Chapter 2183: A Decision Made is Still Heavy |
--- Kat ---
The first step in potentially traumatising your girlfriend was to find a spot to do it. While Kat was confident, she’d feel no ill-will towards Lily for ripping out her throat, especially not when it was necessary... Kat was less certain she could simply continue flying during the process, or immediately after it. This was still going to hurt and Kat wasn’t sure how focused on the pain she’d be, or perhaps on controlling her reactions. Though that second part seemed unlikely.
So she found a place that would hopefully be safe enough for the moment. They didn’t have all that long to both find and secure and area, and Kat had an idea. Landing near one of the explosion elementals, she flared her aura, calming the thing. Keeping that steady, Kat moved closer until they were at a rather thick and heavy boulder... that might just be solid iron or something? It was remarkably intact, close to the bottom of the crater but not so close to the elemental that Kat was worried about setting it off, at least, not while her aura held up.
Kat sat down for a moment before shaking her head and standing back up. It didn’t feel right to be sitting, so she didn’t. Kat was tempted to place Lily down... but that seemed wrong, so instead she waited for her girlfriend to make the move by herself, simply allowing her to choose when to move... when to get started... and perhaps slightly passive aggressively focusing on the burning sensation and how much of her neck it was covering. Right now it was just about at her shoulders, while the upper section still had a while longer before it to go her chin. The axe strike had been a bit lower than halfway after all.
Lily didn’t say anything, and her mood soured a decent amount further but she didn’t take too long to jump from Kat’s hands, uttering not a single verbal or mental word of complaint but radiating unwillingness in such a profound way Kat was sure anyone watching could tell. Lily wanted to complain, to yell and scream... but she forced herself to keep moving. Focusing just and what she needed to do right this moment and not the parts that came after.
One foot in front of the other, turn around, summon up her shadows hands, and then...
Two claws of shadow shot towards Kat and yet, they froze. Barely a centimetre away from her neck they were halted, as if stopped by some unseen barrier or invisible forced. They flexed and stretched, each shadowy finger clenching tightly, as if trying to grip onto something out of range... but the rock wasn’t all that large. Kat was pretty sure she could lean over and have her tail boop Lily on the nose, especially if she took a half step towards her girlfriend... and yet the shadow seemingly could not reach her.
"You don’t have to do this," Kat said, once again, projecting as much love and care as she could towards Lily.
[I... I need to.]
[No. I will!] Perhaps Kat would be more willing to believe Lily if it wasn’t for the shadow hands that still remained fixed in place. Though, as if sensing that disbelief, they moved. Lily pushed forward and the shadows dug into Kat’s throat. Just the edge, barely grasping the skin really. Kat felt it get pinched... for a moment before the shadows seemed to shatter instead. Kat glanced around, looking for some sort of light attack that broke Lily’s shadows... but there was nothing.
[Stop making fun of me! You know there’s no attack!]
Do I? Lily you couldn’t even manage to pinch me properly. That didn’t hurt at all and time is running out. If you can’t do this, that’s fine. We don’t have to.
[I DO need to do this though.]
"Lily... you’re just repeating yourself, and I don’t think you need to push into this," Kat stated firmly. Lily shook her head, again. Determined to do something here. Determined to make a move. Kat debated allowing the influence of her aura to settle on Lily instead of just the explosion elemental... but she refrained. Kat wasn’t sure if it would help in the long run. Better not to interfere.
Of course, as the seconds ticked by and the burning spread further Kat decided that, perhaps, it was better to just call things as they were. "I For-" Kat started to say before two shadow hands lashed out and squished her mouth together. Kat didn’t react as they moved so fast, and with enough force to draw blood on her cheeks.
Lily immediately flinched back once she realised what she’d done, the shadows retracting and revealing the trails of blood now leaking from Kat’s face, causing Lily to curl up in on herself in response. Kat rolled her eyes and wiped away the blood to remove it quickly. The small nicks had healed instantly and the blood was already dripping off. A small gesture and now it was completely gone.
Kat sent love and acceptance over to her girlfriend. [Kat! I hurt you! For no reason!]
"Lily I’m literally asking you to rip my throat out. For a good reason sure, but if I was worried about you causing me a bit of pain while trying to work your way up to that stage I’d make for a poor girlfriend. If it’d make you feel better, I can roughly rip away parts of my own throat? It wouldn’t be clean and I doubt I’d get everything but I can probably halt the burning for a bit," said Kat.
[NO!]
Kat looked at Lily, a slight bit of sadness glimmering in her eyes before she forced it down. Kat... didn’t know what to do here. Lily seemed to want this, or at least, seemed to think she needed this and Kat had no idea if it was right to support her in this. Kat wasn’t worried about the pain. This wasn’t going to hurt her much... but Lily? She could be VERY traumatised by this... and Kat honestly wasn’t sure that Lily wasn’t already getting to that point.
Heck, Kat wasn’t sure it ’needed’ to be done like Lily seemed to. Useful sure... but likely not needed. There were plenty of places Kat could deal with herself if such a problem came up later. The issue with ’fixing’ her throat herself was that she couldn’t get everything by herself, especially not around the bones. Not before her regeneration fixed it all. She needed someone else... and well... maybe it would be necessary some other time.
Still, Kat found it hard to deny anything, even when that thing was torturing herself. Still... Kat was finding the burn to be a bit of a problem and really didn’t want it to stretch lower, so she summoned up two fans and let her kimono disappear.
[KAT! What the... why are you naked!]
*I need to take off a good chunk of skin around my shoulders.* Kat answer as she brought her fans slicing across her body. Kat sliced off everything a few centimetres above her tits all the way up until about halfway up her neck. Lily yowled as she did so, while Kat just waited. The solid chunks of flesh and muscle dropped to the ground as she continued to bleed for a while.
Lily hissed at the sight, shadows wrapping around her and spinning around like some sort of agitated spinning top. Meanwhile, Kat watched as her muscles and flesh knit themselves back together. It was a fast process, even though this was arguably one of the heavy wounds she’d taken. Certainly she hadn’t lost quite so much skin all at once in recent memory. Then again, she wasn’t exactly dodging either.
Kat was also pleased to note that the burn was gone. Oh she was still in pain as her muscles wriggled back together and skin grew back over the mess in a thick continuous sheet... but it was as distinctly different kind of pain. Once it was done, Kat tilted her head... and then made another cut. This time slicing away at the skin around her chin, and what she could manage at the back. Lily reacted just as negatively, and Kat was a touch annoying because she couldn’t quite get all of the skin necessary at the back.
*If you don’t like the fact that I’m doing this... end it. Take the rest. The burning is already migrating to the regrowing muscles and I’m pretty sure it’s faster this time.*
Lily felt a burning anger rise up in her only to be smothered by other darker emotions... but she stoked that fire. She tried to burn away the sadness and pain, even for just a few moments, so that she could lash out. Dozens of shadow hands stretched out towards Kat, each tearing roughly into her skin and muscles, picking away at her skin and clearing out... most of what was necessary. Kat could hear Lily retching in the background... but the hands didn’t stop.