In response to Katie's challenge, Hellfire set her entire body ablaze, save a small gap over her eyes to allow herself to see properly. Sparks jumped from her flaming skin, fizzling out before they hit the ground. "You honestly think you can beat me in a one-on-one fight, you little slut?" she snarled. "Think again! I'll have your fucking skull when this is over!"
Katie simply grew her bark talons a little longer to adjust to the situation, and stepped to the side. Hellfire moved to compensate, the two starting a slow circle.
"Y'know what? I think I might keep you alive after I pound you into the dirt. Give Taki one wild night with you before I snap your fucking neck with my bare hands," the flaming woman continued. She was trying to unnerve Katie, hoping to gain the upper hand and strike first while she was distracted. "A shame that your first time would be the last - "
She got no further as Katie launched herself at her opponent, talons drawing three deep lines of blood down her left arm. Hellfire let out a wild scream of both pain and battle-lust, and sent a flaming punch into Katie's chest. Even with the thick armour, it drove the breath from the girl's lungs, and she staggered backwards, gasping for air. Katie recovered within a few seconds, and returned to the attack. She struck out with another kick, tearing Hellfire's thigh open with the bark-claws on her armoured foot. Another wild scream followed as she pulled her whip out, lashed it around Katie's throat and forced her face-down into the ground.
Hellfire withdrew the whip and began laying into Katie with more powerful punches while she was down, the girl letting out a soft groan with each one. After a few hits had been delivered, Katie grew a large bed of long cactus spines out of the back of her armour the moment Hellfire brought her fist close enough to strike. She recoiled when her fingers impaled themselves on the defense, allowing Katie to get up. Once she was standing, she shed the spines and shrank back the talons on her right hand to lash out with a few punches of her own. She delivered a strike to Hellfire's throat, who dropped to her knees, choking.
Katie shoved Hellfire down on her back, and aimed the talons on her left hand at her adversary's neck. Gasping for breath, the older of the two wheezed, "What're you gonna do, *****? Kill me? You couldn't. You can't take a life, not even to save yours. Omoi told me about your weakness, pussy. You're too afraid to kill someone. You'll never live with yourself - "
She was cut short as Katie punched the side of her head, knocking her out. The flames covering Hellfire's body vanished, leaving her completely open to attack. Katie got up and used vines to lash the unconscious woman to the trunk of a tree, reshaping it to form a layer of heavy sequoia bark to enclose her from all sides. The firestarter wouldn't be able to move, and neither could she burn her way out of her wooden prison. Though Katie left a tiny, almost invisible hole to allow Hellfire to breathe when she woke.
"I've never taken a life in battle, and I don't intend to start now," Katie murmured before shrinking the rest of her talons and walking away from the clearing, following her trail back to the edge of the forests.
