Flood

Grimoiric Heart

I'm in, as always.

Tower of Fable

A lot happened that Ami didn't particularly care about, a few things happened that she did care about, honestly she just tuned out for a minute or two while that boring battle transpired behind her, more interested in her own nails than she was in any kind of fight with such uneven odds. Red landing in Katie's arms was amusing in its own way though, enough to get a giggle out of Ami as some kid ran up screaming about running and danger and blah blah blah. She was actually starting to get bored now, how did people find so much interest in their god damn nails? "Alright Katie, where are we going next? I'm following you since you seem to have the fish compass to lead you around, I go where you go, I fight what you fight, I also fight whatever I want to fight, and maybe go wherever I want to go. If I see anything interesting going on."

So far she hadn't. But here's hoping things change soon right!

Tower of Fable

"If you think a little water is gonna douse my flames, then you've got another thing coming Kanbaru!" She roars as she sweeps through the horde of crustaceans, the two former Magical Girls falling in sync almost immediately as they combo their attacks to boil the crabs from the inside out. Despite the angry tone of voice, all it takes is one look at Ami's face and the smile plastered onto it to see just how much she enjoyed fighting alongside an old friend. It was almost enough to make her forget about the deal she made with her new partner, almost anyways.

The survivors would do as any wild animal would, abandoning the adventurers in favor of the pre cooked food that just so happened to be their brethren. It was just nature taking its course, Ami couldn't feel anything particular about it. Maybe a little bit of disgust, they were quite messy eaters. Any hypocrisy on her part was lost on her as she shrugged and sheathed her sword onto her back, turning towards Kanbaru and Katie with a grin. Just Kanbaru and Katie though, the presence of Riku and the others was almost entirely ignored outside of a vague understanding that they existed in her general vicinity. "Anyways, I was wondering if you wanted to split off from these losers and hang out with my new friend I beat up last night!" Blunt and to the point, as if Ami would ever care about hurting someone's feelings. Especially someone who was weaker then her.

Speaking of people who were weaker then her, some loser just came waltzing out of the shadows like an edgelord to challenge her to a fight to the death. Well, Ami thought of her as a loser, but she wasn't necessarily "weak" per se. The two animals understood each other's strength, and while the lion understood itself to be above the wolf, the wolf thought of itself as an equal to the lion. Now this was a conundrum, as Ami didn't think anyone was equal to her. Well, anyone except Kanbaru and maybe Katie. So for the wolf to think of herself as Ami's equal, well that was something she didn't like one bit...

But one of the weaklings would step up to accept the challenge for her. And then Kanabaru would follow. And then the talker would start talking, and Ami would ignore her. One might expect the hothead to go charging in to beat up the wolf with her fellow magical girl but... "Eh, 2 on 1 is one thing. But 3 on 1 is just boring..." The Ex-Magical Girl shrugs as she turns away from the wolf and walks towards Katie, curious as to what she thought of the whole situation. "Well I'm just about bored with the losers. Hopefully Kanbaru can find us later, anyways what's up with the..." Ami trails off as she motions towards Ciel, not entirely sure how to describe her feelings on the card at a glance. She looked boring, but the guys hanging out in the cards were rarely boring. Ami didn't know how she felt about that, but she didn't like things that weren't immediately obvious.

Tower of Fable

Dire times abound for the group as they fight off a veritable horde of crustacean antagonists, many are content to sit back and watch as the Tower explorers desperately fought for their lives in the Deep. With only the blue haired Jester to be acting as their primary attacker, it almost seemed as if all was lost as the crabs drew closer and closer... until the piercing roar of the inferno dropped down onto them. Literally in this case.

"EAT SHIT LOBSTERS!" Would be the only warning the group gets to move as a falling comet crashes straight through the body of a crab approaching Akiko and into the water, kicking up a huge cloud of steam as the monster is grabbed by its leg and thrown into a crowd of its brethren. From the cloud emerges the fashionably late Ami, flaming sword thrust towards the swarm to release a massive pillar of flame to broil the bastards where they stood.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up huh!? Were you all too busy fucking to remember the strongest and most important person in your stupid party!?" Ami shouts as she hauls her sword to the left, taking the pillar of flame with it as it sweeps across three more soon to be meals, turning their shells into bowls as she boils their insides instantly.

