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

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At this point Meng was just confused. Nobody had risen to her rather biting comment, or tried to attack her in five minutes. This had given her plenty of time to fix the damage from Jian’s attack. Meng was a veteran Rank 4 cultivator. Standing around for five minutes was plenty of time to recover when there was only one issue. Especially when she didn’t need to waste qi keeping herself alive while dealing with mortal wounds. No, it was a simple fix. Meng just couldn’t work out what the plan was.

*Seriously what are they doing? Does Jian think I was just bluffing about being practically immune to his poison mix? Shun’s inaction at least makes sense. He’s just here as support, and doesn’t actually care who wins. He’ll fight me if he has to, but he’s fighting more out of obligation, and has no plans to risk his life on the battle. Jian… this seems a tad personal for him. Apparently I pushed his buttons a bit too much. So what’s the play here? I’m happy to stand around for as long as they like. That’s more time for Bing and Feng to get away.

Oh shit. Bing’s leading the way. Fuck ok, I can’t stick around here once the obscuring illusions I pulled over them run out in a few hours. Bing will be completely lost by that time and anyone with a tracker can head straight for her. Dammit Bing, I love you but how is your sense of direction so bad! Bang thought I’d done something to cause it! It’s that bad Bang thought it was more likely I created a unique and annoying illusion… but she’s just that bad at directions!*

Meng blinked just as a black spot rose up into the sky. Meng couldn’t make out any details from here… but the direction was enough of a hint. That’s probably Kat. How do I get her over here? I can’t just throw up a big illusionary sign because of her stupid Truesight. Do I have like a banner or something in my ring I can make invisible to the others? No… probably not because that might be poking a bit too close to breaking my oath. Making my tongue a bit longer for a gag is one thing… but preventing them from seeing important information might be crossing the line. Hmm… what else can I do?

*How do I get something up into the air that’s easily visible and not all that suspicious?* Meng pondered for a few seconds before she was just about to break out into laughter. *Oh I have a great idea. I wonder if the idiot and his sidekick will notice that I’m doing anything strange.*

Reaching into her storage ring, Meng pulled out an old kite that Bing and Feng had painted for her. It wasn’t the prettiest thing around, but they’d made it back when they were still very young children and Meng loved it all the same. Part of her winced at the idea she was using this as a signalling device. If Jian decided to be a cunt and shoot it just for a laugh she might have to rip out his entrails… but she didn’t have anything better on hand. Kites were common in the sect, but she didn’t keep spares in her storage ring. It wasn’t something that came up usually.

Trying to look normal, Meng unspooled the string a bit, noticing that despite her care the kite had seen better days. The material it was made of held strong, but the string itself was old and yellowed, fraying in places, and just generally in need of replacements. The kite itself had a badly drawn blue and green yin-yang Taijitu. The dots were smeared, and it wasn’t really a circle, but it still warmed Meng’s heart. “Mind if I just fly this kite for a bit? You guys are getting really boring,”

.....

“No, go ahead,” said Shun with a shrug.

“Why are we letting her get away with it?” hissed Jian.

“Because we can’t really stop her?” said Shun.

“Well it’s dumb,” said Jian.

“Not any dumber then trying to attack Meng in the first place. I didn’t have a lot of faith in this plan before, but it is dwindling by the second,” retorted Shun.

Taking their arguing as her chance, Meng threw the kite up into the air and let it catch on the currents. There was plenty of wind here on the side of the mountain, and Meng had no trouble getting it up into the air. A minor fight with the wind for control, and the kite was gliding smoothly up in the air. “Shut up! We still have a plan!” insisted Jian.

“We do? I was under the impression that we were just wasting time,” said Shun.

“Of course we do! How could you forget?!” growled Jian.

“You’re going to have to enlighten me Jian, I genuinely don’t know,” explained Shun with a sad look on his face like he was talking to someone that was slowly, and obviously losing their mind but was too polite to say it.

“Don’t give me that look! I ain’t going to say anything, I’m not letting you trick me into revealing the plan. You just want me to spill the beans so that when we start brawling again Meng goes for me first! I’m on to you,” complained Jian.

“If that’s what you want to think,” said Shun with a smile, “I thought it was those guys Meng knocked out at the start of the fight, and that we were waiting for them to set up some explosive talismans or a restriction array, but I mean… that couldn’t be it… because they’re still unconscious. Hmm… nah, the plan has to be something else… surely you wouldn’t make such an amateur mistake…”

Jian glared and focused on the surroundings to find… Shun was right. They were all still knocked out. “Wait… didn’t you promise not to illusion people?” asked Jian.

“Yeah, but they were trapped before I made that promise? Why would that suddenly let them break out?” asked Meng.

“But don’t you need to keep applying the illusion? Shouldn’t that contradict your oath?” asked Jian.

Meng just stared at him like he was an idiot. *Is… is he serious? I feel like I may have been vastly overestimating his intelligence.* Meng could also now confirm that the dot in the distance WAS Kat, and she seemed to be heading for the kite so that was good. “Jian… you know what? I feel a good deal of pity for you at the moment so I’ll explain, I put them in the illusionary equivalent of a room with a hidden door. I don’t need to throw in toys to keep them entertained, the room does that for me,”

“I thought we got top of the line anti-illusion talismans for this mission,” mumbled Jian. “How come those aren’t working?”

“Jian… where did you get them?” asked Meng already knowing the answer.

“Our organisation supplied them of course. Those things aren’t cheap,” admitted Jian.

“Right… and who is likely to have MADE those talismans?” asked Meng.

Jian had a moment of horror and realisation. “Fuck… you made them didn’t you?”

“Yup,” said Meng, making sure to really pop the ‘p’ in yup.

“But… but it’s been like a century!” whined Jian.

“Yeah? I make good money selling ‘Wind Shield Talismans’ to the organisation in my Meng identity. I’ve kept up with my work, so those ones were likely made sometime in the past year if I had to guess. Why would you think otherwise?” asked Meng.

Jian groaned into his hands. “I don’t even know if I can live with the shame. Like, I know I’m probably not going to get away at this point but can you just do me a favour and kill me now? It’ll be less painful,”

Meng raised an eyebrow. *Is this a bluff to try and get me to break my oath?* “Nah, you can suffer,” said Meng trying not to give away that she was worried Jian might have actually come up with a decent plan there. *If I was a tad more pissed off I might have taken that as an invitation. Sadly I worded my oath poorly, for this at least. Permission to attack is not permission to be illusioned.*

Kat was getting close now, and Meng was pretty sure Kat could find them without trouble so she started to reel in the kite before something happened to it. Technically she was taking an unneeded risk, and a whole slue of her instincts were screaming at just how wrong it was to risk death, or discovery of her hidden ace because she didn’t want to damage a kite… but Meng shut that voice down hard. It was more than just A kite. It was a precious memory of her children and she would risk a hell of a lot more to keep it safe then having her plan go a bit array.

Especially when Meng took into account Kat’s personality. There was very little chance that the demon would just attack the two stooges that were keeping her here. It was much more likely, in Meng’s mind at least, that Kat would ask what was going on, destroying the element of surprise. Annoying, but something Meng would just have to accept.