"So what did you still want to test?" asked Kat
"Well, a few things. To speed, turning speed, manoeuvrability in flight, and, depending on your willingness it might also be worth testing how durable you are" said Callisto
"Well, I know that I can get my face scraped off by gravel and survive, as well as getting impaled by two swords and then ripping them back out with only a minor inconvenience" said Kat
Callisto let her mouth hang open. "I do not believe when Sylvie recounted your most recent adventures such a thing was included"
Kat shrugged "Well, the gravel was from that time when I met Minor, the kitsune with… I guess it isn't a split personality it's two souls, and the other reason you didn't hear is because I may or may not have politely glossed over some of the more grisly parts"
"Kat… Well, I suppose I cannot entirely fault that particular line of logic if I am entirely honest. I wouldn't have done it personally though many have told me I am unnecessarily blunt or overly detailed in my recounting
"In this instance though… would it not be better to inform them of just how much you are easily capable of shrugging off? Fearing your friend might get cut down by a sword is much harder if you know they can simply allow it to hit them and recover later" said Callisto
Kat curled her tail in on itself as she fidgeted "I suppose? Maybe? I was more concerned about things being overly graphic for them. It doesn't really paint a nice picture when I describe the amount of blood that leaks out when you remove a sword from your stomach"
"It is entirely your own business. Though, with that knowledge in mind… I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable going through with any durability testing. Doing anything worse than what you have already recovered from would be difficult and I certainly don't want to test anything worse" said Callisto
Kat shrugged "I suppose that makes sense. It really isn't the biggest deal either because the system is supposed to pull me out before I take anything that would be fatal. And it seems I can recover from pretty much anything short of that. Though, what exactly did you have in mind for durability testing"
Callisto sighed "Well, I had intended to see how many of the boxes I could stack on say… your arm. I was planning to stop as soon as you said it was painful… give us a rough baseline of what you can handle. But if you can handle being flayed by gravel, I'm not sure minor bruising is even an issue"
Kat nodded "Well, pretty sure when I fly on Earth I'm constantly tearing the muscles in my back that work my wings. Something about this dimension makes it much harder to fly and it really burns"
Callisto pinched the bridge of her nose and looked down "Right… ok, that's fine. I can manage with data of that kind. Is there anything else that I really should know before we begin some more robust testing?"
"My healing can push foreign objects out?" said Kat somewhat embarrassed
"The gravel" said Callisto deadpan
"Yup, that one was very unintentional, and my word did it hurt. As I was standing up the blood poured off me, I had gravel and silk forced into my wounds, man it was awful" said Kat
"As much as I adore detailed data points, I can't say I enjoy your casual recount of what it is like for you to regenerate and force small pieces of gravel out of your body as you do so. The mental image just from saying a few words is truly grating… Actually, that's great material for my next horror novel. Never mind, thank you for the information" said Callisto
"You're welcome?" said Kat confused
"Quite" said Callisto who marched off to the one box at the end of the clearing. Opening it up, she revealed a number of what looked to be… circus hoops? *What are those even for? Aren't those like… the hoops you'd like set on fire in a circus and make animals or acrobats fly through.*
"I can see the question on your face Kat. These will be your test of flexibility, and flying capabilities." said Callisto as she set up the relevant obstacles "What I'd like you to attempt is to fly through each hoop in sequence"
Callisto tapped the side where a number was tapped to it. Kat for her part examined the hoops closely "Are you sure I can even fit between these. I'm very flexible don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure my wings fit when closed let alone when flying"
Callisto nodded "I measured your wings myself remember? I'm certain you can fit through these hoops. Of course, you are correct in that you will need to be careful when flying, but I see the potential. Plus, if I no longer need to concern myself with making sure you don't crash then I can place these even closer"
Kat let out a long breath "Fine, I suppose. I haven't really had a challenging flight from the manoeuvrability perspective, weight, plenty, acrobatics, none"
When Callisto was finished there was only five rings. That did nothing to diminish the difficulty of the course. The first two rings were rather simple, just in a straight line, one after the other. That's where the easy parts ended.
The next ring was behind the second, which would have been fine, were it not for the fact that the fourth ring was directly after the second, and made it so that Kat would need to nearly turn in place to prevent entering the wrong ring. The fifth and final one was directly above the fourth… not so bad right? Well, Callisto managed to keep it all on the edge, and box in the fourth ring with trees so Kat would need to go straight up more or less
"This looks like hell" said Kat
"How would you know? You haven't ventured there just yet" said Callisto. Kat paused. *Did… did Callisto just tell a joke?* Kat quickly looked around for signs of Armageddon, but saw nothing that would indicate the world was ending.
Callisto gave Kat a piercing look and she shivered. *Damn. First Sylvie with charm magic and apparently Callisto has mind reading. Are we all sure I'm the real demon? Because I'm starting to have doubts.*
Ignoring her thoughts Kat started running towards the first ring before just deciding to bail. Without her 'hover mode' that she normally made use of when summoned she just didn't have the space to start with a run.
Stepping back instead Kat boosted her legs and kicked off. Once she was stabilised and in flight she went straight into a dive. Flying through the first ring wasn't so bad, she just had to curl her wings in at the right moment. The second however was already proving difficult
Kat enhanced the speed of her thoughts and watched as the world started to slow. As she beat her wings and tried to regain a bit of height before the second ring, Kat realised that somehow Callisto had spaced it perfectly
The ring was just a bit too close to get a full wing beat in despite the seemingly large amount of space. Kat pushed her wings down even faster than she had been collapsing them around herself as she just scraped the bottom of the second ring
*Well… She never said I couldn't touch the rings.* Kat hooked her tail around the second ring and used it to swing herself around avoiding the fourth ring and heading straight into the third.
Exiting swiftly Kat decided to get a little fancy. Repeating the trick, she launched herself back around towards the direction of the final two rings. Kat managed to get one solid wingbeat in before she was through the fourth ring.
Once again abusing the control her tail gave her, she hooked around the top ring this time and allowed her momentum to carry her up around and through the final ring.
Once through, Kat dropped her enhanced state and let herself land. Kat let out a deep breath and checked her energy reserves, and found they were down to about half. *That's pretty bad for only what like… 30 seconds of flying*
"Interesting performance. If I'm honest, I had largely discounted just how functional your tail would be and how large of a role it could possibly play in your attempt to complete the rings. It is a little strange none of them fell over, even ignoring that your tail really made the difference rather than your flight skill" said Callisto
Kat grinned. "Tails are the best"