The Timekeeper continued to struggle against the ensnaring vines of the dryads. He was unable to warn Estelle about Dante in time, only able to watch as one of the civilians were knocked unconsious by the sandman's hammer. The sight of sand pouring out of the girl's eyes sent a chill down his spine, was that how he looked when the curse knocked him out?! Hell, what was in the back that Dante was trying to hide? He wouldn't have time to consider it with the cowboys swarming both him AND Ashley who was...

Oh for fuck sakes, she was letting herself get swarmed. The only thing the Knight actually did was open a window for their backup who's jargon he could barely understand what the hell was all those owos and hope that she could make everyone fall asleep. And now Estelle was requesting they clear the path to the entrance. How the fuck could they when Ashley was waiting on their help to act first? When neither of them were free to help him? right now? The mechanical esper's chasis sparked as he prepared a melody to break himself free and eliminate the bulk of their adversaries as quick as possible.

A surge of electricity set off around him, speeding Finn up, and hopefully paralyzing the dryads and cowboys long enough for him to start cleaving them apart until there was nothing left but severed limbs and pools of crimson.

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Sovereign could tell the moment she had made her demands that the air between them had quickly become tense. As much as she suspected, they wanted to take Mika and leave without any questions or requests. Something that Sovereign wasn’t interested in one bit. Something about these nuns was giving her a funny feeling that she didn’t quite like. Not to mention the talk of selling children led her to believe that they possibly weren’t in league with Oros the Mad. After all, what would be the point of Oros wanting her to bring Mika here, just to sell her?

But before she could make a complaint, or go into action, the nuns struck first. Grateful for Noble Sparks melody as it took the brunt of Lenore's swing for her. Being sent off balance with a surprised grunt as she was sent flying into Mika, feeling herself tumbling across the floor with her until they came to a rather abrupt and rough stop.

Remaining atop Mika for a moment as she gathered her thoughts and cleared her mind after the tumble. As her eyes came back into focus, Himiko realized just where she was at as she gazed down at Mika beneath her. Letting out a laugh, “Oh hey Puddy, what an odd place to bump into you all of a sudden” cracking a joke, even with the situation being as dangerous and chaotic as it was.

“How about we work together this time around Puddy? I knew we had trouble as soon as I spotted the first nun, I’m just thankful they aren’t wielding the most deadly weapon within the arsenal of the nunnery, not a single one has a ruler or yardstick, so we have a fighting chance…..” Rolling herself off the top of Mika and onto her feet she kneeled on one knee as she helped Mika back up. Both revolvers drawn and at the ready as her golden eyes lit up with excitement at this unexpected chance to team up with Mika. Not to mention the chance to settle a grudge and get to the bottom of all of this. "I'll follow your lead, since you seem pretty adept with close combat, I'll be your support Puddy...." Giving Mika a big pat on the back before turning her focus to the Nuns.

Whether the nuns worked for Oros, or where a separate party entirely she couldn’t be certain of. But that wasn’t what was important right now, they had struck first, and Himiko wasn’t about to let them off the hook for it. Aiming both of her weapons at Lenore just in time for Marrie to launch her own attack on the eye-patched nun. She let loose a volley of rounds in support of Marrie keeping her aim precise and towards Lenore's legs to minimize the chances of friendly fire. Also to try to hamper Lenore’s movements to help Marries attack be more successful.

She did owe Mika some uses of her abilities, but she held them for the time being, until she could get a better picture of what Mika wanted to do. Also using the results of Marrie’s attacks to get a gauge on the Nun’s abilities.

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The gemini agents were surrounded, they needed a way out.

Anyone who practiced chess would tell you that you always needed to put some pressure on your opponent. Being too defensive allowed your opponent to spread out and surround you, promising a difficult, if not impossible, end game. Ashley may have opened the window to allow her backup a shot inside, but by this point the cowboys had figured her out. The moment she attacked, she was vulnerable for the briefest of moments. When she stretched out her arm to fire, one of the cowboys grabbed her arm and pulled her off balance. Another cowboy grabbed her shield while she stumbled. Ashley wouldn’t relinquish her shield so easily, but with her arms pulled out to either side, there wasn’t much she could do to protect herself. One of them gouged her shoulder with a beer bottle, another delivered a straight punch directly into her kidney. Then her melody went off to shield her from the next few blows. A punch to the stomach, having a bottle broken over her head, hopefully her backup would fire soon.

The situation around Estelle was plenty chaotic. But regardless of what the other agents were saying over coms or what sort of chaos was erupting around the bar, her objective remained consistent. She had to get those teenagers out of here. Everything else was a distraction. Estelle kept her goal in her mind and moved.

Estelle’s Dai-Katana was a potent tool for defense, and one that could make for some fairly absurd situations. But when the ward and chair collided, it didn’t quite have the effect that Estelle desired. The ward operated by taking an incoming force and redirecting it with an equal and opposite force, at least when it was physically struck. The drunk biker wasn’t a monster, and wasn’t swinging with nearly enough force to lift his own body high enough to get swatted by fan blades. The stool flew out of his drunken hands and pierced the particle board ceiling. Dante hadn’t been keeping up with maintenance, so the stool was more than enough to bring down the rotted truss that the fan was attached to. Spinning blades fell, the bikers stumbled backwards, Estelle slid forward as the entire mess crashed down behind her. It wasn’t as “fun” as what she had envisioned, but the end result was the same: The teenagers had a clear shot.

After Estelle relayed her orders, she set off to distract the goons left at the bar. She knocked over a table, prepared a melody, swung her fist… and something wrapped around her neck.

The dryads had indeed not rooted her legs a second time. Instead, the shapeless fey creatures decided to reach across the room to coil their tendril-like vines around her. One snagged her neck and tugged her backwards over the table she knocked over moments before. The fan that had fallen earlier may have been a threat to the bikers, but it wasn’t much to a group of monsters. But before she was sling-shotted backwards, she managed to reach out a finger and touch the Mage’s shoulder. The resulting mana-burning field caught the dryad sitting next to him.

The mage up until this point had remained seated. He was just keeping his head down pretending not to be there while these other bikers beat the snot out of each other. The Shadow Wizard Money Gang didn’t have that many members after the Shadow Government switched over to recruiting espers only. Now all they had were their bikes and their spells. ”Hey man!” The wizard pointed at Estelle with a finger that had no less than three rings on it. ”Keep me outta that shit!” Otherwise, he made no other motion towards the esper that was getting dragged backwards towards a mob of angry drunk bikers. The dryads sitting next to him were not as merciful, and rushed towards Estelle even as the bikers took turns trying to kick her, with a few making a move for the sword she was holding.

