Devil Arms - Mission 1: The 32nd Night

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

"Well this certainly wasn't in the brochure. It's so hard to find quality schools these days."

"Exactly the reason why I dropped out early," Reese replied, sending Ixion on a flight of destruction through several of the nearby demons, severing heads and ripping through torsos as it went. He sidestepped another kife attack and aimed a low sweep at the offending demon, knocking off its feet before putting a bullet to its head, catching Ixion as it returned on a low flying path that severed anothers legs clean off.

He was getting impatient now though, these things were clearly not going to run out any time soon and he was getting the distinct impression they were merely a distraction. "You know, it occurs to me," he imformed Krista, whilst parrying another blade, "that these things aren't too bright. In fact I doubt they even have any real intelligence at all," he spun around to the side of the puppet he had just blocked as it attacked again, blasting into its legs from behind, "Which leads me to believe, that there must be something bigger around here controlling them." He flung out his Ixion wielding arm towards the next puppet, detatching one of its three pieces and sending it to collide with the demons face. An arc of lightning lanced across and began to slowly fry the wooden monster.

"Wanna go find it?" He asked, turning back to the female devil hunter as his latest pray burst into flames and crumbled into ashes.

[Krylo]

Raphael's face turned toward the gunshots.

"There. Unless you have a better idea of where the beast may be hiding...?"

The priest reached into his vestments, now pulling out his pistols. The chains snaked up around them and began to glow, feeding demonic power into the weapons--a preparation Raphael had learned to take years before: Allow the guns to charge before the battle begins, and there will be no battle to be had.

"As a man of God I am bound to see it exorcised back to hell..."

[PhoenixFlame]

"Could follow them back, but at this point that won't be feasible." Yukari replies, referring to the puppets. It didn't make much sense for their quarry to be upstairs, as it would have far less room to move and hide than if it were closer to the ground and the outside.

It didn't matter, though. The people with the guns would probably draw it out, even if they didn't find it themselves. Seeing Father Rapheal prepare to proceed onward, Yukari nods.

"Then let us send it back, lead on."

[Toastburner B]

Brett heaved a sigh of relief at the fact that the two figures who had gotten the drop on him weren't devils, but he was also slightly miffed at the fact that they appeared to be hunters. What? Did Johansen think that we couldn't handle a simple job like this by ourselves and brought in some more on it?

However, he took the momentary lull (the other two seemed to be handling the puppets easy enough), and attached a headset to his radio, so that he could talk to Emily with his hands free. "Emily? Listen, looks like we aren't the only people crashing this party. I just found two other 'guests' who seem to be here for the same reason as us."

Brett looked at his new 'companions', and noticed something wrong. Beyond the few that the two other hunters had engaged, the rest of the puppets were beginning to back off. In his entire career, Brett had never seen low level demons like these, which were basically cannon fodder, back off out of fear...only for tactical reasons.

"Shoot," he hissed, and drew Laccolith. "I hate to break up the makings of a beautiful friendship here," Brett said to the other hunters, "but I think whoever is in charge here has decided to take us seriously."

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"Copy the additional party crashers," Emily muttered into a headset of her own, "I just found one myself."

Emily looked at David, and decided it was probably best to be friendly, even though she was feeling professionally insulted at other hunters were seemingly poaching her job. "You expect a girl to walk around unarmed in a neighborhood this bad?" she asked with a smile. "I'm Emily Harkin, of Thomas & Harkin...not that you would of hear of us..."

Emily's voice trailed off as a deep, thunderous howl echoed through the abandoned hallways.

"Ohh...that's generally not a good sound, is it?" Emily thought out loud.

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For anyone on the ground floor, the howling sound was even louder...and was soon accompanied by the sound of heavy, padded feet slapping against the stone of the hallway, and a faint glimpse of huge, pitch black dogs running along the floor, the ceiling, and the walls, with grossly extended tongues that seemed to cut through the rock with contemptuous ease.

