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

— Kat —

Kat stared at the devastation as she floated through the air with Lily beside her. They’d taken to the sky and… were not attacked at all. Plenty of flying monsters could be seen around but none dared approach the vicinity. They’d clearly got the word about the drake and had decided to ignore that territory for the time being. Likely for the best.

It wasn’t in great shape, and a lot of the other monsters had probably left as well. The land looked like it a lightning bolt had exploded through the terrain. Starting at the mountain in the distance that seemed to have exploded outward. From there, large swaths of ground had been destroyed leaving nothing but desolate plains behind.

The stretched quite a ways into the forest, with larger patches of devastation showing up every now and again after you got away from the main blast zone. It seemed like the drake had mostly stuck to moving forward while occasionally deviating from that path to attack other nearby things.

It had clearly roamed around a lot more when it first left the mountains. The ‘lines of lightning’ expanding a considerable distance away from the mountain in all sorts of directions before the drake decided to head towards the centre of the forest. At that point they ranged less and less as time went on, seemingly keeping to its trajectory with only a few ‘lines’ of distraction.

Of course, even the smallest ‘finger of lightning’ was a massive scar on the land. Kat and Lily were thousands of feet up into the air and this was all still clearly visible. The drake’s damage would scar the land for a long time and the drake itself had to be at least the size of a truck, perhaps larger…

Which is why it was extra concerning that Kat could see no trace of the damned thing. Especially worrying when it’s rampages had ensured that nothing remained to block her sight lines. *I don’t like this at all. Where is the drake? Can you see anything? Hear anything?

Smell anything?*

[I can’t see anything either… it’s like it just rampaged for a while moving mostly forward towards the centre of the forest. Presumably where a big collection of energy is. Likely one the drake can sense… but it just sort of vanishes. I’d think the drake was trapped in a bubble if it wasn’t for the fact the mist has retreated so far.]

*Actually… what if it IS trapped in a bubble? I mean, we theorised that there might be some intelligence behind the mist… so what if said intelligence used up a whole bunch of energy to force the drake out of the immediate dimension and into a pocket one. It might have taken up all the nearby mist, instead of the drake eating it.

Or maybe the drake started swallowing it and the intelligence triggered the mist inside the drake?*

[I can’t seen anything immediately wrong with the idea. I think we need to bring that up with the rest. So… anything else we need to do up here? As sad as the state of the land is after the drake’s passing… there really isn’t anything we can do about it and I don’t see any signs of the drake itself.

Maybe if we knew more about tracking we could say it retreated back into the mountain, or it ‘vanished’ into a bubble but as it stands? I say we go back and let everyone else know what we’ve found.]

*Part of me wants to suggest someone stays up here just in case we find the drake… but if it hasn’t shown up during our rather lengthy ascent it’s not likely to suddenly pop out of its hiding place randomly. Maybe it’ll attack if we get close enough, but I doubt just watching like this will help… so yeah back down to everyone else I guess.*

Kat and Lily fell into a dive, letting the wind rush past them as they fell. It was a nice feeling normally… but it was undercut by the seriousness of their current task. Seeing how much land the drake had already destroyed hammered home the danger of the drake a bit more. If it was left unchecked it could do serious damage even before you took into account the fact it can grow stronger.

Just the consistent damage to the environment it had already caried out was likely to cause issues for decades. Perhaps with magic and some active effort on the part of someone like Stphn to kickstart the growing process. Even then… there was just something wrong about the land. It seemed like normal, somewhat dry dirt… but it felt a lot worse. As if all the life had been drained from the soil itself.

It was perhaps possible that recovering would take centuries if things were worse then they appeared.

As soon as Kat and Lily made it back to the ground, with Lily breaking a bit to slowly work her way through the branches and Kat simply dropping through them all uncaring for the slight damage she did to herself and the forest in the process, they got to explaining. Kat took the main speaking roll, with Lily chiming in every now and then. “… and that’s about it. So… thoughts?”

“We will need to investigate the nearest area of devastation,” said Hunter. “If there is no sign at all of the drake then I agree that something has happened. I cannot say if something else is attempting to delay the drake, or if it has backed off in order to refine its current form,”

“Is that a thing it can do?” asked Kat.

“Yes, though it is not one done all that commonly I feel as though situation it found itself in made it likely. If the mist retreated instead of acting, the drake may have assumed that a large source of food had fled and is now attempting to optimise itself for chasing said prey down. That could be bad for us…

“Or we could be lucky and something injured it. Forcing it to retreat and heal itself. I found this unlikely, as I do not know of any native animals that could deal sufficient damage to it, but perhaps Bower knows something?”

“Hmm… I do indeed,” said Bower “I agree we should check the damage by the way, so let’s start moving. Keep it to a walk. I’m obviously a touch distracted with my explanation, but we can make SOME progress.

“Now… as for damaging the beast? I can think of a few options… but it depends how much ya want to believe in legends. There is maybe one beast I know of that can damage it, and a handful more I have heard whispers of but never seen… and considering just how long I’ve been in the area? I’d say it’s mighty strange I haven’t seen them before.

“Course, I will admit that I’ve seen plenty of legends come to life. Not here, but in my younger years when I travelled around a lot more. Compared to the sheer number of legends I’ve heard about this place, the ones I can confirm to be true are frankly, pathetic in number.

“The biggest and baddest monster I can think of in the area are the ‘Boulder Bears’. Called such for their rounded appearance and large size. They eat a mixture of minerals and other monsters to keep their large frames in operation. If the drake attacked a family of them? I could see it taking serious damage.

They are exceptionally difficult to damage, and if the drake just focused on biting into them, those bears could’ve bitten back. Hard.”

Bower took out a canteen and took a quick swig of water. “Now, the only issue with that is they tend to live in the mountains, and you said the drake was moving away. Now, they might’ve decided it was disrupting the ecosystem too much and sought it out… but just as likely they would’ve run away. They’re smart buggers like that.

“The only other monster I can think of with a chance would be the Sleeping Giant of the Forest… but it lives really far away, like on the other side of the forest. If ya didn’t see any evidence of it making its way over here then I doubt that’s the cause. It’s a big… turtle thing maybe? It’s so large it doesn’t so much live in the forest as the forest lives on its back.

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I was lucky enough to see it’s head one day… and nearly died from that much. Sneezed when I got close and that alone was enough to break my arm when I slammed into a nearby tree.”

“I feel like there would’ve been some evidence of that thing’s passing, if it was responsible,” said Kat.

Bower nodded, “Yeah I agree, but if the drakes missing we need to start thinking out of the box. Those are the only monsters I can confirm to exist that I think have a chance. Otherwise? I suppose I could tell you a few of the legends I know of. Though I’d bet that they are just jumped up stories of monsters only half as powerful… or about the bears and giant and mistook something,”