Tower of Fable

The Dragon and The Princess

Ami did in fact have the answer to everything, the perfect counter for any and all situations. That situation was of course more power, because overwhelming force was always the answer for any situation Ami came across. It worked when she was the Black Knight and it would work now. She simply chuckled as the red princess backflipped away from her attack/defense, cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders casually while looking upon Riku. "That's the name, feel free to scream it as you burn to death!" She called back as Riku asked to confirm her name.

Ah, so she would be going for a taunt to try and get Ami to drop her guard. A smart woman knows to never give up any advantage, her firepower was more than enough to win this fight so accepting Riku's challenge was just asking for trouble for no reason.

But Ami is not a smart woman.

The fire dies down immediately in response to Riku's toss of the gauntlet, greatsword slung over one shoulder casually as she stared the beaten red princess down. "Alright then, have at it. I don't think I've ever fought someone with a weirdass weapon like that, so this should be fun!" Ami smirks as she leans forwards with a cocky grin, motioning for Riku to make the first move with her free hand. Nothing more exhilarating than a good clash of steel.

As Ami would throw up her greatsword and extinguish her magic, the princess realized this was actually going to happen. An intense shot of panic pulsed in her heart, as she feel icy fear prick at her nerves. Her brain already pieced together all the various different ways this intimidating swordswoman could cut Riku up into various pieces. Images of decapitation, arms being cut, sword stabs through her stomach all began to flood through her head.

Oh shit, this is really going to happen.

The rogue princess would take a heavy breath, shut her eyes and focus. She would clear the fears in her mind and try to shut down all the noise of the world around her. The snake, Kanbaru, the werewolf and vampire all vanished from her thought. She was trained, she had talent. She could handle this. It's a chant she began to hum to herself, trying to build herself up back from nothing.

"Yeah. It'll be fun." Riku replied, though in a much more toned down voice from her earlier boasts. The scythe came down to rest in her hands, blade hanging up on her right side, short but deadly. She'd begin to pace around her opponent, looking at Ami's stance and planning out methods of attack and possible ways Ami could counterattack. Though she began to realize she could fall into this trap all day, walking and thinking but never acting. She'd have to take the plunge, take a risk and get her blood boiling to truly come out on top in this engagement.

Her boots would kick up dust from the floor as she broke into a charge, scythe pulled low to the ground as she dashed forward with quick speed, intent on testing Ami's reaction times with a quick slash at her unguarded legs. The arc of her blade coming up from the ground, light reflected like a beam of sunlight as the scythe moved like a snake's bite.

Decapitation, impalement, violent disembowlment, shredding, so many things one could do with nothing but a greatsword and a little bit of imagination. Just as Riku was imagining every way she might find herself dying today, Ami too was imagining every way she could tear this wannabe apart. Even as she began circling around Ami the Black Knight would never take her eyes off of her opponent, not neccessarily moving towards her but always making slight adjustments to her position so she could keep her focus on that target.

The rest of the world meant nothing to her. The snake crashing in, Kanbaru-chan, werewolves and vampires and bards, they were all useless background noise that had no place in her world. The only thing in her world was her and her opponent, and there was only room for one in this town. "Don't get too excited there princess~" Ami teased as Riku's boisterous claims died down, it was clear she was regretting her challenge but there was no backing down now. If she showed her back to the Black Knight the last thing she would see would be her ebony blade emergying from her chest.

The wait for the opening engagement was killer, it made Ami want to move just to hurry this up and get to the juicy bits! But good things come to those who wait, so she would restrain her impulses just this once. Just this once to let Riku show what she was made of. The clock ticks down to midnight, agonizing second by second.

Begin.

The moment Riku makes her move Ami's blade is in action, swinging off her shoulder and into a defensive position near her chest to block. Riku has exactly two advantages in this moment of exchange, the first being that Ami had little experience fighting other humans and the second being that she was the first to move. Ami's eyes dart up and down as she realizes her immediate mistake, shifting her guard lower to prevent as much damage as possible. A slight cut opens on her leg as steel opens up her unprotected legs, but Ami can barely even feel it as she smashes her greatsword into the pole of the scythe. "Oh yeah, there we fucking go!" She roars as she takes one hand off her sword and swings right for Riku's jaw.

