Mentioning: @Ponn@Majoras End

Roxanna's plan for the night had been to make a little bit of extra money in order to start the new year with by selling some of her spiritual wares. Granted they were likely going to be misused by the people buying them due to them ignoring the cultural history of Ofuda and were largely getting them because they looked interesting, but all she could do was try and educate and if they didn't learn that wasn't her fault.

Instead she had ended up killing two wendigo and getting sent flying by a third who had full on tried to gore her. Granted no actual damage was done, but being thrown after getting charged by a freakish deer like abomination wasn't a fun situation all the same. It was enough to knock the wind out of your lungs. Thankfully the second one had decided to go deal with the other two magical gir-...boys who had shown up that had decided to employ the old American ideal of 'If you put enough bullets into it, it will die'.

As the beast that had charged her clearly intended to follow up on its aggression, Roxanna snapped her head right towards it and swiftly called her psychic powers to the fore, grabbing the Wendigo that was even now charging towards her with the power of her mind in order to hold it still; The momentum of the character made the process harder due to her having to put more force into stopping it from just physically slamming into her, but once you were able to lock the joints into position actually preventing it from gaining enough momentum to physically resist being held like this the situation got a lot simpler and easier to manage.

It was then that a heavenly voice seemed to ring clear around the train station... and despite Roxanna wanting to turn her head towards the source to see it for herself, a combination of her own desire to stay alive and Socialism briefly employing some psychic will of its own in order to stop her from moving her head because that would be a terrible idea at the moment likely saved her having to deal with a fair amount of injury and grief.

This angelic voice was soon followed by... it was hard to describe the feeling exactly, but what became clear as crystal to Roxanna as it flowed through her was that it was empowering her natural abilities beyond their normal limits. She generally felt fairly powerful when it came to her psychic abilities under normal circumstances, but right that moment... right that moment her eyes began to glow as she felt stronger then ever.

For a brief moment, Roxanna saw several paths in relation to dealing with the Wendigo in her grasp. Truth be told she wasn't quite sure if she could pull some of them off, even with the power boost... but there was a part of her that wanted to test her limits just to see if she could do something like crush it into a meat cube with nothing but the power of the mind. She didn't do this for one reason through; She didn't know the beautiful voice or the girl giving her this additional power, but she felt like going for a brutal, gory display of power would not be the method to make a good first impression.

Instead, Roxanna decided to make use of the tools that the Wendigo itself had... volunteered for her usage. Slowly and shakily, the Wendigo's right arm moved. Even as the creature fought against the force holding it, the elbow was bent and its claw like fingers were brought together to create something that looked like it would have been an impressive war spear... that was angled at the point where the beasts neck and chin met. It gave out an enraged bellow as it continued to struggle, but with one strong shove of psychic force to give the arm a terrifying amount of momentum and... both the bellows and struggles were cut short as claws entered brain.

Merely holding a sack of bone and meat, Roxanna dropped the dying creature and let it hit the stone ground with a thump as it started to spasm as its body tried to deal with the fact that its brain was dead.

Reaching up, Roxanna suddenly felt tired as she started to rub her temples. "Oww..."

...Or maybe not.

Watching the girl dish out quick and efficent brutality to their opposition, Finn's charge slowed to a stop. Did...she really need their help? Maybe to burn the monsters' hearts? They were down to two left, but it seemed she had it handled. The boy furrowed his brows. Guess he can call off his birds?

Not yet.

As it turns out the remaining wendigoes decided to split the work load, one charging towards the two. Well, more specifically, Oliver. Monster and monster boy locked their focus on each other, the latter unphased by two of his clones fading, unfortunately caught in the creature's volly of icicles. He can always call them back after a short while. Finn on his end managed to dodge in time before he got skewered himself. Even if he's sturdier than an average duplicate, getting an icicle stabbed in say, your shoulder would be a hell of a hinderance.

Oliver quickly reloaded and calmly aimed his rifle at the last wendigo, but instead of aiming for it's heart, he aimed to stagger it by shooting it in the head with incendiary bullets. If that wasn't enough to down it, well, atleast there was someone to help with that.

As if Fortuna decided to throw them a bone, a reinforcment specialist called the Angel of Hope appeared to give all three a little pick me up. "Hey-o, free stat boost!!" That was when the duo decided to be a bit more thorough. Tapping into the powers of a flame elemental, Finn decided to fry the wendigo that targeted Oliver with a blast of flames, until there was nothing but ashes remaining. The latter and his clones meanwhile readied some vials with flammable chemicals, aiming to throw them at the other three's (at the very least) hearts. Who knows if the damn things can regenerate?

The blue wendigos crashed into the wall Alexander created; the first one, who seemed to act as the pack alpha, broke its horns as it fell down in a heap. The others had slammed into the wall, also deterred by the obstacle, but by that point the wall had absorbed so much damage it cracked. However, they succeeded in drawing the attention of the monsters, who snarled as they turned towards the two of them.

Alex delivered death from above with his sword, slaying one of the fell beasts. Lily turned and skidded to a screeching halt before jumping off the bike, letting it crash wheels-first into the two wendigos at the front who were about to rush Alex.

”I oughta give you a ticket for speeding!" Lily yelled, and launched a volley of thunder arrows, managing to hit the two wendigos tripped by the motorcycle as well as the third one running in from behind them. However, even as the wendigos were paralyzed, they were stomped on by the remaining two wendigos, including the alpha with the broken antlers and a smaller one with antlers in the shape of a wreath. The alpha wendigo attacked one of Alex’ clones, destroying it with a feral chomp of its jaws before the clone managed to react before attempting to do the same to the real Alex, while the wreathed wendigo slammed the other clone out of its way in pursuit of Lily.

”Oh, you want more of this! Come and get it!"
Lily began to run on foot, accelerating herself to a fast enough speed to stay one step ahead of the swift monsters. That was when the paralyzed wendigos recovered, and started to run towards the side. Lily immediately realized their intent.

”They’re trying to flank us!"

---

Justine nodded, managing to smile a bit from Maura’s maternal gesture.
”Oh, um…Thank you,” she responded, and sat down at the table.
When Maura brought up the types of appropriate meal, Justine shook her head.
”Anything’s fine with me, Mistress. Please don’t worry about it.”
For a moment, she silently ate the waffles that Maura prepared, and carefully wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, looking down at the plates.
”It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten properly like this,” she spoke softly, and stood up from the table.
”Thank you for the breakfast, Mistress. I’ll be, um, careful.”
After one last curtsy, she left, her mind wandering to memories of a past life. That sense of nostalgia only strengthened the conclusion she arrived at:

Caroline…You’re in Penrose, aren’t you?

---

“Eat this, Beacon scu-AHH!”
The dark magical brought her blade high up, aiming to stab it right in the back of the hapless Beacon girl’s neck, when it was suddenly blasted right out of her hand by a beam of light, causing her to stumble backwards. The two monster girls were also startled, the winged girl having stepped backwards towards a pile of dead wendigos, lightly nudging a skull.
“H-Hey, what’s the big idea, you stupid-” She exclaimed, only to freeze as she saw the Beacon girl sink through the floor, passing through some kind of passage, followed by Mariette’s cool entrance; the eyepatched girl’s emotionless countenance seemed to intimidate the corrupted girls.
“Y-Your protection? Why would you protect them when-” the formerly stoic, now unsettled, monster girl protested, but the dark magical girl lifted a hand to silence her.

“Look, we’re just looking for some shelter. And based on the glims we read, we reckoned we’d go to the Sanctuary. S-So it’s fine, no big deal. We’ll just be on our way-”
Monica then asked about the hearts, and the winged girl leaned her head to the side with a quizzical expression. “What hearts? We just showed up when this lamphead stabbed the last one, and-”

She didn’t finish her sentence, as she suddenly tripped, having been bitten in the leg by a wendigo. And the moment she did, the entire pile of dead wendigos, at least twelve in number, swarmed her. She screamed horrifically as the monsters tore into her, having disappeared under a mass of beasts in a feeding frenzy.

Of course, those were not the only wendigos to rise from the dead, as the rest of the wendigos lifted themselves up. Monica, having expected the possibility of the wendigos resurrecting, was not surprised. The moment two wendigos pounced on her, she delivered a pre-emptive cleave of her burning axe, causing them to burst into flames as their frozen hearts were seared.
The sight of the flames caused the seven wendigos in the immediate vicinity to back off.
Belladonna was also not surprised thanks to her alertness, and clawed at the wendigo going after her, managing to knock the fiend away from her. The others in her group were surprised, and Ashlyn had to shrug off a wendigo biting her forearm, slamming it hard into the ground followed by shaking one that jumped on her back. A couple of wendigos even seemed to try and get Mariette by jumping up at her, but the eyepatched girl had ample Awareness of the noisy monsters to relocate herself out of the way.

The dark magical girl let out a blood-curdling scream, and ran away. “Hey, Hanna!” The stoic monster girl shouted, but was unable to follow as she fended off against five wendigos that quickly surrounded her, barely managing to keep them at bay with her summoned wolf spirit.
A pack of ten wendigos split off to chase after Hanna. Jumping up the industrial sector’s countless pipes and railings didn’t deter the beasts who climbed after her. The rest of the monsters stayed to attack the group, eight of them intending to feast on their bones while the rest were distracted with fresh meat.

---

Ronin and Miko descended to the entrance of the Penrose Bank, their blades drawn. As they landed, after two glints of steel, they sheathed their blades. And the moment their hilts clicked, blood sprayed from the wounds of the wendigo as they were struck, staining the cracked glass doors of the building and shocking the civilians inside. The monsters, however, were hardy, and did not fall from the sneak attack. They turned their attention to the twins and rushed to attack them, giving the civilians their chance to escape.

The first wendigo, infuriated by the attack, swiped a claw at Ronin, who managed to deflect the blow with a skillful twist of her blade as part of her Martial Training, though it did cause her to stumble off-balance from the weight of the strike. Miko, on the other hand, had to contend with the other wendigo’s headbutt; she managed to avoid being impaled by the antlers with a sideways dodge, but as a result her red skirt was torn, scratching her through it.
The two realized that going one-on-one with the monsters could easily end poorly for them.

