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

*Calm. Calm Lily. Don’t fight when you’re angry. You make stupid mistakes and take risks you don’t need to. Like right now. You should’ve just tried to claw Swordy’s hand. Then you would’ve been free of her grasp, and not still held by her. On the other hand. VIOLENCE!*

Lily new, in the abstract, that the anger wasn’t helping her. Kat was able to remain calm in most fights due to a combination of, apathy, her regeneration, and her trust in D.E.M.O.N.S to keep her alive. Lily had none of those things, and so fighting the anger at the situation was particularly hard. Especially because large parts of her didn’t want to fight the anger. They wanted blood. Perhaps it was just the feline instincts, wanting to bite and claw at the offender for chasing her, for causing problems, for touching her tail.

So when the idea came up to blast her with razer sharp pieces of paper to force Swordy away, even if it was a waste of mana when something more limited would work… Lily couldn’t find it within herself to reject the idea, even when she knew that it wasn’t an ideal course of action. She did reduce the amount of paper, cutting on mana that way… but she had to reinforce and sharpen the ones that remained. And she shot two separate ones. One was aimed at the air just above Swordy’s hand so she couldn’t move closer to avoid the second one, aimed squarely at her chest.

Swordy growled, but dropped to the ground, trying not to give up her hold on Lily. She had seen how much it caused Lily to rage, and was hoping to abuse that a little longer. Lily, having none of it, forced the sigil to turn downwards towards Swordy. Her mind was straining against the action, it really wasn’t safe to move sigils while you were casting but not only did Lily not get that particular memo, as it was considered ‘too basic’ for the paper magic book, Lily wouldn’t have cared.

Swordy tried to roll out of the way, but her arm was clipped, hundreds of paper fragments flowed over her arm. Most still missed, and many got caught up in the threads on her shirt, but enough cut into her arm, to cause her to wince and let go of Lily’s tail once and for all. For Lily, she felt the mana in her sigil start to rampage, and lost control of it shortly after. Her mana was spasming in her chest, and she had to force it down as it tried to cause her other problems. Lily’s arms were shaking as the mana rumbled around her insides.

*Shit, why is this happening? Is it because I moved the spell while I was casting it? But there are spells that you can move! Spells that can home! Why?!* Lily was of course, mistaking the difference between a spell designed to move, and a spell you moved through interfering with an active sigil. Two very different things.

In a split second decision, to help alleviate the rampaging mana in her body, Lily decided to cast a follow-up spell. This was a variation on the paper cut spell focusing more on spread then direct damage. It was only a small variation, and Lily was all but certain she understood the spell well enough to make such a minor adjustment.

A swarm of paper exploded over Swordy’s down form. The woman growled and used her first instance of true qi techniques. A ball of air expanded to cover her form, diverting the paper with ease. At the same time, Lily felt herself cough, her mana NOT calmed by additional casting. A small part of her mind scoffing at the thought that it would ever have worked that way. Lily felt blood welling up in her throat, and she turned around, sprinting for safety.

.....

Lily grabbed Lian, who had been standing, ready to help if necessary. Lian was shaky on her feet and clearly in no position to render much assistance, but the goth was trying dammit, and Lily felt her heart go out to the cultivator. *That’s it. I’m making sure you get out of this as unscathed as possible. Even if I have to do something a bit dumb. You’ve helped Kat and I so much, and the fact that it was mostly for Bing’s sake? Honestly that just makes it better.*

Lian sat heavy on her shoulder now as Lily’s knees creaked when she dropped down from the roof. Lily winced, and started running. She could already feel herself flagging from the effort. Her mana no calmer, and sapping her mental and physical energy just to keep it from acting out. The fact she was low on mana at this point, apparently not doing anything to help the situation at all. The only way Lily could think of to stop the rampant mana now would be to drain herself nearly completely, but then she’d be likely to pass out. Not ideal in the circumstances.

Snow crunched under Lily’s cheap shoes. They weren’t designed for even the light snowfall that coated Bing’s estate. Granted Lily hadn’t packed for winter, but she was very thankful for her tail after the second moment of panic where her foot started to slide on the ice. The third time it happened, she heard Swordy crashed down behind them. Lily winced and glanced back to see what she was dealing with.

Swordy’s arm was still bleeding profusely. Perhaps her paper had anti-coagulation properties? Lily didn’t know but she was thankful for it because Swordy seemed to breathing heavily in the snow even as she charged after them. Swordy also had some minor cuts on the tips of her fingers, and the edges of her clothes. Apparently that bubble of air hadn’t extended quite fast enough to save her completely from injury.

Despite the snow, Swordy was breathing heavily and there was sweat upon her brow. Lily was thankful for that. She felt like she was on her last legs in many ways. Her ideas had… sub-optimal results multiple times in a row now, and that was taking its toll. Swordy looked tired yes, but not exhausted, and Lily felt herself edging closer towards that territory. With her mana freaking out like it was, Lily felt she had perhaps one more good spell in her and that was it.

Lily kept sprinting as fast as she could towards the edge of the cliff. Not really sure what she would do once she got there, but with no better plans then to hope there was a path down she could take. Lily tried to flex her transformation a bit, perhaps encourage wings to grow and let her glide down… but a spasm of her back muscles proved that it wasn’t happening, not while her mana was ravaging her body. Which is why, when they made it to the cliff edge and there was nowhere to go Lily’s mind went into overdrive. The cliff’s edge was sheer, there wasn’t even a deadly looking spike. Just nothing as far as Lily could see, which was to the cloud cover around the place, but that was at least a kilometre down.

“Lian, I’m about to do something dumb. I trust you to keep me alive in the meantime,” said Lily with determination. I just have to figure out what that dumb thing IS first.

“Lily!” shouted a panicked Lian, not really sure how to argue, or what she was even really arguing against.

*Ok. I need to get down, and I can’t summon my wings. I have mana for one good spell, maybe. It’s hard to judge how much mana I have at the moment, the amount seems to spasm and fluctuate when I focus on it. So I’ve got one spell, if I’m lucky. How do I get out of this? It’s not like I can just summon a plane and fly away...*

Unless… fuck maybe it IS possible… “I’m probably going to end up unconscious making this permanent, or as close as I can to that. Lian, make sure to keep us on course!” shouted Lily as she jumped. Swordy was but a moment behind, but the swordswoman skidded to a stop instead of going over the edge.

In mid-air, Lily summoned up her spell, the one that made large sheets of paper, and forced it to bend to her whims. The piece was folded like a giant paper airplane, and wingspan that would put pelicans to shame. Lily grinned, and triggered her transformation, less weight that way.

She fell unconscious just as the air picked up on the wings and they started to glide. *Hopefully we have enough wind to keep us from crashing…*