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

--- Kat ---

Kat had planned to use all of her speed to beat up the Smug elf. She'd planned to go from nothing to full ball, using demonic energy to empower her all of the way. Her plan had been to end this before it had even began. Yet, the moment she took a step forward the ground launched upward, throwing her away from Smug. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that. Idiot that he is, I can't allow his death. At least, not without a trial," stated the voice, seeming genuinely remorseful.

It didn't stop a fist of stone slamming into Kat's back and throwing her towards the ground. "Well my girlfriend asked me to cripple him a bit and I'd hate to deny her the request. Who are you anyway?"

"I'm not sure if I can trust you to leave him alive. Also my name is Malve, and his name is Strooth," explained recently named Malve.

Kat smiled at finally having a name for them both, along with confirmation that the woman in question had both fire and earth affinities. That smile was quickly removed when she slammed into the roof of the jail and cratered the jail reception building. The screaming was the main reason.

Kat glanced behind her and saw a number of inmates that were now standing and shaking behind a rather grizzled figure. Kat picked herself up off the ground and said, "Might want to hide back underground. No idea how much the others I'm fighting care about keeping you alive,"

Kat didn't wait for an answer, simply dashing straight off. This time, she was paying more attention to her feet. It paid off nearly immediately. As she charged out of the jail the ground underneath her started to move but it was easy for Kat to perform a short hop herself, cracking the stone and allowing her to avoid being launched too far.

Strooth was ready for her, weapon out and heading forward to meet her own charge. Kat matched it for a few more steps before breaking into a slide and pulling out her fans. Strooth might be a smug jackass but he wasn't completely blind. Fast as Kat was he could just barely react. Leaping into the air and off to the side… but still just barely in range of Kat's arms, especially when the fans were included. Kat tried to slice off his foot but was surprised to find that her fans were not up to the task.

Instead of slicing clean through, his ankle was kicked away which sent Strooth into a spiral that Kat could see him trying to correct midair. Kat dismissed her fans in the process of standing up. No sense in trying to cut his legs off if the metal on his armour was too strong… *So I just need to break them a lot!*

[EXACTLY] Agreed Lily as Kat charged after Strooth. Kat wanted to speed straight to him but an… obsidian block? Slammed into her foot from the side sending her off course and making it so she couldn't catch the smug shit before he hit the ground again. It also seemed like he was willing to put forth a bit more effort because several bright lines of light slammed into Kat from various points on his armour.

They didn't really hurt. Just burnt through her clothes and gave her a the equivalent of a sunburn on those patches… but there were a lot of them and they had a bit of a force behind them making it hard to just charge in again. Malve wasn't willing to let that opportunity go either because Kat felt several shards of rock embed themselves into her back. Some of them anyway.

Malve had taken the chance to test what spells could actually damage Kat and hit her with an assortment of rocks as a test. The problem was that not many of them did any appreciable damage, especially not when you factor in just how much mana each of those shards cost. On the other hand, Kat was surprised when she had to reach back and physically remove two of the shards from her back so that she could heal more quickly.

*Hmm… these guys are actually a pain when they're working together. I'm taking too many hits even though I've been trying not to allow that after the brain fiasco. The problem is LIGHT IS FUCKING FAST. Why does he have LASER BEAMS IN HIS ARMOUR. I guess I could try and run him out of mana? But I have no idea how expensive it is. Dammit I NEED a range option that isn't demonic fire. If we win the tournament I'm asking Thyme for a magic gun or something.*

Kat slammed her fist into the ground and threw the newly freed chunks of large rock towards Strooth who smoothly moved to start cutting them all to pieces to avoid them making contact. As he was doing that Kat moved forward, making sure to break any earth that was moving oddly. It seemed that Malve had issues controlling rock right after it got broken so it was something.

Kat continued advancing, and when one of the rocks managed to make it past Strooth's guard Kat sped up, launching herself forward… only to realise her mistake when the rock broke against Strooth's armour and the rapier came up leveling itself to once again skewer Kat in the head. She was ready enough this time. For a moment, she debated allowing the hit to go through and breaking his legs in the process but it really was too much of a risk.

Kat transformed at the moment of contact, water expanding outwards. Malve threw a bunch of fire in the water as soon as the transition happened but Kat didn't linger. She reformed almost instantly inside of Strooth's guard and slammed him into the ground by the shoulders. His defences triggering but didn't help all that much in this situation.

Before Strooth could do anything about being buried up to his shoulders in rock, Kat tried to kick him with her full force. Malve intervened, raising him upwards and slightly to the side to avoid the kick… in theory. In practice Kat's foot slammed right into the crown jewels. Even if the barrier knocked her foot back, accompanied by the popping of multiple gems in Strooth's circlet. It HAD to hurt at least a bit.

"MALVE YOU BITCH!" hissed Strooth proving that it did, in fact have some effect. Kat was still shocked at what happened and not quite at her best when Strooth just… vanished. Blinking Kat looked around and saw the guards as expected and… more than a bit of devastation. During their battle the two of them had taken down more than one house, most of the jail, and the street wasn't looking great either. Still…

*Where did he go? It must have been teleportation because it's certainly not an illusion and there's no way he's that fast all of a sudden. Though… why did he get moved and where is Malve?* Kat hadn't let up on her mental acceleration so barely a second had passed at this point. It made it hard to tell if there was going to be a followup at all. *Do I wait? Do I reduce my mental speed? What am I supposed to do here? A nut shot is good but his legs are still very much intact. I mean… am I happy enough with what might be a retreat after a nut shot?*

Kat carefully lowered her thought speed as the seconds ticked by. First one, then two, then five. All of a sudden time was moving normally again and nothing was coming out of the woodwork. Kat didn't lower her guard but she wasn't sure what to do exactly. *Lily, what's your status? I kicked Strooth in the nuts because of Malve and now they've both disappeared. Or… maybe just Strooth the smug one. Never saw Malve. Thoughts?*

[Well apparently the bakeries, or at least this bakery is an ASSASSIN'S GUILD. We're hiding underneath the shop, or well… we went down a bunch of different tunnels but I think we ended up back under the shop. I'm not sure anyone else noticed because space is a but weird down here. Um… yeah so I'm not sure what's going on. Nixilei doesn't seem happy and Kress is a bit worried but Green and Gareth are both asleep and everything said so far has been in code.]

*Wait that doesn't get translated?*

[Maybe if I was an actual demon or if we had some practice? As it stands I just heard a bunch of words that make sense together until you realise they're definitely not talking about bread.]

*Ok… so you're safe? Also what should I do?*

[Nixilei doesn't quite seem to think so… but yes? Maybe? At least nobody is attacking us and we're not likely to be caught by the guard.]

Kat glanced around at the large number of guards watching her. *Right… still not sure what I should be doing but it's good to hear you're safe…*