On the other end of the street, Mia’s Pea Shooters made their mark on three of the four charging wendigo, peppering them with narcoleptic spores that slowed them down and caused them to swing their heads, seemingly dizzy. The fourth one managed to avoid the shots, but ended up tripping thanks to Mia’s backup plan of vines that burst from the ground. They were then subjected to horrifying visions courtesy of Connie’s dominion over dark dreams of dread.
As a result, the wendigos were incapacitated, howling loudly in their sleep with ear-screeching tones while clawing and biting at anything they could reach; this included the concrete street, the lamp post, each other, or even themselves.

---

Penny landed on the wendigo below her like a ten-ton weight, crushing the monster’s skull into fine dust. However, despite her dynamic entrance, the robotic rescuer knew the secret to the monsters, and with electricity fried the heart inside, causing the monster to twitch momentarily before it stopped moving, and dissolved into black ash.

The other wendigos turned their attention to Penny, and attempted rushing her, only to be hammered into submission by her additional appendages. At that moment, as Penny brutally eviscerated and cut apart the beasts without a change in her expression, she noticed how the passengers in the car had turned silent.

Meanwhile, at the convenience store, Magical Dream Princess unleashed her glittering, pastel-colored magic upon the wendigos eating frozen meats and chickens, and summoned simulacrums depicting anthropomorphized stylized hearts. Due to the lack of space within the tight aisles of the convenience store, the wendigos were unable to avoid being grabbed by the creatures, their immense strength fueled by MDP’s desire for peace and happiness. As they scrambled around like panicked animals, they were swiftly bonked in the head by yet another simulacrum, and thus were lulled to involuntary sleep.

As MDP brough the monsters outside, she saw Penny, covered in blood, as she performed electric executions on the maimed monsters with her spider-like extra limbs. She also that the passengers, having formerly screamed for their lives, were now shaking silentrly, in absolute terror at the robot girl before them.

---

At the hospital, Aurelio and Alicia gallantly stepped in for the rescue. Aurelio’s red clone, while not particularly devastating with his detonating cane slams, quickly roused the ire of the beasts, who turned their attention on the clone and quickly destroyed it, but not before the clone gave them one last explosion, scattering them around the courtyard of the hospital. The green clone was more successful, the monsters having failed to break through thanks to the green barrier he had generated. But while the beasts were feral, they were not deaf, and turned to rush the taunting clone.

However, before he shared his red comrade’s fate, Alicia shot at them with her bolts of bright light; to her surprise, she managed to hit one of the monsters in the heart, and it collapsed in a pile of dark ash, its heart having been burned by the intense sunlight stored in her arrows. However, it was not enough to deter the rest of the pack, who descended on green aurelio and caused him to disappear next. The two Beacon fighters could feel the red eyes of the nine remaining wendigos on them, and realized they might be in over their heads.

---

Sann, as usual, went to check on the dead drop, and found a letter there:
I’ve got a couple of new assignments for you. First off, I’ve recently hired some new muscle. Her name’s Coco, and she’s also known as the Sinner of Greed in Beacon’s books. Funny how many of them have appeared in Penrose, huh? I want you to keep tabs on her, see if she’s as legit as she claims to be, and report back to me. Wouldn’t mind if you dug up some dirt on her too. Whether you pose as a friend or foe to her to get the intelligence is up to you, as long as she doesn’t find out about this job. You can also earn a bonus by helping her complete her own gigs.

The second job involves a certain broad named Connie Williams. Find her, and give her a Black Coin alongside an offer for employment; we could use someone of her skills. If she vaccepts, guide her to Warehouse K. However, if she refuses, you are to take her to Valhalla instead.

Alongside the letter was a Black Coin. When she picked it up, the letter burst into flames, leaving no trace of her new assignments.

Mariette did not respond to the sentence echoing through her mind. She knew that, already. She turned back to the three unknown girls as intended, giving no particular reaction. She did note the words about needing fire to burn the hearts of the monsters, albeit it was information she’d already heard through her ear-piece.

So, it seemed the girls did, in fact, just seek shelter. Mariette relaxed her cold gaze, it seemed they were merely misguided and did, in fact, not have anything to do with the Wendigo invasion, as she had feared. In fact, the three of them were about to end up in absolute peril, in a matter of mere seconds.

It appeared that they were in need of a powerful savior.

Unfortunately, the available savior didn’t respond too well to commands, because of her inherent chaotic nature. Mariette couldn’t just give her orders. Incentive was needed.

Fortunately, Mariette was rather well-versed in what their savior wanted.

‘Save their lives and I’ll have Tullia let you fight her dragon.’

‘Have Taihei make her a magical artifact to make the dragon even stronger!’

‘Deal.’

An explosion of fire burst out around Mariette. The eye-patched girl stumbled, clutching her plushie, as what could best be described as a comet blasted across the district at the horde of Wendigos, specifically at the girl currently being swarmed. A line of fire crossed in a straight line across the battlefield… before the individual at the tip of the launch swung her leg, and the tail of fire swung with it. A long whip of fire slashed with the weight of a powerful kick down at the clawing swarm, and upon impact it would explode into a fiery blast to send the creatures blazing off of the pretty injured girl.

Above her, a girl covered in draconic scales landed, grinning at the horde, her fiery hair flowing on her head and hot yellow lines of magma burning around on her skin.

‘Hey, hey, hey, I heard something funny,’ the girl said, chuckling a little bit as she flexed her fingers and fire covered her claws, her tail swinging slowly and excitedly behind her.


‘You guys are weak to fire, ain’t ya?’ Mayra called with a little grin, clasping a fist into a palm… before rocketing with a blast of fire behind her straight into another Wendigo, raising her claws of fire to burn through the beast and its heart before heading for the next one straight after, intending to catch as many of the beasts as she could, not giving them time to gang up on her before she blasted away with a burst of fire to the next beast, swiping with claws and legs and maybe occasionally even her tail.

Mariette gave a brief sigh as she let Mayra go to work while she herself tried to open a portal from the injured girl directly into the sanctuary, hoping it wasn’t too late for their available healers to save what was left of her.

After the previous incident, it was decided that Mariette needed someone with significantly more firepower as her bodyguard, a job that Eli wasn’t really that suitable for. With Mayra here, lack of physical prowess was a worry of the past. She was their ace, competent with magic and a terror in physical combat, so combat-wise they were fine. However, compared to Eli, Mayra wasn’t a fraction as subtle and lacked Eli’s information-gathering expertise, meaning Mariette could no longer depend on sound advice at her side at all times. Though… she was maybe a lot more capable as someone claiming to be protecting the city.

Regardless. Mariette turned her attention to the fleeing girl, Hanna, who Mayra wouldn’t be able to help. Mariette stepped through a portal into the sky, where the Wendigos were hard-pressed to try to catch her, and swung an arm to send bolts of light down at the Wendigos pursuing the girl. If she could, she’d attempt to catch Hanna in a portal so she’d take her right back to the three Sanctuary girls, who she figured would do a better job protecting her. She just had to keep the Wendigos occupied while Mayra and Monica did their jobs to actually finish off the horde of Wendigos.

Mariette’s eye behind the eyepatch quickly flashed a look at a clock in a nearby apartment to keep track of time. Of all things, she had class coming up. Hopefully, this incident would be over before she had to leave. Because, between saving the city and getting to class in the Overcity on time…

She’d pick class.

---

‘Whoa-!’ Ronin sounded as the beast swiped at her, and she used a combination of Martial Training and Flexibility to redirect the swipe with her sword and dodge under the brunt of the attack. Miko, meanwhile, noted the incoming horned bully and charged a burst of air to blast her aside, but it was slightly too slow and her skirt was torn, her leg scratched behind it. Meanwhile, over there, Connie and Gaia… were handling just fine.

‘It appears, despite my question, we’re the ones in need of help,’ Miko commented, leaping to reconvene with Ronin with her sword held a little lazily but with a ready stance regardless.

‘Fortunately for us, we’re never without help!’ Ronin chuckled, landing next to her with her sword at the ready and held with both hands. Miko chuckled as well, for she understood her sister’s words.

‘That’s right.’
‘We’re never alone.’

‘We fight together!’
‘We fight together!’

With that call, the girls dashed past each other creating an x-shape, each sister launching themselves at the Wendigo focused on the other. Miko blasted a burst of wind into the opponent’s face to momentarily dazzle him before slicing at the beast’s stomach, while Ronin created a small barrier to block her opponent’s next attack before it had even picked up speed, and sliced at her opponent’s neck while given the chance.

As soon as that was done and the Wendigos were sure to refocus on the new twin, the two used small bursts of wind to once again switch places, keeping an eye on the actions of the other Wendigo to mislead any attack on their fellow twin and seek an entrance for the slices of their own blades! Small bursts of wind was used to confuse and reposition themselves to avoid damage, and small reinforcement barriers were used to block attacks early or redirect them with angled blows to send them off-target.

If at any point both Wendigos focused at the same sister, it meant she took to the evasive while the other was free to slice the creatures from behind. As soon as the circumstances changed, they’d resume their dance, meant to keep monsters of simpler mental states confused and while using Flexibility and Martial Training to keep themselves out of danger and using their weak but nonetheless capable magic to give them the edge in battle.

And so, the sisters’ dance of battle was in motion.

The Alpha Wendigo chomped down on the arm that Alexander was using to hold his sword. Fortunately, his forcefield absorbed the brunt of it, and he countered by jamming his rod into one of the beast's eyes. It howled in pain as it let go of his arm, and Alexander tried to stab it in the heart. It jerked mostly out of the way, and he was only able to shave off a bit of one of it's sides. He was about to try again, when Lily shouted something

”They’re trying to flank us!"

That bought enough time for the Alpha to get farther away from Alexander. With his foe now out of range, Alexander fell back to Lily. Before any of the Wendigo's could rush them, he conjured three walls, one behind them, and two to the sides. He then created a few clones that stood in front of Lily with him. They all grew large thick tails out of the palms of their hands. "Alright, this should force them to come from one direction"

_{AKA Wilhemina}
@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Ariamis


Having gotten the message, Sanngridr proceeded to store the coin on herself, as she sighed. It was never easy, was it? The valkyrie took flight on her mighty wings and soared aimlessly, thinking what to do. The city was particularly lively today, as some monsters prowled in the streets, what seemed the usual fare. It was stupid, and delightful, watching all these churls flailing around, ignorant of the banalities of their own existences. The monster girl seemed downright bored with the situation after a short while.

And then, it happened. She spotted the Hospital, being under attack. Something...stirred. Like some bad gas passing through her entrails, it twisted and coiled within her, trying to break towards the surface of her psyche. Things that she had long buried and discarded. She winced ever so slightly.

