Critical Mission I: The Demonic Bodhisattva

- Bastion’s Group -

Sister Charlotte shook her head at Cleo. “Not of you, specifically. I just saw warriors of justice coming to the aid of this village.”

She looked up and saw Cleo’s grin, but seemed to misinterpret his intentions. “It wasn’t a fantasy. It was true. I know that now. After all... here you all are.”

She looked ahead at the three Vanguard in front of them and smiled.

Bastion frowned as Vayu explained why he’d been arguing so intently with his demon. It seemed a foolish reason not to accept the talisman, but Bastion kept that to himself. Some Vanguard seemed touchy about their relationships with their demons... something he also didn’t understand.

“It’s fine,” he said, nodding. “I just hope not having one doesn’t cause the mist to harm you. We’re still not entirely sure what it’s adverse effects are.”

It was moot point, though. It seemed unlikely Vayu would go back and ask Sister Charlotte for one now.

Allowing the conversation to shift, Bastion remained silent as Samael explained the capabilities of his spells to Vayu. When the sounds of Cleo and Sister Charlotte’s discussion drifted toward them, Samael visibly bristled at the mention of Heaven.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Bastion had heard before that some humans were very resentful toward Heaven for not stopping the disaster that ravaged the world many years before, or for interceding to help humanity since then.The assumption was that since angels clearly existed and did nothing to help, then they must not care at all.

Maybe that was true. Bastion had never met an angel, so he wasn’t ready to make a decision either way.

“Hold.” He put up a hand, stopping everyone, and gestured to take cover. They crept forward along the wall of the nearest building and peered out as the street opened up into another plaza. Wonderful. This one had a river passing through it, dividing the northern and southern sections of the city.

“No getting around that,” he murmured, taking note of the demons roaming about the empty space. Lamias again, a different type of demon as well. The pale, waxy skin and long, gangly figures could only be Ghouls.

“Could we sneak around the edges of the plaza?” Sister Charlotte asked. “And try to wade through the river?”

Bastion shook his head. “We might make it as far as the river. But they’d hear us if we try to cross. The river is too gentle and mild to cover our noise. The bridge is the only way across.”

“They’d definitely notice us if we walk right through them,” she replied, wringing her hands.

“Maybe not.” Bastion turned to Samael. “If you act as a diversion, you can draw the demons out of the plaza and into the streets. Once they’re clear, you can transform into one of the demons to blend in, then make your way back to us on the other side.”

He looked around at the others, waiting for consensus. “Agreed?”

It would be close, though. He glanced at Sister Charlotte, who hasn’t dressed in the most practical garb for this sort of mission, even if she had the athletic ability needed to run like them.

Bastion turned to Cleo, half-hating himself for what he was going to say. “We’d need to move fast. If you have to....” He darted a glance at Sister Charlotte, then sighed. “...carry her.”

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- Zephyr’s Group -

Zephyr and Nihility stole down the sidestreets in silence, looking for signs of activity from the villagers. Only silence and emptiness could be found, however.

They turned the corner and found a cluster of Ghouls circling around a house, growling and moaning. Were people trapped inside?

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- Scarlet’s Group -

Scarlet and Amira headed down the street in the opposite direction, just as lonely and empty as the village the others had encountered. After a few minutes, Nekomata returned to Scarlet’s side, gesturing further into the mist.

“I heard some noise in a building not far from here. It sounded like a struggle. Possibly villagers.”

- Vayu -


Vayu thought for a moment. "Same goes for you, Samael and Cleo," he finally said to Bastion. "We still don’t know what the mist targets."

"However, I’ll let you know if I start feeling … different."

He decided to ignore Cleo and his shameless flirting with the nun. It would be useless and counter-productive to get upset about it now.

Then Samael spoke up about his spell.

"Ohh…" understanding dawned in Vayu’s eyes. "I see. That’s pretty cool. I’m sure that will come in handy at some point."

And not a moment too soon as they approached another plaza, covered in demons, mainly Lamias and what appeared to be Ghouls.

"My Zhen will accompany you. For one, to increase the diversion. And two, it can alert me if something goes wrong," he said to Samael in a voice that wouldn't allow objection. "And once you transform, it’ll stay above and out of sight, which is easy enough in this mist."

"Oh and this," he added and placed a hand on Samael’s chest. "It will boost your agility for a little while in case you really have to run."

"Synchro Gift," he waited for Samael to agree and then cast the spell on Samael. Even if the Lamias were stronger, the spell would still have a decent effect.

