Kahli's vision swirled as she entered the scenario. She intentionally decided not to use any prior knowledge of the timeline to change anything, because she needed to get to the bottom of why Taubitha and even Princess had started laughing at her after Froufrou had started defending her excellently in the battle.
So there it was that Kahli was standing there before Taubitha and Princess, with Froufrou wrapped around her head shielding her somehow from Princess' attacks and parrying away any of Taubitha's strikes. And despite this, despite the obvious upper hand that Kahli now had in the fight, she was getting laughed at as opposed to the appropriate reaction. Which of course would've been fear. They should've feared her at this moment. Froufrou was the Harbinger of Doom and she'd finally started fighting. Kahli was certain that this was only the beginning, and that soon Froufrou would be sending huge blasts of energy out of her tendrils and melting off people's faces or something, or maybe disemboweling people before long. Maybe Froufrou would even disembowel Taubitha. Wouldn't that be a comuppance, Kahli thought.
And with that, Kahli decided that she didn't care why Taubitha and Princess were laughing at her. She didn't care to know, and she didn't need to know, either. All she needed to know was what she already did - chiefly, that whatever had gotten them to laugh so hard had indeed also inspired them to completely forget about the fact that they were in a fight right now. And Kahli hadn't won all the fights she'd been in so far by ignoring glaring opportunities, of which this undoubtedly was one.
So, with that, Kahli got to work. She summoned up a big rock, focused her energy to make it even bigger, angled it just right, and kicked it as far away from Taubitha and Princess as possible. If her judgement was right, and of course it would be, her rock would zoom right back around and hit both of her foes before coming back to her big left foot - which of course would be excellent. All she had to do was distract them now, which of course was something they were mainly doing on their own. However, Kahli figured that she ought to really play things up in order to ensure they didn't notice her big rock - which was presently zooming away from them, but soon enough would be zooming towards them.
"Seriously? What is this? Stop laughing at me!" Kahli cried.
Taubith and Princess, in response, laughed even louder. Taubitha was struggling not to fall over in hilarity.
"This isn't funny! I'm not a joke, I'm a tauman!"
More laughter. Kahli noticed from the corner of her peripheral vision that her big rock had redirected itself to start heading their way.
"Stop it! Stop laughing at me! This is, this is just like that time back in pre-pre-post-post-pre-post-fourth-dary-school where I came in to class, and everyone started laughing at me, and I had no idea why, and it ended up being because Jehnipher Gilgritch had put a note on my back that said 'Punt Me Across The Room,' and every time I turned around to ask someone why they were laughing at me, my back would be facing someone else, and then they would laugh, and then I'd ask them why they were laughing, and then the whole cycle would start all over again!"
This story definitely excelled at its intended effect, even though the memory was still a little painful for Kahli. Taubith and Princess were both laughing so hard that their eyes were closed. Which was perfect.
Kahli's big rock zoomed right up and slammed into both of them, one after another like billiard balls, hitting them with powered up blue flame.
[Critical hit]
[Critical hit]
[Taubitha is stunned]
[Princess is stunned]
They were both stunned! This was great for a number of reasons. One of course was the combat benefit, but another was that Kahli no longer had to hear their awful laughter. Now it was time to beat up these chumps, she figured. Kahli realized she could use her [Flurry of Blows] in its other attack mode in order to do a bunch of high damage to Taubitha without even worrying about keeping her stunned now that her big rock had done that for her, which was awesome! Kahli started kick, kick, kicking away and could see her hits draining Taubitha's large amount of [HP] rather quickly.
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However, there was of course the problem of Princess, who was still stunned but was also quite powerful. Only, Froufrou, from her perch on Kahli's head, seemed to be reeling up to do something herself. And, indeed, with a quiver and a squelch, Froufrou released a large, green bubble that floated through the air and then exploded over Princess, coating the fony in a green goo that quickly seemed to be dealing more than a little bit of damage. It had even managed to land a little on Taubitha and compound some damage to her as well!
"Wow, Froufrou! Is that a [skill]?"
Froufrou squelched in the affirmative.