At least the girls were moving now. All but one had taken the opportunity to retreat with their unconscious friend. While the stubborn one remained by the jukebox, the other three carried their unconscious friend towards the front of the diner. The last obstacle in their way was all the bikers near the front door.

And then there was Finn. Bound, choking, and about to get the beating of his life. Despite his age, he could see what was going on around here better than everyone. Everything was turning to shit, and someone had to do something about it. They couldn’t play nice anymore. It was kill or be killed.

Fuck it.

His body erupted with a melody, sending arcs of lightning into anything and everything nearby. The cash register went on the fritz, the lights blew out, but most importantly, the vines around his body loosened up. The dryads screeched out animalistic sounds, but they had been paralyzed by the attack. How fitting that the first thing Finn cut would be made of wood? Their vines, their bodies, Atropos sawed through them in seconds. The dryads howled their last as Finn was sprayed with sap and blood. He’d do it this time. He’d save everyone.

With a “Nyah!” a bolt of violet energy flew through the window and landed next to some of the cowboys. It exploded into a chromatic display of hearts, clouds, and horses, and managed to put four of the cowboys to sleep. It would take Violet a bit to neutralize the entire bar, but at least now Ashley could use one of her arms again. The cowboy holding her wand was fast asleep.

The wizards were far less amused with this display.

”Holy shit! That boy ain’t fuckin’ around!” One of the three at the back of the diner pointed out.

”That bitch attacked my boy by the counter too. If we wait too long, we’ll be next.”

”Know what I’m thinkin’?”

”Level four fireball?”

”Fuck yea!”

The three wizards stepped out of their cubicle. One of them grew a fireball in the palm of his hand while the other two traced symbols in the air.

---

@Vertigo

The nerd continued to stare in disbelief as the “oni girl” left his room. It wasn’t clear if he didn’t hear her, or was in such a state of shock that he couldn’t physically react. Upon leaving the room, “Viper” had a similar reaction. They gave Ciri a thousand mile stare as she told them to to stay out of her way, more or less.

”Hmm…”

Ciri sent off her gorilla to find a hiding place, and then she looked down the stairs while asking her friend for a time. But before she got a response, she could hear the familiar “boom” of a shotgun being fired. Ciri turned just in time to see her minion fall onto its back with a giant hole in its chest. Moments later, the gorilla’s body melted into a puddle of inky darkness and dissipated.

The SPAS-12 was a famous gun, largely due to its appearance in movies and videogames. But it was made at an interesting time when the french police force wanted a gun that could do everything. Part of that everything was the specific use case of being fired with one hand while driving a squad car. It’s not difficult to see why they eventually moved on to more specialized guns that were lighter and easier to maintain. But for an esper, being able to hold a shotgun in one hand and another weapon in the other was a rather nifty trait to have. There was no time to cast a melody, and the barrel was already being swung in Ciri’s direction. She had to take cover.

She dove back into the nerd’s room. He must have been thinking of watching her down the hall, because he was in the doorway when she decided to dive back in. The shotgun went off again, and Ciri fell on top of the nerd, pinning him to the ground.

”Uh…” He remained very still as his eyes examined everything in his immediate surroundings.

Then Ciri got a message back from her friend. He couldn’t actually speak, but the sounds she got back let her know he was saying something along the lines of “He’s slippery.” She could hear another wall break down as the dragon dove back outside, this time lunging out of the hotel and falling into the street. He grabbed onto the adjacent building with his fingers, but this was less to get a hand hold and more to slow his descent. As soon as he was on the ground, he started running out of the alley.

Ciri might be able to try and settle the score with the esper here, but her friend wouldn’t be able to stop the fleeing dragon all by themselves. She didn’t have long before the mysterious esper came through the door.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Justin threw his melody towards the window frame. The glowing ball of electricity might not have struck as fast as a lightning bolt, but it was much faster to get out there, which was what he needed to not become a human torch. However, that slower speed allowed Bobo to react to it. Her eyebrows went up as she stepped away from the window, just as Justin’s projectile bounced to its final resting place. Before he was doused in liquid napalm, he had appeared on the balcony with everyone else. But he wasn’t behind Bobo, he was in front of her.

”Glad you could finally join us.” she grumbled. And with that, all of the espers were inside St Bianchi Church.

Marrie had too many monkeys on her back, so she went intangible, briefly turning into a cloud of fog to get Nova off of her. The nun fell onto her feet, and Marrie attempted to wrap the chain of Apexer around Nova while also poking Lenore with the melody charged tip of her knife. But that was a little counterintuitive, wasn’t it? Apexer had great reach, but with the chain wrapped around Nova, she could only ever get eight or so feet away from her. Nova dug her heels into the ground and took hold of the chain weapon. And pressed her back against the chain. Marrie might have been able to stab Lenore, but she was already running after Mika and Sovereign. She looked over her shoulder and winked as she further distanced herself. Apexer blasted mist out of the edge of its blade as the melody dissipated.

Shotguns were traditionally loaded with standard buckshot, but Asher’s Hatred was only ever loaded with slugs and hellfire. They weren’t particularly accurate, especially when fired on the run, but at this range Asher would have to be a stormtrooper to miss with both shots. One of the shells punched a hole through a construction worker’s chest, right while he was stumbling towards some cover. He finally collapsed near Marrie, wounded but alive. But it was at this distance that she could see why they had such strange head gear. They weren’t wearing goggles, their eyes had been replaced with cathode ray tubes. Her memories of her first operation in Pax surfaced.

Meanwhile, Asher engaged the other gunman in some guntana. He kept his firearm in his hands, but used it to block the incoming blow before kicking Asher in the chest. Though this did more to push himself backwards than it did push Asher away. He’d bought Asher some time to act, but he looked like he was arming his underbarrel grenade launcher.



For everything that was going on, Sovereign seemed pretty chill with it. Even now, she was cracking jokes and moving like a lunatic with a sword wasn’t trying to end them. That would have been a surprise, but she chose to work for Oros after she cut off her arm. Maybe this level of insanity was necessary for espers. At the very least, being helped to her feet was one of the more pleasant experiences she had when it came to an esper touching her. With a groan, she forced Angelie out of her head. I really wish there was a way I could write that without inviting more puns

Suddenly, and without warning, the balcony where Justin was standing suddenly collapsed. It was as if an invisible swordsman had cut through the wooden structure beneath him. No sooner had Justin made his way in did the floor give way beneath him. There was barely time for a quip at Bobo. As he fell, Lenore extended her hand, and a bean of blacklight hit him. As soon as Sovereign started firing, Lenore and Justin switched places, and she was now firing on someone who owed her a comic.

