Chapter 355: Outnumbered but not Outgunned
Chapter 355: Outnumbered but not Outgunned
*That actually gives me a bit of an advantage. I only have to watch from attacks in the one direction. This might be easier than I thought. Wait, no don\'t say that, take them seriously. Even if this is supposed to be perfectly possible, and Percy was a weakling. Wait… is that rude to think? Eh who cares I took him out in one punch and I can be a bit rude to people in my thoughts.*
Kat\'s opponents actually managed to take a rather interesting way down. Meron stretched his beard out into a staircase that Krekron and Sekron walked down. Kat did notice however, that they were never actually both on the staircase at the same time. Sekron stopped to look over Percy\'s cocoon and made it seem casual, but Kat noticed it was timed a bit too well. As soon as Krekron\'s foot left the beard stairs Sekron stepped on the top.
*Ok, a weakness already. I bet that Meron can\'t actually hold the both of them. Should I just go for him first? How does this work exactly? Can downed people re-join the fight if they recover?*
"Hey Uncle, what are they fighting till? I know I need to be disabled but what about them?" asked Kat
"Major injury I guess, same as you. Unless they have other ideas?" said Uncle.
"I am fine with major injury" said Krekron.
"I concur" said Sekron
"Um… I… well, I think I\'ll go with the same. I mean… I can\'t really bleed… I mean, not like Rock… ah…" Meron fumbled.
"Anything causing us to bleed is probably already a major injury," said Uncle coming to the rescue. "We don\'t exactly have much meat on us, so if you manage to break our skin, chances are the bones will follow, unlike the rest of you which have much weaker skin and tougher bones"
*I guess that makes sense? I wonder if they have an exoskeleton? That could be why… eh not really relevant.*
Everyone got in place and Uncle once again summoned the countdown timer. Meron was off to Kat\'s right, with Sekron on the other side and Krekron in the middle.
3. *Attack the healer. Not sure if Meron is a healer yet or not, but he also seems like he\'s probably the weakest so I\'ll go for him first.* Kat lined herself up with Krekron, masking her real target slightly.
2. Meron\'s beard started to flow around him, acting somewhat like a liquid, constantly rippling and moving around him like a living thing.
1. Krekron and Sekron summoned their weapons. Krekron\'s was a large war hammer while Sekron had a sword and shield. Krekron\'s hammer had a head the size of his chest with a spike on the other end of the handle. Sekron\'s shield was a standard kite shield with the same design as his tabard, blue and gold v\'s in a line.
When the buzzer hit zero Kat jumped forward at the same time as Meron and Krekron jumped backwards with Sekron moving to the front, shield at the ready. *Wait… why didn\'t he just take the middle podium?* Kat didn\'t have long to think though, because she was conserving energy, before she knew it, she was only a few steps away from Sekron.
Kat waited for him to be just barely in range and struck out with her tail, which Sekron managed to take easily on his shield by angling it away from himself slightly. While he was busy with that, Kat didn\'t stop her charge, and dashed around the distracted pit fiend.
This seemed to be expected though, as Kat was now able to see the other two clearly. Meron was hidden behind Krekron\'s large form that was already swinging at her with his hammer. Seeing that he was going for a strike on her upper chest, Kat decided to try something new.
Kat dropped to her knees, making sure to keep her kimono between herself and the ground, while bending backwards as far as her wings would allow. Which, at Rank 2 was actually rather far, allowing her to almost completely flatten herself.
Krekron\'s hammer flew over her head, clearly not ready for her drastic shift in height. Making use of the chance, Kat unfolded herself and bounced up, releasing a punch straight towards where she remembered Meron being.
Meron, it turned out, was already preparing. As she ducked under Krekron\'s rather slow but well timed hammer strike, he managed to create a ball of beard hair that surrounded him. When Kat smashed into the ball it went flying and hit the wall… but instantly bounced off and continued to bounce around the arena.
*Shit, that probably didn\'t actually do much.* Kat whirled around, just in time to see Krekron making another swing. Judging the distance, Kat realised she could still step back and out of range, but she wanted to see how strong they were comparatively. Bracing herself, Kat put her right arm up to block the strike.
The hammer impacted hard, and Kat now realised her footwork was rather horribly. That coupled with the fact she put none of her own force into fighting the hammer meant she went flying in a similar manner to Meron just was. Kat barely felt the strike, her muscles and bones taking it surprisingly well, and healing from what little damage was done.
Krekron however, clearly wasn\'t expecting the blow to land, and neither was his brother. When Kat hit the wall, she had all the time in the world to stand back up. *Dammit, could have landed better if I wasn\'t so focused on keeping my wings folded.* Brushing herself off, Kat was surprised by two things.
The first was that Krekron and Sekron hadn\'t moved at all. The second was that Meron hadn\'t stopped. The bearded ball was actually heading straight towards her current position. Crouching down Kat put her back against the wall, and prepared. Pushing as much energy into her leg as possibly, Kat waited till just before Meron was in range and kicked out.
It was perfect. She connected with Meron, there was a brief screech before he was sent of flying again, bouncing around the tent. The brother seemed to have gotten themselves together and were making their way towards Kat at a decent pace, probably sprinting, but to Kat it looked more like a light jog.
*Don\'t want to get caught in the corner.* Kat sprinted to meet them, not willing to be boxed in. Krekron and Sekron spread out, and attacked her as she charged. Sekron went high with his sword, as if trying to cut off her head, while Krekron went for her knees.
Kat wasn\'t willing to play either game though, so she simply turned in place and headed around behind Sekron. Kat didn\'t see it, so focused she was on the fight, but Uncle\'s jaw dropped when he saw the turn, and the internal scream of. \'That\'s not how that works!\' could be easily read by Kamiko who was thinking similar things.
Sekron wasn\'t able to turn in time, and Kat\'s punch took him in the back… or that was the plan. Instead, Kat found a shield teleporting into her strike. She hadn\'t put her full power into it, still testing the waters somewhat, and unwilling to go all out straight to someone\'s spine. This did however mean that when her fist collided with the shield, it bounced back and her wrist was not happy with her.
Gritting her teeth, Kat\'s eyes started to light up with power as the world slowed. The shield wasn\'t moving, and it was taking up prime striking real estate. *Ok, what can I do? It\'s possible to reach around but that won\'t be ideal. I can go for a kick but he might just move the shield again… but obviously punching is out… maybe both? I can\'t really do that well? Wait no I\'m an idiot, tail, strike with a kick and my tail.*
Kat swung low going for a leg sweep, while striking the same place she\'d just hammered her fist into with her tail. Sekron, it seemed, did not have eyes in the back of his head, as Kat\'s tail was blocked perfectly, but her leg sweep was unchallenged. Sekron lost his footing completely and went down hard, having no chance against Kat\'s strength.
The shield followed though, and remained blocking his back. Before Kat could think on it too much though Krekron was swinging over his brother\'s fallen form, preventing Kat from following up. The spark of an idea to simply strike at the hammer did occur but Kat was willing to step back for now, while watching out for Sekron and ensuring he didn\'t stand up.
This of course, was the perfect time for things to go wrong, and Kat felt something impact her back, crushing her wings in a rather painful manner.