Lily weaved through a combined attack by two wendigos, circling around Alex and shooting arrows at any of the monsters trying to approach him as he fought off the alpha. However, even she could barely manage to handle their numbers, having to contend with them herself. Alex then regrouped with her, having come up with a solution in the form of a bottleneck. She gave a thumbs up.
”Nice idea, Alex! Let’s see them get past this!"She took a firm stance, drew her bow, and gathered her magical energy, manifesting as a ball of lightning at the tip of her arrow. As the wendigos scrambled in, she released a Barrage:
”Wrath of Adrammelech!"She began shooting thunder arrows rapidly into the ball lightning, which in turn multiplied the shots as they passed, turning the bottleneck into a storm of electricity that wracked the wendigos. The blasts of lightning additionally ricocheted off Alex’ barriers. The monsters screeched as the they were rapidly zapped, eventually clogging the route with their incapacitated numbers. That was when Lily ended her Barrage, and began charging up her Killing Blow, her green hair crackling with electricity as she glowed brightly.
”Alex, keep them at bay for just a little longer!"A few of the wendigos were not yet zapped, and Lily saw through the barrier how the one slain by Alex also rose back up. It joined its pack, climbing over with a snarling maw.
”I need to hit them so hard they won’t come back!"
At the industrial sector, the battle had turned into a blazing one with Mayra’s explosive entrance; she delivered a fiery attack that exploded, launching the swarm of wendigos off of the winged monster girl just as Mariette created a portal under her, causing her to drop down to the Sanctuary. Mayra successfully destroyed three of the wendigos in the attack by striking their hearts with fire, and damaging six others, before the rest of the swarm assaulted her.
Deprived of their prey and with the taste of blood fresh in their fangs, the wendigos fiercely struck back despite their weakness against fire. Mayra fought valiantly, managing to strike one more wendigo through the heart before two wendigos headbutted her flanks, locking her in place with their antlers. She managed to swipe them away with her tail, but another wendigo managed to bite into her shoulder scales, ripping them off. Two other wendigos latched onto her tail, forcing her to recklessly swing and slam it around before they would release while slowing her down just enough for a wendigo to bit at her leg, and another to slash at her face, drawing three lines of blood on her cheek and over her nose. Despite the wounds she sustained, Mayra’s expertise in close-quarters combat paid off, as she managed to keep standing and not be pinned by the monsters, burning hotter from the intensity of the battle.
One of the wendigos that were slammed away crawled back up, only to be struck back down by a crimson spear that pierced its back. The monsters screeched and turned limp, having been drained of blood by Justine.
”Apologies, but I can’t sit idly by while these foul beasts yet draw cursed breath,” she spoke, and upon lifting her spear twirled it to parry the other wendigo’s claw swipe.
Meanwhile, Mariette set her sights on Hanna, who was about to be caught by the wendigos pursuing her at the circular rooftop of a factory building, having cut off her escape route.
“Get back!” She screamed, but the wendigos didn’t heed her words, growling as they sprinted up to her. Fortunately, the unlucky girl had two guardian angels watching over her from above; Mariette, who delivered bolts of light from above, and Shane, whose Thunderbird snatched one of the vile monster before blasting it with lightning that had frizzled its heart, seeping as ash out of the majestic mount’s talons like sand through fingers. Shane and his mount struck down thunderous retribution on the cannibals, giving time for Mariette to open a portal for Hanna. While the wendigos were distracted by one more turning into ash from a bolt of fury, Hanna jumped right in, too terrified of her plight to think of the consequences. She ended up dropping right next to the Sanctuary girls, who continued their battle against the wendigo horde.
When the wendigos saw their prey escape, and the two rescuers high above, they growled viciously. Then, they howled in unison, having formed a circle on the rooftop. As they kept howling, both Mariette and Shane saw Dina arrive on the back of a great eagle, when suddenly they felt something malignant in the air; cold winds picked up, like streaks of icy malice that dashed around them and carried the howls of the wendigos, shivering them like they were caught in a heavy rain of snow. Then, Mariette, with her Awareness heard it first; the sound of cawing that rapidly turned louder and louder until eventually they both saw the source of it.