"Okay." Mika sighed. "I’ll take Lenore, you get the gunmen." Mika growled before charging towards the sadistic nun, who only smiled back at her, black sword in hand.

Nova took a pull of her cigarette, and suddenly the area around her became very smokey. Marrie could feel her chain come loose, as it was no longer around the smoking nun. Though now she couldn’t see anything, and the smoke was only making her weaker.

Bobo pointed off the balcony. ”You still have ammo, don’t you? Keep shooting!”

It wouldn’t be long before they started firing again. This time they had men on every level, leaving few places to hide.

Ashley hissed in pain as the barrage of broken bottles, brass knuckles, and bar stools eventually breached her defensive screen. Shards of glass pierced her shoulder, while a blow to the stomach knocked the wind out of her, sending the Knight of Tomorrow doubling over, while gasping for breath. Thankfully, a minor reprieve in this relentless assault came a moment later, when a quartet of cowboys took an impromptu ride on the dreamland express, thanks to MDP’s whimsical magic, giving Ashley the breathing room she needed to deal with the rest. Even though the schoolgirls had yet to escape the diner, the Knight of Tomorrow realized with grim certainty that they would never do so unless she cleared them a path, a line of thought Estelle apparently agreed with.

“Rodger!” the high-tech heroine replied to the witch hunter's request, even as she began carrying it out.

Although Ashley was less than pleased about the idea of using potentially-lethal force on what was essentially a bunch of rowdy bar patrons, the urgency of the situation, coupled with the thought of any one of them reporting back to The Hand and possibly placing her parents and brother in deadly peril, left the Knight of Tomorrow with no other choice. Yanking her techno-wand away from the now-slumbering cowboy that had grabbed it, and taking careful aim to avoid friendly fire, Ashley snapped off a quick shot into the still very much awake cowboy on her left’s center of mass. An instant later, she brought the weapon around to fire a mighty blast of neon green energy at the cluster of five cowboys on her right, hopefully taking them all out of commission. Even as she did this, the high-tech heroine’s eyes darted around the diner, taking in the current state of the chaotic melee, her focus swiftly zeroing in on the almost-certainly-devastating spell in the process of being cast.

“Witch Hunter! Neutralize those spell casters!” Ashley instructed over her comlink. “Timekeeper, escort those girls out of here!” she added next. “MDP, thanks for the assist! I’ll try to get another window open once the girls are safe!”

If all went even remotely well, the majority of the schoolgirls would soon be out of harm’s way, allowing Ashley and her team to neutralize the remaining hostiles without restraint, before moving on to Dante himself…

---

While it obviously would have been ideal to blink behind his opponent, Justin was more than content to settle with not being roasted and now being in a range where he was more of a threat. He grinned, notably wider than his typical resting one, and started to rush the flame-throwing nun with the intent to deliver quick justice to her face via the skillful use of punches. "Now that I've properly arrived, you're going dow-"

Of course, things didn't go as smoothly as he hoped and he found himself falling as the balcony collapsed. He cursed the ironic timing as he fell, thinking of what he could do to respond, only for things to get more hectic as he felt a melody hit him. While suddenly falling itself was quite disorienting, the sudden shift in scenery was beginning to make Noble Spark wish he had abstained from eating a big meal before setting off on this mission.

I suppose if I do give into the nausea, I can at least try to ruin their day...

Given how suddenly this all happened, it was difficult to understand what exactly was happening with senses alone. instead, his next actions were based on the assumption the random melody that hit him probably wasn't for his benefit as he was at least able to make out who just swapped with him. He wasn't even sure if a melody would go off before he met with whatever hazard was about to befall him, but it didn't mean he wasn't going to try. He focused his melody and guessed going upwards was probably the safest option given how far his melody was going to fling him. But being airborne was also dangerous, and he'd be looking for a safe way to land return to the ground assuming the gunmen weren't already prepared to go skeet shooting with the airborne hero.

Estelle probably would have said something by way of apology, really. In the heat of the moment, she had simply assumed that the shadow-faced hooded biker-mages were up to no good as well, and that it’d be for the better to take the initiative after giving so much initiative to everyone else. But lo and behold, that particular fellow really was just some guy trying to keep his head down.

Doctor Moller had basically given them all a kill order, of course, but mages definitively weren’t monsters, and if they were chill as well?

The Witch Hunter felt a bit bad. She still felt worse though, when the dryad’s vine wrapped around her neck and yanked her back into the fray. Crashing against the table that she had just toppled over herself, Estelle instinctively grabbed at the vine choking her and released another mana-burning prohibition. Holy sigils raced down the length of the vine until it connected to the offending-dryad’s main body, before purifying the evil power that dwelt within. It weakened the creature’s grip enough for Estelle to break free, allowing her to roll away right as a biker’s boot stomped upon where her head was moments ago.

And now it was a proper scramble, a mad melee.

The Dai-Katana, perpetually sheathed, swung from side-to-side, clearing out space and deflecting incoming blows. Two of the dryads were still far too close to the girls for Estelle’s liking, and she forced herself into the space, tripping up one of the bikers as she glided through. Surrounded now by monsters at all angles, her Divine Domain, that eerie sense for chaotic presences, activated at full power, allowing her natural senses instead to turn towards the fireball that was being enhanced by three of the biker-mages.

Oh, that was going to be a problem.

She should probably…

“Hey, hold up!” Estelle said, even as she ducked under the vine-whip of another dryad. “That was entirely my bad, fellows! Thought all of you were getting in on the fighting business too. Listen, we’ve got no problems with mages, and I’m personally just here to help some kiddos get out, so could you just pack up that fireball?”

She glanced to all directions and noted that there was literally no place at all where she could safely deflect that spell without somehow worsening the overall situation.

“I’ll put a good word in for y’all with GEMINI. Even more so if you escort those highschoo- WAIT, WHY ARE YOU STILL THERE?! LEAVE WITH YOUR FRIENDS, GIRL!”

He didn't give the dryads time to react, no time to act, not even time to breathe before he sliced them into ribbons. The Timekeeper may have shorted out the lights, but he could tell he hit the mark when he felt blood and tree sap staining his body. He didn't know what he looked like to the others at that moment. Like shit probably. But at the same time, it felt... good. All things considered it probably shouldn't, it's probably more concerning that acting with violence didn't backfire in his face like trying to show mercy did, and he should probably stop thinking over his morality when there's still cowboys swarming.

