Numako Yamamizu
Branch-092 - Offices
@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR@Eisenhorn@Izurich@OwO

---

Somehow, it worked.

The cursed water hit its target. The blacked liquid coating the undead naginata wielder just enough to give it a moment of hesitation. The large centipede creature, thus, proceeded to eviscerate the undead, ending at least one threat for now. She was a little unsure what to think about it taking a second to glance in her direction, but there wasn't time to linger on that.

She could already feel Mae's incense getting to her a little.

"Nngh...bweh, this is giving me a stomach ache..." She'd grumble. It was fine for now, as long as it didn't get stronger and the weeping god stayed dormant she'd be fine. Swiftly turning on her heel, a wall of inky water formed between her and the gunners behind, stopping the bullet in the decaying waters, before it would turn into a fast moving wall and knocking over the undead, if nothing else leaving it and others around it prime targets for anyone else. In the same instance, Numako started moving, following behind the path cleared by Teratoma. "Don't suppose anyone would want to carry me? No?"

Not that she was expecting anyone to just scoop her up as she'd move as swift as her lazy self could run, dousing a few of the Ashagiru that were being targeted by others in her waters and alternating between knocking over or taking out a few more.

"We were already in a horror movie, now it's changing genres!" the girl complained, blinking to try and clear her eyes... then blinking again some more for good luck. Nope, she hadn't missed it, there were definitely enemies reforming behind them. "Well, looks like we're not going to be able to fight them all to the death anyway. Time for some shortcuts~"

A somewhat sensible person would ask why she hadn't just proposed this from the beginning. A more sensible one would realise that the answer was going to be idiosyncratic anyway and of dubious use. Also, most importantly, that this wasn't the time to ask whether she actually had some solid reasoning as a basis for sticking back and that this could wait until later.

Nonetheless, the girl was following through on her word--if they stuck together now, then that'd just be a series of hops to the end of rooms before, hopefully, getting to the heart of the matter. Line of sight only, obviously; they had to keep an eye out for any ambushes, she didn't know where exactly they were going... and then there was the matter of traps and such. Spotting or reacting to them when you were nearby was one thing, but if she just opened a portal to who-knows-where...

Well, not everyone was good at looking at the floor on the other side before they stepped in.

Yūma caught the marching orders that A-188 had issued to it by Agent Murakami, and his efforts at keeping the resurrecting flanking gunners down seemed effective. The plan was simple and to the point, follow A-188's path into the heart of the mansion and put an end to this unending tide of relics of the past. Suited him fine, the novelty of fighting ooze made specters of the past had begun to wear thin, especially since beyond one interesting threat, it had all been fairly rank and file troops. After putting down several more gunners, a wall of murky, brackish water, providing both barrier against attacks and further openings to exploit. Yūma took up a rearguard position now, keeping himself between harrying attacks and the like towards those more vulnerable to direct offensive actions, commenting offhand in response to a request to being carried.

"All hands seem already full I'm afraid, even A-188 and their abundance of legs."

Moving deftly backwards, which helped keep the more sluggish moving at a brisk pace, Yūma did a quick ammo check while reloading. Running low, not ideal, made things interesting again at least. He had brought enough ammunition for skirmishing, not full blown combat, and thinking back he kind of wished he had brought his heavier duty combat armor, it had more room for ammo and protection and was better suited for handling proper weapons in close quarters. But if he could look at the future and prepare accordingly life would be far different, and a damn sight more boring, so he refocused himself, keeping any Ashigaru at bay with a combination of pistol fire and close quarters strikes, refusing to let himself get drawn off at any given time. Unlike A-188, he didn't have the luxury of being able to shift into a new form and take out an army on his own. He would need significantly heavier firepower to take out an entire army on his own, and a lot more time to plan.

"Bringing up the rear, keeping hostiles at bay."

@Rune_Alchemist@Izurich@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@OwO

He noticed the phantoms reforming the same time Yakumo did. Well, wasn't that annoying? Enemies that didn't have the decency to stay dead when they were killed. Still, that put them in a pretty shit catch-22. Either try to push through and leave their backs exposed, or turtle up on both sidesand leave their everything else exposed.

Good thing that they had a teleporter with them. As soon as Yakumo gave the order, Jinhai dashed right on over, taking up a defensive position as he leveled his pistol and kept firing at any ashigaru that tried to push.

