D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2339 BIG BOMBA

--- Kat ---

Kat had to reform her clothes after clearing out the crystals, but that was fine, she was fine. It had taken basically nothing, just enduring a few explosions. When the smoke cleared on the final one, there were crystal shards all over the place but the 'monsters' had all been defeated. Kat grinned a bit at the scene. She'd even gotten quite used to dealing with them.

That's when the ground started to rumble. Cracks formed as a giant blue hand breached the stone and started to pull up the rest of the body. Treating the rock like it was water, the body underneath simply shattered the flooring as it pulled itself up out of the ground. The head of the monster was covered in a big metal helmet, complete with eyeholes to give it the impression of having a gaze, but considering the 'head' underneath it was more blue crystal Kat wasn't sure how true that was.

Further down was more crystal, shaped into a bulky, square-ish body with the hands attached to it seamlessly if mostly hidden by more armour. While the hands had been left exposed the rest had not, with thick metal plating hiding away the rest of the arms. The legs and torso were much the same, though for the torso there was a big gap where a normal person would have their belly button.

On anything else, that might be a great signal for some enemy to gut you, but here it was clearly meant to allow for the crystal construct to fire off large laser beams from a central point. While the hands were free, perhaps to do something similar, the feet, assuming it had any, were covered by thick metal boots that looked to weigh close to a tonne if the cracks running along the nearby ground was any indication.

Then a hand reached out, summoning a glowing blue sword up from in the ground, and a matching shield from the other side. The sword itself seemed to be some combination of crystal and metal, woven together to create something that didn't quite look like either. A soft, glowing blue metal that seemed to contain fractals while the shield looked a bit more typical in the centre, it had crystals growing from its edges, perhaps to cut or simply to provide more defence in some way.

The construct roared as it readied its weapon to fight Kat. A potentially terrifying foe after fighting through what had clearly been much weaker enemies… but it was still made of the same crystal… right?

Kat swiftly decided, much to Lily's dawning horror, that if it isn't broken? No reason to try fixing it. As the construct charged forward, Kat simply flicked a tiny bit of demonic energy towards it. The crystal, like the others before them, didn't react at all. Kat was growing more convinced these things were 'designed' rather then some sort of natural monster. It didn't divert its charge in the slightest.

Seriously, just a little to the left or right and the tiny demonic flame wouldn't end up going right for that exposed stomach. Of course, Kat was being a touch reckless here. She simply saw the easy answer for defeating it… and failed to consider what a larger and more dense crystal would do upon contact. If asked after the fact… she probably still couldn't tell you.

Between one moment and the next there was a blinding flash of light, and a woosh of energy. Kat felt her skull rattled in her head and then there was plain EVERYWHERE. As her mind caught up to her body, Kat found herself embedded in a wall… somewhere. She was at least a few feet deep and some of the rocks she'd apparently cleaved through had fallen down onto her chest blocking a good chunk of her view. Kat tried to move, but her limbs were held in place by the rather accurate imprint of her body left upon the rock.

Kat could feel her skin and muscle knitting itself back together as bones and ligaments tried to click back into place. They were prevented from doing as such because Kat was near certain her knees weren't meant to bend that way. She was flexible sures… but not THAT flexible. Deciding to make sure it didn't get worse as it was healing. Kat transformed into water and moved herself out of the hole. Reforming into the arena…

But even as she was doing that, what a sight it was. Most of the arena was just… gone. Layers of rock and stone had been blasted away. What crystals had been in the walls and ceiling still providing light were no longer there and the giant crater radiating out from where the monster had been gave her a pretty good indication of what had happened. As Kat reformed, her body started to fix itself properly now that the stone wasn't holding her in place.

Kat winced a bit as the linger pains radiated around her body, poking at her mind somewhat even as most of the damage had already been healed. Apparently her brain still needed to go over everything that had just happened. [So… what did we learn?]

That explosions are a fast way to kill enemies and we should buy some explosives for the next mission?

[God dammit Kat NO. It's that you shouldn't expect to just blow things up without consequences.]

*I feel like, there were in fact, no consequences. Especially not lasting ones.*

[Your leg was broken and you just had to peel yourself out of a wall…]

*Yeah and my water form let me do that no problem!*

[Why do I even bother…]

Kat grinned and sent a smug impression Lily's way as she looked around the rest of the arena, waiting to see if something else was meant to pop out. As she did this, she noticed that the helmet the guy was wearing was lodged into the ceiling, and had apparently survived the explosion. Mostly anyway. Looking around it was hard to say if anything else did… but Kat was leaning towards no. Which was a bit of shame. The sword and shield seemed like they were really cool… even if they were too big for casual use. Perhaps it would be fun to pull out against weaker foes for the laughs.

Then Kat spotted a slight shine in the wall and… hmm… making her way over to it she found the blackened pommel of the sword in question. Kat lightly tugged on it… and had mixed success. On the one hand, she got the pommel out. On the other hand, she got the pommel out. Not the sword. Kat frowned at the jagged edges of the blade, some remnants falling away even as she looked it over.

*Alas, I suppose it's not meant to be.* Sighed Kat as she threw the pommel off to the side. No reason to keep it around if it was just a pommel after all. [What if it can grow a new sword from said pommel?] Then in a blink it was back in Kat's hand and she was brushing off the soot and looking it over. A bit dented and singed… but otherwise good.

[You know it's not a certainty, and you'll need someone with mana to test it right?]

*Yeah but that's still a really cool idea. I don't even care if it's flimsy. It just looks really cool. Like, we could put it up on the wall!*

[Not sure the wall could handle something that heavy. You're not really feeling the weight right now… but I can imagine it double if you have the blade on the end as well.]

*Ah… ok yeah that might be an issue.*

Still, Kat was sure that there would be ways around that as she sent the sword into her storage. No sense leaving it around for something else to pick up after all… though it was oddly quiet. Kat glanced around once more wondering what was going on. If there was another wave shouldn't it have come by now? If she was meant to move into a new room… where was the door? And if this was the end of the trial why didn't the rune get claimed? Did the crystal golem somehow survive the explosion?

Neither Kat nor Lily had any ideas, so she started to slowly walk around the room, hoping that would do… something. Well, while things are calm how is Wiggles?

[Still out cold. Appoline offered to give him something but he doesn't seem terribly injured and there is the fact that if like, his neck got snapped or something Thyme would've taken him away to be healed. Feels sort of bad we forgot him though…]

*Those birds were AWFUL. I barely had the brain space to keep myself and Appoline safe. Adding a rabbit onto that as well would be too much? Though… yes I do think we should apologise if he wakes up. That would've been a rough experience either way and traumatising him wasn't the intention…*