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Nihility|Shoggoth|Tyrian|Minke
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Nihility's head moved from left to right as she scanned everything in her visibility. She was starting to get bored when Minke suddenly stopped and pulled herself away from the corner of the last house on the street. The flying demon had reached the turning when scouting in that area.

Minke placed her finger to her lips and pointed at the space beyond the corner. Nihility slowed down to a walk and quietly made her way towards the turn point. Pressing her back to the edge of the building, the vanguard peeked out from her cover to look at what her demon had spotted.

"Oooh~ what splendid creatures do we have here?" Shoggoth's soothing voice rung in Nihility's head.

Nihility frowned and replied in a hushed voice. "Huh, do you know these things?"

"Ghouls. These demons have a similar appetite as mine. They desire flesh but that's where they differ from me. I consume to gather knowledge from my prey, they eat only to quench their hunger. But the more they eat, a higher variety dish they make for me. It's like eating two birds with one stone. I can gather the memories from the things they have consumed along with their own. And that is more valuable to my tastes."

As Nihility continued her act of voyeurism, unbeknownst to her, the lady's mouth was starting to salivate as her eyes widened to take in more of the scene.

"Ghuules~" a low and soft growl escaped her lips.


Minke was starting to get worried as she looked to and fro from the Ghouls surrounding the house and her Master.

"Minke! Switch with me. I'll take over from here." The elder demon, commanded the imp.

Minke whimpered at hearing Shoggoth's voice coming from Nihility's mouth, but soon dematerialized into the gauntlet when Nihility's left arm raised up towards her.


Purple goo leaked out of Nihility's Vanguard gauntlet, creating a pool between her feet. Soon it rose up to move beside the drooling Vanguard and took up a feminine body shape. Then, in the next second the beauty if there was any was shattered when her signature multiple eyes opened up all over her face and opening her mouth revealed the sharp fangs that she uses to personally bite her prey when in the mood.

Tapping Nihility on the shoulder seemed to release her from whatever state of trance she was in.

"So~, cute boy, how do you want to do this?" Shoggoth turned around with a crooked smile and glint in her eyes when facing Zephyr while asking him in a playful tone as to how he wanted to proceed.


"Hey, I am out of Spells, could you let me absorb your Bind spell again or the Poison Grenade?" Nihility requested Shoggoth to attack her so that she could temporarily acquire a new spell


Shoggoth pondered on the request from her partner vanguard, "Hmm... if you get my bind spell, then we can potentially bind Four targets combined and then I let you absorb my Noxious Orb, that will let us engulf all the trapped Ghouls with poison damage, along with the surrounding others."

Shoggoth then looked back at the Male Vanguard now with more seriousness, "What are you thinking? Do you want to attack head on or do you have something else in mind?"

Zephyr Arc

With the group in concensus, Zephyr and Nihility split off from Scarlet and Amira and headed east in their search for survivors of whatever happened here. Zephyr made sure they were sending and receiving the 10 minute pings as they searched.

Eventually, as they turned a corner, they found an army of ghouls surrounding one of the houses. He knew about ghouls. An army of ghouls lurking like this could only mean a meal... in other words, live humans. Before he could say anything, though, Nihility uttered a strange low growl and started drooling, then spoke in another, far more sinister voice.

He watched as her imp- imp?- imp. He shook his head, vanished into her gauntlet, and strange goo spilled forth in its stead. He watched as the goo took the shape of a woman, then tapped Nihility on the shoulder. The girl then snapped back to reality, and the creature next spoke to him.

He stared it in the eyes for about half a second, making a couple mental notes before responding. "Hide yourselves for now, I'll take a look inside. Depending on what I find, I'll need you to create a distraction." He spoke while glancing between Nihility and Shoggoth. It was pretty clear who was in-charge, and he speculated the demon was the likely reason the girl seemed so tired and... off.

With that said, the pixie on his shoulder took flight, and Zephyr himself abruptly shrank, Cherry grabbing him and zipping for the highest window of the building.

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Nihility|Shoggoth|Tyrian|Minke
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"Distraction tactics... I can work with that." Shoggoth nodded in agreement to the plan.


Turning to Nihility, the demon smiled and opened up her palm. A murky liquid bubbled up to form into a smooth purplish orb. "Okay, girl, you ready for some desert?" The orb floated above Shoggoth's palm as she moved it closer to Nihility's face.

"Huh!?, Aaah, wait wait, I'm not ready." Nihility exclaimed in a loud whisper, while quickly glancing at the Ghouls in the distance to see if everything was okay, and they didn't hear her.

"Open wide~" Shoggoth creepily smiled and shoved the Noxious orb into the distraught vanguard's mouth.


