Chapter 915

Kat could feel Lily’s displeasure along the link as Kat sprinted away from her. Sadly, it was a necessity. Someone needed to make a less obvious but still clear trail through the forest, and Lily needed to be near the cultivators so Kat could find her way back. After all, hiding from Lord Icy Prick’s subordinates was the whole point of the pills and this little distraction. Kat had made sure to drop Lily and Xuena off just in front of Yang a second time before heading off on her own. Kat had turned off, heading directly away from the inner sect and leaving broken branches in her wake.

It was a simple matter to use her wings to alleviate some of the destruction her passing naturally caused. It was meant to look more careful, a better attempt at stealth then before. Not too good of course, if Kat simply flew over the terrain, then no trace of her passing would be left at all for the poor trackers. Ron had of course added one final addition to the plan that Kat and co really hadn’t thought about. Clothing.

Kat was carrying old clothing from everyone in the group except Lily. This was why Kat had used up some of her limited time to liberate some spare clothes that Xuena had chosen to leave behind. Sadly Xuena’s room didn’t have any used clothing, everything seemed to have been promptly clean. This meant her scent was by far the weakest of the groups when it came to Kat’s distraction. In the end, Kat pretended to lose a bit of torn cloth to one of the trees. Xuena wouldn’t be complaining, she’d chosen to leave this outfit behind after all.

—

Kat had been running for twenty minutes when someone dropped down in front of her. It was a woman; she had a large halberd that was longer than she was tall. Probably not the best weapon for her... but she was about Kat’s height and seemed confident in her stance. She was also glaring at Kat a lot like Kat had walked up and then dumped the woman’s lunch on the floor or something, “Why are you looking at me like I just ate the last cookie in the jar?” asked Kat with false confusion.

“I am annoyed at being led on a wild chase through the mountains, not even an HOUR after I finally get some time to sleep. I have been on guard duty for three days, and I just don’t have time for whatever nonsense you foolishly believe you can get away with!” hissed the woman. Kat was going to dub her ‘Grumpy’ for now.

“Right... well... see the thing is... I kinda have to? Made a binding promise you see so... I could defeat you... maybe kill you... or you could just go back to sleep?” offered Kat.

.....

Grumpy scoffed, “As if My Liege would be so merciful as to leave me alive if I failed in my task so spectacularly. If I must fall, let it be in battle with my honour intact!”

*So... Lily... do I just kill this girl? Apparently if she fails it’ll be worse for her so...*

[I mean... I guess? Is there a reason not to?]

*I mean... besides the whole ‘murder wrong’ thing? Not that I can see. She seems quite confident in her chosen course of action and wants to die ‘a warrior’s death’.*

[Oh, in that case don’t bother going easy on her. Finish things up as fast as you can. That’s the only way to be respectful.]

Ok! Now, Kat could tell there was something else that Lily wasn’t saying... but she was willing to believe. On Lily’s end of things, she knew that while what she said was mostly true, it was also a great excuse for Kat taking out the woman quickly and with minimal risk to Kat herself.

“Have it your way then,” said Kat with an almost lazy sigh before speeding up explosively. In just a moment, she was in Grumpy’s face. The woman didn’t hesitate to bring her halberd down to try and meet Kat’s charge head on, using Kat’s momentum to skewer the approaching demon, while still be ready to react when Kat dodged. Kat of course, did not dodge. At all.

Two things happened in the same moment. Kat’s hand reached forward, obliterating Grumpy’s ribs and punching her heart to pieces. On Kat’s end, the halberd swung down until it impacted Kat’s bones... and went not a single step further. Blade chipping instead of bone. Grumpy let out a bubbling, blood filled cough and said, “I n-never s-stood a chance... did I... y-your off-fer it was... genuine I t-take it?” Kat nodded, “H-heh, w-well... my only regret is t-that I was not stronger. May I be h-honoured in my next l-life,”

Apparently Grumpy used the last of her strength to throw out that particular piece of wisdom and collapsed dead on the ground the moment she finished speaking. “Cultivators are fucking weird...” grumbled Kat as she looked at the woman’s corpse. “I mean... really. What am I supposed to say to that? You fought well? I regret nothing as well? I will remember you? Like seriously! What is the correct response here? I don’t know your name, and the emotion I currently feel most strongly is CONFUSION!”

Kat gave Grumpy’s cheek a few quick pokes to make sure she wasn’t just playing dead to no reaction. Her eyes were very clearly devoid of life. Kat shook her head again. *Lily. Cultivators are weird and I don’t know how to deal with them.* With that thought sent Kat continued to run, this time, limping somewhat, slicing her shoulder a few more times to leave behind noticeable black blood for at least a little while to feign injury.

[What do you mean? Did you get her?]

*Oh yeah I did that. Wasn’t even hard. Then she was all ‘Oh, you do actually have honour? Good thing I kept mine. Also I only regret that I wasn’t strong’ and like... what the heck am I supposed to say to that? Or feel exactly? I mean she’s very dead now. Didn’t even give me the chance to reply. So all I’m left with is a good deal of confusion about the whole thing. I mean... she wasn’t a bandit, but she was somewhat responsible for kidnapping. Yet... that seems to be somewhat normal here? She was also pretty scared of Ice Prick and failing him... but I think more like... as a self-worth thing? Like the shame of failing her liege was the problem? Not what he’d do to her exactly...*

[I don’t really understand what part of that was a question Kat. What do you want me to say?]

*I think I just want to vent really. It wasn’t a hard fight, I’d guess she was Rank 2 and managed to catch up because of how long we stood around doing nothing but... well... Rank 2 or not she needs a heart to live.*

[I’m sensing some resentment over the last time you got stabbed in the heart.] Quipped Lily.

*I mean maybe? I don’t feel all that strongly about it I don’t think. Well, not towards the fire guy anyway. It was a good fight and I don’t have anything against him for that. Not-Xiang afterwards however... well I am a little pissed about that one, but it’s more for the attempted murder of babies.*

[Oh right that was a thing... yeah... cultivators are weird.]

Eventually Kat got bored of slicing into her own shoulder. A thought that, yes did make her realise that just because cultivators were weird, did not mean that she was any closer to normal. This then lead her to consider some of Lily’s actions recently... and couldn’t help but feel Lily wasn’t all that normal either. A brief ponderous on if Kat was weird because she would one day turn into a demon, or weird because she was now a demon was completely shattered by the realisation that Lily, as a human, decided binding herself to someone else permanently for all of eternity before she turned twenty meant that humans could be weird as well.

This all meant Kat didn’t need to fake surprise when she was surrounded by the next group to catch up. This time there were three of them, but all much weaker then Grumpy. “Surrender?” Kat offered. Instead of witty banter like Kat had hoped, they just charged at her weapons drawn. So... so slowly too. To avoid revealing her own ice powers, Kat just summoned her fan and cut all three down in a single stroke. Kat couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity for them. Fools really. So hung up on the fact she didn’t FEEL powerful to their senses.

*Have you guys seen any signs of pursuers?*

[Not yet. I’m keeping my ears peeled but we managed to find a river and we’re just sort of following it for the moment. Keeping as quiet as we can and using it to completely disguise our passing. Or... attempting that anyway.]

Kat nodded and got back to running. She went about five minutes before spotting something strange. She angled around to it... and was that? Yes it was! Kat grinned at the deliberately caved in mineshaft entrance. She quickly dug into it, throwing rocks backwards with a fairly restrained level of force and making sure it looked like she didn’t just blast her way straight through. Once the top was cleared, she tested and found she could squeeze herself through the opening. “Perfect...” smiled Kat as she carefully beat her wings, taking off into the air.