<h4>Chapter 498: FREEDOM! To fight more rats T_T</h4>


    When Kat finally broke through into the next section of the cave, she froze for a few seconds as her brain tried to adjust. After smashing through rats for somewhere between an hour and two, for it all sort of blended together, theck of rats was a shock that Kat wasn''t immediately prepared to deal with.


    Giving her wings a couple more ps, Kat looked around at the shockingly barren tunnel. There were a few individual swarm rats scattered around the tunnel, but most weren''t moving much, and a few were almost certainly corpses. The fact that the floor waspletely visible at least until the cave turned was a decent shock.


    Finally though, Kat''s normal thoughts resumed, and looked around for any major threat before dropping down to get the other two. It didn''t take all that long to follow the ice tunnel back to the group. She found them more or less where she left the pair, just slightly further to the right. It seemed like once Kamiko had joined the tic tac toe games became an actualpetition… sort of.


    It was clear that both of them knew the secret to at least tie every match, so it was mostly just them trying out the same few moves for about ten copies of the board before switching to something else…


    As Kat walked closer she realised that they''d changed things significantly. They were now ying checkers. The way it was done is that they redrew the board every two moves. Because of this Kat could see them slowly ying out the whole game as they were moving along.


    It was clear that Kamiko was winning, but as Kat started paying attention she realised it wasn''t so much Kamiko was winning as Sue was teaching her how to y and letting her. "… see, if you move it here you can take out two of my pieces next turn unless I move this in response, but I won''t do that because I can easily take three afterwards if you make that move"


    "Hey guys!" said Kat, somewhat softly. She didn''t want to startle them, but she was honestly just happy to no longer be stuck in the ice tunnels. A change of scenery, even if it just meant more rat killings, was a great boon.


    Kamiko looked over at Kat and immediately smiled, Sue, to Kat''s surprise, did the same with the addition of a raised eyebrow. "You want in?" asked Sue.


    Kat grinned and let out a slightly forced chuckle taking it as the joke she hoped it was. "Um, no, maybeter. I found the end of the tunnel, or well, I found a cave section with only a few rats. I thought it would be good to explore it a bit. I don''t know if this is where the rats came from or not, but it''s something at least"


    "Sure thing" said Kamiko bouncing to her feet and offering a hand to Sue. The other Subus looked at it with narrowed eyes for a few seconds before grasping both hands around Kamiko''s and pulling hard. Now, Kat wasn''t quite sure how intended the sequence of events were.


    When Sue pulled her legs weren''t really in position to stand up, so she pulled herself less up, and more forward and up… straight into Kamiko. A point in Sue''s favour was that as soon as she noticed her trajectory she turned her head away, presumably so her tall horns didn''t try impaling Kamiko. Still, Sue managed to fall into Kamiko somewhat awkwardly with her feet scrambling for purchase for a moment before Kamiko''s other hand came around and under Sue''s arm and pulled the other Subus to her feet.


    "You alright there?" asked Kamiko still holding Sue slightly awkwardly as she was lowered.


    Once Sue was back on her feet she grimaced and looked away. "Yeah, I''m good. What''s happening? Am I following behind you? How far? Are there many turns?"


    Kat bit her lip. *Hmm, I''ll probably just carry her. I''m not quite sure if she could make the jump… actually can Kamiko? The angle is horrible unless she goes all the way to the bottom, and with the extra distance to the stone floor… that might be a bit much.*


    "You''ll be with me. I''ll need to fly you up to the next section. The angle is horrible and I''m not sure that Kamiko would be able to jump the whole way either. There aren''t too many rats, so it should be safe. I''m just debating internally if I should take Kamiko first or if she can make the jump and it''d be better to take you with me and have her follow behind."


    Kamiko scuffed the ice a bit where her foot was as she considered that. "Maybe I should just get you to carry me first anyway? Even if it''s not too bad there is still some rats right? Best be safe and take me up and then go back for Sue to be safe."


    Sue shrugged, and Kat nodded. "Sure that sounds fine. I''ll just um… hmm. Sue, wait here at the entrance, I''ll pick you up here. Same for Kamiko, it might be a bit awkward getting you into my arms otherwise. Just… keep your legs tucked in the tunnels aren''t too wide."


    Sue actually looked pleased at the fact she''d be doing nothing for a few more minutes. Kat looked over at Kamiko who jumped up and twisted in the air so that Kat could simply raise her arms and catch her in a princess carry.


    With Kamiko in ce, Kat moved into the tunnel and paid attention to exactly where the other Subus'' legs were, seeing that Kamiko had indeed pulled them close and was bending her neck forward so her horns didn''t scrape either Kat sped up.


    It was simple to take Kamiko up out of the shaft, as once they reached the opening, the extra space taken up by her legs was irrelevantpared to Kat''s wingspan. Dropping Kamiko off, Kat simply turned back as she heard Kamiko''s "Thank you" echoing down the tunnel.


    When Kat made it back for Sue, the other demon was wiggling her eyebrows. Kat just ignored that and brought her into the same princess carry. It was a bit harder because of the wings but by spacing her arms out more on holding Sue between the shoulder des she managed to cope easily. It wasn''t veryfortable for Sue, especially with her wings, needing to hold them closed as gravity pulled on them but they managed… for all of a few seconds.


    While Sue wasn''t as tall as Kat, her horns were marchrger, and when taking them into ount on both demons, made them about the same height. While Sue could pull herself in like Kamiko… it wasn''t quite enough. "Shit." Said Sue, matching Kat''s thoughts.


    Backing up, Kat turned Sue sideways and started to shuffle down the path. She found that her feet didn''t actually mind the movement, it would have been awkward with a purely human physique but her demonic one find the trouble negligible, if a good deal slower. Still, Kat had travelled this path a few times now and it wasn''t a problem. Until she got to the shaft. Kat looked at the walls and guessed at the distance and noticed it''d be a tight fit.


    Her wings were fine because of how fine control Kat had in the air. Going straight up was exceptionally simple. However, it would be much harder to keep Sue in the same ce. "Are you going to fit here you think?" asked Kat, mostly asking if Sue could hold herself in ce enough.


    "Oh? I''ve never been into tail y, especially not while getting carried… then again… even if you''re a girl I suppose I could experiment," said Sue


    Kat felt the strong desire to drop Sue for a few seconds for ''no reason'' of course. "Sue, please by serious" said Kat


    "I''mpletely serious. I''m straight as an arrow of course, but I mean have you seen your thighs? They''re pretty tasty, plus you''ve got top notch hair. Do the carpets and the drapes match? I''d imagine so, but some actually mix and match, trust me, I''ve verified thoroughly" responded Sue


    Kat winced at that and groaned out "I did NOT need to know that, Sue."


    "What, I''m not allowed to have a little fun while you have me in your strong but lithe arms? Held captive down in this dark cave, at yourplete mercy because I can''t leave without you? A girl might start having mixed feelings if she doesn''t get a chance to put her partner through the paces as well. I''m giving you a lot of trust you know" said Sue in a way that implied she wasn''t really giving the trust so much as unting it.


    *You know what? If she smacks her head on the wall, it''s her own fault.* Kat stepped off the ground and let her wings pick up the ck. Sue''s horns actually did scrape against the wall a bit but Kat ''politely'' ignored that until she made it out of the cave. When they made it to the top Sue said, instead of a thanks or even aint… "Next time go harder on more horns. Hardly even hurt, so I can''t get any pleasure from it"


    Kat''s strong desire to drop her intensified. For no reason of course.