Chapter 1516: Chapter 1516 A Strike from the Heavens!
Chapter 1516: Chapter 1516 A Strike from the Heavens!
--- Kat ---
The dragon was charging up a breath attack. That part was obvious… the real question Kat had on her mind was what should she do about it? The dragon was aiming up into the sky… but nowhere near Lily at all. The dragon clearly needed to charge up the attack, it was sucking in air and distorting the space around it as it did so. Kat could practically see the laser beam that was about to shoot out.
Which didn't exactly tell her what she should do in this situation.
*Seriously, Lily, any advice here? Do I just rest some more?*
[It's… potentially a bit of a risk but I think you should go for it. If you hit the dragon and cause the breath attack to backfire on it that should do a lot of damage.]
Lily's suggestion decided it for Kat so she sprinted forward towards the dragon. As she got closer, Kat noticed that the surroundings were moving oddly, or perhaps she was? Kat found herself jumping forward and backward as she 'approached'. One step forward might be two steps back, but a second step after that might send her ten paces ahead. It was hard to keep track of everything.
Kat had no idea what she was doing… but someone else did.
*Lily you're gonna have to time this for me. Give me a shout when I need to punch upwards.* Kat felt Lily's affirmation ring across their bond. With Lily's support, Kat felt more confident and started to pump more demonic energy into her body, 'speeding up' and causing the surroundings to jitter more often.
From afar, Lily noticed that doing so actually seemed to make the area more stable around Kat, not less, despite the increased jittering.
That happened when Kat sprinted too quickly and entered the turbulent area of space right on the edge of her personal 'stable' bubble. Lily considered warning Kat, but now wasn't the time. She didn't want to risk Kat launching her attack early. So she waited… and watched.
Eventually, it was time. [NOW!] Kat didn't hesitate, she launched herself upward, hand covered in demonic fire. Her leap was even more disjointed then her approach, so Kat just closed her eyes and cocked her fist back… before slamming it into the underside of the dragon.
Kat opened her eyes, ready to see the dragon rearing back jaw closed… but that isn't what happened at all. Instead the dragon simply took the attack, full brunt. WHERE WAS THIS RESISTANCE BEFORE! Kat's shock meant she wasn't properly ready for the drake to swipe at her. The clawed hand smacking into her, but not quite positioned properly for Kat to take maximum damage.
She'd avoided all the sharp bits this time.
Kat went spinning across the ground, her skin bruising, muscles moving out of place, and her right side containing a few broken bones that were already healing. Kat managed to get up quickly but the dragon was aiming its breath towards her name. Kat looked around but obviously there was no cover to speak of.
Just as she was about to start digging downwards to have at least some protection, a twang split the air and Kat watched as something streaked over her head, before a moment later the dragon's face exploded.
"Get moving Lass," said Bower as Kat spun around and saw the old man.
"Took your fucking time!" hissed Kat as she took his advice. Glancing back at the dragon she saw it was missing a small part of its face. The arrow had taken out the area between its eye and nose. The wound was healing rapidly, but it had clearly disrupting the dragon in a big way. It was coughing, and its failed breath attack was ensuring that caused issues.
Around the dragon's mouth waves of what Kat could only guess was twisted space emanated from the dragon, tearing into its front legs and the nearby ground. Seeing that the dragon was distracted Kat slowed her run. "You take off and find a good place to set up, I'm going to get closer to the dragon again,"
"If you say so lass. I don't have too many shots that powerful but I'll save them for when it's necessary," said Bower as he kept heading off… somewhere.
Kat turned to the dragon and let out a long breath as she charged towards it. Space all around it was unstable and getting close enough to cause damage might be a problem for the moment. *Lily any suggestions for me?*
[Just wait and regenerate further? You weren't even back up to fifty percent last time you checked and you just had to regenerate from a big blow. The dragon is properly occupied for the first time. You can regenerate in peace.]
700
So of course, just went Kat was going to agree with Lily's suggestion she noticed a shine light in the air. Focusing a bit of demonic energy into her eyes showed that it was Kamiko, and she was aiming right for the dragon's neck. Eye's widening in shock, Kat sprinted forward with no plan, just the knowledge that she'd need to help Kamiko out when her weapon failed to penetrate the dragon's scales.
So of course, just to keep things interesting a loud bang had to go off at the same time. Hunter's bullet, for what else could it have been, impacted the dragon's eye, causing it to explode and shower the ground in blood and gore. The dragon roared, as it turned to try and look in Hunter's direction.
As this was happening, Kat was getting cut up on the approach. She'd expected as much but the large gashes on her arms and legs were doing her no favours. Her healing was working overtime to heal the damage itself… and the blood loss Kat was having some second thoughts about this course of action…
When Hunter took out the dragon's other eye, driving the beast to the ground. This coincided with Kamiko's landing. Just before touching down Kamiko let out a yell, dazzling pink flames rested just on the edge of her naginata. Kat watched in amazement as the blade sliced through the dragon's neck.
Kamiko had angled herself to catch the side of the dragon, and rode the momentum all the way down the beast's side.
The dragon let out a pitiful groan as Hunter let loose, a serious of gunshots ringing out as bullets rained down on the dragon's side, whizzing past Kat and taking out large chunks of the dragon's neck. It was still technically attached but the bullets were punching holes clean through the dragon's neck.
Kat, not wanting their efforts to go to waste, dove into the wounds, ignoring her own and started to slash as the exposed flesh, ensuring that instead of healing the wounds were only getting worse. Kat hacked away at exposed muscle as quickly as she could trying to burn as much of the dragon's energy as she could.
[Kat the drake is still doing something! The crystal on its head is acting up!]
Kat grimaced and doubled her pace slashing away at maximum speed, taking care to avoid the overly dangerous bones. Kat could see Kamiko working her way through the dragon's neck on the other side, uncaring for the blood raining down on her.
Kat didn't even waste the time it would take to give the other succubus a nod of acknowledgement, they were doing real damage here and perhaps if they could deal enough the damned thing would die.
At least, that was the hope. Sadly, it was not to be. A wave of energy past over Kat's body and she found herself frozen in place. Screaming internally Kat tried to do anything, move, twitch, even just glancing over at Kamiko but nothing seemed to work. She was completely and entirely frozen. The drake didn't seem to be healing either but Kat couldn't really tell… and she couldn't hear Lily right now.
That was the scariest part.
Then Kat found herself moving again. Slowly at first, but quickly speeding up… only she wasn't in control of her actions. Kat wanted to scream as her body moved against her will it was… it was… r e w i n d i n g.
Kat wanted to scream against the temporal shackles binding her, but she couldn't seem to break free. Her demonic energy didn't want to respond to her. The link she had with Lily, felt like it was still there but horribly muted and nearly silent. Kat had to watch as each and every cut was undone, each stroke of the blade now reversing and another chunk of meat returning to the dragon's side.
Eventually Kat was walking backwards. Out of the dragon and away from the fight. She could see Kamiko rising back up into the air, and the dragon putting itself back together. The wounds it took from Hunter and Bower were undoing themselves and worse still, Kat could see those crystals atop the dragon's head growing larger. Kat didn't know why exactly, but that felt like a really big problem.