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

Chapter 516: Sue’s Recovery Time and not quite Questionable Questions

”Holy shit!” shouted Sue, ”Thatʼs an understatement. Kat are you even ok? You look like youʼve lost more blood then I have in my entire body… how… how can you just go with a ʼwell that couldʼve gone betterʼ. Iʼm freaking out a little here…”

Kat shrugged, ”I mean… Iʼm only down like…” Kat paused her speech for a moment to check her reserves and found she had 86% left, ”Iʼm only missing like fifteen percent of my demonic energy. Thatʼs hardly anything. Most of that was one strength enhancements and speeding up my mind. I hardly needed to use any of it to heal”

Sue just gapes at Kat, now starting to realise the sheer difference the other demonʼs regeneration actually makes. ”Right… um… well…” Sue stumbled over the words as she tries to figure out an appropriate response. ”Iʼm just going to sit down then… regenerate my own energy because unlike YOU Iʼm down to less then half”

Then she proceeds to do just that. Sue just lets her legs collapse underneath her and relies on her tail to slow her down enough not to do any damage. She then leans her back into the wall for the support, despite the jagged pieces of rock now digging into her wings. At least the jacket protects her back.

”Are you ok Kamiko?” asks Kat after seeing Sue basically answer that question by checking out.

”Iʼm quite good Kat,” said Kamiko smiling, ”Sue protected my very well. I took two hits because I wasnʼt properly prepared for the little rats to actually do something. I was just planning to leave them to Sue because Iʼd stopped registering them as a problem. Youʼd take two of the big ones, Iʼd take the other two, and Sue could clean out the small ones.

”They caught me unaware, getting a bite off before I noticed what was going on. I still wouldnʼt have noticed if the shield didnʼt give of a brief flash which… well I wasnʼt quite ready for it and caused me to take my second hit, but I used that as a chance to back quite far off. Thank you for your assistance though, Iʼm unsure how long I could have kept dodging while making minimal progress. I tried to keep the smaller rats away from me by slicing them up, but stopping them all was hard.

”Especially with the larger rats closing in. The risk of taking hits was quite high, and I knew that Sue couldnʼt keep my shield up that much longer so I was mostly just buying time for you or to come up with a better plan, whichever came first. Luckily, you managed to sort things out before it became a real issue.”

”No problem,” said Kat with a slight dose of embarrassment. ”I was panicking a little bit once the patrol rats jumped in so… I understand the feeling.”

”Huh, patrol rats. Thatʼs a good name for them,” mused Kamiko

Kat nodded, ”Well, in my head Iʼve been referring to the little one as patrol rats, and the big ones as guard rats. Itʼs worked out pretty well. Guards get a number, and patrol rats just donʼt. Too many of them for their exact designation to matter so I donʼt bother”

Kamiko nodded, with a smile on her face, liking the sound of Katʼs suggestion. ”Well, Iʼm not at risk of running out of energy… so I guess weʼll just wait on Sue then?” said Kamiko making it sound partially like a question, but feeling more like a suggestion to Kat.

”Oh yeah, kick me while Iʼm down” snarked Sue

Kamiko turned a confused look in Sueʼs direction. ”I donʼt see the problem. You need energy, and weʼre happy to wait for you, why I donʼt see how this is an issue, Iʼm simply pointing it out…” murmured Kamiko

Sue turned a deadpan set of eyes in Katʼs direction. ”Now thatʼs just not fair as a response. Itʼs like kicking a puppy. Even if itʼs evil and maybe deserves it… itʼs still a puppy so you just feel like a bad person anyway. I donʼt even feel comfortable explaining it to Kam because then Iʼm responsible for a little less innocence in the world,”

”Donʼt you routinely try to destroy that innocence though?” asked Kat with a smirk that was trying, and hopefully succeeding, in masking how confused she was at that response.

Sueʼs whole form brightened up instantly. ”Hey youʼre right!” Sue then turned to Kamiko to continue ”I made that joke because while you didnʼt mean it this way, itʼs easy to think youʼre pointing out how much stronger you and Kat are.”

*Wow she actually gave a decent explanation. I knew she was kidding somewhat with her first response, but I wasnʼt expecting a completely proper response for the second once. Hmm… I wonder if Sueʼs tired. This has probably been a lot harder on her then on us.*

”How about we discuss future plans then. This wasnʼt a great fight, but we can work on the future one, or ones,” said Kat.

”Well we can wait for patrols to clear out next time” said Sue in an overly cheerful manner.

Despite the mocking tone, Kamiko and Kat both nodded solemnly. While the patrol rats were no real issue for Kat, and she could fight them easily even if she needed to take a bit of damage, Kamiko was at much greater risk. A few well times strikes from them could take out Sueʼs shield ability, cutting her down to no energy. They couldnʼt afford that for future fights.

A few seconds past and when nobody said anything else, Sue jumped in again, ”What, Iʼve given you a good idea, why not send out a few of your own? Or do I have the only working brain here?”

Kat sighed but didnʼt rise to the bait this time. Things were more serious at the moment, and while a bit of levity was needed, Kat had no good response that wouldnʼt turn things into a fight. So she ignored Sueʼs comment and offered her own idea. ”If we see Guard Rats, and patrol rats, what is the plan? Do we just wait? Do we back up a bit in case the fight gets heard? How do we need to tackle this?”

”I think we have to back up,” said Kamiko. ”We canʼt risk the patrol rats calling out to the guards either. Even if thatʼs not something weʼve seen them do just yet, we know they interact with the guards and enter combat with them. I think weʼll need to make sure we back up a fair way”

There was a matching set of three nods that accompanied Kamikoʼs suggestion. Once that was done, Sue spoke up again, ”So… this is above me even if Iʼd paid attention… but… do the rat patrols come at specific intervals? Has anyone counted?”

Kat let her tail react and slap her in the face. *Dammit, I didnʼt even think to count that. I have the memories in my head too, but thereʼs too much blank space, it makes it hard to judge time even if itʼs all in my head. Hmm… it seems while my memory is good, I donʼt have the practice to use it fully… another thing I need to learn perhaps.*

”Judging by Katʼs reaction, I assume she has not. Sadly… I didnʼt attempt to keep track of it either,” said Kamiko slowly. ”From what weʼve seen Iʼd say itʼs at least somewhat regular, but probably not perfect. Thatʼs just a guess though.”

Sue bit back a joke she had in response to her teammates failure to keep track of time. Something about broken internal clocks and night time shenanigans, but she didnʼt feel like voicing it. She felt her energy returning but that extra muscle she felt not quite behind her eyes that governed her shield power was complaining.

Sheʼd been using the power perhaps a bit more than necessary. Now that sheʼd started to actually like the pair and didnʼt want them hurt sheʼd been putting up the shield whenever she felt like something was coming up. Better safe then sorry… but that combined with the use in the past two fights meant it was feeling a little used up. Especially because sheʼd kept herself shielded at the same time.

It was a weakness. One that might or might not become an issue, and yet Sue was hesitant to voice it out loud. She was already holding them back quite a bit, at least in her mind, and adding something more to that wasnʼt something she planned to do. So, instead she asked, ”What do we do if we find a bunch of patrol rats just standing around with guards and neither are moving?”

Kat and Kamiko shared a look before a toothed grin spread across their faces. ”Sufficient application of FIRE/Sending plenty of FIRE” said Kat/Kamiko with them both saying FIRE at the exact same time.