The smaller snake-like Voids scatter under the force of Penny’s hammer, several smashed flat or blown away by the blast that comes with the explosive impact. Dana’s stars protect her and Penny from being swarmed by the rest of the serpents, blasts of light shearing a dozen of the void-spawn in half before they can swarm over the two girls. 

The spindly Void’s ascent is made more difficult by the winds buffeting it, the currents shaking both it and Astrelle as it rises higher into the sky. Dark wings flap and fight against the interference, beating in wide sweeps as it makes steady progress upward. It’s near three stores up when Nicole meets it in the air, launching from the railing to strike at the claws grasping her dark-haired roommate. Her blade sheers through the lower half of the monster in one clean strike, sheering away the Void’s feet and freeing Astrelle from its hold.

The monster legs out a shriek as Nicole sails past it, venting its rage into the empty sky. Astrelle’s savior finds her flight suddenly interrupted soon after; one of the Void’s long arms extending to crash into her midsection before she can completely escape its airspace. Claws dig into her skin and parma as the creature yanks her backward, whirling her through the air and flinging her like a red-haired stone cast from a sling. She plummets abruptly toward the street, her new flight-path taking her toward the concrete at vicious speed.

The Void follows after, whipping around in the air and dive-bombing in pursuit of the prey that it's just flung. It descends rapidly, mouth opening to display row after row of razor-sharp teeth. Once Nicole crashes to the ground it’ll be atop her, ready to rip and tear into the Ars Magi. 

Alarmingly, by the time it lands the Void’s lower half has already started to regenerate. The hole punched in its chest earlier by Dana’s blast has likewise begun to stitch itself together, the empty gap now stitched by goopy black threads.