BXBX NOVEL Chapter 688
Now, a large part of Kat wanted to say Thyme wouldn’t be that cruel, and in truth she would be right, not that she knew it yet, but the problem was the line was thin and Thyme was clearly at least somewhat crazy. Both for a dryad and for a human. So Kat simply stared, hoping for answers. Well until the fake Green said, “You alright there?”
“Honestly Green, not really. I’m currently debating how real you are and if I’m morally justified in causing you likely short term harm, if rather brutal short term harm. I know you are the fake, and you’ve admitted as much. I do not have any worries that you are the real Green. I do however worry about if you’re a person or not,” explained Kat.
Green just shrugged, not really wanting to way in on the issue. She wasn’t real, but Kat didn’t need to know that. Green’s job was to try and eliminate as many contestants as possibly. Kat, being a contestant meant that playing on the demons somewhat surprisingly strong morals in the face of what would be an easy decision for many, was simple for her. The longer Kat agonised over this the more chances she had to potentially take the demon out of the contest. Not that Green thought it was currently very likely.
“I suppose we might as well try and get going then. Teamwork? Is that what you said? I suppose we might as well try at least a bit. No sense waiting in this box forever,” said Kat finally just not wanting to deal with this anymore. *At least I can get out of this box.*
Green shrugged and threw the door open. The hallway was dark, which... Kat pushed a bit of energy towards her eyes to see that no, the corridor was not dark, it was simply lined with black cloth, both the sides and after a few metres in the front. Green skipped in first and as she moved forward the cloth towards the front did as well, giving the illusion of a long dark tunnel without actually using any illusions.
Kat carefully followed behind at a sedate lope. *I’m almost touched time went to such lengths just for me. They made sure the room looked dark and creepy without any illusions or lighting tricks that would have only sort of worked. Truly, Thyme knows what they’re doing when it comes to atmosphere.*
.....
Kat was just getting used to the somewhat creeping look when she heard the sound of rushing wind coming from above her and reacted instinctively, raising her arms to block whatever it was that she could hear above her. It was well timed, as just as her arms managed to reach above her head but before they could extend fully a stone slab slammed into Kat the weight forcing her to bend slightly alongside it. Green heard a similar sound but instead of trying to block it, she crouched low to the ground for a few moments before looking around and spotting Kat.
“Well, we’ve got a right good hero here. I’m practically swooning from the attention. Lifting a thousand pound weight just to keep me safe? How lovely,” said fake Green not even trying to keep up the charade of being Green at this point.
Kat rolled her eyes at Green’s words. Part of her wanted to deny it, to say she wasn’t holding the weight up for Green... but the larger part of Kat knew she’d never actually be able to say that. It might have started as a reflex but she certainly could have let go of it by now if she wanted. Kat didn’t even know how low the device went. Kat also knew she’d easily survive the crushing, simply too much surface area and not enough force Green might not be so lucky. “Can you just find a way to deal with this?” grumbled Kat.
Green smiled and bowed, “Of course milord. I shall endeavour to locate the device which is causing such consistent grief and dismantle it using my skills gained through years of toil,” Kat rolled her eyes again as Green turned around and skipped off to the edge of the slab where the curtain hung. Green reached out and pulled it to the side, revealing a panel with three buttons on it, up, down and a big red button in the centre.
Green paused and looked at them with a finger pulling at her mouth trying to be thoughtful. Her finger hovered over the up button before moving down. “Green,” said Kat warningly. Green turned to Kat and smiled lowering her finger further to rest on the ‘down’ button. “You might be a fake but that doesn’t mean you have to be an ass about this,” Green pouted... and pressed the button.
Kat felt the weight on her arms increase pushing them down further until she decided to drop to a knee and lock her arms in place over her head. Seeing this, Green moved her finger back up and pressed the button to raise the stone. Kat stood with the slab, letting her arms fall to the sides. A mistake clearly because Green slammed her other hand onto the button to lower the slab back down again.
It raced down and Kat didn’t have the time to raise her arms to block because of the damned inhibitor. The stone slammed into her horns. There was an awful grinding sound and then... something cracked. It was the stone. Kat gave a deadpan stare over to Green. Her legs were locked in place to prevent the stone going further and her horns were buried in the rock above. Green smiled ‘innocently’ and pressed the up button, loose rock and dust falling onto Kat as her horns pulled free.
Kat took a step forward and the damned Fae slammed the stone down again. “Really?” asked Kat without any real emotion. She wasn’t even mad, this was expecting after all, it was simply inconvenient. Green gave a ‘what can you do’ shrug before pushing the up button once again. Kat raised an eyebrow and stayed in place for a few moments. Clearly that was a bad idea because Green took it as an invitation to slam the stone back onto Kat’s head.
She felt the skin split open and her horns were reburied but her neck was up to the task and her skull bone was more than able to repel the jagged edges of the rock. Kat let out a long sigh and started to walk forward, rock cracking and falling as she did. Green’s eyes widened. “What the fuck? You can still walk like that? You can just would through STONE?!”
Kat shrugged as she strode forward. It wasn’t particularly thick stone, more like concrete really and even at Kat’s reduced strength she could destroy that easily. Sure destroying it by walking forward was doing bad things to the muscles in her neck and thighs, but with her regeneration that was a momentary issue at best. It took Kat about a minute to slowly walk through the rest of the stone and stand beside Green. The idea of just knocking the girl out or temporarily removing her from existence was much stronger then it was before.
“Well wasn’t that a f- an interesting experience,” said Kat with an overly wide smile as her tail snaked up and to the side pointing towards Green’s throat like a scorpion’s tail, poised to strike. “I can’t say that’s ever happened to me. I thought you wanted to try out teamwork GREEN? You chose this after all GREEN. Didn’t you want to get along GREEN? Maybe keep me from killing you GREEN?” each repetition of the name a clear mockery Kat was all to willing to press on.
Green gulped, thinking that perhaps smashing the demon on the head with a stone slab repeatedly might not have been the best idea. It wasn’t like Kat had no thoughts at all about just killing the fake, and Green was starting to realise Kat might have been closer to the ‘just deal with it’ side of things then initially thought. Green was thinking Kat wasn’t quite as nice as she originally thought. In truth, Kat was still somewhat apathetic, she just now didn’t want to deal with emotional manipulation and physical damage at the same time.