Oh, never mind. Guess they were still going the non-lethal route for the humans.

...Orrrr not? With "MDP" lulling a few cowboys asleep, it gave Ashley more room to finally retaliate.

Maybe should've done that sooner before you got surrounded?

Can't really say much when Estelle was swarmed too, and she was more active than they both were. He would've rushed around to continue culling the numbers down; especially since the wizards had finally taken initiative, but then their dear leader ordered him to get the civilians out himself. The boy took a deep breath. "Yup, sure, why not." He can still play knight for a sec. Finn activated another speedster note and rushed over to the group of highschoolers, juggling between ripping through any attempts of them getting attacked and rushing the girls out the door.

...

But why hasn't Dante continued fighting?

There was suddenly quite a lot of slack to Apexer's chain. It was bad enough that Marrie's secondary target had been able to hold her back, and worse still that her melody hadn't traveled through the chain as she'd wished, but that was a learning opportunity. Less of one was her being surrounded again by the smoke that was draining her strength. Less still was seeing the barely-breathing form of one of the construction workers.

And like a bullet to the temple, memories that she'd hoped she'd properly worked through and buried came back. She saw herself struggling against the ape-men. She felt the pain of her left arm and face being sliced, of her jaw slamming into the ground. The regret of having to kill the ape who caused her fall, the horror of just seeing the queen bee, let alone of stabbing her and being stuck in the disgusting arms of hers as it coughed up blood and died. The sight of the smeared viscera that had once been bee men under the bulldozer. The last memory to show itself was of the driver of the crane, a corpse with its head mangled some sort of magitech keeping it functioning.

The thoughts were weighing her down almost as much as the magical smoke was, but there was a single silver lining to the system shock... That now Marrie was really, fully ready to kill these people.

{Bronze Projectile - Storm - Bounce}

The thing about stones, when they're thrown, is that they're not especially fast. Lucky then that time wasn't a factor in what she was trying to do. Apexer's chain snapped back into its shortest length as a dust devil shot from it towards the ground, only to bounce around the room a few times and out the door, taking most of the smoke with it. Good thing she knew her angles. And now that she could see again, she ran as quickly as she could towards the strange generator in the center of the building, passing right by Justin. She slid around the apparently holy machine and rolled to her feet on the opposite side of the entry door, barely poking her head up over it to take stock of the situation.

---

Asher was starting to get angry, he kept having these radical awesome plans that would look totally amazing, and for some reason they just kept not panning out the way he wanted. A well adjusted individual might ponder to themselves the causes, perhaps expectations were to blame, or even forces out of Asher's control. Perhaps there was nothing deeper than chance involved, or perhaps some unseen hand guiding out events in a way that saw Asher as nothing more significant than any other piece of this world, perhaps just bad luck.

Well, Asher wasn’t well adjusted.

The constant hitches and ways that things weren’t going the way he wanted were starting to piss him off. That last attack should have cleaned that man’s clock, instead he’d had the audacity to block Asher’s blow from landing where he’d wanted. Even worse, he tried to kick him! The grubby fucker had actually kicked him in the stomach. Of course it didn’t really do much, but still! The man seemed to be going for an underbarrel attachment, most likely a grenade launcher. Clearly he thought that explosives might be more useful against Asher’s sturdy frame. Likewise, Asher figured fire might work better on his squishy frame, and so it was time for a barbecue.

“It’s time to burn, bitch!” he growled out before opening his mouth wide.

It was almost as if the sun arose in the center of the room as a jet of fire shot from Asher’s mouth akin to a dragon. Anyone nearby would feel the intense heat that radiated from Asher as he torched the man. Asher directed the stream with the goal of painting him from head to toe in the deadly flames. For good measure Asher whipped his head around to torch the wounded man who’d taken Asher’s earlier two shots. With business taken care of Asher wiped his mouth and licked his lips as he took in a deep breath through his nose, “Smells like the 4th of July.”

Cool quip out of the way, Asher turned to check the situation throughout the rest of the room, seeking to locate his allies. Or well, he didn’t really know them but given the circumstances allies was a pretty good phrase.

---

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

With a small shake of her head, Himiko realized just what Lenore had done, letting out a small sigh. “Oh, that's an oopsie….” muttering quietly as she watched her bullets fly towards their new unintended target. "Just remember that even if I shoot you, you still owe me that comic!" With a shrug of her shoulders she put that problem out of her mind quickly. She figured that Noble Spark would be able to handle that problem, especially since they had just been fired normally.

Returning her attention to the gunmen as Mika charged at Lenore immediately after making her request. Taking a brief moment to reload as she got out a quick response back “Make sure you don’t get too hot-headed now Puddy, getting ahead of yourself doesn’t end well, keep your wits and your emotions in check…as for the gunmen, they might as well already be dead….” Keeping an eye on Mika even while turning her aim towards the gunmen stationed nearby.She had her doubts about Mika being able to handle Lenore all on her own. But she figured at the very least it would keep the nun distracted while Himiko picked off the gunmen.

If Puddy wanted them eliminated, then that was just what Puddy was going to get. Though she better make it quick, as she had reasonable suspicion that Mika would have some difficulty in handling the Nun alone. So the sooner she could eliminate the small fry, the sooner she could help topple the heavy hitters.

Once Sovereign got her target's locations figured out, she took aim at the nearest two gunmen that had positioned themselves beyond Lenore. Rattling off a round each at of the two as she started to run herself, trying to get into a better position on her left so she could get eyes on as many as the gunmen as she could at once. Wanting to get a gauge on their numbers to get a clear picture of the situation. In all of the chaos, debris and smoke it had been difficult to figure out just how many of them had been part of the ambush.

Even as she moved, she made an effort to keep Mika within a close distance and view. Not wanting to separate too far from her and out of range of being able to help if the situation required. Puddy was a tough customer, but Lenore was trouble. Himiko had learned long ago, stacking the odds as much as you could into your favor before taking a huge risk for a huge reward was always the most profitable. Not to mention she had made Mika a promise after all, and it was one she fully intended to uphold.

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The school girls were almost evacuated, the threats were dwindling.

Ashley was asked to clear the way, and she obliged with a crack of neon green energy. It took a moment to wind up, but it was nothing the drunken cowboys were going to see coming anyway. It flew over one’s shoulder and landed in a cluster of them before detonating. The release of energy was enough to sear the flesh. They hollered and hooted, tumbling out of the ball of green light as smoke rose up from their bodies. Some weren’t moving, some writhed in pain. The way was clear.

