Though the soul detection of Aria allowed her partner and herself to make tracks through the contorted, ominous streets of the Burgh, by the time they arrived in the courtyard, Vergil and Dahlia were in trouble.  Agheu Glas presented the pair with a ceaseless, lunatic offensive presence, only momentarily pausing his attacks to dip sideways for a better position.  Unable to prevent the beast from closing to melee distance, Dahlia had given up trying to aim her shotgun in order to pour all her focus into defense.  With thrusts and swipes of his fiery spear, Agheu Glas forced Dahlia to move and adjust constantly, and when it seemed for the slightest moment that Dahlia might settle into a position to open fire, he lashed out with black talons and gnarled claws to smash her shield aside.  

The shot from Alex's barrel tore through the silence as if it were paper.  Three orange eyes flashed Aria's way, and the beast turning on a dime to skillfully twirl its spear, intercepting the bullet but leaving a usable, though small, window of opportunity.  Dahlia grinned, leveled her shotgun, and pulled the trigger, peppering her enemy's feathery shoulder and arm with hot lead.  Murky blood seeped between the raven fathers as the creature whirled back around to face her, teeth bared.  Leaping up, Agheu Glas delivered a pistonlike thrust kick to Vergil's surface, forcing Dahlia to stumble backward to keep from losing her footing.  He then swung the spear toward Aria, releasing a swath of golden fire that blazed toward her position.  Unable to leave Dahlia alone, he then renewed his assault, as if entrusting the death of the newcomer to some reliable, unseen phantom.  Clearly, the first team needed further aid.

A doorway to the back and left of Aria slid quietly open, and from the aperture trundled a vile, lumpy fiend with too many faces and arms.  From its chest a set of fangs large enough to enclose the student's head snarled without sound, like a ferocious statue of a lion.  Gleaming orange pinpricks of infernal luminosity burned from its center head, and its wrinkled, fleshy lips bore a sinister leer.  With sinuous claws the tough-hided  [url=http://pre07.deviantart.net/b384/th/pre/f/2014/115/a/d/monster_by_yangqi917-d7fy82o.jpg]Dokkaebi[/url] reached ghoulishly for Aria's head, intent on crushing the girl's golden head in its clutches.