@VitaVitaAR @Quartz

Kaida was mid-dance practice when the familiar alarm sounded.

What was meant to be a slow and fluid spin became a stumble. "Waugh!" Acting on instinct, she twisted her body and bent her knees, landing in a catlike crouch. Her face burned as she stood and hurried from the training hall. "Kazemi-sama... If you saw that, I meant to do that." As she sent the thought, she rubbed the back of her neck. She doubted Kazemi had seen, doubted that mere training connected her to the spirit realm in the same way true rituals did - she didn't get that telltale tingle of energy throughout her body, or that sense of serenity. And she knew Kazemi wasn't easily angered, ever since the dragon had reassured her all those years ago that there was no need for excessive formality when talking with her. Still, any mistake felt like letting her down. "Also, we've got a demon alert."

Now she could pick up on Kazemi's presence, like a gentle sea breeze. "You don't have to punish yourself so much," replied that voice in her head. "But tell me as soon as you need my assistance."

Heading straight to the briefing room, she nodded. Two new people stood there with the others, listening to Ayako's announcement - a fashionable teen whose gender she couldn't discern, and a Western-looking woman with a missing arm and a goth aesthetic. Talk about trial by fire, even if luckily for the newcomers, most of the demons were only beast class. She probably wasn't making the best impression on these two in her tank top and yoga pants, and would earn a disapproving look from Emi for sure, but changing clothes would have been a waste of time, since her outfit would transform along with her. "I will," she told Kazemi, "and we've got quite the sizeable team this time."

---

The journey was quick, uneventful save for the adorable cat popping into existence near the new boy Kaeru with a bag of cinnamon rolls. Watching the scene, Kaida chuckled. He and Rika seemed like they'd be good company, but currently they were engaged in conversation with each other. So, Kaida spent the trip the way she normally did, trying to get Emi to open up and cracking silly jokes, but her comrade's gaze remained unfocused. Either she was ignoring her, or talking with her own contracted spirit.

When the vehicle pulled to a stop outside a construction site, a Demon Denial Field shimmering around it, Kaida climbed out, hurried inside the barrier and started the possession ritual. Two-two-one. Two bows, two claps, then another bow. "Kazemi-sama," she called in her mind. "I'm ready to throw down." Her body rippled like a reflection in water, divine power flowing through her as her skin turned silver blue, hair changed into fins, and a tail extended from her lower spine.

"I'll help out," she announced to her comrade who'd just done a similar ritual - Natsumi. Wind whirled around her, making her fins rustle, and she rose high into the air. "If any demons take notice, I'll distract 'em." Attackers would have more trouble with two moving targets than with one. Especially ones who could attack from above.

"Kaida-san..." came that long-suffering voice in her head. "I appreciate your thinking, but advise you come up with a plan along with our comrades."

Glancing down as Rika sent forth several clones of herself, Kaida grinned. "It's alright. That's exactly what we're doing."

The only response was a low, sighing grumble.

Ayako didn't enter the construction site with the rest of the operatives. Naturally, she hadn't been cleared to do so, and to be perfectly frank she was certain that the operatives wouldn't require her assistance anyway.

If they couldn't handle this, they had bigger problems.

From within the transport, Shiro was monitoring the situation to the best of her ability. The various readouts in the control station for the vehicle were linked directly to her psychic capabilities, but such things could not always be relied on.

At times, Shiro would be forced to exist the vehicle in order to provide proper support. Even enter the Denial Field.

Thankfully, especially given their new recruits, this was not one of those times.

---

In sharp contrast to the crowd outside, just beyond the perimeter established by the disaster response workers, the Construction Site itself was entirely empty. On one hand, this meant that evacuation procedures had gone smoothly.

On the other, it meant that the demons still hadn't been sighted.

Beast-class demons were effectively just animals in mentality, befitting their name. That made it unlikely they would hold out for very long.

Unless the stronger demon was somehow controlling them.

The construction site itself seemed to be a large building early on in its development. Half-finished concrete pillars marked the supports, and various tools were strewn about from the swift evacuation. There were some walls and temporary structures in place, tarps draping over the freshest portions of the construction in order to protect them.

"Emergence Gate location is within twenty meters."

Shiro's soft, monotone voice came to life in their communications systems. Ahead, there seemed to be some sort of partially-constructed hallway, leading deeper into the most complete portions of the building.

