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

Chapter 1995: Chapter 1995 Cobolt Commando

— Kat —

A weakness of Kat’s misty state, one that she hadn’t realised up until that moment, was that she couldn’t really hear anything. She’d never been quite so spread out, and it didn’t FEEL like the world had gone silent. It was only when Lily’s ears picked up the sound of boots marching towards them that Kat noticed she simply didn’t. Outside, a small army was approaching.

The guards were alerting the other stations and Shadowmancer had disappeared from Kat’s range, presumably to go help with the defence. What Kat didn’t know, was that the army had approached under the guise of an illusion enchantment. It didn’t stop the sound, especially not now they’d all grouped up but it did let them sneak their way over through the city.

Shadowmancer stood at the front of the gathering group, not as themselves but as a giant bear shadow. “You are not to come any closer. This is an active construction site,” boomed Shadowmancer.

Shadowmancer still couldn’t see anything, but under the illusion the leader, a tall dwarf with a battle axe larger then he was and thick plate armour held his axe out to the side to signal the halt. The man’s name was Cobolt Digger. He stepped forward unafraid, crushing the brooch holding the illusion around him. It was only good for one use anyway, it’s how they’d made so many. It looked more dramatic then it was.

“I am Cobolt Digger and we’ve heard what you’re doing here. For a king that has denied the existence of the sky for so long, you seem awfully keen to break his own rules,” grumbled the dwarf.

Shadowmancer wanted to sigh, “No laws have yet been broken-”

“Yeah you would say that you pansy. Not even meeting us in person,” cursed Cobolt.

Shadowmancer sliced at the air, creating a sharp whistling sound as the shadows claws of his construct cut through the air in a swift motion. “Why would I give you that honour? Besides, we’ve never denied its existence, simply its safety. A plan to avoid the freezing cold has begun, but you can wait to hear more about it like everyone else.”

“What if I were to insist?” asked Cobolt as he slammed the axe head into the ground, cracking the road he was standing on.

“We would be forced to detain you. Even still… should you fight it would do you no good. The passageway outside hasn’t even been setup yet. We are simply finalising the security measures tonight. Even if you defeat us… all you’ll have is an empty warehouse,” explained Shadowmancer.

Kat was debating if she should transform or not. Currently, she was listening to this speech as Lily heard it rather then as herself. It might be nice to hear what was going on better… or at least without the slight delay… but there was no reason to do so. Technically. The pair of them still needed to be on the lookout for anyone trying to sneak in. They’d proven they could get here after all. Perhaps if Kat knew about the illusion equipment she’d be less worried. Seeing through those was simply a matter of course for her.

“And why should we believe it’s empty? Your king has routinely denied us access to the outside for years. What makes this different?” asked Cobolt.

“There will be a city wide announcement about this tomorrow,” insisted Shadowmancer. “Surely the fact the news has spread so far already, despite being told to keep it quiet, shows that we are not intending to hide this?”

Cobolt and Shadowmancer continued their back and forth like this for quite a while. Shadowmancer was using it as a chance to position as many shadow summons as they could without overloading their mind. On the other side of things, Cobolt had a team trying to sneak inside of the warehouse. A team Kat spotted quite quickly. They had just barely cracked open the window when she noticed. Kat was about to reform next to them… when she remembered she was meant to stay hidden.

Lily was on the ball though, and simply made a big shadow arrow above the trespasser’s heads. The Titan armour, currently under control of the husband, was the first to notice. The patterning on his armour lit up. Just slightly more than normal, and flashed in a quick sequence. Too quick for most to notice and not much brighter. Considering the armour usually lit up and acted like contained lava it wasn’t even weird… but it was a good signal.

This sent the Treant armour pressed themselves back into the wall, acting as if she was just resting a bit but Kat could see a thin vine stretching from her foot over towards the window Lily was indicating. Lily kept the arrow there, pointing at the group as best she could manage. When the vine made it over, Treant activated another enchantment and the single vine exploded into a forest’s worth. Quickly wrapping around the hidden foes.

It wasn’t something Treant was controlling super accurately. It was more of a ’to whom it may concern’ sort of attack. With Lily giving the rough location that was more than enough to catch them all despite the lack of visuals for Treant. Each of the four trespassers were tied and bound so quickly they couldn’t even scream. As the vines wrapped around them, the illusion keeping them hidden shattered, revealing what was going on to Storm as well, assuming they hadn’t known before.

*Do we need to signal Hedera in some way?*

[Maybe but that’s not OUR job.]

*Ah yeah fair enough.*

“What do you want done with them?” asked Treant as the builders and enchanters continued with their work. They barely even reacted to the intrusion. Kat was surprised by the hardcore professionalism on display. They definitely saw and heard the attack, especially after the illusion shattered but they just didn’t care.

“Hmm… Storm you got anything to knock them out?” asked Titan.

“How permanently?” asked Storm.

“A night?” offered Titan.

“Hmm… well I can try a few things. I have that one enchantment that was meant to keep people out for a day but it’s never really been consistent. I can also use that poison mixture I was helping Treant test but we just know it’s not lethal, not exactly how long it’ll last on a person. Finally, we could just whack them, pretty sure those four are Rank 1.”

Titan nodded, “I’ll just whack them then. I’ve got practice with it.”

Treant sighed, “Guess I’ll make sure I have some bruise cream ready in the morning. I’ll make up a batch before I swap out if we have the chance.”

“How long do you think it’ll take them to notice the team is subdued?” asked Storm.

“Depends on if they’ve got any sort of communicators,” rumbled Titan. “It’s risky to keep them around. We might detect them, or they could go off at a bad moment. Might be a timer thing though, where they gotta check in every few minutes. The real question is… do we want to be ready for the attack outside? Or stay and guard the inside…”

Storm pressed a hand up to his face for a few moments… before frowning. “Reinforcements are going to be a bit out. Apparently there are fires all over the city. None of them are risking the people, not YET anyway but all of them are close enough that if we ignore them, the flames could be fanned to cause some real damage.”

“Ah, damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” grumbled Treant. “Could you zip over, drop some rain and come back?”

“Possible, but when I checked in I was given orders to remain here as no lives were currently at risk from the fires,” explained Storm.

*That’s not good. How worried should we be? Is it really going to come down to a fight?*

[It seems that way. Reinforcements being delayed… that’s really not good. If all four of the juggernauts move outside and start to have issues do we go and help them or remain here? I know what Steel asked us to do…]

*I think we have to stay unless it’s really bad. The civilians are our main priority here. The are was chosen because it’s mostly just warehouses and farms. Nobody is going to get hurt in the fighting outside unless they’re a guard, or an enemy combatant. At least… I didn’t hear anything about hostages. Then again, not really hearing anything at the moment.*

[Yeah, I didn’t hear anything either and you’re right it IS a bit weird that you can’t hear properly. I’m sure you’ve been able to hear stuff when you were in your water form at other times… so I wonder if the limitation is because of how tiny you’ve made the water droplets? Or maybe it’s too overwhelming? Like you’re hearing so much or so many overlapping things your brain just automatically filters it all out?]

*I guess either way is possible. I don’t exactly FEEL like I’m being overwhelmed. Even with all the visual inputs actually.*