"On you, pinkie." A ninja got too close just as his pistol was running dry, but that was solved with a palm strike to the chest before he quickly reloaded. "Can't say I like cutting and running, but it'd be nice if I got through this with a few mags left. How're you doing on arrows back there, kid?"

@Raineh Daze @PKMNB0Y

By some miracle or another, Masaru's arrows had failed to accidentally strike either of his allies despite his insistence on blindly firing away towards their enemies' last known position. Rather, it seemed like one of the better scenarios had panned out instead; with no apparent threat bearing down on them during their brief period of disorientation, the three were left unpressured as their senses returned to them.

Unfortunately, their enemy reforming from the remnants they had left behind made it clear that a battle of attrition was little more than a fool's errand, and the others, it seemed, had picked up on that fact as well.

With his vision more or less back to normal, Masaru wasted no time in regrouping near the other Agents before firing a few pre-emptive shots towards the regenerating ashigaru and arquebusiers in an attempt to cover Sakura as she worked her magic.

"Don't worry about me; this quiver's infinite. Hell, if you want to grab some arrows for yourself, be my guest," the archer responded as he grabbed a few and waggled them in front of Zhao before firing them in a cone towards the ashigaru still hunkering down in the hallway. "On that note: you any good at darts?"

@Raineh Daze@Psyker Landshark

The path was clear at last.

As another, stronger soldier began to form right before her, Arisa didn't allow its body to complete. She brought Ifrit's blazing shape down as hard and as fast as she could, cutting through it and sending it sizzling back to the ground.

She'd reinforced her legs to ensure she could keep pace as best as possible, to take care of any enemies or obstacles that A-188 may have missed.

The benefit of fighting in a decrepit ruin like this was that it didn't matter if some of it became damaged or destroyed.

The rough center of the old mansion had to be close.

Suddenly the ground in front of them erupted.

Rows of razor-edged spears exploded from the black ooze coating the floor, forming a perimeter. Just beyond them, a larger, muscular figure had formed, black shape clad only in hakama, massive hands reaching out to grab at A-188 and halt her advance. Even if only for a moment.

"Damn it...!"

Arisa raised Ifrit back, but as she swung it down another blade swiftly intercepted, this one holding just long enough to delay her strike.

Beyond was a figure on its knees.

Clad entirely in dulled, faded armor befitting a high-ranking samurai, anyone who could view it clearly would see that all the flesh had long ago sloughed away and turned to dust.

It was a mere skeleton, surrounded by black ooze.

On one side lay a bow. On the other, a pristine blade that looked as if it had been maintained every day for hundreds of years.

The kneeling figure twitched.

Shakily, its right hand raised, audibly clicking as bones realigned, fingers wrapping around the hilt of the katana.

Arisa could feel it. Anyone could, at this point.

Everything else was a mere extension of this figure. Simply a part of a larger haunting.

This was the true anomaly at the root of it all.

Slowly, bones snapping into place, the figure rose.

The armor plates began to realign. Damage faded, dust falling away.

A sickly crawling, fleshy sound came from the rising skeleton. Dust gathered in the empty eye sockets, twisting together. First it formed what looked like withered, rotted grapes.

But as they stabilized, it was clear they were in fact eyes, reforming at becoming whole again.

Soon, they were staring directly at the agents beyond the spears.

Muscle crawled along the skeleton like numerous red worms, writhing as they covered the samurai's bones in layers, stacking up over one another to form a human shape.

His feet slid apart as his left had joined his right on the hilt of his blade.

Skin was reforming, now. Flowing over his raw, glistening muscle. Hair regrowing.

Those eyes burning.

What stood before them was assuredly a ghost, but undeniably looked nearly alive. A young man, but with a certain weariness to his features regardless.

And yet those eyes still burned.

"On my honor---"

The blade gleamed, not only with the moonlight but with a deeper, far less natural power.

"---You shall come no further."

@Raineh Daze@Eisenhorn@Izurich@OwO@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y@Psyker Landshark

Close, so, so very close!

The Fleshweaver could feel it in its exoskeleton, the ominous looming dread eldritchly twisted into throbbing excitement in the anomaly's alien mind, fueled by the prospect of encountering the bad monster that hurt the good people, worse, tried to hurt its friends. It would slither right into its lair and reveal its cowardly hide for everyone to see, so they could all punish it together! Spurred by its hunger for retribution, the Ōmukade continued its insectoid stampede-...

