Chapter 920: Ping Pong


    Kat felt like she was burning despite walking through the snow. Leaving Lily behind, but risking her further would have been nearly impossible to even contemte. Wisps of purple me leaked from her mouth in ce of frosted breath, the tips of her horns gained a slow, flickering fire that seemed to disappear when you looked at it the wrong way. Her tail traced lines of purple that faded into the snowstorm. Kat’s eyes... Kat’s eyes were set with steel. They burned purple and looked like two amethysts had glowing in the light.


    When Kat returned to the clearing, the patriarch, who still hadn’t introduced himself properly, the prick, turned to phase Kat with a raised eyebrow. A second joined the first when Kat was revealed to be unharmed and summoned her weapons. “Strange... I suppose you have a thick skull. I’ll need to hammer in the lesson this time,”


    Kat’s weapons were useless, before she could react, they were kicked out of her arms. With a crack of thunder Kat was mmed into the ground. The ground lost, ice built up for decades cracking under the blow and simply allowed Kat’s body to bounce up. The patriarch wasn’t so foolish as to believe Kat had been taken out by just that so he kicked her in the ribs sending her flying off to the side.


    Only to appear behind her, foot reeled back for a kick strait on her wing joints. Not a snap yet, but a pop as it was forced out of position and Kat flew forward mming into a tree with her face, causing her to pinwheel around. Kat was able to gather enough of her wits to think about halting her furious spin only for two shoes to m down on the back of her head, forcing her to be buried in the ice.


    Kat didn’t even had time to il as the ice sect patriarch used her position to line up a single powerful kick directly on the bottom of her sternum forcing what little air she still had out of her body and sending her flying into the clearing, again. Kat’s legs caught a tree this time but the extra momentum meant it shattered against her heels, though the spinning started up again.


    Kat wasn’t having a fun time, doubly so when an elbow impacted her right in the stomach, sending her flying towards Yang. Kat didn’t think, she just reacted. Despite all the damage she’d sustained Kat managed to abuse her flexibility to shift around Yang, bringing her stomach up and allowing herself to fly over Yang instead of mming into the sunlight cultivator’s head.


    Kat was mmed into the ground once more, this time she felt something in her back slipping out of ce before another crack of thunder rang out in time with the shattering ice. The ice prick stood on the edge of the hole pping. “What reaction time from someone as weak as you. Sturdy body as well. I had so been hoping to find out what would happen if you collided with your friend. Would I be struck by more tribtion? Would you? Would it attack both or neither? Would this open up a chance for me to beat you to death with each other?”


    .....


    Thatst one was certainly a grim picture and Kat really hoped the sect leader didn’t have a chance to test his theory properly. Her body felt like one big bruise but the fire in her heart hadn’t dimmed at all. She had regeneration for the bruising and despite her wobbly steps her back had healed uppletely by the time she pulled herself back to full height and simply red back at the patriarch. “Is that why I’m not being hurt by the tribtion? Is it because you feel so little effect from my strikes? Perhaps... perhaps more testing is required...”


    Kat didn’t like the sound of that but before she could properly ready herself, she had a ncing blownd on her horns. It was clearly an attempt at a well-rehearsed blow to the temple but her horns got in the way. The held up well though, and instead of going flying, Kat simply staggered, attempting to return with a fist of her own, zing with a bit of fire for good measure.


    The sect patriarch didn’t like that at all. Kat’s arm was yanked forward just as she felt a knee connected with her stomach. What breath she’d managed to regain while standing up was swiftly removed once again before she was grabbed by the colour and thrown back towards the two girls, Xuena this time. It was an easy thing for Kat to curl her legs up to avoid clocking Xuena in the face... and just as easy for the sect patriarch to appear beside Kat in that moment and kick her again.


    Kat red her wings barely stopping in time for Xuena to duck. Even with Kat’s efforts she still flew forward a few steps past where Xuena had been. Two heavy chops mmed into Kat’s wings popping them out of their sockets and dropping her to the ground. Amidst the cracking ice, Xuena disappeared, melding her presence as best she could with the snow that now nketed the area in piles around the crash site.


    *What am I supposed to do? I mean I’m just buying time at this point. Not a surprise at all, but a disappointment for sure. Do I want to set myself on fire? I could yes... but Ice Ass here isn’t really escting at all. Just having his fun batting me around. If I force him to take me too seriously, he might actually bring out his own weapons or techniques. I’m quite certain if it gets to the point, I’ll have no way to fight him...*


    *Which really... is quite the issue. Hmm... do I let my mind slow down enough to speak to Lily? No best not. She’d just worry if she could see what’s going on. What can I do to turn this around though? I can’t think of anything... perhaps I should put power into my aura and try to keep him... well I doubt I could manage CALM exactly but perhaps I could manage to stop him getting any angrier?*


    “Tut, tut,” tutted the Endless Blizzard, “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you aren’t cooperating with my experiments but that’s a real shame. It’s such an unique situation after all. I mean, I haven’t ever been in the position to interrupt a Chosen’s tribtion before. It’s certainly different to what everyone else goes through. Why, I could have taken out at least two of you, probably all four!”


    *HAH! GET FUCKED. You haven’t noticed Lily!* “Something to smile about? I suppose I can correct that issue,” Kat was once again kicked around the ce. It was actually getting a bit dull. Kat also felt like she wasn’t losing nearly as much demonic energy as she should be fore regeneration. Perhaps the scary part was that it was bing a bit mundane. The urge to smile again was growing, just to see what he’d do in response. Despite talking himself up, he hadn’t drawn his weapons at all.


    *It’s probably some stupid cultivator thing right? ‘You are not worthy to face my de!’ or... or... ‘My secret technique is not for weaklings such as yourselves!’ something equally dumb like that. Sure I might also be hiding my techniques, but it’s because I’m near certain showing them off would only make things worse. He’s just trying to humiliate me to pass the time and I have absolutely nopunctions with letting my pride take a beating instead of everyone else here.*


    Kat felt a brush of air and then a sharp crack of lightning behind her. The kick went off course and she found herself ploughing a long line into the snow as she rolled instead of flying into a tree, the ground or just a secondary kick. Kat managed to pull herself out of the snowbank she’d created rather swiftly to spot Lord Ice Ass gritting his teeth and kneeling on the ground. His hair was frizzed up and the edges of his cloak was damaged. One foot, the one in front and presumably the one he’d been trying to kick with looked like it’d been stuck into a fire.


    The shoe had melted into his foot slightly with the robes that had once been covering his leg burnt offpletely. Any leg hair he might have once had was long gone revealing only a patch of ck ash. The patriarch hissed at the retaliation he’d just suffered, presumably from trying to kick Kat into Xiang. *Serves the bastard right I guess.*


    The Endless Blizzard let out a long breath, adding to the snow in the immediate vicinity as he breathed life back into his foot. The shoe cracking off under the icy gale and revealing a now unharmed but uncovered foot. “I suppose that would have been too easy. I gotcent, I’ll admit... but the tribtion is about to end... then it’ll be fair game!”


    Kat just red from the side, unbroken, and despite the beating, looking just as fierce as when she’d walked back to the battleground.