"I, erm, just think that you might be-- OHHHHH HECK!"

Katherine! We do not use that word in our house!!

...I get it, though. The thing about Big Number why it's scarier than Puzzle Boss even if it isn't necessarily [i]harder[/i] is that it's very much a You Must Be This Tall to Ride kinda thing. This is what got Qiu in trouble for so long, actually: she was a Puzzle Boss wrapped in a Big Number wrapped in a hot dragon girl. 

But Kat doesn't really consider that in the heat of the moment, much as she ever hasn't since she started needing to care for a Berserker. The Crab makes a motion toward her friends and she is there in a flash with swords raised high. It doesn't matter that she's the one it really wanted. It doesn't matter that putting the focus on defending someone else leaves her more open than blocking selfishly would've. She has to, because she knows she can do it. Because she's a good girl.

The first blow almost rips her swords right out of her hand. The claw takes every bit of strength left in her body just to hold it at bay. Even then, it's slowly forcing her guard lower and lower; soon it'll smack her in the head and she won't be able to see straight. Good luck fighting after that. She redoubles her efforts and it's [i]just[/i] enough. She can get her friends out. She can even think for a bit. She knows she has to--

She's not ready for the Crab Plasma Engines to suddenly flare to life. She's been so focused on that giant, bulging claw that she hadn't stopped to think about huge the lesser legs are. She feels it pivot, but doesn't see it strike out with one leg in the giant space crab equivalent of a roundhouse kick. So she takes it full in the stomach with a startled and deeply pained grunt. Her grudge sword burns hotter, but just now she's fighting too hard to get air back in her lungs to be able to swing with it.

That's how the exchanges go. The Crab is just better than she is: this is the limit of her power up, and it has gone beyond. She fights, but it's a miserable losing sort of battle where she goes through the motions of dodge rolling, parrying, blocking, waiting for her "turn" in the dance even though she knows it will never let up. It's reading her moves, cheating on its responses, and chaining attack after attack after attack without ever letting up. You can't really call it a combo because none of it links together. But powered by rockets, bursting with power that it can hardly keep stuffed inside its armor, what does that matter?

Kat knows enough about swordsmanship all on her own to know that the best way to block is to dodge, and the best way to take a hit is to just not. She knows from being Berserker's Master that getting clobbered full on by all that ridiculous power just turns bits of you to dust and that the real flow of things with an opponent like that is to not let them get going. Get full on in the face and make noises so they get distracted. Be annoying and loud. Yip a bunch. And if a swing comes anyway? At the very least don't let it catch you anywhere important.

From that perspective she does ok. Her legs are bruised. She's got a cut open over her left eye that just won't close and it's letting almost crystal like droplets float everywhere she goes. Every breath is more painful than the one she took before it, and even her tails are scuffed and sagging. But she's still got her swords. When she manages to bonk the shell with the special wooden sword, little flowers grow from the carapace and a lightness fills her body that, if it isn't healing her outright, at least makes her feel like she can make it through the next round of scrambling. 

And every hit she takes makes Avenger's gift roar louder and louder. Metaphorically speaking, I know this fight is unusually quiet for how fierce it is. There's so much hatred in that thing that it might even be enough to tip the scales back in her favor if she could just find the room to swing it. But more power that soaks into the flames that lap around its blade, the heavier it feels in her arm, and the bigger the opening her brain tells her she needs to swing it. She can't waste it. She [i]can't[/i] waste it. If she spends it all on a glancing blow, it'll spell disaster. The Crab might even [i]eat[/i] her sword to gain its powers! That's probably a thing crabs can do!

The claw smashes through her guard and sends her spinning with an undignified yelp, and that's when she sees it. Berserker's newest fortress. There are tears bubbling up and away from her eyes, but she can't help but smile just the same. Why'd she think she'd already said goodbye? Couldn't she still feel that connection? 

She's not alone! She's not alone she's not alone! She's! NOT! Alone! Of course she's never been alone, not once, but it's the difference between having an ally who can fight alongside you the way you need to fight and having another head you've gotta worry about, and the difference is honestly startling. 

"H-Hey! Dummy!" ooooooh, gottem! Sick burn, Katherine! "Betcha can't catch [i]these![/i]" 

And without a better idea to grab the Crab's attention, she wiggles her darling and still reasonably floofy tails at its eyestalk. Desire flashes across its bulbous gaze. The claw reaches not to destroy, but to seize. And that's enough for one move's space. Kat is off like a shot, zigging and zagging and laughing like a terrified astronaut on a suicide mission because any other expression of fear would probably be the death of her.

She can't win the race in a straight shot, but even being the slower one she's still got enough in the tank to be the more nimble. She slips under its grasp, then over it. She twirls in space in such a way that a thrusting grab goes through the middle of a spiraling hoop she makes with her dress' trains rather than seizing any of it. It feels better to her than breathing. And every stunt carries her closer and closer to what she knows had been a rocket-laser drone factory when all of this started.

She knows two other things about it, too. One? It's not that thing anymore. But it's probably still got a [i]bunch[/i] of laser weaponry stuffed inside of it. Berserker was never one to turn her nose up at a new siege weapon, and what could you call these but the best of those she's yet stolen? 

And two? If you threaten an English castle, it will respond with a warning shot. Directly through your heart, more like. There's no way Berserker won't sense the threat, even if she doesn't notice Kat. This isn't a reunion, exactly. This is just the sunshard war's last Master trusting the bond she's managed to forge. Like, it's not just that someone you love will always try to have your back (I'm here, aren't I? Don't you dare think I'll let her die), it's that you loved them back enough to pay attention to them. So you know what they'll do before they even do it.

Kat stops on a dime. She turns and lifts both swords above her head with all the grace and poise of a Princess. And she manages a smile. Behind her, the stars vanish in a sudden surge of red-black energy. Even here she can hear the howl of fury that means Berserker's realized something's at her gate. And the artillery fires. 

It's spectacular. The rival of any fireworks show you or I have ever been to, only without the thunderous explosions that scare pets and keep the elderly awake. Katherine does not bother dodging; she simply lets it all wash over and past her. She's too small a target to matter and there's a foxgirl shaped hole in Berserker's sights to begin with. To call the assault furious would be an insult to the whole thing. The most I can tell you is that for the first time since it left the vault, the Crab has raised its claw for a purpose other than causing pain. It has to shield itself. It [i]has[/i] to. Which means it has to stop.

"And another thing! Quit having new forms and junk! How many phases have we gone through in this stupid silly dance?! It's ridiculous! Just admit you lost like a normal person, for goshies' sakes!"

Is this the world's sharpest battle cry? Eh I dunno, I kind of like it. It's full of zing, y'know? But if you think it feels lackluster, that's only because you can't feel the blows she throws behind it. Kat and Berserker's combo attacks are not a thing to be taken lightly. She adds two blows of her own. The first to crack and to mark. The second is the fury of a shark's jaw. 

And like any shark tooth, she feels it break away and embed itself inside of her prey. That doesn't matter. That only means there's no way to stop the spiraling, hateful energies inside of it from releasing directly inside the monster. Kat stops and watches, floating in the midst of total chaos. And rather than try and catch her breath, she prays.

Please, let this be it. Let this be enough. What more can she possibly give to the fight like this?