The feral Kate pounced at Mater at an extreme speed. Her territory clashing with the rain gave him some idea of her position, but it was barely enough to help him keep up with her. He created a powerful water barrier durable enough to withstand a blow from a Sky Realm expert, but Kate easily ripped through the barrier with her claws. Mater's trident could stop her attack from reaching his body, but the vibrations created internal injuries that forced blood up his throat. Reluctant to show weakness, Mater held it back, but before he could counter Kate's attack, she vanished from his sight.
She suddenly reappeared above him, but he knew he would be at a disadvantage in a head-on collision, so he used the water on the ground to help him evade. Frustrated by the fact that he escaped, Kate slammed the ground and unleashed the innate skill of the flash tiger, Paralyze Ring. A burst of electric current spread from her location and went outwards, and it was easy to guess what would happen if that current interacted with water.
"!!!"
The rain that had been his ally was used to shock him. The electricity wasn't powerful enough to do any serious harm, but Mater found his body difficult to move. Kate pounced once more and though Mater tried to stop her from using spells, he couldn't prevent her teeth from biting into his left arm and ripping it off his body.
"Ahh!!!"
Mater quickly cast a spell to stop the bleeding, but he couldn't dull the psychological impact of losing his arm. Kate spat out the arm she had taken and slowly approached with the swagger of a confident predator.
"You monster! Stay away from me!"
Mater had endured various types of pain on his path of cultivation, so the pain of losing an arm didn't shake him as much as the visage of the one who took it. With her grinning mouth covered in his blood, Kate truly looked like nothing but a monster to him. His troubled mind could no longer maintain Call the Rain, so the sky cleared. The sunlight touching Kate's figure emphasized the approach of death and added to his distress.
"No! No! I can't die like this!"
As he tried to retreat, Mater stumbled backwards and his trident fell to the ground. He knew the trident wouldn't be enough to defeat Kate, so he desperately searched through his storage ring for anything that could save him. He had means to call for allies, but none of them would be able to arrive before Kate ripped him to shreds. While Kate steadily approached, Mater finally discovered something that could be his trump card. If he had been his usual self, he would have been reluctant to even consider using it, but as it is said, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Mater retrieved a pill bottle from his storage ring and emptied its contents into his mouth. Suddenly, a red aura covered his body and the pressure he exuded vastly increased. The battle between Kate and Mater had been on the level of Sky Realm experts, but now Mater seemed to actually step into the Sky Realm.
"Hahaha! With this power, I'll make you regret not finishing me off when you had the chance."
Mater picked up his trident and stood facing Kate with bloodshot eyes. Veins bulged across his skin like worms crawling beneath the surface of his flesh. He looked much more like a monster than Kate did, but that wasn't the reason for her furrowed brows. Despite her limited intelligence, she could tell that he had taken forbidden medicine to increase his power and that this boost wouldn't last long. If she focused on running, her energy reserves would likely last longer than his temporary power increase, but her primal instincts rejected that idea.
"Grrr..."
A low growl escaped Kate's mouth as she went down on all four limbs. Mater's mental state wasn't normal, but he knew he couldn't afford to waste any time.
"Thousand Rain."
Mater raised his trident and formed countless giant tridents made of water above him before shooting them at Kate. There was no room to dodge, and she didn't try to dodge either. Kate ran towards Mater like a beast and used the wind to destroy any trident that approached her. It took a significant amount of power to destroy each trident, but Kate charged forward until Mater was right in front of her, ready to thrust his trident wrapped in super concentrated water.
"Die!"
Kate used her right claw to stop the trident, but like before, its power increased over time. This was the intent of water which Mater had grasped, endlessness. Like the unceasing flow of water, any action he made using the endlessness intent would have its effectiveness amplified by 100% every second to a maximum of 1000%. He could also apply this effect beforehand by starting the action and pausing before it was complete. When Mater's trident met Kate's hand, his attack was already amplified by 300%. When the amplification had reached 700%, blood spurted from Kate's hand, but she continued to inch her hand forward. When the amplification reached 800%, Kate pushed her fingers through the spiraling concentrated water and grabbed the middle prong of the trident. While the flesh was rapidly torn from her hand, she cast a spell that created a tornado swirling in the opposite direction and had it travel towards Mater.
Although the power of his thrust was more than she could handle, that didn't mean his grip and balance were the same. The powerful wind current twisted Mater's arm and eventually forced him to release the trident.
"Argh!!!"
His left arm had been torn off and now his right hand was so broken that he couldn't even move it. Not wasting a second, Kate grabbed the shaft of the trident with her left hand and then pierced Mater through the chest and to the ground with it.
"No! Don't! You'll regret this. My clan will-!"
Kate pushed the trident down to silence Mater and cast a wind spell to make him explode from the inside.
"Serves you, right."
Right after killing Mater, Kate spat out black blood accumulated from her internal injuries. Although she had achieved victory, it wasn't without a heavy price. On the bright side, she was able to regain control of her body, but she barely had the energy left to stand, much less walk. Nonetheless, she had to leave before anyone else arrived. She took both the trident and Mater's storage ring before heading towards the only place she could hide nearby, Malirin Forest.
...
A few hours after Kate escaped, someone appeared on the battle site. Kate had attempted to hide Mater's corpse, but she wasn't able to conceal the traces of conflict and death. This person stopped at the spot with the strongest scent of blood and then looked into the forest.