Nihility shut her eyes and concentrated on activating her spell. The purple orb exploded but not as a bomb going off. The liquid ooze spread out and around Nihility's face. It appeared to have become coated with a film of blue energy. The purple ooze quickly deconstructed into pure energy and got absorbed into Nihility's upper body.

"Haah... haah..." The Vanguard breathed heavily as if she had just recovered from being suffocated.

"Oh, Hosh Posh, stop exaggerating. You're fine~" Shoggoth replied to the death stare Nihility was sending over to her. "Let's wait for a signal from the cute boy, and then lets clean these Ghouls in a nice acid bath."


The Swamp Demon smacked her lips in excitement.

Amira

Amira walked beside Scarlet through the street.

The village seemed dead as if every soul in it had already been taken... This caused Amira to question something, how did that nun survive for so long? Everyone inside is gone, but the one person outside survived?
That's...

Suddenly Nekomata returned, it seems that sounds were coming from a building. Amira looked at Scarlet and nodded, it was time to go.

Amira runs off into the building...

Samael

"I'm fine, I just thought I saw something, the mist is making my eyes act up." Samael quickly shifted the conversation away from the look he gave the nun, as he gave Bastion a slight smile and rubbed his eyes slightly.

"But, Good idea and the plan doesn't cost too much maga."  Samael responded to Bastion with a serious nod. as he began to observe the demons shifting in front of him.  As he began counting all the demons in visible range, mumbled to himself and holding out his fingers.

Let's see, baiting posing as a villager might not be great, I need to create an urgent enough situation so that they won't catch a glimpse of the others, while not focusing all attention on him.  Maybe some classic deception tactics...

"Alright, I'm going to bait them behind the building to the left, don't worry about any crazy noises you here.  Maybe have your Zhen fire off a spell out of sight to make the demons think there's a bigger threat there... draw more.  The rest of you should sneak by on the right then cross the bridge."  Samael muttered to the group, as he held out his hand and pointed to a nearby building to indicate to the Zhen where he was going.

Samael quietly shifted at the edge of the plaza before slipping between two buildings half way to the bridge as he held out his finger to the naga, focusing his spell so that all of the ones in the open plaza could hear it.

"Noise manipulation."  Samael whispered, as Samael replicated the sound of a scared women shouting get away, mixed in with the sound of spells being fired similar to the ice lance, hissing and the sound of a naga screaming that replicated the noise the one made when Bastion and Cleo killed them.

Various nagas turned their heads towards the Alley, as one of the closer ones began to drift over drawn to the sound of combat.  The naga quickly poked his head out with his weapon drawn, as Samael suddenly bolted next to the creature.  With help of Vayu's spell, he ran his sword through the naga's throat as the creature let out a gurgling scream.

"Get away from us!"  Samael yelled a creature in a more feminine voice that was not covered up by the noise manipulation, as he quickly pulled his sword out of the creature's throat and kicked it into the plaza before dashing into a backdoor of a nearby building and loudly slamming the door behind him.

- Cleo -

The smile on Cleo's face pulled a little further in amusement. Was Charlotte actually that dense, or was she just playing naive to avoid the topic of conversation? He honestly couldn't tell, but either result was funny in its own way.

He put his free hand over Charlotte's when Bastion held up a hand, making sure that she stopped along with the rest of the group. What lay in wait for them wasn't good. With only a single bridge available to cross, they didn't have a lot of strategic options to circumvent the demons. A distraction seemed like the best bet. Cleo couldn't really argue with that point. His main concern was in how he was going to cover the distance with his charge in tow.

It was perhaps most amusing of all that he arrived at the conclusion, seemingly at the same moment as Bastion did. While she seemed athletic enough, her clothes weren't really made for sprinting. "If you'll allow me..." Cleo spoke as he turned, scooping Charlotte off her feet in a princess carry. "I'm afraid that we need to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time."

In the distance, a woman's scream drew the attention of the demons. "And we probably need to get started on that."

"One of you in front of me, and the other behind." Cleo said as they moved towards the bridge. "I can keep up, but I can't do much to defend us while my hands are full." He chuckled at that, briefly turning his attention to the woman in his arms. "Not that I mind having my hands full with you."

Scarlet - West Patrol

Scarlet moved through the streets alongside Amira, muscles tense as she held her bow at the ready. The eerie silence unnerved Scarlet- she was used to the background noises of the forests around her home, or more recently the bustle of urban life. This was far too quiet...

Above the pair, Nekomata stealthily moved across the rooftops. Her ears picked up the sounds of a struggle further ahead, appearing to originate from the outline of a building through the mist. She quickly returned to the two Vanguards.

“I heard some noise in a building not far from here. It sounded like a struggle. Possibly villagers.”