A murder of crows, with soulless eyes and wings scattering black feathers, flew in to attack them, attempting to peck their eyes out. Even if they shot a few down, more would arrive from all around Penrose and the woods beyond, their endless cries ringing in their ears. To her horror, no matter how far Mariette escaped with her portals, birds flew after her in a frenzied flock, as if they were using her own Absolute Direction against her. Shane was also troubled, as the smaller birds easily overwhelmed the Thunderbird, causing it to shake in the air. Fortunately, Shane’s acrobatic mastery over riding animals ensured he wasn’t deterred by the turbulent flight.
The remaining monster girl who cried out after Hanna struggled before the wolf spirit she had conjured had dissipated, unable to bear the blows of the wendigos any longer. That was when Belladonna came to the rescue, proving herself even fiercer and sharper of claw than her adversaries as she cut down a wendigo and kicked another away, while only incurring a bite to the back of her neck that she shrugged off. Ashlyn, meanwhile, stayed to protect the newly-arrived Hanna, and Monica, who succeeded in enchanting their weapons with fire, enabling them to permanently slay the resurrecting beasts. Belladonna succeeded in destroying a wendigo, Ashlyn with two wendigos, and Monica another one with a swing of her axe. In return, the wendigos inflicted a headbutt that impaled one of Ashlyn’s lower arms and a slash on her back, a slash on Monica’s chest as well as a bite to her flank, and a bite of Belladonna’s tail, ripping some fur out.
At the Sanctuary, Mariette had brought the winged monster girl to the middle of the street, where she was immediately found by one of the locals, and brought to the local equivalent of an infirmary or sickbay. However, by the time she got treated by the local healers, it was too late; the winged monster girl, having suffered countless grievous wounds and loss of blood, didn’t survive Mayra’s fiery blast.
At the Penrose Bank, Mia called on the mighty forces of nature with her magic, and summoned amazing flora with the power to produce flame. The three fiery flowers surrounded the entrapped wendigos, and blasted them with the force of a wildfire, incinerating the beasts until only black ash remained. However, once the spell was cast, Mia felt her knees briefly turning weak; having called on such formidable magic was a costly affair, especially when invoked in a place as barren of the gift of life as in the cold, concrete streets of Penrose. Having been reduced to about a third of her mana reserves, Mia knew she had to be careful lest she transform back into her human form.
Ronin and Miko continued their 2v2 team match against the pair of wendigos. Their initial X-pattern didn’t confuse the wendigos, simple as they might be. However, their use of magic paid off, as both gust and guard were effective to grant them strikes against the enemy. The wendigo cut in the stomach dropped down in stance, now on the defensive as it kept its wounded area protected. The other wendigo managed to swing it’s antler just in time to prevent decapitation, cutting it off instead.
As a result, the beasts immediately ganged up on Ronin, having perceived her as the greater threat. They attempted to swipe and bite at her, managing to lightly shred one of her sleeves despite her evasive maneuvers. Left alone, Miko now had the opportunity to flank them, and delivered heavy blows that caused the two-antlered wendigo to slow down to a crawl. However, as they continued this dance, the two realized that the wendigos gradually regenerated, their wounds closing up shortly after being dealt. That was when Connie took her chance, and cast a nightmare spell against the slowed wendigo, catching it in the blast. The wendigo rolled around in mental agony like the ones she fought with Mia. However, the one-antlered wendigo, having kept close to Ronin, left Connie with no opportunity to safely launch her magic. However, it did distract the beast, who turned to Connie, hunger in its eyes.
But then, the dark gaze in its eyes suddenly dimmed, and it collapsed on the ground. It took only a glance at what had struck it to realize it was the work of a new arrival; a strange weapon resembling both a sword and a staff of fire was impaled through it’s back, and pierced it’s heart.
”Yay! Time to play!”Ronin felt a cold shiver run through the entirety of her being, and into her very soul, when she heard a familiar voice greet her group from above. And as the girl landed on the street, her fears were confirmed;
It was Caroline von Visceral…And she had returned.
