While Minor and Kat were trying to think of 'something else' the battle continued to rage on. Seeing that its attacks weren't doing anything to Ki's sakura tree, it decided to switch tactics. If brute force wouldn't work perhaps repeated trauma would work.
Moving the club to its right hand, it lifted the edge up and away from the tree, before it started to rotate it around in its hand. Slowly building speed as the hilt of the club danced through its fingers, sometimes a bit more literally than a human would be able to, the club continued to generate speed.
Once the club had reached a speed at which a standard human would only see a faint blur the golem started to lower the club back down towards the tree. As it spun, it let out massive gusts of wind that were visible to Kat.
*That has to be the effect of the dream right? It just isn't that fast… but it is quite a lot of wind.* While this was going, a droning sound started to rise from the club, slowly increasing in sound alongside the speed.
This eventually culminated in the golem bringing the spinning club down on the tree. Of course, the shield instantly jumped to its defence, slowing the club down slightly and letting out a horrible grating sound.
Kat flinched, back as she started to feel pain in her ears. Summoning up her energy to coat her ears Kat wrapped her tail around her head to try and block the sound. Minor noticed this from Kat's arms and flattened her ears in alongside Kat so as to dampen the sound.
However, neither Ki nor the golem seemed effected at all by the sound. The tree's barrier showed no sign of breaking despite the force behind the club, which was completely intact from what Kat could see.
*Is this what it's like to watch an unstoppable force meet an immovable object? No that seems wrong… well… maybe? The immovable object seems to be winning in this instance… unless they are both unbreakable objects?*
*Actually hold onto that thought. Could that actually be the case? This is a dream, and it is possible that both halves of Major have some core argument or belief and the club and shield is a manifestation of that?*
*Dammit I don't know enough.* Kat bit her tongue and started to explain her thoughts to Minor… it didn't go so well because neither could hear over the ridiculous noise that the golem was still making.
*Ok, more immediate plan, find some way to plan. Kat let out a sly grin at her own thoughts. It seems that just because neither party is making progress, doesn't mean that neither is winning. If the golem is doing this intentionally to limit our involvement in the fight then we really do need to figure something out.*
*This shows a level of forethought I'm not sure I can combat… unless it's just a coincidence maybe? I mean Major is just a teenage girl same as I am… is she really some mastermind?*
Kat's worries were unfounded. She was starting to overthink things. The golem had simply tried to break the shield in a secondary way. This is because most spell shields have some kind of weakness, you just need to find it.
If the sound wasn't currently preventing Minor and Kat from speaking, she would have been able to find this out simply by asking. As it stood though, they needed to grit their teeth against the grinding sound that was still ringing out from the fight off in the distance.
Kat looked around as she tried to figure out where she could possibly go to get away from that sound when Minor pulled on her sleeve. Dropping her gaze to the kitsune, showed Minor pointing down towards the ground.
Kat tilted her head at this, but Minor just nodded and continued pointing down. Kat dropped to the ground, it was only a short distance after her rather spectacular fall, and in only a few seconds she was standing on the ground.
Minor jumped out of Kat's arms and started to drag her foot through the snow. Kat made to step forward to get a better look, but Minor just held up a hand in a gesture to stop. And so Kat watched as Minor drew a door in the snow, then bent down and OPENED it.
The world seemed to shake slightly when Minor grabbed the door handle but the feeling past quickly. Minor led Kat down into the snow, and to Kat's surprise, as Minor mimed stepping down, she actually started to sink further in.
Confused, but trusting in Minor Kat followed. She felt herself stepping into the snow. It was a strange feeling, exactly the same as if she just happened to be sinking rather far into the snow covering the ground, however she left behind no footprints once she stepped into the doors area of influence.
With a nod at seeing Kat following, Minor took a few more steps downwards and disappeared. Kat followed calmly. As the snow climbed past her eyes, Kat made to blink by reflex, and found herself in a small room.
It was closer to a box than a true room, with hardly enough area for Kat to stand, and just barely enough for her wings to stay out. In fact, when Kat double checked the dimensions, she found that was exactly the case. The room was just large enough that she could stand without touching the ceiling or the walls.
The other thing she noticed was the sound. The horrible grating had been completely silence and Kat let out a long breath that she didn't know she was holding "Thanks. Thank you so much" said Kat
Minor nodded "I should have done this before. It was torture on me, and I'm pretty sure you have better hearing than me even with your tiny human ears"
Kat had a moment of panic. *When did I ever tell Minor I used to be human? Wasn't I told not to talk about that? Shit did I… no, no I just have human ears, like the humans she's clearly seen. I hope?* "I'm not sure" said Kat trying to disguise her panic as uncertainty "You have much larger ears, and I have some extra toughness… but who knows"
Minor nodded "Indeed. But now that we are in the quiet, we can start to plan"
Kat nodded "Yes, first order of business. Are we fighting both of them?"
Minor shook her head "I don't think we can. I don't know how long we can hide here before we get thrown out so I wouldn't count on that. Additionally, we simply can't take them both. We might be able to tip the balance but we need Ki or the golem to have a balance to tip"
Kat bit her lip and ran her tongue along the inside of her teeth. *Dammit I think Minor is right. I mean, I was already thinking it but I didn't want to admit it.* "And that means we should probably side with Ki doesn't it" said Kat
Minor nodded "Yes. I agree with you that something else must be going on, but we just aren't strong enough. I should have thought about this more before, but as strong as we are, this right here is the centre of EVERYTHING Major is.
"We can affect it, and tip the balance but ultimately we are weak players even though we both have our full minds unlike Major. It just doesn't matter because for all intents and purposes, Major isn't just the golem or Ki, she is everything." Said Minor
Kat clicked her tongue "Yeah. I guess we knew that didn't we. These are her memories, her scenes, and her conflicting ideals" said Kat
Minor nodded.
"So, we still don't know how to attack the golem. Do you have any ideas?" asked Kat
"Well," said Minor "I think we need to get closer. I can use my power to plough through the snow and get us to its feet. Once there we should be able to start attacking. I'll stay on defence, ready to open another door down into the snow to escape, and you focus on attacking and watching for retaliation"
Kat nodded as she considered it. *That's probably for the best. I can slow my perception of time so I can better watch for threats, and Minor can't risk touching the golem like I can. The real question is how far out of the snow we can risk sneaking.*
"Sounds like a good plan all things considered" said Kat "Let's head off. Do you know which direction the golem is, I think it's thata way ish" said Kat pointing roughly towards the sound.
Minor smiled "It doesn't matter, I'm using my power to tunnel so it is only the walk and the exit that really matter.. Come, follow me through the tunnels. Just like old times" said Minor