Scarlet nodded. "Good work, Neko," she replied quietly. She turned to Amira. "Right, I'll call this in..."

All she caught was a nod as Amira sprinted in the direction Neko had indicated. "Wait-!"

Scarlet began to follow at a slower pace, wary of potential ambushes. "Neko! Follow Amira, keep her out of danger!" The demon nodded and pounced after Amira, following her path from the rooftops. Meanwhile, Scarlet raised her Gauntlet. "Zephyr! Nihility! Neko found some noise coming from a building up ahead, we're moving to investigate."

- Amira and Scarlet -

Amira and Scarlet made their way over to the building that Nekomata had indicated. The building appeared to be an inn, and sure enough, there were sounds of an altercation inside.

Amira was the first one in the door, and as she stepped through, a Ghoul was thrown headlong through the railing of the balcony above and smashed into the floor in front of her. The wood floor splintered, and Amira found herself falling down into the cellar below as Scarlet stood helplessly on the floor above.

As the dust settled, Amira could hear scuffling in the darkness around her. Maybe that Ghoul wasn’t as dead as it had seemed. The next moment, something pounced on her, snapping its teeth at her as its claws sought purchase on her body.

Helping Amira was Scarlet’s first thought, but she found herself more than preoccupied in a moment. A Lamia slithered to the top of the balcony, and it became obvious she was the one to send the Ghoul plunging down into the bowels of the building. And it also became obvious why, as the next moment another Ghoul leapt on the Lamia from behind, trying to sink its fangs into her neck. The Lamia screeched, and as she did, more Ghouls and Lamias appeared to crawl and slither their way into the lobby to begin attacking each other.

And Scarlet was in the middle of them.

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- Zephyr and Nihility -

Zephyr and Cherry flew their way in through the top window and alighted on the wood floor. They could hear Ghouls shambling around the lower floors, but their attention was on the closet at the other end of the room. Scuffling, and another noise Zephyr couldn’t quite pinpoint came from within, and they could see faint movement from beneath the door. A villager in hiding?

Zephyr crossed to the door and grabbed the knob - locked? - and turned it. As he did, he suddenly realized what the sound was.

The sound of rending meat.

The Ghoul stared up at him with wide eyes, its own gnawed arm in its bloodstained mouth. With a cry, it thrust its palm at him, blasting him back across the room with a burst of darkness.

Down below, Nihility waited restlessly for Zephyr’s signal. A faint, gurgling noise slowly began to reach her ears. At first, she thought it was Shoggoth, but then it became apparent it wasn’t when several blob-like shapes crawled into the alley, their bulbous eyes staring at her. Their gaping mouths shook as the Black Oozes rose up and spit large clumps of its mud-like body at her.

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- Bastion’s Team -

Sister Charlotte’s eyes went wide as Cleo scooped her up in his arms.

“Oh!” she squeaked before covering her mouth. As they began to run, she caught her arms around Cleo’s neck, her eyes screwed up in fear.

Bastion let Vayu take the lead and held the back at Cleo’s suggestion. Thanks to Samael’s distraction, the courtyard cleared quickly enough, and they were able to race the length of the plaza to the bridge. As they reached the other side, however, Vayu stopped short.

“What’s wrong?” Bastion asked, eyes darting between the plaza behind them and the street ahead.

The ground appeared to be covered in a sludge or tar, its black surface undulating. Before they could figure out what to do, it began to rear up and reveal various sets of eyes and gaping mouths.

“Black Ooze,” Bastion muttered as the blob demons regarded them stupidly. “Quick, we need to cut our way through before those other demons return.”

The Black Oozes let out a squelching noise before suddenly squatting down. A gaseous cloud, thicker and darker than the mist, spread out from them. Before they could back away, Bastion caught a whiff of it and gagged. It was horrible, like rotten eggs and sewage. He stepped back, but he could already feel himself dizzying.

“Hurry!” he hissed as the Oozes reared up and shot blobs of mud at them.

Zephyr Arc

Flying in through the suspiciously open window, Cherry set Zephyr down and he restored himself to his proper size. They could, to their dismay, hear ghouls on the floor below. This meant it was unlikely for anyone to still be alive, but they heard scuffling sound on the same floor, so Zephyr made the decision to investigate, just in case anyone was lucky enough to get away alive.

Looking around, he eventually detected some movement in a closet. "Careful!" Cherry whispered in his ear before he tried to make for the door. Nodding, he readied his spear just in case and approached cautiously. Can't be too careful in enemy territory.

