Not wanting to make a big deal out of the last few minutes’ events, and knowing who was eavesdropping, Souta responded to Lily’s question with a simple nod. He did not shy away from the touch that ensued, but neither did he give a display of warmth in return. The hellhound’s animosity had put him on edge, and considering the circumstances of the mission, dulling that edge wouldn’t avail him.  Should he feel inclined, he could speak to her after the day’s labors were done. That said, he did offer a terse smile to acknowledge the demoness’ pledge of protection, even if he didn’t like the idea of relying on someone else for his safety.

Fenn’s ears twitched, the sounds of inane conversation once again disturbing his focus. His tail roiled angrily behind him, but no words left his throat. He had given his warning. If her choosing to pamper to human rather than focusing on her own objective brought about consequences, he would not be held accountable.

That said, this could become problematic later on. There was no telling how irritating the Magpie could become if he grew too confident in the Imp’s hold over the hellhound. Like a coddled pup mistaking their sire’s authority for their own. Those invariably made nuisances of themselves until such a time as they pushed those boundaries too far and the patience of others waned. Naturally, the farther one had pushed, the harsher the punishment became. To be both frail and foolish was deadly. 

And there stood the human in the company of demons. He who had interfered in battle, given enemies a weapon to harm Fenn, and with careless words and ignorance poked at a chip in his pride. He was convinced the pest would continue to vex him. It would have been best if the Imp had kept to herself, and the human had given him a proper excuse to crush him. He could tell the man had been on the verge of lashing out. 

Alas, it seemed unlikely that the Imp would allow it. If there was to be a silver lining, it was perhaps that the boy might become the prime target of her more aggravating habits.

The tall trees blocked most of the light that fell over the jungle, shrouding the underbrush in damp shadows such that as they neared the edge of the tree line, the light seemed to form a shroud that prevented one from seeing outside the confines of the forest. Nonetheless, the pungent scent that wafted their way was a clear indicator of what had happened ahead in their trail. 

Fenn was the first to reach the edge of the lake. Ears and tail were tensed attentively, and he gave the open sky a displeased look. Compared to the innards of the jungle, where his nose and ears could single out a threat long before it became visible, this place left them much too exposed. 

Grunting, he put his nose to the ground once more, approaching the water. It seemed their quarry had been delayed, but the nature of the encounter made problematic what would have otherwise been convenient. The scent of the snake was there, almost drowned by the rotting stench hanging over the clearing, but the trail led directly into the lake’s shore. It occurred to him that the snake might have been ambushed and killed by whatever had dwelled in the water, but he quickly discarded the idea. The beast was clearly dead, after all. 

“The trail stops here,” commented the hound. 

As the beast drew to a halt, Souta navigated his way around him at a wide berth until he stood by the water’s edge as well. He’d already guessed by the halt of progress that Fenn had lost the scent, though as best he could remember from a certain show, water did not so much muddle smells as amplify them. Since he couldn’t do a better job, however, Souta kept the silence as he scoped out the area. He looked into the jungle to the left and right, and across the water—every direction but up.

Lily stopped as well, taking a few steps away from her companions. Her elfin ears actually perked upward as she looked around, scanning the forests around the lake. “What now, Fenn? Do you have any idea what happened here, except our quarry getting away?”

Fenn obliged, as though waiting for the question. “A large demon made its way into this lake. It perished here not too long ago. The snake came across it. There must have been a confrontation.” The hound’s nose twitched, and he began circling the lake, concisely rattling off the observations he could make. “What scent remains of our objective under the corpse-air goes into the river. The snake was either dragged in or jumped in itself. We must find where it came ashore again. If it did.”

“No way it was [i]Him.[/i] He’s way too powerful to simply drop dead in this place.” 

“‘Twould be a great disappointment,” Fenn sneered.

“Indeed,” Lily echoed, eyes still scanning the area. “What of the ruins?” She asked, indicating the once-buildings with a nod of her head.