"I'm going to be a doctor like you, dad. Saving lives is cool." An echo of a former past, now almost unreachable as the long way towards what she had became had been fraught by twists and turns that in each curve of the way, had shredded bits and pieces of her very self, leaving only the bare, most rapacious essentials. Or so she thought... until now.

Besides, what kind of warrior would she be, if she did not respect houses of healing? Leaning on her left wing, she began to circle the hospital and its spectacle, crude monsters assailing Beacon forces. Of course they had to be Beacon. Life was never easy. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow, as the lampheads and her masters goals were downright conflictive... but even so, Beacon did respect the rules of battle. If only a little.

Fine...you win, Will... She whispered as she descended, halting a few feet ahead of the group of Wendigos that looked like football hooligans ready to pounce on the enemy team fans.

"Rejoice, Odin finds your struggle... amenable." She said both to Alicia and Aurelio. It was the most transparent excuse, but it would have to do. Sanngridr pulled her sword out and cut her finger, lightly dabbing the sword with blood as she traced a couple of runic symbols. With grace and swiftness she swung it twice, making a couple of feints in the air. At each step, a faint magic trace followed the blade, creating ghostly after images as she performed her move. Dozens of reinforcement facsimile blades now stood above the Wendigos.

"Tiwaz" She said, as the blades launched like one of Penrose's most lethal hailstorms, landing on the creatures. The Valkyrie barely raised an eyebrow, before speaking again.

"Daegaz." She commanded, as the bladed constructs burst with brilliance, mimicking sunlight. For what she had seen, Alicia had managed to down one of the creatures with scorching energies, perhaps that was part of the trick to it.

"Don't disappoint me, heheheheh." The Valkyrie of cruelty smiled, upon seeing the rising battle tide against the Wendigo.

---

Sanctuary operations seemingly had fallen into monotonity as of late. Penny's cadre of new faces had seemed to act sharply to the Wendigo operation, sending the much reviled wolf girl away from her. It was nothing personal from Dina's side, but after her transformation, she had found dogs to be a little... hard to stomach around. Her idleness was such that her decorum and poise seemed to falter, and indeed she had stopped herself from licking her hand to groom her ears. When was tea time again? She counted the minutes on the clock, as she leaned on her seat from the operations room.

Oh, looks like they were being overrun after all. Where was the Varangian at times like this? Sanngridr was eerie, but if there was one thing to be trusted out of her was her bloodlust. The Regent sighed. She had to make do with Penny's people, as uneffective as they were. Mariette scrambling things was not helping.

It was quite... the quagmire. At least not as bad as the beach. She had given the shoulder to Dan's antics, her patience having finally hit her maximum. Still, she would love some chilled drink and a sunny beach now. Oh well.

"Looks like we need more effectives." She blandly stated as she eyed the screen. "And more commanders on the field."

"Hm? Looks like the Varangian has resurfaced." The catgirl said. "Tell Sanngridr to join forces with our effectives as soon as she's done with the hospital." Dina gritted her teeth.

"Direct intervention is necessary." She said, very reluctantly, and redoubling her efforts to sortie, summoning a giant eagle. "These whelps wont last." She added as she sped up towards where the Sanctuary forces were.

Wendigos, nasty creatures. These particular monsters required assistance when he had encountered them in the past. Beating them wasn't the trouble, keeping them down was another matter. Thankfully Paree could call in some assistance from a fiery magical girl. Thus was the nature of roaming from place to place. No telling if there would be others on hand to assist.

A dearth of magical girls was not something Penrose had an issue with. If anything the opposite was true. Shane sometimes wondered if it was a natural law of magic that drew more and more over time. One thing was for sure, turmoil followed. And yet despite how many times an attack occurred or how powerful someone got there always seemed to be a snapback that brought things back down. A lull had come after the Christmas party, as brief as it was.

Staying in and around the Sanctuary most of the time the hoard of Wendigos pretty quickly drew Shane's attention. While two of the three newcomers were being aided, the third was being persued by the monsters. A dark trail of storm clouds began to extend and reach from above in Hanna's direction. A Wendigo leaping at Hanna suddenly yelped as it was suddenly caught in the grasp of giant talons. From the dissipating cloud a giant bird was perched on the roof clutching the unfortunate horned creature already burning and crackling. As ruthless pack animals Wendigos were used to being up there at the top of nature's food chain. They were suddenly confronted by one of their rare natural predictors, a Thunderbird. Its wings spread wide it shrieked which could be heard in the neighboring district. Riding atop was Shane. He and his mount took to the air once more and began raining lightning on the remaining nine Wendigos that were now scrambling to avoid being struck or plucked off the ground.

---

Something was happening above. What was it? What were those sounds? Could... could it be? A manhole cover was blown out of the sidewalk which soared off into the next block. Having crawled her way from deep in Penrose sewers, a small magical girl popped up out onto the streets. Unfazed by the horrid smell of sewage her bright eyes and cheery grin scanned the landscape. So this was human civilization. How very- oh what's that? She grabbed a fallen road sign. The jewel on her chest projected a light on the object and it was promptly transported into her Hammerspace Handbag.

Back to looking around. There was a magical girl, or what what she assumed was a magical girl anyway. She looked more metal than most of the depictions of fleshy humans. Would that be a mecha girl? Regardless the individual was ruthlessly attacking weird skeletal faced creatures. Surely these must be the monsters they must defeat. Turning a bit she identified three remaining Wendigos that had yet to be engaged. Perfect, time to be a hero! One hand on her hip and the other pointed at the monsters she called out. "Times up ugly! Me and my sisters are going to knock you into next week!" She had no real idea how long a week was, but it sounded like a long time to her.

Hoisting up her oversized weapon the crystals lit up and began firing out beams of violet light that twisted and swerved around and past Penny thanks to her Gravity magic. The Wendigos would have the time to look up and make a move, but the beams would shift with them and as they touched down the area became a fireworks show of exploding violet mayhem. Ka'ris would keep up the barrage for a few seconds laughing like a toon.

The corners of Connie’s mask drooped into a frown as she watched the two remaining wendigos press their attack on the twins. Thankfully, the two sisters seemed to have things under control, but she still wished to assist them. “I-I’m g-going to h-help Ronin and Miko!” Connie told Gaia as she rushed over to where her two sword-wielding friends were having their battle.

“That’s a good idea, little sister,” Gaia replied with an approving smile. “It should not take me more than a moment to finish these four off,” she added, as she tossed a trio of seeds in a triangular pattern around the nightmare wracked wendigos. “Then I shall join you in assisting them.”

Reaching out her hand, the verdant magical girl sent swirling tendrils of emerald energy to infuse each seed with potent nature magic. An instant later, they burst into three, cannon-topped flowers. Although similar in appearance to the earlier pod launchers, these were much larger, and their cannon bulbs glowed with an orange radiance. Before the wendigos had a chance to emerge from their nightmarish prison, they were consumed by a three pronged firestorm, which swiftly set their ragged fur ablaze and completely melted their frozen hearts.

Meanwhile, Connie waited patiently for an opening. I can do this… I can do this… she told herself as she watched the two sisters dance about, staying mere inches ahead of their opponents’ wicked claws. When an opportunity finally presented itself, she fired a focused nightmare pulse at each wendigo, the crackling bolts of unhappy thoughts plunging deep into the twisted monsters and trapping their minds in hellish prisons of their own making. “R-Ronin! Miko!” the masked girl called. “N-Now’s your chance! M-Mia said you h-have to d-destroy their h-hearts!”

Penny didn’t look directly at any of the human in the car in front of her as she methodically unmade her targets. She knew well enough how she looked from the outside. Snoopy was live streaming this after all. She was a terrifying sight, as was her work.

That said she did make sure to pay special care to the car as she worked. And not once did she let any of the Monsters regain even an inch on the distance, she forced them in to taking. Not until she was ready to reel them in to finish them off. So even as violent as she was, the car remained within the eye of her brutality untouched and fiercely protected.

This was proven to the upmost when Ka’ris made her debut attack. She had been outside Penny’s scan parameters at first, the Monarch far too focused on her death dealing. But the discharge of the gravity-based weapon had Penny snapping into action. Her spider legs curled around the car as a shimmering force field sprang to life between the limbs, covering the car from the attack.

Penny maintained the barrier for the entire duration of Ka’ris’ attack. Though she only spent the first second analyzing the newcomer. The next second was spent with her attention on the family’s care once again. As Penny lightly touched the car, and used her magic to restore anything that was wrong with it, even wear and tear that came from before this attack.

The last second was when Penny returned to the monster task at hand. Slipping away from the car now that it was once again no longer in danger and plunged her hand into the chest of the downed wendigo. She made sure to cup its heart before once again discharging enough Lightning to reduce it to ash.

After that she would stand back up and cast a long searching look about for any more targets. Not finding any she would let out a short breath, her eyes regaining their normal gold as she did. Now calmed down and no longer on the edge of a transformation. She was able to appreciate that her girlfriend has also chosen this district to defend. ‘Wonder if she was nearby, or if it was just a coincidence’ Penny would wonder as she waved a tired greeting at MDP.

She’d gesture for MDP to come over, mainly so Penny could take care of the monsters she had captured. Something that was rather impressive, but even as she did so she would turn to walk towards the new comer. Penny didn’t recognize them, so she felt it best to introduce herself. They did help out after all.

“Hey there.” She’d call out as she got closer. “Thanks for the assist. You new around here?”

Snoopy in the meantime would ping Elora, inquiring if anywhere else was in dire need of assistance.

---

Ashlyn, much like Mayra, wasted no time in rushing into the main swarm of monsters, a ferocious war cry bursting forth as she did so. “Filthy Curs!” In the wake of said cry, the visage of a plated Oni juggernaut could be seen floating about the tall girl. One that mimicked her movements. The frightening visage also quickly proved it was more than just a figment as it’s mailed fists struck with resounding force. Her destination seemed to be the girl that Mayra was also assisting. Because that girl needed Protecting And the girl that had buried by the swarm was already saved by Mariette.

Having a psychic on hand was so useful.

Ashlyn waded in slowly using her size and physical might to her advantage to batter the Monsters about. A sturdy, unmovable pillar in the center of the fight.

