Farisian Maid

---

They had their marching orders, even if the briefing they received was a little less than satisfactory. If anything, it was very unorthodox, and even Polina gave a bit of a start when the catgirl maid was unceremoniously heaved over the side of the airship. All things considered, it was a very audacious move, coming on the heels of disparaging the demons for lacking ‘decency or human morals,’ but who was Polina to judge?

No, screw that, she was going to judge.

Not that it was the right time to. She already considered it a win that Myrilla hadn’t noticed her new gift, yet. She simply gave a nod at the woman after receiving her parachute and additional supplies before launching herself over the side alongside the rest of her squad. In the air, feeling the wind buffet against her and her billowing maid uniform, she let herself freefall until she was halfway to the ground. Deploying her parachute ahead of many of the others, she trailed almost leisurely behind in the air, giving her time to unsling her battle rifle from her shoulder, affix its scope, and to make sure her weapon was loaded, finishing her little checklist with satisfying rack of the bolt once she was sure that its ten-round magazine was in place.

That done, she took in the situation before her from her slowly descending vantage point. The northern quarters of the city had been just about destroyed, as described. Yet Polina knew enough about human resilience and determination that there were likely still survivors in that zone, and the faster they intervened, the more could be helped. She began to look through her scope down towards the north, and then towards the defensive line to evaluate its strength, but then the reverberating sound of demonic roaring took her attention to the east. Just as she neared rooftop level, she spotted it—a strange, large lumbering black mass.

Hesitating for a few moments, she squared the butt of her rifle on her shoulder, and three carefully aimed shots rang out in sequence, aimed center-mass at the creature in the distance. With luck, it would do some damage, or at least she could gauge its reaction. Either way, she would likely get its attention.

A moment later, she sank below the rooftops and into the landing zone. Quickly cutting herself free of her chute with one of her many bladed weapons, she took stock of the situation around her, spotting the rest of her team nearby. Without any obvious assigned leader, she decided to take charge, having the larger share of experience among a decent number of them… and also the fact that they needed to know about the colossal amount of trouble she had intentionally dumped atop them.

“It may not be too late to save some civilians. The problem is big, black, lumbering, and coming to us, I made sure of that. Girls, let’s get into defensive positions. That thing is probably the biggest threat all around, and I want to see what it can do before we commit to assaulting it.”

Location:
Cogsfell
12.000 hours
@Click This@AzureKnight@Pyromania99@Sniblet@VitaVitaAR

---

Whatever Myrilla thought of Lucrecia’s words, she gave no indication as she’d stand at the side of the ship, watching each of maids dive overboard with their given mission. It was no doubt in part to see their judgment and function in the field, after all…even if the had all the information in the world, demons were rarely so easily dealt with.

As they fell, the could see demons. Some small, some larger, running through the streets. The smell of fire, sulfur and fell heat quickly met the maids as they’d fall, and Polina, saw fit to launch a pre-emptive strike on the demons that she saw, noticeably…the largest one she could currently see. Three shots from her rifle above the howls of demonic beasts and occasionally scream from an unlucky human.

Each shot would hit its mark, hitting the creatures centermass even if it was hard to tell what exactly it was this far away, or how much damage it did, but the moment the bullets pierced the creatures flesh, itd stop whatever it was doing, screeching loudly and beating the ground with large hands as it’d furiously turn in the direction of the shots fired.

It would not take long for the creature that Polina had antagonized to show itself. The unintelligible screeching and roaring was already heading in their direction. They could feel the ground rumble slightly, loud, fast footsteps as whatever it was charged right for them. A loud, demonic growl as it’d round the corner of a nearby building, slamming into it with its body and knocking what little remained of the building into rubble.

It was…some sort of large, black, hollow creature. The size of a tank, and built like a gorilla with shorter legs and large, massive hands used for walking as it slid to a halt, nearly crashing into the fountain as it’d turn its headless, hollow body towards Polina. Instead of a head or any seeming vital organs, it was replaced with a hollow that was as big as the width of its shoulders that was full of roiling, hot magma. Its flesh was black and tarry, smelling of burned flesh.

She could see the charred, quickly melting, remains of recently deceased in the beasts ‘stomach’, if the hollow space could be called that.

