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

Chapter 2278 Violence is a Great way to Solve Issues

--- Kat ---

There was an announcement. Someone was eliminated. So time certainly WAS passing... but checking her bracelet once again revealed that Kat certainly hadn’t lost enough charge for it to have been more than twenty-four hours... but it was certainly more than twelve. Something weird and wild was going on that Kat really wished she didn’t have to think about.

At least the lightning strikes had caused them no further issues, and the next time a scorpion attacked them Lily had been ready. Perhaps a bit too ready. As soon as the stinger popped up out of the ground Lily had torn off after it. For a moment, Kat thought her girlfriend had transformed into a jaguar, but no, she’d created one out of shadows, piloted it from the inside and then torn the scorpion to shreds.

Her first attack had ripped the tail from its back. Ignoring the lightning burning away at her shadows. This had also ripped it out of the ground so that her claws could rip apart its legs, leaving it in a good deal of pain. Apparently it had decided to simply explode at that point, and try to take Lily with it... but she’d slapped it off to the side and sent it flying into one of the distant pillars.

All in all, the entire episode had been dealt with in under thirty seconds and nobody was injured. It was... interesting to watch. It had also burnt through about half of Lily’s mana reserves. Apparently she’d gone for ’no kill like overkill’ but it was an impressive fight, at least from Kat’s side of things.

How long have you been preparing for something like that? It was super cool! Kat decided to put forth her full thoughts on just how cool it was, letting the emotions she felt pour down the link, even including the little ones, worry, and shame and other things. Oh nothing major compared to her pride, but Kat wanted Lily to UNDERSTAND her thoughts about what had happened, not just be cheered on.

[Oh... um... well...] It seemed to work, if just how embarrassed Lily was told her anything. Lily was all but blushing in her Memphis form as she basked in the emotions Kat provided, not offput by the slightly less desirable ones at all. For it formed into a large, cohesive hole that let her share those thoughts. It was... very nice to see an unfiltered view of what Kat was thinking of her. A bit much to do all the time, but here? Lily loved it.

Though that did also mean that she wasn’t really coherent enough to answer Kat’s question. So Kat just smiled and carefully ran her fingers though Lily’s fur. Gently massaging various points along her spine and around her ears to allow Lily a chance to relax after that fight. Kat honestly felt a bit bad she hadn’t noticed how focused Lily had been watching for threats. It had to have been HOURS of focus from Lily.

Of course, that also meant Kat had to be on watch now. Not that she’d been slacking before, but there was clearly a difference. Lily had been ready, she might have even heard something before the scorpion had popped up. Kat hadn’t noticed anything, and had only been somewhat prepared for the scorpion. More from past experience then because she had a good plan to deal with it.

So a bit more time passed, thankfully with no issues. The scorpions were rare, so it wasn’t really a surprised when they managed twenty or so minutes of Lily just enjoying the attention. Eventually though she did manage to return to something resembling her normal thought process and could answer the question. [I guess it depends what you mean by ’preparing’. For a long time it’s been obvious that my shadow claws are far more potent then they should be, especially for the mana cost.]

[I tried using similar sharp things against stuff, shadow swords and the like but they’re just not as good. So it’s probably to do with the fact that I’m a cat, or rather, that I have my own dark claws I could be using. I think what I’m doing is unconsciously projecting the sharpness of my own claws onto my shadows. I can’t really do that with other things, or maybe it’s possible but I personally lack the skill for it.]

[So... I’ve sort of assumed that I could make a ’super mode’ by creating a shadow version of what I look like when I’m bigger... except I don’t actually know what that’s going to look like, and if I’m honest I’m like 90% sure I’m just going to look like a house cat with wings and horns. I’m not going to eventually get to cheetah size...]

[But I don’t truly KNOW that, and as such, I had the idea to... finagle things a bit for that form. I certainly haven’t tested it, but I do know enough about jaguars to get the rough size and shape and they’re big black felines. Well, technically normal jaguars aren’t but black jaguars or ’black panthers’ are super common, like on in three jaguars. Anyway let’s not get too sidetracked.]

[The basic idea is just... bigger stronger shadow form for myself and I haven’t exactly tested it too much but well... the scorpions gave me an excuse. I wasn’t going to let you get hurt like that again. So... I was ready to take them out. My normal teeth and claws were... probably good enough but I didn’t want to get zapped tearing into them so the big form also helped absorb the damage. Didn’t realise it would cost so much mana though. Half of my reserves for what... fifteen? Twenty? Seconds of that form. That’s pretty bad.]

[I feel like I can get it to be a lot more efficient. Just need more time to adjust to it, or perhaps making the image better in my head? Though I’m not sure if I should think more scientific, like, learning all the bones and muscle and stuff, or just focus on the idea of the animal more? Oh and while normally my shadow constructs are ’hollow’ the entire thing was filled with shadows to give it a more ’sturdy’ form. Which was probably worth it to fight off that lightning, but certainly contributed to the cost.]

Well that’s interesting to hear. So you said you were thinking of this for a while?

[Oh yeah that was the question. To answer it, I was thinking of the idea, and I’d practiced with like, a ’jaguar’ head a few times to see how good it was but I hadn’t properly used the full body transformation before and I wasn’t even entirely sure I’d use it without practice... and then you took so much damage in that previous fight and I was like ’I will do something about this’ and that form seemed like the only way to do anything.]

*Well we got to see it working pretty well there. Do you think you’ll be able to use it again in the next fight? It’s risky but strong and I sort of fight the same way a lot of the time. Though for me it’s more ’trading damage’ then trading mana for damage. Still, the idea is similar if not exactly the same.*

[I mean... maybe? I guess it depends on the fight. I wouldn’t use that form to fight the tiny scorpions and axolotls that’s for sure. Actually, not sure I’d want to fight the big axolotl either, I don’t know I could tear through it quickly enough... hmmm... most of my confidence came from the fact we knew the scorpions weren’t that sturdy. Like, I knew what sort of damage it took to kill them, and that I could probably do enough in a bunch of ways.]

*I see... I see... was it stressing you at all?*

[What do you mean? Like I feel as though the answer is ’yes’ but not quite how you mean?]

*Like... is it hard controlling that much shadow? Was it mentally taxing or taxing on the soul as well as your mana pool? It was a LOT of mana to spend all at once right?*

[Hmmm... no I don’t think so? It was surprisingly smooth. Though I DID hook it up to my body. So like, you couldn’t see it but I was mirroring the movements the shadow body was making inside of it. That probably reduces the mental load by a big factor. Not sure it would be as good if I didn’t do that in the future.]

*So not a ranged attack then?*

[No, certainly not. I’m not even sure I could stretch it out all that far because remember, the entire thing is ’solid’ and that’s using up a lot of my shadow’s capacity. I couldn’t make it much larger either so no like, fifty-foot kaiju version either.]

That’s quitter talk. Sure you can’t make one that large right NOW but who knows? Give it a few centuries and perhaps you can make one to crush cities underfoot!