[center]
[color=f49ac2]Sakura Level 9: 06/90[/color] 
[color=fff200]Karin Level 4: 24/40[/color] 
Location: Kunad Highway
Word Count: 640
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance--- [color=f49ac2]Sakura Level 9: 06/90 (pending) [/color]
[indent][color=fff200]Karin Level 4: 25/40 [/color][/indent] [/center]

	Karin narrowed her eyes as Morax's health was restored before her. She readjusted back into her defensive kneel. [color=fff200]”Hmph. Very well. Perhaps you can prove yourself worthy of my-”[/color] 

	Morax began spamming fireballs. 

	Karin scowled. [color=fff200]”What is this, bronze league?”[/color]

	He didn’t even change up his timing. Fire, fire, and more fire. A deluge of fire. Useful, if he was looking to scorch a crowd of fleeing peasants! Such an ignoble tyrant. That was what Karin learned. There was on better way to learn about someone than by fighting them.

	For the first few blasts she took a single step forward and then blocked, the fire burning around her, thick, blue, dull impacts diverting the fire around her. It was hot, certainly uncomfortable. If he kept this up uninterrupted for forty five more seconds, she’d crumble. He didn’t have forty five seconds. And it’d only ever take her one.

	Once she found the pattern, Karin made her move. Dash, sidestep, leap… [color=fff200][i]”Seppo!”[/i][/color] She used her signature dash in the split second between bursts of fire. She dropped into another slide, her hand supporting her as she went feet first…in between Morax’s legs, and off the edge of the truck. She wasn’t going to risk triggering that Counter again- she was going to finish this now. 

	There she turned and gripped the side with one hand. With the other, she quickly fired a grapple around his torso, the clamp attaching. Crossing one arm over the other, she aimed at Belphegor.  [color=fff200]”Be [i]useful[/i] for once why don’t you?”[/color] She spat at Morax.

	Morax turned around, but she had already pulled herself off the edge and jumped over him, causing his purple blast to miss. All he saw was Karin’s boots leaving his peripheral vision. 

	She landed elegantly behind him. So predictable was his attack pattern that she had time to briefly observe the battlefield- the Belphegor demon on his porcelain throne had returned, causing trouble for her allies. After Trumpeter unleashed its Despair, Karin was unaffected, only getting a passing understanding of the kind of mental anguish it wanted to afflict on her and her allies. Poppi was not so fortunate, and Belphegor was going to take advantage. 

	As it unleashed its deluge of ice, Karin aimed a grapple right at his center of mass, linking the two demons together. The line between them retracted, yanking them together. Both would clash bodily in mid air and be linked together- and breaking the link would leave Morax to be cast to the desert road rushing by underneath. If that didn’t come to pass, it’d make them both a wide target for ranged allies to target. Either way she would be assisting her teammates and ridding them of Morax. 

	Karin left herself vulnerable to do this, and received a blast of physical magic from Morax for her trouble. Grunting, she was knocked backward to the far end of the truck but rolled back onto her feet. She then blocked the ice attack, skidding to the back of the truck and scraping against her arms. More chip damage. She cast her eyes to the oncoming herd of…wild trucks?

	 [color=fff200]”Oh, my.”[/color] Karin said. Their new ally, who from what Karin had seen, had been fighting rather valiantly, had organized their extraction. [color=fff200]”We must make haste, Seekers!”[/color] She called out. 

	Karin was nothing if not stubborn, however, and would be among the last to retreat. Lacking much ranged capability, she had little means to support her allies once the retreat began. And with her grapple gun giving her high mobility, such a decision only made sense. It was also a matter of pride- a Kanzuki never flees from a battle. This would be her covering a withdrawal. Getting into a defensive stance, she staked her claim on the rearmost truck and prepared for her next move, whatever that may be.