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

Chapter 1340 Chapter 1340 Green Means Barrel Through

?--- Kress ---

Kress could see Stan making some progress in catching up to Nell. Where as the beastkin woman was sticking to slowly winding her way around the tendrils at the water's surface, Stan had dived down deep and was looking to pass her soon. Kress wasn't sure how effective it'd be once Stan needed to surface. If the demon could hold his breath though…

Kress discarded that line of thought and started his own swim forward, following as closely behind Nell as he could manage. The beastkin eyed him suspiciously but Kress concealed his intentions well, simply using the chance to keep Nell a little on edge without actively hindering her just yet. Better to keep those few cards to his chest.

Stan surfaced nearby. Just a touch ahead of Nell, startling the beastkin a bit. Just enough for her hand to brush a nearby red barrel and suddenly it exploded into fire. Nell dove down instantly, and Kress followed not even a moment behind. A glance upwards revealed the red liquid was burning atop the water quite handily.

Kress cursed his lack of breath. Dammit. I just wanted to duck away from whatever was going to come out of that barrel. I didn't think I'd need to stay underwater for too long. The red ones definitely have the biggest range. Though… that could be useful. I can try to set one off near Nell if I'm careful. We'll have to see if it's worth it though.

Nell was swimming forward, trying to get through the fire that way, but Kress knew he didn't have the oxygen to manage a similar feat. Instead, he swam to the side away from the centre of the blast and surfaced near a green barrel as he sucked in a deep breath. The main upside, was that Stan would hopefully be able to use this as a chance to get ahead properly… though the raging fire meant it was impossible to see the demon's progress from the surface.

*Part of me really wants to see what this green one does. I know the purple is acidic from the buoys, or at least, I can assume it is. The black is sticky, and the red sets itself on fire. What does the green do though? Is it worth finding out?* Kress looked behind him and saw he was still comfortably in third place with Midnight and Cyan making slow progress.

*Fuck it I'm not trying to win so let's go.* Kress swam over and swiped a hand through the tendrils attached to the green barrel and it exploded covering him in the goo. Kress waited for a few seconds and… honestly didn't feel any different? Kress frowned and looked around. All the green stuff that had touched the water seemed to have vanished already and while the stuff that landed on him was still there, it seemed to be slowly fading.

*Odd. I wonder what this has actually done.* Kress swam forward towards a patch of fire and carefully pushed a finger towards the blaze only for him to pull back and wince. *Nope. It has NOT made me fireproof. Shit. I'd hoped that the green one would make me immune to the other ones but I guess not. Dammit I'll just have to live with the wasted time.*

Kress started to swim forward again, pushing himself a bit to try and catch up to the two frontrunners. Hopefully he could rest on the jet-skis. The next barrel he ran into was filled with black gunk, and while there was a temptation to see if the green had given him any immunity to it, Kress decided not to press the issue and simply swim around it. He was making good enough time anyway.

Up ahead, Stan was now in a clear lead, with Nell doing her best to keep up. It was an admirable effort, but she had to slow down a touch too much just to avoid all of the tendrils. She evidently hadn't realised the green ones were safe.

Something Kress made great use of a moment later when he swam straight into a green mine. It exploded, sending green gunk straight into Kress' face, but he just kept swimming, ignoring the brief burst of colour that washed over him. A bit more swimming on his behalf and he confirmed that it wasn't doing anything to him so pushed onward. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ɴo(v)elꜰɪre.ɴet

Kress surfaced to take in a large gulp of air just in time to see Stan triggering a purple barrel. It was clearly an accident, and the demon dove straight back into the water despite the fact he probably didn't have enough air to avoid it. Sadly from him, the purple barrel spread out in a dark cloud, not bothering to stick to the surface like the other two colours. Instead it created a painful 'dead zone' where nobody could swim through.

Stan had to back up… into a fire barrel which exploded onto him. Kress let out a hiss… only for Stan to withstand the heat perfectly fine. *Oh. OH RIGHT demons are usually fireproof.*Stan seemed a touch surprised at this as well because he smacked a hand to his face and then started to swim at max speed at a slight diagonal. It was taking him away from the still spreading purple muck, and into another fire barrel, eventually.

Nell growled upon seeing this, realising that she was going to fall even further behind, but without any real recourse, she just had to keep swimming forward. Kress once again fell in behind Nell, managing to catch up to the beastkin mostly because he knew not to be scared of the green barrels.

Which is how Stan made it out in front to grab onto the jet-skis first. Once he was out of the barrel minefield it was a quick climb up onto the wooden support structure to get onto the jets-ski. There was three on either side, one in front of the other. Perhaps, in a different race it'd be a chance to get a bit ahead but Stan just grabbed the first one without any issue.

Kress nodded as he saw Stan figure out the controls and zip off onto the rest of the course. Kress didn't see how Stan stumbled over the ramp and nearly fell off, nor the look of complete panic as Stan realised that Kress had seen him doing something silly. Still, the demon shook that off quickly and zipped ahead making the most of his lead.

Back with Kress, he was making his way out of the water at the same time as Nell. Part of him wanted to push ahead and get on a jet-ski first… but really that was only going to delay Nell for a moment or two, and with Stan noticeably in the lead, there was no reason to waste the element of surprise just yet.

Nell leapt onto the jet-ski, turned the key and then zipped of all in one single swift motion, proving just why she was chosen for this challenge. *Why does she know how to work one of these!*

Kress tried and failed to mimic the ease with which Nell managed to take off. He mounted the vehicle well enough, but he fumbled too much with the keys and only managed to start it after a few seconds of panicked scrambling. Really not what he was hoping for.

As the jet-ski roared to life Kress tried to take in the layout ahead of him. There were a number of sections with walls, or barbed wire that seemed to limit your options in regards to moving forward. From the look of things it was forcing you to treat it like a slalom… that is. If you ignored the jumps.

Every now and again there were clear ramps that could be used to jump over the obstacles. There had to be more to it then that… but it was all Kress could make out from where he was. Stan was just making it over the first jump right now and he had plenty of speed to clear the barbed wire he was dodging.

*There has to be a catch here somewhere. I refuse to believe that Thyme made this section of the course so simple. Perhaps the jumps can only be used a certain amount of times? Or perhaps they have a cooldown? Maybe the wire falls away? So many possibilities that I suppose it's not really worth worrying about them right now. I just have to try my best and catch the two frontrunners so that I can actually help out a bit.*

Kress revved the jet-ski and tried not to let his fear show when it nearly bucked him off as it exploded forward, nearly leaving him behind. Kress barely managed to properly seat himself as the jet-ski went off the edge sending him back down the to ocean bellow and into the course proper. Kress managed to stabilise the landing and prevent himself from taking a dip, but it was a close thing, and he was damn glad that Stan couldn't see it.