[h1][center]The 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi[/center][/h1]
[center][h2]Hanging Gardens[/h2][/center]
As the woman attempted to turn and face Akuma, Kagura moved to stop her action, slamming his zweihander against her sword to cause a shockwave to stun her for a moment. It only ended up half-working, however; instead of the arm with her sword, Kagura's attack only ended up bashing against her shield, which in turn caused her to take the full brunt of the attack head on. With her weight having shifted towards Kagura, though, Akuma's subsequent kick managed to hit its mark, causing the woman to temporarily buckle and fall to the ground.

With that being the case, Kagura quickly moved to use his weapon as an anchoring point to swing around and kick her to follow up, but failed to do so as she rolled away. Deciding now that Akuma was probably just as much of a threat as Kagura, the woman opened her shield (which was, in all honesty, more a book than anything) and summoned a set of blades behind herself to fire at them both.

"Shit, she's actually starting to use Izayoi now...? We have to stop this fast, before this gets any worse!" Kagura shouted as he attempted to block once more. This time, however, the incoming attack seemed to curve around his weapon, stabbing Kagura's arms and legs.

"Gah! Swear they didn't do that before..." he complained, pulling out the blades as he readied himself to charge forward.

[center][h2]Orient Town[/h2][/center]
Tao's eyes widened for a moment as Tailred charged forward, causing the catgirl to be hit squarely in the chest before flying backwards into a nearby wall. It took a few moments for the disorientation to wear off, but if Tao wasn't mad before, well... She was now.

"Okay, no more holding back nyeow!" Taokaka shouted, leaping forward towards Tailred again. However, contrary to what had been the case up until now, there seemed to be an afterimage of the catgirl following close behind. One slash after another came flying at Tailred, with each one of the doppelganger's own following close behind. Though they didn't hurt as much, the barrage of attacks only got worse as time went on.

Especially when Tao began to jump around even more erratically, of course.

[h2][center]Laboratory[/center][/h2]
While the two continued to move ahead, the sounds of fighting began to rise up once more. The closer the two moved to get out, the louder it became; the sound was distinctly that of steel meeting steel, and their frequency only intensified as time went on.

"Come on now, you son of a bitch! Can't you do any better than that? If this is how you plan to kill me, then you might wanna think things over! Hah!" one voice laughed contemptuously. 

"...I shall erase your existence. Terumi!" the other responded, clearly in no mood for games.

"Who-ho-hoa... Bit angry, aren't ya? Well, I think my stuff's about done prepping, though, so I'll be seein' ya!"

"I won't let you escape!"

The final sound of steel meeting steel rang out as the two escaping girls exited the hallway; now finding themselves in what seemed to be the backstage area for a theatre of some sort. A faint trace of green and black energy seemed to linger around the area, the only sigh of something else having been here. Staring at the center of the energy, though, was [url=http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/f/ff/Hakumen_%28Centralfiction%2C_Character_Select_Artwork%29.png/revision/latest/thumbnail-down/width/340/height/475?cb=20151113101843]what seemed to be a fighter wielding an absurdly long katana, his face covered by a faceless white mask.[/url]

"..."

Though his face could not be seen, he was very clearly irate.

[hr]
[center][h2]Unknown City, Somewhere is the U.S.: Alert Mode On[/h2][/center]

As soon as the person on the other end of the radio screamed for help, Claire moved into action, directing all personnel in the area to assume defensive positions as she moved to pick up her own weapon: an assault rifle, fully loaded and ready to go.

Following those who had left to deal with the issue, Claire readied her weapon at the apparent enemy, ready to fire at will if anything else went wrong. One man down was bad enough, but firing on an unknown enemy was suicidal.