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

--- Kat ---

Kat glared at Nixilei for a few seconds before sighing. "Right, that was suitably dramatic and ominous so please, enlighten us about how likely it is?"

"Ah… well," Nixilei glanced around. "You want the full explanation or just the raw numbers?"

"I'm guessing we're going to spend a while puzzling over this regardless so… fuck it just give me the full story. It will allow you all a chance to prepare for the battle to come," said Kat.

Lily purred gratefully and jumped up into Kat's cleavage and swiftly fell asleep. Kat rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's antics. At the same Green picked Gareth up from Kress and walked them both over to the nearby wall. She lent Gareth gently against the wall and then sat down next to him with her head on his shoulder and fell asleep as well. Kress shrugged at that and just sat down in place.

Nixilei nodded at this as if everything was now right in the world and started to explain. "Right so… where to start? I guess with the development of those type of wards? See everyone quickly worked out that you can make a really strong barrier but if it takes too much damage in a single hit it will either break or 'crack'. A swift buildup of 'cracks' and the whole thing will break.

"The answer to this problem was to place large metal blocks inside the shields to absorb some of that extra energy. It worked really well… for a time. Eventually the block can't store any more and the whole thing explodes. For some reason it seems to explode with more energy then the hits deliver but that might just be a perception issue.

"After the first waves of fatalities, they became used for more… deniable assets. This led them to be banned as part of the treaty that stopped the war… but it's been a while since that happened and it's actually pretty easy to disguise the use of them. Now some people still don't want anything to do with them, and the elves especially have long memories.

"Not to mention the other limiting factor is that they're fucking expensive. The metal blocks used have to be high quality, completely pure and made of an appropriately strong metal. You can't just shove basic iron or steel in as the energy sink and have it work. You need something like mithril, and not a small amount either. The annoying part? If it blows then you lose most of the metal,"

*Is that where the extra power from the explosion comes form then? The missing mass? Because if SO then it's a much worse idea to hit this then I thought it would be.* "I'm still sensing a 'but' there though," said Kat.

"Yeah that's because there is one. Sure the price of such a block is enough to completely bankrupt several noble families… this is probably the second richest in the elven lands, especially if you just look at is as a city instead of the whole county. If anyone was going to have the money for it… it would be these guys. Which is offset by the fact they have multiple jails so…"

"Right…" Kat nodded. "So what are the chances that this one has it?"

"Eh… something like 10%? At a very rough guess? I'm all but certain the city has the money for it… but I don't know enough about the rulers to say if they'd install one or not… or more likely, that their predecessors installed one and they didn't bother removing them. The blocks do bleed energy over time so if you let them rest they can normally take even more of a beating later. It's usually worth keeping around the ones you already have… and the fact there are so many layers to the protections on the jail are a might suspicious," offered Nixilei.

"Just great," sighed Kat. "So what do you suggest?"

"Eh… well… we're not too worried about the fac they're building up forces outside," Nixilei gestured to the swarm of guards that was currently evacuating citizens and setting up defences. They were currently working on placing down brick walls from expanded bags. In theory, kinda worrying. In practice they weren't even high enough to prevent Nixilei from jumping over them yet so she wasn't sure what the point was.

Nixilei continued, "Honestly the safest bet is just to wait an hour or two for the shield to go down. This sort of heavy duty warding is killer on the materials unless they are beyond top quality. These wards are for 'active siege' rather then the 'heavy load' ones they apparently had up earlier.

"These are here mostly to give time for the powerful defender's to rush into position and I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting ready to head over here or are just hiding a street over or something so we can't work out a plan based on which one is going to show up. We should be fine though, as I think you can hold your own against all three at once if they all show up together,"

"Really?" asked Kat.

"Yeah they're nothing special from my research. Powerful sure but nothing compared to a demon… and if they start playing dirty you can just burn an arm or two off. I'm sure the city will pay to have them healed," said Nixilei with a careless shrug.

"That seems… a little brutal," offered Kat. "Oh and should we do anything about the guards still in here? Like, tie them up or something for when they wake back up?"

Nixilei cracked her knuckles, "Oh I'm sure they've learn their lesson well enough not to try and stop us… but if they haven't I can make sure to give them a bit of extra tutoring,"

"Right… and the brutality?" asked Kat.

"Meh, they'll heal. I'm not feeling super happy with them after they tried to have me tortured and kept Gareth up all night. I mean, don't get me wrong it wasn't much of a torture attempt and I AM fine but it's the principal of the thing. This sort of shit crosses so many lines that it's definitely causing a political shitstorm after the tournament wraps up. Thyme might get involved, might not but it is NOT looking good for what's likely going to be a lot of people.

"Honestly the Ladies of the place chose a really bad time to leave the city… unless this was all cleared with Auctifer beforehand. Though if it WAS cleared with him and he hasn't sent anyone to help out yet he's probably going to end up in some diplomatic hot water as well," explained Nixilei.

Kat sighed. "And it won't cause more problems if I injure them?"

Nixilei shrugged. "I have no idea how hard that sort of thing would be to heal but… honestly I can't bring myself to care all that much either. I'm sure that someone will be willing to heal them for the political clout if nothing else as long as they're not a complete moron about it. Might require a bit more to be cut away first, but then again… maybe they shouldn't be helping to break half a dozen international agreements,"

Kat frowned at that for a few moments before her brain let a few things click into place. Nixilei was a spy. She knew that she could be caught one day with all that implies on the table. It's what she wasn't saying that was important. Nixilei was concerned for Green, and probably Gareth as well. The fact that Green had been imprisoned despite not actually DOING anything, AND being nobility AND being here for an internationally recognised tournament? That's a pretty big hit to her understanding of the world…

And Kat didn't know what to say in response. Nixilei seems to have chosen violence for hers. *And I'm not sure how cool I am with that. I mean, the fact she wants me to go along with it. I… can't find it in myself to be annoyed or even disappointed with her personal reaction. It seems pretty justified and I can see myself doing the same thing.* Kat let her thoughts drift for a few moments as she carefully ran her fingers through Lily's fur.

*At the same time… the guards did try to kill Lily more than once. They didn't get even close to succeeding… but they did try. That seems like a pretty damn good reason to commit some violence. Though… on the other hand these new guards didn't have anything to do with it and whoever I end up fighting isn't likely to have had anything to do with it either…

On the other hand, they might actually be able to take a bit of a beating and this whole scenario has been pretty aggravating. I might not be willing to burn away their arms, or well, freeze and shatter their arms for it… not if I don't have to… BUT some good old fashioned punches to the face might still be on the table!*