Chapter 882: Chapter 882 Forest Floor Medical Services
We’re now back to Kat and “friends”
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Kat’s group headed off not long after Otiss. Xiang did try to walk by himself but when Kat nudged him lightly in the back with her tail he fell over. Only the fact Kat was ready to catch him stopped his face meeting the floor. With solid proof of his inability to walk, Kat threw him into the snake head and ignored his desire to be let down. Apparently he wasn’t willing to risk jumping down while she was moving and Kat used that to her advantage.
From there, the journey was rather boring, though a bit frustrating for Kat. If she was completely unburdened, it wasn’t even a day away. With the extra weight it was stretched out to just over one. Yet with the snake head’s size, the journey was stretched to an awkward four days.
See, the water stream they were heading for was from an aquifer. Seemingly quite a large one. The closer they got the more trees started to spring up. It was like an oasis in the desert yet as they got closer the trees were packed in tighter. The space between these trees was no longer enough to allow for an oversized snakes head to pass through without issue. There was some arguments about just leaving the snake behind again, but she was ignored.
So through a combination of throws, demolition and considerable effort on Kat’s part, they made it through. It just took 3 full days’ worth of work to get through. Well, that wasn’t quite true, Kat rested on the 2nd day, yet unlike her fellows she didn’t sleep at all the other nights. Kat tried not to be annoyed with things, but really the temptation to burn the snake with her flames and then shatter the frozen pieces was growing stronger as the days wore on.
No matter how much they might be able to sell it for Kat was starting to think it just wasn’t worth the additional effort. Sadly, when she tried to discuss this for a second time, part way through the trees, Xiang and Yang were really in not state to argue with her. They were getting more and more out of it as the purple spread through their eyes and legs. A few of the bubbles popped during transit and Kat had to spend even more time freezing the poison and throwing it out of the snake in a hopes she’d avoid making things worse.
.....
But none of that mattered for the moment. Kat was able to drop the damnable snake head on the edge of the small pond. If she had to crush a few trees to make room for it... well... that’s really there fault for being in the way isn’t it? Kat strode over the water, placed Lily down on the bank carefully and dove in. She couldn’t really feel the temperature change, but it was completely clear water with barely any plants in it. Kat could feel herself being pushed downstream, the rush of water coming from a crack about twice her height was quite noticeable.
Kat could ignore it with ease, so she swam around for a bit and drunk some of the fresh water before climbing out. Lily’s eyes bugged out slightly. Kat apparently did not care in the slightest that her outfit was clinging everywhere. Lily wasn’t quite sure how that made sense when normally things just slid of Kat’s skin... but she was willing to bet it was Succubus bullshit. Probably works because it’s more erotic this way.
Kat, completely unconcerned with the minor bout of gay panic and magical confusion she was inflicting on Lily got to work ringing out her clothes, tightening them around her in places that truly were coincidental. Frankly, it was lucky Xiang was too out of it to even crawl out of the snake’s head. Lily might decide he didn’t need eyes if he was watching the scene in front of her.
After Kat was done with that, and Lily had a bit of water to sate her thirst... as opposed to trying to sate her other thirst, Kat got to work dragging the two cultivators out towards the water. She was not expecting them to fight so fiercely when they were exposed to the sun. There was hissing, spitting and attempts at scratching her. They were fighting like caged beasts and so Kat threw them back onto the snake’s tongue. Nothing they did actually hurt her, their nails not even so much as leaving a line on her skin... but the behaviour was concerning.
“Hmm... Lily thoughts?” asked Kat.
Lily transformed and turned to Kat, “I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do. I mean... is sun actually bad for them? I know they’re quite sensitive to it right now but is it actually going to cause them issues? Or is it just that they think it’s going to be a problem,”
“Hmm... might be causing them some pain but I doubt there’s anything to worry about other then a nasty sunburn for the pair...” offered Kat.
“I see. Well in that case I think it might be best to take them out anyway. We need to start washing them off and popping those poisonous bubbles on their legs,” said Lily.
“Hang on... I don’t want there to be much “WE” in this Lily. I do not want you poisoned because you got a bit of muck on you trying to help these pair,” grumbled Kat.
“Kat, I can use a stick or something I don’t have to get close...” revealed Lily.
Kat still couldn’t help but frown, “Perhaps that sounds fine to you... but if the cultivator who made this really is so sadistic I wouldn’t be surprised if the popping causes the poison to fly out quite a ways.”
Lily frowned at being sidelined like this but nodded, “Fine, just... I dunno give me something to hold the water in I guess. We shouldn’t be dumping poison into this river in case it causes more problems,”
Kat nodded and Kat got to work. The first thing she did was nock down a few more trees to make something of a lean-to. Kat was glad for the large rock near the pond and managed to use that to brace a few stripped branched that she then covered in smaller branches with leaves. Finally, she used all the leaves she stripped off the first lot of branches to make into something of a bed.
With that sorted out, Kat then extended her work slightly to make a smaller version of the lean-to that could really only fit the top half of someone. It was exactly what Kat wanted. She dragged the two uncooperative cultivators over to it and stuck their heads under. They still fidgeted a bit, but they weren’t kicking and screaming like a toddler that had just lost its favourite toy.
Kat dug out three large grooves, one on either side of the poisoned pair, and one in between them that all led to a pit Kat was making progressively larger to catch the poison. Just to be safe, Kat also froze some water and placed them around the furthest edges of the grooves to make sure the poison didn’t go so far. A frozen bucket with a bent stick for a handle to avoid freezing Lily later and they were both ready to begin.
It was... not pleasant work. The poison had gathered in larger amounts. The bubbles under Xiang’s and Yang’s skin could not be anything close to comfortable for them. It almost looked like there was something growing in them, but a few popped poison bubbles later proved that to be false, praise be. Kat was also proven right about the velocity of the poison. It seemed to change. One moment it would at best get on her hands, and then all of a sudden it was flying into the ice barriers she’d made.
Kat was always careful to wash both herself and the cultivators off after every time she popped something. Sadly, they still seemed to gain light purple splotches that resisted Kat’s attempts to remove them without violence. Cutting the skin away might help... but that was a really extreme idea Kat wasn’t ready to entertain.
For Xiang and Yang... apparently the actually popping of things wasn’t too bad on them. It was only when the ice cold water seeped into the wound that they started to twitch a bit. Xiang had enough wherewithal to sit up just a bit and nod at Kat before falling back down again. Yang just groaned and tried not to move too much. Clearly she did understand she was being helped, and Kat was thankful for that. Needing to tie them down would be a pain.
Once Kat had cleaned and washed off all the bubbles that could be popped right now, Kat was surprised to find the pit she’d dug nearly a quarter of the way full. She stared down at it with a large frown. “That’s not good. There’s no way I got that much poison out of them. Is it... is it multiplying? Shit... of course it is. That’s what it does inside people after all... dammit. How much of a worry is this?”
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