A look of surprise and joy flashed over the princess's face at the sight of Ami's bleeding scar. It wasn't much but a flesh wound but it proved something. She could hit her! It was a real morale booster, and it made her realize that for all of Ami's power and intimidating presence, she was still as human as Riku was. Well if Riku or herself could really be called normal humans at this point...

Regardless, Ami doesn't take this lying down. Riku is shocked by the choice of a fist instead of her sword, and stumbled and nearly tripped over herself to move in time to avoid a punch to the face. It forced her to back off entirely, unable to press that advantage. Incensed by the successful hit, Riku would not waste time again. She'd stride forward and this time keep her scythe high in the air, brought down through a horizontal slash aimed for her opponent's chest. She would keep her momentum and strike whenever she could, if one blow failed to land, she'd quickly begin another one. Her scythe moved fast, had great range, and could be used for offense and defense at a moment's notice.

A swing and a miss, but Ami wouldn't dwell on what could have been. If you were fighting someone with a pole weapon then what you wanted to do was fight up close and personal, so Ami would press on her advantage as Riku stumbled away. Her sword swung up and batted away the slash into the air, in that moment Ami would get even closer to make sure Riku couldn't continue attacking. It doesn't matter how good your range is, the second Ami entered into Riku's personal space she basically was swinging around a stick.

"There we go there we FUCKING GO!" She presses her own assault immediately, swinging her greatsword down and slashing right across Riku's torso in a brutal diagonal cleave. For every step Riku took back Ami was right there, momentum halting and starting at a moment's notice as she heaved her greatsword in increasingly erratic directions.

Her attack and Ami's attack would meet in a hard clash of blade. The berserker recovering this quickly has Riku reeling, and again she is being forced to step back from that heavy assault. She understood quickly what Ami was trying to do, but found herself at a lost when trying to think of ways to stop it. Immediately her mind jumped to using spells, fire flames to force the girl back but doing so would violate their terms. She began to realize this restriction may've hurt herself more than it did Ami.

The great slam of the sword is devastating. The long staff guard of the scythe came from the great oaks of the ancient rainforests in her homeland, said to be woven directly by the creation goddesses of their world. When that hard metal came into contact with them, the pole nearly snapped and the princess was flung backward and laid out on the ground. The only reason she wasn't cut apart in half at that moment was the quality of her weapon.

Riku got herself up, chest pounding as the fear entered her heart once more. Her hands are rough and shaken with a ringing feeling from the clash that just occured. Ami is already charging for her again, blade swinging wildly. She only had a second to act, a second to keep her at bay. She drew her scythe inward like a spear, it felt off balanced now after the blow but she continued anyway. Now a makeshift halberd, she'd stab forward at that running berserk to punish her for overextending herself.

Ami got more erratic and incensed, Riku has gotten more cautious and paranoid.

Incensed? Far from it! Ami was having way too much fun to be mad as she broke her toy down with strength resembling a beast more than it did any human. Even for the enhanced and magical like Riku or Kanbaru this was just ridiculous, Ami was more comparable to the dragon than she was any knight, black or otherwise! And so what she wasn't using her flames, what kind of dragon really needs to use their fire to beat down a princess?

Whether the crack is of bone or wood, Ami cares not, all she knows is that something broke. The only reason Ami hadn't just smashed her into a bloody pulp while she was on the ground was because that would be too fast, she didn't want the duel to end so soon after it began! She sprints forwards straight into Riku's stab, no attempt at dodging made as she was messily cut into by the blade of the scythe. Yet she was still smiling, still absolutely crazed as she stared down Riku with the intensity of a storm incarnate.

"JUST. LIKE. THAT." The dragon slams her sword into the ground and grabs Riku's arms before she can pull away, tugging her closer and pulling the metal further into her until it's practically touching her ribs. "Do you want to know what I love about these personal duels? No magic, no tricks, no running away?" Her grip around Riku's right arm tightens enough that the bone fractures in her grip. "It's as real as it gets! Nothing to hide behind, just two girls speaking their truths!" And then she lets go and stumbles backwards.

She grabs the scythe still firmly lodged in her breast and pulls it out with a sickening squelch, her wound audibly sizzling as she uses just a hint of magic to cauterize her flesh. "I hope you don't mind me using just a little bit of magic. Bleeding out is such a boring way to go honestly." The scythe flies through the air right back into Riku's hands as Ami tosses it back, she lays one hand back on her sword and wrenches it out of the stone. "Here's my advice for you kid. Move faster." And then the hunt begins once more.

