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

Chapter 2096: Chapter 2096 What’s that, In the Distance?

— Lily —

Hedera ended up doing the lunch run, though everyone was annoyed about it. Steel had left earlier to go deal with a few things and ensure the supplies would keep coming… and the rest of the guards had very deliberately excluded them when it came to getting food for lunch. Hedera made the decision to go get some for the four people brewing. Assuming Lily counted when she wasn’t touching a cauldron.

The meal was a nice break from the hectic pace. Kat had returned once more while they were eating but they had plenty of bottles. With such a steady supply Kat didn’t need to maximise the effectiveness of each bottle. In fact, she was encouraged to go more for speed then for efficiency with them, though seeing as she kept going fairly deep into the poisoned area to set them off it was hard to tell from the edge. Things were looking better though.

It was after lunch that things changed. The food had been packed away and everyone was back to brewing when a notable twang filled the air. Lily’s much more delicate ears picked it up due to the sharpness of the sound, even at a distance. Similarly, Hedera could recognise the sound anywhere, highly attuned to it as she was.

A bow string had gone off signalling an attack. Lily dropped the ingredients she was holding and a giant dome of shadow rose up around the area. She didn’t have the time to properly internalise where the arrow had come from. At the same time, Hedera had already taken aim and WAS facing the correct direction… only for Lily’s barrier to block her view. “Behind Fred!” yelled Hedera.

Lily started to focus on increasing the strength of her barrier behind Fred, but there wasn’t any time, the arrow slammed into it, breaking through the hastily erected shadows. They’d been stretched too thin to stop the full power. Luckily, Hedera knew what was going on, and had release her own arrow. It collided with the side of the attacker’s, snapping it and preventing anyone from getting hurt.

Lily flinched as the feedback from her shadows snapping transmitted through the link back to her. Guess I know why I shouldn’t just always use shadows to block things. Especially not over such a wide area. While Lily was lost in thought, the attacker took another shot, unable to see how Hedera had intercepted them the first time.

Another twang sounded out and Lily flinched for just a moment before summoning up paper walls to defend from the arrow. That small flinch gave plenty of time for Hedera to fire another shot back at the archer. They’d already revealed their position. They were up in a building quite far away. The attacker’s arrow impacted the first shield and ripped right through but the second one caught on the arrow, the fletching pulling the rest of the paper along with it, slowing it massively. The third and forth bits of paper were complete overkill and the fifth and sixth weren’t even touched.

Hedera’s arrow was much more effective, the arrow was blocked by something but that hardly mattered as ice exploded around the shield, hopefully encapsulating the target. “Call Kat over. We need someone to defend the brewers while we head off. I don’t want to let ANOTHER one of these idiots go.”

Lily nodded and sent the mental notice to Kat who had already started flying back towards them when she sensed Lily’s panic. The confirmation just made her want o fly faster. Lily gave a nod to Hedera and launched herself up into the air. The reason they were fine leaving the alchemists as they were was that the guards were already reacting. A handful had moved over with shields, clearly ready to block any further arrows, while the rest worked on setting up some sort of barricade.

Lily flew towards the ice crystal and tried to listen out for a hint of someone breaking it or leaving but the city had far too many sounds. Worse, people were yelling about the giant ice crystal that just appeared on a roof and were rightly concerned so it was all just a lot to process. Plenty of people were walking and running and it was nearly impossible to pick up a specific set of footsteps without having locked on to them before. Assuming the person even was running. It was possible Hedera had managed to trap their quarry after all.

Hedera was running along the ground for a bit until she managed to leap up onto a roof and continue without having to worry about running into people. Hedera was watching the roof much more closely than Lily was, and she could already tell the person in question had gotten away. The ice had frozen a bit too close to the edge of the roof instead of further back where she thought the shot had come from.

Hedera was proven right when Lily flew above the roof and saw this to be the case. There was a rather obvious square in the roof that they archer had likely ducked inside to avoid any follow-up attacks. Hedera was not quite so lucky. Lily had kept flying around the roof to see if it anyone suspicious so she hadn’t stepped on the roof. Even if she had, she might not have weighed enough to set off the trap that followed.

An explosion of fire went off as the hidden runes on the roof lit up, covering Hedera in the flames. Lily reacted quickly, using a shadow hand to reach in and pull the elf out, but she was looking a little crispy. Hedera’s skin was bright red and the tips of her hair were smoking. Nothing too serious, but it was a slight concern. Lily wanted to transform and ask if she was fine… but there might be more traps and it didn’t seem safe to risk setting them off either.

Lily did her best by giving Hedera an awkward pat on the shoulder using a tiny shadow hand that was reaching out of the finger on the larger one. “I’m fine,” sighed Hedera. “I shouldn’t have rushed in. Can you smell the archer?”

Lily sniffed at the air… and found that it smelled mostly of burnt hair. That wasn’t too good for her. Flying down a bit Lily glided down through the hole in the roof and was careful not to touch anything. Sniffing the air she was still overwhelmed by the smell of burning hair… but there was something else. It was faint, unbelievably faint and smelled almost like nothing. Except she could detect it and it was leading down further into the house.

*That… is super odd. How can something smell like a nothing that is actually something?*

[Maybe they’re using magic to supress the smell and you can smell that? Or you can smell the absence of anything and that’s also weird?]

*I guess so.* Lily didn’t want to spend too long on it. Assuming this was in fact a trail they could follow. There was a worry they’d remove whatever was making the scent but something new popping up out of nowhere might be the same. Lily sent a shaky thumbs up back through the hole.

“Alright, I’ll wait outside for now. Make sure to grab me if the trail leaves the house, otherwise just give some sort of signal,” asked Hedera.

Lily nodded, then realised Hedera couldn’t see that so grew a second hand at the end of the first to send off a second thumbs up before diving into the house. Lily could smell that other people DID live here… but were notably absent. Following the scent trail led her immediately downstairs and to the kitchen cupboard where there didn’t seem to be anything odd. Well, other then the scent vanishing into nowhere.

Lily sniffed a few times and detected only older scents then the one she was following so there had to be some sort of secret. A small debate went on in her head for a moment before she checked the scent once again, where it seemed to vanish into the ground. The shadow under her foot changed into a giant drill and slammed into the tiling on the ground, shattering the trapdoor that had been hiding the seams among the grout.

Lily debated going for Hedera but technically this wasn’t leaving the house just yet and she wanted to see if she could catch the attacker. Charing into the secret space Lily rushed after the only ’scent’ she could spot. The fact that it was just a single straight tunnel made it much easier to follow. When she reached a dead end, Lily simply smashed through once again, revealing a ladder up to the surface.

Lily popped her head up into the alleyway near the house she’d just entered and quickly went off to grab Hedera. They’d taken long enough for them to disappear into the crowd, perhaps they’d even waited for the fire trap to go off as a signal it was safe to leave the alley unobserved. Hopefully they hadn’t gotten too much further.