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

— Green —

Green collapsed against the nearby wall wincing a bit at the uncomfortable feeling of her but hitting the jagged ground. At this point though? She found it hard to care. Her sleep had been interrupted and now she was tired, sweaty, and almost out of mana. She’d been climbing this damned pillar for hours. Sure she was rewarded with the occasional orb, and technically she hadn’t ‘lost’ any time because of this but she hadn’t seen a major reward yet either. Simply staying in the game and exhausting herself was the prize she’d received for her efforts.

Green pulled out her canteen and tipped it over her face with her mouth open. She was technically trying to drink it but had no care at all of some spilled over her face and soaked into her armour. It was already slick with sweat and Green had no hope this brief reprieve would cool her down properly. *Damn is it getting hotter? Does that make sense? We’re technically getting closer to the sun but really it’s the sand that should be radiating a lot of the heat… except things were hot basically immediately. Do I want to keep going with this?*

Green looked over at the Timmy who’d be assigned to her and ‘he’ seemed perfectly fine. Not a trace of sweat or fatigue on his little face. “You’re lucky you don’t have pores,” grumbled Green as she continued to ‘drink’ more water.

*So… do I take a break? And a nap? I’d ideally like to sleep through mid-day but it’s really hot here and I don’t know if even I’ll be able to sleep that long. Especially if things get warmer. You’d think the wind would help but you’d be wrong. Mostly because there ISN’T ANY.*

Green sighed and rubbed a hand down her face, wiping away the excess water as she did so. *No. Best to just take a nap. I’m cranky and out of mana. I can’t keep climbing and staying awake just to say I’m ‘making progress’ while pacing around this small hole in the pillar isn’t helping anyone.*

Green pulled out her sleeping bag and unzipped it. She certainly didn’t want to be any warmer. Green did look around a bit for a better spot to put it down and not the jagged rocks she was currently on… but nowhere was particularly flat. So Green just shrugged it off and lay down. Even Timmy was surprised that it took a whole five seconds for Green to fall asleep despite the rocks digging into her back, the heat, or half a dozen other problems. Green new her sleep.

— Gareth —

Gareth had managed to fight off the crabs after hitting the bottom of the slide. Well, that wasn’t quite true. What really happened was that he came upon a corner a bit before the bottom and managed to stall himself before it. The crabs barrelled down the slide right after him and slammed into the corner, one crab on top of another. This cracked the rock shell around the one in the back and left an opening for Gareth to send a spike of earth right through the crack and into the crabs insides.

Gareth had no idea if it killed the thing, but it was pinned in place and in a lot of pain if it was still alive. He quickly continued down the slide while less damaged crab recovered and managed to make it to the bottom of the slide, which was perhaps two hundred metres after the corner.

Once there Gareth set up just off to the side and waited for the crab to come for him as he suspected it would. These suspicions proved correct… though how intentional it was on the crabs part was harder to guess. It fell down the slide with all the grace of a drunk dog with a bag on its head. Slamming into the walls and floor constantly as it made its way down the last few bits of the slide.

It wasn’t hard to finish off after that. Half of its legs were broken, cracks ran through its rocky shell and Gareth took a bit of a risk to rip on of its claws off before it could recover. The injured legs really not doing it any favours. In the end though? Barely able to move and down one of its main weapons Gareth just had to hack at the side he was already on and move slightly as the crab tried to turn and catch him.

There was just one issue left at the end of the whole ordeal… *Do I want to waste time finding the orb inside this thing. I’m not sure if Timmy will dismantle it for me if there IS an orb. Though… perhaps I can ask Timmy to separate everything out? The meat, the armour, and whatever else is inside into separate piles? Worth testing I suppose.*

— Nixilei —

Nixilei heard a crashing sound, like something large knocking over a table. She glanced over at Timmy, ready to ask the little to check it out and then report back with a sketch but the little guy had already disappeared. *Alright. So asking Timmy to scout fights for me isn’t going to be easy… was it reacting to my thoughts? Or is there some other reason… hmm…*

Nixilei silently made her way through the pollen, looking around as best she could manage for an entrance while following the sounds of the noise. It became clear that the noise was coming from underground instead of above it… which complicated matters slightly. Nixilei wanted to just ask the Timmy to dig down for her but it was still missing.

Cursing a little mentally, Nixilei kept searching, wasting more than a bit of time on this until she managed to find a large hole in the ground where something had fallen into a pit trap. Though clearly not a very lethal one. Nixilei dropped down into the hole careful to make sure that she landed softly without much in the way of noise. She was in a tunnel with a clear door at the end… and a lot of dirt blocking the other way. Intentional?

Nixilei slid up to the door and glanced through the cracks to see a completely destroyed kitchen as well as a rather large set of feet stuck a bit further in. Clearly someone, a specific someone she recognised actually, was trying to go inside for one reason or another and had miscalculated the size of the doors. It seemed the ‘entrance’ was a bit larger then the internal doors.

*Alright. Can I risk going inside? The kicking around has stopped but that might just mean Ugalaz, assuming it is him, is taking the time to gather his breath. Hmm… unclear. Next question do I want to go in there and try to ‘kill’ him or offer to help? I trust that I can ensure he dies without getting caught, especially as he seems to be quite stuck at the moment… or do I instead use this as a position to leverage a proper alliance? It might not get me more favourable terms but it should make him more willing to agree to any terms at all.

Then again… I don’t know as much about Ugalaz as I’d like. He hasn’t really participated in the same way Kat has, and while it SEEMS that he’s more invested in this final round that’s just how it appears on the surface. He could’ve simply found the first place of safety and won’t be leaving until he gets kicked from the game.

Which… hmm… I guess that leaves me in a bit of a bind. If he’s not trying then killing him hardly benefits me. It’s too early for me to have lost much time on my band and while unlikely there is a chance I could lose. It’s not as if I know what abilities he has, just a suspicion as to his Rank and confirmation that at least one ability is a healing one.

Hmm… decisions decisions. I think I might be best initiating contact and if he isn’t interested in trying to win I will just leave him here. It might not be quite as good as reaping the rewards from killing him… but if he’s truly stuck then he might waste even more time here. And if he’s not trying to win? Then it doesn’t matter.*

— Kress —

Kress whipped his hand through the key once again. This time, while looking away from it and standing on one leg. Needless to say, it still didn’t work and Kress wasn’t really surprised… but he was game to try just about anything at this point. It was taunting him. He NEEDED to do this. Oh sure he gave himself a time limit but that was basically just until he got bored. Yet, that had not happened. No instead Kress simply got more and more annoyed at this shitty key that he couldn’t grab. Next test… can he hit it with a snowball?