A direct hit! I can still win this! I'll just pull back and keep stabbing! Then I'll just-

Her plans are shattered just as they are created, the dragon showing that pain and wounds do not affect her, they motivate her. Riku stared dumbfounded like she had stumbled into something she shouldn't have seen, only able to watch wide eyed and motionless as Ami casually removed her blade from her chest, pushing it back over to the princess just for the sake of a good spar. Riku stared at the ground, and knew in that moment that there was simply no defeating her opponent.

Conventionally. She had one last option. An option she hated, and was a reflection of things she'd rather not involve herself in. Everytime that blade struck at Ami, it would leave the usual marks of bloodletting, but also a thin wisp trail that would be pulled from the berserker's body upon blade impact. That was the soul drain effect of her blade, what made her scythe a true reaper's tool. With successive hits and attacks, it would drain away at the vitality of her opponent. In slow increments, but now Ami felt a weariness that was not there before, like she had woken up too early in the morning and missed some hours of sleep.

Truthfully, it was a sort of magic that Riku had no control of. Part of her birthright and curse, the princess hated the thought of winning this way, if it would even lead to a victory at all. Nevertheless, it was beginning to look like she either wins or she dies.

She decided to go for a more trickster approach now. She'd begin to pull back and then dart beside a column, breaking Ami's eyesight on her. She would poke out with her blade beside the wlals, using the pillar as cover to deflect sword blows and the blade to cut and wear the berserker down. If she'd attempt a grab, Riku would just twist her blade to cut around in an 180 degree spin to catch her opponent.

"You'll lose from a million paper cuts!" Riku asserted, hoping the threat of this might calm the berserker or force her to reconsider her constant attack. It'd likely just inflame her even more.

The thin trail of Ami'ssoul, with each cut more and more of her leaked out of her being. But something was wrong. A soul wasn't supposed to look like that, it wasn't supposed to be that shade. Every cut into the Black Knight revealed a blackened soul, the corruption of something far worse than humanity. Maybe Riku could identify it, maybe she couldn't, but that shade of blacker than black could only be that of a demon or something becoming a demon. Almost immediately Ami felt like something was wrong as she suffered this death by a thousand cuts, she shouldn't be losing steam so fast. Her smile immediately fades as her eyes sharpened.

"Come on, you were the one who said this would be steel on steel!" Ami doesn't know what kind of magic this is but it's almost certainly magic, if not magic it's some kind of poison which is even worse. "I thought we were having a good conversation too!" With a roar she swings to bisect Riku at the waist, only to cleave straight through the column in one sloppy cut. Yeah, this was not the strength of any kind of human.

"If you think I'm going to die because of a paper cut, you're even more of a stupid piece of shit than me!" She rears her fist back and punches right into the stone column protecting Riku, sending a hail storm of rocks and debris right into the red girl's face. Assuming she covered her eyes to protect them, the next thing she would see is Ami's sword flying straight towards her as she literally threw the blade right at her gut to impale her into the wall.

The coloration of Ami's soul was of interest, but in between dodging the mad swings of a fired up berserk, there was no time for analysis. Instead Riku is desperately hoping her strategy worked, as Ami didn't seem to care how much she was struck by that cursed blade. Unfortunately for the princess, she underestimated her ability to find new avenues of attack at every new moment.

A loud explosion of stone and dust sprayed out from the column shielding Riku, causing her to pull away to shield her eyes from that debris. It was all the time Ami needed, the few seconds of Riku blinded for her sword to plung deep into her chest. The princess would let out a horrid scream of agony, slung back by the force of the heavy sword turned projectile and landing in the nearby wall, pinned by that firmly bloodied blade. Riku would clutch at her chest, the enourmous pain of metal breaking her bonde and skin. Blood would leak like a fountain, stained the sword and ground beneath, the girl dangling on her toes.

It had been a good run. Riku had done her best, but ultimately the sheer ferosity and power overwhelmed her in a single moment. She'd gasp and sputter out her last over the sword's stem, clutching the instrument in an intimate grip.

