Requiem walked along in her gear, armed and ready. She had heard of demonic incursions and then quickly headed out. First instinct was to sit in a dark corner and watch before acting. However she quickly discarded that idea as unhelpful to the situation. Instead she opted to run along rooftops.

In the distance, she could see signs of the battle as rifts tore open and demons poured out of them. Requiem ground her teeth before leaping down and racing towards the nearest rift. She saw numerous people running away screaming as what she could only describe as abominations ran out. The first few seemed like they were particularly weak as they fell over and trampled themselves.

She whipped out her dagger and readied herself for battle. Years of brutal training followed by years of strict rules let her get in stance as she ran towards them and readied her opening attack. The palm of her left hand glowed as she made a handsign without channeling her magic just yet.

When fighting a numerically superior enemy, move the fight to a location that negates the advantage.

"Hey! Shit for brains!" She jumped up and slashed all the ropes she could reach and let them fall, hopefully tangling up the monsters even more as she made a throwing motion sending a shuriken at the group.

Spell used: Bitter Tear

Mana remaining: 675

It was a normal day like any other. Children playing in the street. Old men drinking beer on their front porch. Young men and women studying to do great things. A man clad in black walked down the street. He lit the hand rolled cigarette that was hanging from his lip. And just as he did a vision came onto him. It was the vision of a knight in black armor. He rode upon a white malnourished steed just down the road. The same road as James was standing on cigarette hanging from lip and as the knight upon the pale horse passed James by Hell followed with him.

Snapping out from the Vision James saw as the black tear ripped a small portion of space open. Out from the dimensional tear small abominable demonic goblinoids spurred forth. Twisted figures of different coloration. The innocent civilians that had not run far enough were ripped into pieces by their sharp claws and jagged teeth. A scene of horror. Blood gushed onto the streets coloring the nearby city in a twisted crimson red. What was left of the people were not something the stories would ever tell as the demons had left the sight of the corpses unfit for children to know.

James gripped his cigarette with the index finger and thumb of his right hand. He then started to slowly back up. The demons were moving closer. The first demon coming into melee range would meet James foot with a crunching sound as he kicked it in its face making it fall backwards. He then started quickly moving backwards. Another of the demons reached him just as the demon he had previously kicked stood up. James punched it with his right hand aiming for its eye so as he could push the cigarette inside with his thumb. It hit but the demon did not falter slashing at his arm with one of its claws. It slid across drawing blood from it. The demon pulled its arm back deviously licking the blood that had covered it with its long snake like tongue.

Just as the demon licked its claws James started moving faster turning around and starting to sprint reaching his max speed he could hear the thumping of demon feet behind him. A woman ran past him. He looked behind himself and saw as she cut the ropes down making some sort of attempt at entanglement of the demons. Some of the demons would definitely have ropes fall on them. She then used some sort of magic attack. It was obvious to James that the woman would have no chance against the demons alone. He stopped in his tracks he was no longer chased as the woman had taken it upon herself to defend the people from the evil beasts.

He looked over his shoulder. She was fighting alone. He would not leave her. He turned around and clenched his fist. He had almost fallen to the despicable cowardice he hated so much. Never, he thought to himself as he stepped up next to the woman. “Lovely weather.” He would say no more before diving in kicking and punching, the sight would be almost that of a wild beast fueled only by his hate for his enemy. A right. A left. A kick. A headbutt. They all followed in perfect succession with almost blinding(d-rank) speed.

Requiem rolled her shoulders and loosened up, "well, at least I'm not doing this alone." She said with a slightly manic grin. This was the sort of thing she wanted to do. What she aspired to become. As the demons rushed at her and the man, she turned and smiled, "it is lovely weather today isn't it."

She watched as he raced at the demons and started attacking before making another handsign and feeling her magic pool around her legs a spell circle formed and then floated up over her head, turning her into a shadow.

She dashed forward and slashed at the openings left by her ally's attacks, going for the kill when she could but also aiming to hamstring the demons when a killing blow wasn't available.

Requiem was very grateful that someone had shown up to help, as she knew from experience that a prolonged fight was not her cup of tea and she would end up needing to back off and rest if they couldn't end it quickly enough.