-...until a collection of gigantic hands halted its tracks, the very first thing solid enough to cease the centipede's seemingly unstoppable advance. "GrRrHhHh?!!" Then, before its two sets of amber-colored compound eyes, a figure of inky shadow began to form, first appearing as nothing more than a collection of ooze coalescing around a skeleton in worn ancient armor before it began to… shift - not unlike Teratoma - shaping bones, flesh, sinew, skin, eyes, and even armor plates until at the end of it all, a warrior of bushidō stood before them; his eyes unflinchingly fierce against his foes, his lips uttering an oath that he'd follow to the bitter end.

However, all Teratoma could see was a naughty naughty monster who had hurt a lot of good people and for that, it deserved nothing less than... "oN mY fRiEnDs! yOu DiE!!" The creature roared in its garbled voice as the youkai-shaped Anomaly charged headlong at the samurai-shaped Anomaly, "AaArRrRrGgHhHh!!" Aiming to simply crush the spectral samurai back into the ooze it once came from!

@VitaVitaAR @Raineh Daze @Eisenhorn @OwO @Rune_Alchemist @PKMNB0Y @Psyker Landshark

Even without the logic of the center of the delapedated manor holding the source of the problem, the sensation alone would be enough to announce it. Offering a nod to the other group as the two prongs reunited, it was short lived as things went from bad to worse. Yūma was near the rear of the pack of recombined agents, given his position with the original frontal assault team, and he had a good view of what was happening. Spearwall up, even manifesting swords capable of catching Agent Murakami's sword, and a mass even slowing down A-188. What was revealed was, unlike the black ooze ashigaru, was a samurai of some variety reforming and issuing warnings against the trespassers. A-188 wasted no time trying to bear down on the sword wielder, which Yūma suspected was not going to be nearly as effective as one would expect, which meant he was going to move to provide supporting fire with his remaining ammunition.

A wall of spears was potent, sure, but spears didn't block bullets. Stepping to the side, the former officer took careful aim and waited for a clear opening to harry the sword wielding source of the black ooze ashigaru. He intended to harry the sword wielding anomaly first and foremost, creating openings for the other Agents to exploit. Be it going for the legs to reduce the capability of moving out of attacks, or interfere with the weapon arms of the sword wielding source. Yūma would leave dealing with the spears and rising ashigaru to the other agents, he could at least focus on using the remainder of his ammunition trying to put an end to this decisively. He didn't call out his intent this time, used to watching other agents to avoid hitting them with his shots, and not wanting to warn the source of his intent.

@Raineh Daze@Izurich@OwO@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y@Psyker Landshark@VitaVitaAR

So that's what was going on. A singular spectre was behind everything. Made things far simpler, at least. Exorcise that one, and this whole operation came crashing down. Good thing the whole crew was united, then. It'd make this easier.

Too bad he didn't really want this to be easier now. A chance for a duel against a genuine samurai ghost, and it was going to be marred by the likelihood of everyone ganging up on it. Well, that and the fact that Jinhai didn't exactly have a sword right now. Truly, his will wasn't in harmony with the universe right now. The more he tried to force this, the less chance that it would happen.

Case in point, the freak of nature that was Teratoma surged right on ahead before he had the chance, moving to engulf the ghost warrior in one move. The former hitman sighed, raising his pistol with a twirl. So it wasn't to be for now. He could live with this, but he wasn't going to be happy about it. Maybe he'd get his shot for a duel if Teratoma screwed the pooch on this one. For now, he started sighting up rising ashigaru and emptying his pistol into them before they could interfere.

Really, it was complete bullshit they ever kicked him out of the temple. Here he was, following Laozi's philosophies to a tee. If only the Wudang could see him now...

"So once we're done here, any chance we can hit a restaurant in the area before we head back? Getting real sick of cafeteria food. Hot pot'd be nice. Or spicy ramen. Seriously, I'd kill for anything unhealthy at this point." He commented idly to no one in particular, just whoever was next to him at the time.

With how much they were being stonewalled by that eternally-regenerating group of soldiers, Masaru couldn't help but feel the slightest bit annoyed when Sakura simply teleported them past everything and right to what could only have been described as a boss arena... With an actual boss to boot. The fact that said 'boss' came complete with a dramatic cinematic entrance only pushed that feeling towards the forefront of his mind, and as he readied himself for combat the young man couldn't hold back the smallest of smirks that crossed his face.