There was no doubt about it, this was a Greater beast. The shots Polina fired seemed to have done nothing but agitate it for the moment as it immediately charged towards the maid, seemingly aware that she was the one that had attacked it.

Katherine and the others could hear other demons howling. A group of demonic hounds bolted into the square, having heard the commotion, numbering about six. Odd, discordant laughter could be heard not far away, too and was slowly getting closer.

Seemed this little stunt had alerted a decent number of demons to their location.

Perhaps they should finish this quickly.

---

"Bozhe…I still can’t believe you did that." Leoniya sighed. “And was it wise not to tell them more? They are just recruits, we should be helping-”

“I’m not coddling them, rat.” Myrilla tersely replied. “Better now they get acquainted with how brutal the denizens of Naraheim can be, especially those of the first circle.” She’d chuckle, watching as one of the maids decided to paint a giant target on their collective backs from her perch above. “If they can clean up and find out what happened here, then that means their training and skills are at least passable. If not…then I’m feeding every single one of them to my pet.”

“Prostite?”

“...Oh, nothing. I just have a lovely pet dog back home. He’s quite the vicious and voracious little thing.” Myrilla turned, dress fluttering in the wind as she’d bring the cigarette pipe back to her mouth. “That said, if things truly turn dire…you have my permission to use that toy of yours.”

“Pravda?! Oh great serpent I haven’t been able to use him in ages!” Leoniya smiled brightly. “I shall go make sure he’s ready to drop!”

Eleanor wasn't as scared of heights as she was of things that ought to be familiar to her suddently turning unfamiliar, otherwise she would've been shaking like a leaf as soon as she stepped into the airship. No – it was the moment she was issued her rifle and instructions that she felt her legs start to buckle and wobble. Not that she was unfamiliar with guns altogether, as her grandmother kept a pair of lighter women's rifles for them to use whenever the local lord deigned to invite the two tavern keepers, also famous in their area for the way they prepared fresh game, on one of his hunts; it was when she saw the loading mechanism that the rifle wasn't the single-shot type that she was more accustomed to.

At least the newfangled contraption was handed to her pre-loaded but still, what in Hell's Kitchen was she to do once she ran out of bullets, not to mention when those... things would start to come at her? It looked so easy when she watched her squadmates work their weapons, but could she also pull it off as deftly as they did, and in a pinch no less? Could she keep the thing from jamming, or heaven forbid, blowing up in her hands? So long as this one thing kept worrying her, not even ten bandoliers of ammunition around her waist could make her feel better (an obviously stupid idea in any case), especially knowing that they won't be facing the likes of criminals or terrorists, but outright abominations and creatures straight out of nightmares.

Jumping from as high as they did was no less scary, but at least it took her mind off her rifle for a while. The thought that the dress with the shorter skirt she picked for herself wouldn't gather as much air as the others' would as they dropped cheered her up, but only a little, and not for very long.

Unlike the rifle, the parachute was much simpler to work: just yank the ripcord like so when you feel it's the right time to do so, and – voila! – arrive at your destination looking like an intact human being and not like a pizza that's botched, bloodied and flattened beyond all recognition. That easy! There was still the issue of extricating herself from the limp, clumsy thing once she landed, but thankfully Polina and the others were standing not very far from where she wound up. Free from her parachute, Eleanor unshouldered her rifle, inspected it one more time to the best of her ability, and quickly made her way to her squad. “Polina! Everyone! I'm coming with you!” she cried as she hurriedly let loose one shot, and then another, at the hideous things as soon as they reared their ugly heads. She wasn't really counting on her bullets hitting anything that mattered, but at least maybe she could distract the monsters for a little longer while the rest of the squad did their thing.

Target assessment isn't the fun part. Astreya takes a quick scan around at the creatures surrounding them, and doesn't exactly decide to delegate, but quickly picks where she wants to shoot and where she'd rather have someone else take care of it.
Somebody else can figure out the tactics. She points her big gun center mass at the big thing.

One spray of buckshot lets off, accompanied by a puff of steam from one of the more wildly angled pipes on her weapon, and it visibly staggers her. Keeping an eye on the beast's reaction, she adjusts her posture and fires another, then another, then another, getting faster, steam bursts chugging along at smaller and smaller intervals, empty belt feeding out the side. The sound is... louder than gunshots, for sure, but she doesn't seem to mind at all.
Of course she doesn't. She's laughing now. Cackling, actually, her tail swishing with wild energy. In a fairer contest, against any other opponents, she could possibly be the most disturbing thing on the block right now.