A cluster of demons tried to ambush her from behind but either by a stroke of luck or fate, she sidestepped an attack from in front and the whole group ended up tangled together for her to kill several before they got free. She managed to get to the man, "if you have something powerful to drop on these bastards, I'm all for it."

Dance Macabre: 75 mp D-rank self buff speed

600 mp remain

James stopped for a second as the demons from behind caused him and the woman to start forming a back to back position so as they would not leave any openings to be attacked. He made dual finger pistols with both his hands and stabbed them through two separate different demons eyes effectively killing two of them whilst also creating magic circles that appeared on the other sides of the demon goblinoids skulls. “I’d be happy to oblige.”

He would say this as one of the magic circles appeared under the bearing pillarstone of a nearby building. Pushing the ground up one meter causing the pillarstone to become loose and unstable. The ground then fell apart causing the pillarstone to fall down and just as it fell down another magic circle appeared. It was the one he had targeted with his other hand. His right foot slid across the ground in the direction that the building was facing the street they were on also tripping an attacking demon. The foot sliding motion activated the magic circle causing the ground to move violently in the direction he had wanted it to. This made the bearing pillar fall down upon moving ground which entirely dislodged it from the building causing it to fall out onto the street they were on not more than five meters away from them.

Before the building started collapsing in the direction the demons were coming from James would attempt to save the woman from the falling building by tackling her to the ground lunging at her. He would use his own back as a form of shield from any debris that would fall in their direction. This of course only if she would allow it to happen.

After that the building fell. The stones and planks crashing onto the street burying a large force of demons underneath it. They probably did not die but at least they would have to dig their way up out of the rubble. The building blocked of the entire street. Those demons that had not been crushed were either on James and the Woman’s side of the ruin or they were on the other side of it and would have to climb over it which would at least slow them down even if just a little.

James had been hit by some rubble which had caused him to go out for just a moment. He awakened having a few stones laying over him. They fell of him as he started to slowly stand up. He walked a few steps his sight was hazed and he had a slight concussion causing him to almost topple over as he tripped on a piece of rubble on the ground. He puked. It did not feel like it but the fall of the building had given them time and a form of peaceful moment as some of the demons stood baffled by what had happened. They did not linger however as those whom had not been interested in the two now very much were. It would save the lives of many as that slight moment would give them the time to flee.

He cleaned his hands on his clothes and rubbed his eyes. Standing up slowly this time so that he would not fall over again. Readying his fists, raising them slowly into a form of boxer position. He then stretched one hand out towards the demons opening his palm and motioning for them to come at him by waving his fingers inwards towards himself.

Two spells used: Uneven footing and Unsure footing

Current MP: 150
MP Used:50

Wordcount: 584
Wordcount total: 1145

Requiem was glad to have help, and she couldn't deny the results. She probably would've appreciated it much better if she hadn't nearly been buried, barely evading the falling building. With the ground torn up she saw no need to keep her spell going and dropped it before making a throwing motion at a cluster of idiot demons. The small black object she conjured whirred as it curved towards the group. One of them screeched and the whole group tried to scatter before the Bitter Tear exploded right next to them having reached its range.

The knight didn't have time to appreciate the effects as she spun on her heel and held up her blade just in time to avoid being gutted like a fish. She knee stomped it and back pedaled into the shadows between two of the remaining buildings, waiting for another chance to attack with an advantage. A cry rang out and she turned to see a cluster of demons attacking a group of fleeing civilians.

She ran at the monsters and lay about her with her dagger. The first demon got hamstrung before getting stabbed in the eyes. Demon number two found itself missing an arm before getting kicked into number three as she slit a fourth demon's throat and turned to face the remaining two demons.

Bitter Tear: 25 MP
Remaining: MP: 575

cooldowns: Dance Macabre-3

James looked over at the woman. She was fighting ferociously. Maybe he would ask her name after this battle. A demon swung at him and he back stepped just in time. His taunt was successful. He did not have time to ponder on things that the woman was doing. For there were demons all around. He struck back at the one demon that had attacked him. Planting his fist upon its forehead.

He did not know for how long he could keep all of this up. The sweat was pouring down from his brow. His breathing felt dry and when he spat his spit was almost yellow and extremely thick. It felt to him as if he was a bathing sponge that had been squeezed of all it’s moisture.

