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

--- Nixilei ---

Nixilei was slowly gaining height, unhappy with the mana cost. Her eyes carefully scanned the skies for Asteodia and Midnight. There was plenty of signs pointing at them both. The cloud cover was thick, and the evidence of their passage was obvious. The problem was working out where they'd ended up. Too many overlapping clouds to tell with ease just from visual inspection alone. 

Nixilei tried to focus on her ears to hear the sound of the turning gears or the propeller on Asteodia's plane, but that was quickly doomed. The sound of whistling wind was muted by the helmet, but still loud enough to drown out the other sounds. *This is a problem. I need to get higher and find out what's happened but that's going to cost mana. It's a trade I'm not happy with, but one I'll accept.*

That's when Nixilei started to hear an odd sound. It was a serious of rapid bursts of air. Certainly something coming from one of the vehicles, but… it was coming from down below? Nixilei glanced down and saw Chartreuse flying back upwards towards her. Half of the glider was still trashed, but it was coming. The whole thing spun wildly every time Chartreuse set off a burst of air… but it was climbing, and climbing fast. 

Nixilei let out a sigh at how much mana this was going to take. Just as the glider wing in good condition passed over her, Nixilei cut the mana to her boots and let herself fall. Tucking in everything carefully she shot down like a cannonball aiming for that same intact part of the glider that was hiding her. 

Just as she was doing so, Asteodia burst out of the clouds next to Nixilei. Nixilei's eyes widened in surprise, but she reacted quickly. She flared her arms and legs letting the wind catch her for just a moment before Asteodia in the plane ploughed forward, catching Nixilei on one of the wings. They continued forward and Midnight burst from the clouds a moment later… straight into Chartreuse. 

Nixilei manoeuvred herself awkwardly until she was 'sitting' behind Asteodia and holding onto the back of the chair to keep herself in place. She could see a few places where the plane had been scratched, but no serious damage had been done yet. "So… um… how's it going?" asked Nixilei over the wind. 

"I'm managing. Midnight isn't the best at using the suit, they've messed up the finger controls at least twice, maybe more times but they are getting better. He managed two attacks on me that only missed because I flew out of the way… and um… I think we're heading back towards the platform? I should probably fix that…" grumbled Asteodia. 

Just as Nixilei was about to comment, Asteodia turned them around, causing Nixilei to need to hold on tightly once again to prevent being thrown off. For now it wasn't worth trying to double up on the seat to complain… but as Nixilei was looking down off to the side she couldn't sworn she saw a flash of something. 

"So what's the plan?" asked Nixilei. 

"Well… how well did you deal with Chartreuse?" asked Asteodia. 

"Pretty well?" offered Nixilei somewhat hesitantly. "I took out one of the glider's wings with a big cut. He's basically out of the contest… but he came back and tried to attack me despite having the wings broken. I know for a fact what he was doing took a tonne of mana… but the fact he was trying at all is weird. If we can get away the mana costs will become too much really quickly. What about Midnight?" 

Asteodia shrugged and explained, "I don't think he hit anything important, and certainly nothing properly. I've been dodging, and his failures in triggering only the one finger have really helped out. Not sure what I could've done if he managed to grab on and slice through one of the wings or something," 

Nixilei registered a sound and her mouth was moving before she properly understood what it was, "Asteodia dodge!" The plane lurched sideways as Asteodia heeded the advice sending them careening sideways and into a barrel roll just as arrows sliced through the air in the plays they'd just been. Moments later a rather spectacular looking sight came flying through, if one that was bound to cause problems. 

Apparently, after colliding, Midnight and Chartreuse had teamed up. The glider now had one wing coated in a layer of darkness that almost seemed to bleed off of it due to the speed, while Midnight hang on the front and Chartreuse steered. "Shit they teamed up!" shouted Nixilei. 

"What are we gonna do?" asked Asteodia. "I thought you said Chartreuse would be out of mana soon?"

"And he WILL BE, Midnight as well judging from the looking of things…" yelled Nixilei. "LEFT," the plane rolled again and Nixilei nearly lost her grip as the plane sent her upside down. It did dodge the arrows coming at them though, as Chartreuse settled the glider into position behind them. "Shit. They can't keep this up for long. Midnight is using his mana to keep the wing in place, and Chartreuse is using it to follow and attack us. I give them five minutes at absolute maximum… but we need to survive that long as well!" 

"Shit that's not good," grumbled Asteodia as she angled the plane down, plunging into a nearby cloud for cover. "If we stick around here fighting them Ellenell is just getting free distance! Five minutes of dodging is a long time, and probably a lot of our own mana. What the heck are we gonna do?" 

"Wait for it… RIGHT!" shouted Nixilei. Asteodia rolled once more dodging a volley of projectiles as they exploded out of the cloud. "I don't know dammit! I'd rather not fight them at all now, but they've teamed up as we have. Escaping would be best… but that would burn up so much mana. My reserves are already down to a bit below half, if you lose all of your mana as well… we'll be in for some tough times," 

The pair continued to dodge the attacks from Midnight and Chartreuse with Nixilei calling out where they were coming from as they went. Things settled into a rhythm, and even let Asteodia formulate a response. "Can't we attack them back at all?" 

"Not worth it!" retorted Nixilei. "It would take too much mana. Heck, I don't even know if I have the mana to catch them, take even one out, and then get back. Sorry but fighting both of them at once is gonna be hard…" 

"What and you think this is easy!" groaned Asteodia. "We're lucky I've worked out the controls on this damned thing. I can only dodge so long before we start taking hits Nix, and it's going to be bad once that happens. If it's somewhere important we could be out of the game then and there," 

"I know that! They can't keep this up forever either though! Their mana has got to be burning like crazy. We don't have to dodge forever, we just have to dodge long enough," stated Nixilei, choosing not to comment on the shortening of her name. Now really wasn't the time. 

"Look, that's fine-" "LEFT" "-but this is getting to be a bit much for me. My arms are shaking, my vision seems to be getting blurry. I don't know why this is so tough on my body, but I'm struggling here Nix. Even if my mana isn't that low. I'm going to need you to either take them out or take over soon," said Asteodia with a frown. 

"Um… are you getting enough oxygen?" asked Nixilei. "If your adrenalines up and your breathing heavy… but we're up quite high. That's my guess. You're running on low oxygen, in which case you're really going to need to- DOWN- find a way to get some more oxygen into you. Oxygen deprivation isn't something I know how to heal I'm afraid, that's a bit too complex for me," 

Asteodia didn't respond and the glider wasn't visible from where Nixilei was sitting. The pair should be above them, but Nixilei couldn't hear them over the wind. Grimacing at what she was about to do, Nixilei pulled herself up and hooked her legs over the side of the cockpit then leaned back to look at the sky above. Nothing. "Shit, they've vanished somewhere," 

"Oh that's just great," grumbled Asteodia. 

Just as that was said, Nixilei whipped her head to the side and shouted, "RIGHT!" Asteodia, now practiced at this, rolled the direction called as the arrows shot through the space they'd just been. This time though, Nixilei wasn't holding on with her arms, but her legs… and the spin really wasn't helping matters. Nixilei fell downwards… just a touch before Asteodia snapped an arm out and grabbed Nixilei by the boot while struggling to control the plane with one hand. 

*Ah shit.*