Belladonna on the other hand had started cackling the moment the monsters retaliated, and had started bouncing about the battle field like a deranged pinball. Heightened bestial senses, inhuman Awareness, and razor-sharp claws combined into a hit and run style of combat that left long ragged slashes on those that she got in on, but before the creatures could retaliate, she’d already be off onto the next foe. An ever-moving whirlwind of claws and laughter. Distracting and dangerous all in one.

Monica was ever so glad that she stayed on the alert towards the creatures that surrounded them. And easily settled into the task of fending of what beasts she could, each swing of her axe leaving large swaths of flame in its wake. Even as she swung her weapon around one could hear her chanting. “Oh Hestia! Lady of Hearth and Home. Guardian of the innermost things. I beseech you to lend your humble follower a boon. These vile abominations have sought to ransack my home. To drive those that need its shelter from its doors. Grant my allies a measure of your flame, so that we might instruct these fiends of their transgressions!”

With that final declaration she’d bring her axe down in a heavy clash. And from that point of contact brilliant golden flames would race outward. The Wendigo’s were untouched by the golden flames, no, more than that they were ignored by the golden fire. Ashlyn, Monica, Belladonna, Myra, and the Dark magical girl were not however. The golden flame raced up and over the girls a genital warmth passing over them as it did before the flame settled onto their chosen weapons. Granting everyone present a boon of Divine Fire.

“By fire be Purged!” Monica would shout before diving into the swarm of beasts, fire spewing from her axe.

---

“Fuck!” One of the girls would shout as a Monster girl would drop out of a portal right in front of her. Mariette was a known ally to those living in the Sanctuary, the portal wielder had protected them back during the first time their home had been attacked. So, it wasn’t surprising to see the portal open up, though it would still be considered a rare occurrence.

It dropping a viciously injured Monstergirl was a different story however. “Silbrex! Leanna!” The girl would shout out as she began moving the injured girl over to the medbay. “Emergency! We need a healer!”

---

Aurelio was undeterred as the entirety of the pack of wendigos turned towards him and Alicia. That made their job all the easier really. Especially since the more important half was already taken care of! “That’s right you over grown flea bags!” He’d call out as he spun his cane about his fingers. The blatant Hunger pouring off the creatures was repugnant. But it was still a resource he had on hand.

Then reinforcements arrived. It wasn’t Beacon, Aurelio figured that other Beacon members had been scattered all about with mass of attacks, but more help was never a bad thing. [color=fff79a]“Glad to see you’re on our side here” The magician would say letting out a low whistle at the Valkyrie’s devastating attack.

“But let’s see if we can’t do better” He’d add with a smile. He’d draw on the Hunger of the Wendigo’s and temper it with his own righteous Indignation towards the creatures. Happy and cheerful he maybe, but he wasn’t blind to what it was the monster’s here were trying to do. Taking that mixed blessing he’d enchant Alicia’s bow with it, he was a support specialist after all. Her Light arrows already tracked her targets, now they would be nearly blood thirsty in hunting down her target’s hearts. Plus, they would bite deeper, dealing good damage even if they didn’t hit the heart out right.

“You are up Seraphim!”

With another wave of his cane a small flood of himself, Alicia, and Sann would surge forward. The small army was much less substantial than they looked however, as only one of the near sixty copies was actually real. That Aurelio one wore a dark orange color under its illusion, and luck preserving would be using the enemies Hunger against themselves. To provoke infighting as much as possible before it was found, as the illusions wouldn’t last beyond a single hit, even a glancing one would dissipate them.

---

While Roxanna put proof that mind over matter is a perfectly valid method of monster hunting. Oliver’s incendiary rounds brought a sudden a painful end to the final wendigo’s charge as they bullets caused the monsters legs to crumple leading it to face plant and skid painfully along the ground.

The Angel of Hope’s assistance then gave Finn the means finally put down the cannibalistic monsters as they roasted quite easily. The two of Roxanna’s had kills were easily taken care of as well. The decapitation and forced self-lobotomy too severe wounds to have been easily patched back together in such a short time, even by the foul nature of these spirits.

The first wendigo was a slightly different matter. It was healed, but it was a broken healing leaving it looking even more deranged than was normal for the beasts. Cracked skull still loosely connected and the burn on its chest was still ringed with embers. The hole also revealed that its heart hadn’t been fully burnt, but enough to damage it permanently.

It made a poor site as it tried, and failed, to push itself back to standing. Though if it was trying to flee or keep fighting was impossible to say.

Though Aurelio's clones did not come out unscathed, Alicia nodded in satisfaction at the result of her efforts. The blistering arrows had drawn the attention of the Wendigos, and to her surprise she had even succeeded in slaying one. That was impressive, since she had not been trying to do so. That just left her with another problem. The civilians were safe, but now there were a bunch of angry wendigos focused on tearing her to shreds.

"Well, you knew what you were getting into," she muttered to herself as she prepared new arrows. It had always been a risky play. Hopefully she hadn't gotten too far in over her head.

As if to provide a counterpoint to any worries that she might have had, a new figure arrived on the scene. Alicia's gaze rose to behold the magical girl who had made her way onto the scene. Alicia worked her memory, eventually vaguely connecting the girl back to the Christmas Party that she'd been to a week ago. Maybe she was just imagining things, but right now if they had met before wasn't all that relevant. "If you say so," she called back. The fight had only just begun after all. But in this moment she wasn't about to be too picky.

Swords descended, burning where they impaled like tiny stars. Aurelio added to that, creating more copies to confuse the enemy while enchanting her bow. She recalled all that she had learned of Wendigos from her Beacon training, and took aim accordingly. At least she didn't have to reach too deep into her bag of tricks just yet.

"You have to burn the heart," she called to Sann, though in truth she didn't know if that was already known or not. But it couldn't hurt to assume, especially in these circumstances.

Turning her gaze back to her own part in the fight, Alicia went to work. arrows of blazing light lashed out several at a time with a few targets. Of course she made every effort to aim for the heart if she could, but when not feasible she did not hesitate to strike at their legs. If she could hobble the movement of some then she'd be able to deal with the rest a bit easier. She'd fire then leap back then fire again, doing her best to maintain the distance from the horde as it was assailed from multiple angles. There was no way she wanted to get in range of those claws and teeth.

Hopefully their battle hungry ally hadn't become bored too quickly.

_{@Shifter_Master@Ariamis@AtomicNut}

As MDP skipped over to where Penny was fighting the wendigos around the car, twirling her wand like a baton and leading her three oversized plush hearts in an impromptu parade, she returned the robotic girl’s wave with an energetic one of her own, before gasping in happy surprise as a new magical girl made her appearance. “Wowie zowie~!” the whimsical girl exclaimed with a delighted giggle. “A new friendy wendy for Magical Dream Princess~! (giggle!)” Picking up her pace, she soon found herself beside Penny and the new arrival. “Like, hi~! Are you, like, a new magical wagical girl~?!” she asked excitedly. “Magical Dream Princess thinky winkies you look super duper pretty witty~! (giggle!) She just wuvs your sparkly warkly crystal wystal thingie wingies~! Like, do you want to be Magical Dream Princess’s friendy wendy~?! Do you~?! Do you~?! Do you~?! Oh~!” she gasped as a new thought entered her ADHD addled brain. “Like, this is Penny Wenny~!” the bubbly girl added with a big smile, while gesturing to the Mechanical Monarch. “She’s, like, super duper amazing wazing, and she’s also Magical Dream Princess’s special wecial wuvy dovey girlfriend wirlfriend~! (giggle!) Oh, and, like, Magical Dream Princess capture waptured some of those meanie weanie reindeer weindeer thingy wingies, Penny Wenny~!” she noted, turning to her girlfriend. “And she was, like, wondering if you could pretty pretty please make them go bye bye for her~” she requested, blushing slightly as she struck a coy, girly flirt pose and batted her eyes.

Lily weaved through a combined attack by two wendigos, circling around Alex and shooting arrows at any of the monsters trying to approach him as he fought off the alpha. However, even she could barely manage to handle their numbers, having to contend with them herself. Alex then regrouped with her, having come up with a solution in the form of a bottleneck. She gave a thumbs up.

”Nice idea, Alex! Let’s see them get past this!"
She took a firm stance, drew her bow, and gathered her magical energy, manifesting as a ball of lightning at the tip of her arrow. As the wendigos scrambled in, she released a Barrage:

”Wrath of Adrammelech!"

She began shooting thunder arrows rapidly into the ball lightning, which in turn multiplied the shots as they passed, turning the bottleneck into a storm of electricity that wracked the wendigos. The blasts of lightning additionally ricocheted off Alex’ barriers. The monsters screeched as the they were rapidly zapped, eventually clogging the route with their incapacitated numbers. That was when Lily ended her Barrage, and began charging up her Killing Blow, her green hair crackling with electricity as she glowed brightly.

”Alex, keep them at bay for just a little longer!"

A few of the wendigos were not yet zapped, and Lily saw through the barrier how the one slain by Alex also rose back up. It joined its pack, climbing over with a snarling maw.

”I need to hit them so hard they won’t come back!"

---

At the industrial sector, the battle had turned into a blazing one with Mayra’s explosive entrance; she delivered a fiery attack that exploded, launching the swarm of wendigos off of the winged monster girl just as Mariette created a portal under her, causing her to drop down to the Sanctuary. Mayra successfully destroyed three of the wendigos in the attack by striking their hearts with fire, and damaging six others, before the rest of the swarm assaulted her.

Deprived of their prey and with the taste of blood fresh in their fangs, the wendigos fiercely struck back despite their weakness against fire. Mayra fought valiantly, managing to strike one more wendigo through the heart before two wendigos headbutted her flanks, locking her in place with their antlers. She managed to swipe them away with her tail, but another wendigo managed to bite into her shoulder scales, ripping them off. Two other wendigos latched onto her tail, forcing her to recklessly swing and slam it around before they would release while slowing her down just enough for a wendigo to bit at her leg, and another to slash at her face, drawing three lines of blood on her cheek and over her nose. Despite the wounds she sustained, Mayra’s expertise in close-quarters combat paid off, as she managed to keep standing and not be pinned by the monsters, burning hotter from the intensity of the battle.

One of the wendigos that were slammed away crawled back up, only to be struck back down by a crimson spear that pierced its back. The monsters screeched and turned limp, having been drained of blood by Justine.

”Apologies, but I can’t sit idly by while these foul beasts yet draw cursed breath,” she spoke, and upon lifting her spear twirled it to parry the other wendigo’s claw swipe.

