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

--- Lily ---

Lily and Marigold were returned to the platform where they eyed March suspiciously. A quick glance behind showed Kat climbing out of the bowl. Against her better judgement, Lily stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend. Kat flashed a glare back… but she also didn't have any long ranged attacks without her demonic fire, so Lily wasn't at risk. Yet. 

"So what's the plan here?" asked Lily. 

"Want to work together and go for a tie?" asked Marigold. 

"Not saying no… but why go for a tie?" asked Lily. 

"Because it has occurred to me that it will be so much funnier. March will be annoyed she lost… or that she didn't think of teaming up. Kat will be annoyed that I won with you, and Vanya will be annoyed you won with me. Thus we not only win, but annoy everyone else! It's perfect," said Marigold with a smile. 

"I'm not sure Kat will care but sure, I don't have anything against it," said Lily with a shrug. *If she tries to betray me I can just use my shadow to touch the finish line. I've already seen that my shadow counts as 'touching' something for the purpose of the tasks, so it shouldn't be any difference for the last point.* "So what do we do about March?" 

"Hmm… that's a bit tougher. Not sure I want to poke that bear if we don't have to… you got any spells to push her off the edge?" asked Marigold… while March listened in. She was tired yes, but that didn't stop her ears working in the slightest.

Lily thought on the question, turning back to see Kat had vanished into a challenge room, so they had at least some time to plan this all out. "Not really," admitted Lily. "I mean… I've got attacks sure but for someone like March… I'm not even sure how much real damage they'd do. Honestly the best idea I have is just using my shadow to reach over and try to push her off… but my shadow isn't all that strong over long distances," 

"Right… well we could just go around her?" offered Marigold. 

"I'm all for that plan," agreed Lily. With that confirmed Lily transformed and hopped up onto Marigold's shoulder. Marigold bent her knees and jumped over to the checkpoint, aiming slightly off to the side. As she did so, Lily stretched her shadow downwards, ready to tap the platform. 

That's when March moved. With a swiftness that seemed to contradict her inflated muscles she rose to her feet and went for a palm strike against Marigold's solar plexus. Marigold brought her arms down to block and was moments away from being sent flying when Lily's shadow reached the platform below. Lily forced it to skate across the ground and grab onto March's legs. 

In a single moment, a slew of things happened. March's palm made contact, cracking Marigold's bones slightly, though the elf was unconcerned about the damage, no the real problem was being knocked away. Luckily, Lily had her shadow wrapped around March's legs and was digging her claws into Marigold's shoulder, mentally apologising for the rough treatment despite Marigold's unique relationship with pain. 

Instead of flying backwards, Marigold's legs flew up and around as if she was doing a front-flip. Marigold had enough of her wits about her to ensure her feet came down hard on March's shoulders… but the mountain of a woman hardly seemed moved. The two almost seemed to hover in the air for a moment before Lily started to reel them both in. March acted quickly, swinging her arms around to attempt to break Marigold's knees. 

Seeing this and reacting quickly Marigold pulled herself forward letting intercepting the chops with her partially healing arms. They cracked and broke from the force but Marigold was unconcerned. She flipped herself around using only her legs, getting behind March and kicking the woman in the back. Lily released March from her shadow letting Marigold move as she wanted. 

March didn't do more than take a single half step forward before whipping around with a large fist aiming not for Marigold, but for Lily. Panicking at this, Lily summoned three paper shields in front of her, draining her magic massively but eating most of the impact from March's fist. 

At the same time Marigold's feet hit the ground, acquiring the checkpoint. That was enough. It was clear that even with Lily's help March was a dangerous combatant. Perhaps not unbeatable… but Marigold knew it would require going for potentially lethal strikes. With no idea of how closely Thyme was watching, the elf wasn't going to risk such deadly attacks just for a friendly competition. She doubted Lily would go for it either. 

Which meant there was only one choice. RUN AWAY. 

Marigold didn't have time to turn around and run properly, so instead she leapt backwards with all the force she could. In normal circumstances she might have fallen short. In these? She had Lily to help. Lily could see they were falling short and leapt first, transforming in the air. Just as Marigold was about to slam into the next platform, Lily reached a hand down to the elf. 

Marigold grasped Lily's hand and yanked herself up, nearly pulling Lily over in the process. Still, they made it to the next platform… but not away from March. The heavy-set hero landed rather lightly on the platform next to them and sent a kick straight for Marigold's face. Lily panicked, wanting to throw up more shields but stopped short. That would drain her already low mana reserves and Marigold… well frankly Marigold could take it. 

Lily, in a moment of clarity transformed back into her Memphis form and held on. Marigold tanked the impact right on the face and went flying away. March didn't hold back at all… which was a good thing in this case as Marigold spun around and flew all the way over to the nearby platform. When she touched it a puzzle box sprang up around them and Lily let out a sigh of relief. 

Quickly transforming she checked Marigold over. "Um… shit, you're ok right?" asked Lily. 

"Welp, I sertainly hav a concushion, it shall heel soon on its' own. Do not be the worried," slurred Marigold. It did not reduce Lily's worry at all. 

"Um… shit, is there anything I can do to help?" asked Lily. 

"Nah," said Marigold already sounding a lot better. "Just gotta give it a bit and I'll be alright. Head wounds are tricky things, you can't just rush into healing those or you get even more problems. I should be… alright soon. My arms aren't broken anymore and my nose should be fixed in a second," 

"Wait… you pulled yourself up onto the platform with BROKEN ARMS!" hissed Lily. 

"We've got bigger issues now," said Marigold, waving off in the vague direction of March, who was glaring at them. 

"Yeah… what's the plan here?" asked Lily. 

"Honestly… I'm not sure. March is strong, stronger then I thought admittedly. Especially after she seemed so exhausted. I'm not saying we couldn't win in a fight…" Marigold said slowly. "At the same time… I feel like we'd lose a bunch of time, and I'm not sure we could win without going for a lethal strike, and I'm not sure Thyme is watching us closely enough to prevent it being actually lethal," 

"Yeah…" said Lily uncomfortable. "That's a good point. Um… what should we do?" 

"Wait for Kat to deal with her?" suggested Marigold as she wiped the blood from her eyes. 

Lily looked over to where Kat should be… and saw nothing. "Huh… she's not around at the moment," said Lily. "I guess she's in a puzzle room. Not sure if that's the same one she entered earlier, if she should be out soon," 

"Damn… so what's the plan here?" asked Marigold. 

"I don't know? I mean we could always run sideways, or we could try to work our way forward… honestly I'm not really sure. If I had more mana I'd try to put up enough paper shields to stop March jumping between platforms but I don't have the mana for more than one shot… or perhaps not even that," explained Lily. 

"Right… well… hmm… should we punch this barrier a bit to get it to stay around longer? I'm healed but I don't think I'm ready to fight March again just yet. If she's just going to sit there and stare at us we could wait until something changes things up. Either Kat arriving, or the 'end game' triggering," 

"No faith in Vanya?" asked Lily with a slight smirk as she tried to lighten the mood. 

"Nope. As spectacular a she might be in bed, she's clearly the physical inferior to both Kat and March. She'll catch up eventually, but not in time to help," said Marigold. 

*I suppose I set that one up a bit too well. Really I only have myself to blame for that one.*