No sooner then Shiro spoke, did it a low growl emanate from the hall. It sounded not unlike that of an angry dog, but with a strange echo, a reverberating undertone that made it sound unnatural.

And the creature it belonged to was no dog.

It was the height of a groan man at its shoulder, bulky, muscular frame bent and hunched to allow it to walk on its hands, a long tail trailing behind it. Its head appeared partially armored, upper jaw covered in what almost looked like a smooth metal structure terminating in a part of horns at the back, sharp teeth lining its maw. Four bright orange, burning eyes, two on either side of its skull, glared at them as its fanged jaws hung open.

It was not alone, six of the Beast-class demons emerging from the hall in total.

With a snarl, they came charging forward!

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@RolePlayerRoxas@Quartz@Emeth@LuckyBlackCat

Advancing forwards with the others, Akira made sure to stay covered as much as possible--since the evacuation had gone smoothly, her only reason for being here was to make sure that Andrea remained here, and perhaps act as demon bait as the only soft and available target. A thought that she didn't relish in the slightest, no matter how weak their enemies might have been.

Take these horrible canid-man things. What did she want to do? Run in the opposite direction, preferably using the construction site as shelter where possible until she could get out of the denial field to safety. Instead, she was cowering behind the newbies and hoping they were as competent as they were confident.

That was when her preferred human shield made her return, one of the Beasts' heads simply evaporating in a sudden lance of actinic light, the rest of the carcass dropping bonelessly and rapidly starting to dissolve away into nothingness. Beside it, sharp nails punctured the chest of the second, a gore-coated arm punching out from behind. It, too, started to dissolve, revealing a bored-looking Andrea who hopped away from the long arm taking a swing at her.

"The Gate is just ahead," the demon stated, voice low and smooth, more suited for a lounge or a bedroom than a monster on a battlefield, "These are the only enemies thus far."

Rika was momentarily distracted by the voice inside her head, but she quickly recognized that monotone as belonging to Shiro. "Technology is incredible," she said to no one in particular, shortly before some unearthly dog-like noises echoed from deeper within the construction site. Even with the echo, Rika would recognize that reverb anywhere—before she even laid eyes on the massive creatures, she knew the sounds belonged to beast-class demons. She stopped suddenly, motioning with her hand for her allies to do the same. It would later seem a bit strange to her, leading the group of more experienced demon hunters, but her current state of mind left no space for her usual doubts or regularly scheduled episodes of impostor syndrome. She watched calmly as the beasts approached, waiting for an opportunity where they might line up so she could smash several of them in one punch. It was then that Andrea reemerged, dismantling two of them like it was nothing. Truthfully, Rika told herself—it was.

One of the four remaining beasts charged Rika, taking her for easy prey—but suddenly a massive, pitch-black forearm bound in chains appeared to grab the demon by its head, thrashing it around like a rag doll as the beast had clearly intended to do to her. It smashed the beast into its kin as they tried to pass by it in the hallway, Rika remaining completely still except for her eyes tracking the creature as it flew through the air. Eventually, one of the other beasts made it through, charging at Akira, but Rika leapt in the way and held her arm out confidently, as if she were a professional dog trainer wearing a bite suit. Though it took her arm with its mouth and thrashed its head around, attempting to tear her to pieces, Rika remained rooted to the spot as if she weighed several tons. As it gnawed on her repeatedly, a second beast that the disembodied arm had managed to grab yiped and yowled in pain as its body was slowly crushed like an aluminum can, seemingly by some invisible force that was striking it repeatedly. Perhaps it wasn't apparent at first, but it was happening at roughly the same rhythm that Rika herself was being bitten.

"I wonder why it is they can't resist me," Rika remarked absentmindedly, as the beast continued its seemingly futile assault. Rika was clearly not in any hurry to kill it, as long as it was attacking her rather than anyone else. "Exotic meat, perhaps? Maybe a teething instinct..? Say, does the DDF charge their employees for replacement uniforms, by any chance?" she asked sincerely, turning her head to face the others. There was a bit of blood splattered on her face, but seemingly no injury that it could have come from.

Natsumi Fujikawa

From the air, Natsumi could glimpse inside the partially-constructed building to some extent, but not well enough to spot the Emergence Gate, which must’ve been inside of it based on Shiro’s estimate. At least she could clearly see the surrounding area from here. “I see no demons or civilians outside of the central building,” she said into her ear piece, broadcasting to her allies. Wait, did the new recruits receive ear pieces before they came here? She hoped so.