Naturally, the highschoolers could barely fathom what was going on around them. Had that weird cosplayer just thrown a molotov? Was that kid holding a chainsaw? Why were those furries trying to tie up the business woman? Would their friend survive being struck in the side of the head with a hammer? There was almost too much to process, to the point that they barely reacted when Finn swooped to their side and ushered them through the group of smoldering cowboys.

”Omigosh! I think he touched me!” But she didn’t stop moving. Even if they couldn’t understand the situation, they knew it was one they didn’t belong in the middle of.

The diner seemed like it was starting to calm down. The Cowboys were down to seven or eight scattered members and must have realized they were way out of their fucking element. The two that remained near Ashley had taken a step back and looked like they might be considering the door. There were an equal number of the more powerful dryads, but some of their members had become quite exhausted from having their mana burned. Surely between their backup and with most of the teenagers being out of there soon, they wouldn’t be hard to deal with. This just left the shadow wizard money gang, who were in the middle of casting a spell.

While Ashley had called for having the wizards neutralized Estelle decided on a more diplomatic approach. It was impossible to see what was going on under those dark hoods of theirs, as only a pair of glowing yellow eyes were visible. What was visible was the growing fireball, and the shield they were erecting to protect themselves from its detonation. But was this a surprise? Ashley had just called to have them taken out, there was a chainsaw wielding emo among them, and someone was shooting spells through the windows. Even the dryads beside Estelle stopped attacking when they realized they were all going to be incinerated. This gave Estelle enough time to call out to the remaining girl, who was stubbornly looking at Dante.

”I know Amanda’s back there!” She pointed behind him. ”What are you doing with her?”

”I don’t have time for you.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. He swung his hammer at the side of her head, and she stumbled into the wall. Sand poured out of her face before she sunk to the ground. ”Where was I?” In a flash, he charged towards Finn and sifted through everything in his way. Countertops, overturned tables. None of it stopped him before he arrived at the boy’s position. Finn was able to get his sword up just in time to deflect it, but he stumbled backwards from the attack. While he was reeling, Dante stomped his foot into the floor, and it came out from under Ashley, kicking one of her feet out from under her. He then yanked his foot out of the tile floor and swung his massive hammer at her. It looked like he was going for a very wide swing.

Violet kneeled on the ground and placed her staff across her lap. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as if deep in meditation. Then nothing happened. Though the school girl that was beside the counter started to stand back up again. Her eyes were closed, but she was grumbling something.

”Amanda…Is in the caffeine… The coffee shop… I’m coming.” Using the countertop for support, she started to walk towards the exit.

But she wasn’t going to make it out before that fireball went off.

Estelle hadn’t seen a lot of fireballs, and couldn’t correctly guess how much stronger a level four fireball was when compared to a level three. But this one was as tall as a man and looked like a small scale sun. The heat was drying out her skin just standing next to it. The three mages had closed themselves in a shield just as the fireball was launched. There was no way to tell exactly how destructive it was, but that didn’t matter. Even if there was no good place to direct the fireball, she could try to minimize the damage. But what was the best thing to do with it?

While Dante seemed unbothered by the ball of fire, the other bikers were scrambling. Some ran to take cover behind overturned tables or to flee out the front door.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Regardless of what was trying to bring Justin down, he decided he needed to go up. Just up. Not left, not right, but up.
Up above the danger, up above the chaos. If the ground was going to get sliced up by some unseen swordsperson, he was going to fly up above. He’d worry about getting down later. His legs weren’t going to take any of Sovereign's bullets, but he might get a fracture or two if he didn’t have a plan for the landing. At least some of the gunmen had lifted their barrels at the suddenly airborne target. Well, that was more fortunate for the people down below. For Justin, this wasn’t looking too good. Getting down safely was starting to look a bit more difficult.

Marrie also needed to escape a dangerous situation, but she decided to go about things in an entirely different manner. For one, she was going to remain on the ground, and two, she was going to change the trajectory of the threat rather than the target.

After shaking off her minor panic attack, she threw a melody into the smoke. The idea was to clear out the smoke, but it didn’t really have that effect. Magic was bullshit, and that was just as true for enemy espers as it was for her. The smoke screen lightly dispersed in the path of her melody, but the rolling fumes were quick to return to their shape moments later. It was no more effective than fanning the air with a pingpong paddle. Even when the melody activated, the swirling winds weren’t quite strong enough to disperse the smoke. It thinned them a bit, but it was still difficult to see the nun hiding within. However, when the nun fired a bolt of smoke at Marrie while she retreated, it veered off course and missed its target. At the very least, aiming would be a bit more difficult. Marrie made her way to the giant engine where she could take cover.

”Ahhh… Fuckin’ brat.” Nova huffed her cigarette before pulling back into the smoke.

Meanwhile, Asher was making an effort to kill some of these ugly assholes. Like many (freelance) espers, he had assumed that just because his opponents were numerous that they were merely fodder to be killed in stylish fashion. But one does not risk melee combat with a guy called “dead head” unless he has a few moves up his sleeve. The fact that he had fucking cathode raytubes for eyes should have tipped off everyone that he wasn’t entirely human. Bui Asher didn’t care how human he was, he cared about how stylish he could look frying this turd. His technique was equally excessive both in how violent it would be and how much mana he would dump into the attack. Whatever didn’t get instantly incinerated was melted like cheese. His target didn’t even scream. He even had a little left over in the tank to finish off the wounded guy from earlier. Usually the GM is the enemy of fun and runs a tight ship to make sure rules don’t get abused. Using a beam to hit two targets without the channel or other such note would usually be a no-go, but sometimes you gotta let the wookie win, and what would Asher be but Han Solo’s best friend?

And Himiko talked some more. She also fired her guns a few times and managed to get two of the construction workers on the upper levels. The others were either hidden behind a smokescreen or were at too obtuse an angle to be fired upon properly.



At this stage, Mika found it easier to just let the weird golden gun lady talk. That didn’t mean she had to listen to any of it though. It was just background noise. What she had to do was stay focused on her target and make sure no other hostels got her. Lenore had just used a melody, so she didn’t have to worry about her using another one right away. Meanwhile, Mika did have a melody up her sleeve. She should have the advantage in this situation. In fact, she was already preparing it while she engaged.

Lenore was a good swordsman. She had her back against a wall and would lose this fight as soon as Mika got in close, but she was very good at keeping Mika just out of reach. She’d swing her sword in an arc, and then use her momentum to comb back around before she could advance. Lenore had likely fought espers for years compared to the few weeks of preliminary bootcamp Mika had. She knew she wasn’t going to beat her in straight up melee. Which was why…

There!

