With everything becoming so horrible, some might say that Pax Septimus had sunk into hell. But one street fit that description far better than any other. The ruinous meteor flew to the balconies like a bat out of hell. A white tail of light followed her just like her namesake. The most powerful espers had unusual abilities and Regina was no exception. Every time she used a melody everything in her vicinity caught fire. This was relative to the strength of the melodies she was using, and the ones she was using were quite strong. The snipers popped and sizzled as everything around the comet burned. The heat caused the brick walls to explode as the moisture escaped them. Even the downpour of blood could not quelch Regina’s flames. It was going to smell like burning flesh with just the snipers burning but, now, even the bloody rain was catching fire. Regina’s melodies were a mixed blessing for the espers on the ground. They were no longer being shot at, but now they had to do everything in their power to survive their friend’s flames. Trial by fire. Survive the burn, survive the encounter. That was likely Regina’s thinking, if she thought about anything more than burning up her prey. Mary opened a portal into a nearby warehouse so that some might escape the flames. But the warehouse was filling up with frogs and lice. So who could really say it was any more safe in there than out here? It wasn’t like the Diver was going to stop attacking as soon as they retreated. Thousands of lives depended on the espers. What few espers that used Mary’s portal only did so to look for something that might shield them from the flames or sniper fire. They had to keep moving. But regardless of what happened, Big Tony would not stop his assault. Elroy managed to block one of his punches, only to be sent end over end towards his allies. His immortal body could not burn, could not be eroded by acid, but that punch might have split him in two if it weren’t for his shield. Tony was set ablaze, but the fire did little to harm him. He belted out a war cry and his fellow weretigers did so in return. They would have their revenge today. For every one of their brothers that fell, they would take five espers. That was what Tony’s warcry led them to believe. [hr] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FSp3maO.png[/img][/center] With the fight developing around Justin the way it was, Finn decided that a change of tactics was in order. Betty’s swing narrowly missed Finn as “Big Ed” clamped around Betty’s torso and carried her through the air. [color=ade81b]”Get back here you coward!“[/color] She called out as she was carried out of the way. Betty had been momentarily dealt with, but the frogs were still all over the place. Now was not the time for careful navigation and Finn couldn't help but step on a few of the corrosive frogs. Though their entrails have been burning through the roof, Finn would fare better. He could feel the acid starting to eat away at his shoes, but pressed on to rejoin the others. But what of the approaching lice? The lice themselves did little to affect Finn. But he was covered in frogs that would explode if punctured or hit hard enough. As the lice raced up his legs, the frogs started to pop. His legs, his torso, the frogs were detonating left and right. The lower half of his body was searing with pain and the frogs were still exploding. Standing was agony, but he could manage. Oil seeped out of his legs where the clockwork boy’s wounds were worst. With a roar, Betty drove the hilt of her sword into big Ed’s head. This was enough to daze the creature. When Betty landed on the ground, she rolled under it with her blade extended and cut the massive plush in two. Both halves bled purple glitter and fell to either side. By the time Betty stood back up, Big Ed’s body had disappeared in the downpour of blood. Betty pointed in Finn’s direction and fired a beam. It flew past Finn’s leg and hit the floor several feet in front of him. This caused Betty’s body to turn into a bunch of black specs and float through the air, only to reform at their new location. She had chosen to place herself between Finn and the rest of his allies. [color=ade81b]”Fight me you gremlin!“[/color] With a roar, she charged towards Finn. The blade on her sword slid down in front of her handle which made her weapon look like a bearded ax. She held the Ax behind her back and had her arm outstretched for the boy. Despite his best efforts, he wouldn’t be ridding himself of Betty that easily. But would they rid themselves of Justin? Ashley managed to pull a frog off of her face and chucked it at one of the bloody tendrils. It detonated and burned through a few of the tentacles, but it was just delaying the inevitable. As long as Justin was alive the falling crimson would continue to be a problem. But Ashley was going to take care of this with her next few shots. She led with her wand’s techno projectile. With a wave of Justin’s hand, the ball of blood moved between him and the trajectory of the shot. The follow up shot managed to bypass the ball of tendrils by virtue of a beam and projectile having different flight trajectories. It shattered the wind barrier and slammed into Justin’s coat. It singed a hole over his chest, but his skin had not been penetrated. The approaching lice wasted no time racing up the stationary girl’s legs. The frogs started to detonate one after the other. She might have been in the same condition as Finn if her resistance to such attacks wasn’t so high. This was by no means a painless experience. While she managed to avoid having her skin burned through, the various frog detonations were leaving purple bruises all over her body. The reformed ball of tentacles managed to latch onto Ashley’s wand arm and tugged her towards the edge. [color=662d91]”May her daughter learn from her mistakes, then.