Chapter 864

“What do I do? What do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?! Has anyone got any good ideas because I’m freaking out a little bit and I’ve got nothing!” shouted Kat as she ran. Kat tried to keep a good mental picture of where the fucking snake was but it was able to move without leaving any traces of its passing. Kat could guess it was a technique born from its ability to manipulate water and Kat REALLY WASN’T A FAN.

[Kat. You need to calm down. I understand this is bad, and the fact I’m in danger is what’s probably causing you to freak out a bit. Just remember, if things get really bad I can fly away. Now, I know you aren’t so callous as to leave Xiang and Yang for dead, so I’ll stay where I am at the moment but if they help you fight I’ll stay in the air. You might need to come back and find me because I’m not even close to as fast as you are, but I’ll be safe I promise.]

“Why can’t you just kill it with fire? That worked wonderfully every other time!” shouted Yang.

“It can control water or poison and throw it in the way! I doubt I can actually get any fire onto the damned snake!” returned Kat.

“It’s got water control?!” shouted Xiang. “Shit. It must be a really old Rank 3 beast then. Shit. Kat. Spirit beasts tend to focus on the physical side of things. A Rank 3 would normally need at least 3 Rank 3 cultivators or a Rank 4 cultivators to take down. This one... this one probably needs a lot more than that... I think we should just run!”

“Gee. I didn’t think of that. Let me just increase me speed all the way to maximum... OH WAIT. I’m already running as fast as I can! Snake or not I can’t go faster and I’m burning energy as we speak! Sure I can probably, hopefully, dodge it for a while but I’ve got half an hour of energy left tops,” explained Kat.

Xiang cursed under his breath, and while the wind did a good job of muffling it, Kat had exceptional hearing. Despite this, it does not bear repeating the long string of curses. They were unique, and creative and much to vulgar to be repeated. Lily was terribly embarrassed and almost jumped from Xiang’s arms just on principle. Still, eventually he raised a good point. “Is there any way to scare it off? Yang and I won’t be much more than dead weight. We just wouldn’t be strong enough to break through its scales,”

.....

“Speak for yourself!” hissed Yang.

“Oh? You think you can break those scales?” asked Xiang.

“Well... well no... but it was rude to just answer for me!” grumbled Yang.

Xiang just rolled his eyes. It really wasn’t the time for this sort of thing. He went to say something else but his jaw was slammed shut by Kat’s sudden movement. The snake came at Kat, this time straight on. Another leap over the head was in order, something Kat managed with a slight grunt and another burst of demonic energy. Landing was a lot harder though.

Kat saw her feet coming up on the back of the thing. It was certainly wide enough for Kat to stand on it easily, but she noticed the water rising up on either side of it and flared her wings forcing her to the side as she did so. The iceberg tilted and Xiang and Yang had to hold on as they came dangerously close to being thrown off. Kat managed to arc her back to the side and limit the issues for them partway through her jump.

Kat landed and fixed her posture, as well as the position of the iceberg. The snake continued charging through where she was and the water rushed over the top of it where Kat was just standing. Watching it closely though, Kat came to a pleasant realisation. Its zone of control was abysmal. It had great control of any water near it... but that control didn’t seem to extend far past the surface of its skin at all. Kat found that knowledge extremely welcoming.

“Do either of you have any fancy cultivator tricks?!” yelled Kat.

“Not for something like this!” returned Xiang.

“Hmm... maybe if I get it in the eyes...” ‘said’ Yang. “Kat! Call out the direction the snake will come from next time and I’ll blast it!”

“Sure!” Kat answered, not having any better plans at the moment. Currently they were just running down the clock. Sadly, they were the ones on the clock and not the snake. It meant that a plan to deal with it, either by defeating it – unlikely apparently – or by somehow managing to get it to run away.

A few seconds past as Kat waited for the snake to launch another attack. She didn’t quite know how she was noticing it, perhaps through sound or maybe feeling the vibrations? Whatever it was, Kat just let herself focus. “LEFT!” was the shout that left her mouth before she realised she was even speaking. Kat jumped once again as the snake burst from the water, this time though, it was ready for Kat.

As she sailed in the air, the snake coiled in on itself and slithered upwards, contorting itself to have a chance to nip at Kat. The jaws snapped down in the same instant Kat’s legs bent at the knee. It was a close thing, and Kat was able to feel one of her shoes being ripped off by the snake as she fell. Luckily, the snake wasn’t immune to its own momentum. While it had been able to redirect it for a bit, the rest of its body was catching up and forced it to move on. Kat quickly resummoned her outfit, focusing just on her shoe and was very pleased to see that it just flickered back into place and the rest of her attire didn’t change at all.

*Well that’s something to look into later. Wait. What happened to Yang’s laser?* Of course, Yang was on the right side of the raft. She couldn’t exactly get a shot on the snake, especially not its eyes, from where she was sitting if it was coming from that direction. Lily pointed this fact out to Kat after hearing her thoughts. *Oh. Oh right... my bad.*

Kat continued running and waited for the snake to return. This time, it took about five minutes for the snake to catch up. Kat was rather thankful for that. It seemed that if it wanted to keep its speed the snake had to stick to basic charges with maybe some water manipulation thrown in. Anything fancy would drastically cut into its speed. “BACK!”

Kat jumped up, snatching her tail out of the way and angling herself to the side once again as the snake barrelled through the space she was once again. Kat was a little surprised to note it didn’t even bother to open its mouth this time. Kat wasn’t sure what that meant, but a basic guess was ‘not good’. What was nice, is that Yang was able to blast it with her eye laser. Bad news. It didn’t do anything. She was slow on the draw and the lasers hit the beast’s scales doing what appeared to be no damage.

Two more attempts were made by Yang to blast the snake but the fundamental problem was the speed difference. It took Kat longer to say the where the snake was coming from then it did for the snake to attack. That wasn’t even including the time it took for Yang to turn, ready the attack, aim it, and release. It was just too great a delay. Things were happening in seconds if that, and taking a full one to speak the words just didn’t lend itself to speedy combat.

*Dammit. Go through the poison swamp they said. It’ll be faster they said. Yeah? Well fast as this might be. It won’t matter much if we DIE! Thanks a lot for the insistence on the ‘faster’ route Yang!*

[To be fair Kat. We didn’t exactly argue hard for the other option. I mean, to put this decision on Yang is a little unfair.] Lily was mostly arguing for the sake of arguing, and hoping it would calm Kat down somewhat. It was still true of course, but when you’re being chased by a giant man-eating snake, reasonable wasn’t really what anyone was after.

Kat cursed as she dodged the snake another time. Once again, it didn’t even bother to open its mouth and she decided to punish it a bit for that. Kat used her wings to fall a bit faster and kicked the thing in the side as she fell. Kat was very surprised when she heard a crunch, and it wasn’t the scales. Kat stumbled slight as she hit the ground and felt her toe mending itself. *WHAT THE HECK! How tough is this bastard’s scales!*