As he finally turned the knob, it hit him what the sound was, and was greeted by a Ghoul on the other side. The creature tried to blast him with a jet of darkness from its palm, but he'd already swept his spear at it, the blast vanishing as it met the spear, which proceeded unhindered to the Ghouls head. He activated Smash and Bash immediately when the spear made contact with the no-doubt stunned creature's head, causing it to burst as the blade cut through the rest of its torso.

The grisly deed done, Zephyr cast Boost and Overdrive on himself, lunging at the open window as he rapidly shrank, Cherry catching him in mid-air. He called over the gauntlet to Nihility as then flew to her location. "Bad news, nothing but Ghouls. We're gonna need to get out of here, fast."

He swallowed a sinking suspicion as he flew to rendezvous... how did a ghoul get inside a closet, and why was there no sign of human remains?

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Nihility|Shoggoth|Tyrian|Minke
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Nihility dug her nails into the side wall of the building as she peeked out again to notice anything new. She heard Scarlet's message over the gauntlet communication system, but only acknowledged it with a short, "Be careful." reply.


Soon after, Nihility heard the slimy sound of when Shoggoth sweeps the ground by dragging her body.

"Would you cut that abhorrent shuffling." The female Vanguard turned around to scold her monster partner, but she had to stop herself right there.

Instead of her Purple blob, there were multiple mini versions making their way over to her.

"Shaggoth, you horny beech. Have you been shagging around while I slept!?" Nihility stated with wide eyes while deliberately mispronouncing her partner's name.


Attached to the side of the building, the original Purple Monster-Blob, grabbed Nihility with an extended appendage stretched out from within the thick gooey body that Shoggoth had reverted to. Quickly bringing Nihility closer in, Shoggoth saved the vanguard from getting drenched in the potential mud bath.

"Unfortunately no. These Black Oozes are toxic creatures of their own. Best we ignore these filths."

Shoggoth proceeded to climb the building, rapidly slipping away from the Black Ooze's reach and have herself gain the higher ground.


"Oh!" Nihility sounded surprised. "I thought I saw a resemblance." She shrugged her shoulders in slight confusion.

"Yeah, no. These are mindless creatures that destroy anything in their path. They don't even gain anything from it. The Ghouls are much better in comparison."


Zephyr's voice rang through the gauntlet as Shoggoth and Nihility reached the roof of the building. Tapping her own Gauntlet, Nihility replied.

"Scarlet and Amira, might be in a similar situation at the noisy building over their end. We should go back them up." Peering over the edge, Nihility glanced at the scuttling pile of Black Ooze at the bottom. "This location is compromised as well. We got to stay clear of the ground as it has now become tainted with Black Ooze demons. Unfortunately, though it would have been humorous, Shoggoth didn't **** them out." Nihility smirked at that last quip, quite pleased at herself for getting back at her partner for the time it stuffed the Noxious Orb into her mouth.

Shoggoth pulled Nihility away from the roof's edge. "Keep out of sight from the Ooze, and they normally should not become a problem."


Nihility let her body be engulfed inside her Slime demon while waiting for Zephyr's return. And Upon his arrival, she would relay her plan of proceeding to make their way away from danger, by crossing from one rooftop over to the next.

At the bridge

- Vayu -

Vayu cursed in his head when he discovered their path across the bridge was blocked by Black Oozes. To make the situation worse, they began shooting a gaseous cloud towards them followed by blobs of mud. He took a tentative breath and instantly regretted it. In his life, he’d come across some pretty bad smells, but this was definitely one of the worst.

“Ferox, get back here!” he hissed, calling his demon back. Samael would just have to get by without it for a few moments.

“Arcane Barrier,” he cast over the group. That would lessen the impact of the black gas coming towards them. If he breathed any more of it, it would really make him dizzy.

Vayu drew his ninjato.

“We better make a run for it. Let’s go,” he called. Trusting that the others were right behind him, he headed forward and began to cut the blob demons.

A few moments later, he heard the familiar rush of wings above him. His Zhen demon had returned.

“Use Wing Buffet on those creatures,” he ordered and gestured to the Black Oozes ahead of them on the bridge. The words had just left his lips, but the Zhen demon was already rushing down, skillfully dodging the blobs of mud.

Zephyr Arc

Zephyr reached Nihility's location quickly thanks to Cherry's wings, and the Black Oozes couldn't pose much of a threat in the air either.

"Better idea. We'll fly there. Take my hand and don't resist the spell." He said to the other Vanguard. "Oh, and you might wanna put your demon back innyour gauntlet." He finished as he, still in miniature form, cast Shift on Nihility to shrink her down to a similar size, while also having Cherry grow a size to comfortably carry both of them.

