Chapter 11: Training grounds – Hunter versus Hunter pt2

On top of a pure white base a plant stood, seemingly innocent. After all, a plant is a plant and no matter how ugly or the plainly obvious fact that it is actually glowing green, a plant could never move and is thus very harmless, right?

Wrong, as that was what a dozen ninjas and a samurai had discovered, lured by the addictive smell of Brie cheese and a simple oriental melody. One by one, they had came under the spell, and one by one they had fell into the trap and had their heads consequentially bitten off by Venny, the mutated Venus mousetrap. Said mousetrap was happily raking in points for its "mum", Catherine Plankrun, if the scroll detailing her catches was anything to go by.

However, Catherine's catching streak was soon to be disrupted.

Spying a kung fu mouse practicing its kata alone behind one of the target boards, the female mousehunter inwardly rejoiced at the supposedly easy catch. She placed her dehydration base down in front of her and quickly put a morsel of Brie on top before setting Venny down onto the base.

"Be a dear and catch that mouse for me okay?" She asked as she stroke the stalk gently.

Venny only gave her a cock of its enormous head but still stretched its roots to root itself onto the base all the same. To that, Catherine raised her now-silver horn to her lips and blew. It was the same oriental melody as before, but Catherine gave it a personal modification so as to enthrall the mouse better. With more emphasis on staccatos on the individual notes, it instilled a sense of discipline into the song, discipline that all martial arts practitioners hold in high regards.

Right off the bat, the kung fu mouse was spellbound, and would have followed the fate of many other mice before it if not for a certain disruption from a certain someone. To Catherine's horror another horn sounded, at first at the same note she was holding but gradually steeping to a semi-tone lower, resulting a horrible clash of sound. Catherine struggled to keep the song alive, but no sooner did she change key that the other horn adjusted so that it clashes exactly with her. It was enough to break the song and to another extent, the spell holding the kung fu mouse in check.

"Crevice!" Catherine yelled in admonishment, before turning back to the fleeing mouse. The mouse is after all more important. "Venny, get it!"

At her command, Venny's roots shot out and snaked towards the rodent's back, until a moment later, its attempt to catch the mouse was foiled again by numerous blasts of black and orange energy that severed its vines. Venny only gave a silent scream of pain while Catherine finally looked up to take a good look at Crevice.

The boy was still levitating using his force field but in additional, two other mirror-like things are floating in the orange globe with him.

"Now you really look like an alien." Catherine said through narrowed eyes.

Crevice only clicked his tongue in mock disapproval as he chided. " Tsk. Surely you must have recognised that I had activated my sinister and ambrosial portals within effect of the force field, and voila, you get floating… sentry lasers guns."

As if to prove his point, more energy blasts hurtled through the air heading straight for the ground.

"Get your own mice, Crevice!" Catherine shouted as she rolled to dodge a laser that was suspiciously aimed at her purposely. Scratch suspicious, seeing as it was Crevice who fired those shots anyway.

"Oh, don't worry, I am. I just figured that instead of catching more, preventing you from catching any would have been better."

Catherine glanced at the still fleeing kung fu mouse in sudden realisation, only to see that a sinister portal laser had blasted it off its feet and left it dazed on the dirt ground.

"And now, for my prize." Crevice said with a tone of finality as he swooped down in his force field towards the mouse.

"Partybot!"

And several missiles rocketed from the forgotten robot towards the oblivious boy. Crevice realised too late and shock was written all over his face when bright explosions peppered his force field just as he was about to reach his target, propelling him way out of reach of his prize. Catherine smirked as her objective was accomplished. The force field would probably prevent any damage but at least the mouse was not in Crevice's hands.

There was an ominous silence while she waited for the smoke to clear but instincts told her to dodge. She was glad she did for a burned hole was at where she once stood a second earlier. Scrambling behind her partybot, Catherine crouched to avoid another barrage of laser fires as her robot fired off the rest of its load to stop the few direct beams from impacting and rendering it an explosion of metal. Suddenly to her surprise, the shots ceased. From the smoke emerged a livid Crevice, holding his two glowing portals in both his hands and on his head, the antennas buzzed angrily with static.

"Not flying anymore?"

"Says the person who overloaded my force field." Crevice snapped back. "ZUGZWANG, ACTIVATE!"

What? Zugzwang's Last Move is a passive trap, is it not? Yet, the chess pieces that had been somehow placed around her without her knowing told Catherine otherwise. With a groan, the pawns drew their swords while the knight readied its lance and… is that arrows sticking out of the rook ready to be fired? Suddenly, her position is a lot more dangerous than it was a moment before. She had to act, and fast.

"Damned if I do and damned if I don't." Catherine muttered as she reached backwards into her backpack.

Crevice smirked. "Checkmate."

With a flourish, Catherine drew her Hunter's hammer from her bag and charged out from behind her sanctuary just as the four chess pieces closed in for the kill.

"Tell THAT to my hammer!"

Gripping her weapon as tightly as she could, she charged like a suicidal berserker even as the barrage of lasers came again. One of them hit her leg and she could hear Crevice swore but the pain was soon dulled by the adrenaline flooding her veins. Within several strides, Catherine had soon closed the distance and came in with a vicious horizontal sweep of the hammer.

Crevice only managed to avoid the capacitating blow by an inch when a flash of silver later sent shocks of pain throughout his whole body. Catherine had spun around using the momentum of swinging the hammer to bring her hunter's horn crashing right down on his head. But the opening was not to be missed. Bearing the pain the best he could, the boy slammed his fist into the girl's stomach and fired off a shadow blast from his portal at the same time.

There was a gasp of pain before Catherine literally flew backwards into a crumpled heap on the ground.

"I win!" Crevice declared as he let out a breath he did not realise he was holding.

"Oh really?" Came her voice, filling the former with a sense of dread.

Something was wrong, but what? A side-glance to the right told him the answer. On the boy's right shoulder blade was a mutated Venus mousetrap, jaws poised to bite into his neck.