And so it ends. Ami stalks around the broken remains of the pillar over to Riku, her broken body hanging limply upon the wall. She lets out a deep sigh as she grabs the handle of her sword and tugs it out of the princess's body in one swift pull, remnants of sanity returning to her as she flicks the blood onto the floor. "Man, why did you have to start doing that dumb stuff right when it was starting to get fun?" She asks the body rhetorically as she allows her sword to evaporate into flames, watching Riku's body with disinterest as it slides down the wall and onto the ground in a limp pile. Hmm, this is her second kill come to think of it. Second human kill that is.

"Ah shit, I was supposed to capture her wasn't I? Needed her alive or something..." Ami muses as she pokes at Riku's side with her boot. This is kind of a problem huh? Well, she was probably the uh... why was she trying to capture Riku alive again? Damn, Kanbaru-chan was gonna be so pissed. Ok, new plan! Leave the body here and pretend Ami lost her, then when everyone is looking around for her Ami can "find" the body and ponder aloud just what could have killed her! Yep, perfect plan. "Kanbaru-chaaaaaan! I beat up the red girl but she got away! Are you guys done beating up that snake yet?" Ami called out as she turned away from Riku's body and back towards where the vampire chick was.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Gods Play Dice With The Universe
It's Your Turn Now
Carnage One
Let's Samba!

How fitting for a vampire to shy away from the light, that incandescent beauty which illuminated the glaring horrors just beneath the skin.

Whatever consequences came of Maria's actions on her team was promptly discarded as she dove down on her foe and cleaved her in twain, but the response given was not the satisfying splatter of crimson that Maria desired. She did not feel the monster's bones shatter as her beloved Hunahphu drove through her body like a superheated knife through butter. All she saw were dainty flowers scattering through the air as the "real" Shika approached from behind. Maria turns to the source of the cutting comment, yet she doesn't look offended or angry in the slightest. Instead she laughs and rubs the back of her head as she blushes a little. "My my, flattery will get you everywhere with this girl~!"

She takes one hand off of Hunahphu and snaps it out to the side, a small bracelet on her wrist suddenly glowing as it unfolds into a round slab of wood decorated with images of the moon. "Grace is something you Easterners worry about way too much honestly. I live my life the way I want, and if I happen to look disgraceful while doing it then why should I care?" The blush fades as her smile widens further, revealing a set of sharp pointed teeth that changes the tone of her smile drastically. "I mean honestly, caring about what you have to say is like caring about the opinion of a mangy hound! Would you give a shit about what a walking corpse has to say?"

The petals assault Maria from every side, yet the dance continues. Her steps are reminiscent of a samba dancer as she spins and steps around the deadly blades, her hips never stop shaking as she aggressively dances her way towards Shika. What cannot be dodged is deflected, what cannot be deflected is blocked, and what cannot be blocked is simply taken head on as she burns her way through the storm. A death by a thousand cuts won't stop Maria as she pushes forwards, swinging at Shika once more to tear her apart. This time though, Hunahphu wakes up. A trail of crimson down her arm connects to the handle of the macuahuitl and it drinks deep of its user's blood, the jagged obsidian along its edge coming to life like a chainsaw revving up. And from that friction is born the flame of the sun proper, lashing out at the beast to consume it with it's arrogant incandescence.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Gods Play Dice With The Universe
It's Your Turn Now
Carnage One
Let's Samba!

"I prefer to think of myself as a kicker of ass!" Maria cried out as she skidded to a halt and crouched down, muscles tensing and flexing as raw adrenaline coursed through her veins. The world was in perfect clarity at times like these, nothing but Maria and whatever monster she was gonna kill to save the day. The shadow of blood eclipses her form and everything feels like it's in slow motion, not a single detail escapes her notice. In front was a perfect wall of red, approximately 1,000 gallons of blood if compared to the average wave of water at a beach. Behind her she could hear the cracking and breaking of bone, she could feel the slight displacement of air pushing into her back as five humanoids leapt at her. They were very likely dead, and even if they weren't dead they obviously wouldn't live for very long considering the condition they were all in. Maybe an exorcist could have saved them, but Maria had no interest in matters of the spirit or that of "God", she focused on what she could feel with her body.

Right now all she felt was the desire to maim.

Going forwards wasn't an option thanks to the wall of blood that threatened to consume her, Maria didn't particularly want to find out what would happen when she touched all that blood. Plus it would absolutely ruin her new clothes she definitely hadn't stolen. Going backwards was partially an option, but being put on the backfoot was never preferable when starting a dance, she wanted to be the one leading this samba~ Left and right were viable options to avoid the attack from the front but then one of the back zombies would catch her and she would have to waste time burning them off. That really only left one option, up and into the sky.

