Despite the Detention Club’s best efforts, they had yet to fell a single
minion of the giga miseria. Meanwhile, their numbers only grew. They were outnumbering the magical girls three to one, then five to one, and now it was nearing ten to one. The Detention Club’s skirmishes were starting to be spectated by several undead tengu that were waiting for their chance to join. It wasn’t honor or fear that kept them at bay, but that they didn’t want to get in each other’s way. Some prepared to fire on the battered and weary girls. Their throats glowed purple, their eyes looked for an opening.
”Ba, ba, ba, ba, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive!”— WillowEvil Eye’s initial taunt regarding sleeping on the couch got Willow to pull back her head.
”Hmm? No, nothing like that. Unfortunately, Rei’s mother is allergic to pet dandruff so I can’t sleep on the couch. That’s why I’m an outside kitty.” Her face looked panicked.
”H-hey, y-you could let me crash at your place right? I’m so tired of sleeping on the porch. It’s so wooden, the door mat is too abrasive to be a pillow, and the dog next door won’t stop barking! Please let me sleep on your couch!” Her eyes followed Shatterscape as she
pounced latched onto Daybreak.
”Oh? Looks like there might be a vacant spot in your bed shortly. But I prefer to sleep at the foot of the bed. This crisp autumn weather is too nice to spend under blankets!”If Evil Eye had even a single brain cell to dedicate to the lying magical girl’s words, she’d know that Willow slept at her parent’s place like most teenage girls.
As antagonistic as Willow was, her unicorn was getting along swimmingly with the golem. The steed had no issue driving it’s horn into the tengu trapped within it. The horn spun and slammed, not unlike a hammer drill. Only each impact was punctuated by a burst of hellfire, as the twisted unicorn was naught but a nightmare. The tengu’s bones were cracking, but the “spectators” were descending onto the scene to help their wounded companions. Two more tengu descended onto the unicorn, and a third one dug into the headless giant.
“It’s all fun and games until Shatterscape hugs a bitch.”— Rei IshikoRei continued to watch as Hizuki contended with all the Tengu. She found it interesting how she could sacrifice her armor for a chance to escape, but no sooner did that happen did Shatterscape close her hands around her. The tengu below had all fanned out and were waiting to see how this would play out. Rei scanned her surroundings to see what else was going on.
She could see Earthshaker. It was clear she was determined to end this herself, as foolish as it was. But while she had avoided the birds coming for her, she could
not avoid the ones coming to greet her as she arrived. At a distance they looked like a swarm of flies, and Earthshaker disappeared from View. Meanwhile, Nyxia had gotten distracted. She was baited into attacking a lone tengu while it’s two friends, now joined by three more, swooped in behind her.
Unstoppable Doom was in disarray, but so was Endless Ecstasy, despite remaining together. Oros the Joyful and Acid Drop were struggling with their opponents. Even as Acid Drop tackled one foe, several more arrived. They had not yet been afflicted by Acid Drop’s blood, and were able to easily clip off Oros’s other arm. She looked like a dryad now, with her arms rising up into a myriad of bloody branches.
Was Medusa's Mirror even worth commenting on? Shatterscape was out of control, and what could Evil Eye do to reign her in? It was too late to stem the growing tide of greater miseria.
And Willow… Well, she was at least consistent.
“Perhaps I hoped for too much.”Hizuki, battered and delirious, threw out some attacks to stall for time. She didn’t hit anything, but hardly anyone could blame her for wanting to intercept a
third attempt to pin her down. The spectating tengu had decided to stop spectating, and six pillars of filth flew out from the rooftops. They were all pointed in Hisuki’s position.
But none of them would hit their mark.
Instead, a magical girl that had yet to introduce herself caught Hisuki in a bridal carry before flying out of harm's way. At the peak of her jump, she cast Hisuki even higher before coming down on the rooftops with her scythe. It just took a single swing, and the miseria were reduced to bone and tar.
Then she turned to look at the others.