He clenched his fist and slammed it down upon the demon once more. It fell backwards. James quickly stepped over and kicked the demons throat destroying it. Another one came running at him. James did not have a lot of strength left but he could at least stop it in its tracks. He kicked the assaulting demon in the chest and slammed his fist down upon its head, cracking its skull.

"I hope you have a plan."

WC: 200
Total WC: 1345

Requiem found herself breathing hard as she finished off the last demon in her immediate vicinity, "I don't have any spells for a crush mob like this" she gasped out as she helped the civilians to their feet, "go towards the church, you'll be safer yhere." They thanked her and ran off, "I think we have a few minutes of breathing space, let's set up a choke point and negate their numbers.

Requiem pointed at an alleyway, "we can use that spot there." She hurried off and quickly cut down all the ropes between the buildings and used them to create a trap about ankle height before she pulled the remains of a crate over and set a makeshift barricade.

No sooner had she finished than when another rush of goblinoid demons attacked. With no ranged attacks available,  she would have to wait until the monsters came within range, "what if we smash the buildings and roads enough that they have to go through narrow points and guide them out of the city then we double back and find some way to close the rift?" She wasn't particularly hopeful about how that would turn out since they would have to essentially ignore the worst of the horde and let them free reign beyond their ability to contain the situation. But if they couldn't stop them from coming in then it wouldn't matter anyway.

As the fighting picked back up, the sky darkened. Requiem knee stomped a demon that got too close for comfort and slashed a second one before the press forced her to make a run for a nearby building where she would have some breathing space and hopefully be able to negate their numbers further.

James kept punching away at the demons as the woman was helping some nearby civilians. He had only had time to turn around after hearing what she said before she had darted off. He followed suit but had to climb over her barricade as the goblinoid demons almost clawed at his back. I don’t think that I am capable of doing so much structural damage to the city he thought to himself. He also did not want to go out of his way to destroy the city. The damage of the battle would be too much and they could probably win this without having to destroy the city itself.

He did however not have a lot of time to think on the matter as the goblinoids started climbing over the barricade. James watched as the woman started cutting away at the swarm that was slowly nearing in on them. “I don’t have the magical power to destroy the poor civilians city.” He said this before he too started to kick away at the goblinoid sized demonic monstrosities. “If we can make our way past the demons over the rooftops then we can probably make it to the rift.” James started stomping his feet into the ground as he made his way over to a building wall. He started moving up the wall as dirt and the buildings one materials started sticking to his feet. Allowing him to walk up the building. He made it to the top of the building and then looked back down at the woman. “Come on we have to hurry!”

WC: 225
Total Wordcount: 1570

Spell: Stride
MP used: 25
Current MP: 125

Requiem bit her lip as she drop kicked another demon into a gaggle of them and threw another Bitter Tear, "lead the way!" She jumped up, using the windows to help her scale the building and taking a moment to observe the carnage around them, "there's where the goblinoids are coming from." She pointed at the nearest rift, at least several blocks away and much smaller than the others she could see. Without hesitation, she raced across the roofs, ignoring the monsters around them and the occasional cry for help. Requiem felt tears falling down her face. She hated not stopping to save everyone, but if they couldn't get the rift closed, no one would be saved.

She leapt across the narrow space between buildings and rolled, keeping her momentum going as she kept running to the next building. Once again, she did her best to keep her momentum as she leapt and rolled. The next gap crossed a main road. Requiem, without bothering to slow down at all, launched herself into the air and tucked her legs in front of her with her arms protecting her face. She broke through the window and rolled right into a demon, causing them both to get tangled up down a flight of stairs. The demon clawed at her as she broke free and stabbed it repeatedly until it stopped moving, "I really hate this shit." She ran up the stairs, past the family she inadvertently saved without so much as a glance in their direction, feeling guilty that she wasn't able to save everyone else as she reached the roof again and heard more screams in the distance.

She leapt across the last few buildings and reached the rift. Untold numbers poured out of it, "so... what now?"

