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

— Kat —

Kat and Lily had continued practicing outside for some time after the sun set behind the walls. They’d kept going until Kat noticed Lily starting to make stupid mistakes. Lily had clearly burned through all of her mental energy, so Kat had bundled her girlfriend up into a blanket and carried her back to the room they were using in the tree.

Hunter was sitting on the couch in the living room, cleaning out her gun. “I have found us a local hunter. They will meet us early tomorrow morning so be ready to move out. Kamiko has already heard my message and gone to bed,”

Kat nodded in acceptance and then headed to bed with Lily still in her arms. She’d been providing snacks for Lily all afternoon so it wasn’t as though either of them were hungry. Lily did transform after waking for a bit, but Kat didn’t mind. Instead she just tucked them both into the bed and slept.

Kat woke early the next morning, very early and clearly before even Hunter had gotten up. For once, Lily was right there with her, waking up from the slight jolt of their connection as Kat awoke. [Onwards to practice!]

Kat wasn’t one to refuse, so she left a note for Hunter explaining where they were going to be and headed back to their old training grounds to put some more work into Lily’s spells. It was… very slow going. Progress seemed completely random to Kat, and quite frequently changes meant to improve things set the spell back in other ways.

In one case, Lily managed to halve the mana requirement which seemed great… until they tested the strength and found it was about as tough as wet paper. So useless, especially when that ‘half cost’ was still a quart of Lily’s mana pool.

Honestly, they didn’t make any real progress before Hunter showed up. It was mostly just a way to catalogue the spell variations with the best potential to give Lily something to think about as they travelled. With Hunter though, it meant it was time to leave. Lily transformed into her Memphis form and headed out with the pair.

At the ‘gate’ they found Stphn yawning against the wall, clearly trying not to nod off, while Kamiko looked around warily. Right as Hunter, Kat and Lily arrived someone dropped down from the wall and Kat found herself shocked by the man’s appearance.

He was clearly old. Old in a way the native’s of this planet didn’t really show. His scales were no longer an iridescent blueish green, now closer to forest moss then anything else, and where they may have once shone brightly they now looked to be dusty and dull even if they seemed clean to Kat’s eyes. His wings, unlike so many of his brethren were bright pink instead of yellow.

What that meant Kat couldn’t even begin to guess.

That wasn’t all of it though. Normally, the scales Kat could see on people were tiny things, about the size of fingernails and interlocked somewhat loosely. The old man’s scale were not so neat. They were large, chunky things that didn’t sit neatly on his skin at all, instead they grated ever so slightly when he moved, wearing down the overlarge edges as he shifted in place.

It did not look comfortable… and the clear wounds he’d picked up were probably worse.

Kat couldn’t see all of it because of the man’s hunting jacket, a dark green leather thing that hid most of the largest wound. It clearly originated just above the heart, and almost seemed to spread out from there. If his scales were normally large and dull? These were giant.

The scales awkwardly pressed against each other, not in neat rows but always slightly off centre in odd ways and larger still then normal. Kat could see where they’d been filed down, likely manually and it did not seem pleasant.

Kat would’ve perhaps been more worried about the man’s combat capabilities if it wasn’t for the crossbow on his back. It was a monstrous thing and Kat could feel the power wafting from it even as she approached. It looked like a clunky thing, filled with gears and more suited to bludgeoning someone to death then launching projectiles.

The string was thicker then Kat’s fingers, and from looking at the mechanism the arrows it fired were likely the size of her arm.

It was a weapon for bringing down something dangerous. Perhaps perfect for this particular task. Though, there was one more worry. The old man was missing three fingers on his right hand along with a chunk of the palm along with it. He blocky wooden fingers strapped on to replace them, but they didn’t seem to move at all. Simply frozen and half curled the way they were carved however long ago.

“This is, Bower, our guide,” said Hunter as they approached. Bower gave a quick inclination of his head at being announced but didn’t say anything in response.

“Um… is it… um…” Kamiko looked between Hunter and Bower carefully. “I don’t… I really hope I’m not being rude but… um… you look a bit… old for this Bower…”

“Hehehehehe,” Bower laughed and it was an uncomfortable sight. As his chest moved with the laughter his scales ground against each other drowning out much of the cheerful booming voice Bower projected. “Ah yes I’m old lass. Very, very old. Older then little Stphn here and lived in the area long before his grandparents were born. It’s why I have to go,”

“But… but… this shouldn’t be your job! I… I mean… I don’t want anyone to get hurt and… I don’t know…” mumbled Kamiko.

“It seems as this is to be his Last Hunt,” said Hunter firmly. “So it is a great honour that was can accompany him,”

“Wait what?” said Kamiko suddenly glaring at Hunter. “No… no why does he have to die? He looks fine! He… he shouldn’t be coming with us if he has a death wish…”

Hunter glared at Kamiko for her words but Bower stood forward to block her gaze. “The snakey lass is right. Perhaps not completely, but correct enough. Besides you don’t really have to worry about me. I’m not planning on being a martyr… but if this isn’t a hunt I walk away from? Well that’s just fine with me,” explained Bower.

“But… but WHY. I might be risking myself, but I know I’m not going to die! Whatever happens I’ll be pulled out and… well my mother might ground me for a few months but I’ll live! Why… why do this?” asked Kamiko.

Kat and Lily kept silent not really knowing what to say. There was clearly a bit more to this story, but Kamiko seemed correct. Nobody with a death wish should be coming on a hunt to save the world.

“How about this? We head out of the walls, so Stphn can go to sleep, and then we can talk about things properly?” asked Bower.

Kamiko pouted, “I don’t like it. You’ll just say that you can’t go back inside now and we’ll be stuck with you! I don’t want you to come if you’re just going along to get hurt!” whined Kamiko with her voice no longer shaking.

“Hehehe, I can jump over this here wall no problem little demon. I promise if you aren’t convinced you can leave me behind,” said Bower with complete confidence.

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*I wonder what gives him such confidence here? He seems so sure he can convince Kamiko despite the fact she’s looking pretty determined right now.*

[I bet he’ll use some sneaky old man powers! Well that or he’s used to dealing with people like Kamiko. I… I don’t know how old he is Kat but I think it’s a lot older then a century. He just… has that feel about him. Like he’s truly seen things. He… doesn’t look like someone that will just roll over and die.

Kamiko is wrong about that… but he’s still very tired.]

Kamiko looked uncertain but eventually agreed to the condition, “Ok… I guess that’s fine,”

“Right then, Stphn get this wood open… wait are we taking the horse?” asked Bower.

“Um…” Kamiko looked around. “I didn’t think it’d travel well through the forest… so… um no?”

“Then why the heck is Stphn waiting here to open the doors?” asked Bower.

“Um…” Kamiko looked around and was met with shrugs from Hunter and Kat… so the group turned to look at Stphn who had slapped a hand into his face.

“Look, I’m tired, I’ve been up for hours and I didn’t think about it properly ok? Just… get out of here so I can go to bed?” grumbled Stphn as he waved the wood to split open. The group calmly walked through the gap, that was swiftly shut once they’d gotten through.

“Now you gotta convince me!” said Kamiko proudly.

“I could just… not,” said Bower.

“Wait what? Why? I wouldn’t let you come if you don’t!” insisted Kamiko.

“Right, but… counterpoint. How would you stop me?” asked Bower. Kamiko didn’t have a good answer for that one.