Chapter 361: Winning the Chance for a Loss

Yadda yadda, Kamiko's thoughts. Yadda yaddda

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While Kat scanned the other demons looking for weakness, Kamiko adjusted her grip on her weapon and dismissed the top blade of her naginata, deciding to use it as a traditional naginata with one blade rather than her strange double sided contraption. *It just isn't long enough to use both. I don't have much practice in this form but that's better than not being able to hit anything at all.* 

Kamiko made sure that she was holding the weapon carefully, with demonic energy constantly flowing between her and it so that she wasn't at risk of hitting Kat by mistake when they suddenly moved.

Seralina let out a long hiss, that was supposed to be intimidating as she started to position herself so that her head sat above the three brothers, but it wasn't working on anyone other than maybe Meron, who could feel the vibrations running through his body and was getting the idea that he was perhaps more outclassed than he'd thought.

Kamiko and Kat thought it was a little cute, not that they'd admit it to anyone, not even each other. It felt more like Seralina was trying to say 'don't laugh at me' after slamming her head into the ground. Still, the brothers all readied their weapons, as Percy moved to the front with his large shield.

Kat saw they were all well and truly settled and decided to start circling slowly. *Oooh, good idea, we can force them out of position. Seralina can change her orientation really well, but circling around behind them will be hard if she wants to hold her head above them at the same time.* 

Seralina, had evidently realised the same thing and dropped her higher position to situate herself on the right side while circling around with Kat. The brothers moved with her, and so the slow walking continued as both parties started to make their way around the arena again and again.

Kamiko was looking for a good opening but she wasn't really seeing one. Seralina's bulk on one side with Percy's tower shield on the other provided for a nice set of defence. Seralina could take the attacks for a bit and counter, and with Meron helping her out, they might be the more dangerous of the groupings the enemy team had come up with.

Still, the succubi weren't confident they could get through the brothers either. Kat thought she could maybe trade a good hit on herself for a chance to take out Percy again, but it wasn't a sure thing and Kamiko might be seriously injured if she was the target instead so that angle wasn't looking great.

By some unspoken agreement though, both Succubi started to consider the idea of going after Meron. *I mean, it's actually a good idea. Seralina is scary, but if we can cut Meron free maybe we can start to work on the others? Or at least use that chance to attack him properly? Maybe we can do a few things to keep him from climbing back up? If I use my lasers just a little bit to stop him from climbing that could work…*

"Kat I have a plan" whispered Kamiko as quietly as she could.

"Yeah?" returned Kat.

"Go for Seralina's head I'm going to try and cut Meron's beard" said Kamiko

Kat nodded very slightly while she continued to circle. The pair kept circling and made sure to complete another full rotation just in case the others realised they had something planned. As soon as Seralina started moving herself to adjust her position slightly, Kat knew it was time.

Kat kicked off the ground as hard as she could, and Kamiko was ready. The duo sprinted at Seralina as quickly as they could. The enemies reacted as best they could to the situation. Seralina was trying to raise up her head so that the brothers could help her out. They moved to try and get in the way of Kat, but this situation was fine for the succubi pair.

Kat leapt over the brothers with ease. Sekron tried to catch her foot with his shield, teleporting it in front of Kat but it wasn't quite high enough to catch them and only provided a foothold for Kat to get even more speed and further refine her flight. Just before she kicked off though, Sekron withdrew the shield, causing Kat to click her tongue slightly but was clearly still grinning.

Kamiko brandished her naginata and, as soon as she was in range, swung at what looked like Seralina's eye, making it look like she was trying to cripple the Lamia somewhat. Seralina instinctively jerked her head to the side to try and force Kamiko to attack her scales. Sadly for Seralina, this was exactly what she wanted.

Letting the naginata slip slightly further down her grip, she let the blade swirl straight towards Seralina's side. Now that her face was directed away, it gave Kamiko a clean line of sight to Meron's beard. She felt the blade digging in, and there was some slight resistance before she flared her energy causing the glow to intensify around her for a moment. Just long enough for the cut to be made and for Meron's beard to come loose.

This also meant, that Meron found himself falling from his perch. Seralina's jerky movement had forced him to hold tightly to his beard to prevent his falling, but now that it was no longer tied, he was doomed to fall. Realising this he tried to force enough extra beard hair to grow back around but realised quickly it wouldn't be fast enough.

Accepting his fate, Meron pulled his beard back to him, forcing it to spin around his body multiple times as he fell. While this was going on, Kat landed hard. She hadn't quite prepared herself to land with the additional body weight Kamiko provided. It only cost her a second of recovery but that was enough for the other parties to get themselves together.

Seralina was coming down for a strike, Meron was regaining his footing as well, and the brothers were trying to launch an attack on Kat's exposed back. Kat dodged straight into Meron, rolling as she did so. Kamiko cursed as she dismissed her weapon, not wanting to lose control of it during the manoeuvre as she put her hands down to assist with the roll's trajectory.

*Come on Kamiko, your arms can take this. It's just a bit of strain. Kat's been carrying you around this whole time, don't worry about it.* Of course, the weight of the pair was never the issue, it was the speeds at which they were moving that would cause problems and Kamiko knew it, but she felt she had no choice in the matter, and Kat was already regretting her instinctual actions, which had forgotten the fact that she had a passenger, when they forced her to move.

Kamiko's arms creaked under the pressure as they met the floor, but she knew how to roll well enough. Forcing the pressure to disperse into the ground as she let herself get carried along.  Even still, it wasn't a pleasant experience and as Kamiko was brought away from the ground and Kat continued her run Kamiko was wincing.

*Not sure if I can summon my weapon back. I can feel my muscles still screaming at me for that trick. I might not have ridiculous regen like Kat, but a bit of muscle tearing is something even I can heal given a bit of time… I just hope I actually have that. I'll have to rely on my eyes.* 

Meron, seeing the pair coming for him sighed and let his eyes roll back into his head. As this happened his beard exploded with movement, coating the ground and building itself up into a big blob of beard hair. Kamiko blasted it, just to judge the reaction, but found her lasers barely scorched the hair.

*Holy shit, that's really tough! What the heck did Meron do?* Kat seeing this, bit her lip and worried slightly but was already committed to the attack, her legs already stepping on some of Meron's beard. If she wanted to retreat, it would be on his terms and she'd have given up an attack.

Kat had to fight herself, as her instincts screamed to use her wings, at least for some stabilisation. Using her wings at all, while probably allowed for balancing and not flying, would be too hard, as it was likely she'd take off her glide at least a bit. Her tail was doing the best it could, but Meron's beard was becoming increasingly difficult to stand on with every step she took as the friction on her shoes lowered. Kat was gritting her teeth, and was hoping that the next few steps wouldn't be impossible.

What the succubi pair didn't see was Seralina and the brothers stopping their own charge as soon as Kat did that. Seralina started to encircle the area while the brothers stood together behind Seralina's head just in case.