[h3]Henry[/h3]

While the Marine's besuited ally did not turn up, Henry was acutely aware that his efforts to keep his enemy away and get the others to join in the fight did not turn out to be as fruitful as he hoped.  Before five seconds had passed, the wall blew apart again, this time in a plume of fire and a blast of concussive force.  On reflex Henry recast the curse that turned back time for an object in an attempt to repair the wall again, but nothing happened.  The dark mage chuckled dryly to himself, remembering the time that he used the same curse to fix bowls broken by Sumia's in a moment of clumsiness.  When they fell to pieces the next day, his spell had been ineffective.  Though Henry couldn't count himself as someone inclined to overthink magic -like Miriel- he guessed that the reversal curse couldn't be recast on something destroyed again.  [i]Aww, that's no fun.[/i]

Pressing matters lay at hand, however, so Henry put those thoughts on the backburner.  The Marine had made it through, rolled to preserve momentum, and was just now getting close.  Henry could honestly not decide between using his Elfire tome or casting another Nosferatu. Casting the same spells over and over again started to feel boring, after all.  Plus, using Elfire at this range would blow him up as well, and while he wouldn't say no to a couple of burns, he wouldn't be long for the world if he happened to get a critical hit.  Then again...

Well, it didn't matter.  Henry could turn back time, inflict several illnesses, create illusions, make the Marine's movements slow as mud, or even instant-kill him, but all that took preparation and Henry didn't have seconds, let alone days.  He'd underestimated this enemy, and it would cost him.  All the same, fear didn't make him take leave of his senses.  Though he didn't recognize the weapon being pointed at him, the Marine held it like a crossbow, so Henry would go with that.  He, like every dark mage he'd ever met, hated arrows.  Wizards of all kinds could wreck shop from far away, but they needed to stand still to do so, and their utter lack of armor meant that arrows had little trouble piercing vital organs.  With that in mind, Henry knew what he needed to do.

Adrenaline fueled him as he reached out and grabbed the end of his foe's gun, and with all the strange he could muster he skewed it toward the side.  The next instant a deafening noise and a cruel pain lambasted him.  He couldn't hear a thing, but he could see that his hand, which he thought would be pierced with an arrow at worse, had been blown to small, bloody chunks.  The pain threatened to overwhelm him and send him into shock, but this dark mage was made of sterner stuff.  His face contorted in an agonized leer, he laughed maniacally.  A blazing fireball appeared in the palm of his other hand, swirling like a tiny star between his fingers, and Henry took advantage of close range to jam the explosive spell into his enemy's helmet.

The force of the fire threw both of them back a short ways, but Henry, who could barely remain conscious and on his feet, instantly knew that something was wrong.  A fireball at close range would have killed pretty much anyone, especially someone with armor, but the Marine did not seem very bothered at all.  Henry's smile turned to surprise and disbelief.  [color=d8bfd8]”Aww?  You shoulda been...toast.”[/color]  He stared at the bloody stump that had been his hand.  Death seemed inevitable now.  [color=d8bfd8]”Well, shucks, Olivia.”[/color]  Though still standing, the dark mage was slumped over.  A stiff breeze might knock him down.  

Too late, a thought struck him.  [i]Nosferatu...if I use it, I'll be back in action.[/i]  He reached with his remaining hand into his robe for the tome, but at far too leisurely a pace.

[h3]Birdie[/h3]

Without further ado, Birdie dug in his feet as best he could to prevent himself from slipping and began to pull.  A large hand would close around the metal length of chain and reel it in by about a foot each time before the other would grab hold farther down.  The weight of Red on his chain did cause him some strain, but all the same he hauled her up onto the battlements of Castle Town's gate in surprisingly short order.  

During this time, though, he did pause once to witness with mouth agape Bayonetta's feat of leaping straight up to the wall.  This feat, though remarkable, combined with her extravagant height to further cement the idea was she was some sort of freak to Birdie.  When he was finished, the strange woman stood close to him -closer than any other human female might ever care to get- and even sank her elbow an inch or so into his flab in a teasing manner.  Though somewhat baffled, he shrugged.  [color=yellow]”Nah.  Ain't seen this place before.”  He took a glance at the town, at which his vantage point atop the town wall afforded him a good view.  Something seemed [i]off[/i] about the place, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.  Still, if no skeletons prowled the streets, and there was any chance of a snack at this hour, he wouldn't say no.  [color=yellow]”You birds ain't locals?  Hum.”[/color]  Rubbing his scalp, he spied a wooden ramp down to ground level and began to move toward it.  [color=yellow]”'Ell of a weird place, this is.  Like some kinda fairy tale land.”[/color]