Of course, the ice still melted rapidly. After Kat applied a bit of her flame to the mast, she had to refresh the section near Grace. *How much is too much?* Kat wanted to increase the amount of ice on these section of the boat without letting her fire just latch on, it was much too dangerous for that.
Kat wanted to find the line between freezing a lot of wood and keeping the flame off of it without setting anyone on fire in the process. She hadn't really seen what would happen to a person, but after seeing what it can do to quite a number of other things testing it out was not high on her priority list.
After a few minutes of back and forth between Grace's frozen patch and the one for Skye, Kat managed to figure out a bit of a trick. What she should be doing is running a faint amount of energy around the edge of the ice patch. Both to expand it and keep it from melting. For some reason the hull seemed to melt the ice starting from the outside, despite it all supposedly being the same heat.
After widening the ice sheets by quite a large amount Kat finally sat back down at the front of the sand skipper slightly tired. She could feel that freezing all that ice had taken up a rather large amount of energy, leaving her with just over a third, perhaps closer to five twelfths, but she couldn't get a completely accurate grasp on it.
*I wonder what it is that burns through my energy so fast. It seems like it has to be whenever I project it outside my body. Using it to enhance myself or even regenerate takes hardly any compared to freezing a bit of ice.*
*Hey system, is this really the case? Why does it take so much extra energy to project stuff?*
User Kat seems to have an efficient demonic form. User Kat's body merely requires the presence of demonic energy to show enhanced effects, it does not actually require it to be used. User Kat's body will use more passively if operating at higher than standard levels, but a large part of this is offset by User Kat's rather high demonic energy regeneration rate.
*Huh.* Kat hadn't thought the answer was so simple. Now that she thought about it though it did make a lot of sense. Back when she was protecting her eyes from that camera flash in the mall, she just had to pull the energy into her eyes and let it drop back. It wasn't actually used up for the most part.
*Honestly, I was expecting some rather convoluted answer to that but it's rather intuitive?* Kat let a shiver run down her body as she enjoyed the sun and relaxed once again. Skye and Grace behind her scoffed at the lazy smile she had on. While they were much happier with the ice, the weather certainly wasn't pleasant and seeing Kat so thoroughly enjoying herself rubbed them the wrong way.
*Now that I can be more comfortable using my energy for enhancement while let's get back to lookout duty.* As soon as Kat enhanced her eyes though her face fell. "Hey, why do you reckon all the monsters suddenly came out for the desert round?" asked Kat
Skye shrugged but Grace spoke up to answer "Well, the desert we are in naturally contains some rather impressive monsters. Depending on how exactly Thyme got the sand here they might have just come with"
Kat nodded as this did make sense, so she continued "Right then what's the name for the giant worm that lives here?"
Grace narrowed her eyes "How do you know that? I don't even know what it's called just that there is one"
Kat pointed her tail over her shoulder vaguely in the direction she was looking "The giant worm heading straight for us"
Grace and Skye both looked in the distance but saw nothing. Neither had the eyesight that Kat did and they knew it. So they tried to relax, while keeping an eye out in the direction Kat had indicated.
For Kat's part she was pretty sure it was a giant worm. Something was pushing aside sand as it travelled. The sands rising and falling as whatever it was passed underneath. The thing was huge, clearly over twenty metres in length. Though the more Kat watched, the more it looked like a dune was running towards them rather than some strange creature.
Of course this idea was quickly dismissed when the worm in question surfaced for a brief moment. Kat couldn't get a good look at the details, but it was clear the worm was very red. It was the same dusty red as the rest of the sands with a bumpy rough texture that likely helped it blend in better.
Of course, once you were that size and moving rapidly it was rather hard to miss despite it's attempt at camouflage. When Kat had seen it surfacing there was only a thin line where the mouth likely was and nothing really else. It's 'face' if you could call it that was just as featureless as the rest of its body
"Ok, so Grace, what exactly can you tell us about it" asked Kat
"Um, well, I'm not too sure, I haven't read up on it myself, but I think I remember a few things. The first is that it doesn't actually eat animals. It survives by collecting the energy radiating of the sands. Swallowing large amounts absorbing the heat and spitting it back out." Said Grace
"Oh that's good news" said Skye
"Well" interrupted Grace "I didn't exactly finish. The problem is the worms are all fiercely territorial and will attack pretty much anything larger then a couple centimetres across"
"Oh that's bad news" said Skye "Can we just avoid its territory?"
Grace glanced at Kat and started to speak "You said it was heading right for us?" Kat nodded "Well, chances are then that we are already well into its territory. They have massive areas that they claim as their own. We might need to travel for a few minutes or even an hours"
Skye cursed "Ok Grace what are our options"
"Well, angling us away from the worm is probably a good start" said Grace trying not to sound sarcastic.
Her honesty seemed to get across though as Skye just nodded and started banking the sand skipper to the left. Kat had to hold on a little to prevent herself falling over. Turns out laying on the front of a sand skipper is only so easy and safe if your going in a straight line
"Kat, could you fight that thing?" asked Grace "I know enough to know my arrows won't do much, and their insides are even tougher then their outside"
*Could I?* "Probably not? It depends how it would react to my fire I suppose, but even then I used a lot of energy to put that ice next to you guys, I'm really not in great condition to fight for long. I could probably run away… but I think it's around as fast as I am maybe a bit faster unless I could fly, but then the bird will probably just come back"
Grace looked at the already mostly melted ice and clicked her tongue, regretting the request of some additional comfort. She'd thought they'd be mostly safe having not encountered any monsters before now but clearly things were taking a step up.
"Could you just distract it maybe?" asked Skye "You said it's around the same speed, could you just lead it around a bunch then fly back to us?"
Kat swished her tail and thought "I mean… maybe? It's a bit far off" Kat scanned the distance and noticed the worm had angled towards them and was slowly gaining ground "I'm probably just a bit faster than the sand skipper unless I can fly, and it really looks like it's gaining ground"
"That just makes sense though" said Skye "It's coming at us from straight on, so even though we've angled a bit with the right angle itself it can cut us off no problem"
*Oh right. How did I forget that one.* "Then its just a matter of flying. Can I fly low enough that the Barbarashi doesn't freak out?" said Kat
"Well why are you asking us?" said Grace "How are we supposed to know how fast you can fly when your close to the ground"
*Grace makes a compelling argument. But what else am I supposed to do. It isn't like I've testing this properly… which I will. As soon as I get back to Earth, I will practice I promise.*
"I guess I can do a little test then" said Kat.. Standing up and jumping off the side of the skipper Kat flared her wings and started to follow behind the skipper. Trying to keep herself low, just barely above her walking height Kat scanned the skies for any trace of the Barbarashi as she tried to catch the skipper