She had no more time to dwell on that before she witnessed several demons charging forth while the foreign recruit strode ahead to meet them. Oh no. They were only Beast-class, but even so she could already imagine the brutes pouncing on the poor woman and tearing her to shreds. What could she do? Should she carpet bomb the demons with her fire before they reached her? At the speed they were moving, that seemed far too likely to cause collateral damage. Before Natsumi could make a decision, the combatants already made contact, and it was… completely fine, actually. Huh. Clearly she wasn’t exaggerating when she said she had fought demons before.

From this angle, Natsumi couldn’t tell how many more demons would emerge from that hallway, but it seemed like the ground team was handling it. She could regroup with them and push towards the gate all together, but she didn’t like the prospect of potentially getting surrounded in a confined space. She looked to Kaida at her side. “Let’s find a way in from above and flank whatever else is in there.” Trusting that Kaida wouldn’t disagree with getting closer to the action, she didn’t wait for a response and flew down to the unfinished roof. Even if the gate was on the ground floor, a shell of a building like this would have enough exposed stairs or entirely missing floors to quickly make their way down.

@Quartz

As soon as the pack of beasts poured forth, Kaida whirled round in midair. She held out her hands, ready to amass and shoot water, but Akira and Andrea had already sprung into action, as had Rika with an impressive shadow arm that flung one of the demons aside. Kaida's eyes widened as another beast managed to bite Rika, but for all its efforts, left no wounds. She gave a sigh of relief. Their new comrade wouldn't need healing, and had the skill to back up her claims.

At Natsumi's suggestion to enter the building from above, Kaida nodded. "Yeah. Rika and Akira have got this." If she tried to snipe the beasts with high-pressure water bullets from this vantage point, there was a good chance she'd hit an ally by mistake. She flew after Natsumi through the gap in the roof, into the bare-bones structure of a building.

"This place doesn't look like it can take much damage," Kazemi warned. "Make sure there's a quick and easy way for both of you to escape if it collapses."

Taking in the site's rickety state, Kaida winced. Temporary walls, scaffolding, and unfinished concrete pillars served as its only means of support. "Uh... Not to be a downer, but Kazemi-sama's saying the building likely won't hold out long if a fight breaks out here," she told Natsumi, keeping her voice low so any demons present wouldn't hear their approach. "So we've gotta be careful, and make sure we can get out fast if the worst happens."

The remains of the beast-class demons that had been slaughtered broke down, dissolving into a smoky haze that slowly rose from the spot the corpse had fallen and disappeared. All that was left behind as a faintly glowing, spherical red shape. But a demon soul of this low-class didn't need any further interaction, passively absorbed into the body of the the one who slew it.

While Kaeru had suffered a blow hard enough to knock the currently-female operative into a nearby wall, her quick response took down the Beast-class that was responsible, tearing through it like a bolt of lightning.

Needless to say, the extermination was going well.

Unfortunately, the unnatural, echoing growls from deeper in the tunnel heralded more of the canid-human demons, their fiery eyes glowing in the darkness.

This time they weren't along.

"Hah, contractors?!"

The cocky tone was just as unnatural-sounding as the growls of the dogs.

"Me and my hunting hounds will tear you to pieces!"

The figure that emerged from the darkness was tall, With lengthy arms. Its form was masculine, angular, and while little detail could be seen of its dark form, there appeared to be the clear shape of defined muscles. While it was largely humanoid, its somewhat elongated neck ended in a skull-like, fanged head, its three eyes glowing orange and two horns curling once and then pointing sharply upwards on either side of its head.

"I'm sure all your souls will taste just delicious!" it howled, pointing and sending the Beast-class demons charging once more.

"Signature lock," came Shiro's monotone voice, "Commencing analysis... Analysis complete. Target is a Monster-Class Demon of high grade. Use caution, but do not fear engaging the enemy."

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@RolePlayerRoxas@Quartz@Emeth@LuckyBlackCat

Akira gulped, diving for cover behind the weirdo that let herself get chewed on. Hey, if her contract was going to help out with that, who was she to complain? Better to let the actual chew toy get it over with whilst she stayed in relative safety. At least it wasn't a Devil, right? This was the sort of thing the newbies could have helped out with while she got lunch, which meant things should be over soon.

Hopefully.