The warm-up was over, and the real game had just begun.

((OOC: Alright, it looked like people were starting to get bored with the puppets, so let's face off against our first real threat, shall we?

While there are still puppets about, the threat of the moment is the highly originally named Black Dogs, the smallest of which is the size of a great dane. All are pitch black in color, and all have the ability to climb on vertical surfaces, and have expendable tongues which, as noted, are awfully sharp.

These are the real deal, so these are more DMC-caliber enemies: Meaning that they can be defeated, but they're not going to fall to just a hit or two. Even in the games, even Marionettes and Scarecrows take a few hits before they go down, and that with half-demons laying down the pain...so no carving through these guys like you could with the puppets.

And for those of you wondering, these are a very vague hint as to what the "boss" of the school is going to be...not that it's a good enough hint for anyone to get it.))

[mauve]

"Wanna go find it?"

"Yeah...." Krista said, resting Scylla across her shoulder. "I'm up for a little detective work." She emptied the remainder of her ammo cartridge into an approaching puppet, then swung Scylla in an arc to knock aside a pair of marionettes to her left.

She hurled Scylla at another puppet, freeing her hands to do a quick reload. The trident reappeared in her grasp.

"Any ideas where to start looking? I'm open to suggestion."

"Shoot," he hissed, and drew Laccolith. "I hate to break up the makings of a beautiful friendship here," Brett said to the other hunters, "but I think whoever is in charge here has decided to take us seriously."

"Ah," said Krista, watching the puppets retreat. "Yeah. Yeah, I think you're on to something. I suggest---" A howl echoed down the corridor, and Krista turned. "Oh, hell-llo."

Strange black hound-like creatures were surging down the hallway, on the floor, the ceiling.... Krista took a step back, spinning Scylla and moving into a defensive position.

"Yeah this is slightly more serious than the Puppet Pal Extravaganza we just exterminated," she grumbled. "You boys got any decent plans, or is it gonna be a free-for-all?"

[Steel Shadow]

Originally Posted by Emily Harkin

"You expect a girl to walk around unarmed in a neighborhood this bad?" she asked with a smile. "I'm Emily Harkin, of Thomas & Harkin...not that you would of hear of us..."

"Another hunter?" David asked, lowering his gun slightly, "Huh. Guess Drasco wasn't the only one paying attention. Well then, the name's-" He stated, only to get cut off by the howling.

"Ohh...that's generally not a good sound, is it?" Emily thought out loud.

David looked down the hall from where the sound had originated. There was nothing in sight yet. Looked like he'd have to do all the leg work.

"I don't know about that. Sounds fun to me. I guess introductions can wait. Settle for calling me David." He winked, then turned and started running for the sounds. He glanced back, ginning, "I guess you could stay here if you're scared though!"

[Krylo]

The howl ripped through the air with a cacophonous roar so powerful that it felt almost tangible as it tore through Raphael. He winced slightly, the suddeness and closeness to the source taking him by surprise, but he quickly regained his composure, turning toward Yukari as the beasts began charging toward them.

"It looks as though we were quite close to the beast, after all," he said as he leveled his guns toward the horde approaching from his side. "I will exorcise the demons on this half, if you would be kind enough to get the ones on that half.

They were thick this close to their origin, coming from all directions, like a wave of darkness devouring everything in its path. But, with a pair of loud cracks, two bright red points of burning light cut through that darkness, a pair of bullets charged with demonic energies lodging, each, in a different demon dog. One struck a beast square in the head, and the other in the shoulder. Moments later, two great fireballs burst amongst their ranks, knocking the beasts down and about, and leaving the two they had originally struck teetering on the edge of death.

Raphael slid the gun in his right hand back into its holster, freeing that chain to strike out, as he held the gun in his left in a waiting position, allowing the demonic energies to once more flow through it.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Reese looked up as yet another hunter appeared. "So what is this, like a devil hunters convention or something?" But before he could say anything else the marrionettes began to back away, only to be replaced with a pack of devil dogs of an unfamiliar breed. "So much for detective work, looks like the Big Bad's rolling out something more substantial for us first." He quickly popped another mag into his gun while he had the chance, this was probably about to get messy.