Cogsfell Aftermath

---

Polina had decided to deploy her parachute sooner than all the others, allowing her to remain airborne for a little bit longer. During which time, she decided to let loose some shots and hit a couple of demons she spotted over the horizon. She managed to take out a few, but the main point was that she attracted the attention of a particularly large demon. It seemed more annoyed than hurt at her shot; it decided to bring along some friends as well as it ran full speed at the party. Their disgusting snarls grew louder as they drew near.

"My thoughts exactly, Polina. Better to know your enemy than charge in blind." She says, as Astreya starts unloading her weapon on the large mass approaching them, making a face as she cackled to herself. Lucrecia sighed as she brandished her blades, and prepared to meet some of the lesser demons who were upon them.

"Gloria a Fiore!"

After her proclamation, Lucrecia let loose with a elegant display of deft acrobatics and precision-based swordplay as she tore through a gang of little monsters who dared try her. Two attempted to jump her, but she quickly countered with a spinning slash that bifurcated both of them. One tried to take her head off with a claw, but she easily dodged and fended it off with a well placed kick. As it flew back, she flipped her blades so that the bottom of the handle was facing out. Clicking the triggers on the handles, a salvo of scarlet bullets let loose from the chambers. The imp was nearly torn apart by the barrage of bullets. Smoke flowed out of the handles as what was left of the demon's corpse fell to the ground.

"The smaller vermin are easy enough to deal with, at least. But, we really should worry about finding a way to deal with our larger amico."

Ah, it was already time to kill, too? Good thing she was ready.

Senya raised her weapon. There was no need to be precise right now, aside from avoiding her fellow maids. All she needed to do was, broadly, aim at the big ugly beast and the other approaching creatures, and avoid hitting any of the other maids.

... Were there people inside its stomach...?

Parts of people...

With a click, Senya attached the belt of ammunition to the feed on the back of her enormous gun. Then, she placed both hands back on it again and adjusted her aim.

There was a whine as the barrels of her weapon began to spin, which only grew in volume as she trained it on the hulking beast and the creatures surrounding it. Steam began to vent from the sides, a hissing sound joining the rising volume of the whining, whirling barrels.

"Die."

What followed was a roar as the barrels erupted with flames, enormous bullets hurtling towards her target, ripping the air as they did. No further enhancement was required, as one of the approaching hounds was struck in the head and had its entire skull obliterated, jaw sailing through the air and vanishing some distance away before the rest of its body was riddled with holes and spewing all sorts of foul fluids. Senya dragged her aim across the approaching targets, sweeping over them before coming to rest on the largest beast, to fill it with as many bullets as possible.

@Pyromania99@AzureKnight@Waylon@Click This@Sniblet@Rune_Alchemist

Farisian Maid

---

The rounds had their intended effect. Polina had hopes that three well-placed shots from a high-power rifle would be enough to put it down. They didn’t seem to do much, at least from what she could tell from this distance, though it certainly did not like it. If a couple of good shots could end the beast, though, the local constabulary would have had long since ended the demon threat.

It didn’t take long to show itself after she landed and brought her fellow maids up to speed. It was a nasty ‘little’ bugger of a Greater beast, and it didn’t even have the good graces to be cute like some demons tended to be. This one was disgusting, feasted on humans, and needed to be permanently ended if Polina had anything to say about it.

The ostensibly serious maid –she was serious now, though!—left the lesser demons to her compatriots, briefly watching as Eleanor, Astreya, and Lucrecia mowed down the hounds with their myriad weapons of choice. Senya, meanwhile, indiscriminately mowed them down, which was about expected for a maid with such a ridiculously outsized murder weapon. By the time she had the gatling weapon focused in on the greater demon, Polina had removed her optic once again, and worked her rifle’s bolt seven more times, with a speed nearly matching Senya’s autogun. Seven high powered rounds smacked into the beast in rapid succession before the maid reloaded with two stripper clips—but she didn’t continue to fire.

It had now penetrated past her long-range radius of defense, and was now in her medium range, where she had… local control. A quartet of blades appeared from within the folds of her dress, even as she held onto her rifle. With the quickest flick of a gesture –for flair, of course, even now—the bayonets shot at the demon, aiming to cut deep into it. With enough focused firepower, Polina was sure they could all weaken it enough that it could be sealed or ended permanently.