The vampire girl had a gleeful expression as it turned towards the other wendigo, howling in misery.
”Aww, that’s no fun! You should play with Caroline!”The monster girl summoned her flame-wreathed weapon, and with a haphazard slash, bisected the large monster, once again having struck it in the heart as if by accident. However, Ronin and Miko could tell she didn’t hit either beast in their weak point accidentally, only making it look as if she did with her careless movements. When the monster scattered into ash, Caroline giggled.
”Whoo, that was fun! Caroline loves to play!”Then, as if she had only then noticed the magical girls around her, she slowly turned to look at them, her body moving unnaturally like a puppet with a few cut strings. First, she looked at each girl with an unsettlingly happy expression, only for her gaze to finally linger on Connie; it seems she didn’t recognize Ronin or Miko.
”Hi! Wanna play with Caroline? Caroline just loves to play games!”In her red eyes eyes, Connie could see a ravaged soul, numbed by madness.
She then put a finger to her lip, swinging her head back and forth with a whimsical expression.
”But Mother said Big Sis is nearby, and Caroline wants to find Big Sis. Can you tell Caroline where Big Sis is-sis-is?” She then whispered softly afterwards to nobody in particular:
”Big Sis is…”
At the hospital, Alicia and Aurelio found a new ally in their midst…Or, at least a person willing to fight the wendigos instead of them at that moment. Sanngridr’s rain of blades successfully halted the initially rushing monsters, causing some to fall down and a couple to flee as the sharp constructs then shimmered, burning a couple of wendigos and outright destroying one with a blade lodged in it’s chest, causing it to dissolve into ash.
Aurelio drew forth the emotion of ravenous need for sustenance that the wendigos represented in their very essence, and applied that power, mixed with his indignation, as an enchantment to Alicia. The spell enabled her arrows, already capable of seeking foes, to do so with even more potency, with a hunger for their frozen hearts. However, as a side effect, Alicia felt her stomach slightly grumble, as if she had skipped a meal before heading out.
However, that wasn’t the last trick in the Magnificent’s show, as he then summoned a clone that channelled the power of Hunger into duplicating illusions of him and his allies. Six wendigos were initially confused by the trickery, and ran after the clones, snapping and clawing at empty air, or even at each other, as the illusions intentionally led them to attack each other. Two remaining wendigos were not fooled, and reached both Aurelio and Alicia.
Alicia took aim, and with arrows enchanted by Aurelio, managed to hit three wendigos in the heart with sunlight arrows, incinerating them from the inside with displays of shimmering sparkles. She also managed to hit two other wendigos, slowing them down with hits to their limbs. One of these was a wendigo heading straight for her, while another was in the crowd. The remaining wendigo, having reached Aurelio, snapped it’s jaws around his leg, immobilizing him as two more wendigos recovered from the illusions, and now rushed towards Alicia.
At the Business District, the couple curled up with a scream as they saw the violet projectiles flying right at them, or rather at the wendigos that have gathered around the car. But then, they blinked as they saw Penny extend her long limbs to shield them from the brief specks of violet explosions. The car suffered a few dents from the attack, adding to the numerous collection the vehicle had suffered from the monsters’ attack. However, Penny then applied her Metal magic in a restorative fashion, smoothing out the sheets and even mending fractures and broken pieces back together. Even damage that was irrelevant to the incident, such as some rust on the underside or a wobbly exhaust pipe, was fixed.
Ka’ris struck the final nail in the wendigo pack’s coffin; what few monsters had managed to survive Penny’s onslaught were obliterated by the Gravity-manipulated crystal payload, the violet light having blown them up into ash. The remaining wendigos, subdued by MDP’s powerful yet pacifist magic, were then swiftly eliminated by Penny’s lightning.
Once the fighting was over, and Penny had turned away from the car to address both girls, the couple seemingly decided to take their chance and flee, turning sharply with their car and driving away as fast as they could. It wouldn’t be long before Penny was alerted by Snoopy, the drone having opened comms with Elora: “There’s a large group over at the industrial sector, coordinates attached,” she heard the cybermancer reporting in.
