BXBX NOVEL Chapter 465: One Hallway of Rats…
Chapter 465: One Hallway of Rats…
"Same plan" said Kamiko. Kat personally, had no better ideas, and Kamiko was proficient enough in martial combat to see that Kat didn't have the training to allow for any more complex plan. If they were to work together in concert, they'd need either much more time together to get used to each other, or a few life and death fights where they had to work together.
A bunch of low level rats were never going to provide that challenge, so Kamiko smiled and followed behind her friend as the taller demon tore through rats Kamiko would gracefully follow behind and execute the ones left standing. That wasn't to say Kat was completely lacking in grace. She naturally flowed from one move to another using only her instincts, which as a Succubus, meant they were predisposed to looking at least somewhat good.
Once they'd finished up with the hallway, they didn't speak, Kamiko sprinted back to the start, and Kat began her clean up right where she was, they just pushed these rats against the wall this time, as they didn't have any easily accessible hideaway for the bodies.
After this the next hallway was around a couple of corners to reveal a T junction filled with rats. Using the same form as before, they tore their way up to the middle before they started speaking. "So how do we get these ones out of the way? I go left you go right? With both go one direction? I don't really know what would work the best…" said Kat.
"Well, it depends what we want to prioritise, and I think… that has to be making sure all the rats are in fact dead. I'll stay behind you cleaning up, and make sure that no rats sneak back into the corridor we've already passed through. Lets do a little bit to the right, then freeze a line of rats and keep them burning a bit before turning around and cleaning up the left side" suggested Kamiko.
Kat nodded, and did as she was asked, blurring into motion and cutting down all the rats she could reach for about twenty metres, once there, she jumped to the side and let her hands burn. Kamiko, realising the plan, jumped to the other side once she'd confirmed the rats had been killed and let her own pink fire blaze.
They planted their hands on top of the pile of rat corpses they'd pushed forward and watched them freeze over. The pink and purple flames mostly staying on their own half but mixing slightly in the middle. Kat and Kamiko didn't really know how to use their demonic flames together and this could be considered a… passable attempt. They were mostly aided by both being frost types, and the simple plan for what they were doing with them.
Once that was done, Kat and Kamiko quickly dashed back to the middle, where they caught a few rats trying to escape down the part of the T junction they'd came from, and made sure that none of them made it far before tackling the left side. For Kat it was business as usual, for Kamiko though, it was quite a bit harder. She was using her superior battlefield awareness to attack mostly blind, because she was using her eyes to watch the line of flames that was still burning.
A few rats had tried to jump through it, and luckily, had perished in the attempt. Others were just sort of watching the fire warily, while a few 'brave' rats had tried to take a bite out of the flaming corpses of their brethren. That didn't go so well, as the still burning chunks they'd torn of froze them from the inside out… but didn't seem to spread the fire further.
Kamiko's eyes narrowed as she cleanly cut three more rats in half. "I'll need to watch they don't accidentally build a bridge" mumbled Kamiko in between strikes. Luckily though, Kamiko was vastly overestimating the intelligence of the standard Swarm Rat. Having seen the first try eating a piece of flaming rat… around eight more tried it as well. Just to be sure of course. This all lead to their deaths of course.
So, seeing this, the rats finally got the message not to eat the flaming rats… right? Well, apparently not because it seemed like they thought the problem was taking a big bite out of the side. So another batch of rats tried eating various parts from the flaming wall only to find themselves suffering a similar fate.
It was then that the rats finally realised that the fire wasn't healthy for them and back off… mostly. There was still one or two that tried something stupid, either jumping through again and shattering when they impacted the floor or taking a few 'innocent' bites out of the dead rats.
Kamiko almost felt disappointed in herself for bothering to use mental power watching them for something, she was now realising, was intelligent behaviour far beyond the rats capabilities. Still, she had heard the saying about imps and typewriters so continued to watch over the rats just in case.
Kat wasn't completely oblivious either. This time, instead of giving herself over to instincts completely, she made sure to check on Kamiko every few minutes just in case they needed to act. It was a bit overprotective, but Kat had cultivated the art of protecting children from their own stupidity, and it was a little hard to get out of that mindset even with her friends. Especially one so new.
Still. Nothing happened. The rats were idiots and couldn't adapt, so once the first half were cleared out, Kamiko and Kat jumped over the wall themselves and started to clear out the rest of the rats. Kamiko had a slightly easier job. As quite a few rats watched the demons jump through the fire unscathed and tried to repeat the performance without any success.
Once that batch of rats were killed the pair went to cleaning everything up before moving on. They got through another two hallways worth of rats before Kat called a time out. "I think we should rest. I still have full energy, and I imagine you're close as well but I remember how much a good break did for us back at Greed"
Kamiko nodded and sat down right where she was. They'd pushed away the rat corpses in this area and Kamiko was at the edge of the blood so she didn't have to worry about touching it. "Yeah we really should. This is as good as spot as any, if you ignore the rat corpses."
Kat rolled her eyes and took a spot across from Kamiko, who pouted and scooted over to Kat's side and gave her friend a hug. Kat smiled and leaned into it, letting her wing on that side wrap around Kamiko slightly. "See, much more comfortable" snickered the smaller demon.
Kat let out a quiet sigh that likely didn't sneak past Kamiko's hearing. *Of course it is. I have to lean on the wall, while you get to use me as a pillow. Aw well, it's not like I'm unused to the feeling so this is fine. Hugs are great anyway so it's worth it.*
"So how are you finding the slaughter of these rats? I'm personally very glad I won't have to spend hours trying to get the blood and dirt out from under my fingernails. Probably a bit of time sure, but it'll be no major effort," said Kat.
Kamiko winced. "Yeah, I can imagine that wouldn't be fun at all. In terms of what I think… honestly I'm a little annoyed with how long it all takes to clean up afterwards, even just pushing things to the side. We probably spend more time on that then clearing out the rats and I'm not sure we'll make all that much progress.
"Based on the fact we're still in the clearly mined out sections and haven't found the real nest of these damned things I wonder how bad it is. Now, ideally, they'll have been hibernating in a dead end cave and were awoken by the miners. More likely though, there's going to be a tonne of them." Explained Kamiko
Kat bit her lip, *That doesn't sound good at all. How are we supposed to kill masses of these things? One, easy, two, no problem, hundreds take time though and I'm just not sure we have the abilities to really clean them out. Especially if more dangerous varieties show up.* "Do we have anything for that?" asked Kat
"Not really" said Kamiko "If it's really that bad, we might have to have Stone send us some help, or just… let our demonic fire loose. We don't want to do the second thing in the mines but there's only so much we can do if we find like… a pit full of rats. I do NOT want to jump in a pit full of rats."
Kat felt a shiver run down her body. *Yeah neither do I Kamiko. Thanks for that lovely imagine that's now stuck in my head.*