"Yeah this is slightly more serious than the Puppet Pal Extravaganza we just exterminated," she grumbled. "You boys got any decent plans, or is it gonna be a free-for-all?"

"Here's a plan," Reese said as he moved forwards of the other two slightly and raised Ixion almost like a shield at arms left, "How 'bout we kill them all? Thunderblast!" A huge surge of electricity leapt from the glaive towards the nearest dog. He wanted to see just how tough these things were.

[PhoenixFlame]

Originally Posted by Krylo

"I will exorcise the demons on this half, if you would be kind enough to get the ones on that half."

"I've a better plan, Father. Stand your ground, and I will draw their attention."

With a snap, Kamikaze was once again at Yukari's hands. She began a slow patterned step walking, almost dancing really, to one side, and then crossing back to the other. This was all rather mundane for the first few motions as the dogs bounded forward, but as they got just beyond pouncing range, Yukari moved. It was like a very fast somersault, if one could do a somersault while standing on one leg. The exact motion wasn't exactly easy to see, and for good reason, for with a roaring crack, the air surrounding her became visibly turbulant.

Scything currents surrounded Yukari, now fanning herself smugly, as the air eminated slowly but powerfully outward and down from above, signified by rather clearly seen areas of visual refraction. The dogs bounded onward into the area, but immediately doubled back, yelping from the pain of hitting a figurative wall of tiny razors. They fanned out around her, barking and snarling, as both waited for the maelstrom to dissipate. As it began to clear, the black dogs all lept inward in unison.

Of course, none of the dogs really expected Yukari could move vertically. She jumped, and jumped again, leaping off what appeared to be an empheral mandala of blackish-purple energy. If this wasn't unexpected enough, she kicked off an identical horizontal mandala, landing 'behind' what was now a tangled mass of yelping, angry demon-dogs.

"Roll over, Rex!" Yukari turns around and taunts the pile, slowly backpedaling to lead them into her next distraction.

[Krylo]

While Yukari danced, Raphael fought, his chain heating to its white hot state, leaving molten gouges in the ground and wilting the courtyard grass around wherever it lashed through the dirt traveling from one attack to the next. He was a much less elegant fighter, than the graceful Yukari with her dance-like motions and elemental control, but the chain whipped against the dog's shadowy flesh, or lashed about them smashing one shadow beast through many others.

A few dogs had even died in the onslaught, but they were slowly pushing forward.

As Yukari finished her first bit of dancing, however, leaving the dogs in a pile, Raphael's bullets had once more been infused with enough demonic energy to produce explosive results.

His chain lashed out at a dog that was pouncing toward him, smashing against the beast's face with enough force to send it back, but the priest was not yet ready to let it get away. Reaching his arm forward, Raphael directed the chain to move with lightning speed, tying about the dog demon's throat, and then yanked his arm backward ripping the demon against its own momentum with enough force to snap human bones like twigs.

The beast barreled directly toward the preacher, who let his chain release and then sidestepped the flying dog, but, as it sailed past, he spun and fired his single explosive bullet--the glowing demonic shot smashing into the beast and sending it toward the pile of its comrades created by Yukari with dangerous speed.

However, it was not the speed which was most dangerous.

The bullet entered the creature's chest, just as its shadowy body impacted with the other demon dogs. It exploded with incredible force, destroying not only the already beaten demon, but also a few of the more seriously injured in the pile. Those who were not unfortunate enough to be immediately destroyed were sent flying away from Yukari and Raphael.

"I hope you don't mind my interference with your half of the field," the priest said wryly as the chain wrapped about his right hand and began to burn with an aura of hellfire just in time to deliver a powerful blow to another demon dog that had pounced at him.