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

--- Lily ---

Lily glanced over at Kat in concern as the timer ticked down. Ten seconds and Kat looked much too close. The temptation to hold back on the bombs was strong, but Lily resisted. She had to trust Kat would be fine… unless of course Hunter was already on the job. Hunter had clearly noticed Kat's delay and prepared something to extract her.

Lily was exceptionally surprised to realise that 'something' was an old style lassoo.

It seemed to work though. Kat reformed and was caught off guard by the lassoo that wrapped around her upper body as she was yanked away. The drake glared and tried to chase but Hutner unloaded her weapon with her off-hand to keep it at bay just a little longer. Lily glanced between Hunter, the drake, and the bombs. She couldn't quite tell if they'd be out of the blast zone but it was go time.

Five seconds on the timer.

Lily let the plane fall apart slowly. Instead of simply erasing her mana from the construct completely she focused on removing just the back part of the plane and then working slowly upwards. The bombs fell swiftly even as Lily's eyes kept darting about and crystals continued to rain down.

Two of them managed to impact Kat, as her arms were held to the sides by the rope around her… but she dared not break it and retaliate.

Lily grimaced as she collapsed, mana spent and the last two bombs tumbled down together without being aimed properly. It didn't matter though, there was no time… and so the bombs exploded, one after another in a blinding light. Lily could only close her eyes and shift her head slightly, feeling too weak to do much more.

Bower managed to face away, though Kamiko abused her superior eyes to stare ahead and keep blocking the crystals that hadn't stopped yet.

Hunter managed to prevent any extra crystals hitting Kat, and pull out the two that had hit already as the glow built in the distance, then, with a singular large WHUMP the dirt, debris, and light all dissapeared to reveal the drake. No flesh or scales remained, it was now entirely made up of crystals.

Where there was one a mixture of colours floating around now there was only buzzing white orbs that seemed to ping-pong around the crystal statue.

For a time, nothing happened, the drake was still and even the floating crystals that had hounded the group remained in place. Finally stopping their endless barage. The group waited with baited breath to see what would happen now. Kat freed herself from the rope and got ready to charge back in. Hunter had pulled out her larger gun and was ready for the slightest hint of movement.

Bower was brushing himself off and Kamiko had picked Lily up off the ground. Even the few seconds used for these actions felt like an eternity… and the drake remained still. Was it dead? Lily didn't dare voice the thought even in her mind lest she tempt fate. The calm quiet was almost worse then the actions. The anticipation, the waiting.

Lily wanted to just go up and smash the damned thing to pieces but she had no energy left in her and it was unclear if that would even help at this point.

Then came a twitch. A single ripple that seemed to go across the drake. It was was a subtle thing, barely visible even to the enhanced eyes of the group but they had all seen it. Knew they saw something. Nobody had looked away from the drake for even a second. Yet nobody knew what it meant, a single ripple that didn't seem to lead to anything furhter.

Hunter raised her gun and waited.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Four seconds.

Five seconds.

That was enough. Hunter aimed down her sites and fired right at the drake's eye. The bullet shattered against the still surface of the drake. Lily's mouth dropped open at the sight. The crystals had always been fragile before this. They'd break and reform in no time at all… but they WOULD break.

Now however, it seemed like the drake was immune to Hunter's standard rounds.

A collective gulp when across the group seeing this… but the drake didn't seem to be moving. Only that white light inside it buzzzing away told them that things were not over… but what else was there to do? Hunter summoned the space destroying bullet, running it around her palm for a few moments as she took in the drake's form slowly. The temptation to fire it was strong, but she held back.

It wasn't time just yet, if it ever would be.

Then the drake started to twitch, almost like it was skipping frames of animation in a video game. First the head turned to the group. Then the rest of the body shuddered to end up in a mostly straight line to face Hunter and Kat, before the whole thing twitched again and it looked to be charging forward.

Hunter chambered the round and held steady… then all of a sudden, between one moment and the next the drake went from ready to attack to curled up like it was sleeping…

Everyone was confused… but then the white lights all coalesced in the centre. Hunter swapped the round out quickly and started to fire off more normal bullets to no effect. As she did this, the ground around the drake started to change. A circle that was slowly growing in diametre, leaving behind dusty ash in its place. The drake fell down slightly as the ash compressed under its wait.

Chapter Continue:

Then as the ash started to fall towards the drake it absorbed that too and Hunter's eyes went wide. "IT'S GOING TO EXPLODE!" hissed the lamia. Everyone else's eyes widened with the news and they all started to act, Kat running over to the other group.

"What's the plan?!" shouted Kamiko as she headed to meet up with Kat, dragging bower along and leaving the shield behind, not willing to bother with the time it would take to bring along. Even just that one moment too much.

"Either I shoot the drake with that bullet, or I shoot somewhere near us and we jump through!" shouted back Hunter, making use of the word compression trick of their translation function, sending all of her words with just a few syllables. "Both potentially deadly!"

*IT! SHOOT IT! The bullet is too risky!* Lily shouted mentally as she provided Kat with as much context as she could with her memories of the journey inside. The real issue with choosing to shoot nearby and duck out of the dimension was that with space so warped they weren't in any way guarenteed to get out in time, and worse, they'd need to risk diving into broken space.

Lily was not equipped to properly navigate something so turbulent.

Kat relayed Lily's words as quickly as possible, trying her best to infuse as much meaning and info from Lily in each. She had no idea if it worked or not but Hunter fired the bullet at the drake halfway through the sentence trusting that Lily knew enough.

Hunter struck true, the bullet colliding with the centre of the drake and going off. The drake seemed to shatter in that moment… but it was only from their perspective. Space cracked and bent, already weakned and under new assault. The drake looked like it was getting spread out across a larger area even as it was getting sucked in, almost like the event horizon of a black hole.

The light at its core only getting brighter, and speeding up after the bullet made contact.

"Shield!" shouted Kamiko as the group got closer. Kat nodded and searched through her ring for something similar to what Bower had. Kat brought it out and kept running, now heading diagonally, no longer going striaght for the others but furhter away from the drake as well. The rest caught on and started to mimic her.

Kat made sure to drop back behind the group, knowing that she'd be the first and last line of defense.

They all ran as quickly as possible, with regular checks backwards at the drake which kept distorting further under the influence of the bullet. It wasn't long afterwards that the light had engulfted its entire body, in a flash that light was once again sucked back into the centre before spreading out. Kat didn't waste any time. Slamming the shield down and turning her back to the drake.

Kat stretched her wings out forward, keeping them just barely tucked in behind the shield but hopefully giving a bit more protection. Hunter clearly agreed, she wrapped herself around Kamiko and Bower, nearly causing the two to stumble as the group all bundled together, with Hunter swapping to her lamia form.

Lily didn't like it, but she burred herself into Kamiko, right in the centre of the formation and hopefully the safest.

Not even a breath later, the group was engulfed in light.