About 0.05 seconds have passed since Maria initially halted now, the ground cracks beneath her feet as all the stored force in her legs explodes into the ground and pushes her into the blue above. Her snake pendant burns red hot against her skin as flames rip out from her back, like a phoenix being born she propels herself above the wave of blood and lets it crash into the flailing zombies as she looks down on Shika from above. "Don't leave me frustrated okay~?" And then she dives down to cut some weeds.

Tower of Fable

Eww was a pretty apt metaphor for what was going down with Rose about now. A disgusting insectile orgy of blood and weird snake energy dissolving until nothing was left but a vaguely Rose shaped pile of insects squirming about looking for what remained of their meal. Perhaps a weaker willed folk would have remained that way forever, lost to the horde's instincts to consume and propagate. But Rose was most certainly not that weaker willed folk. Slowly but surely her form coalesced back into what she was prior, a girl with a shield who looked very tired but that entire ordeal. "That was so fucking gross. I don't ever want to do that again." She groaned as she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled over to Claire. "Alright girl, up and at em. Good ol slice of za never hurt anyone, that's slang for pizza if you didn't know." Rose was already guiding Claire to the "za" as she said this, efforts more focused on getting everyone healthy then worrying about those snakes. For a brief moment she looks at Thomas with a hint of intrigue, but her focus quickly shifts to the elf in the room.

She hums in appraisal as her eyes scan the girl up and down, then she looks back to Claire. "Yeah I can flirt with you later I guess, first things first is making sure this crewmmate doesn't die to horrible snake venom."

---

Whatever cool comeback Riku had was completely lost on the berserking Ami as she charged into battle once again, a straight shot right to the jaw to rattle Riku's brains about a little. Just a little, not enough to kill her. At least not enough to kill her if she didn't suck. And lo and behold, she didn't suck! Ami's smile only grew wider as Riku shakily got back to her feet, ready to keep the fight going until she was either dead or Ami got bored of beating on her. Or maybe that was just Ami's perception of this. Either way, she did a thing! Two waves of water sweep across the room, one a byproduct of Kanbaru's own battle with someone Ami didn't care about, and the other a direct attack from Riku as she rode the wave to attack the berserker directly. But it wouldn't be an easy hit for Riku, Ami would make sure that she extracted every ounce of pain she could from Little Red if she wanted to make this a real fight.

She raises her right foot into the air and thrusts it into the stone floor, cracking the ground as a roaring pillar of flame erupts from beneath her and engulfs her own body in black flames. The moment Riku got even close to such an inferno she would feel her skin singing, even as the combined might of Kanbaru and Riku's water crashed into the blaze to smother it completely. A super heated blast of fog would swallow the pair, boiling in midair and covering Riku from head to toe. It was like being dumped into a boiling pot of water, but the pot was the entire room and the water was literally the air itself. "I'm glad! If you gave up after one measly little punch I would have just cut your damn head off then and there!" Ami roars gleefully as her own sword swings out to crash into Riku's scythe.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Gods Play Dice With The Universe
It's Your Turn Now
Carnage One
Let's Samba!

Buzzkills, buzzkills all of them! The night was barely even starting and they expected her to go to sleep? They hadn't had any celebratory drinks, they hadn't gotten to know each other, hell, none of them had even fucked! These Japanese were so damn prudish, it brought a tear to her eye, it really did! But alas it would seem as though she would have to be left to her own devices on this night, as her two teammembers made a fatal mistake in leaving her by herself with no supervision. They left her by herself with no supervision. She did not go to her room, nor did she go anywhere within the Demon Hunter HQ. No, she in fact left the building and instead decided to go bar hopping for the night, brushing up on her Nihongo by listening to people spill out their guts to bartenders and getting absolutely wasted all night long.

Maria was of course the last to arrive to the cantina when messaged by Hoshio, and she really was a sight to behold. She was wearing clothes that definitely didn't belong to her first of all, but more importantly was what kind of clothes they were. A t shirt of some indie band that nobody had ever heard of, way too small for her given how stretched out the logo on the front was and cut off just at the midriff, skin tight jeans that accentuated her curves in all the right areas, a pair of dark shades covering her almost certainly dilated eyes, and what appeared to be a guitar case... "Hey hey everyone, sorry I'm late! Had to find a good disguise for our super secret stealth mission today, also I brushed up on my Japanese! You guys have such weird slang, like what even is a Christmas Cake?"