Not that it would last long, granted—not with the giant centipede—who he could only assume to be A-188—barreling down upon it. Had the scale been a bit larger, the standoff could have easily passed for something out of a tokusatsu show; that mattered little, though, as it meant that he was far from any sort of position to make any aggressive moves.

Getting between a fight between Anomalies was just asking for trouble. As things were, it seemed more efficient to just let them fight.

Unfortunate, of course, but at least he could take a crack at a solo whenever the simulators updated. First kills were great and all, but sacrificing clears for his ego would've gotten him crucified long ago.

To that end, the Agent wasted no time in following in Zhao's lead, clearing out whatever trash seemed to be popping up to make sure that the others could continue their fight unimpeded. In between shots aimed at the soldiers' heads, however, Masaru began to fire arrows towards both the ground and the walls in a deliberate attempt to leave them lodged within.

Once he had landed enough to feel "sufficient", though, the archer's bow began to spark and crackle as small bolts of electricity began to fly out.

"Well, if I'm on crowd control duty, might as well make it count," Masaru remarked offhandedly before firing an electricity-laden arrow towards the floor behind him. As he took a step forward, the lightning bound within quickly began to cascade outwards, forming a net of electricity that covered most of the area where the ashigaru were constantly forming and reforming. "Giant electric bug zapper seems like it'll do for now, no?"

Numako Yamamizu
Branch-092 - Offices
@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR@Eisenhorn@Izurich@OwO

---

Well, she was half hoping someone would. Or at least she'd find herself falling into a portal and then hitting the ground in front of them at their destination. Did Sakura's portals even work like that? She didn't know, but it'd be super convenient if so. She'd never have to walk again! These rather pointless thoughts were bouncing around in Numakos head as she bolted towards the door and -

"Weh-"

The wall of spears shot up, Numako nearly found herself being impaled on them as she barely managed to stumble to a halt, breath lungs heaving as she caught her breath, taking a few steps back from the spears as Teratoma engaged alongside

"Note to self...work on cardio..." Numako steadied herself as Teratoma engaged. Well, she could weaken it, but if they could get a decisive blow on it before things got too bad, then that would be for the best. This ghost wasn't the only one that could throw hands, either. "Huff...alright...lets try this." Numako raised her hand, her gaze solidly on the Samurai, an open palm raised, extended forward as though she was trying to grab him from a distance.

As soon as the fist was closed, the floor rippled as though it was no longer solid material. Arms covered in decaying flesh, rotten sinew and old holy talismans shot up from the ground, intending to bind the arms and legs of their undead foe.

Mae Ah-ryeon

@Rune_Alchemist@Eisenhorn@Izurich@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@PKMNB0Y@Psyker Landshark

With the return the rear team, Mae did not have to do much. It was good, considering that she had nearly ran out of incense. The perimeter of spears were an annoyance. As she had not charged like Numako, she was not at risk at suddenly skewering herself She always hated it when beasts and ghoulies did such things. Being corralled was a definite annoyance.

Of course, as the team's doctor, she wasn't about to woefully charge in to combat. No, that'd be quite daft of her. Not to mention, she didn't carry much ammunition with her. While she could take down a few ashigaru, it would be better if she saved her very limited ammunition for dire circumstances. Not to mention, she couldn't get occupied with something drastic; if someone got injured, she would need to tend to them.

Though, she did suppose that she could prepare a larger ritual. Of course, those took time. In the brief respite that the change in numbers gave her, she had quickly burnt plain white papers and threw them in the air to scatter. It was an act of purification to both herself and the surrounding area. Without much delay, she ignited a small firebomb and threw it above the ooze. With a fierce crack as its fuse ran out, streams of embers and flaming char began to repel the ooze.

Mae, however, was not done. With her thumb placed on the opening to a small flask, she swung towards the flames. The small stream of water met the flames of the firebomb, crackling and bursting as the two collided into a sanctified smoke.

"This should weaken them," she unceremoniously said.

Poor Numako, really. They really were complete opposites.

... right, that was altogether too many people fighting things for her to want to contribute. What if she hit someone? More importantly, what if they needed to leave in a hurry? This place was haunted, who knew if killing the central apparition wouldn't have it bring the entire building down in one big calamity. No, she'd best stay back and be ready to open an exit as soon as they were done.

