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

Chapter 2320 A Mouse in the House

--- Kat ---

Kat wished she was back in the mushroom area. The next portal they’d gone through led them to an odd mixture of a biome. Cracked and broken dirt, with lush greenery that spread up through those cracks. Apparently the top layer of soil had been blasted with something to prevent stuff from growing here at one point or another... but just the top layer. Some trees could break through themselves, but most vegetation lived in the deeper cracks that let them access the good soil.

It was also filled with these little gremlin things. They were a weird mixture of humanoid and insect, with things that looked like faces filled with razor sharp teeth to bite at your ankles, while the rest of their body was that of an insects with wings and a bunch of legs. Though the head-like appendage wasn’t actually their head, or maybe they had two?

Appoline had managed to kill one by attack this small spot just behind the head where the brain actually was, right next to the antenna that sat behind the ’head’. After a dissection from Appoline, it was revealed that the monsters here actually sensed mostly through those antenna, and the face was purely to freak things out. Kat had no idea what these things were called but they were creepy and she didn’t like them.

It wasn’t as if their humanoid parts even made them look much like a person. Their face had a bunch of wrinkles, their eyes were huge taking up something like fifty percent of the face with a giant mouth and teeth taking up most of the rest. The fact that the face was bright pink didn’t help things. It just looked all wrong. Oh, and the time Kat tried to break it’s ’eyes’ they shattered like glass instead of real eyes. Then again, perhaps that was for the best.

”I kinda want to go back to the mushrooms. Can we go back to the subtle dread of the mushrooms? These things are really, really creepy...” grumbled Kat.

”They’re also horrible ingredients,” sighed Appoline. ”Barely any magic in them and it’s mostly imbued into the teeth. Even then, I don’t think there’s enough there to cut through MY skin let alone yours. What would I even make with this thing? The odd appearance would imply I could get some unique potions out of them... but nope, pretty sure those ingredients would be a massive waste.”

”You said the teeth had magic though?” Kat offered with a shrug as she flicked off the bits of blood on her hand. It would’ve slid off soon anyway, but she didn’t want it on her at all.

”Yeah but they’re for cutting and potions aren’t really good at ’cutting’ things. Sometimes I can use teeth for say... a reinforcing effect but these ones...” Appoline ripped a tooth out... and it shattered in her hand instead of coming out cleanly. ”They’re so brittle. I think the idea is that stronger prey would have the teeth explode in their bodies or something... but I don’t know that they can even cut through the skin. They’re probably a bit stronger when still alive... but still barely anything.”

”Why put so much energy into the teeth at all then?” asked Kat as she looked at the field of corpses.

”Some monsters just do weird shit,” Appoline said with a shrug. ”There isn’t always a reason for this sort of thing. Though, in this case? My best guess is that they can do a bit more reinforcement of the teeth when alive, as I already said.”

”Yeah I guess you did. It just... I guess it didn’t feel like a complete answer?” admitted Kat. Appoline just shrugged back at her not really sure what else to say. These things clearly went more for the shock factor than anything else. Probably contributed to a lot of nightmares... and they clearly had numbers. They just didn’t have anything else going for them.

”At least they don’t smell too bad when killed,” Appoline added. Kat sent a weird look her way. ”What? I work with plenty of monster corpses because sometimes it’s just cheaper to pay for the whole corpse and then harvest what I need. Also usually gets you better quality parts because you can make sure not to damage them during the harvest.

”Some monsters smell particularly foul once dead though I’m not really sure what the advantage of that is meant to be. No sentient is going to care because you’ll just leave the corpse or store it away, and most monsters aren’t going to care because... well actually I’m not certain if they don’t care. I’d assume they don’t... but I have no evidence for the claim. Hmmm... maybe it ensures they’re targeted less in the wild?”

Kat didn’t know, so she just shrugged and started walking once again. With the monsters dealt with there was no reason to stick around in the one place. There also wasn’t too much of a reason not to fly or run while carrying Appoline. The monsters weren’t that scary, and their flight was more of a short hop type deal... but Appoline clearly wanted to walk on her own, and the fact she kept picking at certain plants as they went meant that she didn’t need to ask to stop, she could just walk over herself.

Still, this was fine. For the most part, Kat would go forward, trigger an attack, clear it out, and then Appoline would come in towards the end and help finish off the stragglers that Kat hadn’t wiped out yet. It was a system that worked, even if it didn’t give them all that much speed.

It was about five minutes later that things changed. Kat was clearing things out once again, while Appoline was walking towards her. Without any warning, the ground around Appoline practically exploded. Appoline, in that instant, threw a potion bottle down at the ground in retaliation. With her other hand, she shattered a second potion against her leg which had been heavily damaged in the first attack.

Kat sprinted over as fast as she could. The ground around Appoline turning to glass, presumably from that first potion. Several bits of rock nearby kept trying to throw themselves at Appoline but the bigger attacks from underneath had stopped, likely due to the fact the earth there was now glass.

Kat was still running when the glass shifted. Appoline looked down and took out a knife. Kat couldn’t see it, but someone was moving through the earth, and was about to explode out from underneath the glass. A shield rose up to meet Appoline’s dagger as a recognisable mouskin left the ground. Souris.

As shield and dagger clashed, Appoline slipped another potion from her hand, shattering it and releasing a bunch of smog around them. Souris moved away quickly, sidestepping and starting to sink into the ground as soon as she was off the glass. Kat however, was fast enough to be in range. Kat slammed down at Souris’ shoulder, landing a good hit, but Souris was able to move with it. The ground around her softening allowing for her to fly backwards and out of the dirt to lessen the damage of the strike to more manageable levels.

Souris did not look happy as she flipped around. Chunks of rock raising up out of the ground to fly towards Kat as a sigil took form in front of the mouskin. Lily was awake at this point, and Kat allowed her down to the ground as she sprinted forward herself. Kat met the rocks head on, slamming through them with fist or foot as necessary, not even bothering to dodge. The damage to her was nothing more than scratches after all.

Souris, slammed her hands into the ground and LAUNCHED backwards, far faster then Kat was currently capable of moving. Gritting her teeth, Kat piled on as much speed as she could manage, trying to press against the bracelets stupid restrictions but the fact of the matter was, she simply could not move as fast as Souris. *I call cheats! Why is she allowed to move like that and I’m not!*

[Probably because her legs can’t carry her that fast but a spell can.]

*I still call bullshit.* Kat growled as she watched the mouse drop below the ground once again. Kat tried listening in to where she was moving, but the dirt here was fairly compact and Kat didn’t have the best idea of how to use what little her ears could tell her. The hole Souris had vanished down had been sealed immediately after the mouse had opened it, so most of what she was getting was just subtle things through the dirt... which was basically nothing.

It wasn’t as though it was heavy machinery moving beneath her feet. It was one, tiny mousekin that was using magic to temporarily move through earth. It was entirely possible that it wasn’t being moved at all. It really depending on what the spell Souris was using DID. Which left Kat wondering what her own response should be. Breaking the ground was possible sure... but should she be searching? Moving back to Appoline? Actually yes probably that one just in case.