D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2121 Clear Air

Chapter 2121: Chapter 2121 Clear Air

— Kat —

With Chisel dealt with and everyone else still working on defence nothing stopped Kat from regaining all of her demonic energy. Bruce seemed shocked when she declared herself to be back to full, and Chisel seemed even more surprised. Though it was hard to tell when you could only see his eyes. Lily still wasn’t feeling good about him.

Once that was done, Kat quickly iced the rest of the monster. Lily was funning low on mana herself, having needed to keep the defence up while carrying around Tanisha and Chisel. Not to mention the whole legs thing. The monster sort of just folded anyway, most of its mass was gone and it seemed to be falling apart easier and easier with every strike against the thing. When the only thing left was one small bit of flesh the mound seemed to shiver, as if it already knew it was finished.

Kat sliced it to bits as swiftly as she can… and in response a little rabbit seemed to hop up from out of a crack. It was trying to hard to be cute in a way that made it exceptionally creepy. It looked like a cartoon rabbit. Its features were all exaggerated especially the eyes which took up like half the things body. They extended up past its face! Sure in a cartoon that might look acceptable but as it was, Kat didn’t feel the slightest bit of hesitation bringing her foot crashing down on the thing. The fact it burst into grey goop instead of blood was just further justification after the fact.

Kat let out a breath… and then considered for a few seconds before checking her energy reserves. Mostly full. Kat glanced over at Lily who had dropped most of her shadow walls. *How much mana do you have?*

[Maybe five percent? Why?]

*I’m thinking of just… pouring fire between all the cracks. The fact that little rabbit thing was able to sneak out implies there might still be more of this shit elsewhere. Even if we got the central mass and its doomed to die out eventually… there’s no certainty that’s the case. Heck, even coating the ground might not be enough but I do want to try… except you don’t have much mana…*

[It’ll be fine Kat. Shadow magic might take a constant upkeep of mana to improve it, that also means that when the chips are down you can use it without anywhere near as much cost. Even with five percent I can defend myself for the few seconds it takes for you to reach me.]

Fine. Kat was still careful not to send the flames too close to where Lily and the rest of the group were. Chisel would almost certainly suffer if he touched them now, but with his betrayal the other three likely weren’t safe from it for the moment. So Kat just avoided it as best she could.

Sadly the flames weren’t all that concentrated, this was more for her piece of mind. Once she’d cleared most of the room, Lily and the rest moved off to the side so that she could finish the job. The rocks now had a thin coating of ice all around it and Kat hadn’t heard any more things shattering as she stepped around the room.

Kat slumped against the wall and pulled out some of the meals she’d made earlier for everyone to eat. Tanisha was unwrapped so she could… and Chisel was left as he was. After a bit, Bruce took enough pity on him to spoon feed the dwarf which, if anything, only pissed him off more so Lily decided to allow it. Kat was a little worried that Lily would start to feel guilty but based on her emotions watching the scene it was pure satisfaction. Perhaps still not the healthiest reaction but at least she wasn’t freaking out.

Eventually, the silence was broken but Bruce asking, “Right… so… time to address the elephant in the room?”

Furen just shrugged and took three bites in quick succession as if to say ’why address it? Answer is obvious’ well that or she wanted to avoid talking about it entirely, though the grin on her face after the food was in her mouth implied it was the former. “If you want,” is what Kat still said. “What do you want to ask?”

“Well… wasn’t that an extreme reaction?” asked Bruce.

Kat shrugged, “I mean… no not really?”

Bruce sighed, “Yeah I guess not. Just feels wrong. I mean, we’re thieves and ruffians sure… but we’ve not killed anyone…”

“Technically we didn’t kill him either. He’s still alive, the fact you were feeding him should’ve been a pretty indicator of that fact,” Kat countered.

“Right but he’s missing his legs!” retorted Bruce.

“Yeah and I’ve got them here,” Kat pulled the legs from her storage bracelet for a moment before shoving them back inside. “It was a clean cut so if he can convince someone to care he can have them back… but legs are a privilege and being a backstabbing traitor is a pretty good reason to loose it,”

Furen snorted, trying not to laugh because of the pain but failing anyway as she burst out into pained chuckles, made worse by the fact she had food in her mouth and was choking a bit. Kat moved to help but Furen held up a hand to stall her, before slapping herself in the chest a few times and then breathing deeply and making an ’Ok’ symbol with her fingers.

“Sorry,” said Kat.

Furen shrugged and gave a double thumbs up. For all that it almost killed her, she seemed to enjoy the joke. Kat glanced back over to Bruce and asked, “So… was that all?”

“I guess I’m just curious… if you’re fine working with something that would so casually slice of someone’s legs?” Bruce asked uncertain.

Furen burst into laughter again upon hearing the question. She clearly understood it was not a smart one to ask… and perhaps that Lily was her familiar. Something Bruce apparently hadn’t worked out? Even Chisel winced at the question. Kat eventually couldn’t help but burst into laughter of her own. “Oh Bruce. If someone had tried to kill Lily instead of me I’d do FAR worse then just cutting their legs cleanly off. At the very least I’d ensure I ripped them off painfully, but I’d probably do worse,”

“Furen why are you nodding?” Hissed Bruce, before he started to frown when the nodding continued for more than ten seconds. “I’m missing something aren’t I?” Furen obviously kept nodding. “Dammit… whatever. Fine, apparently you all think this was a reasonable series of events. What do we do now?”

Kat sighed, “That’s a good question… honestly I’m not sure. This last fight was a little underwhelming, and I worry that we missed something even with me being thorough enough to coat the floor in fire after we finished and hopefully before it recovered enough to run. Assuming that there was any left…

“The issue is just not knowing. Part of me wants to explore and confirm it’s all gone but if it’s smart it will simply hide better then I can search, which considering it can shapeshift and probably knows the tunnels better then we do… I don’t know if it’s possible to be that good at searching if you aren’t trained for it.” *Hunter could probably manage but I’m no Hunter.* “There’s also the matter of whatever Chisel was looking for… but I doubt he’d tell us,”

Furen very obviously wiggled her ears at that statement and Kat narrowed her eyes in response and asked, “Do YOU know?” Furen nodded. “Shit. Okay… hmm… I take it you didn’t say anything before intentionally?” Another nod. “Hmm… would you prefer to investigate or instead head straight to the surface where you can be healed? I’m certain that much at least will happen but I don’t know what leniency will be given out if you help with the search,”

Furen shrugged, seemingly not all that concerned. Perhaps for her, and elf, spending however long in jail just wasn’t considered a major worry. For her, it would be a small faction of her lifespan and Kat honestly wasn’t sure how illegal what these guys were doing was. If they were connected to the ones keeping the poison up that was one thing… but if they just got a job to go inside? Trespassing was probably all they could be called on considering this place seemed quite abandoned.

*Which I guess leaves the question. What do we think is the best path forward? Hopefully the monster is gone but we can’t be sure. The item needs to be found just in case, unless whoever would rather steal it from the guard station or wherever it gets kept. Leaving immediately seems fine, but once again, what if a team sneaks in behind us and grabs it? Splitting up seems like a terrible idea and I don’t know if we could carry everyone anyway… what an annoying spot to be in.*