James stood up atop the building waiting for the woman to follow after him. She moved fast and it almost looked as if she flew up as she jumped and climbed. She ran past him but he followed suit. They moved towards where she had pointed that the rift was. They concluded that by closing that rift they would stop the goblinoid demons from traversing between dimensions to get to this plane of existence. James ran after her until the point where they would have to jump because of a gap much larger than the earlier ones. A main road had split their path. The woman apparently just jumped and made her way through a window situated on a building on the other side of the much larger road.

He looked behind him. A lot of demons were following them but they were much slower and were far behind. James still using his magic decided to walk down the building, over the road and then up the other building meeting the woman on the rooftop. They kept moving again rolling jumping, making all kinds of crazy moves to get over the rooftops. To some it would look like they were a part of a circus as they made it closer to the rift.

They were on a rooftop and the rift was down in front of them. The rift was a in a plaza in the city and was elevated a bit into the air. Demons came out of it one after the other. James was not about to let the demons do their thing. “We take out the demons and close the rift.”

He walked down the edge of the building and then kicked of from the walls surface making a somersault as he landed.

WC: 296
Total WC: 1866

Spell sustained: Stride

MP used: 25
Current MP: 100

Requiem resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "yes, exactly, but how the freaking hell do we do that?" She watched as he went down the side and looked around closely for anything that might be useful for stopping the attack. This particular plaza had several fountains with a single tree between them. Along the edges were the ruined remains of various stall, all of which had been smashed to kindling. Not for the first time Requiem cursed the elemental nature of her magic. For something that seemed to be purpose built for use against creatures of darkness, it was all but useless as the magic itself was darkness aligned.

She clicked her teeth in frustration as she leapt down , "If you have a spell that'll let you entomb the rift, use it. I'll clear the way for you." She drew her knife once more and took a stance as a purple spell circle formed at her feet, "Death Is Not The End." She intoned as her arms became wreathed in shadows. Requiem dashed at the demons and started cutting them down.

The first cluster that moved to intercept found itself cut to bloody ribbons before Requiem grabbed a potruding bone from one of the corpses and used it to impale another demon that had escaped her first rush. The effects of Azrael's Magic started to take its toll on her as every dark deed she committed came to the forefront of her mind. Despair and hatred feeding on itself as she saw in perfect clarity every choice she made that hurt others. As long as her mana remained high, she would be able to stave off the worst of the effects.

Another cluster of demons quickly fell as she cut her way through them and them scattered the next wave with a Bitter Tear. She still had quite a bit of mana but if the fight got any more drawn out, it wouldn't matter.

Spells used:
Gentle embrace- 25 mp sustain
Bitter tear- 25 mp
Remaining mp- 525
Cooldowns:
danse macabre- 2
Bitter tear- 1

James did not have any spells with encapsulating properties. But he felt the power to use some of his spells come back to him. He pointed in the direction of one of the buildings where there was a way out of the plaza and then pointed at it again and slid his foot to the side making the building like before crash to the side. This covered the path that led from the plaza to the mainroad and the rest of the city. This would slow down and limit the demons ability to get anywhere and make them focus more on fighting with James and the woman whom he still did not know the name off.

He kicked a demon in the face and then another one. He was swinging his fists punching and stabbing his way through the demon horde until finally there was three demons left. He was tired now and felt that he had done his part. His right shoulder had been pulverized and the knuckles in his left hand were simply bone splinters. His legs had no energy and all James wanted was to sit down. “Hey It’s all up to you now.” James said and fell backwards down onto the ground. He picked a cigarette out of his pocket with his left hand put it to his lips and lit it. He would then lay there smoking his cigarette.

Requiem smiled as the numbers finally dwindled with a noticeable effect. The ruined corpses of the demons littered the Plaza like a grisly work of art that brought thoughts of horror to the forefront of one's mind where they not already inure to such things. She squatted next to James, "take a breather, just in case." Requiem patted his shoulder and stood up for a little bit of stretching before walking towards the last of the monsters.

The creatures eyed her and her ally warily, having seen the two of them carve through hordes of their compatriots with ease. Requiem figured she could take them all at once, but didn't want to get too close to the rift in case they had a friend waiting for her to make a mistake. She paced back and forth, every turn bringing her close to the demons.

