D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 1934 Like a Punch to the Face

Chapter 1934: Chapter 1934 Like a Punch to the Face

— Kurtruph —

Kurtruph had been exploring the desert for a while. Going from place to place, and thought he was doing pretty well for himself… when a madman leapt from the dunes and slammed a hand axe into his shield. “Blocking? What are you a pansy?” shouted the figure that had attacked him.

Kutruph, not knowing who that was just by his voice, ignored the taunt and stabbed out with his spear at roughly the spot he thought the attack was. Sadly, as his shield came down, he could see that his target was a dwarf and the spear jab had gone over the shorter combatant. Worse, they were using this miss as a chance to hit back. Hard.

Kutruph grunted as a gauntlet slammed into his chin. One of the spikes even going through the underside of his mouth and into his tongue. Kutruph was well used to pain and immediately slammed his shield down on the dwarfs head. Said dwarf ducked backwards leaning away and just barely managing to avoid a knock to the head. His armour wasn’t so lucky, and the jarring sensation from having the shield slamming into him meant he couldn’t move out of the way when Kutruph followed up with a shield bash either, sending the dwarf flying.

While Kutruph didn’t know his name yet, having not recalled it, Strigor, the dwarven team’s weapons master was having the time of his life. “WHAT A BLOW! No hesitation! I near ripped out your throat and you fucking got me!” cheered Strigor.

Kutruph wouldn’t mind replying with some snarky comment or two but, well, the dwarf had been right about the throat issue. A large chunk of flesh from his face was missing and he didn’t have time to heal it up, not against someone that was as aggressive as Strigor seemed to be. *Don’t have time to pull anything out of storage. I also think this guy is better at combat then I am but that’s more of a guess. Can I afford to try and run away?*

Strigor rushed back in and hurled another axe at Kutruph who sidestepped the projectile, but kept an ear out. He had a good guess as to what was about to happen. Strigor was right behind his axe with a sword in one hand and a fist in another, two attacks were coming at Kutruph from the front. He jumped.

Sand went flying as both axes Kutruph had thrown out were pulled back towards him. Of course, now he was in the air and Strigor was ready to take advantage of that fact. The dwarf lined up for when the dragonkin dropped down on him… so Kutruph just breathed fire on him. Strigor flipped backwards, hand over hand, to get away super quickly.

“WAIT! You can breath fire? That’s not how that works!” retorted Strigor.

Kutruph summoned a rock from his storage and kicked it hard at the dwarf who just caught it in his empty hand. *I wonder if he’ll be able to work out how I’m pulling that trick off?* Dashing in close, Kutruph lashed out with his spear, it was a much lazier strike then he’d used before and Strigor deflected it easily. As expected, Kutruph used that as his in, pulling his spear back hard and giving Strigor a choice. Lose the sword or get pulled into his shield bash.

Sadly for Kutruph he was not the better combatant. Strigor let himself get pulled in… dropped his sword and then used one hand to bash the shield to the side. Kutruph wasn’t ready for it, and his shield arm snapped off to the side allowing for another direct blow on his face. Kutruph felt the spike go straight through his cheek right before the force of the blow sent him tumbling away across the sand.

Kutruph had to be careful, leaving his hand shoved off to the side so he wasn’t slammed in the face by his own shield as he rolled. When the rolling finally stopped Kutruph was tempted, just for an instant, to stay down. His face was bleeding massively, he had two large holes in it and the fight was likely already lost. Still, he pushed himself back up… and couldn’t see the dwarf.

Kutruph whirled around, thinking perhaps he was being snuck up. His heart was pounding in his ears, and perhaps some damage had made its way to them. He could hardly hear anything… but no, nothing was behind him. Turning around slowly he looked for any sign of Kutruph approaching him but there wasn’t anything. The marks he’d made in the sand clear as day but no dwarf nearby.

Kutruph carefully pulled out a potion and poured it over his wounds, making sure not to waste any and to keep it on the wound. It was a recent one, and… while it wasn’t fun to receive, didn’t actually damage anything major. Even still, this was one of the more expensive potions he had in stock, not the cheaper stuff that could only deep with cuts, here Kutruph was missing more than a little bit of flesh.

It itched like hell but Kutruph ignored the familiar sensation. No reason to start poking at the wound and making things worse. Certainly not when he might still be in a fight. Even as he was carefully applying the potion his shield was up and ready. His spear… Kutruph wasn’t quite sure where that had ended up actually. Annoying.

Once the wound was… mostly healed, or at least as good as it was going to get without some real rest, Kutruph headed up the slight incline in the dune and back towards where he’d come from. As he crested the top, he could see his spear where he dropped it… and still no sign of the dwarf. In fact… the footprints that SHOULD be there from their fight were missing as well.

Kutruph instantly went further on alert, straining his ears for any sign of the dwarf moving nearby as he slowly walked up to his spear. Just before reaching it, he dashed off to the side, and slammed his shield through thin air. He didn’t hit anything but…

The sound of clapping was ringing out? Kutruph glanced at the area sternly as he carefully edged sideways to grab his spear. “What a performance!” cheered Strigor. Kutruph looked around for the source of the sound. It seemed like despite the clapping being in front of him, Strigor sounded like he was now behind him… but the clapping hadn’t stopped and was in front of him.

“Expecting thanks from me or something?” asked Kutruph as he tried to pick out where the dwarf had disappeared to.

“No no, you gave it a good attempt, and even after getting your head bashed around you still got back up. Big props for that. I might have seen a bit of hesitation, but it didn’t last long. Want to team up?” asked Strigor.

“You nearly kill me in a fight… and then when I prove I can get back up you decide NOW is the time to propose an alliance?” asked Kutruph.

“Yup,” confirmed Strigor. “If you had no fight in you, I’d have just finished you off and been done with it. I’m here to get into good fights, and to try and win. In that order. If you weren’t worth the effort, I’d not lose any sleep over it. Probably not even if you’d actually died instead of just having Thyme save you…

“But you ARE worth the time. It seems that way at least, and what better way to know if someone is worth fighting by your side then a bit of a dust up?” Kutruph glared around him, still no closer to working out where the voice actually was. He’d already waved his spear through the spot Strigor ’should’ have been hiding, and basically everywhere else nearby.

“And if I was too annoyed about the face punching?” asked Kutruph.

“Then we go back to fighting obviously,” said Strigor as if this really was the only possible answer. Kutruph glanced down at his storage bracelet. *Basically full and I think the few orbs I had on me would’ve shattered. Hmm… teaming up isn’t a bad idea. He’s clearly stronger than I am and he’s willing to stop before going to far considering he backed off and made the offer. Though…*

“Alright… just one question. If you want fights first and to win second… why team up with anyone?” asked Kutruph.

“Because other people are teaming up as well? Obviously. If I didn’t have fun fighting with people I’d just adventure solo. I’m pretty confident in taking a lot of people solo, but if there are teams of three? Or we’re against one of the demons? Then I’d want some backup for sure,” explained Strigor.

*While that does all make sense… it doesn’t really tell me if I can trust you or not. If you’re just looking for a fight… then I’m never going to know if I’m that next fight. Clearly he’s got no issues with ambushes either. So I guess it’s more asking if I want to take the risk and join up now, or accept ’dying’.*