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

Bing just shrugged and finished off her first crispy. When she saw the matching curious gazes on her three friends, she rolled her eyes and explained with a bit of detail, “I don’t know. Remember, I’m just hearing the play-by-play from Kat here. Her memory is pretty good, I’m sure, but she’s only going to be able to explain things she noticed and knows. Without watching the fight myself I can’t really say if there was something she should’ve done. I mean, there probably is, nobody’s perfect… but I don’t know what that thing might be just from an explanation. Heck, I probably won’t know even after watching, Lian is much better at Curse stuff then me.”

“Right… well anything we should expect from Bodeir’s match? Do you how John was able to win his match?” asked Sue.

Bing laughed, “Oh Sue, you seem to think I know a lot more about this sort of thing than I really do. I haven’t learnt all that much about unique cultivation techniques. I just don’t have the time. Which, I suppose is my big guess as to what he’s doing. My guess is that he’s a time cultivator and is giving up lifespan to pause the time of someone else. Expensive… but perhaps practical? Depends on the exchange rate of lifespan to time stopped. It might never become an issue if it’s second to second ratio… but I doubt it’s that good,”

“What’s with the whole ‘Man with no Name’ thing anyway?” asked Lily. “I’m sure you can enter the tournament with whatever strange title you might like… but he has to have a name right?”

“Once again… obscure cultivation techniques are not my area of expertise. I’ve got a few theories… but they’re just guesses. The first, is that he gave up the name for some religious or cultural reason unrelated to his cultivation. Perhaps as a test, or maybe as a great shame. For obvious reasons, when someone removes their name and becomes a monk, finding out their passed turns into a major undertaking and I don’t have that sort of info on me.

“Option two, would be that his cultivation method requires it. True Names are not a well understood concept… especially when there’s a lot of evidence suggesting they don’t exist… but a lot of things that shouldn’t exist also WORK. He might gain a power boost from casting away his name, or perhaps the techniques he uses wouldn’t work at all if he had a name that he recognised as his own. Which would make it rather funny to spread the ‘Johnn Doe’ name around and see if he accidentally claims it.

“Of course, the final option, other than him just being dramatic of course, is that his name was taken from him using some mana technique. Stealing names isn’t something a martial artist… at least… a normal martial artist can do. A crazy curse mage though? I could see it happening. Could’ve ripped the memories of the name away, or it might just prevent him from telling people. Really, I can only speculate. He isn’t the type of person to get involved with parties or politics much. I know he showed up, unlike Beatrice, but not for long. Showed up, said hello, offered us a box of incense and then left,” explained Bing.

Sue nodded, and she did want to ask more question, but Bodeir and John were taking to the field, so she held her tongue for now. Bing, completely irreverent in the face of the match, crunched down loudly on her nut crispies, and Kat couldn’t help but ask, “Are those any good?” as the fighters walked to their positions.

.....

Bing swallowed before answering with a, “Not really? They’re great food for filling your stomach and getting the right kind of calories… but I think they taste a bit like sawdust and the maple syrup they use to hold it all together can only do so much heavy lifting to mitigate that fact,”

Kat screwed her nose up and decided she’d really rather not think of it as Bing made her way through her second one. Kat wasn’t sure why anyone would want to eat something that tasted like sawdust, but it probably wouldn’t do anyone any good to point out that fact. So she turned to watch the start of the match.

Bodeir and John faced off, and when the announcer called it, they both just sat back and stared at each other. It took some time for one of them to make the first move, and when they did, Kat felt like making a joke about it. Both of them started to walk, slowly, towards the centre of the arena. Both apparently recognising that they were patient enough to wait each other out if it really came down to it.

They kept approaching each other until they stood ten paces from each other. They stopped in place, and John shouted out, “Not man enough to approach me?”

“I do not see why those words should only apply in one direction,” returned Bodeir. “I see your feet are solidly on the ground… and Earth is my domain,”

Despite the rather aggressive ending to Bodeir’s statement he didn’t follow it up with some form of attack… he just kept staring at John, not feeling the need to make the first move. John had apparently decided to play this game. Bodeir shrugged and brought out a teapot. John looked at the teapot in confusion when Bodeir took out a stand and a number of twigs. Then used his earth manipulation to make a seat.

John’s jaw dropped when Bodeir lit the twigs on fire and it became clear the crazy bastard was MAKING TEA in the middle of a fight. “What… what are you doing?” John had to ask. It was obvious… but John could not simply say nothing.

“Making tea,” said Bodeir as if it was obvious. Which… it sort of was… but now really didn’t seem like the time to be doing such a thing. John took a slow step forward. Nothing happened. He sniffed the air, and looked puzzle for a bit before chipping off a bit of the stone and throwing it lightly at Bodeir’s teapot.

Bodeir casually lifted the pot out of the way before putting it back over the fire, and turning to John with a questioning look. John was feeling mildly insulted. Bodeir seemed to be saying ‘how do you disrespect my tea’ but at the same time… WHY IS HE BREWING IT IN A FIGHT!

With the immense confusion John was feeling… he decided to just let Bodeir go about his task. Which meant that ‘soon’ Bodeir had a freshly brewed pot of tea. The elf took out a pair of cups and poured himself a cup of tea, “Do you want some?” asked Bodeir.

John looked down at the teapot from where he stood. “Ok?” said John ready for anything.

Bodeir poured out a second cup and then kicked the floor, causing the earth to shift like a conveyor belt and deliver the tea to John, who brought it to his lips, and then paused. “This is poisoned…” accused John.

“I know,” answered Bodeir.

“IF YOU KNOW IT’S POISONED WHY ARE YOU DRINKING IT!” shouted John.

“Well it’s not poisonous to me obviously. It’s MY tea after all,” responded Bodeir as if this too was a perfectly reasonable thing to say to a man after offering him tea… in the middle of a fight.

John slammed the cup into the ground, spilling the poisoned tea everywhere. “Well that was just rude, I paid five dollars for that cup,” said Bodeir with a sigh.

“I’m not apologising,” said John through gritted teeth.

Bodeir just shrugged and stomped the ground again, letting the stone bring the scattered pieces back to him where he collected them with his ring. John, seeing his opponent was still being ridiculous walked forward spinning his staff with enough speed to create a rather forceful amount of wind.

Bodeir swallowed the rest of his tea and vanished the equipment back to his ring before standing, ready to attack John. John slammed the staff into Bodeir’s side. Bodeir simply pulled a layer of rock up to block the blow. John grinned and a small chime sounded. Bodeir was frozen. As John wound up for a second attack though, Bodeir stepped forward and slammed a fist into his face.

John went pinwheeling backwards through the ground, but he managed to halt his momentum by stabbing his staff into the stone. “How did you escape my technique!” shouted John.

“I don’t understand the question,” said Bodeir.

“My technique! My technique to freeze you in place!” shouted John as he charged forward.

“Still no idea what you’re talking about my guy,” said Bodeir casually.

John growled and slammed his staff into Bodeir, ‘freezing’ him in place. John went for a follow-up attack but Bodeir just slapped him across the face. John went flying out of the arena as Bodeir stared after him.

“Still no idea what technique you’re trying to use…” mumbled Bodeir quietly to himself.