Her patience payed off as the creatures finally shrieked and rushed her. Now that they were away from the rift, she had no problem closing in on them. A quick hand sign and a purple glow around her feet and she flew along the ground with a burst of speed. The demons reached her about the same time and she had to twist away from two claws while cutting off a hand and then using her shadow-wreathed other hand to punch it in the face before turning to parry an attack from behind.

Clearly these three had actually payed attention to the fighting and worked in tandem to keep her busy as two of them would attack and force her to block or dodge only to have the third one strike at her when she was exposed. Without her Bitter Tear to attack at range or scatter them, she was forced to make dashing attacks that could be easily countered.

The one handed demon finally made a mistake as she feinted towards the first and then spun on her heel to stab it in the throat. It fell, clutching at the hole in its neck as it drowned on its own blood. The remaining two demons were much more cautious now. She would have to take the fight to them before something happened to turn the tide once more. Requiem jumped back, keeping one of the fountains between her and a demon as she focused on the second one.

The monsters jumped for her, one flew through the stonework, shattering the fountain and sending debris towards her while the other landed on top of her a second later. She tried to stab it but her hand was pinned under its claw as it leered at her. The two demons stood over her, chattering in their infernal tongue as if they were deciding what to do with her. Finally, the one that wasn't holding her down walked towards James, "Look o-" she was cut off by an iron grip around her neck before getting picked up and slammed into the ground. So far she had managed to avoid taking any real hits but this one knocked the wind out of her as she was thrown like a rag doll and then pinned again.

This time, the demon on top of her made a mistake. It hadn't held her in a way to prevent her from pulling her legs in to kick. Requiem worked up some of the blood in her mouth and spit into its eyes before kicking it in the chest. She rolled to her feet and brought her knife up in time for the creature to skewer itself as it body slammed her, "I'm stuck, you're on your own." She pushed as hard as she could, but the corpse was not light.

James was unable to move and his vision had blurred, He could not feel if his body was actually alive or not. Slowly his vision turned into hallucinations he saw his past self. His father, his mother even the town where he grew up. They were all flashing before his eyes but in the end the hallucination became a stale dark empty world without light except for one faint white dot in the distance. James ran towards it and the closer he got the more visible the shape of the dot became. It was a humanoid without gender or face completely doused in white paint. It had no hair nor clothes, no gender or sex. Then it turned towards him and “looked” at him. It stretched its arm out and james stretched its arm towards it. Their fingers touched and as if touching a pond a water circle spanned out from their fingers the fingers being the center point of the circle of waves in reality.

The wave sundered the false reality of the hallucination. Reality came back. One of the goblinoids was moving towards him. James grabbed a stone with one hand. When the demonic goblinoid got close enough James smacked it over the head killing it. The last of the demons. The rift ended.

The member 'James' has done the following action : Spin

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'Dice 100' : 27

The member 'James' has done the following action : Spin

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'Dice 100' : 14

Requiem managed to finally get the monster off her and regained her feet in time to see the demon heading towards her ally. She hastily flicked her wrist to adjust her grip on the knife for throwing when it stopped and fell over. She was mildly confused until she saw James. If she had to guess, he either had a weapon or something, maybe one last desperate burst of magic? That was irrelevant now. The rift here appeared to be over and from the markedly lessened sounds of screaming and battle, she figured the other rifts were ending as well.

She sheathed her knife and walked towards the downed man, intending to carry him to the cathedral. A scuff from behind made her spin and whip out her dagger again. Her eyes scanned the area before seeing a familiar face, "Did you have something to do with this?" The blue haired woman simply looked around before walking off, "until next time, dearest sister."

Requiem ran after the retreating figure, "Damn you! I want answers!" She turned the corner... to see n empty alleyway. Requiem bit back a serious of curses that would've made her father tan her back with a switch if she had said them in front of him before returning to James. She picked him up awkwardly and had to adjust until she had him hanging over, "note to self, bulk up some. And this isn't quite the same as those books I got said." She groaned as she carried him to relative safety, grateful that the headache had passed before she was forced to use more magic.

Exit/

The member 'Requiem' has done the following action : Spin

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'Dice 100' : 14

Bonus I think

The member 'Requiem' has done the following action : Spin

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'Dice 100' : 32