Meanwhile, Mariette set her sights on Hanna, who was about to be caught by the wendigos pursuing her at the circular rooftop of a factory building, having cut off her escape route.
“Get back!” She screamed, but the wendigos didn’t heed her words, growling as they sprinted up to her. Fortunately, the unlucky girl had two guardian angels watching over her from above; Mariette, who delivered bolts of light from above, and Shane, whose Thunderbird snatched one of the vile monster before blasting it with lightning that had frizzled its heart, seeping as ash out of the majestic mount’s talons like sand through fingers. Shane and his mount struck down thunderous retribution on the cannibals, giving time for Mariette to open a portal for Hanna. While the wendigos were distracted by one more turning into ash from a bolt of fury, Hanna jumped right in, too terrified of her plight to think of the consequences. She ended up dropping right next to the Sanctuary girls, who continued their battle against the wendigo horde.

When the wendigos saw their prey escape, and the two rescuers high above, they growled viciously. Then, they howled in unison, having formed a circle on the rooftop. As they kept howling, both Mariette and Shane saw Dina arrive on the back of a great eagle, when suddenly they felt something malignant in the air; cold winds picked up, like streaks of icy malice that dashed around them and carried the howls of the wendigos, shivering them like they were caught in a heavy rain of snow. Then, Mariette, with her Awareness heard it first; the sound of cawing that rapidly turned louder and louder until eventually they both saw the source of it.

A murder of crows, with soulless eyes and wings scattering black feathers, flew in to attack them, attempting to peck their eyes out. Even if they shot a few down, more would arrive from all around Penrose and the woods beyond, their endless cries ringing in their ears. To her horror, no matter how far Mariette escaped with her portals, birds flew after her in a frenzied flock, as if they were using her own Absolute Direction against her. Shane was also troubled, as the smaller birds easily overwhelmed the Thunderbird, causing it to shake in the air. Fortunately, Shane’s acrobatic mastery over riding animals ensured he wasn’t deterred by the turbulent flight.

The remaining monster girl who cried out after Hanna struggled before the wolf spirit she had conjured had dissipated, unable to bear the blows of the wendigos any longer. That was when Belladonna came to the rescue, proving herself even fiercer and sharper of claw than her adversaries as she cut down a wendigo and kicked another away, while only incurring a bite to the back of her neck that she shrugged off. Ashlyn, meanwhile, stayed to protect the newly-arrived Hanna, and Monica, who succeeded in enchanting their weapons with fire, enabling them to permanently slay the resurrecting beasts. Belladonna succeeded in destroying a wendigo, Ashlyn with two wendigos, and Monica another one with a swing of her axe. In return, the wendigos inflicted a headbutt that impaled one of Ashlyn’s lower arms and a slash on her back, a slash on Monica’s chest as well as a bite to her flank, and a bite of Belladonna’s tail, ripping some fur out.

---

At the Sanctuary, Mariette had brought the winged monster girl to the middle of the street, where she was immediately found by one of the locals, and brought to the local equivalent of an infirmary or sickbay. However, by the time she got treated by the local healers, it was too late; the winged monster girl, having suffered countless grievous wounds and loss of blood, didn’t survive Mayra’s fiery blast.

---

At the Penrose Bank, Mia called on the mighty forces of nature with her magic, and summoned amazing flora with the power to produce flame. The three fiery flowers surrounded the entrapped wendigos, and blasted them with the force of a wildfire, incinerating the beasts until only black ash remained. However, once the spell was cast, Mia felt her knees briefly turning weak; having called on such formidable magic was a costly affair, especially when invoked in a place as barren of the gift of life as in the cold, concrete streets of Penrose. Having been reduced to about a third of her mana reserves, Mia knew she had to be careful lest she transform back into her human form.

Ronin and Miko continued their 2v2 team match against the pair of wendigos. Their initial X-pattern didn’t confuse the wendigos, simple as they might be. However, their use of magic paid off, as both gust and guard were effective to grant them strikes against the enemy. The wendigo cut in the stomach dropped down in stance, now on the defensive as it kept its wounded area protected. The other wendigo managed to swing it’s antler just in time to prevent decapitation, cutting it off instead.

As a result, the beasts immediately ganged up on Ronin, having perceived her as the greater threat. They attempted to swipe and bite at her, managing to lightly shred one of her sleeves despite her evasive maneuvers. Left alone, Miko now had the opportunity to flank them, and delivered heavy blows that caused the two-antlered wendigo to slow down to a crawl. However, as they continued this dance, the two realized that the wendigos gradually regenerated, their wounds closing up shortly after being dealt. That was when Connie took her chance, and cast a nightmare spell against the slowed wendigo, catching it in the blast. The wendigo rolled around in mental agony like the ones she fought with Mia. However, the one-antlered wendigo, having kept close to Ronin, left Connie with no opportunity to safely launch her magic. However, it did distract the beast, who turned to Connie, hunger in its eyes.

But then, the dark gaze in its eyes suddenly dimmed, and it collapsed on the ground. It took only a glance at what had struck it to realize it was the work of a new arrival; a strange weapon resembling both a sword and a staff of fire was impaled through it’s back, and pierced it’s heart.

”Yay! Time to play!”

Ronin felt a cold shiver run through the entirety of her being, and into her very soul, when she heard a familiar voice greet her group from above. And as the girl landed on the street, her fears were confirmed;

It was Caroline von Visceral…And she had returned.

The vampire girl had a gleeful expression as it turned towards the other wendigo, howling in misery.

”Aww, that’s no fun! You should play with Caroline!”

The monster girl summoned her flame-wreathed weapon, and with a haphazard slash, bisected the large monster, once again having struck it in the heart as if by accident. However, Ronin and Miko could tell she didn’t hit either beast in their weak point accidentally, only making it look as if she did with her careless movements. When the monster scattered into ash, Caroline giggled.

”Whoo, that was fun! Caroline loves to play!”

Then, as if she had only then noticed the magical girls around her, she slowly turned to look at them, her body moving unnaturally like a puppet with a few cut strings. First, she looked at each girl with an unsettlingly happy expression, only for her gaze to finally linger on Connie; it seems she didn’t recognize Ronin or Miko.

”Hi! Wanna play with Caroline? Caroline just loves to play games!”
In her red eyes eyes, Connie could see a ravaged soul, numbed by madness.

She then put a finger to her lip, swinging her head back and forth with a whimsical expression.

”But Mother said Big Sis is nearby, and Caroline wants to find Big Sis. Can you tell Caroline where Big Sis is-sis-is?” She then whispered softly afterwards to nobody in particular: ”Big Sis is…”

---

At the hospital, Alicia and Aurelio found a new ally in their midst…Or, at least a person willing to fight the wendigos instead of them at that moment. Sanngridr’s rain of blades successfully halted the initially rushing monsters, causing some to fall down and a couple to flee as the sharp constructs then shimmered, burning a couple of wendigos and outright destroying one with a blade lodged in it’s chest, causing it to dissolve into ash.

Aurelio drew forth the emotion of ravenous need for sustenance that the wendigos represented in their very essence, and applied that power, mixed with his indignation, as an enchantment to Alicia. The spell enabled her arrows, already capable of seeking foes, to do so with even more potency, with a hunger for their frozen hearts. However, as a side effect, Alicia felt her stomach slightly grumble, as if she had skipped a meal before heading out.

However, that wasn’t the last trick in the Magnificent’s show, as he then summoned a clone that channelled the power of Hunger into duplicating illusions of him and his allies. Six wendigos were initially confused by the trickery, and ran after the clones, snapping and clawing at empty air, or even at each other, as the illusions intentionally led them to attack each other. Two remaining wendigos were not fooled, and reached both Aurelio and Alicia.

Alicia took aim, and with arrows enchanted by Aurelio, managed to hit three wendigos in the heart with sunlight arrows, incinerating them from the inside with displays of shimmering sparkles. She also managed to hit two other wendigos, slowing them down with hits to their limbs. One of these was a wendigo heading straight for her, while another was in the crowd. The remaining wendigo, having reached Aurelio, snapped it’s jaws around his leg, immobilizing him as two more wendigos recovered from the illusions, and now rushed towards Alicia.

---

At the Business District, the couple curled up with a scream as they saw the violet projectiles flying right at them, or rather at the wendigos that have gathered around the car. But then, they blinked as they saw Penny extend her long limbs to shield them from the brief specks of violet explosions. The car suffered a few dents from the attack, adding to the numerous collection the vehicle had suffered from the monsters’ attack. However, Penny then applied her Metal magic in a restorative fashion, smoothing out the sheets and even mending fractures and broken pieces back together. Even damage that was irrelevant to the incident, such as some rust on the underside or a wobbly exhaust pipe, was fixed.

Ka’ris struck the final nail in the wendigo pack’s coffin; what few monsters had managed to survive Penny’s onslaught were obliterated by the Gravity-manipulated crystal payload, the violet light having blown them up into ash. The remaining wendigos, subdued by MDP’s powerful yet pacifist magic, were then swiftly eliminated by Penny’s lightning.
Once the fighting was over, and Penny had turned away from the car to address both girls, the couple seemingly decided to take their chance and flee, turning sharply with their car and driving away as fast as they could. It wouldn’t be long before Penny was alerted by Snoopy, the drone having opened comms with Elora: “There’s a large group over at the industrial sector, coordinates attached,” she heard the cybermancer reporting in.

Seeing the beast he thought he killed get back up made Alexander sigh 'Great. Either these things have some kind of regeneration, or are undead in some way. I'm not sure which is a bigger pain in the ass right now.' When Lily called for him to buy her some more time, he considered throwing up another barrier wall in front of them to completely black them off until she was ready, but the sight of a few stragglers trying (and failing) to break through the barrier from the sides made him rethink that 'That might just make them scatter, and attack it from every angle they can. Fuck, looks like I'm doing this the hard way'

He sighed as he made a few more clones and charged into the fray. Without the free access to magic that he had, his copies didn't last too long, but they were at least able to use tails to block biting attacks (and even managing to counter attack in some cases). As far as Alexander went however; between his forcefield and healing magic, the horde wasn't able to do any serious damage to him. However, there were so many of them that he never had the opening he needed to do any serious damage to any of them. So it was more or less a stalemate. Fortunately for Alexander a stalemate was good enough as far as 'stalling for time' was concerned.

