Lily and Fenn watched as the stranger shadowing them finally revealed their hand, in the form of bloody spears raining on the angels before them. The Angel Champion they had been sent to hunt and his own retinue of guards quickly distanced himself from the front lines, allowing the Hierarchy angels to take the brunt of the assault. The smartest among them were quick to move behind the armored figures of the Ardors and Allegiance as they rose their shields against the onslaught. Others among them were not so lucky, the spears claiming the lives of some of their rank, and claiming the wings of many more. 

Still, most of the smaller angels managed to survive the assault with wounds light enough to continue fighting.

That was, at least, until blood suddenly splattered onto the streets between the two groups, most of it at the feet of the boy who had claimed to be an archangel. 

It seemed innocent enough, but knowing that it was the blood of a demon spoke volumes of its capabilities. Staying near it would do them no good. Muscles coiled, Lily jumped away from the splatter of blood, narrowly avoiding the resulting explosion. She landed several metres back, skidding to a stop with her claws dragging shallow gouges into the ground. 

Even as she righted herself, her attention was drawn to the fight between their demonic tag-along, and the self-proclaimed Archangel. Their tag-along was by no means a bad fighter, she was just not the best. Lily watched her with pursed lips, taking note of her individual attacks, her stance, footwork, and not to mention how and when she took to the offense. What she saw made her grimace. “He’s using a spear!” She called out. “Get in close where he can’t use it!” 

That out of the way, she turned back to the small horde of angelic minions, scanning their ranks. “Almost fifteen against two… Bad odds, Fenn,” she muttered, loud enough for her companion to hear. 

From up ahead, the sounds of clanking metal could be heard as the remaining angels reared to run them down, the Allegiance golden armor and the remaining Ardors crimson shields clearly visible among the survivors of the blast.

“Then even them,” Fenn growled from the edges of the thin, red mist, eyes fixed forward and out of her view. The tone of barely contained menace, however, told her the hound was moments away from charging the enemy line himself. 

“That would only make it all the more unfair for them,” she laughed, stepping forward to stand beside him. “But there’ll be time to think about odds later.” A menacing grin crept upon her lips, her elongated canines all but glinting in the sun. “The time for talk is over. Sic ‘em, Fenn!” 

As though an invisible chain had been loosened from his neck, the dog darted forward with fearsome speed and a hungry snarl. An Affinity, one of the smaller, avian angels that had been blasted forward by the explosion had enough time to raise its gaze towards the oncoming monster, loping forward on three legs, an Ardor’s sword held outwards by one of its long limbs, before a tree trunk arm fell over it, crushing its head against the pavement.

Lily followed close behind, hammer in her hands and murder in her eyes. A Compassion which had eluded Fenn’s charge came at her, only to come to a grisly end when its face met Lily’s hammer. She jumped, vaulting over another compassion, and came face to face with an Affinity. It fell dead less than a second later, its heart—if it even had one—pierced by the warhammer-turned-rapier. 

She had to give the angels credit. They didn’t run, not even when Fenn trampled them like a child would a sandcastle, or when Lily’s weapon crushed or pierced their armour as if it was paper. Of course, what else would one expect of the weakest, and most mindless, of their numbers? And stragglers of that explosion. Their chicken brains were likely too rattled to move out of the way. 

The Allegiance, the largest among the core of charging angels, had gathered surprising momentum, and was leading the charge against them. With feline grace, Lily overtook Fenn, and could almost feel it as the centaur’s regard shifted to her. As she neared, the Allegiance’s blade lashed out with the clear intent of cleaving her in half. 

She did not even try to move out of the way.

Fenn’s stolen blade crashed against the Allegiance’s sword with an impact that made her teeth clatter, throwing it off course. Of course, the dog wielded the blade like little more than a slab of metal, and had little interest in a demonstration of swordsmanship. The titans crashed against each other without barely slowing down, and Lily could see the hellhound’s slitted eyes constricted into bloodshot pinpricks. 

And then she was past them, among the rest of the rabble. She redirected an Ardor’s slash at her throat, using the following shield bash as a springboard to propel herself into the air, where her body caught flame, shedding its fleshy form in favour of that of a pure elemental. 

Around her, several motes of fire sprung into being, multiplying even as they grew in size. The temperature rose, growing nearly unbearable for mortals were they in her vicinity. And as it reached its apex, barely a handful of seconds later, hell was unleashed upon earth. Each of the motes took off from their respective positions, aimed at the ground below. Muted booms from where the orbs impacted upon the earth echoed throughout the street, each orb cracking the pavement, knocking down whomever or whatever it hit, setting it and everything around them aflame. Those who avoided being set aflame instantly sought shelter where they could, be it around their larger and stronger allies, or even in the vicinity of the hellhound, whose bulk shrugged off more than just a few of her orbs. 

Amidst the chaos, Fenn had pushed the Allegiance aside and clambered onto its back, jostling back and forth as the thing tried to throw the dog off its perch. Pieces of bloodied gold flew into the air as the dog bit into the armor and mauled the back plate with the pommel of the stolen sword. There was something to be said about the centaur’s legs not immediately buckling under the weight.

[i]I’m not done yet![/i] Lily thought even as the barrage of hellfire continued raining from the sky. She brought her hands up above her, an orb of fire a particularly angry shade of red formed in between her palms. It pulsed once, twice. 

She felt the Allegiance’s gaze on her then, and its buckling redoubled in intensity. Fenn’s claw slipped over the metal and fell to the streets. The centaur turned and charged at Fenn.

Lily threw her hands down, the orb following.

The dog turned and stood in time to slap away another swing of the sword, but the Allegiance still crashed onto him at full throttle. Gold and white, tons of flesh and metal, slammed into the demon, sending the both of them crashing through a brick wall and into an adjacent building. 

The orb fell to the street below.

One unlucky Ardor, the one whose armour was cracked in several places from their earlier scuffle, had attempted to throw its shield over an Affinity to protect it from her barrage. In doing so, however, it left itself open. The explosion that followed cooked it inside its armour. The Affinity fared little better, and a shockwave of destruction erupted from there, knocking minor angels aside, and wounding most others in a miniature supernova.