Chapter 722: Figure it out Yourselves
Kat shot up out of bed, mind still telling her she should be in great pain. Then the fact she was able to sit up without issue seed to cause a record scratch for a mont as her mind revaluated what was going on. This was helped by a wave of reassurance that Lily was sending down the link, further calming Kat’s mind down from the adrenaline charged battle mindset she’d just been botted out of. When her mind gave back the all clear, she took the ti to actually take in where she was.
Lily was purring on Kat’s lap, sothing Lily knew from research was supposed to be good for calming people down and a few other things besides. She was sending reassurance that Kat was alright while trying to convince herself of that fact.
The room was a quick job on Thy’s part. This was because it clearly showed its leafy origins. The walls looked like bark, and seed to have been made by expanding part of the tree, pushing the walls out like they’d placed a giant balloon in the centre and kept blowing until the space inside was large enough to fit a bed... and not much else really.
The light on the ceiling looked like a pitcher plant that had been stuffed full of glowing water. It was a soft blue light that shone down on everything, tinting Kat’s vision sowhat. There was a Thy standing at the end, no clothes this ti, just looking as Thy did with their recognisable facial features and a clipboard.
“Urgh... what happened?” asked Kat as she pulled herself into a proper sitting position.
“It should co back to you, if it’s even gone in the first place...” said Thy, “What’s the last thing you rember?”
“Getting hit by a steam train,” answered Kat reflexively. Then she paused, as the rest of the mory ca together properly and she open and closed her mouth a few tis. *How was I able to say that? I wasn’t actually hit by a steam train... it just felt like it... is it because I could only sort of rember? Hmmm...*
.....
“Yes that does sound about right, though the translation was a little funny on that one,” said Thy.
Kat’s eyes widened. *Is that it? ‘train’ probably doesn’t translate well in a world where magical horse carriages are one of the better modes of transport. So... was that the answer? It translated to be a true statent? Wait... if a demon lies in the forest with nobody to hear them... is it really a lie? Like does it count? I’m pretty sure I can lie in my head... can I lie to myself if I speak aloud? Perhaps sothing else to test.*
“Yeah... um... so what happened after I got knocked out?” asked Kat.
“Well, Nell and One were taken out pretty quickly, Lily freaked out, your team won the round and now the score is all tied up. In a few monts I’ll be taking you back to everyone who is uninjured. We’ll be deciding what to do next. I’d designed the tasks in such a way that you couldn’t end up with a tie between teams... but that was before we had one drop out. Anyway, we’ll get to that later.
“What I want to cover is your healing. I didn’t actually need to do much despite the extensive damage. Your body was doing that on its own and managed to basically fix you up all by itself. I couldn’t have done it much faster myself so I let it go on and waited for you to wake up. You’ve not even been out a minute yet.
“What I wanted to check though, is if you’re aware of how your body heals? You see, most regenerators do a good job, but their bodies focus on getting things in working order as fast as possible. This tends to leave little bone chips or other issues inside the body. Not a major issue for a regenerator who is constantly keeping themselves healthy, but can build up into one. You however... your body seems to be able to piece itself together and whenever it grows new material, it makes sure to completely remove the old. Were you aware?” Thy explained carefully, making sure to explain both properly and succinctly without devolving into dical terminology.
“Ah... sort of?” said Kat, “I an, I know that my body can eject stuff like that. I had a bunch of gravel digging into my body at one point and that all got removed either through my skin before it got healed or coughed up. I guess I just assud other issues would be dealt with as well... am I likely to ever have health complications because of my regeneration?”
Thy shook their head, “No, it’s so of the most comprehensive healing I’ve seen in a regenerator. The fact that it isn’t ti magic instead is actually a surprise. It seems to try and find an ‘idealised form’ of you as a baseline. So, instead of ‘fixing’ the issue it’s more ‘optimising your body’ if that makes sense?”
*It makes a lot actually. It’s probably why Succubus Regeneration doesn’t leave scars. It’s focused on improving my body. I wonder what that ans for my hair and nails... I know my hair and nails don’t really grow anymore, but I wonder if I can change that? I also wonder if it’s helping make my muscles better? Nah, that seems a bit too good. I could ask I suppose...*
“Is it making my muscles and bones better?” asked Kat.
Thy shook their head, “No not that I can see. They have improved since the first ti I t you, but I suspect it was...” Thy paused and let the words ‘ranking up’ almost hang in the air unsaid, “sothing else all demons go through,”
“Right...” said Kat.
Thy nodded, “Well, I’ll have to take Lily back off you for now,” [What?] “because you’ll be with the others working out how we go from here.”
*Sorry Lily* thought Kat as she gave Lily a light scratch and a nod towards Thy. The light engulfed her for a few monts, this ti she didn’t feel sick, though it was on the edge of acceptability. When the light dimd Kat found herself in a chair next to Green who was leaning on Gareth, Nixilei ca after a wry smile on her face, and finally Kress, and he actually had a smug smirk on his face. Kat decided to let him have his mont.
The rest of the teams were spread out through the room. They were in a moderately sized auditorium with each team having their own raised section off from the rest of the theatre. The thing is though... there wasn’t a large section of chairs in the centre, just Thy on stage. “Everyone is here now... and it’s ti to talk about where we go from here. ‘Wild Ones’ and ‘Numbers’ I am afraid this isn’t so much for you as it is for ‘n With Hats’ and ‘Demona and the Misfits’ considering the point score, but I decided you should be included.
“Originally, I was going to have the final round be a ga show, you’d all be partnered up, have five minutes to chat, and then given a series of questions. You would be then tasked with trying to get the sa answer to the question as your partner. Any questions you missed, would then be thrown over to the other teams where they had a chance to get a point by trying to match up with either answer of the teams that failed.
“This however, won’t work. You’ve all been paired up once already and I don’t have a way to retool that particular ga into a solo experience in a tily manner. The questions are much too easy for people who are actually teammates and now you know it’s the final round... I feel as though the temptation for sabotage, which might have been an interesting temptation before, would now be too much.
“So I’m left with the issue of needing to pick a winner between two teams and no ga in mind to find a winner between them. A ga that can’t really be used or retooled and a desperate need for a winner. The floor is yours,”
Nixilei wasted no ti in suggesting, “Why not just call it a draw?”
Thy shook their head, “Fun idea, but we DO need a team to move onto the next round. Even if I was willing to declare this match a draw, which I’m not then able to pick who should go on to the next round. You’d still need to decide that between the two of you, and it’d be in a less controlled environnt. Even if you decide to just fight it out, if you do it as part of the contest I can monitor it properly. Weird rules involving judges not interfering with contestants between matches. Sorry,”
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