Kat swiftly but quietly shut the door and followed behind Xiang. She didn't waste any time destroying the defence around the second warehouse. She could see Xiang was already getting tired of all the sneaking around. It opened just as easily as the first, and Kat threw the doors open praying for anything even slightly interesting.
Which was exactly what she got. It was the rest of the food supplies. Where the first simply had stacks of rice piled high, this one had meat curing on hooks in the back, as well as shelves of various vegetables lining the sides, with a door set into the floor. Before Xiang could get annoyed at yet more food, Kat moved to the doorway and lifted it up…
To reveal a fridge. It was filled with a few fruits she could almost recognise as well as a couple more pieces of meat. *Shit.* When Kat turned around, she saw Xiang already leaving. His boots almost sounded like thunderclaps to Kat, as they were just so much louder than everything else in the quiet compound.
Kat whizzed past Xiang, taking some care to limit the sound, but focusing on speed. As she broke the final doorway open Xiang just raised a tired eyebrow. Kat threw the doors open, and glanced around worriedly. Sadly, it was just more supplies. There were pillows on one side, blankets on the other, and some sewing supplies at the back probably to patch things up. Just as Kat was about to sigh, she spotted something strange. She only noticed it because she had been abusing her energy supplies to search for anything interesting at all, and her enhanced vision noticed that the floor under the sewing supplies wasn't the same as the rest.
"Well that was pointless" said Xiang, already turning away.
"Wait. There is something in here" said Kat
Xiang paused, and Kat rushed to the sewing cupboard and looked it over once again. On the join she noticed that instead of being bolted to the wall on both sides, it instead was left free on one, and had a hinge on the other. Pulling on it, the whole shelf swung forward and revealed a trapdoor hidden underneath it.
Kat smiled. Reaching down, Kat pulled the trapdoor up to reveal a set of stairs heading deeper into the earth. "This looks promising. If you can just shut the doors we can explore this" said Kat
Xiang gave a grunt, and moved towards the doors. Kat was already sneaking down the stairs. There didn't appear to be any light, but her night vision more than made up for it. The stairs weren't too deep just yet, and Kat waited at the bottom until she heard the doors firmly click shut before heading deeper.
*Interesting. I have to wonder… where will this hidden tunnel lead.* Kat spared a quick glance back at the staircase and noticed that Xiang hadn't made it to the bottom yet, but she just shrugged and continued on. *He can't get lost on a straight path surely. He can probably see in the dark with the same trick that he used to see through the barrier so we should be all good.*
Nonetheless, Kat summoned a clump of purple fire to light the way. It would help Xiang see properly and ensure he knew she hadn't just run off. Kat quickly settled into the familiar scenery. After walking in the tunnels for days with Minor, this was easy going. She started relaxing, and just let her soft footfalls steady her mind and relax her as she walked.
It was five minutes in that she started to get the feeling something was wrong. She flared her eyes and looked forward finding nothing. Flared her flame just a bit, and glanced around… but all she saw was bare rock. *Must be nothing… or maybe…* Kat reached out to the wall, and gave it a light scratch, easily cutting throw the stone that made it up. *Nope, no enchantments on the walls.*
Ten minutes later, the sense was stronger still. Kat whipped her head around thinking maybe she was being followed. She abused her full speed and mental cognition to turn around as fast as she could… but the hallway was empty. Sadly. Kat didn't see the problem with that immediately.
It took another two minutes of walking before her mind caught up to her. The path was empty. She was not being followed. THAT was the problem. *Where the fuck is Xiang?!* Kat turned, already pumping energy into her legs to get up to speed and shot backwards down the tunnel.
Straining her ears for any sign that he was following, Kat could hear nothing more than her own steady footfalls. What's worse, is that at some point she had crossed the invisible line of sound dampening and hadn't even realised it because she only had her own footsteps as a guide.
Kat made it back to the trapdoor in less than a minute, throwing it open and bursting into the storeroom. At this point, she could hear the metallic clang of swords ringing against each other. *DAMMIT.* Kat bolted straight towards the door… and through it, shattering the thin wood that was no longer reinforced.
What Kat found, was not an ideal situation. Xiang was surrounded by twelve guys, cutting of any escape, as one stood in the centre and taunted him. "And that's while you'll never be anything more than a weak country hick with no true clan to ba- what was that noise!" said the one facing off against Xiang not tacking his eyes of his foe.
He was distinct enough from the others. While the surrounding group was made up of shockingly similar men with short cut black hair and plain white robes. The one in the centre had a little more character to him. His hair was the same black as everyone else, with the same short haircut… but his eyes were a vibrant green, a stark contrast to the dark green of the surrounding plants.
To further separate him, where the others all wore plain white, this man instead wore a white robe that was trimmed with red silk patterned to resemble flames. As it moved in the wind, the light reflecting off the clothes almost gave it the appearance of real fire.
As the twelve turned to face Kat, the one closest to her shouted out "Some weird girl in a kimono Hu!"
"Deal with her then. I still want to play with this one a bit longer" shouted the one Kat had to assume was Hu.
*Well, great. I'll make sure I take care of these guys faster than the bandits though.* The mob started moving towards Kat, splitting into almost two even lines, but it was clearly unorganised. They moved forward and, when they saw Kat wasn't moving, started to surround her. *Yes, try and surround me. Not like I could fly out of it if it was a real problem…* oh wait. Kat let a grin show on her face, as she kept her main focus on Xiang, and the others she could hear in the compound.
There was one person crouched on top of the roof nearby, watching the battle, two more deep in the inner compound, as well as a third nearby the pair she could hear. On top of that, there was another seven that she assumed were watching from the windows in the buildings across from her, but she didn't spend the time to look up and check to confirm if that was right.
Xiang was… well he was looking fine, if perhaps a bit tired. Kat did note that he didn't have glow around him at the moment, but considering his opponent didn't either, Kat was willing to bet he hadn't used it just yet. Xiang was taking large swings at Hu, trying to hit him… it wasn't going well.
Hu would turn just slightly making sure that Xiang's sword always missed by the smallest margins. If it was any closer, Hu would have started to lose the edges of his outfit, but even after the three strikes Kat saw, Xiang hadn't actually managed to land a hit. Still, Kat turned her attention away to focus on her own fight. Hu hadn't drawn a weapon, and didn't even seem to be carrying one, unlike the sword wielding lot around her.
*Well… let's wait for them to close in just a bit more.* "Surrender now and you won't be harmed" said one of the disciples.
"Surrender now and you won't be harmed" repeated Kat.
The same disciple growled and said "Look lady, this is serious business, and you clearly have no cultivation. Even with whatever rare bloodline you have, you can't beat us"
*Well now. That almost sounds like a challenge. Plus… you guys did see me break through that door right? Could a basic human do that? Seriously that was some sturdy construction, I doubt you lot could break it.*
"Pretty sure I can" said Kat rolling her shoulders and showing her lack of concern.