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

--- Kat ---

Moving between the flower patches proved more dangerous then expected. The lava might have been in fairly defined areas but this place was packed with monsters. Mostly ambush predators. Kat wondered what the bastards ate because it seemed like every single one of them were waiting in ambush... so who was bothering to walk into those ambushes?

The first thing they find was a scorpion monster. Not really fancier then that. It had black scales that blended in well and was closer to adult cat size then anything larger like the lightning ones they’d met much earlier in the trip. These ones just had venom... probably. Kat had lashed out with a foot and sent the first one flying when it attacked. The second one had been crushed and neither showed off anything noteworthy before dying.

The next predator was this... frog lizard chameleon thing? It lived on the edge of the lava and its long tail was hooked up to the lava itself for some reason. It could change colour, as proved when Kat threw some demonic fire on it and it started to change to match the purple of the flames. It did not save it from freezing to death but it tried. Its body was kind of chubby, more like a frog... but it didn’t seem to hop at all, so maybe like a lizard. And of course the colour changing part was the chameleon bet. Perhaps it’s long tongue as well.

It had tried to attack with it when Kat had walked past, but it triggered an automatic mental speed up and she’d just... stopped. No reason to walk right into the rather thin attack and blasting it with demonic ended it soon after. Kat had been tempted to kick it but with the lava right there she wasn’t willing to get too close in case that hurt Lily. It was only after it died they noticed the tail going into the lava... for what reason? Neither could guess.

The third ambush predator they found was maybe a rock or maybe a crab thing again. It snapped out with nipper-like rocks that tried to break Kat’s ankles. Kat’s ankles were stronger then its grip force and it was kicked away. Really, the main issue was the complaining she got from Lily after the fact. Sure kicking it away also tore out a small chunk from her leg, but it wasn’t like that took long to regenerate or much demonic energy. She was fine...

Same could not be said about the bird that tried to kill them while Lily was in the middle of her rant. Kat had missed that one, but Lily clearly hadn’t. She’d shot it with a paper spear that went right through its chest, sending it crashing to the ground. Lily barely reacted, and continued to tell Kat how bad it was for her to injure herself while attacking. Though Kat was starting to think Lily was doing it for the bit. Taking one minor bit of damage she could regenerate to finish the fight was a very valid tactic. Kat’s regeneration just meant her definition of minor was a lot wider then most.

At least they found more orbs along the way. It made the pair wonder if they’d just missed the orbs before this, or if there wasn’t any to be found. It’s possible this was the reward for getting up so high... but it seemed like this place was actually a little lower then the lava cave. Though if that meant it was closer to the top through portals or not was anyone’s guess.

The pair saw three possibilities really. The first was the simplest. Orbs were rare in the centre but came in massive clumps. Get lucky or get screwed. The second was a slight variation in that, it was a test to see if you could get far enough up the mountain. If you were already struggling you wouldn’t make it... but if you had a stockpile then you could enlarge it by making good time. Or of course, the third option which was that someone had come through before them and grabbed the orbs.

That third option didn’t seem particularly likely. They got into the centre pretty much straight away but they hadn’t been overly efficient with their time and who knew how good their portal choices were. They’d backtracked a bunch... but mostly just at the start around those squirrels. After that they’d been able to make good upward progress... or maybe not. It was hard to judge proper distances when the portals made everything such a mess.

It was also, after the third patch of flowers that the pair remembered they were meant to be dropping devices down. Sure they’d done the initial one at the portal... but they probably should have placed down at least one more, maybe two depending on the distances travelled. There was a quick back and forth over what to do about that before they decided it would be best to backtrack. With the ambushers on that route already taken care off it should take even less time.

”I hate this place,” Kat growled as she punched a weird red fish into the ground. It bounced as she blasted a second one with fire. Lily was shredding a number of them with her shadow claws to keep the numbers down. They weren’t strong individually but they had a ridiculous amount of numbers. Perhaps this was what everything else was eating. The fish that died sizzled on contact with the ground as the heat bled out of them now their inherent magic wasn’t containing it anymore.

They looked like mostly normal red fish, just with strong jaws and slightly moving scales, or rather, the colour on the scales moved. Lily was thinking of biting into one even as she tore dozens to shreds. The probably with that was the fact that they were burning hot. Still, once the swam was dealt with, Lily was now looking at the cooling corpses with interest.

Kat booped her on the nose. ”No. No eating the flaming fish. I don’t know if Appoline’s potion protects your entire digestive tract or if you’d be able to eat them now they’re cool. Besides they’re covered in ash and we can’t exactly was them in lava now can we?”

Lily sighed. [You’re right. They just seem super tasty... but I suppose we can ask Appoline if they’re edible later.]

”You think she’d know?” asked Kat.

[No... probably not actually. Grunkle might know though, considering he lives in the area.]

Kat glanced around a bit more at the area. If you ignored the fish guts, it was probably a good spot to place the next device so... shrugging Kat started to move some of the ash out of the way before placing it down. Once it dug itself into the ground, Kat covered it up with ash and dusted off her hands. ”Alright so that’s done... now, we could go back the way we’ve been... but apparently that might still end up with us getting attacked. We’ve got two more devices we NEED to plant, and five more in stock. Where do you think we should head?”

[Well, we were heading towards the mountain before. Sort of anyway. Why not try swinging around to the left instead?]

”Might as well,” agreed Kat with a shrug as they went to get moving... but Lily pointed a shadow towards one of the fish. One that looked mostly intact despite the fighting. It was clearly dead too. ”Fine, I’ll add one to storage. Don’t count on eating it though, it might not be edible.”

[Pretty sure it’ll be edible for me. I think my sense of smell would tell me otherwise.]

*Are you sure it accounts for temperature based issues?*

[No...]

*Then you’ll need to ask Nira first, or we confirm that it’s completely cool somehow.*

[I’m not waiting to talk to a doctor to see if I can eat fish...]

*Then let it cool.*

Lily wanted to be more annoyed, or at least, play it up for fun. Sadly she couldn’t as the monster ambushes resumed as soon as they got to moving once again. No new monster types, but plenty of things to deal with along the way. The birds seemed the rarest, and perhaps not even from the island. The scorpions though were real pests. Perhaps they weren’t actually ambush predators so much as they were prey monsters that tried their best not to die when attacked? Or maybe the venom was somewhat useful against the stuff here. None of them had been given the chance to attack.

The plants continued to look rather cool. Though how useful they are would remain unknown for a time. Lily did manage to detect a portal off in the distance as they moved along, but it was decided not to bother with it for now. This are was too ripe with ingredients, and it was nearly certain they’d be returning just for Appoline to loot the place. If the portal was useful as well, they could determine it later. For the moment they just wanted these devices placed and to get back to check on everyone else.