"I would have appreciated a warning before you draw a giant beast to us like this." Katherine muttered, annoyed. Rather than that even, she was sad that she didn't have anything fun or explosive to blow this monstrosity up. That small matter aside, there was the problem of the hounds that Lucretia currently engaged. Well, it would be no really issue soon enough regardless. Wordlessly, Katherine's dolls took up firing posture. Halberdiers in front with weapons in hand, ready to strike down any foe that dared get close while the Rifledolls kneeled to steady their rifles and took aim between the other dolls towards whatever was left of the demonic hounds which wasn't much.

Katherine pulled out her own pistol and took aim. All at once, the five shot their respective guns. The dolls their rifles and Katherine her pistol. Altogether, they peppered one of the hounds full of holes in the first volley. Shots penetrating it's skull and body and putting it down. The others seemed to have taken care of the other ones. Lucretia taking the fairest share followed by Senya liberally blasting one's jaw from it's body and Eleanor firing in what could be described as a random pattern seeming to not hit much.

Still, between her shots and Senya's spray fire, the last one was simple to put down. Katherine aimed her pistol and pop. It was the kill shot, stealing most of the glory if one were to be honest. That aside, whilst the big hulking monstrosity was worry enough, there was that eeriely annoying laughter that was getting closer. Using her ears, she directed her dolls to where she had heard the laughter, curious to what it could be. If it was hostile? Fill it full of holes. If it wasn't? Why would it be here?

Location:
Cogsfell
12.000 hours
@Waylon@Click This@AzureKnight@Pyromania99@Sniblet@VitaVitaAR

---

Astreya was quick to engage the demons, being the first to have her boots on the ground and the first to eagerly engage the creatures. Eleanors bullets whizzed past, a few potshots towards the hounds, grazing one and impacting another in the side but it didn’t seem to react aside from a growl, lunging towards the chef turned maid. Nor did Astreya’s buckshot seem to do anything immediately to the lumbering mass.

The bullets pierced its thick, tarry hide, a few dribbles of lava-esque blood spilling onto the ground and quickly cooling as it continued its bulldozed its way through the onslaught, seeming not even registering any hits or pain that it had. Even the rapid fire slugs from Senya’s cannon seemed to do much aside from merely slow it down just enough that it wasn’t fully sprinting by the time it was within range of Polina’s blades, using one of its massive arms as a shield, causing the seven shots bullets from Polina’s arm to embed themselves in its flesh, only one managing to penetrate far enough to bore a hole into its tough hide, another wound leaking molten fire.

It didn’t slow down much as it made its way finally to Polina to engage in Melee, its lumbering arm crashing towards the maid, heat from its body causing one to instantly sweat from the intense, parching heat as it blacked the ground with its mere steps. Bones would be crushed if she was hit, not to mention the burns. Three of the blades would become stuck fast in its tough flesh, if not for the excellent forging and magical reinforcement no doubt the blades would have simply melted. The fourth caused a mere graze upon its flesh.

Unfortunately, things were only going to get worse for the maids, having made such a commotion upon landing.

Senya’s bullets ripped through several of the hounds, the large caliber projectiles cleanly taking chunks and holes out of their flesh temporarily incapacitating them as they’d fall to the ground. This was accompanied by a second salvo from Katherine’s dolls. A line of rifle fire slammed into them, and the halberdiers would find themselves having to deal with several large hounds, three taking to engage them only to be fended off, though none dealt decisive blows.

And the source of that laughter?

Something that would perhaps, make Kat’s little kitty heart pause with potential fright.

”Ahahah~? Oh what is this? Little dolls? Ehehe, well aren’t you so weak looking little things!” The moment the dolls had come around the corner, one would be snatched up by tendrils, tossed into the air…and then completely crushed and swallowed by the appendages. The others would take note of the corpse of a man being dragged along behind it, one of his arms seemingly having been eaten. He was lacking clothes, though.

“So fragile~! Ehehe, oh I’ll break you and you and all of you!”

