[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FSp3maO.png[/img]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPWFowLrlcI[/youtube]

[/center]

Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

The situation was just like two weeks ago. Finn had his back to a wall with Betty’s weapon closing in. 

Marrie was doing something totally new. She was being chased through the sky by Pac-A-Fist, which was a first for the esper. As was dodging the projectiles of an incoming starship.

The rest of Gemini was dealing with another vampire. Something new and old. This wasn’t any ordinary blood sucker. This was [i]the[/i] blood sucker. Arzendale was a trickster, but Justin was a brute; a force of nature. His attacks were simple and obvious, but were dangerous by virtue of his sheer power. 

And the Holy Diver hung in the distance, hovering away from the conflict. The prophet swung its cross around, unaffected by the chaos. If anything it reveled in the misery of others. 

And one more remained concealed. 

The chase was about to end. With Finn surrounded by foes on all sides, his only option was to spend the mana he had been saving. It wouldn’t matter how much he had if he was killed before he could use it. He detonated a time spell that sped himself up and damaged everything around him. The flies were fried instantly. Their monstrous bodies were too big to blow apart, but their smoldering carcases were blown to the wayside. Betty was not a monster though. She was an esper with a protective melody up, and the spell wouldn’t do her much harm.

Normally.

The lightning washed over her body. Every boil on her skin popped and oozed with yellow pus. It looked like her skin was melting, and her screams helped sell that illusion. This was the first time Betty sounded like she was suffering rather than raging out of her mind. Her eyes closed, but she finished the swing anyway. This blind swipe was something Finn could sidestep with ease. There was no hesitation when he ran his sword through Betty’s shoulder. Blinded by pus and pain, Betty’s only recourse was to back up. She swung wildly, but there was nothing to hit. It was during this blind flurry of swings that she left the esper state.

There she stood, mostly human and still wearing her white dress. It looked pristine until it was stained in the falling blood. Her magic was gone, as was her giant sword. But not her will to fight. She pointed at Finn with the bow of her violin.

[color=ade81b]”I’d like to see you try that again!“[/color]

With a howl, she dove for Finn. 

The aerial pursuit didn’t last long. Marrie dropped to the streets while Pac remained on her pixel star fighter. The ship behaved like a harrier jet, enabling her to just hover in the air. Trying to engage Pac in close quarters was going to be impossible at this distance.

Though Marrie was correct about one thing. While she didn’t know the size of Pac’s mana pool, she had to be running low. Her melodies were complex and couldn’t have been easy to cast. But that wasn’t going to stop her from casting a massive spell. 

She extended her hands over her head. Or at least her wrists, as one of her hands had been blown off earlier. A slew of pixels came together from every direction and combined into a giant yellow boulder. One with a pink bow and a huge mouth. She heaved it into the streets as it chomped its way through the air. 

Things were no less frantic around Justin. 

With Ashley and Samuel keeping their distance, there wasn’t anything to stop Jacqueline from floating closer to Justin. His faux hand swelled as the space between them closed. Soon his hand was big enough to totally envelop the knight, and Justin didn’t hesitate to do so. But Justin’s target didn’t erupt into a geyser of blood, they detonated like a grenade, throwing shrapnel in all directions. 

A centralized explosion was enough to rip the hand to pieces and strike Justin himself. He staggered backwards as metal flakes sunk into his blood vessels and what remained on his body. Once he was done reeling backwards, he corrected his posture. The vampire had been wounded, but still stood. 

Jacqueline might have been unphased by her melody, but it opened all the boils on her body. The pus ran out of every seam in her armor. Seeing became even more difficult, which said nothing of the burning sensation all over her body. A single “If foe” note would have protected her from her magic, but she was likely to incur some damage from the hand anyway. They still needed to save mana for the Diver after all, and what was Jacqueline but one who traded anguish with her enemies? But she was momentarily vulnerable, and Justin would seize this opportunity to end her. 

Only if Ashley let him. A ball of neon slammed into Justin’s side, stripping his blood vessels bare. His midsection had been blown through, with just the upper half of his head and legs left. Yet his other organs remained intact. Though cracks were starting to show, almost as if they were made out of glass or ice. His heart hovered where his chest cavity used to be, beating without anything holding it in place. A small blood barrier came up just before the second shot could land, but this required Justin’s attention. Once he looked away from Jacqueline, the ability to move returned to her. But by this point the Vampire was speeding towards his next target. 

Ashley.

It had been raining for a good while, and eviscerating Justin’s flesh released more blood than a normal human would have. This allowed Justin to fortify himself as he ran. A giant V-plow was erected in front of himself. Not only that, but he let the blood rush out of his dismembered arms and made two rigid nets that formed behind his back. He swung his arms forward, using the nets as giant fly swatters. If Ashley didn’t move soon, she might get flattened by Justin’s next attack. 

Only, she couldn’t move. 

Justin was looking right at her through a hole in his frontmost shield. 

And also…

 [quote]
[i]This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die. 
— Exodus 9:13–

[/i]
[/quote]

The sound of the rain changed as it turned to pebbles. Every second that went by those pebbles got bigger. One inch, two inches, they grew. It wouldn’t be long before they became big enough to fracture bone. The large flies that remained would not do so for long, as even the smaller hailstones were enough to rupture their vulnerable wings. 

The only one who had any real shelter was Marrie, who was close enough to the railings to avoid getting pelted by  falling stones. Pac would also be spared if only because she was under the giant blood monster. But everyone else would need to find shelter quick if they wanted to avoid having their skulls caved in. 

Save the Holy Diver, who hovered over the roof of a nearby apartment complex with arms extended. They were much too large to be affected by the falling hail, and seemed to rejoice as every window and windshield in Pax Septimus was about to get smashed to bits. 

Time was running out for the firstborns.