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

— Kat —

With the water elemental still frozen, Kat got Lily to ask a few more questions while everyone thought of the best course of action. “How are you doing on demonic fire Hunter? It looks like you’ve used… quite a lot of your reserves. Did it really take that much?”

Hunter nodded as she slowly raised herself back up to a more ready position. “It is a combination of Kat’s larger then normal reserves and my own, arguably, wasteful actions in the attack,” stated Hunter.

“What do you mean?” asked Lily with no need for input from Kat.

“It is simple. Not every demon has the same amount of demonic energy they can call upon. It is not too significant in most cases… but Kat also makes use of the demonic energy YOU generate for her pushing Kat further away from the mean. While it would likely be incorrect to say Kat has the reserves of two demons instead of one, it is not entirely incorrect.

“The other reason is that I unleashed dense fire with the hope that it would drain the elemental’s core. See, the simplest way to take an elemental out is to target the core directly. Even a single good hit on an elemental’s core is enough to take them out completely. The other way, and the one I attempted to make use of, is to burn through all of the energy stored inside of their core.

“My attempt was clearly misguided as despite spending enough demonic energy to destroy your average elemental five times over this one remains in operation. Even if it is confused for the moment. I see a few potential reasons for this. The first, is that its core is massive, containing at least ten times the mana of a normal elemental.

I suppose it could also be Rank 4 or 5, but that goes along with the additional mana reserves the elemental seems to be displaying. The second, and potentially more worrying idea… is that it isn’t an elemental at all,” explained Hunter.

“Wait… not an elemental? If that’s the case then what IS it?” asked Lily.

“If I knew the answer to that question I would likely be able to end it. I am afraid my knowledge in this instance is lacking. There are many creatures that could summon up an elemental to serve it, and essentially any sentient water mage could manage something like this without issue…

“But it appears to be frozen just because Kat is pretending to be a water construct. If there was a proper intelligence behind this thing then I would assume that Kat’s change of form would be of only minor consequence, certainly not enough for it to remain frozen for this entire conversation.

Bower do you have anything to add?” explained Hunter, before turning to Bower at the end for her own question.

“No, the snakey miss has the right of it. I don’t deal with elementals much and I’ve not seen anything like this before. I suggest we just try to run past it and find the edge. We should be pretty close to the edge…” elaborated Bower.

Kat didn’t say anything… mostly because she couldn’t. Sure Lily could pass on messages but everyone seemed to have it well enough in hand. The only worry was that they’d be attacked as they ran passed but that was obvious enough that surely they all realised? Right? *Lily make sure they all know.*

“Kat just wants to check that you all know the elemental will probably attack if we run passed right?” asked Lily.

“Of course,” “Um… yeah…” “Indeed” said the other three at the same time.

Lily shrugged and said, “Alright then, what’s the plan for if we ARE attacked? Kat’s not really close enough to take the hit for us,”

“Um…” said Kamiko to get everyone’s attention only to immediately falter once she was actually receiving that attention. “I… um… I can be ready to freeze it? I mean… demonic energy is… pretty strong all the time. Sure… sure it can be resisted but this is a weird water elemental right? So… it should still get frozen even if it has a lot more mana then me…

“I mean, it can clearly reform… but it seems to not be all that fast? So like… when we run… if it attacks I can freeze it… and it might take most or all of my energy… but Hunter is low already… and I mean… I can do it!”

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“Alright, I consider that an acceptable plan,” stated Hunter. “Do you wish for me to use my snake form to carry everyone? While I am not able to make use of my full speed with passengers it will likely still be faster then having everyone run. It’ll also make us less likely to be separated if the rope breaks or something. Though it would mean my bracelet will be out of reach,”

“I don’t know that I need the extra hand… but I suppose it will let me have my crossbow ready,” said Bower.

With that decided Hunter transformed and everyone started to hop on her back, with Kamiko wearing the backpack for Lily, though Lily herself was just sitting in Kamiko’s arms. It was just before Hunter was ready to start moving that the elemental attacked again. Kat didn’t know if this was because it sensed something was about to happen, or if it had finally gotten over its confusion.

Kat transformed back instantly and blew out enough demonic fire to freeze the water claws that were reaching forward. “GO!” shouted Kat.

Hunter didn’t need to be told twice, she smashed through the ice and short forward as fast as she could without risking the others falling off. As she tried to get past the area, the intact moss started to shoot water bullets out. Kat froze those closest to her, and Lily summoned paper shields to absorb the water.

It was enough to get Hunter out of the corridor, and Kat started to follow after them. Water swirled around trying to reform but Kat just flew straight through it without a care in the world. The group was off and running now, potentially able to get away from the elemental.

Which is why nobody was happy that a few corners later there was a watery figure blocking their way. Nobody new if it was the same elemental as the other one, a new one, something connected to the same source or really what it was. Kamiko was ready though. She shot forth two columns of flame from her eyes, looking a bit strange but effective none the less.

The new figure was frozen before it could even start to attack.

Kat was able to catch up at that point, running forward and shattering the new ice sculpture with the back of her hand as they stormed through. As they ran, the water around them was starting to churn. No attacks, and no figures, but the water was clearly moving with purpose now, the moss was sucking it up and moving it somewhere…

They’d figure out where that somewhere was a few moments later when the series of long tunnels opened up into a somewhat large hall. It was filled with pillars of moss and not truly open, but it was a much larger space then they’d seen so far. Popping out of each pillar was a small water elemental looking their way. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them. “Shit…” said Kat.

Kat grit her teeth, now wasn’t time to think, it was time to act. “GO!” she shouted as she burst forward letting flames leak from her fingers. She kept feeding the steam of fire energy even as she let it pick up steam, swirling around her in a typhoon of powerful fire, freezing those that got close. Kat couldn’t see an exit, but she was making a path.

Smashing any columns that were unfortunate enough to be directly in front of the group.

Thousands of water bullets rained down on them, but Kat’s flames froze them, stripping of much of their power and all of the intent behind them. Some did manage to get through to clatter useless against Hunter’s scales but nothing more than that. Hunter was just as focused, if not more so than Kat.

She was using her extensive muscles and flexible body to ensure that nobody other then her was taking hits, a much more challenging task then it looked.

Just as the columns started to fade out to be replaced with a large, if shallow lake… the world seemed to creak for a moment then silver mist rushed in from the cave walls enveloping them all. A large watery hand reached out from the lake, as if trying to stop them… but a moment later they were back in the forest.

The transition was smooth, too smooth. Hunter and Kat were both running at around their full speed and there wasn’t any chance to stop. Kat let herself smash into a nearby tree, breaking it in half and taking no damage. Hunter was similar, she dodged the tree in part, only to allow it to make contact later on.

She wrapped herself around it swiftly to try and prevent the group from being separated from Kat, snapping it to pieces in the process but killing her momentum.