As they flew, he spoke into his gauntlet. "Scarlet, Amira, are you two alright? I'd like a status report. We're heading for you now. I've also got an uncomfortable thought we need to discuss..."

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Nihility|Shoggoth|Tyrian|Minke
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Nihility agreed to the better plan. "Oh, Yes, That will be more stealthy."

The Vanguard tapped her gauntlet twice to indicate that she didn't need Shoggoth out in the open any more. The Purple ooze shook it's head disapprovingly but eventually complied.

With Shoggoth out of the picture, Nihility gave her hand to Zephyr for him to activate his spell on her. "Please, if it won't be a bother to the both of you." She smiled as the guy took her hand to shrink and pull her up into the Pixie's grasp.

Amira

Amira wasn't ready for the incoming events, the floor craking and falling through it. She fell on her back causing her pain, it wasn't the worst, but it was enough for her not to get immediately up and stop the Ghoul.

The Ghoul pounced at her, pinning her down and trying to bite her. She couldn't fight it, she needed momentum to use her primary magic properly and as she fell she lost her staff.

WHACK!

Suddenly the head to the ghoul went flying as Haita clubbed its head like a golfing ball.

Amira kicked off the now limp body and quickly got up.

"Thank you Haita." But Haita remained silent. Haita wasn't happy, he had told Amira to not enter the village, but she did it anyway.

Haita looked up and grabbed the limp body of the ghoul, and threw it at the fragile ceiling to cause more of it to collapse.

Scarlet

"Amira!" Scarlet shouted as the Vanguard fell through the floor. She didn't linger on the scene as the mass of demons fighting each other.

"Neko! Keep them off me while I help Amira. Don't use your Flameflick, we don't want to burn down the place!"

"Of course," the demon purred, shifting to a ready stance, lashing out with her claws at any demon which got close to the pair.

Scarlet's Gauntlet pinged with Zephyr's message. "There's a load of demons fighting each other here. I'm going to help out Amira, she's fallen down into the cellar, then we'll get out of here. There's too many of them for us to fight off by ourselves!"

Scarlet peered down the hole in the floor, seeing Amira and her demon had dealt with the ghoul. She ran over to the side of the hole that Haita had collapsed, raising her bow. "Arcane Tether!" she cried, aiming for the base of the pile of rubble, the rope forming a makeshift handrail up the pile.

- Cleo -

Even from a distance, Cleo could smell the putrid odor rolling off the oozes. While getting closer to them didn't appeal to him, going back wasn't exactly an option. As Vayu pushed forward, Cleo followed. With his arms occupied, he didn't have any combat capability, and while he would never tell a woman as much, Charlotte's weight was a hindrance to his mobility. Dodging the mud balls wouldn't be an option for him.

An itching sensation ran across his palm as the mud that made it past Vayu's barrier splattered against an invisible wall, inches in front of Cleo and slid down to the ground. It was effective for not getting hit, but the mud didn't do much for his line of vision, and despite it not actually touching him, the stuff was still close enough for him to get a good sniff of it.

"Maybe the river might have been a better option, after all?" Cleo asked aloud, trying not to choke on the nasty fumes now surrounding them. Hopefully, his charge didn't have a weak stomach. The smell was strong enough to turn his, and that wasn't easy. As long as Vayu could cut them a path through the filth, it would hopefully be over quick.

- Bastion's Group -

Bastion ignored Cleo's quip, even as Sister Charlotte gave a cry and buried her face in his shoulder. He couldn't afford to split his attention right now.

Vayu attempted to lead them through the mass of Black Oozes, but his ninjato didn't seem to be effective. As he cut through the blobs, they seemed to quickly reform and force them back.

"Physical attacks won't do much good," Bastion warned, but fortunately, Vayu's Zhen returned and carved a path through the demons with its wind spell.

"Hurry through!" Bastion called.

The Black Oozes attempted to swarm back to cover the gap, but Bastion swung his spear and pointed it ahead. "Holy Horn!"

The shaft of light struck the Black Ooze ahead, tearing through it. They might be resistant to physical attacks, but they seemed especially vulnerable to magic.

Passing through the other side of the Black Ooze blockade, they turned and searched for any sign of Samael, but he hadn't returned yet. If they waited any longer, the other demons would return from the square, and the Black Oozes were now swarming toward them.

"Keep moving," Bastion ordered. "Let's find cover nearby. We'll wait as long as we can for Samael."

The Black Oozes shot more Acid Clumps, forcing them to dodge and back away into the nearest sidestreet. The Oozes didn't seem to be especially aggressive, as once they were out of eyesight, the demons stopped pursuing them and began to amble about.