Things looked like they were working out alright. Having access to the air made fighting against the Wendigos fairly straightforward. However responding to a call by the feral creatures, a murder of crows that seemed to be endless began to swarm him and his mount. There was no way he could shock them all just with his magic. His Thunderbird reared back and nearly threw him off. It snapped and clawed at the tiny birds, but they were too numerous. "Hang on buddy, I got an idea." Rolling over the two would dive, a stream of black following after.

Swatting off clinging crows, Shane opened his tome as they pulled up just before hitting the ground. Skirting the streets and alleys they began collecting dust, dirt, and small chunks of rock. Before long he had a swirling torrent of earth that would remove the remaining crows directly on them. Keeping ahead of the bulk of the murder he pulled up and they began to climb to get some space and distance from the source of the crows. It also gave him time to set up. Dispersing the earthen material wide around him the particles would fly and scrape past one another like a whirlwind. The numerous interactions began to build a charge. Turning over to another page he summoned a ball of lightning and began to expand it. Electricity arced this way and that until the Thuderbird contributed.

In a burst of magic the space around Shane and his mount was engulphed by a field of electricity held together by the boy and fed by him, the dust, and his mount. Stalling and turning over the giant ball of electricity dove into the murder, shocking and sandblasting anything unfortunate enough to get to near. The others would have to deal with things on the ground while he would work on clearing the skies.

---

Seeing that her blast of magic obliterated her target, Ka'ris had a brief self celebration. First successful encounter! She observed that a contraption drove by with some humans inside of it. She made a mental note to observe these machines for contained humans in the future. It was then that she was approached by Penny and MDP. Penny asked a question but it was quickly buried by MDP's rush of words. Standing awkwardly her grin grew by the second. Some of the words were a little different than expected, but Ka'ris would adapt. Her eyes sparkled and she hopped from one foot to the other. A friend already! Not that she entirely knew what a friend was or really meant, but it seemed to be a big deal in the shows she'd seen. "You really like them? Fuu, that's a relief. I wasn't sure what people would think. Uhmm, yes. I would love to be your friend!" More success, she has made a connection with another magical girl.

Her gaze would go back to Penny and she would remember the original question. She would nod to the initial question of newness. "Mm, I am new. This magical girl thing is weird." She held our her arms and wiggled her fingers, still unused to the digits. "Oh, introductions! My name is Ka'ris Tal." She seemed to have a little trouble saying it right as she enunciated the name. "It's nice to meet you both." Overhead a big flock of birds rushed past in the direction of the Industrial District. Hovering off the ground she looked in the direction they were going. Facing back down she would point. "Is that normal?"

_{AKA Wilhemina}
@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Ariamis


Sanngridr watched as battle unfolded, biting her lip in elation. These rabble monsters were as such, rabble. No more than the junk food of battle junkies... however the display by the two other combatants really stood out. Specially the bowyer girl. That was a level of carnage that stirred emotions from within the Valkyrie of cruelty. "Yes!" She said, inbetween giggles whenever Alicia scored a hit. "Oh yes! You are worthy of help indeed." She would say, as her free hand reached for the hovering crown above her head. This intoxicating sensation... she needed to savour it more. Fight the monsters. Fight the Beacon. Fight the whole city.

As the crown hummed slightly and became silence, all her cravings and bloodlust were laid bare, a large blissful grin appearing on Sanngrid's face, her cheeks flush, as she began to laugh in force and intensity, while she drew blood once more, runes being formed on her sword as she dived right into Alicia... just to land at her feet, her sword being planted on the ground. "Bloom..." She said, beaming.

"Forest of Impalement!"

The ground shimmered, as a myriad of reinforcement crude spears shot upwards as she mimicked Alicia's Barrage power with her own, intent on impaling every single target on her vicinity save herself and Alicia. Her two wings fluttered, as they sought to envelope the Beacon's Seraph in a dark fluffy embrace. "Would you like to dance?".

It was then when Sann realized there was someone else, and he might have been targetted by the spears. Well, no matter, if he was worthy of Odin's attention, he might survive yet.

---

@twave@PlatinumSkink

And suddenly, it was like that Hitchcock movie she had found it all too distressing in her youth. She could feel every one of the little beady eyed creatures intentions, and they were up to no good. Dina did her best to stay regal, but flailed not a small amount as she ordered her eagle to leave the battlefield, while she herself put her cat reflexes to use and landed on all fours on an elevated spot. "Mew." She exclaimed, as she kept herself steady, her eyes scanning the situation. "Back to back! They will swarn in numbers!" She yelled to whomever could hear her as she deployed her Ruler's aura, bolstering everyone fighting the creatures in the area with her special brand of Reinforcement magic.

Her head tilted sideways seeing the spectacle her fellow flyer had done. "Thunderbird thunderball?" She quizzically raised an eyebrow, before quickly dismissing the urge to banther at the sight. "Right, I cannot dally. I am the Regent." She would comment to herself in a whisper, as she went by warding the nefarious birds that weren't caught in Shane's trap. "I must ask Sir Shane later."

Dina's ears and tail twitched before she focused, and in a booming voice, declared. "Unreachable Judge of the Heavens. Beacon of Heliopolis. Herald of High Noon. Fiery Death and Scorching Rebirth." She noticed her legs quivering, as the creature hungered for more mana, before being brought into her presence. "Come forth... PHOENIX!"

Night became day, for a brief moment. The soft touch of a warm midday was felt by everyone present. It came into being brilliant and in blazes. No bigger than a large goshawk, but radiant enough to not be stared at directly. It cried as it flew, like a fireball through the chaos of the crows and the thunderbird.

"MOW THEM DOWN, PHOENIX!" Dina said, sweat forming in her brow. "Purge these ravenous icy beasts!"

The fight raged against the wendigos with its full fury. The rain of blades had managed to destroy one of their foes, but she knew that the others who had been stricken would soon rise again to plague them. Aurelio's enchantments also did their work, distracting some and causing others to attack each other. She could feel the rush, though at the same time a distracting growl emanated from her stomach. She did her best to ignore it, but it was difficult to push out of her mind.

She'd need to see about swinging by a fast food place once this was over.

With a shake of her head, she loosed her arrows. There was a firm satisfaction as three Wendigos fell, reduced to nothing but ash by her magical power. Two others were slowed, albeit not fatally wounded. Not bad, though it still meant plenty of enemies to cause them trouble.

Her gaze shifted as one of the beasts reached Aurelio and went for his legs, even as two of the ones distracted by illusions moved for her. "Heads up," she called to Aurelio as she prepared to deal with his particular problem...at least until their ally suddenly landed in front of her. Spears shot out of the ground, but it was hard to see with Sann's wings moving to wrap around her. The question took her off guard, primarily because she wasn't certain if the girl meant a literal dance or if that was a euphemism.

Ultimately she chose to go with the most straight forward answer. In turn she stepped back, seeking to duck the hug. "Stay focused on the fight. Wendigos aren't something to take lightly," she replied. There was no way she was just going to assume they'd all get nice and skewered, ignoring whatever the girl had in mind when she came down here to like this.

Darting backwards, she gave up the barrage for something a bit more accurate. Bow strung, snap shots sent piercing beams to the Wendigo that had been attacking Aurelio, and then any that might still be approaching them. If she put herself in the way of a spear from the ground, then so be it.

_{@Shifter_Master@Ariamis@AtomicNut}

Penny would just roll her eyes at her girlfriend, and her question, an easy smile slipping onto her features as she did. A moment later three of her spider limbs were lashing out to comply with the request.

“Nice to mee you as well Ka’ris” Penny would return the greeting. “And yeah, it can take a bit of getting used to, lots of things to figure out.” She’d add on, not truly understanding what it was that the newer magical was meaning by their statement.
Conversation was derailed however by the murder of crows overhead. “Not usually no.” Penny would answer eyes narrowing at the off feeling she could sense from them. It was at that moment that Snoopy would deliver Elora’s update, and with it a spark of dread.

“The Sanctuary!” Penny would exclaim. She was certain that the conflict over there should have been cleared up by now. The fact that it wasn’t meant that the original numbers were off, or it had escalated somehow. Either way. “More monsters I have to go.” She’d toss out quickly as her legs erupted in light as she activated her hover jets and raced off.

Unsure and worried about the situation Penny was hardly passive as she raced towards the coordinates attached. She focused inward, pulling forth blueprints, protocols, and subroutines. Speed was the name of the game right now.

[Initiating Phase three response configuration. Primordial Tempest: Online. Blitz Jaeger Loadout: Active]

The world seemed to slow down as Penny accelerated even further. Her systems already adjusted for the enhanced speed she was calling forth due to her Lightning Enhancement and Weapon Transformation. While Penny was normally fast, now she was even faster. A near living bolt of lightning as she darted across the city leaving a trail of arcing ribbons of lighting in her wake.

Penny just prayed that she would make it in time.

---

There was an inherent disadvantage of being outnumbered, one that normally Aurelio was more than capable of counterbalancing just by his magical capabilities. That said there was still a lot of work to be done to try and balance out a three vs ten fight. Even if the numbers had already shifted in his and Alicia’s favor.

Thus, it wasn’t a great surprise that one of the Wendigo’s had been able to close in on him. He bit back a cry as he felt the jaws close around his leg. But that hardly slowed down his retaliation. With a flourish he brought his cane down like a golf club into the back of the wendigo’s neck. Yes, it wrenched the beast’s jaws around his already hurt leg, deep enough to draw blood if the warmth that suddenly coated his leg was any indication.

But Aurelio’s cane was a focus and a weapon in its own right. At the moment of impact, it would draw as much Hunger from the Wendigo as was safe, mix it with the Anger already contained in the cane and then unleash all of the emotions as a flock of magical guillotine blades. The blades would be sent out towards the beats closing in on Alicia.

Which is why he was able to get Alicia’s warning of Sann’s impending attack. One he wouldn’t be able to dodge due to the incapacitated beast on his leg. “Crap!” Acting as quickly as he could he pulled as much Determined will as he could muster in a hurry and jammed his cane in the ground in front of him. A tall three sectioned Green box would rapidly begin materializing to encapsulate and protect the Magician.

Though he doubted it would be fast enough to prevent all the incoming damage.

---

The Sanctuary Vanguard was in a tight spot and they knew it. They were starting to collect injuries and they enemies still far outnumbered them. Not that this deterred them. If anything, it seemed to spur them on even more, though that might also just be the desperation starting to leak in.

