D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Kat —

The group enjoyed Hunter’s ‘First’ Sci-fi story. There wasn’t any interesting technology to marvel at, but it was still an interesting story to think about. Perhaps if they’d had more time before heading off, Hunter would’ve gone into the details of some of her hunts. Though Lily thought that Hunter simply considered such things ‘business as usual’.

Enjoyable in the moment likely, but not something to ‘brag’ about. She was just doing what she was good at after all.

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Kat was willing to agree with the idea and made plans to jump the line and cook dinner again so that Hunter would have more time to speak on her other Sci-Fi adventures. So that’s exactly what Kat did. Once the sun was setting and the group had pulled over for the night, Kat got everything out that she needed.

When Hunter questioned her about it Kat said, “If you’re going to be telling us some cool stories, I can make everyone dinner,”

Their current spot was a nice on. They’d stopped a bit early because they found a small river that ran along the road. While the small bridge didn’t have enough space underneath it for camping, in fact it barely had enough room for anyone to even STAND underneath it, someone had clearly camped here before.

Nearby was a bunch of rocks that formed a little enclosed space to help prevent fires or perhaps wildlife.

As Kat was getting out her ingredients, she said, “So… what do civilisations like that normally want from demons?”

Hunter had an answer ready for the Kat, it was one of the first questions she’d asked her teachers after all. “I do not know what more standard demons are asked to do, but for hunters and other combat types like myself it is usually to take out giant monstrous animals.

Usually they are not true monsters, as they lack mana, but they are so large and powerful they could be considered to have a rank of their own.

“I am sure you are wondering why a space faring civilisation would need something else to kill these things, but the answer is simple. For such civilisations they quickly scale up their weaponry. Soon they are capable of taking out entire planets… but their ‘personal combat’ weaponry tend to be weak, or at least, stopping power is not so important.

“Combat for space fairing civilisations is split between ground and space combat. If they try to tackle the strongest ‘monsters’ then either they send grounded troops that can do almost nothing against such beasts, requiring they throw massive waves of soldiers and technology at them. Exceptionally costly in both lives and materials, but one option.

“The second option is that they simply use weaponry on their ships to take out the beasts. Certainly possible… but they will take out the beast… and the nearby area… and in some cases the rest of the continent as well.

Usually there is something on the planet these civilisations want so causing so much damage they disrupt the ecosystem on the planet, or destroying its habitable status is greatly undesirable.

“They tend to have a significant lack of high powered personal weapons that can take out the strongest animals the galaxy can throw at them. As such, if they know demons are an option, they simply pay someone like myself to come in and take it out. I was prepared for this, and my first Hunt in such a civilisation was exceptionally smooth as a result of my training to interact with them.

“I was summoned in a room with nothing, then computers were wheeled inside where they showed me a number of pictures of the beast, explained what they had already used in an attempt to kill it, what information they had on it, and in this instance an exact real-time location of the monster.

“From a ‘hunting’ standpoint the contract was exceptionally simple. It was further simplified when they offered the use of a drop ship to place me directly above the beast with a parachute. It was called a ‘Living Mountain’. Nobody knows what it was originally because there seemed to be only one on the planet. It was huge and the name was apt.

I was dropped onto the top of its body and used my gun to break a way into its body.

“From there I had spent my time travelling through its body looking for ways to end the thing properly. I destroyed a brain very early on to seemingly zero effect. Then I swam through the veins until I find a heart… and heard that it had the same effect. Nothing. Oh, right, I was given a communicator that connected back to the watch post to inform me what was going from outside.

“The beast did have a few internal defenders, other animals that lived inside it and immune responses… but it simply was not developed to kill something of my calibre and they were all laughably weak. Relying entirely on swarming tactics and I was able to simple leave the area whenever I was starting to tire.

While I could not use my stealth trick while inside something else, I am sufficiently proficient in sneaking around that it was no issue.

“In the end, it took me four days of roaming the things body to finally take it out. I needed to destroy EIGHT hearts and six brains. That was finally enough to get the thing to collapse… but it still was not dead at that point. The only reason I did not continue is that after seeing my attempts the people who summoned me were interested in studying the thing.

It wasn’t technically dead after all, and they hadn’t considered entering the things body to take it out like I had.

“I am unsure if they managed it, but I was paid in full for killing it despite not actually doing so because the group called my efforts sufficient and marked the beast as ‘brain-dead’. I am not sure I entirely agree with the diagnosis, but I was willing to accept their request to leave.

This is mostly because up to that point I had avoided the sections of the beast that seemed to relate to digesting food, or at least, had significantly more hostile internal conditions. If I had taken my snake form my scales could likely have protected me, but I doubt it would be pleasant and I likely would need to ensure my eyes remained closed for the duration of my time there.

“I may be a demon, but prolonged exposure to acid, especially around sensitive organs such as my eyes, and likely my nose and mouth now I think about it… would have been quite the issue. If I truly had to venture into such an area I likely would have requested a suit of some kind to help deal with the environmental hazards, but my non-standard body shape makes such a request hard.

Especially when the civilisation I was working with had no reason to design such a thing before.

“Yet… even with all of that in mind I did not truly like leaving a hunt incomplete. My clan did not fault me. The beast was rendered useless and close to death. That my contractors wished to pick over the carcass was expected in this case. The beast was just… alive enough for it to bother me I suppose.

As I said the clan found no fault, but it grated on my personal sensibilities somewhat to leave a target in such a condition.

“I do not wish to see my targets suffer. I am not unaware that some see the killing of animals as cruel. While I disagree with that idea, I do accept that undue suffering is to be avoided. During a hunt, to respect your prey, means to take it out as a soon as you can.

To… stop part of the way through, to leave said prey alive just so others might investigate its half dead state left a bad taste in my mouth,” Hunter let out a long sigh as she finished speaking of the matter.

“How… how smart even was it? I mean, it had a whole bunch of brains… but it seems like it wasn’t super bright?” asked Lily.

“I am unsure,” stated Hunter. “While the brains I found were all larger then my body multiple times over, when you take the size of the beast into consideration each brain was quite small. Even if you added together all of the brains I destroy the total mass would still not be impressive for a beast of that size.

I personally suspect that beast was mindless in the extreme, with the brains being closer to ‘nerve stations’ that simply helped keep the nearby area functioning well. I do not believe it possessed the capacity for thought. It did not even react to parts of itself dying until it suddenly fell over. Of course, I could be wrong, I am no expert in what is required for sentience,”