"We're not moving fast enough," Bastion muttered, gritting his teeth. "There's too many demons. I've never seen this many in one town."

He glanced over at Cleo and grimaced.

"You can set her down now," he said, nodding at Sister Charlotte.

The nun blushed and squirmed out of Cleo's grip, adjusting her robes.

"Is there any faster way to get there?" Bastion asked her. "We need to hurry."

Sister Charlotte's gaze dropped to the ground, and she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I don't know. This was my first time here. I didn't even make it this far before the mist descended."

Bastion shook his head. They'd just have to press on then and hope there weren't any more ambushes waiting for them. Waiting made him feel uneasy, but he wanted to give Samael another minute at least.

"Is everyone doing all right?" he asked, looking particularly at Vayu. They'd been in the mist for some time now. If any deleterious effects were going to manifest, they'd probably have started by now.

--------------------------------------------------

- Zephyr's Group -

Haita's spell caused the ceiling above them to collapse downward, dragging several Ghouls and a pair of Lamias to the basement below. This gave Scarlet some breathing room to enact a rescue.
Thanks to Scarlet's help, Amira was able to scale back up to the first floor, even as the demons continued to fight around them. At Amira's reappearance, however, some of the nearby demons began to break off in favor of attacking the humans in their midst. A few of the nearby Ghouls pounced toward the two girls, and one of the closest Lamia began to sing her Lullaby.

Just then, Zephyr and Nihility dropped through the air into the building with them. Their numbers now doubled, they might have a better chance of fighting their way out.

At the bridge
- Vayu -


„No,” Vayu disagreed with Cleo’s question. “I would prefer not to get my clothes wet and muddy.”

Thanks to his Zhen demon, they managed to cross the bridge and quickly hid out of sight. Thankfully the demons didn’t pursue them.

Once around the corner, Vayu took a deep breath. Clearly they were missing some offensive against the Black Oozes. Just with his ninjato, he was pretty useless.

“I’m fine,” he waved off Bastion’s concern.

He looked at his gauntlet, waiting for Samael to drop them a signal. “How long do you want to wait?” he asked the others. It was a risk. They were basically sitting ducks out here. Maybe it was better to wait for Samael. He was the one with all the stealth options afterall.

Samael (In the house of Naga)

"Well....  Hopefully that works..."  Samael weakly uttered, as he brushing his hands together squinting as a light feeling a soreness ran through his arms.

Slam!

Samael jumped as he faced the front door that was now heavily barricaded with various tables, dressers, and other household items.  Light pounding and grumbling could be heard from the blocked windows and backdoor as well.

Smash!

Suddenly one of the windows ruptured as glass shards began to scatter throughout the room.  One of the demons began to slowly peak their head into the room with Samael quickly ran up the wooden worn stairs to the second floor closing the door behind him.

The room was a bedroom that was ragged with paper scattered all over the bookshelf knocked over onto the ground...  The window had a few small cracks in it but it was still closed and locked.  Peering outside, Naga were beginning to swarm through the window in the building through the broken window but a few stayed outside to patrol the streets.

"Well, I'll just make them turn on themselves then."  Samael muttered, as he waited for a naga to walk right below the window and then quietly opened it.

"Fleet Foot."  Samael quietly muttered, as he suddenly and swiftly jumped out the window and balled his hand in a fist and punched the Naga directly in the head, as hard as he could causing the naga to recoil slam into the door other building behind it.

"Transform."  Samael muttered placing his hand on the naga, as the naga suddenly turned into a female human with a deep scowl on 'her' face she screeched loudly as she turned to Samael and lifted up her spear to pierce him.  

The spear sluggishly flew towards Samael, but easily lunged past it at a startling speed causing him to  fly through the broken window of the next house getting away from the spear just barely as the loud sound of a bunch of demons screaming could be heard at the 'human villager' began defending herself from the naga attacks.

"Transform."  Samael muttered, again as he transformed himself to look like a naga as he made his way towards the bridge disabling the transform spell on the naga once he got a safe enough distance away, 'slithering' towards the bridge.

----
Samael (Crossing Bridge)

Samael noted the fighting, as he quickly bolted towards combat.  But, by the time he reached the area there were just a few smiles wandering about who simply gave Samael a sideways glance before wandering away.

"Looks like they're still ok....."  Samael breathed in a sigh of relief, as he began scanning around for were the rest of the vanguards went.  Though, he might end up getting attacked by them if he pokes his nose around too much.... but it's not like he can drop his disguise.

"I'm in the area.... What's the situation?  Where are you guys?"  Samael whispered into his gauntlet once no other demons were in earshot.

