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

--- Kat ---

Their luck had run out and Kat really wasn't sure if Malt could be blamed or not. Bower had yelled a warning out but it was just a simple "Watch out!" with no explanation so it didn't really help. Kat had braced herself, ready for any number of monsters. Flames were rising from her form, Lily was watching her back. If anything had attacked her in that moment she was quite certain it would've died.

Sadly, there was no attack. Instead it was a bubble. Worse, Kat wasn't sure how many people had been caught in it. Kat had her entire group, everyone was still tide together but she had no idea if anyone else had been brought in with her. That was mostly down to the area they found themselves in.

Enjoy new stories from empire

A sandstorm in the middle of an abandoned desert. Kat couldn't see all that far, in fact the only reason she had a decent range of vision at the moment was that the place they'd arrived seemed to be protected from the sandstorm for whatever reason. There was a perfectly spherical area around them that seemed to be holding back the sand and Kat wasn't sure how long it would last.

Annoyingly, the desert didn't have the decency to be normal about things either. Instead of the usual yellows, reds, and rarely browns you could find sand in on the regular, or even the black sand of a volcanic area or the occasional pristine white beaches… no the sand here was bright blue for some reason. It wasn't even a fancy blue like sapphires or the ocean, no it was the sort of blue you saw on blue chalk. Faded light blue with only slight variations in colour all around them as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't far true, but it was still strange.

Kat carefully dismissed her flames and straightened her posture as she took a glance at her group. Everyone seemed fine, except perhaps Craunch who had apparently decided trying to eat the sand was a good idea. At least everyone else was looking at him like he was crazy. "Craunch what the heck!" hissed Kat.

Craunch, finger covered in sand licked it slowly as he glanced up at everyone, and returned his own confused glare. As if they were the weird ones for questioning his actions. Kat watched with some slight horror as he bit down on the sand a bit. "What? I'm testing the sand,"

"For what?!" asked Church, her voice noticeably higher then normal.

"Is it suitable for plant life?" asked Sephy at the same time. Drawing the everyone's attention from Craunch. "What? If he's already going to taste it I might as well get interesting data out of it. I've never even heard of blue sand so I'm wondering if it can support plant life,"

Craunch shrugged and said, "Well I can safely say it tastes like sand," Kat felt the desire to slap Craunch spring up. Totally unprompted of course. "not sure how well it would support plant life. I mean, normal sand can support certain specific plants and while it doesn't taste like anything fancy I imagine the blue colouring has to be from something. Not sure if it's good for us or not…"

Church glanced at Brook, then the pair of them glanced at Kat and asked, "Right well… enough of whatever that is. What's the plan?"

Kat and Lily shared a mental shrug before Kat answered, "Honestly I'm not too sure. The problem with the sand here is that while I can survive it easily, and Lily could probably call up enough shadows to shield herself for as long as is needed… shielding the entire group would take a lot of energy and it's not something she could keep up forever.

"I'm not really sure how dangerous the sand is though. Even a normal sandstorm can be deadly if you're unprepared and waiting for it to die down might be a good idea… but there's no telling how long this bubble of safety will last and…" Kat's eyes widened. "Craunch what are you doing!"

"Well someone needs to test it don't they?" retorted Craunch as he stood, hand outstretched and reaching for the raging sandstorm.

"Craunch, you're a lot stronger then the others here. Having you test it doesn't mean all that much… though I suppose if it's enough to injure you it will be enough to injure the others…" replied Kat. Craunch kept reaching out with his hand. "At least use a single finger instead of your whole hand!"

Craunch paused for a moment, "Yeah alright that's probably a better idea…"

"I want it to be known that I am not in favour of this. What if touching the sandstorm causes the bubble of safety to go down?" grumbled Kat.

Craunch shrugged, "Look we don't know what we don't know and there's a whole heap of stuff that we don't know right now. I'm willing to test it and I'm sure you've got some bandages stocked up. If not, I know I have some stored away though mine might be a touch old and out of date."

*Should we stop him? Like… I doubt it's poisonous. He survived licking it but like… surely this is a bad idea? But… he IS an adult, and certainly older then we are put together…*

[Let him be an idiot. I wasn't sure, but you reminded me that despite acting like he's five he knows Corela. He had a chance to live a real life. That means he should have common sense. If he still thinks this is fine? Well that's his own fault really. We're not babysitters.]

Kat sighed, Lily had a point. "Fine whatever, test it if you must,"

Craunch nodded and reached out, finger extended and then quickly flinched backwards. Kat glanced over as Craunch shook his hand rapidly. As far as she could tell he was fine… "So what's the verdict?" asked Kat.

"Well it didn't actually injure me or anything but it does sting. Not sure the kiddos will be able to survive it. Maybe with some more clothing and some goggles. If nothing is exposed it might be fine," explained Craunch.

Kat nodded and moved over to the edge herself.

[Kat don't you dare!]

*Well we know it's not deadly and I want a sense of how much this hurts! Plus if I put enough of my arm through to see how it effects my outfit we can sort of guess how deadly it'll be for everyone else.*

Lily wanted to throw her arms up in exasperation but as a Memphis she lacked arms. So instead she just grumbled mentally as Kat put her whole arm into the sandstorm. It didn't really hurt her, not like it seemed to hurt Craunch. It was noticeable sure, but more like heavy rain then the deadly sandstorm it was in truth. Pushing it further Kat had her whole arm in the storm and watched as it quickly tore through her outfit.

Pulling an arm back Kat looked at her now very holey sleaves. "Hmm… yeah it doesn't hurt me at all but it's not going to be good for any equipment you guys use. Not sure if the heavier duty stuff Church is wearing will even be enough and everyone else is certainly lacking… dammit I wish Bower was here to tell us if this is normal or if the weather is likely to change," grumbled Kat.

Craunch looked down at himself and frowned. "Hmm… yes that's an issue I hadn't properly considered. I'm used to much higher quality textiles that can keep up with my strength but the current stuff is just basic mass replicated stuff. I can survive… but yeah," Craunch crossed his legs slightly. "It would be a painful experience,"

"So what? We're stuck here?" asked Church.

"Not completely stuck. I mentioned before that Lily could shield everyone for a bit… if it seems like the only way then what we could do is stack everyone except perhaps Craunch on top of me, have Lily bring up a shield and then I'd sprint as far as I can manage before her mana runs out.

"Might need to test how sturdy the tents in my ring are… if they can hold up against the sand we can just take one of them out every time Lily gets low on mana and make progress that way… but it would be supremely awkward for everyone involved," explained Kat.

"There's no other way?" asked Strek.

Kat shrugged, "I mean we could always wait a while. I'm not sure how long but I'd be willing to give you all at least half an hour. Take a break, get some water, relax a bit. If the sandstorm shows no sign of letting up after that time though? Then I think we're going to have to risk getting a move on. We can't stay here forever and I've got no idea where the other teams are,"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Well what about the bangle? Doesn't it tell you?" asked Brook.

Kat glanced at her arm. Truthfully, she hadn't noticed the pull. She'd been in combat mode and hadn't really faded out of it so enchanted object just didn't have the strength to move her arm. Relaxing further Kat found that she was tugged in a certain direction. "Hmm… it is reacting but I'm not certain if that means there's someone else in here with us or if that's the way to the exit…"