D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn’t so Bad - Chapter 1022

Beatrice and Lian walked out onto the stage, Lian had replaced… or repaired her outfit between rounds. It looked the same… minus the burnt areas of course. Lian seemed fine… though if there was any scaring it was hidden by her long sleeves. Kat hoped it wasn’t an issue but it really was impossible to tell.

Beatrice looked impeccable at the end of last round, with none of her clothes being ruffled or hair out of place… but seeing her walk back in a few things became clear. The blood on her knuckles hadn’t been washed off, and both of her shoes were cacked with dried blood. It really didn’t make her like anything other than a complete psychopath. Which… she might well have been. A line of blood had been drawn across her cheek for some reason, but her hands were clean. For now.

When the announcer called out for the start of the round Lian reacted immediately. Instead of her hordes of dots, six thick metal beams appeared from her storage ring and formed the points of a hexagon. Lian sat down quickly after they were placed and started to strum. The pillars all lit up and started to faintly suck in the nearby light to fuel the reaction. The ground then flashed black before sinking into the stone beneath Lian’s form.

Beatrice sprinted forward, a wicked grin on her face as she charged in, ready for anything… but Lian sent nothing against her. No swarms of dots. No mines. Beatrice made it to the pillars in not time flat. Instead of stopping, she brought up a glowing golden barrier and charged straight at Lian.

Lian didn’t react, even as Beatrice passed through the pillars. For a moment, Kat felt her breath catch in her throat as Beatrice’s fist reeled back, ready to strike at Lian… that was, until Beatrice was launched back at high speed. Beatrice flipped in mid-air, and launched that punch she’d been building up towards the sky, forcing her into the ground and killing most of the momentum she’d been thrown with.

The ground cracked as Beatrice slammed into the stonework floor. Silence rang out over the battlefield as even Lian stopped her strumming. The announcer was leaning over to try and see into the hole Beatrice had dug herself into. It didn’t take long to see the results of that. Beatrice hand clawed out of the hole, each finger breaking through the stone like Styrofoam as she pulled herself up.

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Except, as she stood up, her eyes were burning with a manic fire. The creepy grin that spread its way across Beatrice face did not bode good things for anyone. Despite potentially being injured, Beatrice seemed rather pleased with this turn of events. Beatrice patted her outfit down to smooth out some wrinkles before glowing slightly and dashing forward a second time.

Lian started to strum a few more notes on her zither but Kat couldn’t see what that was actually doing for her at this time. Beatrice charged all the way up to the hexagon, and this time, instead of charging through, she puled her leg back and kicked the pillar. The sound of metal on metal rung out, backed by Beatrice’s laughter that was leaking from her mouth. The pillar looked completely undamaged. Beatrice’s foot much less so. She’d used the top of her shoe, which was somewhat armoured, but not the metal tips. This meant that there was a visible dent in the shoe… and such a dent was deep enough to mean there was a dent in Beatrice’s foot as well.

The foot in question started to glow, and the shoe rose back up again. *Is she… is she healing herself? Does Beatrice, the batshit crazy psychopath… have a healing affinity!* Perhaps she did, perhaps she did not. Regardless of the truth, Beatrice unleashed a flurry of blows on the pillar, hoping for it to do some damage. It did… just not to the metal. Instead, it was Beatrice’s own hands that were bloody, the skin having been torn off at some point during the assault. A flash of light, brushed across Beatrice’s limbs, then dimmed.

The idea she was a healer seemed more likely… but the blood didn’t just go away when her hands were ‘healed’ so it was hard to say for certain. On the ‘bright’ side it seemed that Beatrice had decided her method of attack wasn’t working and took a few steps back. Lian once again paused in her song and just let whatever it was happen.

Beatrice slammed her foot into the stone, breaking it into pieces before bending over and grabbing one of the fist size chunks. With perfect form, she threw the weight as if she was throwing a shotput ball. The piece of dirt in question sailed through the hexagon, impacting on Lian’s shoulder, who hadn’t moved to dodge.please visit panda(-)N0ve1.co)m

Beatrice grinned. It didn’t seem to have done much damage… but she could work with that. Beatrice set about destroying the top layer of the arena and giving herself a large amount of ammo to work with. After carving a line from one end of the arena to the other, Beatrice started hurling stones and Lian without stopping, always aiming for Lian’s zither or her hands.

Lian realised this quickly, and strummed one last note before putting the weapon behind her. Once that was done, Lian intercepted the stones with her hands. They seemed to flash white, likely neutral qi, every time a stone hit. Lian was fine with this arrangement. Every rock thrown was one more that Beatrice didn’t have access too.

As the hailstorm continued, Lian started to build a bit of a rock pile next to herself, but she wasn’t doing anything with them for the moment. Her left and right sides were completely filled with stones. Just to be a bit petty about it, Beatrice threw a few of the smaller rocks at the piles, breaking them down into nothing. Lian just shrugged at this and kept blocking the assault.

This kept up until Beatrice had cleared out the entire lines worth of stones. Many were now surrounding Lian, many more had rolled away, and a few missed completely and ended up being thrown from the arena. Beatrice was quite skilled… but she was very much rushing these throws.

Beatrice took a moment to breathe, levelling a grin at Lian for the challenge presented and was about to get started on another row of stones, Lian clicked her fingers. It was much louder than it had any right to be. It sounded almost like a gunshot had gone off in the arena. It was only a few, those with exceptional hearing, that heard Lian whisper “Return to sender”

Then, all of a sudden the rocks glowed with a dark, purple light and shot off towards Beatrice. She smiled and met the first lot head on, slamming her fists into the rocks, thinking she’d just smash them to pieces. The first rock did not yield, in fact, Beatrice found her fist pushed back slightly. Beatrice’s eyes went wide, as she tried to comprehend the newfound solidness of the rock.

Before she could think too deeply on it though, a bunch more rocks started slamming into her. It was too late to brace properly, the rocks just kept coming, slamming into seemingly every available part of Beatrice’s body until she was brought down low from a few hits to the knees. It wasn’t enough to break them, but it was enough to stumble her, and then the continued barrage of rocks bring her down to the ground. The pile continued to grow until all the rocks were spent.

Lian was clearly panting at this point. Her black outfit soaked with sweat. Her makeup running down her face. Lian nearly fell backwards, only her two arms stopped her from collapsing completely onto the stone. It seemed she still wanted to remain sitting in place.

Then the rocks started to shake, and rumble. Lian frowned, a moment before Beatrice burst forth from the pile of rocks. Her outfit had definitely seen better days, and she had a large cut above on of her eyes that was making it hard to see, but Beatrice’s smile hadn’t faded at all. Charging forward once again, Lian looked rather panicked. She didn’t move, but it was clear she wasn’t happy about this.

When Beatrice got to the metal pillars, instead of stopping the charge, they shattered. Beatrice’s grin got wider. A number of watchers were surprised that was even possible. Beatrice’s arm cocked itself back and was ready to slam into Lian… when suddenly, a quick flash and Beatrice found a knife buried in her chest. Beatrice paused mid motion with a frown. A flash of light across her chest seemed to splutter and die. For the first time in the match Beatrice frowned… and then fell forward on top of Lian.