. Then realization dawned on her face. “It’s been you guys!”

The jocks smirked back at her and pulled the magical, fingerless gloves they had good and tight.