Kim wasn't sure what exactly Jonas had been going on, but seeing the kind of rat tail-like thing hanging out the back of Elin's head was hard to dismiss.
She wasn't sure what this development meant, but she definitely didn't like it. It made it clear that something did in fact happen rather than Elin just being tired.
"What? What is it?" Elin asked, starting to squirm under Kim's hold.
"We've merely confirmed that something has in fact entered your mind," Jonas said.
"What?!" Elin shrieked, clearly alarmed.
"Calm down," Kim ordered, dropping Elin's hair and putting both of her hands on Elin's shoulders. "Freaking out isn't going to help you."
"But how do I get it out!?" she cried, sounding like she was close to becoming hysterical.
"What if we treat it like it's a tick?" Jonas asked.
"What're you talking about?" one of the few women in the army asked.
"Well, first, a tick is a parasitic insect that will, if I remember correctly, insert it's head into a host where it will feed on the blood. The host could be an animal or even human, the tick doesn't really care. As long as it has blood to drink.
"However, the problem with ticks is that they can carry a variety of diseases, and so aren't something people like to deal with where I come from. So, I've heard of a number of ways to get the ticks to come out on their own. If you try to force it out, the tick's head will come off and you won't be able to get it out. So, there's a few ways I've heard about to get ticks to come out on their own," Jonas answered.
"Did you need to give such a long explanation?" Kim asked dryly, wondering if she should have thrown something at him during his spiel about ticks, rather than letting him finish.
"Well, I think I've heard about ticks, but why would something that small be a concern?" one of the captains asked.
Jonas looked at them and Kim wondered what Jonas was going to say to him, but then Jonas just looked away and continued on, as if no one had said anything.
"One of the methods is to hold a flame against the spot where the tick is," Jonas said. "Though, I can't say how effective this method is at getting the tick to back out."
"Let me guess," Kim said, feeling like they were wasting time with Jonas going on about ticks and some of the home remedies of getting them removed, which as far as she was aware, these methods weren't exactly confirmed or even reliable. "The next method is to use something like Vaseline, right?"
"Yeah, that's one of them," Jonas replied, his voice brightening at her statement.
"Well, if that's the case, we should move on to try to think of something that will work with these, alright?" Kim asked, though she hoped that Jonas would pick up on the fact that she wasn't really asking him a question.
She wasn't interested in hearing what home remedies of removing ticks he knew, especially since tick were definitely going to be different than these creatures. Even if the home remedies would work without question on ticks, there's no guarantee that it would so much as tickle whatever these things were.
Which meant that going on about these remedies wouldn't do them any good. All it was doing was wasting their time. Time they could be using to figure out what these things were and how to get rid of them.
As Jonas opened his mouth to speak, a thought came to Kim's mind. Something that she couldn't believe that she hadn't already thought of. Something that none of them would be able to argue against, but it was too late to be able to pass it along as Jonas had already started talking.
"Well, if you're so knowledgeable about these things, why don't you tell me what we should do to deal with them?" he asked, his eyes making it clear that his words were a challenge. That he wasn't backing down from this.
"Alright," Kim said smirking. Then she turned to Elmo, who looked very alarmed at suddenly having her full attention. "We'll have Elmo figure out what these things are and see if what he finds out will tell us if there's a way to get these things to come out on their won."
"What, how'd I get pulled into this?!?" Elmo cried looking rather terrified.
"What does he have to do with this?" Jonas asked, almost sounding like he was being protective of Elmo, which only make Kim's smirk widen.
"Simple," Kim answered calmly. "I'll get it so he can see the tail, and he can cast use his View Stats spell on it."
Elmo and Jonas blinked almost in unison. Kim couldn't help but laugh. If they were a couple already, she would have found that even more hilarious. Even though she was worried about Elin still, she couldn't help but find their blank expressions just priceless.
Her only regret about this moment was that she didn't have a camera to take a picture of their faces. Which meant she could relive this moment later on with the same entertainment factor.
Jonas looked at Elmo, who appeared completely stunned. Kim wasn't sure what was going through Jonas' mind now, but it was clear that he was looking at Elmo differently than he would have a few minutes ago.
"So, are you going to just stand there and waste all of our time, or are you going to do something?" Kim snapped after Elmo stayed like that for a few minutes.
