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

1378  Chapter 1378 Watching from On High

--- Lily --- Lily found herself flying low over the ocean, glaring at the depth that hid their secrets from her. You see, Lily had found a problem. As the net shrunk, so too did an invisible roof that she hadn't run into before. Now that they were approaching the final part of the round, the ceiling had been lowering. Not particularly quickly, and it likely wouldn't lower all the way down to the water… but her ideas of floating high above everyone and avoiding conflict wasn't going to work.

Actually, the fact the net was still moving was a touch odd. Thyme had said that it wouldn't shrink during the last thirty minutes… but the area still available to her was getting quite small. Lily was no longer certain Thyme's words held true. Perhaps something went wrong with the net's enchantments, or Thyme had misspoke. That or she was just really bad at judging distance.

*Is it safe to stay up here? The glare from the sun means that I can't really see what's underneath me… but staying up above the water seems like a great way to stay safe. It's not like they can see much from below either. Though I suspect the black blob that I'd look like from down there would still be fairly obvious if they look up. Nobody looks up though. At least, that's what ninja movies have taught me. It seems to hold true to real life. We don't really look down either but the ground tends to be in our line of sight and we're pretty sensitive to movement. And snakes. I feel like I remember a documentary talking about how we evolved specifically to spot snakes moving because those little shits have been hounding us since we were still monkeys. Hmm… I wonder if that applies to the races here?

I'm not sure how deadly the snakes are… actually, how did they all come about? Are they all humans changed by mana? That seems… very humanosentric but at the same time they're all clearly humanoid? Unless the fact that Kat is a humanoid demon means that we only see that side of things? Perhaps there are quadruped demons that go to quadruped based worlds?

Probably shouldn't be getting distracted… but it's preventing me from doing something stupid like looking for someone to steal treasures off and get caught… plus it's at least somewhat relevant. I wonder if the fact dwarves live underground makes them more or less inclined to look up?

On the one hand, they can see most of the tunnels just be looking ahead. Even with their reduced height it's not like the ceiling is that far away so perhaps they're more inclined to look forward… except. Except plenty of faults you need to watch are on the ceiling of mine tunnels AND all the other races are taller than them, so they need to look up just to chat with people. Hmm… when I put it that way maybe I should be concerned?

Add into that the fact that Fae can fly once they're old enough and really, I should be concerned about people looking up and spotting me. Though… Blue might be able to find me more easily if I'm touching the water? Eh, perhaps but the temptation to check things out is getting stronger. I don't know if it's my regular need to KNOW what's going on, or if it's just that I'm worried about getting snuck up on.*

Lily glided carefully down to the water level and then slowly sunk into the water and started to look around. The net seemed to be centred around a rather deadly area. Just at a guess. It seemed to be based around an underwater volcano, or at least, something that generated a similar effect. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Constant streams of bubbles wafted up from a ground that glowed slightly from the heat. Lily couldn't really feel it up here, the bubbles having mostly broken up before they reached the churning surface of the ocean. There wasn't much else down there. A few large rocks that might be good hiding places if it wasn't too hot down there and that was just about it.

What surprised Lily was that she could see everyone from her little perch. Blue was up against the North edge, just barely keeping herself and a floating pile of 'treasure' behind her inside of the net. Lily couldn't actually remember if Blue needed to keep it in the net, but better safe than sorry she supposed.

March was nearby, but seemed to be just ignoring Blue for now. Lily wasn't sure why that was. March seemed fairly competitive… but it might have something to do with the slight aw on her face as she watched the bubbles. *Oh. OH SHIT. March is a STEAM MAGE. Or well, no she's not a mage but she does have steam affinity! I'm not sure if she can even use magic outside of her body or not… but if she can this is perhaps the worst place to fight March. Perhaps even worse than Blue! Hmm… that probably needs a few more moments of thought. Blue is scary here in the water and I'm not sure I can fight her… but that's a lot of steam. March is scary without access to excess steam. Blue less so. It's even weirder that she's hanging out so close to Blue with seemingly no conflict. I really hope they haven't teamed up. That just seems so much worse! Should I be trying to convince the other two for help? Actually I should probably look over at them first. Then I can go back to panicking.*

So that's what Lily did. If March and Blue were mostly towards the North, and Lily had come from the South-West, then Marigold was on the North-East side of things, and Romilda was directly South. These directions were mostly guesses on Lily's part. The sun helped sort things out but she was just making generalities. Marigold was the closest to the potential team-up, and while she was far enough away to likely not being included well… she just seemed a bit too casual about things right now.

Sure on the surface it seemed like Marigold was just enjoying her masochistic tendencies… but those things were usually poisonous. They use NEURAL TOXIN for crying out loud. Normally not something a human would worry about… but there was two issues with that. The first, is that Lily wasn't human anymore, and she was in her Memphis form for the moment.

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Lily could see Marigold relaxing on some sea anemones just outside of the bubbling area. She seemed unconcerned with just about everything going on right now. Only the fact she clearly had one eye open and was watching March and Blue let Lily know that she wasn't completely casual about it all… but Lily didn't know if that meant she was safe to approach either. Especially not surrounded by anemones as she was.

Sure on the surface it seemed like Marigold was just enjoying her masochistic tendencies… but those things were usually poisonous. They use NEURAL TOXIN for crying out loud. Normally not something a human would worry about… but there was two issues with that. The first, is that Lily wasn't human anymore, and she was in her Memphis form for the moment.

If she didn't want to risk a transformation, which she really didn't… then that meant her much smaller body would be contending against the poison they had. Yet that still wasn't the bigger issue. No, the bigger problem was that this was a fantasy world. There was no telling just how powerful the toxin was in truth with mana added to the mix. Only someone crazy like Marigold would relax on them like this.

*Is she treating it so casually because it's not a lot of poison? Because she's made herself immune to most poison? I can see Marigold drinking a bunch of poison just because she can and this IS a magic world. Would that give her immunity? Hard to say but she really doesn't seem concerned. I guess nerve damage isn't something she has to worry about. I mean, it normally wouldn't be something I'd have to worry about either but I don't want to take any chances. Whatever, let's just see what Romilda is up to…*

Romilda was being much more normal about things. She seemed to be glaring at the steam for some reason Lily couldn't quite work out for a few seconds, then it hit her. It was steam. It was water that had gotten hot enough to vaporise while deep under the ocean and Romilda was running around with a bunch of metal on her. This was not a good arena for her. If she was using the metal to move around and it got to hot she risked some serious burns.

*So Romilda might be the first person worth talking to… except that I don't think I can count on her IN a fight, and maybe not even TO fight. Which is another issue entirely. Urgh. I want to stay sneaking around but Blue has so many treasures that something needs to be done… except she's a water mage that probably has March watching her back. Do I have to just sneak around and hope I have enough treasures for second place? There certainly seems to be plenty to go around…*

If you think you've read this chapter... it might be because you have. I am very sorry about that but chapter 1371 was skipped and you'll need to go read that. I'm VERY sorry this happened but nobody pinged me on discord so I only just caught it.