Unexpected Guests - Interlude 5 - Bath time’s over

“I almost had her! I demand a rematch!” Kass yelled through my tablet. 

“You literally just finished fighting,” Bella giggled. “Maybe you should wait until we finish the match, before you demand a rematch.”

“I can’t believe I got so close, and I couldn’t finish the job,” Kass whined as she slowly lowered her head to the table. “I managed to stab her with one of my knives and everything!”

“That may be true, but you took a lot of chances to get that chance,” I scowled. “What were you thinking? Trying to catch the axe instead of just dodging out of the way. I warned you how much strength she could put behind that thing!”

“How was I supposed to know my knife would shatter under that blow?!? Sure, they’re a little on the thin side, but they’re also heavily enchanted. I’ve never had one of my weapons break before,” Kass exclaimed. “Besides, I was trying to get out of the way. She’s just as fast as I am!”

“She’s also really good at reading the situation,” Bella said, turning her tablet towards me. 

Bella had already pulled up the feed of the fight, and navigated to the point where Kass had confronted the bear girl. While the two bantered, I saw the bear girl’s helmet dip slightly.

It was strange, Kass always did everything she could to draw attention to the blades in her upper hands. She often swung them wildly, even when there was no chance she could injure her foes, just so they’d focus on those blades and forget about the second pair of knives Kass tucked next to her chest.

Not this girl though, she’d instantly identified the second set of blades as a serious threat. When Kass attacked the girl backpedaled, dancing just out of Kass’s range while she looked for an opening. 

It was only when Kass coiled, and prepared to pounce that the girl’s strategy changed. Instead of trying to dodge out of the way, she moved forward and intercepted the attack. 

It was the right move. She was fast, but not fast enough to get completely out of the way, and there was no way she’d be able to swing her heavy weapon in time to intercept the attack. It’s exactly what I would have done in that situation. 

“She really is…” I muttered. I winced as the girl delivered an absolutely brutal headbutt before Kass could strike out with her third knife, giving her just enough time to strike with her axe.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself Kass, that attack would have worked on over ninety percent of enemies,” I said. “She’s just one of the ten percent.”

“I admit, she got me with that counter. It was smooth,” the naga said, picking her head up off the table, “but I thought I recovered when I grabbed her axe! It was extremely painful, and I lost an arm in the exchange, but I both restrained her weapon and got a good blow in. How did everything go wrong?”

“That’s a good question,” I replied absentmindedly. 

The next set of actions was so fast I had to slow the playback down to follow it. The axe came down, nearly ending Kass in a single blow, while Kass struck out with her knife, plunging it deep into the girl’s stomach. 

I wasn’t a medical professional, far from it, but I’d seen enough blows like that to know that being impaled on such a long knife should have resulted in a quick, painful death without immediate healing.

Yet the girl didn’t scream, or writhe in pain, she just looked at the knife, and got angry.  In a single swift motion she disarmed Kass, ripped the knife out of herself, and used it to nearly decapitate my friend. 

Even at half speed the attack was fast, I was barely able to follow the action, and when she was done… she just turned towards her companions like nothing had happened. Oh sure, she was holding her abdomen, but she seemed more annoyed by the state of her team than she did about being stabbed.

I gently pushed the tablet away, nodding my thanks to Bella, before pickup the communication tablet again. “Did you sense her using any magic at all?”

“None, nadda, nothing,” Kass exclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her. “That’s one of the reasons I thought my dagger would survive that blow. It’s survived blows from Trolls and Ogres before! How was I supposed to expect an un-enchanted little girl to manage it!”

Kass paused, leaned back in her chair and rubbed her chin. “Do you think she’s some sort of shapeshifter or rare form of mimic, do you? That would explain why my magic didn’t work on her.”

“Woah, woah, woah!” I exclaimed, bringing the communication tablet up to my face. “You want to run that by me again?”

“After I stabbed her I tried to use my blood magic on her,” Kass replied with a slow blink. “It didn’t work. The magic did take hold in her body, but it was like she had molasses in her veins instead of blood.” 

“Why didn’t you mention that before?” I demanded.

“Because I didn’t think it was that important,” Kass shot back. “I’m the only one on staff that uses blood magic! What possible information could you glean from the fact that her blood is unusual?”

“Well… umm… it could tell us that she’s unusual…?” I replied awkwardly.

“We already knew that. We knew that when we saw how fast she was during Voss’ boss fight. You’re just mad that you might have missed a tiny bit of irrelevant information,” Kass snapped. 

I winced slightly, it wasn’t often that Kass snapped at me. “Okay, okay. I admit it’s probably not that important, but it could still be relevant! Maybe she has some sort of magic resistance?”

“If she did, she wouldn’t have been ensnared by the sirens so easily. Well… the first time anyways. After that first encounter she appeared to have plugged her ears,” Kass said.

“True,” I muttered. “Speaking of your staff… I have to hand it to them, they did an excellent job of aggravating the team, and getting them to waste their ammo.”

“I’ll let them know you appreciated their work,” Kass smiled. “Speaking of appreciation, do I get any credit for removing a couple bears?”

“Yes! Excellent job,” I exclaimed. “Especially getting rid of that shield bear. It was starting to be a huge problem.”

“Speaking of that bear, did you know it didn’t die from being punched by the elemental?” Bella asked. “It even survived the impact after being thrown all the way back to the start of the floor.”

“It did?” Kass said, surprised. “What did it die from then?”

“It didn’t!” Bella exclaimed. “It just couldn’t get to the exit fast enough, and timed out.”

“That’s one tough bear,” Kass whistled. “We got lucky there.”

“For now,” I grumbled. “They’ll almost certainly bring it back after fighting Gun’Thur. I can’t see them bringing back any of the others, considering how much tankier it is.”

“Really? You don’t see any reason at all?” Bella asked, surprised. 

“From what I’ve seen… not much of one. They’re all equally strong and skilled, and the smaller ones are a little faster, but the white bear is so much tougher they’d be crazy to bring anything else back. I admit, they’ve been hiding things, so there may be a reason, I just don’t know it.”

“Do you think they’ll be able to take Gun’Thur with only three team members?” Kass asked.

I stopped, and thought about it for a minute. “I’m unsure. Even though they still have the big bear, the girl didn’t look that great when she left the floor. I doubt they’ll have trouble with the staff, but Gun’Thur? He won’t pull any punches. I don’t know if the big guy can take him one on one.”

“Did I go too hard on them?” Kass asked.

“No, absolutely not,” I declared. “Yes, the fight was harsh, but Bear girl managed to take you one on one. If you hadn’t taken out so many of her team we wouldn’t have had a prayer of stopping them, they’d be able to completely roll over both Luther and I. All you’ve done is give us a chance.”

I glanced down at the tablet at my side, as the intermission counter ticked down. “Right now the match is hanging on a razor’s edge, and I have no idea which way it’ll go.”