Andrea dealt with two of the charging Beasts--hounds? How quaint--with a snort. One was impaled on her arm using its own momentum, while the other... well, maybe she thought Rika had a nice trick. Only, without much protection, there was a lot more blood. And tearing. And then the creature was thrown back, the blood-dripping arm visibly healing. All without a single response from the demon's impassive face... although her shadow was visibly snarling back.

Right at the Monster. Covering its vision. Hiding how the circle that had been lining itself up behind Andrea was now finished, ready to fire both through the hound-monster and the stronger demon's heart alike.

If it dodged the blazing lance, maybe it would be more worth her time to come here?

Emi had a lot to complain about already, but it was going to have to wait for now. The initial wave of beasts were dealt with, but now more were on the way. Accompanied by the demon leading the pack. Emi narrowed her eyes as the loudmouthed monster spat out its' meaningless boasts and threats. Like she was going to be intimidated by something of this level. Ugh, she shouldn't think of the demon like that; it may not be the worst monster she's faced down, but it was a monster, nonetheless. Complacency was their worst enemy.

The beasts came charging, and Emi stepped forward, flames flickering on the tips of her fingers. One of the monsters leapt at the fox, intent on clamping down on her neck, no doubt. She had little time to formulate much of a plan, but at least she was capable of recognising how straight-forward and telegraphed the attack was. The thick tail seemed to expand in volume, curling around Emi's body to form a small, surprisingly sturdy shield. The demon's fangs clashed with resistance like steel, Emi gritting her teeth as she swung her hardened tail to the side, throwing the beast into an adjoining, square space, soon to be a room or office.

"Honda-san, I'd suggest directing your demon towards the main target," Emi noted to young woman, turning towards the room she'd thrown the charging beast, "the rest of us will deal with the beasts. Stay behind us."

Ignoring the infuriating chuckle echoing in her head, the foxlike agent raised her hands, the flames intensifying as she pointed her palms at the recovering beast. Before it could launch a second assault, she blasted her foxfire magic at it, pelting the howling demon with her blue flames. It was knocked off-balance, but it irked Emi that she didn't seem to do any appreciable damage. No doubt the creature was burned somewhat, but it was hardly going to dissuade the rabid freak from attacking further.

Emi had no doubt she could subue her opponent. Even someone with her level of strength was likely to defeat a mere Beast in a 1v1 scenario. Though that right there was the issue that plagued Emi's thoughts, no matter how much she tried to focus solely on the task at hand. All because this idiot fox that wanted a Contract simply refused to cooperate, she can't properly utilise these powers the same way that-

Daydreaming again~?

Emi gasped, immediately manipulating her tail once more, enlarging it as she swung it over her left side like a fist, punching back the beast that had charged at her once again. The sickening howl and cracking sound indicated that she managed to subue the monster, at least. Thanks to Shirokami's timely warning.

How utterly infuriating.

Rika watched as the beast that had been chewing on her arm grew tired of her and turned its attention to Andrea, a mistake that was immediately and horribly punished as two beasts were killed with one punch, their bodies becoming a tangled mess. "Oh. Thanks, I guess," Rika said vaguely, inspecting the damage to her arm. Her sleeve was completely gone, but her arm itself bore no serious injury, only a few bruises where the beast's teeth had been prior to her release. These bruises, too, quickly healed.

Turning her attention to the voice that had spoken from down the corridor, she locked eyes with the thing. The vaguely humanoid shape made him a candidate, until Shiro confirmed that it was a mere monster, though a higher-level one. "Monster-class. You're not the one," she remarked under her breath. She briefly considered taunting it to draw its ire toward her as she had done before many times, but thought better of it as she craned her neck back to see that Akira was still close behind her. She gave Akira what she'd clearly hoped would be a reassuring, ear-to-ear smile, but her eyes weren't quite up to the task of matching that enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, the shadow arm was wiping the floor with the beast it had caught, quite literally as it ground the helpless creature into a bloody mess while using it to punch at several other beasts, knocking them around like pinballs in the tight space. Truthfully, there was really not much else Rika could do in an enclosed space without serious risk of bringing the unfinished building down. Her previous failure that had resulted in major infrastructure damage remained close to the front of her mind as she fought—or perhaps the summoned arm was semi-sentient? In either case, she remained close to Akira, her body barely moving an inch as her attack continued.

