Chapter 2235 Plucking Lives Part 1
--- Kat ---
"Alright next can you go to column twenty-three, row eight," asked Appoline. Kat went to leave, but just as she started to fly away. Appoline’s hand swiped out to catch Kat. Not expecting the ’attack’ Kat didn’t have the presence of mind to dodge. She was pulled back towards the elf.
A moment later she tried to free herself without hurting Appoline, but the elf in question raised a finger to her mouth and then tapped her ears. Kat nodded and tried to listen out. The sound of stomping boots could be heard in the distance and Kat frowned. There was far too many of them and they weren’t coming from the dorm rooms. Someone else had shown up. It was far too early for them to be reinforcements from Steel... at least reinforcements that they’d called upon.
There was a small chance they were sent to help after the attack, but it was far more likely they were enemies here to cause problems. "What do we do?" whispered Kat.
"You should be small enough to avoid detection unless they have something specifically to find you. Please go and check it out. I’ll... try to work out how to assist if I hear fighting. If I don’t then I will likely remain here," offered Appoline.
"I... hmmm... I should be fine. Just keep yourself safe. I don’t expect to be in too much trouble. Though... my diminished size might be a hinderance. Even then, demonic fire should solve the issue. We just might not have anyone to interrogate if I use it too liberally," answered Kat softly.
Appoline nodded, and then released Kat from her grasp. Appoline got to work swiftly packing up her equipment to hide the fact she was here while Kat made her way down the hall. Kat kept close to the ceiling, specifically, near the edges. There was a bit of a lip where the wall met the ceiling and she was hoping it would help disguise the sight of her moving around.
Eventually, Kat got to the doorframe and let herself hang upside down so that only her head was peaking out. Down the hallway, quite a distance away still, was a group of semi-armoured figures approaching. They seem to have suits on as well to theoretically protect them from poison... but Kat wasn’t sure they were good enough to prevent it getting in entirely. Especially as they seem to be wearing armour over the suits, and said armour was digging into and pinching the hazmat suits in various places.
The group was twenty strong and all looked mostly the same, just with a variety of weapons. The problem for Kat was that their awkward if matching outfits meant she had no idea who was the strongest here. She wanted to act fast, drop down onto the leader and try to take him or her out before the fight could start properly...
But there was no sign of one of those. Kat didn’t know if they were being ordered around from a distance or if the leader was simply well-disguised amongst the rest of the group. Then she realised that attacking first and taking out the leader would be rather bad if they were innocent... shit. *Ok... how am I going to do this? They’re almost certainly not meant to be here but I’m not sure I’m comfortable just attacking them. I’d love it if they conveniently announced the reason they’re currently here... bother.*
Kat decided to, first, relay that to Appoline. Then follow them until... probably the broken room? The annoying part was that both friends and enemies would be heading for the dorms. Kat zipped back down the hallway making use of her wings to get to Appoline first and explained her issue. Appoline, slapped a hand over her face. "Kat... actually no, it’s probably best I don’t criticise you for your generally good nature when I’m benefitting immensely for it."
Kat was about to reply, when she heard something odd. The guards... they weren’t continuing onwards. They were turning down the hallway. The hallway Kat had just flown down. Her eyes went wide as she turned to gaze back towards the hallway exit. "Why are they coming here?"
"I don’t know but surely that’s a proper signal that they come with poor intensions? My best guess is that they want to burn this place to remove ingredients from us in the future. Though it could also be that they detected you somehow and followed instead? Do you still wish for me to hide?" asked Appoline.
"I... at least until they start burning stuff. I’ll go confront them," said Kat as she flew towards the door. *Hey KatE... can you act like you’re normal size and try to find out what’s going on with these guys?* KatE didn’t respond. Kat got no sense of acceptance of more elaborate answer to her question. *Alright so do I want to risk it then? For something like this... no I don’t think so. Especially not when I can just cover myself in fire and pretend. Though that might make me sound a bit weird?*
Kat ultimately decided that it was a waste of demonic energy, energy that she might need to fight these people. Kat dropped down from the ceiling in front of the leading trio. She was about to ask them what they were doing... but one of the people further in the back pulled out a crossbow and immediately tried to shoot her.
Now, if it was just that, Kat might have been willing to forgive them. She didn’t even need to move for the crossbow bolt to miss her... but the fact that several other took aim after hearing the first fire, and that the ones at the front all rushed forward weapons ready... well that was a pretty clear indication that Kat was not being considered a friend.
Kat caught the second arrow and was planning to throw it back... only for it to pull her along. Her current weight too small to stop it in place, especially not while flying. So Kat pretended that was her plan. She let it pull her back a few metres before letting go and breathing fire from her mouth, allowing it to fill the corridor and stick to the floor. Kat kept the flame burning, a wall of flame to block the passage forward.
Kat was hoping it would make them stop for at least a bit... maybe talk so she could confirm a few things... but instead they just charged forward, perhaps expecting their armour to protect them from the fire. Kat had kept it burning, but not strongly. As they stepped into the fire... Kat considered for a second if this was the right thing to do.
Then she decided that she didn’t really care. Thyme would protect them from death, and anything less then that... well they knew what they were doing. The flames roared higher, sticking to the charging warriors as they started to freeze over. Ice rising up from their feet. It cracked and broke as they moved but that simply allowed the armour and hazmat suit to fully shatter.
The screaming started not long after, as the front line collapsed from the pain of having their skin frozen and then shattered. Kat simply allowed her demonic fire to cover them completely. It took a LOT of demonic energy to do this. Twenty percent just to dill with the three of them... but the rest of the group were now rooted in place. None willing to cross the burning line in the sand.
Kat glared back at them as they looked at her. Silence reigned between the two groups as they stared at each other. A few people raised crossbows at her... but none of them fired. Seconds ticked by as Kat considered what to do next. *Demonic fire is not efficient for dealing with people like this. At least, not if I want things to end quickly. Though that might be because Thyme was controlling them at the end.
I feel like it certainly cost me more to use then it should have after they were already on fire. Though regardless of the truth of why it costs more than I think it should... it still cost that much. I don’t... think I have enough demonic fire to take them all out? Can I just go around punching them then? The main issue is that if I take a ’little cut’ that could actually just be half my damn body at this size.
So I have to be more careful not to get hit... except blunt weapons probably just throw me back. So it’s more slicing weapons that are a problem? Maybe? Dammit maybe I can talk these guys down? Except I don’t exactly LOOK all that scary at the moment. Though I did just ’kill’ three people so maybe that’s enough to scare them into line? I’d love a better plan but... I can’t really think of any right now and Lily is still asleep. Damn, I wish Appoline had some sleeping powder or something. That would be cleaner.*