Chapter 858

Chapter 858: Chapter 858 A Tree Approached

Time passed and Kat had to fend of a few more of the weird croc-fish things. They came to investigate on a fairly regularly schedule of about once every fifteen minutes. Sometimes they’d come in groups of three or more, other times a lone one would investigate and run off without prompting.

For the larger groups it was always up to Kat to scare them off. It wasn’t the most pleasant of jobs, and Kat was honestly rather thankful that Lily had her face buried at the moment, preventing her girlfriend from watching the death throws of the beasts. After the third attempted attack Kat started to mix things up. Just launching fire from her feet was easy and rather routine at that point.

Kat had now tried a variety of different delivery methods for her demonic flames but it really wasn’t much of an issue. With her recent practice, throwing large amounts of demonic fire in a straight line, even if it was a bit of a distance away, was exceptionally easy. Still. Kat tried to have fun with it. Blowing out a long stream from between her lips, finger guns. Using her tail to launch ‘laser beams’ that were really just short bursts of demonic fire in a thing line.

As the day wore on and the sun started to set... Kat was really starting to wonder about the biodiversity of this place. The only thing that she really saw was those croc-fish and not much else. Some short glimpses of other things perhaps, but really the only thing that attacked her were the croc-fish.

Perhaps it was simply that they were the only things aggressive enough so far to go on the attack? *What do you think Lily? Are they the only things that can survive in the mess or are they just the only thing that thinks they could take us out?*

[I think it has to be the latter right? We’ve seen little fishes and the vegetation isn’t quite so similar to each other. I think those... ‘crocfish’ as you call them just happen to be aggressive pack hunters or something. Which is weird. Based on your description of them I’m not sure where they got the pack instincts from. Nothing it LOOKS like travels in packs. I think...]

Kat gave a mental shrug. She was no expert in exotic species. It was entirely unclear just how natural the things were. Did they live here before whatever massively poisoned the area? Had the area been poisonous so long that it was now just naturally poisonous? These were all questions that Kat was happy to ponder with Lily. However, without access to any books or experts to question they could really only engage in idle speculation.

.....

As the sun was starting to set, the water was starting to darken much more rapidly then the sun would suggest. It was taking on a consistency much closer to drenched mud then water and the colour... it had turned into a mix of black and purple with a slight sheen. The smell wasn’t any worse thankfully but Kat was starting to wonder just how smart it was to travel through this bog after all. It did not look pleasant and the only thing stopping Kat from mentioning that fact was that the path seemed to have been built up more here.

Yang and Xiang were able to increase their speed as the water now only came up to the sides of their feet at best. They had shoes on so it was still a good few centimetres, but they were able to use the more solid footing and lowered water levels to increase their speed a bit. Kat still had no issues keeping up of course, even with the trips to dispose of the unwelcome wildlife.

The sun set completely some time later, and there was an unspoke agreement between everyone to just keep going. There was no argument, no words. The group simply kept moving. Nobody felt the need to ask for a break. Kat knew she could fly all night like this and Lily was already sleep. So it was really just down to the cultivators and they weren’t giving Kat any signs they wanted to stop. There wasn’t even a subtle nod. They just kept running.

Now, Kat was fine with that. She could see at night and the moon and stars were perfectly adequate light sources. She could somewhat rest her mind as they flew and it was very tempting, especially without Lily to chat with about nothing in her mind. Kat was completely willing to continue till sunrise, or they made their way out of the swamp. Whatever was faster.

That was until she noticed Yang and Xiang starting to drift. They were tilting just a bit to the left and were straying further and further away from the marking sticks. Kat called out to them both who snapped their heads up and redirected themselves. There was no words of thanks, but Kat didn’t really expect them from Yang at this point. From Xiang... well... it was about 50/50.

Kat redirected them both a few more times. Sometimes it was just one or the other drifting. Sometimes both. Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. Kat wasn’t as keen about running through the knight anymore. She was debating the merits of forcing them to rest for a few minutes when the matter was practically forced out of her hands.

Best

Xiang was drifting again, and Yang right behind him. That wasn’t anything new at this point. What was new, was the fact they were heading straight for a tree. Kat wasn’t really that worried, mostly because she was only half paying attention at the time. Part of Kat’s mind was like ‘hey that’s a tree’ and another small part was like ‘nah they aren’t that dumb’ and while that part was true... Yang was quite tired, the lack of the sun really drained her energy, a side effect of her cultivation technique. She was barely hanging on to her wakeful state as it was and simply followed behind Xiang at this point. Focused on his back, and nothing further so she didn’t register the tree at all.

Xiang was no better. He’d had a rough few days even before he met Kat. They’d been looking for something, praying for a demonic summoning circle. Kat didn’t really see just how much they’d pushed themselves to find the place. Then they proceeded to run with no real for their bodies. Xiang was just recently recovered as well. While the damage had been healed, he was still behind where he should be muscle and cultivation wise due to the poison and damage. It was taking a toll.

So his eyes weren’t even open when he smacked into the tree. It wasn’t a particularly fair contest. Xiang was a cultivator, and while he was half asleep he was still moving at a decent clip. The tree on the other hand was old and poisoned. It was weak and brittle and didn’t put up any sort of a fight. It shattered under Xiang’s ‘headbutt’. It was only just tough enough to wake Xiang somewhat causing him to stop in place.

This was the real issue, in truth. Yang wasn’t prepared for the stop and rammed into Xiang. Without being prepared for the impact Xiang couldn’t withstand the blow. He fell forward clipping his side on the tree and falling face first into the mud and water. Yang wasn’t much better. She tripped over Xiang and fell forward as well, impacting heavily onto Xiang’s back, forcing him further into the mud.

Really, Kat was just glad they hit the tree at a bit of an angle and didn’t land on what remained. Being impaled seemed like an awful way to go, and scratches would quickly become infected in a place like this. Kat swooped down to help, but Xiang was quickly standing. Yang reacted as well, hopping up shakily but avoiding being completely drenched a second time.

When Xiang stood, his eyes were firmly shut. He had mud splattered all over his face and he clearly wanted to say something but the risk of getting mud in his mouth was too great. He started to take scoops of the mud and hurl into the water. Trying to downplay his irritation. Yang was properly returning to the present, though still quite tired during all of this. Kat winced as Xiang scooped up some ‘water’ if it could still be called that, and used it to clean his face off. It took a bit of effort but once he was done, Xiang just turned to the sticks and made to keep moving.

“STOP” hissed Kat firmly.

Xiang paused midstep and turned. “What?”

“This is too much,” said Kat. “You’re both dead on your feet. You need to take a moment and rest. I don’t care where, and I don’t care how but it just isn’t safe for you, either of you, to keep going,”