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

Chapter 1920: Chapter 1920 David vs Golem

— Lily —

“Can you do anything more?” asked Lily.

Hedera winced, shivering slightly as she turned to Lily… only to see a calm, and slightly curious look on her face, no anger or recrimination at all. “Oh um…” Hedera glanced at the golem. “So, I’m more of a support leaning archer. My arrows, the special limited stock ones anyway, tend to be about restraining the creature or incapacitating it in some way.

“I do have some heavy duty ones… but even if I blew up the golem’s head I’m not sure that will stop it and I only have like… two of those? I think? Anyway, I just… don’t have much I can use against that thing. It’s not normally an issue, Souris has earth magic and the twins are super destructive when they need to be… so I just… didn’t really prepare for stone golems. I have a few high damage fire arrows in stock for whatever Thyme cooked up but well…” Hedera trailed off with a wince.

Of course, she went back to firing arrows after doing so. No sense in not trying to help out at all. Even if Kat was moving all over the place, trying to spread out the damage the golem was doing to the ice. Kat was even going so far as to spread out some demonic fire amongst the ice chunks, fusing them back together and reinforcing them a bit to keep the golem in place. Nothing too close to the body though. That seemed to dissipate far too quickly still.

Lily frowned at Hedera’s answer, but quickly corrected her expression. “I’m in the same boat,” sighed Lily. “I’ve got some bigger spells that MIGHT be able to do something but I wouldn’t want to risk using them while I’m less than half mana like I currently am. Especially when Kat’s doing fine enough against the thing and it’s still half trapped.”

Hedera nodded. “Exactly. It’s potentially a major problem but at the moment it’s a bit scary, but not something to take too many risks against just yet.”

Lily nodded. “I’m still not happy that I need to basically leave Kat to fight this thing by herself… but I’m not freaking out yet. It sucks that you don’t really have anything to help here… but that’s fine. It is what it is,”

Hedera cringed and said, “I… could use some of my ice arrows? Again they’re not really for damaging but combined with Kat’s demonic fire and the ice already around… they might let us burry it again? What we really need is to figure out where the core is, and double check to see if it’s one that can move.”

“Wait… they can move?” asked Lily.

“Normally no but it’s not impossible and it really depends how mean Thyme wanted to be with the design. The issue with the moving ones, from our perspective, is that even if I find it and use some of my stronger arrows… if it just shifts it out o the way then I’m down limited ammo and the thing isn’t all that damage. I could… maybe blow its arm off? Not sure how worth it that is though…” answered Hedera.

“Why is that?” asked Lily. “Surely taking out the one useable arm would lead to an almost certain takedown right?”

“My stronger arrows are mostly explosive. Not only is Kat right there, and certainly in the blast radius but so is the ice. Say I managed to get the arm, perfectly, and while Kat was as far away as she can manage… the chances are pretty high that the heat and pressure from it will damage the ice enough for it to free more of itself,” Explained Hedera.

“You don’t have anything more concentrated?” asked Lily.

Hedera sighed, “Those arrows are either for big things, or extremely tough enemies. The idea is that in the first case, I can fire the arrow which gets inside their skin a little bit, and then explodes somewhat inside of them. They absorb a bunch of the impact and take a good deal of damage… shockingly, the statue isn’t considered ’big enough’ for that. Additionally, they could block it with an arm or set it off early. It’s shown it can after all.

“As for the second? It’s more meant for tough, biological, enemies. With the idea that I can rattle their internal organs with the powerful shockwave. It’s not usually a kill, but it IS a great way to stun them for someone else to finish off. A golem doesn’t have organs so… that’s not a valid plan either,” admitted Hedera.

Lily grit her teeth as Kat landed on the ice and tried to get into a fist fight with the giant statue. It didn’t work obviously. At least she didn’t feel too much pain down the link when the giant fist slammed into Kat. It was the ice that gave away rather then either of the combatants, with Kat being hammered into the below her. The golem looked ready to leave her alone where she was, trapped in ice… but turning to water for a brief moment was enough to free her so the fight was back on.

“So you’ve got nothing?” asked Lily with a sigh.

“Look, we don’t have infinite space in our storage bracelets. I needed a good mixture of mostly useful things… and I just don’t keep that much ’heavy ordinance’ on me at any given time. They’re expensive, and carrying them at all has multiple issues. See, some towns won’t let you in if you have too many, and then there’s the old saying ’If you have enough firepower a Rank 4 doesn’t seem that scary’ which is meant to be a saying about idiots fighting things outside of their weight class just because they’ve got enchanted explosives and…” Hedera was cut off when Lily gently rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Calm. As interesting as that might be now really isn’t the time to be explaining stuff like that. Kat’s fine for now, but the ice around the statue is breaking a little bit more every time she dodges or it manages to twist a bit more. Once it gets its other arm free things are going to be bad… so is there anything else you can suggest?” asked Lily.

Hedera racked her brain for an answer and came up with one. “Does it have a throat?”

“What?” asked Lily.

“How well did Thyme model the thing? When it opens it’s mouth, is there a tongue attached to a stone wall at the back, or is there a throat?” asked Hedera.

“Um…” Lily glanced through her own memories and found nothing. Then she turned her mind to Kat’s memories… but every time the statue had screamed it was either looking away or simply too far away to properly tell, especially through the snow. “Inconclusive… one moment,”

Kat can you figure it out?

[Easily. One moment…] The next time the statue attacked, Kat transformed into her water form and shot off a small ball towards the statue’s face. [Answer is… sort of. It has something of a throat but it doesn’t go on forever.]

Lily relayed this to Hedera. “Alright… not perfect…” mumbled Hedera. “Doable? Maybe…”

“What are you thinking?” asked Lily.

“I’m wondering if shooting one of my arrows into its mouth will work, or perhaps throwing one over and having Kat shove it down the thing’s throat. That could take it out? Maybe? Depends how close the core is but it should at LEAST protect the ice from most of the blast,” explained Hedera.

Lily noted that Kat probably wouldn’t be protected but new that wasn’t going to stop her girlfriend. “Alright,” agreed Lily as Hedera summoned an arrow.

“Is it better for me to fire it and have Kat grab it? Or can you hand it off with your shadows?” asked Hedera.

“I can,” stated Lily, perhaps a touch too quickly but Hedera didn’t seem to notice, simply handing the arrow over.

“It’s got around a five second timer… so if you can start it with your shadow best do that just as Kat picks it up,” mentioned Hedera.

Lily nodded and flew off towards Kat. Her shadow wasn’t quite long enough… but Kat was ready. Kat baited the statue into swiping at her from underneath. Kat used the hit to launch herself up towards Lily, where she could hand over the arrow.

The handoff when well and Kat dived straight down. The statue noticed this and swiped at Kat who split into water and simply reformed, eating the extra demonic energy cost for a chance to finish things. Slamming down on the statues face, Kat punched its teeth in and shoved the arrow through the gap.

Five seconds. That was all Kat had been given… and it was all she needed. As soon as the arrow was shoved into the statues mouth it exploded in a massive burst of fire and ash. Quickly covering Kat and the statue’s face. Lily had seen plenty of rock fragments go flying before that and she could feel Kat was still awake, if in pain at the moment… was it enough?