Ashlyn, covered in wounds as she was, had planted herself like a stone guardian. Refusing to give any ground. Her ghostly juggernaut had faded in its place was a three headed Ashura. This spirit seemed to give her all around vision as she reacted to attacks and movement from all directions. Her weapons of choice were six large ghostly replicas of her own arms with would appear and disappear at her command. There was a growing mania in her eyes as well. She needed to protect Hanna and her friend. Needed to.

Monica was fairing better. In the fact that she was the least injured of the three. Her clothes were enchanted, thus hardier. Her weapon a gift from Hephaestus, thus deadlier. Her magic was fire, thus more lethal. But she didn’t have the stamina for long protracted fight, not like Ashlyn and Belladonna did. So, she was starting to flag. She still had one more trick up her sleeves if she needed it and it was starting to look that way.

Belladonna looked the worst, drenched as she was in blacken rotten blood, but she hadn’t stopped cackling yet. Though she had slowed. Not due to her injuries, which while numerous weren’t as serious as those that Ashlyn sported, but because now the Wendigos had started to catch on and catch up. She was still able to dart around, but now she was reliant on Ashlyn’s arms for support so that she wouldn’t get caught out and become stranded. The upside is now she had to take more time to make sure each strike counted so each time she went out she scored a solid blow, even if not a killing one.

Then they all heard a Voice that eased their worries, and soothed the growing panic. Or Monia heard it and transmitted it to the others. It had the same effect either way.

The Regent had arrived. Dina was here.

And without hesitation they complied with the Regent’s orders. Ashlyn moved the two girls, that had more or less started this entire thing, to behind her with Monica and Belladonna closing ranks as well to form a defensive triangle around them.

Mariette was startled by the sudden appearance of the crows. She instantly gauged that she did not have the firepower to shoot down a crowd of this many crows, and as such simply portalled to a new location. However, as she did that, she came to the realization that the crows could follow her, no matter where she went. This effectively meant Mariette could no longer be on the battlefield until the crows were gone.

Very annoying.

Mariette portalled herself into a locked basement that she knew existed for this very reason, in case someone was after her. Try as they might, the crows would need to fly through several closed doors in order to reach her here. It was dark, but she already knew all that was in here. So, to support from her current location, Mariette periodically opened portals around the Industrial District to see the situation, and sent a bolt of light at an offending Wendigo each time. She let Shane handle the crows, as she closed the portal and waited before opening another somewhere else.

This meant her attacks were less frequent, but at the very least she was still helping.

That’s when a voice suddenly spoke into her ear.

‘Caroline von Visceral has appeared at Penrose Bank,’ a voice suddenly spoke in her ear. Mariette winced. That name meant a significant amount to her. That girl that had been the one to kill Deni all that time ago, and Justine had let it happen. Still, Justine was cleared now. While Mariette never wanted to talk to her again, there was a certain urgency to her right now. She had to act. She reached with her magic to various corners of Penrose…

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Ariamis

‘Caroline von Visceral has appeared at Penrose Bank,’ Mariette spoke through three small portals, to behind and to the left of each target. One to Penny, who she figured would react responsively. One to Alicia, who she believed would react accordingly. One to Justine, who she knew to be purified. Now, they were all in the midst of battles, but she was confident her words would be on their minds. She was wary of attack from at least one of them.

‘In her presence is Connie, Gaia, Ronin and Miko.’

Mariette winced, her heart lurching a bit. By now, she knew who Ronin and Miko were. And they… they were by Caroline. Thing was, if Mariette instantly acted on this knowledge, then the one watching would pick up on her desperation and the two’s cover would be blown. At the very least, Mariette opened a portal to watch from the sky above, careful to keep a lookout for crows about to assault her. If they were to assault her, tentacles would strike them and keep Mariette safe enough to close the portal.

---

Mayra basically grinned at the Wendigos trying to hold her down. She crouched, swiped with her blazing clawed foot as she blasted another Wendigo halfway across the district, and was launching herself from Wendigo to Wendigo to keep from being surrounded, when suddenly apparently two Wendigos managed to trap her between their antlers. Huh, this was new. She had a mildly curious expression as one tore her shoulder-scale off, some went for her swinging tail but frankly missed, and a couple more cut at her face and her one bit at her leg… A somewhat bad idea considering the blood that ran through Mayra’s veins was blazingly hot and far more burningly so than her relatively cool exterior.

Completely unperturbed, Mayra smirked at them. The Monica chick sent out a torrent of orange flames which ignored the Wendigos but gave her the boon of Divine Fire… which Mayra had no idea of what it was but it felt good. It made her want to destroy some monsters. She chuckled at her “captors”.

‘Heeeeeeeeeey, you’re doing pretty good! I appreciate the challenge!’ Mayra took another breath and kicked the one that was trying to chew on her leg (and probably burn their mouth off). ‘Wanna start phase two?’

… And then Mayra effortlessly slipped through the antlers with Darkness magic allowing her to slip through her own shadow, showing up in the shadow of a different Wendigo and throwing a burning clawed punch to pierce through the monster’s torso. Her eyes burned with passion as she vaulted over the victim to drive her legs through the next, and then momentarily fell back to dodge further attempts at captures. Even if they did manage to hit her, she was too tough for them to easily kill. Even if they captured her, she had darkness magic to let her slip away. Even if they revived, Mayra always had more fire! So she felt!

‘Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!’ Mayra brawled her way into the herd, once more keeping herself from being overwhelmed by keeping to the sides or otherwise slipping away with darkness. There was no way she was retreating and there was no way she’d be needing help. She was brawling this whole group to dust as a mass of flailing fire and darkness, kicking and slashing overhead as she weaved and struck past their blows, even as their gathering hits and cuts were making her bleed some blazingly warm sizzling yellow blood onto the pavement below…!

‘Hey, girl with the huge demon above her! Don’t die, I wanna try fighting your thing later!’ Mayra shouted in the midst of the brawl. She was referring to Ashlyn, but since she was basically shouting it into the mass of Wendigos who really knew.

Should she run out of opponents she’d go off and try to kill-steal from the other girls present. Though, seeing how she was contending with eight of them on her own, maybe she’ll be busy for a while.

---

Ronin and Miko found themselves helped by a blast of nightmare magic from Connie that caused the two Wendigos to get a bit crippled..

‘Thank you, Connie!’ Miko called with a happy smile. as she maneuvered to take advantage.
‘You’re a hero!’ Ronin followed it up with a grin, a wink and a thumbs-up. Then she noticed the one that was turning towards Connie…

‘OH NO YOU DON’T!’ Ronnie called with a grin as she launched herself off a platform of reinforcement that sprung like a spring under her feet to propel her at the Wendigo so it wouldn’t attack her friend… when the Wendigo suddenly dropped into dust. ‘… Huh?’

There was a new individual here, with a burning sword-staff, a familiar visage and a chilling voice…

Ronin froze, a little conflicted on how she should respond. She sort-of got killed last time she interacted with this individual. But, Caroline was going up next to Connie! Ronin just had to-

A sword pressed lightly at her stomach before she could dash to Connie’s rescue. Ronin looked with surprise to her right, and quickly surmised that any distress she was feeling was child’s play compared to what her sister was feeling.

‘Don’t… move,’ Miko said, her eyes of frantic determination as she held her own sword at her sister for the sole purpose of ensuring Deni did not jump in Caroline’s way again. Last time Caroline had gone for Mariette and Deni had died jumping in her way. Eli would not let it happen again. Instead, Eli had a different solution.

‘Your sister is somewhere else in this city,’ Miko said, turning to look kindly at Caroline, her sword still holding Ronin from leaping. ‘I don’t know where she is, but any moment you aren’t looking for her is time during which she might leave. You don’t want that, do you? You should go look for her!’ Miko said, smiling so supportively, disguising the inner turmoil.

She just wanted Caroline to leave. As soon as possible. Get away from me and Deni!

With the somewhat heavy feeling of using so much psychic might at once starting to ease with the rubbing of her temples, Roxanna turned to look towards those that had effectively come and joined the fight that she started. The two boys were interesting to be sure, but the Angelic girl was what caught her eye at the moment... and caused a rather deep blush to start to rise on her cheeks.

Of course, before she even had a chance to speak with her, the Wendigo from earlier decided to reveal that it wasn't quite as dead as it looked. Granted, it was kind of hard to view it as a threat at the given moment, considering just how poor its current condition was, but even with the knowledge that given enough time that it would simply recover Roxanna just wasn't the kind of person to intentionally inflict suffering upon another... at least not beyond what was required to put them down at any rate.

With the chance to socialise freely delayed, Roxanna instead returned her gaze to the other magical...persons there and got down to business. "Hi. Thanks for the help but... we've got a little clean up to do. Wendigo regenerate if you don't burn their icy heart to the point that they melt out of existence. If you could help collect their hearts and my various scattered ofuda items, we'll get a fire going. I'll go and finish this one off."

Once the hellish entities were fried enough, Finn dusted his hands off and turned back to Oliver and the Angel. Though before he could say anything or thank the latter, the sound of shuffling turned the boys' attention back to the first wendigo, somehow still alive. "The hell?! I thought you fried that thing!!" Finn snapped his head towards the ghost, tensed up.

"I did, man!! Could've sworn I did..." Oliver unintentionally snapped back, then focusing his rifle on the...oddly still wounded monster. The hell. With a confused look, he glanced at the others. "Uh, did we block his regeneration somehow?" Before the other boy could answer among the lines of "Guess so." The purple haired girl spoke up. Though how she explained the wendigo's weakness to them annoyed Finn a bit. Maybe the Angel didn't know, or the girl assumed they were new to the whole buisness, but they weren't born yesterday. Hell, he had beast magic, it was natural for him to know at this point!

Internal ranting aside, he could care less that she would finish off their last target. Though he still questioned if their assistance was still necessary, or that fact that most of the hearts should've been ashes by now. Atleast his birds wouldn't have arrived for nothing. With a whistle, the murder of crows flew down to gather what Roxanna had requested, and set the items down in a neat circle.

“Please, your thanks are most unnecessary,” the Angel told Roxanna with a submissive bow. “It was the least this humble servant could do to aid such great champions of light!”