Mid swing, Mika had managed to fire a root at one of her arms, pinning it to the wall. That look on her face, she was panicking! Mika didn’t waste any time. With her opponent momentarily vulnerable, she lunge forward and-

A wave of gunfire ripped through the smoke.

They might not have been able to see the gunmen, but the gunmen clearly had a way to see through the smoke screen. The bullets ripped through the smoke and hit where her body was, only for her to vanish and reappear up on the balcony.

"Crap!" She growled before charging towards the other men on the balcony.

Mika wasn’t the only one that had been fired on. The two distant gunmen on the ground floor had fired upon Asher and Himiko. While Asher was partially covered by the cat spirit, Himiko was standing out in the open. Fortunately, she hadn’t used a melody yet and might be able to defend herself before taking too much damage. As for Justin, the balcony construction workers hadn’t fired many shots before Mika charged their position. Bobo on the other hand… The end of her gun caught fire.

”Let’s make up for last time.”

Liquid flame spewed out of the end of her gun, coating Justin’s leg.

Lenore pulled a steel cylinder out of her pocket and chucked it in Marrie’s direction. It flew closer and closer to her, until it suddenly became Lenore. Meanwhile, back where Lenore had been standing, a flash bang went off that blinded any of the espers on the first floor that were thinking about returning fire. She pointed at her own eyes, then Marrie, before holding her blade in front of herself.

While the cowboy to Ashley’s left was able to barely dodge her energy bolt, the quartet on her right weren’t so fortunate, and soon found themselves at the heart of a powerful detonation. Whether or not she had actually killed some of them was immaterial to the Knight of Tomorrow, at least for the moment. The only thing that really mattered right now was that the schoolgirls had a clear path to the exit and were making use of it. Thankfully, Finn was able to assist in ushering them out of the building, at least until Dante rushed him… As if that wasn’t bad enough, a quick glance to the far side of the diner revealed that the robed bikers were putting the finishing touches on what promised to be a truly devastating spell, at least if its appearance was anything to go by...

I thought I told Estelle to stop them!

Yet, Ashley would soon have more immediate concerns to deal with, as Dante sent Finn reeling, before turning his fury upon her. Before she knew what was happening, the Knight of Tomorrow’s feet were swept out from under her, causing the high-tech heroine to fall on her back. An instant later, Dante’s burly form was looming over her, his massive hammer pulled back in preparation for a mighty blow. There was no time, or room, to dodge out of the way, and so, reacting on instinct, Ashley raised her shield to block the impending strike. The semi-transparent disc of neon green energy began rapidly glowing brighter, and growing larger, as techno-arcane power was pumped into it, multi-layered barriers of hard light imposing themselves between the shield’s surface and the inevitable impact. The Knight of Tomorrow only hoped that this augmentation would allow it to withstand Dante’s attack, and that Finn would take advantage of the sandman’s brief moment of vulnerability to strike him from behind…

---

Oh, that's why. Before Finn could do literally anything else, Dante had knocked that stubborn ass bitch one straggler out too and attempted to bum-rush him. He was able to hold his weapon up to block the strike again but found himself stumbling from the recoil. The Timekeeper was unable to prevent the sandman from knocking Ashley down for a third strike. "Shit- Hang on!!" The Knight might've counted on him to take advantage of the opening , but what could he do? His attacks weren't affective against him alone, were they?

Although, out the corner of his eye the Timekeeper noticed some of those hooded dudes preparing to attack Estelle with a rather huge fireball. That gives him an idea.

"Witch Hunter, try and redirect it towards Dante!" He wouldn't doubt that Dante would try and move out of the line of fire no pun intended, but that's where he'd come in. He rushed in, Atropos ripping with an electric current, and in an unfortunate irony stabbed the sandman through the back. If his gamble actually pays off, he'd do both some reasonable damage and stall Dante long enough for him to eat fireball.

But only if Estelle could manage...

Those idiots! Did they forget that their fellow mage-biker was right behind them?!

It was like staring into an open oven, the way her eyes teared up reflexively from the intensifying dry heat. Just by existing, the fireball was charring its surroundings, the cheap wallpaper curling away while plastic melted. The sprinkler system was worthless; perhaps the building was too old or the city too corrupt to care for such safety systems. Behind her, the bikers were scrambling away, as was the remaining highschooler. But what could she do? Where could she direct it?

Divert it to the left side and the single high schooler would be caught. Dodge to the side and deflect it back and it would hit the alcohol or the kitchen, and likely trigger an even larger explosion. Send it towards Dante like Finn shouted at her to do and far too many unconscious or prone bikers would just be turned to barbeque by it, and they were all humans. Bounce it upwards? With the building as it was, the ceiling might just collapse upon them all.

Past the solar flame, the threefold barrier made by the trio of mages shone.

“For everyone’s sake, that barrier better be strong, fellas.”

Holy light imbued itself upon her sheathed blade, before Estelle released it as a slash, striking dead-center upon the flaming sphere. The Witch Hunter’s Prohibition traced over the fireball, constricting its arcane capabilities and slowing its flight just enough for her to rush forth and thrust her Instrument dead-center. A chime resounded, the invisible barrier that coated her Dai-katana reacting to the weight of the de-leveled fireball.

With all these factors, Estelle could only hope that she would repel the projectile back into the mages’ barrier.

If she couldn’t though?

Well, her Arcane Defense was her highest Defense.

BItCH? As Lenore manifested in front of Marrie, her idea to transplace with the lightning guy fell apart. Which left her with, really, just one option. She tossed her Instrument into her left hand and placed her right on the generator, casting a melody through her palm.

{Silver Touch - Portal}

With that in place, Marrie grabbed Apexer with her right hand once again, and allowed the chain to lengthen to three feet of slack. Lenore's gesture would probably have intimidated Marrie, if it weren't for the seething rage she felt from seeing the construction worker's "eyes." Instead, all that happened was the the wind-rider flipped her dagger length-wise to its backside and stood still, waiting for the nun to attack.

Sure, swords had better reach than knives, and yes, Lenore was probably better trained than the blue haired esper, but if Marrie had learned one thing in Pax, it's this: Fuck around, find out.

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Himiko couldn’t help but to smile, the gunmen having targeted her like she had been expecting. She had a choice to make, either focus on defending herself, or on taking out the gunmen that remained hidden and obscured by the smoke. It was a choice that seemed easy enough to decide. She might not get another chance to pin down the gunmen otherwise. It was a lousy choice to make, but one she was willing to risk.

