D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 1371: Whirling Thoughts

?— March —

The whirlpool spun up quickly, much faster then March had guessed it would. Perhaps it was a simpler matter to up the speed then it was to start at all. Through this, March was able to keep an eye on Blue. She had a look of concentration on her face as one large sigil helped her keep the spell running. Blue would also, very occasionally throw more weapons into the whirlpool but for the most part, it seemed like most of her concentration was on maintaining the construct.

Of course in truth Blue was trying to fight through the pain of being punched in the face while making sure that the whirlpool didn’t allow any random items to escape at the bottom. The spell was designed to create a ‘normal’ whirlpool with things gathering in the middle and being driven down into the ground. That wasn’t really going to work here so Blue was improvising.

March, unaware of those details, was simply doing her best to travel around the whirlpool without getting hit. Always dodging towards the outer edge so that she wasn’t at risk of being sucked down the middle. It was quiet mana efficient on the surface… but March was wasting energy, unused to using her steam in short bursts like this. Every dodge was taking about twice the mana your average mage would need for it, and about six times the amount of mana that someone practiced in the technique would need.

At the very least, it was less mana then Blue was using right now… though with Blue’s higher reserves perhaps things evened out. Only time would tell. For now the two were in an odd sort of stalemate with neither making any real progress. March was sure that trying to escape the whirlpool was harder then it looked… and she would be right. The spell might not be perfect but it did have pieces in place to hold someone in the whirlpool itself. On the other side of things though, Blue was struggling to keep it all working and it was costing more mana then she could really afford to lose. At this rate, she’d be the one to run out of mana first… but she had no better ideas and it was at least keeping March off her for now.

As March was spinning around, she was considering her options. *So… what do I have here. I could start picking stuff up and throwing them at Blue? Not a horrible idea, but not as good as it could be. We’re underwater after all. I’d need to throw things only when I’m right next to her otherwise it won’t have the power… and she will probably have the time to block.

I could also try to free myself. It might be hard or impossible with just my steam… but that one ring of mine seems to be a short teleport. Very handy… but likely not something you can use in quick succession. The question is. Does ‘quick succession’ mean you get a jump every thirty seconds or so… or every thirty minutes.

There’s no doubt in my mind with Thyme taking part in the creation that they could get the time down to seconds… but such a thing would be close to priceless and?I’m not sure it’s something Thyme would hand out in a game like this. Not to say Thyme isn’t generous… but there’s a difference between ‘useful spatial artifact’ and ‘Legendary item countries would give you a noble title for’.

So let’s go with the assumption that the cooldown on this ring is at least a few minutes, because it was ridiculously cheap mana wise. There’s no way I was paying extra mana to help force the teleport through. It was smooth as silk, and I hardly had time to blink. Which means… that either the enchantment sucks in a bunch of ambient mana… or it’s just that good.

I suppose that’s another question. Did the enchanter bother to put a limiter on it? Or do I just need to worry about burning it out.* In this instance March was considering two related issues. Enchantments that had more mana then they could handle running through them would ‘burn out’ similarly to people when they had no mana. Some enchanters, believed it to be best practice to put in artificial limiters on the enchantment to ensure that you’d never burn out the enchantment unless you used an order of magnitude more mana then the device would accept. Like using a sledgehammer to clean off a smudge on a vase.

It was a surprisingly contentious topic. Some enchanters argued that it was best to give the user freedom. If it broke, it meant either they weren’t using it properly… or the situation was so dire that the risk of breaking the enchantment was worth using it that one extra time. Of course, the counter argument was that if people keep breaking enchantments, it gives the enchanter a bad name. On top of that, when an enchantment failed, there was a chance for it fail in a catastrophic, and potentially deadly manner.

Which was why March looked warily at the ring. If it was properly limited, she could try to use it whenever she wanted. Either it would work, or it wouldn’t. As long as March accounted for both options it was just about always a good idea to at least try. If it wasn’t limited… well… it was a powerful spatial artifact and simply making the attempt to abuse it could see her out of the fight. Hopefully nothing Thyme couldn’t fix. They were a space mage after all… but harrowing nonetheless.

*What’s more likely? I feel like Thyme is probably the type of person not to bother with limiters for their personal stuff… but how does that extend to the things they hand out? I have to imagine that if it was custom Thyme would let you choose… but by default? I have no idea at all. That’s assuming that Thyme made this personally. Which is probably a bad assumption now that I’m thinking about it.

So I guess the real question is. Do I want to risk it?* March couldn’t help but laugh at herself. What a silly question. Enchantments are not such fragile things that one failed attempt at using the item would break them. Not if they were new and competently enchanted… and if there was one thing March was certain of? It was that Thyme was a very competent tree.

With that in mind, March discarded the idea of grabbing debris to throw. The path to victory was clear in her mind, so she started to dodge more aggressively towards the edge. Just a touch. Hopefully not enough to give the game away, but enough to get a bit closer to the edge.

March was coming up on the place Blue was floating at… and she let it pass. She wasn’t close enough to the edge yet. It wasn’t time. Blue, seeing that something was perhaps a touch amiss threw a handful of objects from around the place into the whirlpool, wincing slightly as she did so. March took note at the wince, and attributed it to the fact that this would likely cost Blue quite a few points. Everything in the whirlpool was probably only worth half points by now. Nothing was too damaged… but Thyme had been pretty clear when stating that any damage at all would mean that the treasure was only worth half a point. All sorts of items knocking about in a high-

speed blender? Damaged.

Blue came up again, and March let the moment pass. She had to avoid colliding with a… what looked like a golden sea urchin statue? March didn’t want to risk the ring failing causing her to slam into something… especially not something exceptionally spiky and possibly poisonous. March felt it would be very like Thyme to make a statue of a poisonous animal poisonous as well. Just for the comedic effect generated in using it as a weapon. Well, March wasn’t laughing, but she was willing to wait.

So around they went again. March was still holding onto the treasure chest from the beginning. It helped slow her movement down and give her a bit more control of where in the whirlpool she was. It let her lean to the side and push herself out of the way… and she needed it. Perhaps Blue got lucky, or fudged the numbers but the next lap around the whirlpool required March to be watching closely and dodging nearly constantly.

*This is getting ridiculous. I’m going to have to take my chance here I think. I can’t keep dodging like this, it’s eating away at my mana. I’ve lost more mana in the last five seconds then I in the previous thirty! It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect… and it doesn’t matter if I’ll take some damage if I fail. I NEED to make this attempt.*

So March got ready as she swung around again. Blue easily noticed the determined look on March’s face, and started to throw yet more items into the water. March let several blunt objects bounce of her skin without complaint as she approached once again.