“[/color] But Justin didn’t have much time to smug about that. Marrie had coasted through the air and managed to avoid getting hit by a single frog, or even the ground. Though it wasn’t as if her approach was stealthy, just well timed. He knew Marrie was coming, he just didn’t have much time to react.There wasn’t much he could do. But he could open his eyes. At which point Marrie was able to feel what had taken Pac-A-Fist and Su by such surprise. It was more than just the shock of seeing two empty eye sockets looking back at her. It felt like her body was rebelling against her. She froze up, and it was just her momentum that carried her towards her target. When they collided, Justin flew backwards with her. With his gaze upon her she was unable to carry him into the sky like she originally intended. He slammed into the apartment building and they both fell a few feet onto the balcony. Justin didn’t look like he had been phased. [color=662d91]”You want to dance again? [i]Fine.[/i]“[/color] Marrie’s knife managed to sink just deep enough into the hole in his clothes to cut his flesh, but it didn’t get past his rib cage. He had taken hold of her wrist before it could go any deeper. He gripped her shoulder with one hand and held out her knife-wielding hand like they were going to start dancing on the balcony. Only he was trying to crush her wrist. Something she was just barely able to put up with due to her ability to resist monster attacks. But it was getting harder to hold the knife as the seconds ticked by. [color=662d91]”We could have worked together, you know? Actually…“[/color] He slid his hand from one of her shoulders to the other. [color=662d91]”Why don’t I just rip your arm off? [i]Then[/i] you won’t have a choice.“[/color] With a sharp tug, Justin managed to dislocate her shoulder. He didn’t take his eyes off of Marrie for a second, but he was keeping her body between himself and the other espers. Though as difficult as it was for Marrie to move, she could twitch her limbs a bit, and casting melodies was still possible. That was one thing this monster couldn’t do. But Justin and Betty weren’t the only problems to deal with. Every passing second, Handsome Gunther was getting more powerful. If they kept killing things he would be unstoppable. But Jacqueline and Samuel had something most of the other espers lacked. A plan. Not an overly sophisticated one, but in just a few words Jacqueline was able to get on the same page as Sam, who obliged. But the star ship had to be taken care of. First Jacqueline charged up a powerful melody to put the ship in its place. It did manage to get a few shots off, but it was quickly silenced by a torrent of stones. The melody was designed to break up magics rather than hurt them directly, and it seemed to work here. The ship [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXzoh6uJO1w]popped into a spray of pixels[/url] before vanishing in the rain. Afterwards, she sprinted for the mech that was making its way closer to their position. She didn’t have to run far to confront the thing. Havoc immediately came down on one of the mech’s feet before Jacqueline went ice climbing up the side of the monstrosity. The monstrosity was just an illusion of course. While it was easy to view as a giant body, the truth was that every single car that made it up could be freely moved anywhere. Just a bunch of possessed vehicles pretending to be a whole. Once Jacqueline started to climb, everything floated higher in the air. The torso, the dumpster right above it, the ground was starting to look pretty far away. Meanwhile, the sports car Pac was “driving” floated off the body and turned around to give her a clear shot at the climbing esper. And then… buzzing. [quote] [i]Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them. [...] And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.[/i] — Exodus 8:16–28 [/quote] Hundreds of thousands of flies came flying in. Most were small but a fair few of them were much, much larger than normal. Like Oros had said, they were attracted to areas of great death, and the rooftop was a prime candidate for that. Though they seemed especially interested in Finn and Ashley, who were covered in frog cuts. One fly was even trying to pry apart the cars where Su’s body had been trapped. Who knew what was happening elsewhere. Did regular humans have the means to dispose of such large insects? Meanwhile, hundreds of souls gathered around Gunther and flew off in every direction. [b]”What an amazing time to exist!”[/b] Gunther watched as Jacqueline hung overhead. The scene was so rich with dark emotions and there were only a few people here. He’d already collected a few hundred souls and would gain thousands more once they started to deal with the lice and flies. They were already soaring into other buildings and deeper into the police station to see what sort of objects they could control. He was starting to see what Arzendale was talking about. It was one thing to just make people suffer, but to cause that suffering yourself? Sublime! A few of the espers would direct their hate at Lord Justin, but ultimately it had been his own arcane might that overwhelmed her. It looked like that pick wielding esper was going to bite it pretty soon. And the other one was still in hiding. Likely too scared to do anything. But just to be sure… Gunther launched one of the cars into Samuel’s hiding spot. There we go. Gunther’s balloon-like lips curled into a smile. Now his soul should fly out of that heap of rubble any second now. … … … Weird, there was no soul. It was a little hard to see, but surely he’d be trying to help the pick girl if he was alive right?