The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Madotsuki]

Madotsuki and the gnome (who had introduced herself as Shinnah when they had a free moment) raced into the village, the battle already raging. Houses were alighted with fel flames, unable to be put out by water. If the beasts noticed the two girls entering, they didn't show it-- they had other problems to deal with. Darklings were getting wrecked left to right by Okor's immense power, but like a hydra, for each monster the plague marine slew, two more took its place. Her samurai friend, on the other hand, battled with the bulkier monsters, one of which caught the warlock's attention.

"That's Azzathec!" she announced as quietly as she could, pointing at the largest one. Its orange, leathery wings fluttered as if the torn skin covering the appendages could ever hope to catch air. Raising one of its two hooves, the Doomguard stomped down where the ronin had been just a moment earlier. This allowed Hiro to counter as he sliced across the demon's abdomen, although it left but a scratch on the monster's hide. With a frustrated roar, it batted the cyber samurai away with a gnarled hand. Hiro recovered quickly, but was forced to focus elsewhere when another large Darkling almost stabbed him in the back with a greatsword.

'We need to help them,' the half-baku communicated. 'I'll see if I can help Hiro. Think you can help Okor over there?'

"I'll try. Just... try not to kill Azzy, alright? We can still save him."

'No promises.' And with that, the two split up.

Deciding that she'd start off strong, she planted her feet into the ground and prepared the energy in her palms. She allowed it to gather, then launched the writhing, purple column into the side of the Doomguard's head. The demon stumbled from the impact, but swiftly returned to its feet and glared at the dreamer, retaliating with an energy blast of its own. Now the girl definitely had its attention.

She rolled forward to dodge and fired off a few crescents at Azzathec, who knocked away the attack effortlessly. Of course, she never intended for those purple waves to hurt, merely to distract her target as she ran between its legs. The demon bent over to grab her, but she phased out of the plane and slipped through its grasp. Turning around, she found the giant dark chip that had wormed its way into the Doomguard's back. Wisps of darkness fizzled out of the wound where the foreign object failed to cover it. Maybe if she pulled it out, she could defeat it easily?

She returned to normal and latched onto the demon's back, using the black belt that hung around its waist as a foothold as she began to scale its easily-climable, scaly skin. Azzathec thrashed, trying to knock the dreamer off, but she had already made her way to the chip and she clutched onto it, keeping her in place. Between the pauses, the half-baku tugged as hard as she could in an attempt to pull out the object. Slowly, but surely, it began to budge away from the flesh.

But before it could be pulled free, a sudden explosion of energy coursed into Madotsuki's body, blasting her away from the demon as she rolled across the ground. She convulsed as the energy raced through her veins, coiled around the chip, and pulled it back into place as it entered the wound again. Ugh-- what on earth was that? It was as if she had taken Nico's teleporter, except the transition was ten times worse.

And she could've sworn her skin cracked somewhere.

A quick examination confirmed that her skin had indeed been torn-- a long, scar-like crevice that ran from the side of her right eye that wrapped all the way around to the back of her head. It glowed purple, and stung, but otherwise she felt okay.

She didn't have long to understand what just happened, as a large club landed right next to her. The monster wielding the weapon stared down at her hungrily, reeling back for another swing. With a gasp, she phased out and ran as fast as she could to hide behind a house. She swallowed deep breaths, trying to formulate a plan as she recovered.

731 words. Used Night Slash, Ghoul Rush, and Phasing.