As she had indicated, not far from them there was a point where the remains of the ruined city approached the water-line, coalescing into a cobblestone path leading deeper into the jungle. The still-surviving walkway seemed to invite the wanderers to follow , and as the hound stepped onto the stone, his nose twitched.

“Sure enough, the snake came through,” Fenn grunted. It occurred to him that if more paths such as this one survived, they might need only follow the roads to reach the Seal. Which meant time was short.

He had begun to take a step forward when a noise came from behind them. Fenn backpedaled just in time for a fiery explosion to erupt before him. How droll. The demon wheeled around with a snarl, quickly sighting a group of angels floating over the lake.

Fenn took stock of the weapons aimed at them and pushed to the front, the chains in his arms writhing and coiling into themselves. As the angels let loose their barrage, Fenn brought his arms forward, and the angelic fire crashed against chains that had coiled themselves into great discs. The claws of his hind legs dug into the cobblestone as he stood to the explosive force of the lead Angel’s cannon, and spheres of flame formed in the hands holding the shields.

Then the hound had the slightest of hesitations. These angels were but a waste of time. To confront them might mean letting go of much greater prey. However, if they retreated the pests would have no issues harrying them throughout the jungle were they to simply follow the cobblestone road.

He gave the Imp an irritated glare over his shoulder. Both her and the human had remained behind him, taking advantage of the cover his large body provided. It was her duty to choose.

Lily looked momentarily about as irritated as the hound felt. Nevertheless, she nodded to Fenn and said, "Eliminate them." She then took a step away from Souta, let fire consume her body before she took off in an arc above the Hound and the angels, a trail of fire following in her wake. Both Fenn and Souta could hear the gleeful laughter of the demoness' at finally having her elemental powers restored. Already a ball of fire the size of a handball was forming in her hand, growing rapidly as she flew higher.

The smaller angels took note of the threat and aimed upwards, following Lily’s flight with their weapons. Only the Storm Warden remained focused on the wall of metal covering the hound and the human. Shouldering one last impact from the explosive cannon, Fenn glared back at Souta. “Move!” he commanded, before twisting away. The chains unraveled, just as another projectile sped past him. 

Putting his thoughts about Lily being a potential [i]yandere[/i] aside, Souta sorted out his inner turmoil in a jiffy by leaping into action.  The spontaneity of the situation forced him to conjure the weapon closest to his heart, despite not fitting with his elemental theme as well as some of his other arms.  Into his hand appeared the warhammer Escre--his overall favorite tool of destruction, for to him, smashing foes flat with brute force was far more satisfying than any amount of shooting from a distance or snaring with hooks.  Upon summoning the hammer, Souta flourished it, and a ethereal ectoplasm-green skeleton shot upward toward the incoming cannon shot.  The impact detonated the blast mid-air, throwing some ash and heat Souta’s way but leaving him otherwise unharmed.  Angels, huh?  Well, he respected some angels for their benevolence toward humans, but cannonfire fell pretty low on the benevolence scale, so these had to go.

The fireballs Fenn had prepared left his hands in the motion, lobbed towards the smaller angels just as Lily’s Supernova left hers. Lily’s fire sped past Fenn’s, headed for the center of their formation, but the angels were ready for return fire. They spread out, the fireball whizzing past only a few inches from the Storm Warden’s side. 

Fenn’s fireballs reached them a moment later, but there was little hope for impact. Thrown much too high to touch either of the smaller soldiers, the flames seemed ready to simply speed past them. However, just as they passed above the angelic soldiers, the bottom of the spheres’ ripped open like a burst balloon, and fire rained on the group with explosive force, smashing half a dozen into the water.

Spitting out a curse, the Storm Warden once again pointed his weapon at the enemy.