Or if their medic needed evacuation, that would be another one.

"Oh, I know where we can get spicy!"

---

The ghostly samurai made no more pronouncements, no more statement of intent. As Tera rushed forward, he simply took a single ghostly breath and swung. A more rational, smaller foe would have had good chance to avoid it. But in a headlong charge to crush the samurai, there was no avoiding it--there was a sound like thunder, and the air rippled, a wave of pressure flying out to slam into the anomaly and carry it back across the room. No longer engaged, he was free to dart backwards, showing an annoying but not unusual--at least among anomalies--proclivity to outright dodge bullets when given such freedom.

At least the grasping hands took enough attention for his sword to clear, rather than the stroke getting an immediate followup.

Yet, writhing alongside him--slowed from when the rear team had seen it, yet not stopped like Mae's first exorcisms--was a rising ooze. Row by row, across the breadth of the hall they were in--an entire firing line of ashigaru formed, fingers already closing around the triggers.

"Ah crap, monk!" was Sakura's panicked squeak, diving past Zhao to avoid the naginata that so succinctly cut through her previous space. It seemed that the shugenja from earlier was back--and still the amount of black ooze was growing, some flowing in from the rest of the property... but at the same time, seeming to grow just from the ghost's presence. Even if it was mostly ashigaru for now...

At this point, it's undeniably obvious that the agents had discovered the nexus of the spectral anomalies, if not, then why would these ooze phantoms try so desperately to protect this one samurai wraith? This was it, they had reached the climax, and once they passed over the summit, it'd only be an easy ride downhill from there. But, the fact remained that they had to pass that summit first, and no one said it was going to be easy.

The sentiment couldn't be any more evident when the Spectral Samurai collided his sword with the Ōmukade, and unlike the mostly-equal melee between Teratoma and the Sōhei from earlier, the Fleshweaver utterly lost the clash as in that very instant, its momentum was suddenly reversed, the clap of thunder heralding the shapeshifter's insectoid body being tossed through the air. It was a rather surreal sight, witnessing a bus-sized centipede alone would be a cause for concern in itself, but seeing it soaring through the air? It wouldn't take an entomophobe to consider running for the hills.

Alas, though Teratoma's current form had no shortage of legs, it did lack any form of aerial locomotion as it crash-landed with a loud slam, cracking the ground and taking out more than a few ashigaru unfortunate enough to be in the area. "RrRrRrGgGgHhHh?!!!" The extradimensional creature vociferate; was it in pain, enraged, shocked, or distressed? Hard to say, but one thing for sure, it was definitely no positive emotion, for a given definition of emotions considering its eldritch mind. Skittering back up, it was about to try its luck the second time. However, it only managed to skitter forward for a bit before it spotted a hated foe, one that it had personal history with, however brief.

As if by instinct, Teratoma abruptly pivoted toward the Sōhei instead. With a roar, its innumerable legs easily stepped over the prone petite spatiomancer as it barreled straight to its warrior-priest rival. It appeared that another duel between the monster and the monk would initiate once more. At that moment, the gunner ashigaru with their ineffective firearms, Agent Mae's sanctified smoke, or really anything else happening around them were drowned out by Teratoma's singular focus to show the Sōhei what the concept of 'staying down' truly meant!

@VitaVitaAR @Raineh Daze @Eisenhorn @OwO @Rune_Alchemist @PKMNB0Y @Psyker Landshark

Headshot. Headshot. Tracer. Tracer. Reload. Now it was starting to get annoying. Turkey shoots weren't quite as fun when the turkeys kept coming back to unlife faster than he could sight them. Right, they had to change tactics. A clap of thunder caught his attention, and Jinhai quirked an eyebrow as he saw Teratoma get sent flying.

Well, damn. Alright, bit more proof that it was time to do his job as a monk and start taking this a bit more seriously. He tucked his gun away, pulling out a handful of fulu talismans instead. Sure, his weren't exactly the best quality, but every little bit helped at this point. Jinhai surged forward past Teratoma, who seemed to be charging in the other direction, and moved to engage the samurai ghost.

He led off with flowing piguaquan palm strikes, each blow he threw at the samurai aimed to stick a fulu on it on top of trying to do damage. These Taoist talismans in particular were aimed at suppressing the spiritually unclean, weakening them for conventional attacks to work. Hopefully they'd at least do something to the big leader.

