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

”So… how much of a history lesson do you want here?” asked Minor

”Uh… aren’t we just going to talk about a board game? Why do I need a history lesson exactly” said Kat

”Well, it’s just that I realised that this particular game is very important to my family considering that my grandpa made it. Same as the tunnels, and Major actually played this a lot” said Minor

”Wait… if she plays this game so much, how did you not recognise it” said Kat

Minor looked slightly abashed at this. ”It scales, that’s sort of the whole point of it? So, like, the few figures that she’d use can actually be rather easily scaled up to this point if I’m honest” said Minor

”Right… so how could it possibly scale to this” said Kat waving her tail towards the endless army of wood and steel

”Well… ok, I’ll just start with the basics. So, the rules get a bit more complicated as you move on but there are three main rules, that matter the most. The first one is that upon defeating your enemy’s figurine, you can field that many extra units

”The second is that if you have slots remaining you can summon a figure every thirty seconds and it must be placed behind the centre line. Finally, to win you need to field twice the number of units as your opponent.

”The tricky thing is though, is that you have to be able to control all of those figures to do a rather intricate set of motions with all of them, as chosen by a random card that comes along with the deck.

”This might not seem like a big deal but it really can be, and games have been lost when people bite of more than they can chew” said Minor

”But why would you increase your army size if you don’t need to?” asked Kat

”Ah, well that’s where things start getting complicated. So, firstly, the figures have a chance to just fall apart when attacking. If this happens you don’t want to risk being overrun. See if your opponent manages to sneak a single figure to the backline the game is declared a draw

”So you avoid that if you can, but you really need to take that into account. Also, though we don’t see it in this scene there are different kinds of fighters, and some special figurines can more easily combat large numbers

”So it is all a balancing game. For the best players, the rule is changed to be fielding double your enemy’s cap, or fielding fifty percent over the cap, and having them all step over the line at the same time.

”Some matches can go on forever but then mana becomes an issue. Honestly, it’s a really fascinating game all things considered, and I see why Major gets a little obsessed with it. To explain properly why though you need the history lesson part” said Minor

”Well, I am interested but at the same time… maybe not just yet. Firstly does this information help us figure out what to do exactly?” asked Kat

”Not really?” said Minor unsure ”I mean, I can guess that the reason the army is endlessly fighting each other is to increase their soldier cap, and they just keep fielding soldiers trying to win…

”But what exactly would be breaking the scene Kat? Fighting them would lead to us building our own forces, but because that game, oh it’s called, Concentrated Assault, can be played with basically any number of people

”So just adding a third playing by taking things out wouldn’t break things. Honestly if you joined in the fight I doubt the world would waver much at all, you’d just be considered a very special unit type and that would be the end of it I’d assume” said Minor

Kat frowned ”So what exactly can we do then?”

Minor bit her lip ”Well, the issue really is that I still can’t figure out what the core could be. Playing along sounds all well and good until you remember that we are trying to break things…

”The issue being that the best way I can think of to break a scene built around a war game is to just not play it at all… but clearly that won’t work because we aren’t playing and the scene remains stable none the less” said Minor

”Could the game be considered in progress with two players or something?” said Kat

”I don’t quite follow” said Minor

”Well, say for example the scene is centred around playing Concentrated Assault. Does it matter if we are the ones playing or not? We already have two players else we wouldn’t see that massive army. So maybe it counts as the game being played regardless of what we are doing” said Kat

”Hmmm” said Minor chewing on her tail ”That actually doesn’t seem to far out of place… so then would we be able to break the scene by stopping them…? But how would you stop them? Eliminating them would be considered playing so…”

”What about more perspective tricks?” asked Kat ”Like with the fire, you could make me really big to the background and crush them”

Minor shook her head ”That isn’t quite how it works. I can’t really change you because you are quite… firm in your existence for lack of a better word. I can move you as I do myself without issue, but changing you in any way is beyond my power

”I’m not sure if you helping me would do anything if I’m honest. It’s not like you resist that part of my power… so much as you just… hmm… Ok, here is how you look at it. Think of the dream like a bowl full of water.

”You and me are ice cubes. Sort of made from the same stuff, but clearly separate. I can move the ice cubes around and even shape the water to some extent but I can’t change the ice cubes physically” said Minor

”But didn’t I see you changing your own form right at the start of all this?” asked Kat

Minor bit down hard on her tail and went red ”We-ell… I can change myself a bit… not too much… a bit, and it’s easier out in the unclaimed areas, here I have a more concrete presence… and like… it’s just different’ said Minor

Kat suppressed a laugh at the adorable floundering of Minor ”It’s fine I understand. What about making them small instead? That way I can still crush or block them without changing anything about myself”

Minor shook her head again ”It is more possible yes… but there is just too many of them for me. I’m not able to affect this place quite so much. I could possibly do one mannequin, maybe even half a dozen, but there is countless before us Kat”

Kat nodded ”Ok… so what about we build a wall or something? Stop them fighting” asked Kat

”That actually sounds like a good idea… except for the fact we have nothing we could build it out of. Look around, there is not a tree in sight. Perhaps we could pile up dirt but that would be an issue, and I don’t know how much I could cheat if it was a dirt mound…

”It might feel a bit to much like the rest of the ground? If that makes sense. A wall at least is clearly a wall so I can twist things a bit better… though… maybe a wall of your flames? The main concern with that though…

”Well, actually it is two concerns. Firstly it would be a lot of energy, and secondly it might just destroy them anyway. Your fire is pretty deadly and can even take out Nightmares, so I doubt wooden puppets can really stand up”

Kat stroked her chine with her tail ”Yeah… that would probably be an issue. You’ve shown me I don’t HAVE to burn things, but then it’s even more useless because I’ve just made the battlefield come with a splash of purple really…

”And even though my fire freezes stuff I don’t think I could build up a wall of ice or anything. Even though my fire is that cold, it just doesn’t seem to work like that” said Kat

Minor leaned into Kat and sighed ”Seems like Major really has stepped up her game for this one… the only thing I can think of is maybe I can twist the purple off of your fire and use it to coat the area instead of the red maybe?

”But I doubt that it’s central to things, and even if that does help. Let’s say it breaks it by hmm… I give it 20%, the scene can recover pretty quickly if we don’t make any other progress” said Minor

Minor’s words however gave Kat a slightly interesting idea ”Who says we have to do in one go through… what if we figure out a few ways to break things, then we just keep piling them up until you can break the scene?” asked Kat