Chapter 867: The Belly of the Beast


    *I don’t think this is sustainable.* Kat grimaced as she continued to run. Her energy was draining much faster now. Her regeneration was constantly operating and she was trying to keep maximum speed. *I’m going to need to do something drastic. I don’t know if I can-* Kat’s thoughts were interrupted by another charge of the snake. Kat could feel her muscles groaning in protest as she made the jump.


    The only thing preventing it from being worse was that her wings had healed over. Luckily, if such a thing could be called lucky, her wings were thin and the scales had enough force to punch straight through them. It meant they healed first and Kat had full use of them again.


    Which was great... but it really wasn’t enough. *Dammit. The scales are too tough to punch or kick. They can be FUCKING LAUNCHED OFF. And frankly... I don’t really know how else to attack the damned thing. It’s pretty obvious-*


    Kat made another jump to dodge the snake. It was really trying to press its advantage at the moment. Kat couldn’t help but frown as she dodged. It might have looked clean, but she could tell the sharp movement had caused yet more damage to regenerate. Her reserves had fallen to around 15% and still falling fast. *Dammit. I need some way to deal with this thing. Where is it weak? Eyes? Nose? ...no... yes? Maybe? Mouth?*


    [Kat... I don’t like where you’re going with this...]


    *Sorry Lily... but I have a crazy idea and it might be the only way.* “Get ready guys. I’m going to throw the ice chunk again!” announced Kat.


    “You crazy bitch! I nearly fell off the first time!” shouted Yang but it Kat noted it wasn’t exactly a call for her not to do it. Kat simply grimaced and let herself decelerate slowly. Kat tried not to make it obvious... but she had no idea how good she was at the attempt. The snake made two more passes in this time and Kat dodged each one without too much trouble. Her energy was going down further... but she was nearly ready.


    .....


    Just as Kat reached a normal walking pace she got ready. She started to turn her upper body and hoped she’d timed it right. The spike in panic she felt a momentter confirmed she had. Kat spun andunched the ice away at the same moment the snake leapt out of the water and straight at her. Kat gave a small hop and balled herself up letting the snakes wide jaws swallow her whole.


    See the thing about snakes. Is that they have no gag reflex. They swallow prey whole. So when Kat flew into its mouth the snake didn’t really think twice about it. Kat had ‘clearly’ ran out of energy and was giving up as weak prey should. Right? Well... the snake was in for a bit of a surprise.


    Once Kat felt her momentum slowing she reached out to the fleshy walls and dug her nails in halting her progress. The juices here weren’t exactly pleasant feeling but Kat was quite pleased to note that her skin was resistant enough to the stomach acid of the thing. Kat didn’t think she had any special resistance to acid, and she was right. It was more a matter of the snakes venom and all the poison about usually taking car of the dissolving process. Sure the snake helped that a long a bit... but normally it had a long, long time to deal with food. Sometimes months.


    Kat wasn’t going to give it that time. She was about to release all her demonic energy straight away but checked her reserves. She was going to copse as soon as this was over. Kat grimaced and quickly set about ripping away the scales. She winced every time one came out because the edges were barbed. Apparently the snake really wanted to make sure its prey was dead. Still. Kat knew she’d recover so she wasted no time taking them out. Another, final look at her reserves marked them at 11%. It’d have to be enough.


    Kat took in a deep breath and then let her demonic energy explode. It didn’t really seem to want to leave her. She was already so low and it needed to be coaxed, but once ordered the demonic energy was ready to act. Fire exploded out of Kat and started to race down the inside the of thing.


    Kat copsed from the effort, falling down into the liquid that lined the ce. Kat didn’t even have enough energy to keep her eyes open as the snake started to thrash. Left and right, up and down, Kat was thrown all around with no regard for her safety. Luckily for Kat, the walls were quite soft and the death throws of the snake weren’t really direct at her.


    [KAT?!]


    *Ah. That’s Lily freaking out.* Kat hadn’t exactly taken the time to exin her idea and once Kat had thrown the ice away she’d needed to act quickly. It had only been a few seconds all in total, and Lily had needed to deal withnding first before looking around and noticing the absence of Kat.


    [Yes. Yes it IS ME and I’m FREAKING OUT KAT. WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO?!]


    *Ah I just got swallowed a little bit so I could burn it from the inside out.*


    [I’m sorry you what!?]


    *Eh it’s not really a big deal.* Thought Kat in Lily’s direction as she mmed into another wall. It turned out, when your body didn’t really have the energy to move and was just flopping around without tensing up... these things didn’t really hurt. Kat was also surprised at just how flexible she was. Sure she’d done some basic human style stretches to get a sense of things... but it was another thing entirely when Kat realised her back was able to bend like that. The flexibility of a Subus is really something.


    The snake continued thrashing for a few more moments before it stopped moving and Kat fell into the juices at the bottom of the snake. She still couldn’t move, and while the acid still wasn’t really a problem for her... the fact that she was face done in it was. Rather hard to breathe without air after all.


    *Body? Can you flip me over please? I get that you’re in power saving mode or whatever but if I’m not breathing that’s wasting demonic energy where I really don’t need to.* Despite Kat’sints her body didn’t seem to be doing anything to move her out of the liquid. Kat was really wondering why that was exactly. Her tail could fend off attackers by itself. She’d seen it happen. So why was this outside of its ability?


    [You’re not breathing?!] Screeched Lily’s mental voice across the link. Kat really wanted to sigh at that.


    *Lily it’s not that bad. I’m just face down in some... liquids... and I can’t breathe because of it. I’m honestly more surprised it didn’t freeze over. Actually... yeah hang on why didn’t this freeze over?* Kat was missing the obvious answer that it had frozen over but she’d crashed into it multiple times breaking up the forming ice crystals. Furthermore, it was being constantly replenished. The walls had frozen over as well. Kat just hadn’t noticed in her tumble.


    [Hang on... let me convince the other two toe help. Shouldn’t take long... I might just have to threaten them a bit...]


    *Lily. I’ll be fine. Hopefully I’ll be able to move again in a minute or so and then I can get out of the water and then out of the snake. It’s not a big deal, I can hold my breath a minute easy. Humans do it all the time.*


    [I’m still not happy about this. Kat you were EATEN. How are you so calm?!]


    *Well Lily... firstly. It was my idea. Secondly... it’s honestly not too bad in here. I mean, it stinks, and the water stings a little bit but I can’t really see the fleshy walls anymore and really it’s a lot like a cave at that point. It’s not like it took a bit out of me.*


    [Right... my girlfriend is crazy. I mean... I guess I knew that before but... fine whatever. I’ll leave it to you. I just want the record to show that I am NOT happy about this. You are SO lucky that gunk slides off of you otherwise I’d insist you shower before I give you anymore hugs and that could be days out.]


    *Lily. You and I both know you’d crack first.*


    Lily huffed mentally. [Ok yes you’re probably right. But we don’t live in that world we live in this one and I WANT MY HUGS. You nearly died Kat. Forgive me for being a little freaked out.]


    *I’m fine!*


    [Kat. You’re in the stomach of a giant snake and currently at risk of drowning because you used all of your energy and can’t move anymore. If that isn’t at least somewhat close to death then I don’t really know what you’d count as close]


    *Getting stabbed in the heart? Twice?*


    [Kat. I don’t wanna hear it.]