For a second, Kahli felt a little guilty. She obviously hadn't been paying enough attention to Froufrou's system to realize that she'd been ready to level up, and Froufrou had leveled up on her own. Kahli was embarassed, but she was also very thankful that Froufrou had chosen such a useful [skill]. She'd have to remember to check it out once the fight came to a close.
That being said, Taubitha and Princess both seemed to be hazily coming out of their stunned states, so Kahli braced herself for impending damage and a bit of a tonal shift in the fight. However, as soon as both of the foes regained their composure, it became obvious that they were quite thrown off by how much damage they'd taken.
"Oh my gods! Oh my gods, what did your awful thing do to Princess?" growled Taubitha.
"Don't call her a thing!!" said Kahli. "Her name is Froufrou and she's great and she's super powerful and her [skill] is awesome!"
"Fuck off, Kahli," said Taubitha as she coughed up some blood. It looked like one of her obnoxiously huge wings was trying to flap, almost like she was trying to retreat.
"What are you doing, Taubitha?" asked Kahli.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you trying to fly away, Taubitha?" prodded Kahli.
Taubitha didn't respond.
"Taubitha, did your system give you those humongous wings as a [skill] or something, but you never figured out how to fly with them? Because that's what it looks like. It looks like you know we've beat you, again, and you're trying to fly away, but you have no idea how to. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course, I'm just telling you how it looks to me, you know."
Taubitha growled and ground her teeth. "You... I... UGH!! I fucking hate you, Kahli." She walked over to her fony and pouted. "Oh my gods, Princess, you really don't look good. I can't believe you got all this awful, gross goop all over your beautiful coat... I'm so, so sorry... Oh my gods, I tried to pet her and it's all over my hand and it's dealing damage to me on contact... Ugh..." Taubitha groaned as she hopped atop her weakened fony and took even more damage. "Well, I feel fucking awful... Kahli, you and your squelchy little freakshow and these two weird idiots you're hanging out with are the worst living beings in existence, just so you know."
Kahli rolled her eyes and shrugged. What was she even supposed to say to that? Then, she thought of something, which was nice - half the time, Kahli only thought of comebacks when it was far too late to implement them.
"Taubitha, why don't you just shut up and go away? You're just bitter that we beat you."
Taubitha groaned. "Fuck you, Kahli." Princess took to the air with a janky, weak ascent that seemed less than stable. Taubitha stuck out both of her middle fingers at Kahli. "See these? Yea, I still have two, bitch. Fuuuuuck yooooou!"
Kahli sighed. Taubitha was a sore loser all right. "Yea, well, I might be missing a hand, but at least I don't have a bunch of extra appendages, like, oh, I don't know, like huge wings or anything that I don't even know how to use and when I do they make me look like some sort of, well, like a big dumb idiot or something!"
Taubitha huffed and pulled on Princess' mane. The weakened fony neighed weakly and, soon enough, they were ascending further and further into the sky to the point that they would be too far away to hurl insults down at Kahli, although this ascent seemed to time and time again almost fail, like they were only a few bad breaths away from just tumbling right out of the sky and splattering on the ground or even landing in the sea.
Kahli stared out across the waters and felt soothed. "Well, that sure was something." She turned to Sahdi. "You know, Sahdi, you really are useless."
Sahdi glared at Kahli. "Am I?"
"Yes."
"You do realize I was healing you throughout that fight, right? That your [HP] doesn't regen that fast on its own?"
Kahli's eyes went wide. She'd seen the small notes in her system during the fight mentioning that her [HP] was recovered, but she didn't think it was due to anything anyone else was doing. "Are you serious?"
Sahdi nodded. Then, without much else to say, she returned to filing the now less sharp nails that grew out of the clawlike living wood on her hands.
Kahli turned to Unit 5a23. "Well, I can at least say with confidence that you've been useless, Unit 5a23. Even though I essentially saved your life, you won't even consider using all your powers unless your own is threatened. Not to say I don't respect having convictions and personal principles, but it seems awfully convenient."
Unit 5a23 did not respond - doubtlessly, he was still deep in trance.
Kahli sighed. Then, she realized something with glee as she stared back out at the waves. She was ready to level up!