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Title: Of Cats and Magic

Chapter: 9

Author: Riko Gonzalez

Flashes of flame illuminated the shadowy room. One by one, men fell. In short

order, the floor had become littered with lifeless bodies. In the corner, a

slightly overweight man cowered, literally having been cornered. The multitude

of corpses in the room were those of his bodyguards. Currently, only two people

remained alive in the room, the terrified man and the human woman who had so

easily dispatched his guards.

"P-please... Don't kill me," he begged. "C-can't we work something out. How much

will it cost?"

The next instance, his pleading came to an abrupt end as his body erupted into

flame. He opened his mouth to scream, but his life had been stolen before the

sound could escaped his lips. This smoldering body collapsed into a lifeless

heap, the flame having already been extinguished.

In the shadowy room, only one person remained alive. She had personally seen to

it that that was the case. The light-skinned, redheaded woman with the blood red

eyes was Flash Fire. She was both a magical girl and an assassin --- a magical

girl assassin.

A beeping interrupted the silence, prompting the 167cm tall redhead to fish out

her phone, her ponytail swaying back and forth as she did so. After having typed

in her passcode, she quickly checked her messages. Looks like she had a new

client. One that paid quite well.

***

Riko lashed out with her staff as she jumped into the air. Twisting around, she

brought her weapon down from overhead as she nimbly landed. The ground exploded

on staff impact, leaving a small but notable crater before her. As the beautiful

catgirl returned to a neutral position, a few flecks of flame danced around her.

With her usual taciturn expression, Ruko watched Riko's display. Riko was once

again training under Ruko. Honestly, the pinked-eyed catgirl had improved quite

a bit since she had first started training under her blonde ally.

"Try your flame," the amethyst-eyed catgirl suggested, pointing to a nearby

boulder as she did so. The boulder in question wasn't all that large. Actually

it was comparable to a moderately-sized watermelon in size.

Riko grinned at the suggestion. This was the first time using her flame during

one of her training sessions with Ruko. Did this mean that the blonde thought

she had finally acquired enough focus to not accidentally set something on fire?

This was her chance to prove herself.

The cyan-haired catgirl pointed her staff at the watermelon-sized boulder. A

flash of light later, the boulder was gone, having been replaced by singed

grass.

"I did it!"

"Look behind you."

With dread, Riko slowly looked over her shoulder. Behind her was a grass fire.

Guess she still wasn't quite ready. How did she manage to start a grass fire

behind her when her attack was in the opposite direction, though? Guess there

was more important things to worry about like calling the fire department. With

that thought, the buxom magical girl retrieved her phone and started dialing.

This training session was in their usual location for such sessions, the forest

clearing. At the rate the fire was spreading, it wouldn't take long for it to

escape the clearing and become an outright forest fire.

"Well, aren't you a firebug," a voice got both of their attention, prompting

Ruko to take on a fighting stance. Ruko didn't know who the woman before them

was, but she could tell that she was dangerous.

"Relax. I'm not here to kill you," the red-eyed woman responded. "I'm just here

to give you a message. Things are about to get pretty wild in town if you know

what I mean."

Riko and Ruko glanced to one another before dashing off, leaving the redhead

alone in the burning clearing. The redhead, Flash Fire, then proceeded to head

to town herself. She didn't want to miss the fireworks after all.

***

Upturned cars. Upturned cars everywhere.

It was pure pandemonium. Civilians fled in utter panic. A handful of police

officers worked to help with the impromptu evacuation. It wasn't much help,

though.

Buildings were collapsing. Fissures snaked along the streets, green tendrils

extending out of them, wrapping around anything they could reach --- anything

other than cars that is. Upturned cars littered the landscape. For whatever

reason, the tendrils had no desire to wrap around the cars --- just upturn them.

"Some kind of plant?" Riko pondered.

"Looks like it," Ruko replied. "Appears to be originating from deeper in town.

Lets go."

The two magical girl's raced down the ruined street, dodging tendrils as they

ran. Relentlessly, the tendrils lashed out at the two catgirls, attempting to

grab them. Time and time again, they missed. Until one finally found its mark.

As Riko ran by, one of them managed to snag her left ankle. The next instant,

Riko found herself being dangled upside down by the offending tendril.

Ahead of the cyan-haired catgirl, Ruko spun around, skidding to a halt, sensing

the danger. The blonde rushed to her friend's aid, slicing cleanly through the

elongated structure with a swift kick. Riko was left tumbling back to the

ground.

"Ouch!" the pink-eyed magical girl protested as she made impact. "Couldn't you

be a bit more gentle?"

"No time. We must end this."

Ruko didn't wait to get a response. She had already returned to running towards

the origination point of this mess. Riko, after taking a brief moment to dust

herself off, quickly followed suit. Ruko was right after all. They had to stop

this before it got any worse.

***

At the heart of the town, the two magical girls found what they sought, the

source of the disaster. Before the two catgirls was some kind of bulbous growth.

Whatever the thing was, it was enormous, towering over the both of them. As for

the stench of the thing, it was horrific, bringing thoughts of rotting flesh to

mind. The veiny, green thing sat there, pulsating, thorns lining its form.

For a second, but just a second, Riko thought she would be sick. The smell of

the thing was what one would call sickening. Luckily she got over it quickly.

Ruko on the other hand, had already rushed up to the foul-smelling abomination.

Taking the opportunity to attempt to down the thing quickly, the amethyst-eyed

catgirl unleashed a powerful punch. The thing rocked under the force of the

blow, thorns shattering around the impact point. Unfortunately, it wasn't

enough.

The pulsations of the thing picked up pace, pumping the thing up in size,

prompting Ruko to jump back. A moment later, the already colossal thing had

doubled --- no, tripled --- in size.