Mai gasped as the creature holding her made itself known. She held her breath as its rancid exhalation washed over her and squeaked quite unprofessionally when its slobber drizzled down on her. The DHA definitely did not pay her enough for this. Her panic only got worst as the row of teeth revealed itself to be a lizard-esque youkai though she crushed the thought of potentially getting eaten by a demon down as best as she could. 

Not caring to identify the demon right now, Mai used its divided attention to her advantage. Wiggling her arm around, Mai grabbed the short sword she normally carried as a backup. Unsheathing it, she stabbed the creature’s hand that was holding her, deep enough so its grip would loosen. Once it let her go, Mai dropped back down to the ground, punching and slicing the puppets that had been attacking her in her bound state. 

Free from her captor, Mai quickly analyzed her situation. While she wanted to go after the girl collecting those mysterious black rocks, she doubted she could get passed the puppets, who were now rushing towards her again, or the still invisible lizard youkai. Cursing, Mai ran back to pick up her sword where it had fallen when she had been picked up by the imori. She easily cut through more puppets before throwing out some explosive charms where she thought the lizard demon stood; she hated dealing with youkai that could camouflage.  Maybe if she pissed it off enough, it would reveal itself so she could kill it. Mai was certainly no priestess so she wasn’t obligated to reseal this youkai that escaped.