Chapter 656 - Grounded.
Chapter 656 – Grounded.
Kat reduced the amount of energy she was feeding to her mind to keep time slowed as she clambered up the rock wall. There was no reason to keep everything so slowed when there was nothing to react to. With Lily still sleeping in her left arm, she relied mostly on her legs and tail to keep herself balanced with her right arm doing what it could, but really her tail was what stopped her falling several times during the climb up. Once at the top of the pile, Kat could see that what she thought was a small gap was actually two small gaps on either side. The extra height from the frozen millipede corpse had made the pile of rocks much taller but only in the centre.
Seeing this as a chance, Kat moved her wing forward and past the pile of rocks before using it to push the pile backwards onto the pathway she'd just left to open up a decent enough pathway to squeeze through. It wouldn't be the terribly comfortable, and was sure to give her a few scrapes had she been human still, but it was enough. As she dragged herself through the gap, Kat cast her eyes over to the rest of the group to see how they were doing.
Things had changed a fair bit since the wall went down. The millipede was missing two of its front legs on the right side, and one of the jaws was cracked, but at the same time Green was now back with Nixilei getting an rather nasty looking cut on her arm healed while Kress did his best alongside Gareth to fend the thing off. 'Ted' mostly just made 'himself' small without actually shrinking just behind Gareth.
What truly made the largest difference though was that the millipede's tunnel had been collapsed, trapping the back half of the insect in the wall. Kat could hear the scraping of metal on stone as it tried its best to get more space to work with but without the powerful jaws to remove the stone, it was trapped. Kat watched a few attempts from the insect to turn and chomp away at the wall, but Kress would normally be there with weapons drawn, forcing it to back off. Kat sent her energy back to her mind, slowing things down drastically once more.
*Hmm… there isn't a tonne of space near the thing to help out. I could maybe sneak around past Gareth and attack it from behind… but I don't know if that would put Gareth too far out of position. I could… maybe? Maybe fly over the top… the ceiling is barely high enough for it… but if the millipede managed to knock me out of the air we could have a major problem.*
*The best idea I can come up with right now… and frankly it's a horrible idea but I'm considering it… would be to try and catch a bunch of its legs on my right side. I don't think it's strong enough to cut through my bones… so I could simply take the damage and keep it in place that way… but would the others be too freaked out about my near impalement and instead of going for the kill react poorly instead, trying to get me to Nixilei for healing. It would certainly be necessary for anyone else, and that sort of instinct would be hard to fight. Yeah… I think it'd be too risky. Especially with Green already getting healed.*
Kat watched as Kress dashed to the side to avoid a slash from the legs that remained attached to the millipede's front. Kat could see the rustle of Kress hair as it was pushed out of the way from the wind generated. He was rather close to loosing an ear, and only years of practice saved him from a rather bloody wound. Deciding proper planning could wait till later, Kat slid down the rocks, causing Nixilei to cast a slightly panicked glance behind her that calmed instantly when Kat came into view instead of yet another enemy.
Nixilei glanced intensified when she spotted Lily in Kat's arms and realised where the major difference in Kat's fighting style came from. Keeping a firm hand on Green and most of her concentration on maintain the magic circle hovering over the other girl's injury Nixilei made a 'pass here' gesture. Kat wanted to sigh, or perhaps argue but there wasn't really time for that. She was still moving in slowed time and her energy was still rather draining, and even if she had the time to argue Nixilei didn't share that benefit. In fact, she was currently only halfway through the gesture, but it was clear what the was meant.
Kat 'walked' forward and with a good deal of reluctance handing Lily to Nixilei while curling the woman's hand up carefully to get away faster. Kat knew Nixilei would've done it herself, but that was so slow in Kat's current perspective. Once Lily was passed off, Kat summoned both fans back to her hands and her gaze went cold. She dashed forward covering the small distance between the back and front lines of combat before waiting on Kress to step backwards from a strike.
As soon as he did Kat moved into the vacant space, relying on her flexibility to dance around Kress and the mostly ruined blades of the millipede before bringing a hard slam down on the creature's 'head'. It moved with the blow, slamming into the ground and bouncing somewhat, the rest of its body moved like a string that had been flicked, carrying the momentum down and into the wall dissipating a lot of it.
Kat was ready though, before it could recover she slammed her other fan down into the cracked section of chitin. Striking straight down with the weapon vertical rather than horizontal. There was a slight bit of resistance before the fan made its way inside the bugs head. Kat wasn't quite finished though, having her tail follow up slamming it down further and pinning the bug to the floor. Kat stepped back and let time resume, falsely believing it to be over.
Kat was forced to duck backwards as a blade sailed through the place her neck had just been and Kat couldn't help but stumble. She'd used a lot of energy in a short amount of time and no longer had her accelerated thoughts going to help her. The surprise nearly caused her to fall over, and only the instinctual intervention of her tail saved her from hitting the deck.
The bug could clearly still move after Kat destroyed most of what she'd assumed to be its brain. It wasn't having a good time at all though. Its back half was stuck in the wall, its front stuck to the ground and its midsection doing its absolute best to inflict any damage at all on its attackers before expiring. Kress simply backed off, Gareth with him. Kat glanced at the two and followed suit backing off slowly from the struggling insect.
Kat felt time returned to normal as she stepped back. Part of her just wanted to find the wall and relax till her energy returned, but it wasn't quite safe yet as the millipede writhed on the ground in front of them, legs scratching the hard stone of the path. "Nixilei, chance of this thing dying like that?" asked Gareth with seriousness.
Nixilei glanced at the bug carefully, formulating her answer over a few seconds before answering. "I… believe so? It's not a native to the area we're from so I don't recognise it off the top of my head… but that being said… there are a few similar insects… it SHOULD die eventually. The blood loss alone would be enough and I think most of the brain is dead. A few insects can survive that for a while… but it is stuck in the wall. The question isn't 'will it die' I think but 'will it die soon' and to that… I don't really have a good answer."
"Eh, it'll be writhing for a good while I think," said 'Ted'. "They are nasty buggers and while the mind is dead, the body doesn't really know it yet. It'll be going at it for a while if we just leave it… but that's probably safer than trying to get close ta it at the moment."
"Yeah maybe, but we'd have to leave Kat's fan stuck there if we did that," said Green. When Kat glanced back to see the Fae, she could also see that the cut had been healed almost completely. There was a faint red line where it had been.
"No, it's fine I can summon them back. I… I'm not quite sure how far away I can be from them actually.. I do know I can summon them from wherever, but it might disappear at some point and will certainly disappear when I summon my fans again," said Kat.