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

— Kat —

The topic of familiars bounced around a little more until the next team showed up, and it wasn’t the team filled with familiars but the all rounders. Though Nixilei DID mention they had a familiar. Just the one though. It was an adorable little thing known as a ‘Dashing Rabbit’ known for their lightning powers and ability to travel swiftly in straight lines. Even the pictures Nixilei had of it showed this off… though nobody knew exactly who it belonged to as the rabbit ‘Wiggles’ acted more like a team mascot then anything else and never participated in any of the fighting. He or she might be strong enough but Wiggles mostly just hung out with Thyme.

Currently Wiggles was riding on top of the leading ladies. Two twin fae girls with rather distinct hairstyles. It was a blend of purple and orange mixed together. Kat had asked “Does that mean they have affinity with two elements?”

And Nixilei’s answer had been, “Yes but also no. It’s not guaranteed especially not in the case of twins… but it seems like they can both use lightning and fire elements,”

“What do you mean ‘it seems’. I feel like you’re being a bit vague here on purpose,” said Kat.

“That’s because I am. The information I have makes it clear that they should be treated as if they can use both but they technically haven’t done anything to confirm it one way or the other… especially when they take pleasure in making sure people confuse them,” sighed Nixilei.

The twins were known as Crocus and Pansy and even looking at them side by side Kat couldn’t tell who was who. Well, technically Crocus was wearing a necklace with a small Crocus encased inside of it and Pansy was doing the same, showing off the multi-coloured flowers that were their namesakes but they’d been caught swapping their necklaces around more than once so it wasn’t true confirmation.

Still, Kat decided to just treat them as if the necklace was telling the truth, especially if it was just for the moment. Perhaps one of them would give away something… though if Kat never knew who was who to start with she might still be wrong. Regardless, ‘Crocus’ seemed to be the one holding onto little Wiggles at the moment. She was getting the occasional scritch from Pansy as well when the other twin deigned to lean over.

Both twins had matching purple and orange robes, really playing into the theme. The main body of the outfit was purple, with the lower half slowly transitioning between the two colours making it look a bit like a sunrise. The same for the sleeves though the transition started about a third of the way up and ended in more of a yellow.

Crocus was known to use a whip and was currently wearing it around her waist as with a proper belt underneath it. The whip in question was a mixture of braided purple and orange cord that was apparently treated tendons of a monster of some sort. It was able to conduct both fire and electricity without wearing down and allowed for good control over the battlefield. Sure swinging a whip around wouldn’t do much damage… but if it also sends a thunderbolt at you then it’s a different story.

Pansy had a set of tonfas, one made of purple wood and the other made of an orange metal. They were currently hanging from Pansy’s waist with a large loop that made them easily accessible. The problem though… was that when the twins swapped their weapons didn’t always follow. Apparently they’d learnt both weapons well enough that they could mimic each other’s fighting style… or was it a single joined fighting style? Most annoyingly they actually had a set of each weapon. As proven in the past when both twins would fight with either whips of tonfas so you needed to be properly weary of both. Not to mention both were magicians. A scary pair for the final round.

Walking just a bit to the side of them was Souris the mouse beastkin tank. They were rather tiny especially for a tank. That apparently wasn’t going to stop them. Despite only being a hair over five foot, or closer to five four if you counted the ears they wore heavy plate and a shield on their back. It was closer to the usual grey steel but was a bit darker than normal and likely wasn’t steel at all. They did have a helmet but it was more of a gimmick, and currently wasn’t being worn. Which was a metal elephant head.

She had sort of messy brown hair and painted on whisker markings to bring some attention away from her giant ears. The issue was… each one was like the size of her head all by themselves and really were quite noticeable. The elephant head was terribly silly but at the end it DID leave space for her ears. It would be interesting to see if she’d managed to secure some alternative to it.

Souris had earth affinity and a lot of mana. She primarily blocked things by either bringing up some rock and stone in front of their teammates to shield them, or be zipping along the ground and getting in the way of attacks. She was focused on mobility and defence. An odd combination… but left them rather vulnerable to attacks. It wasn’t necessary, not with the rest of the team but it was a potential weakness if they were left alone. Especially because they didn’t even have any proper weapons. The shield could serve in a pinch, it had serrated edges that could hurt… but that was more of a stopgap measure then a proper solution.

Souris was, according to Nixilei, the weak link in the team. Perhaps they’d learnt from the previous rounds but they simply weren’t efficient with their likely high mana capacity. They wasted a lot of bigger, flashier spells when simply trusting her friends to dodge occasionally or taking it upon herself to use her earth shifting moves to get them out of the way instead of moving herself all the way over there.

Walking just a bit behind Souris was the dwarven healer Max. He was considered a bit of an odd dwarf but that could be because he didn’t grow up in dwarven lands at all and was mostly raised by beastkin. He was adopted by Souris’ family after his own passed away in a monster attack. Nixilei had been intentionally light on the details of his past because they weren’t truly relevant for the tournament itself except for some more underhanded tactics. Still, it was when Souris and Max’s family moved to the fae lands that they met Crocus, Pansy, and their final teammate INSERT NAME HERE who’s parents were travelling merchants.

Max fought with his gauntlets and wore metal armour… but just where necessary. The metal was mostly around his joints and torso, with an exception for big metal gloves and boots. The gauntlets were his main weapon after all and the extra weight did help somewhat. His healing training was spotty at best but apparently you needed a proper healer to get to the final round because every team had one so even if Max was the, according to Nixilei, the weakest healer still in the contest he was a good combatant and could somewhat manage as a tank in a pinch.

The final member of their team was called Hedera and… Nixilei was… more than a little rude when describing her. Nixilei claimed her as ‘a better version of Green’. Which… Kat didn’t necessarily disagree with. Mostly she seemed like Green without a lot of her bad habits. Hedera was mostly an archer that made use of a few enchantments and her wind affinity to get by. On the surface she seemed exceptionally similar to Green and Nixilei made sure to drive home that she had none of Green’s bad habits… though Kat was sure Hedera had her own issues. Nixilei was just being a bit mean about it.

She also had the largest ears Kat had ever seen on an elf. Absolutely massive. It made it seem like she had two rulers stuck to the side of her head. Kat was pretty sure someone had lost an eye to one of those things. Hedera had almost certainly heard them all before… ok that was enough jokes about it.

Hedera was sort of boring otherwise though. She had dirty blonde hair bordering on brown that ended at chin height. A bunch of standard looking leather armour and a bow that seemed completely ordinary. The fact she made it this far implied at least some of her outfit was enchanted in some way and her bow was more than standard… but she just looked like a rookie adventurer who’d picked up the standard kit. If Nixilei hadn’t insisted that she had top notch accuracy Kat may have singled her out as the weakest member of the team… and she might have still bee right.

That was the issue really. Her arrows were scary for some but not for Kat. They simply weren’t large enough to do lasting damage and with… new information… even an attack through the eye wouldn’t be a concern. Though maybe it was still rude to think of her was the weakest?