Moving on from that, Hoshio's plan was pretty cut and dry so Maria had no real objections. Despite the impression she gave off, she knew how to be quiet when she needed to be, she just hated doing so. The sooner this boring ass job was over the better, she wanted to get back to blowing some real demons up, not this lame small fry! As soon as they arrived Maria quirked an eyebrow at Hoshio and tilted her sunglasses down to look him in the eye directly. "Do you really not have a way to hide your weapon during day missions? Come on, I thought I was supposed to be the amateur here!" She cried as she unzipped the weird guitar case she was carrying around to reveal her own weapon stashed away, this was really just Hunter stuff 101!

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for Maria) the need to hide their weapons rather quickly disappeared as their enemy up and announced their presence, the bell Mai had given her beginning to ring rapidly as demons appeared from every angle, screams of agony and terror ringing throughout the temple grounds as Maria sighed and tossed away the guitar case. "Jeez, and I had put together such a cool disguise for this..." She whined childishly as she lit her weapon ablaze and charged at the nearest infected "civilian" she saw. And if Shika was expecting some kind of hesitation from the Demon Hunter than she would be sorely disappointed as the rampant woman smashed the monster aside like a meteor and charged right towards where the bell was leading her. Find the head honcho, kill the head honcho, smash the rocks. This plan was much easier honestly.

Tower of Fable

Rose's thoughts refocused as two new combatants entered the fray, though calling one of them a combatant might have been a slight overstatement considering all she was doing was blinding and annoying the monstrous snake repeatedly. The deflected orb of what could now be identified as condensed gravity slammed right back into it's origin and sent the serpent flying backwards like a limp noodle, with Thomas rushing in to deliver the finishing blow. It had almost seemed anticlimactic in a way Rose thought, or at least it would have been if that were the climax of this battle. A blast of shadow erupts forth from the snake's corpse as it divides and conquers amongst the four Serei users, a horde of snakes wrapping around Rose without warning and threatening to crush her within her heavy armor as they tighten and begin biting at her without mercy. With a roar of pain she flexes her muscles to try and force them away, but there's just too many, not enough room to move, not enough-

And then Rose explodes.

Explodes into a swarm of various insects that is, dissolving into legion and turning the tide on the snakes as the multitude of carnivorous bugs eats away at the snakes which were just a moment ago in control. Her mind is in every single one, it feels weird to look at herself a hundred times over but it's even weirder to be so damn hungry! Why were bugs so fucking hungry!? Why was she so hungry!? Lost in a rush of primal instinct she bites and consumes the insects in a writhing mass of bloody hunger, only stopping once the snakes are reduced to naught but bleached bone.

---

Back to the adventures of Ami and Kanbaru beating on a poor innocent girl, the beating continues! The bard predictably keeps her pristine hands clean of the filth of combat, in the back of her mind Ami can't help but sneer at the prissy girl who watches the fight as though it were entertainment for her to enjoy. Reminds her of a Light Magical Girl in a similar way that Red Riding Hood does, both of them think of themselves as above the violence. Maybe she'd find an excuse to beat on the bard later too, wipe that superiority off her face and remind her just who's who around here. Maybe if she wasn't distracted by these kinds of thoughts she would have noticed the obvious sniper in the rafters, maybe she would have been fast enough to deflect that bullet and stop the fight from restarting. Ah well, Ami wouldn't complain if Red Riding Hood wanted a round 2 with her new partner.

"Ugh, I know right? They could at least try and prove my expectations wrong, fucking lame as hell." She complains, yet that vicious grin falters not for even a moment. Her eyes dart towards Red Riding Hood as she pulls out some unholy combination of sniper rifle and scythe, before snorting and shaking her head as she aims at Kanbaru. "Come on Red, I thought you had learned by now!" Flames spring to life at the soles of her boots as she aims her body right at Riku. "It's fine though, I'll teach you this lesson as many times as I need to!" Or want to. She shoots forwards like a rocket, mach 1 is reached within a fraction of a second as she cocks her fist back and throws a straight punch right at Riku's jaw, no finesse or thinking involved.