The figure had now waltzed into the square. A small looking girl dressed in a black robe, standing just barely four feet five. Eight tails extended from just above her butt that seemed to move and have a bit of a life of their own, able to grow to size and be used as both appendages and seeming to be able to morph into mouths. Her pale red eyes alight with some form of perverse delight, and her odd discordant laughter was easily heard now as she’d step into the square, seeing both the maids and the Dolls.

“Ah? Oh, oh look…eheh, little mortals! Little mortals for me to do with as I please!” The voice and her face was completely discordant with what she was saying. Kat could see the remains of one of her dolls in the small things maw before it was quickly swallowed as it’d lock eyes with her. "Hmm, he was getting boring anyways! Why don't you all entertain me instead!” She'd toss the barely alive man aside onto the ground, the eight appendages growing in size, grasping the ground with their maws and flinging herself immediately towards Kat, mouth widely grinning with a predatory, toothy grin.

There was no doubt, this was a High demon! A High demon was present!

Alright, but sometimes target assessment is necessary.
Many people that Astreya's known have had a hard time remembering the simple fact that she isn't stupid...
...sometimes...
...and that, when something actually has her attention, it damn well has it. Her laughter dies down, that mad stupor of violence fading as she takes in the last few seconds in which she doesn't seem to have, actually, killed the big demon. Her eyes dart all across its mass, scanning for everything worth noting. Cogent thoughts form a group and set to a race through that handful of well-developed pathways in her brain.

Her laughter picks up again, this time starting as a low, devious giggle - she's got it figured out now, she holds all the cards! She shifts her aim to the greater beast's arms, looking for joints to lock in on.
Her laughter isn't alone anymore. She sort of notices the newcomer, peripherally, but it doesn't have her attention. It's another demon, probably. Deal with it later.

Katherine watched as the... The THING had ate one of her dolls. A frown instantly crossed her face and her eyebrows furrowed. "How dare you, eating one of my precious little girls." If it was just broken, Katherine had the capacity to fix them, but to eat them!? How despicable. Was the Firbolg scared? Yes. Absolutely. More than that however... She was pissed off! She returned the melee dolls to her ring, and raised her pistol to aim at the High Demon. Damnit it all if she wasn't sure if she could do much to this thing on her own. She and her rifle-totting dolls fired on the Demon. No matter how cute she was, she was still a demon and, therefore, an enemy.

"There's a high demon!" Katherine yelled, wondering if any of them would even pay attention. Really, she wondered if she had enough bullets to seal this one. It was small and hard to hit in comparison to that hulking monstrosity the others had been dealing with. She prepared herself, though. If the demon had grabbed any more of her dolls, she'd recall them to her ring. It was much too late for the other one, but she could save the others before they were devoured. She and her dolls executed a retreating barrage taking steps backwards while keeping up the shots. Rather than a full volley, they had all started staggering their shots, keeping the demon on her toes. "Why is she here..." Katherine asked herself.

Cogsfell Aftermath

---

Lucrecia almost instantly reloaded the bullet chambers of her machetes with one clean motion. She looked around for a moment, pleased that her comrades weren't having much trouble taking out the lesser dreg as well. Polina, meanwhile, tried to at least slow down the greater beast charging their way with reckless abandon. Some of her blades stuck, but much to her fears it ultimately didn't do much in lieu of stopping it. But it seems their commotion had actually attracted something else even worse than this beast...

It started with a strange cackle that bellowed from the very shadows around them. As it drew closer, a tendril jut out from the corner and snatched up one of Kat's dolls. Personally, Lucrecia felt that a lady her age was too old to be playing with dolls, but she'd keep that to herself. But what consider her more was the being that the tentacle was attached to. She, for the most part, had the appearance of a young girl dressed in a black robe. Of course, she took note of the countless tendrils slashing about from her back. The dreadful feeling Lucrecia got from the girl told her immediately that they were in the presence of a high demon. Wonderful...

She was more thankful now than ever that Bernardette had reinforced her bullets with magical coating for this sortie. She doubted that it would be of much use against such a foe, but perhaps she could at least create an opening for the others to make for an effective counterattack.

Lucrecia let loose a barrage of hand cannon fire, aimed directly at the 'little girl's' tendrils. She could only hope this would further aid her allies. She hoped that distracting the girl may also allow some others to focus on the beast with the annoyingly thick hide.

