Kat felt like strangling that idiot. Meng hissed, throwing javelins of starlight around the area that Feng had spoken up from, but Bang was fast and illusions were fragile. With daggers in hand, Bang slashed through the breams of light even Kat sprinted after him.
*FENG YOU FUCKING IDIOT!* Kat managed to abuse her speed to get close, and prayed that her quick departure hadn’t left Bing stranded. Bang was letting shards of ice whirl around him and it was clear that Feng was in trouble. Kat grit her teeth and accepted the shards of ice that slammed into her as she charged, and then barrelled straight into the man. Kat knew if she engaged him in a more proper fight, Bang would find a way to strike at Feng while they faced off.
Kat ignored the shards of ice digging into her skin as they hit the ground. Bang clearly hadn’t expected her to just charge at him, and he was paying for it. The impact of their strike sent the snow flying in every direction as Kat pulled the cultivator in close and tried to limit his movements. Her tail had wrapped itself around his legs, and Kat managed to pin Bang’s arms to his side.
“Kat will you be alright!” shouted Meng even as she picked up the kids.
“YES! Just GET TO SAFETY!” shouted Kat back.
Meng didn’t wait. If Kat said she’d be fine, Meng was going to believe her, if just to have an excuse to save her children if nothing else. Sadly, Kat’s response was enough of a distraction for Bang to sneak in an attack. He blasted ice straight into Kat’s face, crystals digging into her eyes, and skin, but bouncing off her bones, rattling her skull and causing her grip to loosen.
Bang wasn’t going to let a chance like that escape him, using all of his strength he threw off Kat’s arms, and sliced down at her tail, hoping to cut straight through it. Bad luck for him, Kat’s tail was made of sterner stuff. The dagger bit into flesh, but it was only a shallow cut. Kat’s tail reflexively constricted, causing Bang to cry out as his muscles were crushed against his bones.
.....
Kat was fighting blind for a few moments as he regeneration got to work on fixing her eyes, so she missed the follow up slash that slice across her neck. *Fucking FENG! I will BEAT THAT BOYS ASS FOR THIS.* Kat coughed, spitting the blood in the rough direction of Bang and decided enough was enough. Kat pulled up her demonic energy, despite the pain, and let her fire loose on the surrounding area. If the kids weren’t far enough away… well Kat could only hope her intent not to harm them would be enough.
Bang reacted quickly, a shield of qi forming around him and protecting him from the blast, but the fire didn’t simply go away, it clung to his body, eating away at his qi and making him feel a cold chill for the first time in over a century. This didn’t mean he could magically get away though, despite his fear, Kat still had a tight grip on his legs, and it while it was somewhat costly to maintain this qi shield, it was much cheaper then regrowing a leg.
While Kat was still recovering her eyes, Bang downed a recover pill that helped replenish his qi. This one was quite rare, and gave him not just enough to offset the drain from Kat’s demonic fire, but enough to gain back some of what was spent on his earlier attacks. Qi filled him as the pill continued to dissolve in his stomach. He just needed a plan.
The blood Kat had tried to spit into his eyes had landed harmlessly on his chest, and meant he could now see Kat visibly healing in real time. That was not good. He could trade her blow for blow, and likely come out behind if she had some sort of technique to recover. He was doubly sure of this when he saw her eyes were fixing themselves without issues. Such advanced regeneration was to be feared.
Bang cursed the heavens mentally. Bodeir Sr was a lucky fucker, and those kids just had to fuck things up for him. Of course, that didn’t mean he was out of options at all. Reaching back into his bag of tricks, Bang hurled a talisman off to the side. Then, a moment later he was pulled from Kat’s grasp and teleported to the paper. He didn’t waste a moment, and immediately took of after Meng. Knowing that she had to carry four passengers, Meng would keep to safe levels for Rank 2’s. So catching her would be easy.
On Kat’s end of things, she felt Bang escape of course, but she couldn’t see just yet. *Dammit. I might’ve wanted to save this but I can’t let him go. KatE go!* Kat pushed down the fatigue she felt as KatE exploded from her chest. Instantly, Kat knew where Bang was, seeing him through KatE’s eyes… only for Kat herself to collapse into the snow. Kat wheezed. Her demonic reserves were still filled, but that hollow, gnawing feeling was much worse than normal.
*Curses. I bet I didn’t have enough time to recover from summoning KatE whenever that was. Shit. I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Go for him KatE.* KatE didn’t need telling twice, she knew the desires of her counterpart. Even as Kat fell face down into the ice, body healing but something else, shuddering. It wouldn’t kill Kat, but unless KatE retreated to Kat’s body right now, Kat would be out of the fight for a bit.
“I’ll just have to make this count then…” said KatE with a grin.
Fire exploded under her feet as she took off after Bang. Using her full speed, it didn’t take long to find him, trailing through the air. His senses were sharp enough to detect the danger when a flaming copy of Kat blasted through the space he’d just been floating in. KatE wasn’t deterred. She simply stopped in place and slashed out with burning fingers. Bang tried to block the attack with his knife, but KatE simply let it enter her body, taking no damage and wrapping her own, burning hand, around Bang’s wrist.
Bang howled in pain as his wrist quickly froze over and then was crushed beneath KatE’s grip. Bang tried to retreat, but KatE had no mercy for him. She sprinted into his back, hoping to envelope Bang’s whole body in flames. Bang pulled up a shield of qi in response, knowing that it would keep him safe… for a few moments. KatE surrounded his body with her own. Demonic flames burning purple and desperately trying to seep into the shield.
Bang’s Rank 4 physique was helping him withstand the pressure, and his affinity with ice was chasing away the chill, but the drain was no longer something he could easily ignore. The pill he swallowed earlier simply allowing him to loose qi slowly instead of in massive chunks. With that one in his stomach though, he knew he’d be unable to eat more without greater risk.
Bang tried to do something, he stabbed and slashed through KatE with his dagger, hoping to do some damage but the fiery construct simply ignored the purely physical damage. When Bang tried to stab her with ice qi, KatE felt like laughing. The idea that ice could hurt her was laughable, and that Bang would even try just showed her desperate he was.
Bang, seeing the futility of this, reached into his spatial ring looking for another talisman to teleport him away. He grabbed the paper and made to flick it away, but KatE knew Bang had escaped once, and the purpose of the talisman was easy to guess. Even if she was wrong, it was a simply task. KatE sent her tail stabbing through the paper, causing it to catch fire and shatter.
“Fuck you demon bitch!” hissed Bang.
“I feel no desire to engage in coitus. Certainly not with yourself. Your struggles are useless, please cease them,” said KatE
“Hahahahah! I’ve come to far for that. Let’s see what happens when I go out with a Bang!” laughed the cultivator. Bang reached into his ring and instantly found the item he was looking for. It was a bomb. It didn’t have the best range, no it was never for that. It had always been intended for exactly one purpose. Bang had been offered such a weapon by his organisation for if he ever found himself in an unwinnable situation.
“You’re mad,” stated KatE with her usual deadpan. KatE was referring to the fact Bang though a bomb would do any sort of damage to her, seeing as KatE was just made from demonic energy…
But Bang hadn’t seen Kat’s split, and he was too far gone. His laughter simply increased in volume and insanity as he pulled the pin, and everything went white.