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

Kat wasn’t entirely sure why it took so long, the announcer waited for Lian to completely throw off Beatrice AND return to her full sitting height afterwards. “Lian is the winner!” shouted the announcer. “A short intermission between matches will occur before you see the final match in this arena. Please be back within twenty minutes!”

Kat’s group didn’t really have a reason so they just sat in place and waited for the next match. “Lian looked like she did so well in that match… but she was exhausted by the end so I suppose it was closer then it seemed,” said Kat to get the conversation going.

“Indeed. I guess those metal poles aren’t very qi efficient. That or Beatrice was able to force Lian to burn a extra qi with that barrier or by smashing into the metal poles for a while. It’s unclear really, but that exists as a possibility as well,” answered Sue.

“I don’t think Beatrice was expecting that knife at the end either. Heck, I wasn’t expecting the knife. Lian has shown her main weapon is an instrument, and sure, it makes a lot of sense she’d have a backup weapon of some kind but I just wasn’t expecting it. Everyone else seems to have one thing, and one thing only that they focus on,” said Kat.

The conversation looked like it was about to stall out there. Kat and Lily were new to this world of violence and action, while Sue just had no interest in that side of things. With Bing here, they could ask questions, and learn more, which was fun… but with just the two of them? It was actually quite difficult to discuss the previous match.

As if called by these thoughts, the door swung opened and Bing rushed in and took her spot near Sue. She had what looked like a rice crispy made of nuts in her mouth and three more held in her hands. She had a bruise right next to her right eye, and her outfit had seen better days but she was smiling, so presumably she’d won her matches. “Hrgh grys” said Bing with her mouth full. Apparently the translation only did so much to help make someone with food in their mouths intelligible.

Which of course meant Kat, as someone used to little children, knew exactly what was said, “Hello to you too Bing. It’s good to see you back. I take it you won both of your matches?” answered Kat.

Bing nodded, swallowing what she had in her mouth and balancing the rest of her food on her knees, “Yup. First match was actually tougher then the second. The other girl was a bit too focused on punching my face, so I just let get me in the eye and cut of her leg in response,” the other’s winced but Bing continued, “Oh she’ll be fine. It was a clean cut and I don’t have anything in my kit to prevent her healing properly.

.....

“Her leg will just feel a bit funny for a while and she’ll probably have a scar from it, a mental one if not physical, but probably both if I had to guess. It shouldn’t cause her any issues unless it becomes a heart demon… but she was on the one trying to take out my eyes so I can’t find it in me to be all that sorry for whatever issues she develops from that. So… what have I missed?”

Kat quickly caught her up on Beatrice and ‘John Doe’s’ matches then went into much greater detail to recount what happened during Lian and Beatrice’s match. “… so I have to ask, what kind of qi does Beatrice have?”

“It has to be either healing or blessing… if she’s really lucky maybe both?” answered Bing before taking a few more bites of her food.

“Really? She… doesn’t seem to have the personality for that…” mumbled Kat.

Bing shrugged, “Most people fit their elements but some people really don’t. It’s hard to say. Could be trauma, could be luck of the draw. Could be that she took to her affinity a bit too well and went around the bend. Might be the cultivation technique she uses isn’t meant for her affinity and that’s the side effect, or that it was designed to turn Blessing and Healing users into monsters. It’s happened before, and it will happen again. With basically every affinity.

“Blessing and Healing aren’t all that special. Or well… they are because of what they represent but it’s quite possible to heal or ‘bless’ with other affinities. It’s just easier for people like Beatrice… or well… people with affinities like Beatrice. She seems like a psychopath, and I’d have mixed feelings about letting someone like that operate on me… but at least I know she wouldn’t hesitate to do what needed to be done… as long as she wanted to do it. Which would be the big hang up.”

“Right,” said Kat. “I guess I can see what you’re saying. Do you know anything about Beatrice?”

“Not really?” said Bing with a shrug, “She wasn’t out our little get together the other night so I can’t say I’ve met her. Might have heard about her? But I wouldn’t have known her name, and I can only really guess what she can do based on what you’ve told me,”

“How about you tell us about Lian then?” said Sue, “How do you think she did in her last match?”

“Pretty well… but I think she overestimated the bloodthirstiness, or meatheaded-ness of Beatrice. Those black metal poles? They help her project a curse that acts a lot like a trampoline. More force in, more force out… but it doesn’t stop projectiles only people and it takes a lot of qi to maintain. I’m not entirely sure that Lian can recover in time for her match against Bodeir, well assuming Bodeir wins his next match against John that is.

“See, I’m pretty sure she was overdrawing herself at the end, especially with that improved return-to-sender rock attack. It was really her only option, and I don’t doubt that she needed to try it to win… but those black pillars can only be used every so often, it’s one of the restrictions placed on the ‘curse’ she uses to make them operate. So they’re out. Plus, as I said I don’t think she can recover all her qi in time,” explained Bing.

“Does that take a while?” asked Kat, “Regenerating qi that is. I tend to regenerate my demonic energy quite quickly. In fact, just this intermission would be more than enough for me to go from zero to full,”

Bing nodded, “Yeah it does take a while. Qi… it likes to clump together. So it takes a lot more time and effort to go from 0-10% then it does to get from 80-100%. Every cultivator knows they need to keep a bit of a reserve at the bottom of their wells just to allow them to regenerate it in a reasonable timeframe if necessary. I’m thinking Lian is down to 1 or 2% total reserves and she’ll be mentally exhausted at this point.

“I can’t see her getting above 50% before her next match even though she’ll have at least an hour, maybe two hours if she’s lucky. That’s not even considering the fact that as cultivators we use qi to keep ourselves in top shape, it’s just a little bit… but if she’s already emptied her well of power… then what little she takes in might just go to shoring up her body instead of into her pool to let her collect more,”

“It wasn’t the wrong choice necessarily… as I said earlier she probably had to go about it this way to win. Beatrice would’ve danced around her mines, smashed through her regular shield, and beat the shit out of Lian, possibly crippling her before the match could be called,” said Bing

“The proctor did wait an awfully long time before giving Lian the win…” offered Sue.

“Yeah, fucking pricks. A lot of people still don’t like that Lian is so high up in the sect with curse affinity. See it as bad luck, and ‘undesirable’. Probably thought it was too small of a matter for me to lean about with my match on. Well jokes on him! I’m going to find that announcer later and break a finger or two for that kind of shit. But yeah…

“If Lian let Beatrice attack her directly the proctor would’ve let her get really hurt, so while it does mean her chances at the later rounds aren’t great… better then being crippled or dead. So I’m happy with her performance,” said Bing.