Souta’s hammer hurtled his way.  The large, sudden, and highly intrusive metal object provoked a simple reaction from the angelic lieutenant: to bring up his cannon to block.  While the impact force pushed him back a few inches, no follow-through meant that it bounced up and back.  The hammer did not, however, fly alone; the next moment, Souta himself came sailing toward the Storm Warden, having been bodily tossed by a couple of his summoned skeletons.  This time, the projectile smacked into the Storm Warden’s torso, and as the smith bounced off, he unrolled himself to snatch Escre from the air and swipe with it as he fell.  Four skeletons dove onto the Storm Warden, clambering over him like starving wraiths.  They wrapped themselves around his body, particularly his wings, restraining movement and prying into armor.  Content with having set up the squad’s captain for a speedy takedown, Souta plummeted toward the surface of his lake, where he would be in his element against some of the lesser angels who’d fallen into the drink themselves.

That, in turn, set up the perfect situation or Lily. Up above, she yanked back her outstretched arm, launching a hand into a fist, thereby making her ball of fire change direction immediately - rocketing towards the back of the Storm Warden where it exploded with a cacophonous boom. The explosion launched the lead angel all the way to the lake’s shore and left the lesser angels ,unfortunate enough to be close to the detonation, singed and struggling to stay aloft.

Disoriented, most of his body burning from the heat of the explosion, there was little the Storm Warden could do when a massive weight settled on his chest. The last thing he saw were two rows of fangs. A moment later, Fenn looked up from the dead angel, blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth, and his eyes settled on the large cannon that had clanged against the ground only a few feet from the Warden. He bared his fangs. 

One of the angel soldiers, having bobbed up to the surface with a gasp for air, suddenly slid back down beneath the surface with a violent splash.  Underwater, Souta had summoned a Trawler and hooked a sunken tree trunk on the lakebed, and by reeling in the chain whilst clutching the ankles of the angel, the smith pulled the angel deeper and deeper until his struggles became weak and he breathed his last.  Souta’s own magical bulwark of water created a second skin of air surrounding him, not much to breath but enough for the time being.  With one of the peons taken care of, he kicked his feet and headed back up.  

Overhead, the remaining angels hesitated. Scattered by the demons’ fire and without a commanding officer to rally them, the soldiers wasted whatever opportunity they could have had for a counter-offensive in clumsy attempts to regroup. Instead, their formation was broken once again as a volley of white projectiles struck the nearest to the shore.

Fenn showed the soldiers his bloodied teeth from where he stood, the Storm Warden’s cannon held in one arm and aimed at the enemy.

The reality that they’d made a great mistake in underestimating the other side of this chance encounter weighed upon them like bags of sand strung about their necks, but combined with fear and another barrage of projectiles from the shore it hastened the beat of their wings as they retreated.  The light of their golden wings shot toward the edge of the canopy surrounding the jungle lake, then disappeared.  With their absence, the usual jungle ambiance returned, and were it not for the corpses nothing could have very well happened at all.

Fenn grunted, unceremoniously dropping the weapon he had taken.

Lily alighted on the ground between Fenn and the lake, the plasma-like fire making of her elemental body, dispersing soon after and returning her to her sídhe appearance. She turned to look at the water, watching the ripples and bubbles break the surface. 

"Is that all of them?" Lily asked even as she projected floating ring attached to a rope, and threw it out to the Smith, intending to help him back to shore. "I expected a bit more, even from small fry such as these."

A couple seconds later, Souta emerged from the lake of his own volition, his clothes sopping wet and an annoyed expression on his face.  Evidently, he’d made his way to the edge and then walked up the side of the lakebed to get out.  [color=teal]”What kind of birdbrains set up a half-assed ambush like that?  They didn’t even light us up and I still get dunked.  Probably got parasites..[/color]  He dug a finger around in his ear to get the water out, scanning the are as he did.  Once he spotted an opening in the trees at the bottom of a fern-lined ridge, he indicated it with a jut of his chin and piped up, [color=teal]”Maybe we should get goin’.  Betcha they’ll be back, and in greater numbers.”[/color]