As the last of his half-dozen fulu were placed on the samurai, Jinhai switched back to baji, exploding into action as he sent fists and elbows flying towards the ghost.

"无为二无不为..." He chanted under his breath, aiming to steady himself mentally and spiritually as he struck. The more in tune and harmonized he was, the more his blows and magics would work.

While the scale of the phantom samurai's influence on the area he inhabited naturally indicated he was no ordinary ghost, seeing him actually fight only served to drive home that fact all the more thoroughly. Even at this range, Arisa could feel the air ripple. His presence was one that was driven by dedication, obsessive and focused. He was a ghost whose power had not faded away at all due to sheer and unbridled unwillingness to quit.

He truly believed that he was still serving whatever purpose he had been here for in the first place.

They'd have to defeat him head-on.

Flames surged over Ifrit, building and collecting over the wide, heavy blade as Arisa took a step back, drawing in a deep breath. The flames built, condensed, and---

With a swing, she sent them hurtling from the blade, slashing a path right through the nearest Ashigaru and sending the ooze that composed their bodies sizzling to the ground. Hopefully, they'd be suppressed by Agent Mae's efforts as well! Sprinting over the goo, the redheaded agent darted around to the samurai's flank as Agent Zhao initiated his attack, aiming to deliver a crushing, burning strike to the ghostly samurai's right side.

Meanwhile, it seemed as if some of the oozing soldiers were struggling to reform due to Agent Mae's efforts. The ninja, who had previously caused something of a ruckus, did not appear to have a strong enough presence to fully reform. Some of the Ashigaru were forming more slowly, while others struggled more then that, but it was clear that their capacity to revive was stronger in close proximity to the samurai.

And it appeared that the phantom army was well aware of Agent Mae's efforts.

The hulking, muscular-looking ooze phantom suddenly lurched forward, katana raised as he made a bid to charge for the Korean medic's location, aiming to at least disrupt her. As he grew closer to the initial source of the smoke, it was clear his speed was decreasing, his physical power lessening, but his presence was far stronger then the Ashigaru who could not approach and were wavering under the purifying smoke.

And alongside the sohei, another more powerful phantom rose.

Something was different, here. The features seemed more defined, more elegant, a feminine visage as opposed to the at least apparently masculine soldiers so far. The phantom was clearly armored from head to toe, but its proportions were still distinct enough. The details of a face, too, could almost be discerned.

The naginata gripped in both its hands gleamed, and much like Arisa had moments before...

It broke off, leading a flanking contingent of Ashigaru away from the dense smoke in a bid to strike the rear team from the opposite side.

@Raineh Daze@Eisenhorn@Izurich@OwO@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y@Psyker Landshark

Things were not going smoothly, by all accounts. Yūma noted that A-188 was actually thrown back by the ghostly samurai, the source of this whole mess, as more Ashigaru rose up, though Agent Mae's purification was slowing the efforts of the lesser spirits. Still, he found himself slamming his last magazine home and continuing to pick off gunners, buying time for Agents Zhao and Murakami to engage and bring down the Samurai leader of this mess. As much as he would love to also get stuck in, too many people would just get in each other's way and interfere with each other. Five bullets left, he mentally considered, just in time to glance and see a powerful form trying to advance on Agent Mae. No, they could not have that, and he turned on heel, aiming two rounds at its knees to cripple its advance before putting another two aimed for its head. One bullet left, save that one for an emergency, and as he swapped to his brass knuckles again, he spotted a female looking spirit forming with a naginata and more ashigaru heading for the rear team. Not on his watch.

"Engaging the flankers! Keep anything else off Agent Mae if your not engaged with the primary threat!"

A quick dashing sprint brought Yūma across to burst out of the smoke, a lunging haymaker smashing the first ashigaru back into the ground, a combination of momentum and its already weakened state combining to dispatch it in rapid fashion. Keeping his momentum, the former officer moved fast for the naginata wielding spirit, aiming to get within her guard and reach before she can bring the deadly sharp blade and reach to a good advantage against them. His strategy was simple, evade and turn that evasion momentum into another swing, keeping low and quick to hopefully prevent the naginata wielder from getting any leverage in putting her weapon to dangerously good use. Maybe this one would prove to be more interesting than buckling under the barrage of blows.