Having finished their sweep of the outside of the building, the dolls Rika had summoned earlier gathered back at the armored vehicle before starting to encircle the site. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking as they had no minds of their own, but a quick probe of Rika's inner thoughts would reveal that they were to block the entrances being used by the DDF crew, to prevent them from being flanked and caught unaware. If attacked, they would explode outside the building, dealing minimal structural damage, thinning enemy numbers and drawing the attention of everyone inside. Shiro's communications would make this redundant, but redundancy seemed to be Rika's intent. Her thoughts were fixed on how she just couldn't mess this up. She needed to prove herself reliable, and a smart team player, if she wanted to keep fighting demons—to find that devil.

Natsumi Fujikawa

"All the more reason not to bunch up in that hallway," Natsumi responded. Using small jets of flame to fly in a precise manner, she zipped several storeys down into the building with Kaida on her tail, passing through empty gaps in the floors where stairs would eventually be constructed. Between the concrete walls and the metal scaffolding, there wasn't a lot of wood here, so she probably wouldn't demolish anything, but the same might not apply to the demons. If it did go south, she just hoped that Akira wouldn't get separated. The rest would probably be alright.

Once close to the ground floor, she could clearly hear the sound of battle, even through the concrete. If her spatial understanding was correct, the next gap down would put them on the far side of where the demons emerged. Perfect. As she stepped up to the edge, she could feel Suzaku's enthusiasm and fighting spirit, but her own knees felt shaky. She didn't like taking point, but she was the one with the higher stopping power. Don't overthink it, it's probably just beasts down there. "Cover me," she said to Kaida before jumping down.

Using her flames to slow her fall just enough to spare her ankles, she landed on the ground floor. Behind her was a wall, ahead of her were several demons, all currently faced away and in the process of either charging towards her allies further ahead or preparing to charge. Taking things one step at a time, Natsumi set her sight on the two nearest beasts. These demons were bulky and fire doesn't exactly penetrate a fleshy target, so she had to hit them hard to ensure an immediate takedown. Bracing her feet on the ground, she thrust out her hands and conjured a large and blinding jet of red fire that engulfed both of the unsuspecting demons, launching them back against the nearby wall as their flesh was rapidly incinerated.

After sustaining the jet for a moment, she ceased it as suddenly as it started, leaving smouldering remains that were substantially reduced in size. A shiver ran up her spine as she felt Suzaku's satisfaction. She had no time to dwell on it though, because the next nearest beast spun around immediately and lunged at her with feral recklessness. She wasn't prepared for that, so all she could do was conjure a small blast of fire from her hands to launch herself back, causing the demon's jaws to miss her as she stumbled back against the concrete wall.

_{@LuckyBlackCat}

Kaeru & Nyoko

---

"Ahaha, man these guys are worse than I was when I was a novice. What gives I thought these guys were supposed to be super dangerous~" Despite getting smacked into a wall herself and having a rather nasty bruise and slightly torn clothing where she got struck, she seemed mostly unfazed. She'd slam the heel of her foot into the head of the demon that had smacked her, crushing its skull underfoot into the slightly charred crater she had made when it rather violently met the underside of her foot. "And here I was hoping I could get some proper exercise-mmrrr?" Her tail stood straight up, her ears twisting towards the darkness and sounds approaching. More? Yes, but something different. More dangerous?

It wasn't long before the newcomer made itself known. And what did ya know, it could speak.

A vaguely human thing with elongated neck and a certified creepo face.

Well, it looked tough, but she had to agree with Shiro.

"That things trying way to hard to be spooky." Kaeru grinned, taking an aggressive posture. "Lets see if it can back up that bark of its." Willfully not hearing Emi's order, Kaeru would instead choose to engage the demon. A flash of lightning and a crack of thunder as Kaeru engaged, avoiding the one nearest and instead appearing behind the demon behind it.

A duck under it as it attempted to swing in response. A sharp, open palm strike to its face as Kaeru dug her nails into its neck. A rough knee to its stomach, another elbow slamming into the creatures back. It tried to strike in turn, but it missed by a wide margin as Kaeru had already put herself feet away in a mere second. In another second, she had already leaped forward, body low to the ground as she'd grab the thing right in its stomach, the speed and force she struck with slamming the demon into a nearby wall as lightning completely fried the demon, an arm-sized hole being left in its stomach before she'd leap away, and find another target on her way to the big demon.