~~
~~~~
~~~~~~~
Nihility|Shoggoth|Tyrian|Minke
~~~~~~~
~~~~
~~

Ripping her belt apart while turning in mid-air to dive towards the Lamia below, Nihility spun her sword which opened up like a ribbon that coiled around the Singing Lamia's neck. With a yank, Nihility tightened the whip-blade and pulled hard as she landed on the ground, with one knee firmly planted and her back to the Lamia.

The Lamia's neck would likely have sliced off from the razor sharp, serrated edges of the Vanguard's weapon, or at the very least, ruptured the demon's throat and vocal cords.


Shoggoth would re-appear into the room and get into a fluid-motion rampage. It would be grabbing various demons in her sticky gooey body, and fling them over the room and into the cellar below, while hosting a wicked wide-smile all along her face.

Nihility on the other hand would fire off the stored Noxious Orb spell onto the pile of demons in the cellar to keep them occupied and away from climbing up. She would then proceed to grab to trip or slice and dice the demons within her reach with her Whip-Blade; making sure to attack the Lamias before they could fire off their Lullabies. She still had two remaining stock of her Purple Haze physical defence spell to utilize against any sneak attacks.

Zephyr Arc

As they dropped in, Zephyr took the time to place eight foot tall arrows to use to climb back up the craters they left, leading up to the roof, letting draw attention with her hyper-aggressive entrance. "There's too many, hurry up!" He pointed. "Nihility and I are still fresh so we'll cover you, find a way to get us out of here when you get to the roof!"

His buffs already active, Zephyr then hopped into the fray, keeping the attacking demons away from the super-sized arrows to allow the other two to climb. It wasn't too difficult a fight, but the waves seemed endless. They'd eventually be overwhelmed if they tried to fight it out...

- Bastion’s Group -

Vayu seemed supremely unconcerned with the potential effects of the mist. Bastion wasn’t entirely ready to dismiss the possibility of the mist being toxic. After all, just because something hadn’t happened yet didn’t mean it wouldn’t. But he did get the impression there was something missing about all this.

“Sister Charlotte,” he said. “Did the demons attack before or after the mist fell?”

Sister Charlotte looked surprised. “After... why?”

He shook his head. “Just trying to put together a complete picture.”

If they came after the mist... Surely, they would have sensed something off about it. Even the horses had enough sense not to rush into it. Would they have charged in, even knowing there was a possibility they couldn’t come out? Or did they somehow come from the mist itself? Could they even...

Samael’s voice came from their gauntlets. Bastion answered and directed him toward their hiding spot before motioning for the others to follow. They met Samael out on the main street, startled for a moment until he dropped his naga disguise.

“We should be close,” Sister Charlotte said, pointing up the sloping pathway. “The shrine should be up there.”

They set off down the path, keeping to the shadows and using as much stealth as possible. They had to pause several times at the sounds of slithering or shuffling in the mist, but they finally made it up to the top of the ridge and looked about.

The mist was thicker than ever up here, clearly billowing forth from the shrine at the end of the stone courtyard. But between them and the shrine sat a dozen nagas, slithering restlessly this way and that.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Bastion said. “We’ll have to fight our way through. Try to take them out swiftly and silently if possible. We don’t want to draw more demons up this way.”

- Cleo -

"Nothing wrong with getting a little wet and dirty." Cleo responded to Vayu's remarks, giving Charlotte a wink in the process. Before she could respond to that, they had to run again. Thankfully, the Oozes seemed easier to deal with when magic was involved. Cleo banked that information for later, since it was very possible he'd encounter such creatures again.

Once they were in relative safety, Bastion made a comment about Charlotte walking for herself, and much to Cleo's displeasure, she quickly squirmed out of his grasp. Always the gentleman, he let her go without putting up a fight, but Cleo wasn't going to complain about her wiggling against him for a brief second before finding her own feet again.

Now that his arms were free again, Cleo shifted his attention back to their surroundings. The mist seemed to be getting thicker as they moved closer to shrine Charlotte had mentioned. Of course, that made traveling a little more complicated, since they couldn't always see the demons in the mist, so much as they heard them moving in the distance.

Now, they found themselves overlooking the shrine, which did, in fact, appear to be the source of the strange mist. With a dozen demons slithering around it, their choices for attack would be limited if they didn't want to make much noise.

"There are twelve, by my count." Cleo nodded towards the Nagas. "If Samael can do his illusion thing on me so that I can get closer, I can lock down ten of them for a couple seconds. That would leave only two that would need to be deal with immediately."

"It would also render the others unable to move. Do we have any kind of spell that can eliminate multiple, stationary targets?"