[center][h2]Kochiya Sanae[/h2][h3]??? — Burning Town[/h3][/center]
Though the archer that had singled her out was an obvious problem, it looked to Sanae as if a majority of the enemy soldiers who hadn't chosen to take cover or weren't being pummeled by her new allies were not dealing with her danmaku [i]particularly[/i] well. That wasn't really anyone's fault, per se; beautiful though the fighting style of Gensokyo was, anyone not used to it would probably be overwhelmed by the sheer visual overload—and that was for [i]one[/i] person, never mind what usually happened when it was something like dealing with a horde of fairies who decided that they wanted to play along, too.

That sort of situation was more or less what seemed to be playing out here, too. The bullets raining upon the town were doing damage to the buildings, granted, but given that the water seemed to be quenching the flames, a little bit of collateral hopefully wouldn't make the cleanup any worse after everything here was handled.

Right as she was about to graze past another arrow from the sniper still hidden [i]somewhere[/i] in the town, though, the sudden appearance of an odd barrier blocking the projectile caused her to pause in mild surprise for the briefest of moments. While thankful that one of the people down below was looking out for her wellbeing, the sudden appearance of another projectile—this one a massive spear of ice—caused the young woman to instinctively shift her entire body out of the way of the attack.

What followed, of course, was a sight she was a [i]bit[/i] more familiar with—a torrent of magical projectiles of all shapes and sizes, barreling straight towards her. In the distance, Sanae could make out a group of soldiers, all led by a purple-haired woman who seemed to be directing their focus towards her. There was a brief moment where their eyes met, of course, but soon enough the leader of that team of mages turned her attention towards the dragonlike woman standing firm in front of where Sanae was. A few of the other mages had since broken off to try and deal with the smaller combatant who had been causing more chaos on the ground, but for the most part their attention was steadfastly placed towards the ones suppressing the rest of the enemy's movements from the skies and her apparent protector.

While no small number of the soldiers present were busy trying to deal with the onslaught of bullets from the skies, there were more than enough simply muscling through the attacks or were simply focusing their efforts elsewhere. The fact that only a few combatants were enough to match their forces didn't seem to faze them, but it [i]did[/i] seem to give cause for the weaker ones to retreat for the moment. In their place, though, other Raven Heralds—ones equipped with armor that seemed to give off a faint luminescence even in the afternoon sun—began to push forward. Though some began to move to provide their own defensive cover for the arriving magi, others began to pursue those on the ground who had chosen to take up arms—least of all the massive mechanical golem towards whom they deigned the most threatening. Towards him rode an armored man upon a horse, a massive hammer at the ready to smash through whatever armor stood in his way.

The smaller girl commanding spirits, on the other hand, seemed to be someone that the soldiers were playing a more defensive role in attempting to deal with. Some of the nearby magicians seemed to cast a spell upon those approaching her, leaving them with what felt like an intense pressure radiating out towards from their bodies. Intimidation alone would not be enough to push her back, of course, and it seemed that all of the soldiers present were aware of that fact.

A swing that the nearest made as a flourish, however, would leave a scar in the ground nearby, making clear what it was that had transpired here.

[@Raineh Daze][@DracoLunaris][@Lugubrious][@VitaVitaAR]
[hr]
Though certainly rattled at Sanae's statement, the boy seemed to have enough sense about him to respond to Anne's questions as the others wasted no time in rushing headlong towards his hometown.

"...My name is Alvin, miss," he said as he followed the injured woman out of the church. "The church here... I don't know, honestly. I've been out in the woods to gather firewood in the winter before, but I've never seen this church here before. Or, well, I don't think I have?"

The young man's face seemed to scrunch up for a moment as he tried to remember before simply shaking his head.

"Can't remember a thing. I remember that the clearing was here, but I don't think I ever saw it have a church or anything. Sorry."

There was another pause before he continued on, though.

"As for the Raven Heralds... They're a part of some army from the center of the continent, I think. I remembered some merchants mentioning them before when they passed through, and I was a bit curious when I heard, too. Apparently they're famous in other countries because they're super strong, but, everyone that got brought here seemed to be able to beat them easily."

Alvin paused again for a few seconds before looking back towards Anne.

"You're super strong too, right? You're all beat up, but you're calm and carrying my sister like it's nothing..."

[@Drifting Pollen][@EchoWolff]