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  Title: Of Cats and Magic

  Chapter: 11

  Author: Riko Gonzalez

  A lone wasp darted forward from the rest of the mass, its stinger glistening

  menacingly. The winged beast was headed straight for Ruko.

  The blonde catgirl watched nonchalantly, displaying her typical taciturn

  expression. At the last moment, she threw a punch --- a lone punch. That was all

  it took. Stinger met fist, and fist won. The force of the blonde's blow was such

  that not only did the stinger outright shatter but the rest of the giant wasp

  exploded.

  Silently, the magical girl lowered her fist, turning her emotionless eyes to the

  rest of the swarm. Somewhat amazingly, the swarm backed up in response. It

  appeared that the display of Ruko's sheer strength was enough to frighten the

  creatures. Of course, this fear only held them back momentarily. A few seconds

  later, the swarm rushed forward, intent on avenging the lost wasp. Turned out

  that few seconds of hesitation would cost them dearly. Instead of swarming the

  object of their ire as they had intended, they instead found themselves flying

  into a wall of intense flame. Just like that, the brunt of the insect hoard was

  gone, having been incinerated in an instant. The survivors, only twelve, fell

  back and split up.

  Riko grinned at her handy work. The cyan-haired magical girl had taken advantage

  of both the tight formation of the swarm and the form's fixation on Ruko. In

  short, she had tried to one-shot the whole swarm and came awfully close to

  succeeding. Of course, the wasps weren't ignoring her now.

  Ruko glanced from the circling wasps to Riko before her amethyst eyes settled on

  the monstrous cocoon. Casually, she picked up a pebble and then turned her

  attention back to the wasps. Taking aim at one of the winged beasts, she threw

  the rock with terrifying force. It was a direct hit, but the tiny projectile did

  not stop. It continued on its course, tearing the giant insect to shreds in the

  process. Instantly, the remaining eleven wasps turned to the blonde catgirl.

  They were no longer circling but instead were hovering. She quite clearly had

  their attention.

  "I'll deal with the stragglers."

  Riko nodded in response before heading towards the many-eyed cocoon, leaving

  Ruko to deal with the remaining wasps.

  ***

  "How to crack this thing?"

  Riko stood before the many-eyed cocoon, one of the thing's many eyes watching

  her. This monstrosity looked like something from someone's nightmare, its hide

  being composed of a multitude of gigantic vines with a multitude of enormous

  eyes dotting it. The monstrous cocoon was quite sturdy, but it wasn't

  invincible. Riko was sure of that.

  Pointing her staff to the imposing creature, the buxom catgirl readied an

  attack. She intended to torch this abomination again. Perhaps the second time

  would be the charm. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, and Riko found herself jumping

  back instead, a huge tendril slamming down in front of her.

  The tendril had clearly meant to crush her. Well, the thing's action did make

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  sense. After all, why would it just allow her to attack it. Still, it didn't

  have that tendril a moment ago. As Riko pondered the sudden appearance of the

  lengthy appendage, eleven more of them sprouted from the cocoon. Obviously, this

  creature wasn't defenseless without its wasps.

  With a sigh, Riko glanced over the thing's twelve tendrils. The tendrils were

  quite a bit thicker than the pair that the creature had previous to it

  transforming into a cocoon. As such, they were likely much sturdier than the

  previous tendrils. With that thought in mind, the pink-eyed magical girl readied

  herself for the onslaught she figured was headed her way.

  ***

  The wasps, still hovering in place, cautiously watched the blonde catgirl that

  they had encircled. It was almost as it they were afraid to act. Actually, that

  wasn't that odd if true. After all, Ruko had not only curbstomped a wasp in

  melee but she had also curbstomped one from range. There really was no reason

  for the wasps to not notice how outmatched they were in this fight. As such, the

  winged insects continued to hover, waiting.

  Ruko crouched down and picked up yet another pebble, causing the wasps to

  sweatdrop at the sight. The last time she had picked up a pebble, it didn't end

  well for a particular wasp. To put it simply, said wasp was no longer among the

  living.

  Glancing to one another, the wasps decided to go for it. From all sides, they

  rushed the blonde catgirl. As they saw it, the amethyst-eyed magical girl would

  not be able to take them all out at once. Turns out, though, they were wrong.

  Dropping the pebble, Ruko balled her right fist. As the stingers were almost

  upon her, she slammed her fist into the ground with such force that she carved a

  crater at her feet. The resulting shock wave exploded outward, catching the

  attacking insects off-guard, blowing them back, tearing them apart.

  Ruko stood alone. The wasps were no more. She was victorious in her rather

  one-sided fight against them. Stepping out of the crater, she glanced to the

  gigantic cocoon. Riko was currently engaged in melee with the monstrosity. With

  her amethyst eyes locked on the enormous creature, the blonde rushed towards it

  to join the fray.

  ***

  A pair of tendrils slammed down, one to each of her sides. The twin impacts

  kicked up a cloud of dust. Through the dust, Riko could make out a third tendril

  overhead. Talk about being trapped between a rock and a hard place. The third

  tendril was preparing to strike, and she could dodge neither left nor right due

  to the other two tendrils. True, she could try jumping back, but she wasn't that

  sure that that would actually get her out of the attack's range.

  "If that's how you want to play this..."

  The catgirl's lips curled into a smirk as the overhead tendril came slamming

  down. A thunderous boom echoed throughout the area as tendril met staff. Holding

  the enormous appendage back with the tip of her staff, Riko gritted her teeth.

  The training under Ruko had really paid off. However, this thing was still quite

  strong. One could even say it was monstrously strong. Her staff was quite

  literally creaking from the force she was holding back.

  "My turn. Now burn."

  Just like that, the tendril being held back by the tip of her staff burst into

  flame, drawing back in response. Frantically, the thing began swinging about in

  an attempt to extinguish the flames that were devouring it.

  Seeing her opening, the pink-eyed catgirl readied a followup attack.

  "Now, drown in an inferno."

  At her words, the nightmarish cocoon was cast into a sea of flames, the

  flickering flames tearing at its colossal form. Its twelve tendrils quickly

  succumbed to the flames, dropping away. However, its main body held strong,

  refusing to give in to the raging inferno.

  As the flickering flames continued their assault, Ruko neared the beast. The

  closest of the creature's many eyes turned to her. Its reward was a shoe to the

  pupil. The blonde's kick hammered into the oversized eye with such force that

  the eye buckled under the pressure before exploding outwards. As Ruko stepped

  back from the creature, the tremendous force from her kick reverberated within

  the monstrosity's sturdy frame as Riko's inferno continued to tear at it from

  without.

  The creature's remaining eyes began to violently spasm. It looked like the pair

  of attacks from the two magical girls was too much for the gigantic beast to

  take. One by one, its eyes began to swell before each exploded into a shower of

  putrid sap in turn. The smell of the disturbing spectacle was just plain

  horrendous. Then the cocoon collapsed in upon itself. The creature was dead.