NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1640 Mist Me!
--- Kat ---
Everyone got used to the pace somewhat quickly. Monster attacks were annoyingly common but the dragonkin managed to get used to it pretty quickly. Sure at the beginning there was more than a little bit of screaming but that was all just from surprise. As the attacks continued they started to get normal. The dragonkin, at least the ones in Kat's group, never got bored. They remained somewhat on the edge… but jumping at every monster attack got old real fast. Especially when they saw how quickly Kat and Lily could dispatch them.
Honestly the scariest sound was the occasional bang from Hunter's gun. The lamia was making no move to silence the weapon and so whenever her small group got attacked the rifle would bark out a loud bang to attack whatever was coming after them that time. The other groups were much quieter in their retaliation.
Kat also started to see some of the more cunning and dangerous monsters. It seemed they were the smarter sort and had left the smaller group alone. Perhaps they could tell they had no chance before. Alas, they still didn't have a large one, but the glut of targets clearly made the new group too tempting. Well, that or the removal of the drake had allowed them to become active once again.
The first of these monsters was made entirely up of mist. Even Lily's shadow blasts didn't seem to affect them much, simply punching holes in their indistinct forms that healed a blink later. They blended into the mist really well and could be dangerous to the unprepared… but they had no resistance at all to demonic fire. No that was wrong, they had NEGATIVE resistance. Kat had done some testing on the second one because the first had been blasted with quite a bit of fire and disappeared. The second? Kat had flicked a small barely powered ember into it and it burst into fire from just that much.
Lily did pout a good deal at the lack of damage her shadows did, but in truth she was more interested in the WHY. From her understanding magic should affect the intangible quite well. She wanted to ask Bower what they were or what the standard practice for combatting them was… but he looked busy and rather focused whenever they caught a glimpse of him so Lily couldn't bring herself to interrupt. Or rather, ask Kat to ask on her behalf.
The second monster that came as a surprise was a spider type monster. One that lived inside the trees. They hollowed a tree out and sealed a bark cap back over the entrance, ready to leap out and attack once somebody got too close. Kat would admit to being lucky when it came to those. It had leapt out right next to Craunch's face and the man had backhanded the thing without a hint of concern, slamming it back into the tree it had come from.
Kat had asked if he'd gotten any blood on his hands, or venom in case either was poisonous but Craunch had shown off completely clean hands. Apparently the man knew how to punch something so hard it broke while keeping himself clean. Even still… it was a worry. Kat hadn't noticed the presence of the spider at all before it appeared. Fragile as it had been, the spider was right by Craunch's neck when the man retaliated. Kat was fast, but a good deal of that was in buildup. If she wanted to move instantly she'd likely end up destroying the ground, the nearby trees and even potentially hurt the people she was trying to defend.
That was something Meg had mentioned more than once while they'd been preparing to leave. At initial levels of power things were easy. The world didn't break when you walked, the winds simply bent around you. Even if the physics of it were a touch wonky… it didn't change the fact that things were overall safe unless you had hostile intentions. Running at full speed wasn't going to start a windstorm. Read chapters at empire
That apparently, wasn't the case at Rank 4. Even Rank 3 to some extent and Kat had no practice with properly regulating her strikes. She had no idea how fast she could move without the environment dealing with the aftermath. It's part of what had made the spider attack so scary. Even if she could theoretically move fast enough to kill one before it landed a blow… she might do more damage in the defence. So Kat could only thank Craunch for being ready, and for his positioning at one of the edges of the group. Lily made note to keep a better eye on Brook who was walking on the other side. Just in case.
It was this more careful examination that let Kat notice Church wasn't doing so well. She was seriously sweating and her breathing was heavy. "You alright Church?"
"Ha, a good walk is fun my fat ass," hissed Church. "I'll live but I'm going to be real sore once we stop. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I reached out to the twins to get them to start working on a plan for me to build up some muscle and endurance. Hopefully they can force me to stick with it… but right now? It fucking sucks,"
Kat winced and changed herself into water for a few steps, took out her demonic fire and froze the water solid, before returning back to normal, now with an ice cube in hand. "Perhaps this will help?" offered Kat. She'd managed this trick while practicing between her woodwork. It wasn't hard, Kat just hadn't realised she could use her demonic fire while in water mode before. Plus, because of the water mode it didn't hurt. Just took a good chunk of energy to regenerate that 'missing' water.
Church grabbed the ice carefully and glared at it for a bit. "Is… is this weird? Like I just saw that you were water for a moment. So like… how weird is it that I want to put this on my face? Like I'm hot and cooling down would be nice… but I don't know if it's worth it…"
"It's just normal water. Not sure how or why, but it's essentially pure water," said Kat.
"Yeah that 'essentially' is what's making me worried," said Church.
"I've got an endless canteen if you'd prefer that?" said Kat.
"You know what? Yeah I think I would. Like it was nice of you to do this… but it's just a bit too weird for me," said Church as she made to throw the ice away, only to pause. "Is it fine to just chuck this?" Kat nodded and Church shrugged throwing the ice cube into the forest.
Kat pulled out the canteen from her ring alongside a cup. Settling the cup on top of the canteen Kat placed it on the spade part of her tail and passed them both backwards towards Church. Church grabbed them and started to pour herself a glass of water. "How much water is in here?"
"It generates more water over time and I think the space is expanded? There's enough to shower using it if you really want to so don't worry about it," said Kat with a shrug.
Church nodded and down a few more glasses of water before offering the glass and canteen to Brook. Lily considered offering another glass… but it clearly wasn't bothering the pair so she just left it. Sephy however, did ask, "Hey can we get some extra glasses for when they're done? I might not be sweatin' like Church is but that doesn't mean I don't want a drink,"
Kat summoned up some more glasses and passed them over with her tail. She looked at Craunch to see if he wanted anything but he'd already pulled his own canteen from the storage bag he had. "Looks like I planned better then you kiddos!" chuckled Craunch.
"It's not like we have NO water," said Church. "It's just that the water we do have isn't endless… plus I really wasn't thinking about it until Kat made the offer. It helped, though I'm still sort of regretting putting on this full getup. It's heavy, and doesn't breathe all that well…"
"And it's likely saved you from all sorts of cuts and scrapes," cut in Craunch. "Look, no offense? But you lot are soft. The two gardeners over there might be a bit more hardy, but I'd expect a couple brushes with the branches here to rip off a couple of scales or maybe crack them. Your body has never needed to reinforce them properly so I'd bet they're nearly as soft as your skin. Those boots will save you a whole lot of pain, and so will the rest,"
"I know," grumbled Church. "Why do you think I wore them at all? Doesn't mean I'm happy about it. Let me whine a bit dammit!"
"Bah, you'll get used to it soon enough," said Craunch without much care.
*Will she though? I'm expecting a whole lot of blisters by the time the day is over, and I doubt it'll just be Church with some.*