Deciding to take shots, while keeping her golden eyes locked on the trajectory of the bullets. Her eyes tracing the path that they carved through the smoke. It helped give her an idea of the location of the remaining gunmen.Once she had gotten a rough gauge of where the shots had originated from she knew she had little time to waste. Hoping to prevent the gunmen from repositioning, she raised her revolvers firing off three rounds from each into the areas she had observed the bullets having come from. If it meant having to get shot herself in order to eliminate the remaining gunmen she would take that risk willingly.

Hoping that her own bullets would find their targets on the other side of the smoke to repay the favor. Having used the brief time she had to defend herself to get off a counterattack instead. Knowing that if she had focused on defense, it was likely she would have lost track of the shots, and that the gunmen would have the chance to move from their previous firing locations. Which would leave them as a threat to not only herself but Puddy and the others.

Now she hoped that she got lucky and the gunman 's shots wouldn’t do too much damage to herself or worse. Bracing herself for the impact of the bullets. Hoping she wouldn’t be injured too severely so that she could help out with the nuns. Otherwise she would have to put all her remaining faith in Puddy and the others to bring them down. Normally she would have just defended herself and focused on trying to gain something valuable for herself. But something about Puddy changed her normal calculus, she was being greedy in a far different kind of way this time around.

---

Asher was surveying the room for his next target and taking in the state of his associates when the flashbang went off in a blinding cacophony of light and sound. Of course Asher caught the full brunt given his wide view of things. Briefly incapacitated he quickly ducked low to the ground and threw a hand up to cover his head whilst instinctively hardening his skin. Unable to see or hear while being out in the open wasn’t Asher’s idea of a good time. Doing his best to remember the layout of the room and using the smell of charred flesh as a waypoint Asher scuttled across the floor away from the balcony while he waited for his eyes and ears to readjust.

As sight and sound returned Asher sought a more sturdy sort of cover via one of the stone columns while peeking out to get a view of the room once more. His eyes were drawn towards the balcony he’d once been beneath where the fire wielding bunny was currently assailing the lighting guy. A grin took form as he started formulating a plan for taking the high ground. Bonus points were on the line here, Asher had to inject some more style and flair into this fight quickly before things started to really turn out drab.

---

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The number of threats dwindled, but not the danger.

His size betrayed his speed, but Dante’s hammer was still a hefty weapon that needed proper time to swing. He roared like a lion,preparing to hoist the weapon over his head just as Ashley empowered her shield. She held her own against a mob of cowboys, but it wasn’t clear if this would be enough to stop the bartender. His hammer even put people to sleep, which made it difficult to guess what sort of enchantment she should give herself.

He stopped mid swing when Finn used the tried and true GEMINI tactic of shouting your strategy. As he anticipated, he was preparing to move, which was when Finn would lean in with a strike. Also anticipated, his attack did hardly anything. The electricity arced through his sword, but most of the “damage” was done by his chain blade sawing the sand out of him. Possible oversight, Dante spun on his heel and redirected his swing at Finn. But this was just a feint. He blew sand into the boy’s eyes, and his blade could do little to keep the sand from entering his eyes. It stung a little bit, but otherwise didn’t have any immediate effects. Dante did use the opportunity to slip back behind the counter, and then into the back room.

But what about the fireball?

Estelle’s holy bolt was swallowed up by the fireball. The white hot flames turned orange. It had cooled a bit, but there was still a significant amount of thermal energy in that thing. It needed to be directed somewhere. Her team made a suggestion, but Estelle hadn’t been making a point of taking their advice, and she wasn’t going to start now. She shoved the fireball right back at the mage’s shield. The barrier’s surface made the mages look like they were on an old surveillance monitor. But that changed when the fireball was poked right back at them.

It didn’t have far to travel

The fireball turned into a fire pillar, and then a fire wall. The rolling flames came in all directions. Cowboys and dryads screamed together as the room was bathed in a bright orange light. If Estelle was worried about the dark wizard money gang burning their own members, she might be relieved to know that they made much smaller barriers for themselves as the flames came rolling in. It only took a second for the flames to reach the furthest corners of the diner. But while the explosion only lasted a moment, the arcane flames lasted a bit longer. The tables, wall hangings, and any spilled alcohol was now a roaring flame.

While Ashley had been stabbed by a beer bottle, she was prone when the flames had first come for her. A nearby table offered her just enough shelter that she wasn’t set ablaze. Finn was less fortunate. While he was partially shielded by a nearby table, he was standing, and was set on fire by the fireball’s explosion. And Estelle…

Good thing she had such good arcane resistance. She didn’t have time to get her katana back in front of her, and was struck with the full brunt of the fireball. She was lit up, and the blast itself rolled her over one of the many overturned chairs that littered the place. She’d need to do something before she started to melt like a candle.

But what about the girl?

The mage by the counter was standing up. He had one arm wrapped around the dreaming school girl’s waist while the other was holding up his arcane shield. It was cracked and burning at the edges, but both of them were fine.

”Dayum, glad they went with a level three fireball.” he looked at the girl in his arm. ”Did ya pass out?”

”Coffeeeeeeeeee…”

Dante stepped back into the room. His eyes scanned his surroundings. His teeth were clenched, and his grip on his hammer tightened. ”You stupid boy…” He phased through the counter again, but this time he was moving in arcs, zigging and sagging between the flames as he approached the GEMINI agents. But there were still a lot of fleeing bikers in his way that were about to run them all down. In addition to the stampede, Finn, and only Finn, noticed a giant horned demon rise up from the flames. He could have been Chernobog’s brother, only bigger, with horns that acted like smoke stacks. It reached its hand towards the boy, clearly intending to crush him in its grasp.

Estelle couldn’t catch a break either. The trio of mages looked at each other. ”This a win for the SWMB?”

”Could be.”

”Just gotta mop up the rest of them and then we’re home free.”

”I can’t do that no more, I’m outta juice.”

”You know what they say.” One of them drew a pistol. ”Ya might be outta spells, but ya ain’t outta shells!”

”Aw yee!”

Estelle looked like smoldering refuse from where they were standing, but they needed to make sure the freaky sword bitch was in her place. Two of the mages pulled out their pieces and started to fire at her while the last one lobbed fireballs at anything that moved.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Anyone who valued money knew that gambling was only worthwhile when you understood the risks. You needed to know your odds of winning, what was at stake, etc. Sovereign was waging her life against the lives of the gunmen on the other side. She had a good strategy, and figured she might as well risk it to win big. She could take a few bullets. The only issue was that her strategy relied on sight, and the flashbang took care of that. She wasn’t going to see anything come out of the smoke.