@Raineh Daze@Izurich@OwO@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y@Psyker Landshark@VitaVitaAR

With most of the (comparatively) less threatening goo-soldiers kept down by the team's efforts, Masaru took a moment to take a breath and examine the battlefield as a whole. By some miracle or another, everyone else around him had pulled the attention of their enemies, which gave the young man ample room for threat reassessment. At present, there were only two main threats—the samurai that Zhao had tagged in to deal with and the sohei that the massive centipede was now trying to overpower. The ashigaru and ninja were effectively pinned and ability to respawn cut off at the source, which meant that all they really had to do was maintain the situation as it was now and things were as good as done.

...As if things would ever be that easy.

As though on cue, a rather familiar face (if it could even be called that) sprang up through the clouds of dust and ooze thrown around every which way—the very same figure that had blocked the rear team's advance earlier. While he could hear Agent Yuuma's shouts to engage anything flanking them, Masaru's attention had refocused towards keeping their new "friend" off of their healer.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Masaru shouted back before firing a few volleys towards the massive monster charging towards Agent Mae and attempting to move in closer for a more "lethal" shot. Regardless of if the first few arrows actually left any meaningful damage, the young man's goal now was to try and land a shot—electrified, preferably—through somewhere soft enough for an arrow to stick. Failing that, though, it'd mean that he'd pull attention away from the medic, and at that point it'd be time to see how well he could dodge and roll through attacks to keep the thing occupied.

Hopefully, the answer to that question would be "well enough", else his first mission could well be his last.

The samurai's reaction to Zhao's choice of magic was... surprisingly heated, the ghost launching a furious counterattack to the talismans with a snarled "Foreign witch!" If they were doing something to him, it was hard to tell; certainly, the long sword he was swinging wasn't flinging razor wind everywhere, but that could just be the lack of wind-up limiting him. It didn't make the storm of flashing steel he was engaging unarmed much more pleasant, or any less likely to cut off an arm if he slipped up in the slightest. At least it was keeping the samurai from taking up his other weapon.

As before, Tera was overwhelming the ghastly monk. Unlike before, the well of reinforcements didn't appear to be running dry, even as the defeated struggled to regain their forms: two thundering booms showed that, seemingly disappointed with the performance of the arquebusiers, their opposition had scaled up to outright cannons, one targeting the blatant monstrosity... and the other Mae, no doubt trying to eliminate the the one thing keeping this from being overwhelming with sheer numbers. It wasn't helping with the visibility either; between the gunpowder and the incense, the air was getting quite smoky.

What wasn't expected was the next defence to come bounding out of the murk. Huge, definitely bigger than the actual examples anyone would have seen, and not quite a lion nor quite a dog. A matched pair, of course, one with its mouth kept open and the other at least shut for now... but undeniably less stone-like or carved than komainu generally were. On the plus side, while obviously mystical and inhuman, at least they weren't focused on a single target: one was beelining straight for Masaru, and the other had split off to force back Arisa's flanking. They'd find out in just a moment that for all these beasts looked like flesh and blood, when it came to weight and resilience, it really was like fighting some guardian statues.

Just as before and would remain forever, the heretical monk serving a false kami would never triumph against the defenders of humanity, youkai or no. With a decisive strike, the Ōmukade clamped its mandibles around the Sohei's waist before hosting the spectral warrior-priest up toward the ceiling. "MmMmRrRrRrGgHh!!" Crunching noises could be heard as they crescendoed into a grisly climax of the centipede snapping the robe-clad wraith in twain, raining down droplets of black ooze upon its carapace.

With triumphant clicks, Teratoma's glowing compound eyes scanned its surroundings for more prey to punish. Only for the answer to come by itself as a cannonball struck the gigantic insectoid square on its face, "?!?!?!?!!" The benevolent monster hissed with eldritch inhuman noises as it was staggered back, the projectile bouncing off its hide before landing with a heavy thud. For their efforts, the spectral cannoneers had painted a target upon their backs as the shapeshifting anomaly's alien fury fully shifted onto the culprits. With a roar, it stampeded straight to them!

Though twas' likely more coincidence than anything, but by doing so, Teratoma was following Agent Yūma's directive of covering Agent Mae from any threats coming her way, and it just so happened that these ghostly artillerists also had the Changgwi Exorcist in their sights, well, not for much longer considering the bus-sized monstrosity beelining towards them.