D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2345 VERY NOT SLEEPY SNEK

--- Lily ---

Lily had a plan. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was still a solid plan in her mind. The idea was to wait for Appoline to hurl a potion at the snake, acknowledge its exotic effect, and then attack in the opening it provided. The snake did not like this plan. Lily wasn’t sure if it was scared of glass bottles now or if it was just taking no shit, but when Appoline threw a bottle directly at the thing, Lily had at worst expected it to dodge.

Instead a glob of mud was spat out of one of its heads colliding with the bottle and essentially eating the effect. A slight buzzing of electricity was visible as the glass cracked from the impact, but it didn’t last long, and the snake barrelled through it, seemingly fine, a moment later.

The problem here is that Lily had turned and readied herself for a strike, she now suddenly had to reverse course and get back to RUNNING AWAY. Something the snake wasn’t keen on her doing as the second head also fired off an attack. The other head breathed out a long sigh and the air filled with smoke and ash. The mess somehow able to travel ahead of it and morph into little snakes of smoke.

Lily swiped at them with her shadows, finding that disrupting them this way had them collapse into more normal smoke and spread out... but there were quite a few of these snakes. A few moments of breathing out smoke had produced around a dozen snakes. Lily wasn’t entirely sure if they were costly mana wise or if they could do real damage, but some had tried to bit at Appoline when they closed in, so they could probably do something.

Appoline threw another bottle, this one she intentionally crashed into a nearby rock instead of throwing it anywhere near the snake. A great cloud of green exploded out of it... and the snake decided it had no time for going around whatever it was. Charging through and... seemingly ended up fine?

Lily looked over at Appoline who had apparently spent enough time around her at this point to simply explain after a look. "I’m testing how weak it is to poisons and the answer seems to be not very. That mixture was essentially a poisonous version of hot peppers and itching powder. It’s not technically either of those things, but it’s a rather insidious if not at all lethal poison. Well... I suppose if the monster in question got some down its throat and took some unwise steps to remove the feeling... but it in itself is not lethal."

Lily gave her another look and Appoline continued, either from the look or just because she was already going to do so. "Based on the fact it hasn’t even flinched I won’t be trying any of my other poisons without a really good shot on its insides. I’d guess it’s regeneration is what has given it a resistance to my poisons, at least for the moment but as I already said, we don’t have time to wait out-"

Appoline cut off her explanation to throw another bottle as the snake got close to catching up to them. They were nearly in lunging distance, but the bottle was thrown in such a way it would hit the snake before it had the chance to spit anything in defence. Instead, it had to swerve around the bottle giving them some extra time.

The bottle did explode when it made contact with the water, having apparently been very fragile or perhaps just unstable. Ice tried to claws it way across the swampy water and to the snake but it was already so churned up that it couldn’t freeze, certainly not so easily. Still, it was time. "Yeah no poisons. Killing it is going to be a pain, and Lily it’s likely going to be you. I’d need to be too close to guarantee a hit but I can still support."

Lily sent a thumbs up with her shadows before converting it into a claw, making sure to keep it far enough away from her not to pop the bubble keeping her safe from the rain in the process. It had lightened up a good deal, but she didn’t want to know how much it affected her flying so best not to test it.

The snake lunged forward as Lily had been expecting and she swung her shadow claws down towards the snake’s heads. This proved to actually be a fantastic idea. It wasn’t clear if they had separate thoughts, or if it was just a snap instinct to dodge, but whatever it was caused a massive issue for the snake and a great opportunity for Lily. Both heads dodged by pulling out towards the side... which meant that instead of going anywhere, they were dragged back to the middle by each other as their body failed to move in two directions.

Lily’s claws slammed down and the snakes heads were forced to the ground. Scales cracked but didn’t entirely give way as Lily lacked the needed weight to really drive her claws through the armour. It was still a decent blow... but the snake wasn’t stunned long, already rising up to attack back. As the first head rose up it let out a massive cloud of ash, completely blocking her view of the snake.

Lily was moving away from it of course, but now she was being chased by a cloud of ash, not the snake itself, and it made being prepared for what came next harder. It was a few moments after she’d looked away that the sound of something travelling through the air rang out. Lily turned back to see several mudballs flying towards her. Hissing, she dove down towards Appoline. Wiggles was close by to, and he could either share the protection, or just jump away.

Lily landed hard on Appoline’s shoulder, nearly causing her to stumble, certainly causing her to slip. Appoline was able to recover in time before Lily brought up her shield of shadows to block the shots. Mud slammed into the black wall as she felt her mana reserves empty upon each impact. It was manageable but not pleasant as the strikes ate away at her power. Paper would’ve been so much more efficient mana wise... IF IT WASN’T RAINING!

Lily growled as she leapt from Appoline’s shoulder back into the air, trying to watch the snake but the cloud of ash was making it hard. At least, until Wiggles acted. He leapt towards the clouds and then, halting in mid-air, unleashed a heavy kick. This not only sent him back towards them, but also slammed a big hole in the ash cloud.

Sadly it didn’t reveal the snake, but it did show where it wasn’t. It also didn’t seem to be filled in even after Wiggles backed off, implying that the snake wasn’t making more ash, and perhaps couldn’t feel it all that well. The fact that it left such a large hole in its smokescreen somewhat obvious. It was also weird because the cloud continued to move along with it. Lily had several questions but no real time to think about them.

Appoline threw in another potion, shaking it a bit before it left her hand. It exploded in the air just as it entered the ash cloud... and suddenly the entire cloud was made of glass. The snake shattered its way through it, but it was thrashing now. The damage Lily had done to it before had been worsened by all of the glass shards digging into it. A few cuts around the eyes, bleeding notably. It wasn’t over, but it wasn’t looking good.

The snake was not happy. It was in pain, furious, and at the end of the day. Had never been sapient. It hurt, and so, it lashed out towards Lily. The attack was sloppy though, and through the pain it barely even noticed that it wasn’t going to hit. It attacked as soon as it could... and Appoline kept running. This meant Lily had a chance.

The snake snapped its jaws shut over empty space, both heads hissing at the missing elf. Lily descended, using not claws but sharp poles of shadow, as thin and powerful as she could make them. A whirling corona of black seemed to spin around them from all the mana. Lily drove both spikes through the snake’s heads at the same time, pinning it to the ground.

But Lily was still ready. The spears disappeared and claws took their place as another snake exploded from the one she’d just put down. Still with two heads. It was so much smaller. Which meant Lily could simply grab it and rip it in half. Sure it was still large for a snake, larger than Lily... but it was really just a big snake at that point. Its defences against slashing attacks and poison did not help it against getting torn in half.

Lily floated there, watching the halves in her shadows, waiting for another explosion. Another snake... but nothing came. Not this time. Lily didn’t know if it was because of how she killed this one, or if that last form had been it either way. Lily dropped the pieces onto the larger corpse and glanced back as Appoline started to slow and turn. Let’s see if this thing was good as ingredients.