She vaguely recalled someone saying something about this things poor structural instability but such thoughts went through one of Kaeru's ears and out the other.

@Quartz

Kaida sped after Natsumi, using her fins like wings to steer on the air current. The howls and thuds of battle grew louder, closer. Steeling herself, she looked to her comrade and nodded at the request for cover. "Roger that." She jumped down to the ground floor as Natsumi did, controlling her fall with a mild updraft.

She could clearly see the beasts ahead, all of them too focused on the other fighters to notice they were surrounded, which gave Natsumi the perfect opportunity to launch a burst of flame at the two nearest ones. Narrowing her eyes against the sudden brightness, Kaida set her sights on a third beast who whirled round and snapped its jaws at Natsumi. Before it could strike again, Kaida stretched out a webbed hand, an orb of water rapidly swelling in front of it and shooting at the demon in a pressurised stream. The blast punched through its side like a bullet, wisps of black smoke rising from the wound as if its flesh were evaporating.

"Bad dog," she taunted as the demon roared, collapsed and dissolved entirely. Her heart still thudded from the near-miss with Natsumi, but she clenched her jaw, keeping all fear tamped down. Someone capable of protecting people, and worthy of serving a kami, had to stay strong. She reformed the water into a sphere, shooting another jet at a beast that barrelled towards her.

"Hah? Haaah?!"

The Beast-class demon that had been tossed towards the Monster-class burned, its entire body soon crumbling away into ash to leave behind that quickly-absorbed souls.

But the Monster-class had moved. For a few moments, those three eyes were wide with shock, relating is true feelings on the attack it had narrowly escape quite handily.

But when the Monster-class Demon came to a halt, its cocky tones returned.

"You're strong? A demon that's that powerful, working as a human lapdog? What a joke! That's hilarious!"

Its skull-like face had twisted into an unnatural-looking grin.

"Guess I'll just have to devour you and all the others here huh?"

As several of its 'hunting dogs' emerged from the darkness on either side, the demon spread its arms wide.

"Take this! Hellburst Shower!"

The temperature rose sharply, the hall once illuminated by a bright, orange glow as a multitude of small fireballs appeared to surround the demon's lengthy, spread limbs. There must have been at least a few dozen of them. With that twisted grin, it swung its arms forward, sending them scattering across the hall. The moment they came into contact with a wall, they erupted into a burst of flames.

It was likely the same could be said about any softer targets they came into contact with.

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@RolePlayerRoxas@Quartz@Emeth@LuckyBlackCat

Akira let out another muted squeak, retreating behind a pillar--only to find that now there was burning concrete and what the hell was that about, seriously, most of the shell of a building wasn't even flammable why was this actually catching alight and okay retreating even further from the construction site kept her away from the flames and one of these people had better be making sure there weren't dogs circling them.

At least she was proving remarkably adept at avoiding damage or making life overly difficult for anybody else.

Andrea's response... well, the demon moved. Slightly. Despite her limited movement, and being right in front of the target, the fireballs' trajectories took them harmlessly past, aside from the new environmental issues. "The only thing I'm going to take from a worm like you is your life."

Despite that... well, Andrea was moving quickly, now, but she wasn't attacking. Gouging out chunks of floor or wall, leaving impressively flat surfaces given the demon was using nails to do it? It was perhaps distracting to keep an eye on her, but it wasn't threatening. Not obviously, not unless one took into account the slow grinding of patterns into the angled surfaces left behind.

Natsumi Fujikawa

Natsumi sighed in relief as Kaida dispatched the attacking Beast. Moments like those were why she wasn’t confident in taking point. Still, Kaida’s protection didn’t give her a lot of respite before the Monster made its move, carpet bombing everything in sight. Fireballs probably wouldn’t harm her, but it didn’t hurt to be sure. With a flick of her head, she elongated her fiery hair and swung it around herself like a burning spiral. The swirl of hot air deflected a few of the bombs away from hitting her directly, to crash into the wall behind her instead. The ensuing bursts of flame still partially engulfed her, but they weren’t hot enough to overcome her heat resistance. The forceful explosions and the abundant amount of fire didn’t seem good for the concrete, however.

“This is so not going to hold,” she commented half to herself and half to Kaida. Since the Monster wielded fire, she didn’t know if her own would work against it. But since it was surrounded, any attack of hers might distract it enough for her allies to get a hit in. Taking a step forward, she thrust out one hand and shot a narrow jet of fire directly at the demon’s head. The Monster was taller than any of her allies, so if the attack was dodged, it would hit the ceiling with little risk of collateral damage.