Farisian Maid

---

Polina merely gave a shrug at Katherine’s complaint, but as the awful creature bulled through their sustained fire and the rest of their defenses, including her own best efforts, she began to grow more concerned. She had been very dearly hoping that they could stop it before reaching them entirely, but even with the volume of bullets and sharps they poured on it, all they did was to slow it down. Then, it finally reached close quarters with Polina. She immediately rolled and jumped away, barely in the nick of time as she felt the heat almost singe her hair as she disengaged, silencing a yelp from the close encounter. Really, if it hadn’t been for all the sparring she did with her sister, then she would have been a cooked and pulped Polina right now.

Willing her blades to move again, she yanked on them with her magic until they came free, ready for her to try at a second attempt when she heard… laughter?

Had one of her comrades gone mad with combat already? No… Polina watched as something cute danced into the opening. It was very cute. It also didn’t take a genius to realize it was also very dangerous. “Well, this is less than ideal,” she muttered, quickly replacing her rifle with a flare gun. Her superiors needed to know. Still keeping an eye on the other threat nearby, making sure to keep its distance, she shot two color-coded flares into the air consecutively: red, for high demons, and blue, for ‘shit has hit the fan.’

With two bangs, the two fireworks bloomed into the air near their airship. Distress call sent, she pocketed the little gun, and unsheathed her sword, assessing the situation once more.

Personally, she would have tried diplomacy here. Despite the gruesome introduction, the cute high demon had not attacked them yet. That, however, didn’t stop Kat or Lucrecia, making the decision moot. Unwilling to engage too closely, she summoned up yet more sharps from within the folds of her dress, sending a small barrage of blades at the high demon. She focused hard on their paths and trajectory, trying to exploit any openings not covered by any of her fellow maids’ attacks.

Things were looking dire, now. But with luck, maybe they could make it out…

A high demon...

And that big nasty creature was still coming towards them, too, as most of the other maids had decided to focus their efforts on the high demon instead.

But that didn't stop the big monster from attacking, did it? They needed to address that, didn't they?

Senya was certain it would be stupid not to do so, and noted that none of the other maids had the immediate idea. But the beast was still distracted...

So she'd keep it off of them.

The diminutive little dark elf leaned forward and broke into a sprint. To an observer, it would look ridiculous to see a little girl towing along a weapon as big as she was at such a speed as this, but nevertheless she did so without a single sign of effort, hair teased at by the wind behind her. Bringing her weapon to bare, she let out another barrage of shots, splitting the head of another of the hounds down the middle and repelling another as she swiftly closer her distance with the creature.

The best way to protect her fellow maids was simply to stop it from moving entirely.

Darting beside it before it was able to notice what she was doing, Senya targeted the back of one of its legs. She had no way of knowing how much its anatomy fell in line with that of a normal living creature, but she knew this spot was vulnerable.

The bayonet mounted on her weapon flashed, gleaming in the monster's fiery light, as she thrust it all the way to the base into the creature's flesh.

Without delay, she pulled the trigger.

@Pyromania99@AzureKnight@Waylon@Click This@Sniblet@Rune_Alchemist

Location:
Cogsfell
12.000 hours
@Pyromania99@AzureKnight@Click This@Sniblet@VitaVitaAR

---

The beasts arms slammed into the ground with enough force to smash the cobblestones in the now ruined street as Polina barely managed to evade the blow, sweltering heat coming from the beasts body. The rippling muscles retracted, pulling the creatures arms back up as it’d move to make another strike, this time aimed towards the nearest one attacking it…which just so happened to be Astreya. The ratgirls shotgun blasted into its thick, leathery arms, the bullets sinking into the things skin.

As far as she could tell though, it did not exactly have ‘joints’ in the same way humans did. Its arms lacked bones, it seemed more akin to a giant, walking hollow carapace filled with lava. Even so, as the bullets sank into its arms, occasionally one pierced deep enough to cause a stream of fiery lava to leak, quickly cooling as it’d fall to the ground and yet, it did not stop. It barreled towards The rat, lumbering forwards with its arm and making a swipe towards the rat -

“GGGRRRRGGGLLLL!”

A gurgling, low, rumbling and bubbling howl as Senya’s bayonet pierced the creatures tough legs. Smaller than its arms, it was both incredibly top heavy and unbalanced. It shrieked, immediately turning its attention from the rat to try and turn, but the bayonet had stuck itself fast in its leg. The heat from the beast turned the blade red-hot, and the barrel too, as the bullets began unloading started to steam and smoke as an entire round of bullets had emptied themselves into its legs.

