D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2247 Almost out of the Poison

--- Kat ---

Despite the worry, that meeting ended up as the last interesting thing that happened. Everyone was tense sure, waiting for the other shoe to drop... but there were no further attacks. Kat and Lily did end up being conscripted to look for enchanted items that Brook might have left for one reason or another... but they found nothing. Though it was hard to tell if that was because there was nothing to find, or if they simply didn’t have the skills to detect and uncover that sort of thing.

It was the next morning, as declared when they finished everything, or at least, Scar and the rest of the warders claimed that to be the case. Main base was radioed and after that it was just a matter of waiting for reinforcements to show up. Kat asked, and was given permission for a bit of a feast. Not quite using everything that was left just in case there was some unforeseen delay... but just after lunch would’ve began, about one in the afternoon, the reinforcements arrived.

Maryland and Vanilla were the ones to handle the changeover, and once the new group started to fill the area everyone else got into their suits and started to head out. They separated a bit, with Kat and Appoline rushing ahead to get a few more ingredients before meeting back up at the exit and leaving as a group.

The trip through the poison was mostly fine. A couple small monster attacks, and at one point, a particularly concentrated bit of mana was revealed. It was... too much. Appoline could feel it, and so could Lily once she started to try. Her mana sense not quite automatic like some other mages. They didn’t know what it was, directly on the path between the place they’d just left and the nearest edge of the quarantine area. There was some debate as to what to do with it. "We should just go around it," Scar said. "No reason to risk the suits.

"It’s important to know what it is," countered Vanilla. "I can probably survive whatever it is long enough for Kat to rescue me... or Lily. I’m not picky."

"Yes and Kat can likely survive it better considering her better durability and ability to turn into water," countered Maryland.

Kat rolled her eyes at the two as Maryland pouted up at Vanilla, disappointed at not immediately being allowed to throw herself into danger.

Eventually, with Kat’s silence and Vanilla’s insistence she was eventually allowed to step into the area. Only after everyone else had taken a spot behind two layers of houses just in case the shrapnel from the likely resulting explosion cut into their suits. The one exception was Kat, who hovered on a roof. Still somewhat close to the main group to ensure that nobody snuck up on them, but with a proper view of what was happening.

Vanilla marched forward... and nothing happened. She stomped around a bit, circling the area... but whatever it is apparently wasn’t going to be set off just by her. Even when she started to cause small craters in the nearby area nothing seemed to go off. If it wasn’t for the plainly obvious concentration of mana in the area, they’d think she was just throwing a tantrum for no reason.

So Kat yelled back. "Nothing’s happening! The noises are just Vanilla trying to MAKE something happen. What’s the plan?"

"We go around. We go VERY FAR around," announced Scar.

"Come on then Vanilla!" yelled Kat.

Vanilla grumbled but pulled herself out of the growing crater and started heading back to the group. This apparently, was a much better way to activate the magic. Annoyingly it was a teleportation based, perhaps less annoyingly it wasn’t taking anything away, instead it was bringing something HERE. Multiple somethings.

A bunch of monsters screeched in unison as they were pulled from all over. The most annoying one being a giant worm thing that dove under the ground pretty much immediately, causing it to shake horribly and scaring the rest of the monsters. They started to attack, not only each other but more than a few of them went after Vanilla.

Kat was already moving as the first few jumped on Vanilla. Lily was given a mental warning to spread to everyone else at least. There was four monsters attacking Vanilla. The first was a shadow tiger thing, with two large tusks and a singular horn on the front of its head. The horn seemed to be something it attacked with often because it was currently trying to stab it through Vanilla’s throat.

The next monster was a mushroom... thing. That was all Kat could call it. A shambling mound of mushrooms that was surprisingly fast, already covering the ground around Vanilla and trying to reach upwards, perhaps to engulf her. The main reason it wasn’t was the third monster. This one was some sort of flightless bird. It was to ostriches, what ostriches were to normal birds. It was much faster then the tiger, but it seemed to really hate the mushrooms. While it couldn’t be said it wasn’t attacking Vanilla at all, the sharpened talons on its feet were digging into the mushrooms a lot more.

The final monster was a twin-headed snake and it was hiding on the tiger’s back. It didn’t seem to be too worried about its existence for the moment, but the snake was ready to attack Vanilla. As Kat got closer she could even see it spitting fire.

Kat wanted to help Vanilla... but keeping the rest of the monsters contained was more important. So Kat dug deep and allowed her demonic flame to flow out, nearly entirely uncontrolled. Purple flames blazed across the ground, freezing it solid and going after the wide variety of monsters inside. Some matched the ones attacking Vanilla but others were completely different.

Seeing the wall of fire, the ones that weren’t immediately caught up in it had one of two reactions. A few tried to jump over it. None quite managed it, as the flames seemed to have minds of their own, stretching upwards to snatch at the monsters without any prompting for Kat. The only thing she did was keep them fed, and restrain them from going after Vanilla. The rest of the monsters, booked it for the tunnel the worm made. Really not ideal but likely better than them swarming the rest of the area.

Lily came flying in at this point, gliding over the flames. Some of them did try to reach out towards her, but Kat simply glared at them and apparently that was enough to get them to settle down. Though if they’d have done any damage to Lily was another question entirely. Kat wasn’t going to risk it, not when she was simply letting the fire burn like this. Vanilla was still fighting, but the bird thing had eaten most of the mushroom thing and now it was just the snake and tiger combination that was fighting her. Or perhaps she was fighting it?

The pair had tried to run further away from the flames and Vanilla, despite having been stabbed multiple times by that horn and bitten more than once by the snake... apparently thought the fight was still on. Vanilla was now trying to herd the pair towards the flames while they tried to escape. On the other hand, the giant bird just glared at the flames as if it was trying to dare them to attack. All the while carefully pecking at the mushrooms that had once been animated. Frankly, Kat was happy to leave it to that.

Inside the flames, Lily was making quick work of the various monsters. Most were simply thrown into the fire and allowed to freeze. Some mostly survived this process... so Lily simply threw them back into it, or pulled them back if they tried to run out the other way. It meant a lot more monsters were running down the hole... but for the moment that was considered acceptable. Potentially future Kat’s problem, or maybe Appoline’s. Assuming that the poison in the area didn’t take them out.

Well not the bird. As half of the guards rounded the corner to help Vanilla, they were on the receiving end of its patented glare, basically daring them all to square up with it. But... it was surprisingly docile for a monster. Sure it was basically asking for a fight, one that it clearly thought it could win... but it was just asking instead of doing, so for now it was not a problem.