Kaeru & Nyoko

---

With the trash taken care of, that just left the big guy. Kaeru cracked her shoulder, turning to face the clearly now out of his depth demon. Still, it looked like he had some tricks up his sleeve. From the demons arm came an inferno. It might have caused her to sweat a little had she been a normal human, still, so it was a good thing she was having Nyoko's help currently. Leaping over one of the fireballs that had come her way, the Raiju smirked eagerly as she'd land, pivot, launch herself towards a wall and contorting her body to just barely have a second fly under her.

She'd land on the wall on her hands and knees, using it as a spring board to launch herself over a few more, right towards the large demon. Twisting her body she'd angle herself towards the demon, a kick aimed right for its body, electricity crackling off her heel-

"Nyep!" Mayday mayday! A small shout, as she instead she found herself whiffing the attack completely, sailing right past the demon and hitting the ground on the other side. She rolled with it, managing to swiftly get back to her feet. "Ugh, still can't control it very well...ah-"

Well, this was something of a dangerous position to be in.

"...Ahahaha, I did that on purpose ya know."

@Quartz

"No blowing up buildings on our watch!" Kazemi's warning ringing painfully true, Kaida leapt aside from the inferno and shot a jet from the water orb at the blazing wall. Steam billowed through the hall with a loud hiss. Grunting, Kaida re-condensed the water, putting in all her effort even as blisters erupted all over her arms. Keeping it in liquid form was no easy task in this sheer heat. "Ngh... You alright, Natsumi?" she wheezed through the smoke.

Her hands and forearms seared in agony, but she couldn't spare any of the water to heal herself, not yet. As the flames died down, she spun round and redirected the stream, sniping a fireball out of the air. Unwilling to risk flying - wind would just fan the fire - she sprinted as close as was safe to the nearest burning wall and sent the deluge in its direction.

A glance over her shoulder revealed Natsumi and Kaeru were launching a dual assault on the Monster-class demon. Meanwhile, it was on her and Kazemi to keep the building from coming down on everyone's heads.

With the beast trapped in Rika's grasp thoroughly pasted, she no longer had a "shield" to protect her. That wouldn't do, of course, and so she swept low at the monster-class demon with a grabbing motion from her giant arm, hoping to at least goad him into jumping straight into Natsumi's fire attack, and distract him from whatever nonsense Andrea was up to. Unlike the posturing, cocky foe who stood before them, Andrea at least acted somewhat serious in Rika's estimation, so she hoped Andrea wasn't just playing with her food.

Then the fireballs reached her end of the hall. Thankfully, she had left some distance between her and the monster, giving her some time to absorb the pattern of their attack. She skillfully danced out of the way of the incoming projectiles, unwilling to experience even a fraction of the pain of being burned alive. As she dodged, she hopped backwards, trying to keep up with Akira as she retreated. As the smoke cleared, though, Rika could see three more of the beasts charging her. "Aw, der'mo," she swore. "Uh, Emi-san?" she said somewhat urgently as the three approached. The two Rika dolls left at the entrance they'd used abandoned their posts, charging into the construction site to provide their maker with some backup. If her grab missed, she was about to be in a bad spot.

As the three demons encroached upon Rika, Emi suddenly lunged from the mostly-uncontruscted room, kicking one of the beasts on its side. With a disgusting yelp, it slammed into the nearby wall, alerting the other two to Emi's presence. Raising her clawed hand, blue flames flickered to life on her fingertips, soon followed by her mystical flames erupting from the floor, separating Rika from the demons. She could have opted for trying to burn the demons directly, but it seemed too risky; sure, the monsters might burn out eventually, but having two or three of these things going berserk while aflame would not exactly help the delicate situation. The chaos was already threatening to bring the whole building down on their heads as-is.

What Emi was aiming for, was simply a distraction. Dissuade the creatures from approaching her, and turn their attention towardss Emi herself. Then, with her blue flames dispelled, Rika copuld strike them from behind, allowing them to easily dispatch these mutts and clear their escape route.

With the two remaining demons turning towards her, Emi glared at them in return, a twitch of her finger letting her flames die down behind them. Giving the downed demon one more stomp, she cloaked her hands in the blue flames, ready to fend off the remaining beasts.