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

Chapter 1919: Chapter 1919 Eyes Like Amber

--- Kat ---

The chipping away at the ice really was as difficult as you were willing to make it. Kat found she could cleave off large chunks if she was willing to just bash her way through the ice with a fist or foot. It wasn’t all that safe, but she could do it. Kat stuck to those more violent methods when she was further away from that statue. Hedera wasn’t having much luck, she lacked the durability of Kat so simply slamming her limbs into hard ice for a bit of progress wasn’t ideal long term.

Lily was making steady progress, though that was tempered by the mana cost. Her ice breaker drill setup crunched through it swiftly and without potentially damaging anything else as she could move and shift all parts of the drill as necessary... but it was too complicated. The design she’d chosen was about as simple as she could imagine it, but that still included a number of extra gears and drill bits.

Lily had tried using a simpler drill but it was so much slower and less efficient that the added mana cost was worth it. Just... inconvenient. It meant she’d need to take a break, and the frequency of those breaks was determined by how risky she wanted to play things. With the caveat that it was easier to restore your mana when you still had a certain level remaining. Lily’s goal was 25% of her reserves before taking a break.

It only took them thirty minutes to expose the statues head. It had a fancy hairstyle and neat bits of jewellery sculpted into it... but that wasn’t what drew the eye. No instead that was the two five hour orbs stuck into the eye sockets instead of eyes. ”What’s up?” asked Hedera. She’d been working on the back of the statue and noticed Kat was no longer doing anything.

”Well... found some big orbs in place of the eyes... but I’m not sure what to do with them,” said Kat.

”What’s the problem?” said Hedera as she jumped out of the hole she’d made for herself. ”Surely you just...” Hedera trailed off as she made it to the front of the statue and saw that while yes, the eyes were orbs, the eyelids remained in place and meant that to get the orbs out you’d need to smash the statue. ”Ah... wondering if we just tap them or break the statue?”

”Well... that and I’m wondering if we should maybe leave them? It’s a bit odd that they’re eyes isn’t it?” asked Kat.

”I dunno,” said Hedera with a shrug. ”I mean, where else would they put orbs that large...” Hedera frowned as she glanced at Kat. Specifically, Kat’s chest.

”Ha, ha, I am so am-” Kat found herself cut off as she tried to say ’amused’. ”Woops. Um... yeah I mean... I get it. So... use them now, leave it, or break it?”

Hedera glanced at Kat’s bracelet, ”Looks like you’ve got enough ’time’ available that you wouldn’t be wasting anything should you claim one now. I’m in the same situation so I say we just claim it now,”

Kat nodded, ”Alright then,” and walked over to the head where she could tap her bracelet against the eye. Hedera followed after, tapping the second eye. Just as Kat was about to get back to work a shudder seemed to run through the ice. Kat turned back to the statue just in time to see its EYES CLOSE.

”FUCK!” hissed Kat as she bolted over to Lily, who was currently resting. When she’d uncovered the eyes, she was close enough to empty on mana to take a break. It mean she was nowhere near full capability and the statue did not seem happy with them.

The free hand twisted in place before spinning, completely ignoring the fact it shouldn’t be able to move that way before slamming a palm down on the nearby ice, cracking it. At the same time as Kat threw Lily up and away from the statue it made its next move. Tilting its head forward a bit before slamming it into the sides breaking the ice trapping its neck and giving it a bit more movement.

Its left arm was rattling in the ice, trying to wiggle free and get more leverage as underneath it all the rest of the body was trying its best to get free. Timmy had stopped working off to the side but that was the least of there worries. ”Do we fight it or run?” yelled Kat.

Hedera, who had been in the process of running, paused to consider the question before getting back into the motions. Even if they were fighting there was no reason for her, the archer, to be so close. ”You’re the one that’s going to be taking hits! It’s your decisions!” shouted Hedera as she did her best to gain distance while it was stuck in place. The awkward slopes she couldn’t climb up without two hands making it awkward for her, limiting the assistance she could give.

*Is this the challenge for the two five hour orbs? Would running work? Or is there more to find here? No... fighting this one thing for ’ten hours’ worth of time is probably a decent trade. Nott one everyone will want to make but a solid trade. It’s short, but potentially quite dangerous. Now...* ”I think it’s safer to fight it! We don’t know how it’s tracking us or what’s in it’s other hand,” decided Kat.

”What?” asked Hedera as she managed to get to a somewhat sturdy rock outcropping. It was tiny, and barely had space for her to rest on. Hedera hadn’t even meant to stumble into it, but she’d found it and it would work for now.

”If it’s got a staff, or some sort of ranged weapon in the other hand we could be screwed! We have no idea how fast it is either!” insisted Kat.

”SHIT!” cursed Hedera as she realised Kat was correct and pulled back her bow. As she did this, the ice under Kat’s feet cracked and the statue managed to free its first arm. Kat took to the air to stop the broken ground from causing her issues and slammed into the hand, making her best attempt to rip of a finger.

Seeing this, Hedera shot the statue right between the eyes. A small crack formed as the arrow bounced off. Hedera quickly followed this up with a barrage of arrows all aimed at the same spot. Lily followed up by sending a wave of paper against the statue to minimal effect, mostly just wasting mana.

Kat was dancing between the fingers and trying to do some real damage. The problem was she lacked proper leverage and demonic fire seemed to just burn out on the statue. Adding more demonic energy to the thing didn’t help at all, it seemed to be burning away just as quickly. *What the fuck Thyme? How did you manage to find a demonic energy counter?*

Kat turned into water, cutting her complaints short as the hand slammed itself into the ice in attempt to crush her. Kat found ’herself’ being splattered around the area and wondered if it was going to take more demonic energy to put herself back together in a reasonable amount of time.

As she was wasting said time pulling the water droplets that were recognised as making up her body the statue went back to freeing itself. Slamming on the ground and digging away at the ice keeping it trapped, managing to make great progress before Kat reformed. It had freed all of its left side above the waist, and the hand was making good progress on freeing the other, having exposed its shoulder and made good progress towards the elbow.

Hedera’s arrows had carved a deep grove between the eyes and about halfway into the stone statue’s head... but it wasn’t having any noticeable effect. If the stone statue had a brain or control centre it certainly wasn’t in the head. Sadly, just because Hedera could tell her arrows weren’t helping much at the moment didn’t mean she knew where to shift her aim for maximum effectiveness.

She did try to swap to the shoulder, a chance to cut through the area where the thing’s arm met its body, but that was simple blocked by a hand. Perhaps there was something more there if it was willing to protect itself from those arrows but not the ones to its face? Or perhaps it knew just as well as Hedera did that landing enough arrows on that spot would cut off the arm. Especially if she started to use her enchantments properly. At the moment, she was just relying on her ’infinite’ quiver.

Kat had managed to reform and launched herself back at the statue, but it had a much broader range of motion now. With large chunks of its torso free it could bend and twist out of the way in a distinctly inhuman manner. Plus, it would regularly try to slam Kat into either the ground or itself. Kat was tempted to take a hit or two like that to test her durability against its strength, but wasn’t quite willing to make the risk yet. Especially when she was keeping it in place, it gave the other two a chance to do something.