The Most Elaborate Rat Trap
As the Huoshu was fending off Tatterhood's liquid drill, it suddenly felt a creeping, foreboding sensation crawling up his back. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he had the distinct feeling that if he didn't disengage with Tatterhood soon, he would be in grave danger.
Impending doom breathing down his neck, the Huoshu drew out more of it's power into his fire shield to push Tatterhood back. Of the two forces attacking him, he felt that he could overpower this strange girl!
Tatterhood for her part kept spinning to try and drill through the shield and rat, but the Huoshu's sudden show of force caused her to be pushed back by a few steps. In fact, the Huoshu was so absorbed by this action, he failed to notice something behind him flying upwards and out of his sights.
"GYAAAOO"!
"Tsk"!
With a roar of force, the Huoshu pushed his fire shield forward, causing himself to lunge forward and forcefully stopping Tatterhood's spinning charge. Due to the sudden stop in her momentum and the Huoshu's sudden show of ferocity , Tatterhood was sent flying down towards the broth below them.
One would assume that Tatterhood faltered and that she was overpowered by the oversized rodent, but if one could see her face right now, they would see a smile of triumph.
"Now, kitten!", Tatterhood suddenly shouted.
"ROAR"!
As Tatterhood fell downwards, a large fireball came flying from below and towards the Huoshu. From a bird's eye view, it could be seen that the Zouyu had released that ball of holy flames at Tatterhood's instruction.
_________________________________________
"Insidious wench!", he thought as he saw the fireball flying towards him.
The Huoshu had overextended himself with his counter attack and was about to pay for it in spades. He stared at the encroaching inferno with terror in his eyes, recalling the pain that the small burn from before had caused him. The Huoshu was sure that this was the danger that his instincts warned him about, but his instincts also told him how to avoid it.
"No shields! Movement"!
No longer needing the shield, the Huoshu turned it into a jet of flames and used it to launch himself backwards, away from the holy fireball.
As the fireball whizzed pass him, a sense of relief and joy came over the Huoshu. He took this opportunity to look downwards at Tatterhood, wanting to make sure his opponent was watching him foiling her sneak attack.
"Suffer and tremble before my...what"?
However, when he looked down to see her face of disappointment, he instead saw her standing there with her wretched goat and the Zouyu, smiling all the while.
Rage and frustration overtook him as he saw her and the hated cat standing there. He quickly gathered his energy and got ready to release a powerful fireball of his own...up until he felt the searing pain of the holy fireball from early slamming into his backside!
Pain! Confusion! Fear!
How did he get hit with that wretched cat's flames from behind, when he could clearly see it standing before him?!
But these thoughts came too little, too late, as the last thing he saw and felt, was that of a swinging blade coming towards him and the disgustingly beautiful face behind it.
_________________________________________
"How in the hell did that work?!", RJ thought to himself as he steadied the spinning mirror. A not-so-easy feat for him, especially due to him being midair after being forcefully tossed upwards by a surprisingly strong ogress.
Evidently, the holy fireball did not magically change the direction for no reason, rather it was thanks to RJ using the Celestial Bronze Bagua Mirror and it's [Reflect] ability.
Unbeknownst to the Huoshu, Tatterhood had figured out that even though the rat monster was good at picking up danger, it only worked on "active" dangers to his life. In essence, it could pick up killing intent.
She had figured this out during her and Bellerophon's initial fight with the rodent, where he had managed to avoid most of her targeted strikes but failed to avoid the times she and Bellerophon used AOE attacks. However, this was an issue because these AOE attacks didn't do enough damage to overcome the Huoshu's healing.
At some point, Tatterhood considered trying to drown the hulking bastard... until she saw the Zouyu's holy flames and RJ's mirror.
It didn't take long for her to come up with a rather devious plan that went as followed:
1. Goad the Huoshu into fighting her (again) and forcing it to stay in one place.
2. The Zouyu would stay in a very obvious place in front of the Huoshu and charge up a fireball, ready to fire when Tatterhood gave the signal.
3. While all this was happening, RJ and Ogress would sneak to an area behind the Huoshu and prepare a "fastball special".
4. Assuming everything goes off like clockwork, RJ would be in the air long enough to reflect the Zouyu's fireball into the Huoshu back and giving Tatterhood enough time to decapitate the rat.
In short, a painfully convoluted yet awesome mou-rat trap!