BXBX NOVEL Chapter 520: Special Delivery!
Chapter 520: Special Delivery!
Once it was final time to launch, Stone started everyone off. Stone moved just slow enough for the others to keep up with him until reaching the edge of the tunnel. Then Stone snapped his hands up before throwing them both towards the ground. The rocks around them moved to his whim.
The ceiling came down in a wave, just like someone shaking out a towel. The wave of stone could be heard grinding against the ground alongside the sound of thousands of small bones cracking. The wave bulldozed its way through the room with a speed that was just barely within Kat's range of vision.
It travelled forward only to be stopped by a massive boom. The wave seemed to bow backwards and flow around something before retreating completely to reveal, to nobodies surprise, the Crystal Rat which had moved in front taking the full weight of the ceiling on its body and not so much as bending to meet the demand. It was completely unscathed and the Summoner turned to open her mouth in retaliation.
She didn't get time though. Stone picked up Kat and Kamiko and hurled them both full speed and feet first towards the biggest Guard Rats on either side before dashing forward himself far faster then either demon had been thrown. Stone's fist was about to make contact with Summoner when Crystal moved its tail to intercept.
The impact pushed out a large wave of air that Stone grimaced upon seeing and deftly raised a small wall of rocks nearby to stop preventing it from slowing down Kat and Kamiko during their flight. When he did that, he doubled down, pulling the rock, stone and metal in and cocooning Summoner in a dome before slamming his feet into the ground and wrapping his hands around Crystal locking the rat in place.
Stone's stance hardened at this point and his whole body changed to a darker colour and gained a slightly metallic sheen covering his entire body and even his eyes. His muscles tensed even though he didn't move an inch and Crystal froze completely.
At this point Kat and Kamiko were making there landing. It was too fast to properly manage and Kat was very thankful for Stone's accurate throws. Before she knew it, her feet had impacted with one of the Guard Rat's heads and she lost a chunk of energy to healing the slightly damaged muscles throughout her legs.
Kamiko arrived just a moment after, having been thrown with less speed, though it was still enough to take off another Guard Rat's head. She used her natural grace to bleed off the rest of the momentum with a backflip before landing on her feet and summoning her weapon. Weapon in hand she lashed out at the nearest Guard that was still recovering somewhat and scored a nasty gash across its hastily raised arm.
Kat used her wings instead of just her legs, not having the extra experience with footwork. They were more then up to the task though and Kat managed to pull herself backwards and land on her feet. The wings were quickly retracted after that to avoid giving the Guards a larger target then she needed to.
Kat let her focus leave Kamiko as the four Guards moved up to try and attack her. The ground nearby was mostly free of blood so nobody was at risk of slipping, and the Guards were fast, much faster then the previous ones. All four managed to surround Kat before she kicked her mind into its highest gear.
They moved as one perfectly oiled unit, though carrying out different tasks. Kat would designate them, Scratch, for the scratch over its eye, Patch, for the large patch of missing fur on its side, Chipped, for the large chunk missing from its ear and Chunk for a similar missing chunk from the final rat's tail.
Scratch and Patch tried to rake across Kat's body from the back and front, with Scratch swinging in from behind her left shoulder and trying to rake down her back. Patch was doing somewhat of the opposite aiming instead from her front left moving up instead. This might mean that dodging right would get her out of this…
But Chipped and Chunk were moving in, both arms coming up in concert mostly to block Kat's movements, they still had there claws out of course, but they weren't putting any weight behind it yet so that they could more easily react to what Kat was doing.
*Ok. Gotta think quick. They can move really fast, maybe as fast as me, but they don't seem to have the mental slowdown that I have. I can't dodge upwards because my wings will probably get caught by Scratch though… maybe up right? That could work.*
Kat tensed her legs and started to bounce in the direction she'd planned out but Chunk moved its hands up and forward, liking a volleyball frontline blocker, fighting for control of the net. Blocking of space and making her plan much less feasible.
*Ok shit. They can react to me; I can see Chunk moving its hands up. Shit. My body isn't fast enough even if my mind is.*
At this point Kat had already been moving and it looked like she was going to have Chunk's claws rake down the side of her face as she moved up and past the Guard. Kat grit her teeth though, knowing that having the four surrounding her was much worse, and she'd already let that happen. Letting the momentum carry her, Chunk tried to jump up to push her back down towards the ground but her tail lashed out, managing to strike Chunk's chest digging in a moderate way and pushing the rat back.
Chunk still got its pound of flesh, slicing her ear clean in half, Kat winced and ignored the pain as she moved up and out of the trap the Guards had set for her. Still, with the limited space she hadn't been able to use her full strength or get any sort of runup. She'd used a weak jump with her legs barely bent just to get out in time.
Kat flared her wings and flapped hard so that she was sent into the air. The blood from her ear already stopping its flow as the appendage grew back. She looked down at the rats glaring up at her. The three were keeping themselves bellow her, watching closely but not making any rash moves.
When Chunk made contact with the ground, the rat did a little hop, letting more momentum bleed off as it was pushed backwards rather then risk damaging its feet. Kat made a note of that. Still, she didn't know where to go from there, the rats were staring at her, and they were waiting. Chunk took one more look at Kat once it'd stopped, before turning to where Kamiko was fighting her own set of Guards. As soon as it did so, Kat knew she couldn't just bait them from the air.
*Shit. They're smart enough to switch targets. I need to give them something at the very least. Do I go back into the fray, locking up at least three, or should I shoot towards Chunk on an intercept course. I doubt I'd really be able to get any time with just the one rat before the others show up… but I guess its better then nothing. *
Kat followed her advice, diving straight for Chunk, who almost seemed to grin as she approached. Kat lashed out with a kick to Chunk's head that was easily blocked… the follow up tail strike going around that leg was another matter. Chunk was hit hard on the side of his head and staggered, blood leaking from the wound.
Before Kat could celebrate though, another set of claws made itself known and used her somewhat stationary position to dig into her leg. The muscles tensing around it to prevent it from doing too much damage, but whichever rat it was pushed hard, forcing Kat to go with the momentum and be flung towards the ground to prevent further damage.
Kat let her good leg take the weight as she hit the ground, allowing the momentum to turn her around to face the group. Chunk was still stunned from the kick, not quite recovered in the short few moments it had taken for her to land. The other three were heading towards her, but because of how things played out, her left side was mostly free. That was good. That was the side that was undamaged.
*Now how do I capitalise on this?*