“No, I will not be turning into a sexy thot for your amusement. Nor will my transformed state look identical to my untransformed state ‘because I’m boring.’ I ought to slap the bajibas out of the lot of you…”— Rei IshikoSchrade was here.
It didn’t matter where you stood, everyone in Hibusa town could feel the unsettling chill of Rei’s true form. Her lone eye fell on Shatterscape
just long enough for the multi-bodied girl to sense her disappointment before it shifted onto Evil Eye. Then with a shrug, she hopped off the roof and landed between the two.
“You know, Evil Eye.” Without looking, Schrade caught Hisuki and set her upright.
“Humility is an important attribute for a leader. Sometimes, we need to know when to ask for help.” She raised her scythe, and the three tengu that were about to jump Hisuki from behind were reduced to ash.
“Shatterscape, wait here.” Schrade faded from view. But even if they couldn’t see her, they could still feel her presence.
The unicorn and black golem were nearly ripped apart, but a scythe glowing like the moon cut through all of their opponents in a single slash. The unicorn was unable to stand up, but it supported itself with its front hooves and eyed the armless, legless torso the giant had been reduced to. Then it snorted.
”I’m part of the post too!”— Suki OyamaOros was not feeling too hot. It was hard to land a kiss on these miseria, and even if she could, there was a chance she could trigger an even bigger miseria to show up. That didn’t seem too good. She had yet to knock any of these guys down, but knew if she didn’t give up, she and Rainbow might make it out of this mess.
”Alright, here it goes!” Oros started to spin like a top. A very slow top. More like a fidget spinner that was being lazily rotated.
”I call this one… Bleeding Branch Blister!” Apparently, “Bleeding Branch Blister” caused a flying scythe to saw up all the miseria in the area. Briefly, a specter that kind of looked like Boss Baby grabbed the scythe and flew out of the area.
”There we go!” Oros collapsed onto her back beside Rainbow.
”We did it Rainbow, we beat them together!”Meanwhile, Nyxia had
just finished melting every square inch of flesh off of the accursed Tengu’s face, yet it’s skeletal structure remained strong. In fact, holding the amped up Mega Obliterator over the thing managed to melt away its flesh entirety.
That wouldn’t be vomiting on anyone. But she was having difficulty splitting it down the middle, and was oblivious to the flock of tengu behind her. Schrade was quick to mince the bird creatures behind Nyxia long before they could attack her. She then stood behind the violet magical girl and placed her heel on the end of her weapon. With their combined might, The Mega Obliterator was more than enough to split the tengu down the middle. Schrade departed quickly, however. There was still one more target.
Your bones may be unbreakable, but let’s see how you handle a shattered kneecap and dislocated joints.The problem, as Earthshaker would soon realize, was that the entire thing was made out of bone. There was no soft cartilage, no tender ligaments waiting to be torn, nothing. It's knees didn’t even look like human knees. There was more in common with a door hinge than a human when it came to the bone golem's joints. It was bone wrapped around bone, with a black tar-like substance lubricating the joints in place of Synovial Fluid. That wouldn’t stop Earthshaker from trying, but the swarm of tengu miseria would. The ones in the city were content to watch their companions fight, but these didn’t hesitate to act. Earthshaker was completely covered in them. If she wasn’t getting punched or clawed, she was getting vomited on. They were so dense it was hard to see. If only someone was there to blast them away...
Then a moonlight great scythe cut through the mob, and gave Earthshaker a bit of breathing room.
The golem was prepared to swing again, but Schrade cut through it’s heel in a single slash. Then its knee on the other leg, then the hip. With each swing of her blade she cut completely through the giga miseria, gradually lowering its body to the ground. Once the legs were out of the way, she bisected the golem with a single swing. As the two halves of the golem fell apart, hundreds of the tengu trapped inside spilled out and evaporated. The remaining miseria started to flee the scene.
Perhaps the reason why they avoided Schrade was because they knew it was fight they couldn't win.
Schrade lowered her scythe and sighed.
“What a hassle…”