“RRRGGGGLLLLL!”

The beast, however, didn’t seem worse for wear as it’d grab ahold of the ground and pull straining against the weapon impaling it and the bullets ripping through its legs. With a sickening snap, the entire leg finally was pulled free, sending the beast stumbling forwards, slamming into Astreya in the process and knocking her roughly aside leaving a harsh burn on the side of her face.

“Lllrrrrggggghhhh…” The beast, struggled to its feet, large hands keeping itself afloat. Lava poured liberally from its wound, the total amount contained in its body having lessened significantly, and it seemed a bit lethargic, now, its movement slowed…It turned towards Astreya and Senya, its body lighting up with flame and fury as it’d lunge forwards, slamming the entire force of its body towards Senya, intent on using its body to crush her.

Katherine, Polina, and Lucrecia had a far less easy time of it. The demon had flung itself full force towards Katherine, and each volley that rang out, the demon would use its tail to latch onto the ground and quickly yank herself in some direction to avoid most of the bullets, weaving, jumping and expertly dodging any major wounds as she’d land on the ground just in front of Katherine, having simply leapt over the dolls.

“Slow, you’re slow, ahaha~!” The demon’s tendrils lashed out, three taking a doll into their maw, intent obvious as one latched onto Katherine’s arm, sinking its fangs deep into her flesh, but before a second could lash out the demon hissed, retreating with just as much agility as she had before as one of Polina’s blades sunk into the flesh of one of her tendrils. Thankfully for Katherine, she'd also drop the dolls except for one.

“Hmm, is this the best you guys can do? Aren’t you supposed to be good at this? Why are you so weak?” She’d focus her attention on Polina now, maneuvering in the same way she had approached Katherine. She was mostly using physical attacks for now, it seemed, but Blood Demons were known for their destructive, elemental powers, so it would be a good idea to remain cautious still.

Location: The Clematis
12:00 hrs

---

Atop the Airship, overlooking the town below, Myrilla was idly leaning over the railing, tendrils of smoke slowly rising from her cigarette as she’d slowly inhale. A blue and red Flare, huh? Had something gone wrong? A high demon being present, hm…well, it was fine. Unexpected twists like this were good to teach the maids to remain cautious and keep them on their toes.

The fact it had resulted in a fire fight so quickly after landing though…hmph, she’d have to reprimand that one. A maid should learn what their dealing with before committing to an assault like this.

“Leoniya, looks like that toy may get to be used sooner rather than later.” She’d speak into the comm system on the deck.

“Eh? Really? Has something happened?”

“High demon, it seems.”

“A high demon!? Are you certain?”

“No, because Bernadette hasn’t fixed the personal comms units yet.”

“...almost done…” A sleepy voice interjected.

“If you have time to eavesedrop, you have time to work!” Myrilla hissed. “Leoniya! Get down there and help them!”

“Da, comrade!”

A few moments later, the maids would see the ship make a hard turn to the right. There was a thunderous sound of something like a cannon being fired, a trail of smoke as something was launched from the ship, and hurtling towards the square at an alarming rate! It looked like…a Krysan Tank!?

Astreya drops her gun as she falls over. It goes off with a wild shot blasted in some direction she doesn't bother to check up on, preferring to quickly crawl out of the Greater Beast's vicinity. If it's a pain even to touch, who would want to be anywhere close to-
As she gets up, Astreya reaches for her war-slash-smithing-hammer.
The hair on one side of her face is visibly smoldering, but she doesn't seem to notice. Even the smell is pretty well covered up by everything else.

She rotates the hammer in her grip, figuring the flat end isn't going to do much good to bleed the monster, and instead presenting the wedge on the opposite side of its head for imminent use. With its back gushing lava and her uniform featuring fire-resistant shoes rather than fire-resistant boots, she decides to go for its flank. She doesn't really want to get close to its arms.
She swings hard overhead, hoping to embed the spike and tear open a new wound.

