Chapter 1663 Cutting it Close

--- Kat --- (Some time later)

Kat forced down the irrational anger at Meg. It was all she could do to not punch the other demon in the face. Now, it wasn’t a very fair anger. Meg had done many, many things that annoyed Kat or were just plain reprehensible but truth be told this most recent issue wasn’t truly the greed demon’s fault.

After agreeing to take those crates of supplies, for some reason Kat didn’t understand, the group had headed off into the mountains. With the roads blocked and a destination set Meg announced that they’d just trudge forward in a (roughly) straight line. The plan was to head for the main town and then go from there.

The problem was that sometime later, and it was really hard to tell what that time was… they ended up in a snowstorm. Now usually that would be fine. A bit chilly for Lily, Hunter and maybe Meg but quite survivable and not too bad for the most part. This time though? The snow was razor sharps and quickly started to leave cuts all across their bodies. Kat quickly moved to shield Lily and they searched rapidly for a cave for about thirty seconds until Hunter had simply started to dig a new one. Throwing up snow and stone with swift and brutal movements.

She was joined by everyone else not long after and they’d managed to tunnel out a decent little nook. They weren’t being torn to shreds anymore but it wasn’t exactly safe either. Kat, Meg and Hunter were still working on digging things out further while Kamiko healed Lily… and Kat couldn’t find it in herself to be happy about that fact.

Sure Lily was hurt. She’d gained a few light cuts before Kat had taken the rest of the damage on her own body. Kat herself was the only one not bleeding because of her regeneration… which was main part of her annoyance. Kamiko was huddled in a small nook near the entrance healing Lily while black blood dripped down her face. Kat’s crazy friend would occasionally wipe it away so as to avoid getting it in her eyes… but that didn’t necessarily make things better.

Hunter was in slightly better shape then Kamiko, her scales were somewhat able to stand up to the sharpened snow, and her torso and head were rather covered by thick clothes. Those had been well shredded but it meant Hunter only had a few cuts here and there over exposed areas and lucky hits that got between her scales before the ice melted.

Meg was perhaps in the second worst shape… after Kamiko that is. Lily really didn’t need to be the first healed, but Meg wasn’t complaining and Kamiko… well she controlled the healing. As much as Kat’s heart ached to tell Kamiko to heal herself… Kat wasn’t entirely sure her friend could deal with the extensive damage swiftly… and Kat was quite sure that Kamiko wouldn’t agree to do so anyway.

Kat also hated that she wasn’t willing to try and change Kamiko’s mind. It was a harsh truth that Lily was more important to her. Not one Kat was unaware of, but it grated on her that even now, with Lily almost fully healed by Kamiko, she still couldn’t bring herself to speak up and request Kamiko deal with her own injuries at this point.

Meg at least wasn’t really bleeding… but she also wasn’t not bleeding either? It was weird. Her ’skin’ was very slowly knitting itself back together and the gaps seemed to leak this… black sort substance. It wasn’t blood. It was black like Kat’s own blood but it was grainy and more likely a jelly then a liquid. Perhaps some sort of non-Newtonian fluid?

It was also worth noting that while Kat could see the cuts slowly repairing themselves it wasn’t up to Meg’s usual standards. Normally you couldn’t see inside Meg at all as long as you avoided the area around her eyes or looked inside her mouth. Those cuts though? They were barely a few wispy bits of velvet that reached across the gap. Only Kat’s enhanced demon eyesight allowed her to see the hair thin strands. It did mean she was healing but Kat had no clue how fast. Hunter probably was as well but the more recognisable blood made it hard to tell.

This continued for a bit. Kamiko healed up Lily fully while the other three worked to make the cave larger, and curve it around so the snow was less likely to get in. Once Lily was healed though… Kamiko walked up and asked, "Which of the two of you is most injured?"

Kat wanted to slap her friend.

YOU OBVIOUSLY DUMBASS!

But she didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to as Hunter had the same thought. She was just quicker and slightly more polite about. "You obviously Kamiko. I am losing a significantly smaller percentage of my blood, and are at a higher rank. I can deal with this for a bit longer while you fix yourself up,"

Kamiko winced visibly… and turned to Meg. Kat growled a bit, not bothering to disguise her annoyance as she turned back to the rock. She was pleased to hear Meg say, "Lil Sis is right Kamiko. I won’t be dying from shallow cuts like this… though I should probably eat something big while we’re on break. It’s not a lot of blood but well," Meg finished with a shrug as Kamiko pouted.

Yet seeing everyone else insist she was the one most in need of healing she got to work healing herself. It wasn’t too bad getting at her injuries on the rest of her body… but she already knew that healing her face was going to be a problem. One she wasn’t entirely certain she knew how to tackle.

Seeing that Kamiko was actually willing to work on herself Kat went back to carving out the rock. Lily made an attempt, summoning up her shadow and trying to carve away at the stone… but making minimal progress. It wasn’t that Lily was making none, but it quickly became apparent she was better off using her time to push away the crushed rock from the demons.

Things were quiet for a while before Kamiko mumbled, "Um… so… I… I don’t know how to fix up my face?"

Read exclusive chapters at empire

Kat glanced back at Kamiko. It didn’t seem like she was bleeding anywhere else but at some point she’d fixed her clothing. The bubbles apparently didn’t do anything for the blood around though, and that made it hard to get a proper sense for how ok Kamiko was. Especially because her face was still bleeding.

Kat wasn’t sure what to suggest, and Meg was of questionable use at the best of times but Hunter did have an idea, "Perhaps laying down and blowing the bubbles lightly upwards? If they fall down on your face that should work. You seem to have some control over the bubbles… honestly I had thought you would be able to control them well enough to simply will them to cover your face,"

Kamiko shook her head, "Um… sort of? For some reason pulling them back to my face doesn’t really work but yeah let me just…" Kamiko lay herself down. Lily quickly scraped away any loose bits of rock before Kamiko managed to lay flat. Once on the ground Kamiko blew out a steady stream of bubbles.

For a few moments they hovered in the air… before falling back downwards. Kat smiled at that and though it was somewhat awkward Kamiko was able to heal herself after a bit of trail and effort. Lily did come in and clean Kamiko’s face a few times to check that Kamiko healed everything, but once it was confirmed she did Kamiko got up and asked "So who next,"

"Lil Sis!" "23HX502" said Hunter and Meg at the same time. Turning to glare at each other when they heard the answers they each spoke.

"As much as I dislike you 23HX502… you are more injured," stated Hunter after a few moments.

"Yeah but you’re my Lil Sis! You should get healed first. I didn’t say anything when Kamiko healed Lily first instead of herself. I didn’t even insist on having you healed swiftly either so let me have this. Plus that string of numbers ISN’T my name so there," insisted Meg.

"It is not as if my name is ’Lil Sis,’ so I fail to see how that argument is valid," retorted Hunter.

Kamiko looked awkwardly between the two as they started to snipe back and forth. It was basically a more eloquent version of ’no you’ with them listing various reasons for the other to be the one healed first. After the three minute mark Kamiko glanced awkwardly at Kat. Who just made a ’what do you want me to do about it’ face. Kamiko pouted back of course, which was very cute… but eventually Kamiko just put her foot down. "My demonic energy has recharged and if you can’t decide who’s going to be healed first… I’ll just heal you both at the same time. The cave is big enough for now so you can just leave it!"