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

--- Lily --- (Just as the obstacle course round starts)

Lily instinctively transformed into her Memphis form to attack the barrier and couldn't help but hiss at it as her claws scraped across the odd surface of the barrier. It was almost as though it allowed her claws to dip inside of it slightly so that she could cut it better. A ludicrous idea in concept, but something she could see Thyme considering. With a growl of annoyance Lily swiped hard at the barrier… and it didn't shatter. 

Meowing in annoyance she renewed her assault on the offending block. Lily could feel her mind clouding somewhat. It wasn't… anger so much as it was a pressure that insisted she continue attack the target. That it was now an annoyance that needed to be dealt with rather than just some minor block. It was easy to push the idea aside and ignore it if she wanted… but there was no reason to for now, so Lily let the impulse run wild. 

It seemed to enhance her swipes, there were faster now, cleaner in a way she couldn't quite do consciously yet. Lily felt rather pleased with herself when the barrier eventually shattered and she leapt for the next platform. She was ready to leap again just as her paws touched the ground… only for her to be teleported away. She was off to the side in a massive room taken up mostly by a deep pool of water. The sign in front of her said 'grab the ball at the bottom of the pool'. 

Lily glared menacingly at the water. It wasn't cute, no matter what anyone else said, it was a menacing glare that surely struck fear into the hearts of all the non-existent fish in the water before her. *Dammit. I don't want to swim down there. I'd get soaked and my instincts are screaming at me not to do it. Which, fair, I don't want to carry around waterlogged clothes or fur for the rest of the match… but what can I do?* 

Lily glared at the ball she could see at the bottom and thought for a moment. Pushing some mana into her shadow she scratched her chin as she thought of how she could manage it. The scratching slowed down. Lily paused and looked at the shadow appendage she'd been scratching herself with. *Would that count?*

Lily gave a mental shrug and stretched out a shadow hand that dove into the water, heading straight for the ball… only for it to get stuck part of the way down. Lily looked back and saw that her shadow was now just a long thin string of darkness extending into the water. Hissing at it she tried to push her shadow further. It crept forward at a slow pace but it was moving. She had to pump extra mana into it for every little bit of distance. 

Letting out another hiss Lily moved forward a bit more, getting a close to the edge of the water as she could, giving extra range to her shadowy hand. Eventually, it was just barely close enough and she stretched a finger out of the hand to tap the ball lightly. The next instant she was back on the platform. 

*I'm glad that worked but it took way too much time.* Luckily for Lily the next few platforms didn't stop her and she was able to make good time and head further off to the side. She had a plan. *I'm going to use my paper airplane trick I think. Burnice showed that gliding over things works really well, and if I can go further then her I might even make it to 'the top' before the trigger happens. Though I suppose with that same thing in mind I don't want to go too far lest I end up on the wrong side of the newly formed finish line.*

Lily's progress was eventually stalled by an easy question math question that she was able to answer in less then ten seconds. Barely an inconvenience. The fact that the very next block had another question on it? That was a touch annoying. It read 'How many wings does a golden blip have'. Lily looked at the question for a few seconds. 

*Now… that seems like a really fast bird, just by the name. So it either has two wings like normal, some number of additional wings, or no wings because it's not actually a bird and this is a trick question. Or perhaps one wing? How would that work though… hmm… let's just go with zero. Four might be a good guess as well, but I'll go with zero.* "Meow" said Lily, intending to say zero. 

To her shock, the answer was accepted… somehow. Lily wasn't really sure how that worked. *I wonder if that's because I'm getting the demonic translation from Kat and so I can still talk to people and things with meows or if the enchantment just knew what I was trying to say and worked. Hmm… might be something else to investigate. It does sound interesting… but I've got a lot on my plate at the moment investigation wise.*

A few jumps later and Lily took a quick glance at her competition, only to realise that Marigold was following her for some reason. *Hmm… I wonder what that's about?* Lily didn't have long to ponder because the next platform she was on turned to ice. Lily didn't bother with having her claws dig in and instead just kicked off as soon as possibly flying to the next platform. 

*What the heck was that? We didn't see any fancy platforms until right at the end with the lava one. Grrr, did Thyme mess around with things to make this harder?* Perhaps cursing at Thyme, even mentally, was a poor decision because Lily found herself teleported away to another challenge room just one jump later. At least this one seemed easy, it was just a basic slide puzzle set into the wall. Lily transformed back into her human form and looked it all over. It seemed to be a picture of Thyme in the same outfit they wore for the second round that day. 

With that in her mind, and a decent guess at where the clouds were meant to be Lily quickly got to work. The tiles easily glided around with the slightest push. Once Lily realised that she started to move them with both hands, swapping around everything until she got the answer and vanished. She never realised that the 'slide puzzle' allowed you to take out the blocks and place them somewhere else. Then again, they were quite heavy so Lily's method might have been faster. 

A few more jumps and Lily found herself in a puzzle box with another question about the local wildlife. This one she got wrong so it was time to batter the thing down. Lily moved to the side and attacked the corner so she could look at everyone else while she escaped. Marigold was basically RIGHT THERE. *Oh dear. She's just a platform away from me. Should I… stay as a Memphis? Try to talk? Attack her? Wait she can regenerate and I have tiny baby claws. Wait no that's stupid I've got magic why was my first thought to claw at her? Then again, what's she going to do, cry if I give her a papercut? I could put up paper walls I suppose… those might slow her down somewhat. I could shoot off some shadow bullets? But once again Marigold is pretty tough, I'm just not seeing myself doing all that much damage to her.*

Just before the barrier broke Marigold jumped. Lily tried to stop her attack so the crazy elf would fall, but she couldn't quite retract her claws in time and the barrier shattered. Lily got ready to fight right as Marigold says, "Lily I have come to bargain," Lily stared back. "Well I'm not Kat so you'll need to change back if you're trying to say something with that glare," 

*Is this a good idea? I don't think I can fight her, but… I might be able to run. Then again… I'm not certain of that. Fine whatever lets hear her out.* Lily transformed and said, "Right I'll hear you out," 

"Great! So I know you've got some plan for gliding over the course like Burnice did, and, love the idea. So… I want in. I'm willing to help you out for a bit then we both glide over, how does that sound?" offered Marigold. 

"Um… I'm not too sure how you're supposed to help me here? Really whoever in front is going to be clearing the path, and alternating won't really speed things up," said Lily. 

Marigold shook her head, "No it won't but here's the plan. What we do is continue until the obstacle course starts to curve around on itself and go up. I'll throw you forward in Memphis form to skip platforms, then catch up as your clearing the ones ahead of us. Repeat as necessary. This gets you there faster, as long as you promise to let me ride with you once you get to the top," 

*Well… the platform at the top is a checkpoint and we've just started so…* "Sure, I accept," said Lily.