Kim could hear whispering and murmuring in the group around them, but it was clear that they weren't interested in making their thoughts known. Although, Kim was pretty sure that Jonas could probably tell her everything that everyone was even just whispering to themselves around them. She doubted Jonas cared though, she certainly didn't.
"Fine," Elmo said, sounding as if Kim had had to beat that word out of him. "Though, I think it'd help if you let me see the part of whatever it is that's sticking out of Elin's head when I cast it. Otherwise, I might just get Elin's stats."
Jonas nodded. "Could be one reason why so many haven't been aware of these creatures before. After all, they are otherwise hard to see," Jonas commented as Kim began searching through Elin's hair again for the pink tal-like thing.
When she found it again, she then had Elin move so Elmo could see the back of her head clearly. She really hoped this worked and they'd be able to find a way to deal with them. If only to get Elin fully back to the way she had been.
"View Stats," Elmo said clearly a moment after Kim finished having Elin turn.
Kim waited as patiently as she could, ready to just yell at Elmo to tell them what he's learning about it already. Even though she knew that it hadn't even been ten seconds yet. Not that she knew this would get any easier.
Yet, when Elmo cast his spell again, she was ready to explode at him, even though she knew that doing so wouldn't help the situation. All it would do was give her an outlet for the emotions that were being bottled up, simply because she knew letting them out would only interfere with what they were doing. As she knew she wouldn't be able to react in a productive way if she let her emotions run free and wild at the moment.
While Kim was waiting on pins and needles, she suddenly realized how relaxed Elin was. Which also made her nerves fray even more.
She couldn't tell if Elin was so calm because of whatever was affecting her intelligence or if she'd be this way regardless. Something Kim realized she couldn't be sure about.
Glancing at Elmo, who was clearly reading whatever information he'd gotten from the spell, she determined that she'd have to ask Elin when they had a private moment together again, as she certainly didn't want others to hear her ask the question or what Elin's response would be.
"Okay, I think I got it," Elmo said, looking up from the empty air in front of him. "I'm not sure what to call it, because the stats merely had question marks for its name."
"Just call it a devourer," Jonas suggested. "I mean, its devours a person's intelligence, right?"
Elmo shrugged. "Sure, I can go with that," he replied, his tone rather dismissive, which made Kim chuckle a little at Jonas' look or indignation.
"What else did it say?" Elin asked, sounding a little bored.
"Well, aside from the basic stats, which isn't very strong, it said that the Devourers feed on the intelligence of people, and very rarely ever kill anyone," Elmo said, sounding like he was reading what was listed about these creatures rather than summarizing what his spell was indicating about them, aside from using the name they'd decided to start calling them. "However, given how hard they are to detect, it is rare for them to even be suspected when this occurs. Excuses are generally made, which allows the devourers to move on to new hosts as they desire.
"When they move on to a new host, their old host will be able to recover most of the intelligence that had been devoured, but it will typically take years for this to occur. There are ways of treating this condition, but while the devourers are still occupying their host, it is more difficult, which becomes even more especially difficult when the individual treating this condition is the person infected with the devourer.
"It can still be done, it just is even more difficult, as the person has to overcome their own magic resistance when casting the white magic Treat spell. Which will force the devourer out of the host where it will immediately begin to try and gain a new host.
"Keep in mind these are very fast creatures and can even be difficult to see once they are no longer inside a host," Elmo said, apparently finishing everything his spell said about these creatures.
"So, all we need to do is have Elin cast 'Treat' on everyone, right?" Jonas asked.
Kim blinked. She was surprised at how simple it all sounded. She couldn't help but wonder if it was one of those things that sounded easier than it actually was. Although, she also couldn't help but wonder if Elin's magical ability would allow her to pierce her own magical resistance. If so, that would at least be the first hurdle with this whole situation.
"Only one way to find out," Elin said, as she took a couple steps away from Kim, her back facing Kim. "Try to keep it from entering anyone else when I used my magic on myself."
Kim pulled out her short sword, unsure if it was too long to work with whatever was going to come out. Her bastard sword certainly was going to be a little too long, given how close the crowd was, but the short sword was the best option she had, although she couldn't help but wonder if this was about to become more of a pain than she realized.
"Do it whenever you're ready, Elin," Jonas said, his knives in his hands.