Katherine winced as she was bitten into. "Gah!" This demon was annoying to try and fight like this. Well, at the least she could save her dolls from danger. She recalled them all to her rings as she pulled out her finely sharpened rapier. "Fine. Be an annoying brat, you'll pay for it later." She took a step toward the High Demon and took a stab at her. Grabbing the Demon's attention with her own physical attack, Katherine then summoned her Halberdier dolls (the three left) to one side of the demon that all swung down as soon as they fully manifested. Despite all this, the cat expected the demon to dodge once again, which was fine. Behind her, she summoned her rifledolls to once again fire at the demon if she did. "Stand still so we can seal you easily enough." Katherine complained, frustration filling her voice as she recalled her halberdier dolls so they couldn't get so easily scooped up by the demon.

Cogsfell Aftermath

---

Unsurprisingly, The High Demon effortlessly dodged most of Lucrecia's gunfire. It bolstered its agility by using its countless tendrils, bouncing off the walls of surrounding buildings. Lucrecia clicked her tongue at the child-like entity's taunts, being well aware they were getting nowhere with their current assault. The demon make work of some more of Katherine's dolls, but the latter summoned replacements and sent them after it for a counterattack. Seeing that the High Demon was now making its way over to Polina, perhaps they could take advantage of it's diverted attention.

Depending on how the demon responded to Katherine's counterattack, Lucrecia would attempt to hurl some throwing daggers at their attacker to supplement the advance from the dolls. If it tried to dodge the dolls, hopefully the knives would be able to hit a vital area while it was still distracted. She also still had plenty of bullets left to fall back on as well, if that didn't work.

Lucrecia also shot a glance at Polina for a moment, noticing that she shot a couple of flares into the air. It seemed the dropship saw them, and saw it firing something near their vicinity - something big. Lucrecia was able to get a better look as it drew closer to them.

Her eyes widened considerably when she was finally able to make it out; The dropship had sent out a Krysan tank!

Farisian Maid

---

"Cheeky brat."

Polina tsked at herself in frustration as the high demon girl weaved in and out of each attack, neatly defying even her own guided missiles that she sent and continued to reengage. The admittedly cute creature even seemed to take joy in that fact, as it saw fit to insult them with her words. An interesting being, if it seemed to understand human nature. Her eyes narrowed as it took hold of Kat, and she raced to aid the poor cat girl. With her blades still on the girl, Polina finally had some luck as one of her blades landed true, the shock allowing the maid to squirm free.

The success, however, meant that she now had the demon’s full and undivided attention.

Thankfully, it seemed her message had been seen and received, as she caught the change in movement of the loitering airship in the corner of her eye. She was sure that the maids in command would be rather cross with her more… bold decisions of the past few minutes, but what she didn’t expect was… a Kyrsan tank being fired at their location.

After a split second, Polina decided not to question it. Instead, she simply made sure she was not in the path of the hurtling hunk of steel, and then quickly refocused her attention on the high demon. With her own source of trouble hurtling at her, she immediately jumped back, pulling her weapons back with her, too. The moment she reconsolidated them, her eyes flitted over to the chewed up remains of the cobblestone square. With another flick of her free hand –what was living without some flair, really?—she pulled the loose stones off from the ground, creating both a defensive, fluid barrier in front of her, and a secondary means of offense. Still keeping her sword at the ready, she sent off a mass of the rocks at the demon, mixing in her deadlier blades amongst her little barrage.

Well, that better work. At least, until backup was on site in the next few moments.

It came off! Its leg came right off!

Senya's lips curled ever so slightly in a smug expression as the monster found itself down one limb. But that wasn't the end of it, the creature was still a threat. Between the heat and its enormous, crushing body, it could still potentially kill someone. So, the diminutive maid was going to do her best to make sure that didn't happen.

Pushing up and away from the ground beneath her, Senya danced through the air backwards as the bulky monstrosity slammed to the earth less then a second later, crumbling the stone beneath it with its sheer mass. It would have really hurt if it had actually gotten her.

But this put it right where she wanted it.

Springing forward, Senya jammed pointed her weapon directly at the creature's head before it could even attempt to rise, the barrels already beginning to spin with that familiar whirring sound. She was close. The bayonet was almost touching the beast. At this range, there was no missing.

Magical energy thrummed in the air, as a red-orange circle of light spread ahead of her weapon. These wouldn't be ordinary bullets, this time.

As the sound of thunder filled the air, the magically-charged explosive rounds ripped their way from each of the barrels of Senya's gatling.

@Rune_Alchemist