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

So there Kat was, dragging a headless worm corpse. Well… that is in so far as worms could be said to have heads at all. It was more like the first few sections of the worm’s body which presumably contained the brain. It certainly wasn’t moving anymore but that might have been the massive amount of blood loss, or just the shock of it all. Kat didn’t know, and didn’t think it was important either.

Kat was a little scared of her power at the moment. She didn’t even want to figure out what her new ability was. Just getting her mind around her physical strength was enough of a problem right now. She hadn’t even being trying to punch the worm that hard. Kat wasn’t totally sure… but punching out that giant snake was looking scarily possible right now. If she thought a demon’s strength progression was bullshit before now she was actually somewhat concerned of what it meant for her at Rank 4 and Rank 5.

Kat let the worm drop with a thud as she ducked into the bunker they’d made up. Yang was fussing around Xuena like a worried mother while Xuena herself was carefully rubbing some paste over her wounds. Xiang was still out of it sadly. Yang glared at the two as they entered, but Xuena just gave a slight nod of acknowledgement, recognising that they’d entered but not all that interested in any conversation at the moment.

“So… got this weird worm thing. It’s all fluffy and I sort of destroyed the front section of it… but maybe you guys want it for something?” Kat said uncertainly. The fact that Lily had sniffed the meat and been repulsed heavily implied that there was something wrong with it, but what did Kat really know about qi nonsense.

“Let me see it!” shouted Xuena dropping the bowl she’d been using to hold the paste and rushing passed Kat straight outside. Yang growled, holding the bowl she’d narrowly managed to prevent hitting the floor. They weren’t in civilisation and didn’t have the luxury of wasting medical stuff like that, even if Xuena could make some more. She couldn’t get all the ingredients easily here. Yang scowled again, glaring at Kat as if challenging the demon to say something as she stormed passed them after Xuena.

When Kat got back outside Xuena was zipping around the corpse, making full use of her cultivation to make sure she was covering the whole thing. Xuena ran her hands over the fur, poked the broken and bloody top sections, sliced into a few other places along the worm’s body and cut of a slice of bone to sniff it. All while ignoring the slowly leaking blood coming from her own wounds. “Dammit… sometimes I wonder why I fucking bother…” growled Yang as she walked over there at a completely human speed, waited for about half a second then somehow managed to catch Xuena mid dash by the neck. “STOP OPENING YOUR WOUNDS”

Xuena froze in Yang’s arms and quickly checked herself over all the while confirming that yes, she had indeed been opening them. “Oh… well it’s not so bad. I mean… this is a fascinating specimen and it’s not even dead yet!” cheered Xuena.

“Wait what do you mean it’s not dead yet?” asked ‘Lily’. The Memphis in question was using Kat to translate again, not really wanting to leave the warmth of Kat’s arms just to ask. Yang of course shot a ‘Don’t you dare encourage her’ look straight at Kat, who flicked her eyes downward, revealing the true culprit. Yang gave Lily the same look, and even pushed a bit of sunlight into her eyes to make them glow. Lily just looked at Xuena like she didn’t notice the angry woman looming in the background.

.....

Xuena, unaware of the anger building in the friend standing behind her, was happy to explain before she saw to her own injuries. Apparently the sharing of knowledge was more important. “So this here it’s what’s no as a nascent frost worm. It’s not actually the baby form of a frost worm, but I guess because they’re Rank 2 and someone else found these big frost worm before they had to go with a different name. Not to be confused with a frost WRYM, much scarier.

“ANYWAY. These guys are known for being the hardiest of Rank 2 spirit beasts because of their insane regeneration. The speed isn’t all that great, for that you need to go looking for heartroot vine plants, or some equivalent, but these guys can survive nearly anything as long as they’re body is mostly intact. They are somewhat rare but I guess this is a good environment for them. Oh and they NEED ice qi for some reason. Nobody really figured that one out yet. At least, from what I’ve read.

“ANYWAY… AGAIN… they can grow back from nearly nothing and if the cut is too clean down the middle or something they can grow into two separate worms. Which… might sound good for like… food and stuff but they take a lot of frost qi in to do so and they don’t actually grow larger, just… one gains a tail and one gets a control centre. Which… that’s another thing. They don’t TECHNICALLY have brains, not like a lot of other things do. They have a control centre.

“It’s why the worm is just sitting there at the moment. It doesn’t know how to do anything else at the moment except cultivate to fix itself. Oh, that and it has three hearts. Um… hmm…” Xuena examined the gory sight behind her, “that one might only have two… depends on if you clipped the third heart or not… but it does look old enough for three… hmm… no I’m getting distracted again.

“My point being is that I should be able to cobble something together to heal all my wounds, boost my cultivation… maybe all the way up to Rank 2 actually… and maybe heal Xiang? I’m not sure how compatible he is with ice qi or what the damage is exactly… but those hearts are GREAT ingredients. I mean sure it’ll also cause some minor malnutrition and I have the potential to explode if I make the qi absorption too efficient but really that’s nothing to worry about,” babbled Xuena.

Yang glared at her friend. “Xuena. What’s the FIRST rule of cultivation?”

“Don’t insult someone stronger then you without proper backing?” returned Xuena.

Yang slapped her friend over the head. “NO! It’s ‘Don’t absorb an energy field bigger then your own for quick power!\'”

Xuena glanced carefully at the worm. “I don’t really think that’s a thing is it? Sure that worm is more powerful then me, by a considerable margin of course… but despite having shockingly impure qi for a Rank 2 creature that’s actually a benefit in my case. Makes it less likely I’ll explode… and I should have time to work it slowly into my foundation…”

Yang sighed. “Xuena… you haven’t cultivated in months and you want to boost all the way up to Rank 2?”

“But the materials are RIGHT THERE Yang. Sure everyone says it’s a bad idea but they just aren’t as good at alchemy. I mean do you know how much money I’d have to spend just to get a heart from one of these things? Let alone the extra costs of an ice qi area to cultivate in that was safe and that’s not adding in the other ingredients I might need. Having the still living corpse here, letting me use the beating heart of it will help so much!” Xuena said excitedly.

“Why are you suddenly rushing your cultivation?” groaned Yang.

“Well you might not be able to sense it but you’re on the cusp of Rank 2 yourself Yang, have been for a while. I’m not sure what sort of push you’re waiting for. Probably me… actually yeah that makes sense. A heart demon revolving around my capture? That’d do it. Also, I was just kidnapped so I need to power up right?” Xuena explained.

“Why do I feel like you’re just coming up with that argument after the fact, and not because you actually care about the fact you were kidnapped…” sighed Yang.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Xuena and Kat felt her eye twitch, hard.