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

--- Kat ---

Finding the rock with the dragon part inside of it was just the first step. They still had to get it out of the ground according to Meg so they got to work. There was a plan to be a bit more efficient about things but first they needed to clear away the dirt a bit more. Everyone except Lily was assigned a side to carve out, and Lily was given the top.

Lily was able to make better use of her shadows to dig around the odd bumps and distortions on the rock. With that and the fact the dirt on top was lighter, she was assigned that to start.

Lily managed to finish up quickly and then began work on clearing out some extra dirt around the corners. Once the moderately cube shaped rock was largely uncovered Meg made the call to simply pull it from the ground. It was hard to get any grip, so instead she had Lily extend her shadow under the rock, have Lily solidify it, and then pull the rock out by the shadow.

It took a bit of work on Lily and Hunter's part to spread Lily's shadow around the rock but soon it was done. Once everyone was in position and Lily had refilled her mana, they were able to rip the rock out of the ground. It wasn't that it was heavy, but that they had to pull the rock away from a good deal of dirt still covering it.

When the rock was yanked up, dirt and various roots went flying everywhere as the rock fell towards them. Kat sped up and dashed out of the way, pulling Kamiko with her. Lily had been in her arms the entire time so she was fine to. The rock crashed into the area they'd been standing in, barrelling through a few trees before stopping. Kat was glad Bower hadn't been nearby.

"I was afraid of this," said Meg with a sigh as she looked a the rock's trail of destruction.

"What's the problem?" asked Kat.

"Well, it seems when the piece of the drake arrived here, it did so alongside a burst of time energy. It's artificially aged and fortified the rock as if it had basked in the mana of the planet for centuries. It's exceptionally sturdy and getting inside will be a pain," grumbled Meg.

"So… does it have a weakness?" asked Kat.

"A few but they aren't quite as good as I'd like. The problem is that we lack sufficiently sturdy tools to apply that pressure over a small area. Instead we're going to need to try cracking it like a coconut… but that's liable to cause some localised earthquakes due to the forces involved," pouted Meg.

"Is… there really no better way? Could we burn through it with demonic energy?" asked Kat.

"Yes… but shooting large amounts of demonic energy at a currently dormant demonic monster isn't a great idea. Even if we can scrape off a few layers, eventually the drake part inside of it will start absorbing the energy from our demonic fire potentially creating more problems," explained Meg.

"So… is there anything we can do?" asked Kamiko.

"I would suggest finding a lake," stated Hunter, gathering all eyes to her. Seeing the confusion she continued. "The water will absorb a large amount of the impact, and while that will make it harder to break the rock it should reduce the damage to the surroundings significantly more,"

"Couldn't we just… keep it in a storage ring and take it off planet with us? Break it there?" asked Kat.

Hunter shook her head rapidly, "No. Remember the drake isn't technically dead. It is why we need to go around and destroy the remaining parts. It likely cannot be put in the storage rings. You can make the attempt if you want though,"

Kat shrugged and placed her hand on the rock chunk and willed it to go into her ring. The rock didn't budge at all, simply remaining in place as if she'd attempted nothing at all. Just to check Kat grabbed the nearby shovel and managed to put that away just fine. "Ok… so that's not going to work. Can we take it back to the hub just by holding it when we leave?" offered Kat as an alternative.

"I'm guessing, no?" said Kamiko. "It… um… it would probably try to resist the teleportation? And um… the stuff we use it pretty finely tuned so… no not the normal one. Um… I hmm… maybe if we tried to use it as 'payment' for summoning someone else?"

Meg shook her head, "Nah, even if it wasn't a mission target, demonic energy infused monster parts are not considered valid trading currency so I doubt it counts as valid. Look, it's not like we can't destroy it. Just that if we DO destroy it here and now we'd likely be causing other problems and didn't you all say there's a village nearby?"

"Indeed there is," shouted Bower from the side. "So if you're causing any major damage I'd rather it wasn't here… but we're still within the mists so it's not the worst thing ever if it were to happen,"

"Huh… well that sounds like permission to-" Meg was interrupted by Hunter smacking her in the back of the head. "Fine, we can go somewhere else. The water idea isn't terrible… but the waves will cause the nearby areas to flood and probably ruin the lake you know that right?"

Hunter shrugged, "We must destroy the remains of the drake and our battle with it was likely to be far more damaging to the environment then a single lake. We were lucky to keep all the fighting in a self-contained bubble. Though… I see no reason we cannot do such a thing again. Why not wait till we find another bubble and break it there?"

Meg made a 'so-so' gesture. "It's not the worst idea ever… but those bubbles can't take too much damage before collapsing. They are full of weak points and I don't know for sure they can stand up the abuse needed to crack that open. Not entirely certain what would happen to those of us inside it either…"

"Wait the rock is that strong?" asked Kat.

"Indeed. I am not sure why it managed to get to such an impressive hardness but it's quite resistant to physical force because while it looks like a rock its more of a metal really and its happy to spread the force out into the environment instead of just accepting the damage onto itself. The transfer isn't perfect, but its more then we'd like and sufficiently sturdy to cause a problem.

If we had a drill of sufficient strength we may be able to pry it open but we lack such tools. Which is annoying," said Meg.

Meg noticed the slightly suspicious gazes. "While I am quite happy to drag things out to spend more time with Hunter do not allow that to cloud your thinking. I have too much pride to simply fail a job and causing massive amounts of collateral when you don't need to definitely counts as a failure. Sometimes, though rarely, it is actually taken out of your pay.

"This rock vexes me. It should not be here on a world of this power… and I am wondering if the mists have something to do with it. Breaking the rock is possible with my strength, and likely the strength of Kat and Hunter. The problem is applying that force well and I see no good way to do that. So… do we want to break it now or attempt to find some of the other pieces?"

"Why bother with that?" asked Lily.

"Well, if we find two of these we can smash them together. They are a bit too large to hold easily but if say, Kat holds one and I hold the other and we run into each other repeatedly that might be an even better way to break it open then using the water. Assuming of course that the other large parts are covered similar rock structures.

Of course it would mean… carrying it around for potentially days, but it is an option," explained Meg.

Kat looked between the rock and the nearby trees. They were fairly well spaced for walking… but the rock was about as tall as she was and slightly larger then her full wingspan. The forest was NOT generous enough to accommodate such a thing. "I… hmm… I'm not against it in principle but we'd be wrecking a lot of trees. Also…" Kat looked for a good place to grab onto the rock but didn't really find any.

It was mostly smooth and it took some time to find a good place to grab it.

Using her tail as a third arm Kat managed to pull the rock off the ground. As soon as she did so she felt her own feet breaking the ground below her. A few test steps in various direction showed that she left rather deep footprints. "Yeah this… isn't impossible but it's not going to be a fun time either,"

"Welp, I was just handing out suggestions," said Meg with an uncaring shrug.