D.E.M.O.N.S: GETTING SUMMONED WEEKLY ISN'T SO BAD

— Kat —

When Kat broke free of the hold for a second time, she could see everyone else a good distance away in what seemed to be another safe-ish zone. They weren’t running anymore, and Green had her bow drawn back, clearly intending to be ready to shoot and help Kat if necessary. Seeing they were all fine, Kat simply sprinted as fast as she could across the ground, making use of her wings to keep herself moving without destroying the dirt beneath her feet or flying up off the ground.

Kat slid to a stop nearby and asked, “What’s the plan?” as she glanced back. The Treekeeper was sweeping its tentacles across the ground… but it was slow, methodical. “And what’s it doing now?”

Gareth gestured for Nixilei or Green to speak. “It’s cleaning up,” said Green. “Now that it knows you’re too far away and not easy prey to begin with it’s just… given up. We probably won’t stay this close to it just in case but its sweeping the leaves and flattening the dirt to remove the traces of the fight, look,”

Kat glanced over and already the big holes that had been created around her body were being filled in. A slow pass of a tentacle and the dirt seemed to simply appear underneath the appendage. Kat was surprised at a monster that was so ‘neat and tidy’ but considering it relied on its prey being unaware it wasn’t the strangest thing.

“Green is correct though, we should head further away. Not too far because I believe Treekeepers tend to stay away from each other’s territory but if I decided to get up and chase us we’d still be in range,” stated Gareth.

Kat nodded as the group got back into position and she took Lily into her arms. Are you alright?

[I’ll live. Blocking that attack was HARD. It… I think I understand a bit more now why Shadow magic is different from darkness. Blocking it used a good chunk of mana sure, but those shadows were directly connected to me. Taking that hit did a bit of damage to me but it shouldn’t have. Once the spell was formed it should’ve just cost mana… but that’s not the case. It was MY shadow that blocked it and I’m suffering for that. Um… no, but like… I’d do it again but yeah it’s not pleasant.]

*I’m sorry you needed to. I think… this might be the most injured you’ve ever been.*

[Haha, not ‘ever’ but certainly since I’ve known you. I broke my leg once when I was younger… but I guess this body hasn’t suffered any real damage. I’m not even sure how bad it is. I can already feel the pain fading and the pounding in my head is going down. I wouldn’t want to block something like that again for a few days, but I should be mostly recovered by tomorrow morning I think.]

*Alright… would it be better if Nixilei healed you? I’m surprised she didn’t honestly.*

[She did heal me a bit actually, I guess you missed it… but there wasn’t much to be done. It was all internal damage and I didn’t exactly break any bones which can also be mended fairly easily. It doesn’t help that neither of us are sure what exactly the damage IS. Oh she fixed the blood vessels that burst in my eyes but that’s not what was causing me pain.]

*Hmm… well alright. If she’d done all she can and you think you’re fine I won’t say anything more on the subject.* “How much of a concern is the Treekeeper now we’ve left it’s range?” asked Kat.

Gareth gestured slightly to Nixilei who answered. “That’s a difficult question to answer. They don’t like to move and don’t have much that can FORCE them to move… I’m not Gareth but I’m guessing he’s having us move just in case. We’ve been shown that… we’re not used to the monsters in this area and paid a rather cheap price for that lesson thanks to you Kat.

“The… the main reason you would risk it is that Treekeepers are slow for their Rank and are easiest to take while they’re on the move… but that ‘for its Rank’ is doing a lot of work here. It’s certainly Rank 4 after that display and we can’t outrun it. Slow for Rank 4 sure… but we’re all still Rank 2. No matter how close to Rank 3 we might think we are… we simply are not there yet. It would outpace us swiftly unless you carried us and that would be exceptionally awkward and potentially leave us open to attacks from other monsters,”

Kat nodded and let herself sink into silence as they continued their trek for another twenty minutes or so. When they got to another somewhat safe area Gareth asked, “Kat can you take out those three trees closest to us?” Gareth pointed to the trees in question. “We need a break and after that last encounter I don’t want to take any chances. Only if you’re willing of course, the Blurs aren’t going to be happy with you,”

Kat shrugged, “Are you imagining I go about and rip them from the ground or something? I can just freeze them all with my demonic fire like the ones at the base of the cliff,”

Gareth nodded, “Of course that makes more sense,”

With that confirmed Kat got started. She torched them one at a time making sure they were completely frozen before throwing one of her fans in the collapsed position at the tree and causing it to shatter. Repeating the process two more times after that was a simple matter. While Kat was doing that Gareth was pulling out the tent and ushering people inside. Kat joined them a few moments later as they were stripping out of their armour.

“I can try and get the water if you want?” offered Kat.

“No need to be concerned we do have something for that,” said Gareth. “It’s not something we can use in the rain, though if you could move the water out of the tent after we activate the artifact that would be ideal,”

Kat nodded, “Of course,” Gareth nodded back and pulled out a small item that looked a bit like a gyroscope once everyone had stripped down to their underlayers. Not their underwear, just the clothing they were under their armour. He placed the device in the centre and tapped it. A wave washed over the party, forcing the water out and away from everyone’s clothes. Splattering against the edges of the tent.

Lily found herself blinking a few times and squinting a bit. The device had dried her eyes out something fierce, even if it didn’t seem dangerous. Kat transformed and gathered up the water at the edge of the tent and started to funnel it outside. As that happened, the others collapsed onto the ground. Well Green was laying across Gareth but he was on the ground so it was mostly the same.

“Sorry for putting you in that position Kat,” stated Gareth. “While it was somewhat understood that you’d be helping protect us from anything dangerous we encountered something at Rank 4 was not expected. We’re going to need to report its presence to the guild… though finding it again will be a massive pain. We didn’t grab any blood from the thing for tracking purposes and its far too dangerous to go back and make the attempt,”

Kat winced a bit. Due to her succubus constitution the blood and viscera that had covered her had simply slid off after a few short moments, that’s not even considering the rain. If she’d known ahead of time she could’ve used her storage ring to keep something. WAIT! The storage ring!

Kat glanced down at her finger and saw… a perfectly intact ring. Kat wasn’t sure if it had taken any hits or not. Logic dictated that it should have been at least a little bit dirty considering she was slammed into the ground, and hadn’t protected it at all during that. She hadn’t thought of it during the fight…

But it seemed fine? Which was a welcome surprise if a strange one. It might be worth stress testing it in the future… even if that sounded like a bit of a risk to Kat. “Alright so… what’s the plan now?” asked Kat.

“We rest up, maybe have a bit of food and then keep moving I’m afraid,” sighed Gareth. “We just don’t have enough time to recover fully before moving on. Sure we’re aiming to get into town with about a day to spare… but that’s a hope. If we run into too many delays like the Treekeeper we might be running out the clock and I for one do NOT want to start the final and most important round of the tournament by missing sleep,” stated Gareth.

“That being said…” Gareth continued after the moment. “Once we’ve taken five or ten minutes it might be best to go over tactics for if we run into another one of those things. If it’s just Rank 2 or 3 then it should be fine. Worst cast, Kat you can likely run to its main body and hurl it away or simply kill it. If not though? Well… let’s hear some ideas because I don’t have any myself…”

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