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Title: Of Cats and Magic
Chapter: 9
Author: Riko Gonzalez
Flashes of flame illuminated the shadowy room. One by one, men fell. In short
order, the floor had become littered with lifeless bodies. In the corner, a
slightly overweight man cowered, literally having been cornered. The multitude
of corpses in the room were those of his bodyguards. Currently, only two people
remained alive in the room, the terrified man and the human woman who had so
easily dispatched his guards.
"P-please... Don''t kill me," he begged. "C-can''t we work something out. How much
will it cost?"
The next instance, his pleading came to an abrupt end as his body erupted into
flame. He opened his mouth to scream, but his life had been stolen before the
sound could escaped his lips. This smoldering body collapsed into a lifeless
heap, the flame having already been extinguished.
In the shadowy room, only one person remained alive. She had personally seen to
it that that was the case. The light-skinned, redheaded woman with the blood red
eyes was Flash Fire. She was both a magical girl and an assassin --- a magical
girl assassin.
A beeping interrupted the silence, prompting the 167cm tall redhead to fish out
her phone, her ponytail swaying back and forth as she did so. After having typed
in her passcode, she quickly checked her messages. Looks like she had a new
client. One that paid quite well.
***
Riko lashed out with her staff as she jumped into the air. Twisting around, she
brought her weapon down from overhead as she nimbly landed. The ground exploded
on staff impact, leaving a small but notable crater before her. As the beautiful
catgirl returned to a neutral position, a few flecks of flame danced around her.
With her usual taciturn expression, Ruko watched Riko''s display. Riko was once
again training under Ruko. Honestly, the pinked-eyed catgirl had improved quite
a bit since she had first started training under her blonde ally.
"Try your flame," the amethyst-eyed catgirl suggested, pointing to a nearby
boulder as she did so. The boulder in question wasn''t all that large. Actually
it was comparable to a moderately-sized watermelon in size.
Riko grinned at the suggestion. This was the first time using her flame during
one of her training sessions with Ruko. Did this mean that the blonde thought
she had finally acquired enough focus to not accidentally set something on fire?
This was her chance to prove herself.
The cyan-haired catgirl pointed her staff at the watermelon-sized boulder. A
Stolen novel; please report.flash of light later, the boulder was gone, having been replaced by singed
grass.
"I did it!"
"Look behind you."
With dread, Riko slowly looked over her shoulder. Behind her was a grass fire.
Guess she still wasn''t quite ready. How did she manage to start a grass fire
behind her when her attack was in the opposite direction, though? Guess there
was more important things to worry about like calling the fire department. With
that thought, the buxom magical girl retrieved her phone and started dialing.
This training session was in their usual location for such sessions, the forest
clearing. At the rate the fire was spreading, it wouldn''t take long for it to
escape the clearing and become an outright forest fire.
"Well, aren''t you a firebug," a voice got both of their attention, prompting
Ruko to take on a fighting stance. Ruko didn''t know who the woman before them
was, but she could tell that she was dangerous.
"Relax. I''m not here to kill you," the red-eyed woman responded. "I''m just here
to give you a message. Things are about to get pretty wild in town if you know
what I mean."
Riko and Ruko glanced to one another before dashing off, leaving the redhead
alone in the burning clearing. The redhead, Flash Fire, then proceeded to head
to town herself. She didn''t want to miss the fireworks after all.
***
Upturned cars. Upturned cars everywhere.
It was pure pandemonium. Civilians fled in utter panic. A handful of police
officers worked to help with the impromptu evacuation. It wasn''t much help,
though.
Buildings were collapsing. Fissures snaked along the streets, green tendrils
extending out of them, wrapping around anything they could reach --- anything
other than cars that is. Upturned cars littered the landscape. For whatever
reason, the tendrils had no desire to wrap around the cars --- just upturn them.
"Some kind of plant?" Riko pondered.
"Looks like it," Ruko replied. "Appears to be originating from deeper in town.
Lets go."
The two magical girl''s raced down the ruined street, dodging tendrils as they
ran. Relentlessly, the tendrils lashed out at the two catgirls, attempting to
grab them. Time and time again, they missed. Until one finally found its mark.
As Riko ran by, one of them managed to snag her left ankle. The next instant,
Riko found herself being dangled upside down by the offending tendril.
Ahead of the cyan-haired catgirl, Ruko spun around, skidding to a halt, sensing
the danger. The blonde rushed to her friend''s aid, slicing cleanly through the
elongated structure with a swift kick. Riko was left tumbling back to the
ground.
"Ouch!" the pink-eyed magical girl protested as she made impact. "Couldn''t you
be a bit more gentle?"
"No time. We must end this."
Ruko didn''t wait to get a response. She had already returned to running towards
the origination point of this mess. Riko, after taking a brief moment to dust
herself off, quickly followed suit. Ruko was right after all. They had to stop
this before it got any worse.
***
At the heart of the town, the two magical girls found what they sought, the
source of the disaster. Before the two catgirls was some kind of bulbous growth.
Whatever the thing was, it was enormous, towering over the both of them. As for
the stench of the thing, it was horrific, bringing thoughts of rotting flesh to
mind. The veiny, green thing sat there, pulsating, thorns lining its form.
For a second, but just a second, Riko thought she would be sick. The smell of
the thing was what one would call sickening. Luckily she got over it quickly.
Ruko on the other hand, had already rushed up to the foul-smelling abomination.
Taking the opportunity to attempt to down the thing quickly, the amethyst-eyed
catgirl unleashed a powerful punch. The thing rocked under the force of the
blow, thorns shattering around the impact point. Unfortunately, it wasn''t
enough.
The pulsations of the thing picked up pace, pumping the thing up in size,
prompting Ruko to jump back. A moment later, the already colossal thing had
doubled --- no, tripled --- in size.