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

--- Kat ---

Kat was fully recovered at this point... and Lily was still panicking. She didn’t even notice when Kat and Appoline worked together to finish fixing up the umbrella. Eventually though, it was time to move on. Kat gently put her hand on Lily’s shoulder... and her girlfriend nearly launched herself into the roof of the umbrella. Only Kat’s light touch transitioning to a much sturdier one prevented Lily from slamming her head into the umbrella above. "Lily, it’s fine..." Kat said softly as she pulled her now trembling girlfriend into her arms.

Lily sniffled a bit as Kat gently stroked her hair. Want me to use my calming aura? Lily nodded while pressing her head against Kat’s chest. Kat gently let her aura seep out, just enough to cover Lily and not a bit more. Kat wasn’t sure if Lily would prefer Appoline not know... but it would be hard to ask and it was better to be safe then sorry in this case.

*Hey it’s ok... I’m fine now.*

[I know but I just... I couldn’t do ANYTHING and like... you didn’t dodge either of them and... I just feel really bad. You were just laying there...]

*Well the laying down part was to make the healing better. I COULD move, but moving with the rather large wound I had would’ve required my body to work a lot harder. It didn’t even cost that much demonic energy in the end. Time sure, but I most of the demonic energy I was spending I regenerated in the next few seconds, and YOU helped with that two considering part of the reason my demonic energy regeneration is so high is because I’m making use of yours.

Really, it wasn’t too bad. It was just a bit awkward. The lightning meant I might burn away too much water if I used that to dodge instead, and I needed to push Appoline out of the way. If I was fighting all by myself I could’ve simply traded blows against it until it died and then recovered afterwards. Sure it might have taken me a bit longer, but really, it’s all fine.*

[I should’ve helped with Appoline. We both knew she was the weak link here... dammit. I should’ve pushed her away with my shadows instead of letting you do it.]

*Maybe, but it’s fine. And besides, even if she is the weak link from a pure power perspective we might not have gotten away from the axolotl without her. If taken a gut wound means that she’s still around to help with stuff like that? Then I’d call it very worth it.*

[I mean... I’m not angry at her. I wasn’t. Maybe a little. But not really. It’s just... dammit I’m worried about you.]

*Lily, do remember Thyme is watching. If I was actually going to die, something I didn’t feel like would happen, Thyme would pull me out. There is also D.E.M.O.N.S if things were even more serious. There are layers of safety here. I am FINE.*

[I know. Or, I want to believe but it’s just hard. It doesn’t FEEL real? Or maybe it just burns at me that I feel so useless.]

Kat sighed. She sort of wanted to keep moving but that was impossible holding Lily as she was. Apologising to Appoline quietly, Kat continued to comfort her girlfriend. *You’re already taking major steps Lily. You’re learning alchemy and more magic and even just getting involved in combat more.*

[Don’t have to sound so excited about the last part.]

*Ah but I can survive a hit to the stomach... you might not be able to. That’s a much bigger worry in the long run. While Thyme might be protecting us here, for me it’s a good way to learn the limits of my regeneration. For you, it would just be bad habits.*

[Not sure I believe that considering your regeneration has already given you a lot of bad habits...]

*Perhaps, but it’s a part of me and I wasn’t so different before. Sure the threats were a lot less lethal for a normal person, and taking a bucket of water in your place is different to a laser blast, or whatever else... but it’s not really that my attitude has changed, just the threats.*

[That might be worse though right? Your old habits are putting you in a lot more potential danger now.]

*Hmm, perhaps.* Kat mused, wanting to keep the argument up. Lily wasn’t ’good’ but this intellectual back and forth was ’better’. Or at least, Kat thought so. *But it’s not like I developed those back when I had regeneration, and Marigold has proved that you can survive quite extreme things at even lower Ranks.*

[Yeah but she trained for that AND it’s Marigold. You really want to be like her?]

Kat laughed, it was slightly forced but Kat ensured that she did. *Perhaps not but her skill with regeneration is top notch. It was nice seeing her again, even if it was only for a bit. Do you think there are other people we know hanging around?*

[I’d have to assume so... but the fact we haven’t seen any of them is a bit weird. Unless there are other people around that we should recognise and don’t simply because we’re not from around here. We’d only really recognise other people from our line of the tournament. We don’t know what the other contestants look like at all. It’s possible they were everywhere.]

*Oh... huh... yeah that’s a good point. If I’d thought of it before maybe I’d have asked Hedera if she’s recognised anyone... she didn’t mention it. Then again we didn’t really either. Then again, then again. Marigold IS an elf princess so perhaps well enough known. Not sure how to quantify that. While it’s too late to ask Hedera now... maybe we keep it in mind for if we run into anyone else?*

[Even if they attack us?]

*Well why not? It’s just something to be curious about. I wouldn’t throw the fight for the info, but delaying so that Appoline can properly hide, or you can get into position is a valid tactic and a short break likely helps me far more than it would help them. Only time it might not be worth it is if they’re bound and about to be out but we keep talking and they escape. Even then I wouldn’t be too worried.*

[I guess. It’s not super useful info... but it is info. Then again, the worry with that I think is actually because they’d know people better. Like, telling them we saw Marigold might be a HUGE hint towards other things. Or maybe it’s not. That’s the thing, we just don’t know.]

*Hmmm... yeah ok that’s an angle I wasn’t considering, not really. Hmmm...hmmm... alright perhaps we’ll just mention we saw a few people we recognised and wonder if it was the same. I was going to follow that up with mentioning we wouldn’t know people from the other tournament ’branches’ but that’s not really something we want to do either. That gives away more information...*

[Yeah it does. Alright this might be more difficult then it seems. For us it’s a curiosity... but for other people it might be a major leg up. Perhaps we limit our questions to if we run into someone from our team? We haven’t seen any of them... which... is maybe weird? Then again we’ve not seen many people at all. I’d expected a lot more frequent encounters.]

*I think the idea was for people to congregate around towns and stuff but yeah the whole island might have been a bit too large for that. But on the other hand, with how loud and obvious fights can be at our level you’d be able to see fights from a major distance and that would create its own problems.*

[Hmmm... yeah... wonder if Thyme considers this a success so far?]

*A question only Thyme can answer.*

Perhaps Lily hadn’t recovered yet. Perhaps this was another thing to go into the trauma pile that they’d need to be careful dealing with... but for now her girlfriend wasn’t quite so depressed and honestly? Kat didn’t want to start in this area any longer than she had to. One scorpion encounter was enough and potentially finding another would might just send Lily back down into a spiral. Kat knew she’d need to come up with some good plans to deal with the next one with minimal injuries, just in case. That would probably do more good than therapy anyway.

Regardless, even if they didn’t find more scorpions the potential for their umbrella to break and have lightning rain down upon them was far higher than Kat would be comfortable with. She might end up fine but the other two would no. Thus, with everything in mind, it was time to get moving. Hopefully they could make swift progress and be into the next biome. It would also hopefully be a lot less lethal... but considering how weird everything here was, Kat didn’t want to bet on it. The real worry was what else Thyme might have in store for them. Or where the heck he found these monsters.

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