Yeah, because I can’t fucking fight anything myself while I’m like this, so I’m stuck giving you dumbasses all my power instead…

“And such knowledgeable ones at that!” the Angel added, her heavenly visage taking on an awestruck expression. “You have my deepest appreciation for sharing your vast wisdom with us, young miss!” she told Roxanna, while giving the girl a brilliant smile.

‘Cause clearly none of us have a fucking clue what a wendigo is…

With a dark blush on her face as she watched the angel offer a bow, Roxanna lifted a hand up to bashfully cough into it before she turned to walk over towards the still living wendigo. Calmly wrapped her hand in the sleeve of her dress in order to make sure that it was covered before she stopped by the downed beast.

While she wasn't the fastest magical girl out there, but as she stamped on the Wendigo's arm to prevent it from taking a proper swipe at her, her hand darted down to punch a hole into the poorly regenerated body of beast in order to grasp and rip out its icy heart.

Even with the magically tough nature of the fabric to protect her hands, the heart was so cold that it almost burned to hold it. Roxanna couldn't help but wonder what this wretched thing could do to bare skin. "Damn, this thing is just an excuse to lose a hand to frostbite waiting to happen."

"So now what? Oliver asked. "Should we move to the next group of 'em?"

"Hold on." The other boy took the opportunity to check back with Valerie. "Status report?"

"Christ, you really did get lucky. The other guys are stuck dealing with packs of up to ten."

Finn's eye widened. "Tell me you're joking..."

The android tiredly sighed. "Wish I was, these numbers aren't like anything we've seen in months."

"Hm. Reeks of a set up. Call us if anything pops up."

"Roger."

With that out of the way, Finn turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "Yeah, best course would be providing back-up against the rest of the packs. With our numbers spread out against mobs of bigger numbers, It'd take too much time before something worse happens." He held an elbow out for one of the crows to perch on. "Unless you two have other buisness to handle, that is." He added, looking towards Roxanna and the Angel of Hope.

“If this humble servant may be so bold, that sounds like a most splendid idea,” the Angel concurred. “And I would be only too happy to aid your continued efforts to bring peace and safety to the populace of this noble city!”

Besides, it’s not like I have much of a fucking choice…

Having walked over to the remains of her stall in order to salvage a bag so that the birds could place all of her now dirtied and tainted wares inside for transport alongside the frozen hearts that needed to be burned, Roxanna walked over to rejoin the others before saying "People need help. Of course I'll come. If nothing else, I'll collect the hearts to dispose of them later tonight. I need to purify my ofuda stuff in a fire anyway and... well, two birds, one stone. Shall we get going?"

With everyone deciding to stick together, Finn led the way to their next and nearest stop.

"Val says the nearest pack's in the Industrial District. We should probably hurry."

"Hang on, man!" Oliver stopped him as soon as they were outside the train station "Do we even know how far that side of town is? I mean, me and Miss Salvation could probably fly there no problem, but what about you two?"

He had a bit of a point. Justine was already on the scene, so Maura could probably send the duo there through the Cradle, but he really didn't want to leave their basically-teammates-now behind. Finn thought for a moment. "Give me a second." With a bit of focus, he summoned a pair of noble steeds for him and Roxanna to ride. The boy looked over to the purple haired girl, and motioned for her to go ahead and pick one before him. "After you."

Roxanna had never ridden a horse before but... well, after a brief look she selected the one on the left, grumbling softly to herself as she mounted up. "I know becoming a magical girl results in getting a lot of benefits... but is it really so hard for the powers that be to create a few of us to look old enough to drive a car and get a license?"

...

Even as the group approached, the two boys tensed up at the sight of such chaos. Sure, there were already alot of magicals there doing their best to clear the area, but it felt like their efforts weren't doing anything with more monsters coming out of the woodwork. "Christ, what's caused them to go beserk like this anyways?!" Oliver asked, preparing more firebombs and incindiary ammo. Though Finn's attention was turned to the vicious crows attacking those in the sky.

Crows.

Yeah, that's not going to slide. And there was another reason why.

"Beast magic." The boy breathed out, supressing his outrage in favor of simply getting to work. "Keep a look out for any strange magicals around. Either they have a hand in this, or these bastards have their own tricks in mind." He juggled his magic, between helping clear out some of the enemy murder, boosting his own crows' strength and sending them after the wendigoes, and roasting whatever was nearby. While Oliver and his remaining duplicates spread out to continue providing literal cover fire.

Meanwhile, the Angel of Hope glided along a short distance behind the “front line” and continued to bestow her blessings upon her three allies.

“Good heavens!” she gasped. “Such clamorous discord and strife! Clearly we arrived not a moment too soon! Now, my noble comrades, take heart and drive these wretched creatures from this place! Although this humble servant cannot lay hands upon the foe herself, be assured that her blessings be upon you all!”

What a clusterfuck… Yeah, I think I’m just gonna hang back here. You guys can deal with this shit yourselves. Try not to get eaten, I guess…

Looking upon the chaos herself, there was a brief look of concern on Roxanna's face as one of the boys mentioned the presence of hostile Beast magic. For a terrible moment she thought that they might end up having to fight an actual person, albeit one that had completely gone insane if they were actively apart of a Wendigo pack. It was Socialism's voice in her mind that calmed her through... if only slightly.

"Roxanna you're dealing a magical user, but you're almost certainly not dealing with a human one. That being said, either this pack is being lead by a Wendigo shaman or the pack leader is strong enough to kick the shit out of said shaman despite them having magic to throw around. Either way the plan of action is the same: Work with your allies, stick together... and once you've exposed the magical bastard gank it so hard and fast it doesn't know what hit it.

Having taken some time to recover on the horse ride over and making full use of the empowerment that the Angel was giving her, Roxanna felt the need to turn the numbers game somewhat in their favor... but taking Socialism's advise to heart, as ten clones of herself manifested they didn't just rush in; Instead, they positioned themselves to serve as a line of defense for both the Angel of Hope (the original Roxanna having the pleasure of being the closest to her) and the boy duo and the wall of guns they seemed inclined towards building.

Connie sighed in relief as her first nightmare pulse found its target, taking some pressure off of her grateful friends, but before she could get a clean shot at the second wendigo, the beast charged towards her. Gasping in terror, the masked girl prepared another spell and instinctively conjured several defensive tentacles, even as Ronin got ready to leap to her aid, but none of this would ultimately prove necessary, as the antlered monstrosity suddenly fell to the ground, a burning weapon impaling its heart. This attack heralded the arrival of an oddly cheerful girl, who quickly took an interest in Connie, much to the timid girl’s dismay.

Connie couldn’t help but cringe slightly as the new arrival approached her, asking if she’d like to play some games. “O-Oh, u-umm, h-hello…” Connie replied hesitantly, her trembling fingers nervously playing with her hair. While the girl certainly seemed friendly enough, and indeed had a bubbly demeanor similar to MDP, Connie couldn’t help but feel that there was still something very… off about her… For all her overwhelming hyperactivity and frequent disregard for personal space, MDP was still a gentle and unthreatening soul. This girl, on the other hand, was unnervingly creepy, and Connie couldn’t help but feel a chill run down her spine as the girl continued to babble, now inquiring about her big sister.

“Y-Your s-sister?” Connie repeated with a frown.

However, before the awkward conversation could go any further, Miko mercifully turned the new girl’s attention to herself, by telling the strange blonde that her sister was indeed in Penrose, and that she should continue looking for her, rather than remain here.

“That sounds like a most prudent course of action,” Gaia agreed with a serene smile as she approached the group, placing a reassuring hand on Connie’s shoulder as she did so. The verdant maiden had also conjured Nature’s Blossom, but while the enchanted staff indeed served as a suitable guard against any potential threat the newcomer might pose, it had the added benefit of supporting the botanical beauty’s trembling legs, which had become significantly weakened after expending such a vast quantity of mana on the fire flowers. Thankfully, her emerald tresses shielded any signs of her weakened state from all but Connie, and her timid friend was far too focused on the unhinged-looking blonde to notice. “I wish you the best of luck in your search,” she bid the bizarre newcomer, positioning her staff so that it was between the blonde and Connie. “Who is to say? Perhaps morning’s light shall find the two of you happily reunited?” Hopefully, Gaia wouldn’t need to fight the deranged girl, but if it came to that, she was fully prepared to defend Connie to her last breath…

---

“Thankie wankies, Penny Wenny~!” MDP told her girlfriend as the Mechanical Monarch swiftly dispatched the incapacitated wendigos she’d brought along with her. A moment later, an exuberant smile spread across the Princess of Dreams’s face as the new girl said she’d be happy to become friends with her. “Yaaaay~! Magical Dream Princess made a new friendy wendy today~! (giggle!)” the whimsical girl cheered, before wrapping her new friend up in a big hug. “Like, it’s super duper nicey wicey to meet you, too, Ka’ris Wa’ris~! (giggle!)” she added cheerfully. “Like, Magical Dream Princess thinky winkies your namey wamey is, like, super duper adorable worable~! (giggle!)”

It was then that the sound of many flapping wings drew the trio’s attention skyward, where a sizable flock of sinister-looking crows was making their way towards the industrial district.

“Golly wolly… There’re, like, sooo many birdy wirdies up theresie…” MDP observed as she watched the flock’s swift passage towards the far horizon. “They don’t look particularly wicularly friendly wendly, though…” she added with a frown.

A moment later, she was startled by an alarmed exclamation from Penny. Before she could ask for more details, or even fully realize what was happening, her robotic girlfriend was already racing down the street, propelled by glowing hover thrusters. “Like, Magical Dream Princess wants to helpy welpy too!” the whimsical girl called, even as her trio of plush hearts morphed and merged into another rainicorn pegasus that she quickly mounted. “Come on, Ka’ris Wa’ris!” she instructed, as she grabbed the floating girl and pulled her along.

Like, Penny Wenny seems super duper worried… MDP thought with a frown as her multicolored mount shot off after the Mechanical Monarch. But, like, with Penny Wenny and Magical Dream Princess working together wether, everythingie wingie will, like, totally wotally turn out okie dokie~! she reassured herself as a big smile returned to her cute face.

“Like, hold on super duper tight, Ka’ris Wa’ris~!” MDP advised. “Mister wister rainicorn wainicorn is gonna go, like, super duper mega wega fasty wasty nowie~!”

No sooner had she given her warning, then the prismatic pegasus shot forward like a lighting bolt, causing the world around them to disappear into a featureless blur.

“Weeeee~! (giggle!)”