The bullets ripped through the smoke and landed in Himiko. Her right shoulder got nailed, as did her her left leg. A few more bullets struck her torso. She managed to get a few shots off before she collapsed, but it wasn’t clear if she hit anything. On the upside, Himiko had made herself such an easy target that Asher was more or less ignored. Between dropping prone and hiding beside the spirit cat, there wasn’t much for them to shoot at. No one even paid attention to Justin as he fell like a comet.

Marrie was correct. Lenore had once trained espers for melee combat, so her swordsmanship was good. Not that she would know that just by looking at Lenore. Regardless of skill level, it often wasn’t a good idea to give your opponent initiative in anything. One of the reasons why spears were preferred over swords on a large battlefield was because the spearmen could strike first. But such tactics didn’t take effects like magic into account. Marrie was planning something that might give her the edge.

Lenore also decided to take a cautious approach, not being too quick to attack the young esper. She blinked, and her one eye glowed like a demon’s. The corners of her lips curled a bit before she went for a thrust. Only this was a feint, just before Lenore went for a sweep.



She couldn’t worry about the freelancers now. While she had told Sovereign that she would handle Lenore, it was clear that she couldn’t be defeated alone. Not with Mika’s current skills, and not with so much backup. But if the freelancers could keep everyone busy down below, then she could take care of the remaining gunmen on the balcony.

She checked over her shoulder to make sure Bobo wasn’t following her, but it looked like she was staring at something else, likely a freelancer. Then she looked ahead. The two construction workers had turned their guns on her. This was it.

She launched a spirit snake, which coiled around one of the men’s arms. He wasn’t able to fire, and the one behind him didn’t have enough room to fire on Mika. A smile crossed her face as she pounced on them, staining the balcony with their blood.

Bobo continued to lock eyes with Asher, but she didn’t stare for very long. She reached into her robes and pulled out a bottle with a rag hanging out of the side of it. She lit the rag with her cigarette, which caused black smoke to billow off the end of it. With the molotov lit, she tossed it straight at Asher before turning her flamethrower on herself. Burning napalm poured over the bunny nun, but it didn’t burn her. Would Asher be as fortunate with that molotov incoming?

As he predicted, Finn's next attempt to wound Dante didn't do shit besides earn him some sand in his eyes. "Shit-!!" Between him quickly trying to wipe the stinging sand away and clear his vision, and whatever Estelle did instead of his intended idea caused the fireball to detonate instead; setting the diner ablaze in an ironic inferno, he wasn't able to avoid getting set on fire too as a result.

"You've got to be kidding!" Normally he would just ditch his jacket again to avoid the flames reaching his skin, but these ones practically engulfed him, slowly eating away at the mechanical esper's form. At least he wasn't Estelle right now. Or whatever patrons that were unfortunate to still be awake or alive right now. Except for the Wizards shooting everyone apparently, he had to avoid that too on top of everything else.

...Were they...really outmatched this time?

At this point it's expected for fights like this to grow in chaos, such was the nature of Pax Septimus. It was almost hard to rationalize. Though that might've just been the flames talking right now. But it's like none of them are able to do anything here! Unless Ashley can somehow manage to damage Dante instead. And even then, she's been stuck on the defensive for most of this fight. They weren't gonna lose, were they?

Dante had fled to the back room before the Diner was set on fire, then re-emerged to continue fighting shortly after. But that wasn't the worse of it for the Timekeeper. For him, another demon borne of flame rose up behind the sandman. Great. There were more of them?! Finn tensed up, gritting his teeth. If they were no match against Dante how the hell could they-

And then it dawned on him. The sand. This was just an illusion. All of it, nothing but a fucking trick! The Timekeeper steeled himself. "Nice try!" And he activated a melody that'd both heal himself up and help him avoid getting grabbed. That back room, what was so important back there that Dante was hiding? He had to get back there, even if it's to draw him away from the other agents!

...

It was really concerning how many people wanted him dead the most.

Redirect it where?!

It was honestly quite understandable that Ashley had a bit of a mental freak out upon hearing Finn’s request for Estelle to redirect the giant fireball into Dante, especially seeing as how the sandman was standing right over her. Thankfully, Estelle had a different idea, and, taking the initiative that all G.E.M.I.N.I. agents were known for, completely disregarded Finn and instead sent the fireball back towards the mages that had conjured it. Even as this transpired, Dante stopped in mid-swing to reposition himself, but not before Finn thrusted his melody-enhanced chainsaw into the sandman’s back. For all the good it did…

Can nothing hurt him? Ashley wondered as she watched Dante turn into a sand cloud and vanish behind the backroom door, just before the monstrous fireball detonated.

Thankfully, due to her position on the floor, her enhanced energy shield, and the additional barrier provided by a nearby table, the Knight of Tomorrow escaped the ensuing blast virtually unscathed. However, the same couldn’t be said of her fellow agents, who had both been thoroughly set ablaze. Fortunately, Finn seemed to be more than capable of dealing with that little problem, to the extent of trying to rush past the recently-reemerged Dante and into the mysterious back room, and Ashley was confident Estelle could also take care of herself. After all, why would the Witch Hunter make such a risky move if she couldn’t handle the likely results? Still, the diner had become an ironically appropriate hellscape, and there was precious little Ashely could do in such a situation.

Most of the surviving patrons were rushing for the exit, the only exceptions being the mages, whose arcane barriers the high-tech heroine doubted her own arcane attacks could viably penetrate. In addition, while the mass of fleeing patrons made an excellent target for an AoE attack (as per Dr. Moller’s instruction to eliminate all hostiles on the premises), the last remaining schoolgirl seemed to be sleepwalking right behind them, and Ashley refused to risk her possibly getting caught in the blast. Indeed, the very fact that one of the mages had apparently shielded the girl from the effects of his compatriots’ fireball was a minor unexpected miracle in and of itself, and one the Knight of Tomorrow wasn’t going to chance being repeated. The mass of flailing bodies also completely blocked her line of sight to Estelle, preventing the high-tech heroine from assisting her, even if she wanted to, and the same was true of Dante, although she doubted she’d be all that effective against him either. That said, there was someone else who might…

“MDP!” Ashley called over her earpiece. “Can you provide us with some additional assistance?”

Even as she said this, the Knight of Tomorrow crawled over to the counter and, still crouched down, began taking carefully-aimed shots with her techno-wand at each cowboy and dryad that was racing for the exit. It might not have been as effective as a more dramatic attack, but it was the best she could manage under the circumstances. She only hoped that whatever assistance their allies outside could provide would be enough to turn the tide of this chaotic combat in their favor…

---