D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad-Chapter 1498 - A Few Bubbles
--- Kat ---
The next morning the group got going straight away. Over the next few days they ran into a number of bubbles but all were within Bower's expectations. That didn't mean they were entirely safe of course, just that the problems were well known and manageable. Hunter quite happy to grill Bower on the specifics, even if that meant they were making a bit more noise then necessary.
The first bubble they entered that day was a dessert bubble, but more like a dessert snow globe. The sand was pure white, looking more like snow then sand. It lightly drifted down from the sky creating ever growing dunes. This might sound idealistic but it was actually a massive problem, and that's before you got to the animals.
See, the white snow? Even with the grey mist up in the sky? It was blinding. Lily was forced to stay inside of the backpack simply due to their lack of eye protection for her. Kamiko was fine because of her strange pupils. Apparently that translated to a few subtler upgrades for her eyes that didn't usually come up.
Hunter pulled out a set of tinted goggles, both to protect her eyes from the glare and the sand ending up in them. After that second part was pointed out Kamiko took some goggles as well. Her eyes were tough enough to deal with the minor irritation of the sand but it was still quite annoying. Bower was dealing with it using a magical trick, but took a spare pare of goggles when offered.
Kat though, had to make things hard. She knew her regeneration could cover for things like this and was insisting on pushing through. That logic was quickly rejected when Lily whipped out a shadow hand and started to repeatedly smack Kat on her head for her foolishness. Eventually Kat caved and put on some goggles and things were easier after that.
They were attacked by 'giant' sandworms. That's what Bower called them, but everyone except Lily had seem much bigger. They were 'only' about as long as Hunter and slightly wider. Their real threat came from the fact they naturally manipulated sand around them into easily discarded armour. Simply throwing fire at them didn't work, they just didn't die fast enough so everyone had to use their weapons.
Hunter's gun was actually the least effective until she switched over to explosive ammo. Apparently the worms didn't have brains, not like us, so shooting them in the head with a regular sized bullet just slowed them down a bit. Needed something bigger like Bower's crossbow. Though, in fairness, some of the worms that Kamiko and Kat sliced in half kept moving for a while afterwards.
Leaving the Bubble only took around an hour and a half and everyone was quite thankful of that fact… until they ended up in another bubble not fifteen minutes later and the environment in this one was much, MUCH worse.
It was a swampy environment mainly, and the only bit of land the could comfortably stand on was the place they entered the bubble. Everything after that? Brackish swampy water mixed with mud, and the occasional islands of some sort of weird jelly. To the group's shock and horror Kamiko actually tried some…
And apparently it tasted fine? That was another shock. Bower went on to explain that it was sometimes collected and used to seal wounds temporarily after a bit of treatment to get of the crap it collects but it's only moderately effective and smells awful. Which apparently wasn't enough of a reason for Kamiko to avoid trying it.
Hunter continued giving Kamiko weird looks for the entire rest of the bubble. It was fairly safe. Sure the lilypads were so sharp that just bumping into them would slice you open, but Bower warned everyone about them and Kat was able to knock any of the ones that came close away.
The fish were a bit annoying but surprisingly willing to allow passage through their domain. They did swim around you, and Kamiko was very much not comfortable with the situation but it was fine. The flying monsters were more of a problem, but not a serious threat. They were these weird mix between ladybugs and birds.
They had the patterning of a ladybug, thick carapace wings… and they stood on two legs with feathers on their test. They also shot out lazy beams from their mouth…
Which sounds a lot scarier then it was. The beams just made you freeze up for like half a second and then the bird bugs tried to rip into you with their talons and beak… but the feeling was easily fought off for everyone in the group. Except perhaps Lily but she didn't get hit even once so that was fine.
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When everyone made it out of the bubble there was a lot of cheers… but also some annoyance about the smell. For the girls it was simple to resummon their clothing, and both Kat and Kamiko didn't have any of the muck sticking to them due to their Succubus nature…
But Bower and Hunter were not so lucky. Some of the gunk was stuck between Hunter's scales and in Bower's… everything. So a break was called to wash off using their fancy canteens. Kat and Kamiko simple got up on the trees and held them upside down letting the water run over the other two.
A quick bit of food later and off the group went once again. The next bubble they ran into was one filled with mushrooms of all sorts. They were on a particularly large one… and the only way forward was to go down. It was super easy to get through the area though. Technically there were monsters but they all stuck to the bottoms of the mushrooms.
The group was able to make great time simply running across them.
Kat and Hunter did occasionally have to throw Kamiko and Bower over particularly large gaps that would've required facing the monsters had they been less agile, but the mushrooms were soft and neither of the two had any issues with being thrown across. It made for a wonderful afternoon run. It was almost a shame when it cut off after only two and a half hours of progress.
There was some argument after that, if it was time to stop for the day or not. It wasn't time for dinner but if they kept going and found a bubble, it might be a six hour one, and Bower was quite adamant that you didn't want to risk staying inside of a bubble overnight. The mists were a much safer place to sleep apparently.
In the end they decided to err on the side of caution and take a break then and there. It was a good thing they did too. The next day they ended up in another bubble and remained there… for EIGHT HOURS.
Apparently it wasn't the longest Bower had ever experienced, but it was certainly up there. The bubble in question was odder then normal. Instead of a single biome it looked like an ancient ruin from Rome. Big marble pillars all around the place, houses and a few coliseums. The whole works.
There was two main issues. The first was finding the damned exit. They kept heading in the same direction but ended up looping around. It was rather obvious they'd done so because they found Hunter's rather distinct tracks meeting up with them. Bower had no idea what was going on so they started to investigate anything that seemed interesting.
Of course, the monster attacks were a pain as well. That bubble had by far the largest variety of monsters. The first was the harpy creatures that attacked at semi-regular intervals. They were dealt with swiftly… only for some of the marble rubble to not be rubble at all. That was actually rather scary a time or two.
Kat just barely pushed Kamiko out of the way, leading to her get impaled by a weird mix between a hermit crab, mantis shrimp, and snail that wore marble blocks as its attire of choice. It was fast, strong, and potentially quite deadly. The after that was a bit brutal on Kat's side. She'd thrown away her backpack and just tanked a bunch of very lethal looking hits.
The monster was able to launch a spear of what looked like marble at incredible speed from its two claws.
Even Kat wasn't able to move out of the way fast enough if she wanted to keep up on the approach. She just ensured that none of them struck above her neck… which was rather easy. The monsters always seemed to aim for her centre of mass and Kat was able to simply accept those injuries while getting closer.
Hunter's shots did good damage but it was hard to get through whatever their carapace was and the crab-things were smart enough to block.
Luckily they couldn't stand each other, at least according to Bower. It proved true, the only time the group ran into two of them at once they were fighting each other, presumably to the death. The group avoided that fight, as it was much too deadly to get mixed up in.
