Chapter 717: The Competition is a bit Washed Out


    Kat tried to survey the scene as she waited for her side to repair itself. She didn’t want to move just yet, potentially aggravating her wounds was not on her to do list. Especially when they heal to fast if she’d just let them. Kat could already feel what little muscle damage was done repair itself, all she needed was for her skin to crawl back over the open wound and seal properly. Kevin was somewhat stunned and her tanking of the attack so he wasn’t moving just yet.


    The enemy side of the field was really just a line up at this point, Blue directly across, with Nell next to her, then Ellenell, Bonas, and finaly Nabras right at the end with their dwarven pairs of course. On Kat’s side of the field things were moreplicated. Gareth and Irwin had at some point ripped the rock wall from the ground and were carrying it as a giant shield, with Gareth’s actual shield secured on his back. Kat couldn’t see it but Irwin had carved out a small slit to see, while Gareth was simply following his lead. The pair just marched forward ‘shield’ in hand. Of course, Nixilei and Fir were following behind.


    Kress and Merick were moving forward with a simr tactic, though Merick was levitating their shield. They were in a line with Merick in front and Kress back behind him. Kat wasn’t sure if this was for practicality reasons or just how things ended up. The stone wasn’t quiterge enough to cover them both if they were standing side by side, so it was at least somewhat practical. Green was hovering around as well. Those two weren’t quite behind anything but it was clear Green could pull Sandy with her behind Gareth’s rock wall if it was required.


    Kat sucked in a deep breath before exhaling the few spots of blood that had gotten caught up in her lungs. So apparently it wasn’t JUST muscle. A little damage to her lungs as well apparently, but it wasn’t a big deal. She just spat out the blood and got ready to move. She looked over at Kevin who looked a little Green. *What? Hasn’t he seen anyone heal a minor chest wound before?*


    Point of fact Kevin had not seen that level of injury just walked away from before. The Men With Hats were a good team, but they were also a very safe one. They relied on consistent strategise to deal with threats at or bellow their level. They were adventurers that were making a carrier out of it. They wanted a brand, a perfect track record, and a decent payday. They were working their way up through things slowly, and they didn’t have a healer.


    For Kevin... Kat’s wound just had... so much blood. For Kat, it was hardly worth mentioning. A good chunk of it had been washed off by the water and the rest had fallen to the ground but it was hardly a blood pool. At most it was a light dusting of ck blood. For Kevin it was horrific and he didn’t know how to deal with it. The previous rounds hadn’t really prepared him.


    Fire was one thing, that was something he knew, living in cities. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but it was understandable, expected. He was a team that took their safety seriously, so he was having more than a few issues as his brain tried topute the ridiculous that is Kat. He was realising that because of his movements they had fallen, and because they had fallen Kat had been injured, brutally by his estimation, and she was just smiling as if nothing had happened.


    .....


    While Kevin was having a mental breakdown, most people were moving forward, the two crossbow dwarves were reloading. Kat noticed the crossbow was actually cocked using a small crank on the sides of the weapon. Kat wasn’t sure if that was for speed or because the dwarves simply couldn’t without the crank. She was leaning towards speed considering theck of power behind the bolts.


    Kat could see Blue frowning across the way. *Hmm, I wonder what she’s frowning about? How little the attack did? How willing I was to tank it? How much damage it did to me despite taking it easily? I guess I’ll never know.*


    Kat nced at Kevin who still seemed very shellshocked. Kat gave his back a good p with the t side of her tail shocking him into looking around before giving Kat a wide eyed stare. “What? Everyone else is moving forward, slowly, even if just to avoid the edge catching up to us, though Gareth and Irwin seem to be slowly edging forward. We can’t just sit here all day,” said Kat.


    “How... how...” Kevin spluttered as Kat caught another crossbow bolt flying at her from the corner of her eye. Another easily deflecting, but no spell this time.


    “I’m not sure what part your brain has been stuck on but the wound has healed up and it’s time to actually get moving. If we stay here too much longer the copsing tform will catch up to us,” said Kat.


    Kevin whipped his head around and saw Kat was correct. He took a shaky step forward and Kat matched it, making sure not to hold her foot too strongly in ce and the shaking Kevin couldn’t seem to stop was able to continue somewhat. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but Kat could ignore it easily.


    Blue’s continue frown as Kat advanced did not spell good things. When she summoned a muchrger then normal circle, despite still only being two rings was once again, potentially an issue. Blue yelled towards her team, “I’m just going to go for it. I don’t know what else I can do this fight. Hopefully it works. I’ll be pretty much out though,”


    Blue was quite far, and Kat was sure without her hearing, the others, except maybe Green wouldn’t have been able to hear. “Something big ising!” yelled Kat towards her own team. Kevin seemed to pale at the idea that something else was going to happen.


    Blue’s frown seemed to deepen knowing that Kat had alerted her team. There wasn’t anything to do about it though. She was feeding mana to the spell, intentionally overcharging her two rings and waiting for it to shatter. It didn’t take long before the spell failed sessfully.


    An endless wave of water shot out from the sigil, washing into Blue and carrying her away until her dwarf stabbed his short sword into the ground. Nell seemed used to this and held her dwarf against her leg, standing solidly, unmoving. That was fine though, she was the closest and most of the water was crashing towards Kat and her team.


    Kevin mmed his spear into the ground, with much more sess this time. Gareth and Irwin dropped the shield and pressed their backs up against it. Merick swapped the shield down to a horizontal one and hopped on with Kress. It didn’t move up any higher, perhaps because it couldn’t but it was a bit off the ground. Hopefully it would be enough.


    Nixilei and Fir were pressed up as well as they could and Green was pulling Sandy along as well though they hadn’t quite made it there as well. Kat dropped to the ground digging her hands into the dirt and locking herself in ce.


    Then the water hit. It mmed into her and felt like she’d run into a brick wall. She could feel her grip on the dirt loosening as small bits and pieces of it were pulled away by the current. She held on tighter and hoped it would be enough. Kevin was standing, leaning hard on his spear and trying to avoid being pulled off.


    Gareth and Irwin were fine. Theirrge frames in tandem with the wall was enough to disrupt the flow and they stood strong, unfettered. Nixilei and Fir looked so small inparison, one in height and one in width. They could easily squeeze up against the wall with Gareth and Irwin, therger pair holding onto their smaller counterparts, though Nixilei was being held by Irwin and Fir by Gareth.


    Green, despite her efforts, didn’t quite make it to safety. The weight of the water mmed into her, pulling her straight off her feet before she could use her wind boots tounch her up into the sky, assuming they could with Sandy attached. Sadly for them, once they were off the ground the water washed them straight over the edge, eliminated from the round.


    It was a somewhat equal trade though, as on the other side Blue’s eyes rolled up into her head, tears of blood leaking from the side as she copsed backwards into the water. The dwarf was able to stop her going over the edge... but she wasn’t in any condition to fight anymore, and the dwarf was only safe due to heavy armour. Heavy armour and a dead weight passenger meant they weren’t going anywhere, and likely not in time to get away from the copsing dirt behind them.