Both hounds repositioned started to reposition themselves around Li, then started to leap at the same time. Without much time to react, he did the first thing that came to mind, duck. Naturally though, he kept his tonfa covering his sides. Both hounds grazed over Li's head, just barely missing a head on collision. Right away, he began a counter attack, striking one hound quickly with a quick follow-up onto the next.

______________________________________

Oddly enough, the first thing Dom thought when the demon was choking the two was that is was a bit ironic that the guy who can manipulate air was becoming short of breath. The next thing that came to mind was: "Wow, this might end badly". When things felt like it really the end, a voice came out of no where, and then Dom started to feel better.

"Frail old lady tae the rescue. How embarassin'." Logan said as the demon disappeared momentarily. Dom let out a chuckle before he became serious.

"Next time, don't just sit there waiting for it to mock ya'. Hit it! Hit it hard and fast!", was the next thing he heard. It was the old woman. Normally he didn't like following instructions, but Dom couldn't disagree with this plan. Logan was all for it ready to take out this demon. Nodding in response to Logan's words, he followed behind him. Logan began with a large overhand swing of his claymore. Right away after that attack lands, Dom readied his body to do a butterfly twist, kicking the demon right in the chest hoping to add more impact with his abilities.

It felt fleeting. He could see it. Adi had just moved faster than he ever could without any conscious effort at all. It was just a simple, straightforward blow. The exitimus wasn't reeling from the blow, it flew. Just where was he getting this power from? Or what exactly was it that was empowering him?

<Blessed one, I shall rip your wings from your body and roast your soul in the pit>

The demon's screaming brought him back to reality.

<Brothers, we have played with our food for too long! Let us finish what our Prince started with the bus. These insects shall no longer stand in our way!>

One word was all it took for Adi to narrow his attention exclusively to the exitimus. The bus. Never mind the hordes of demons emerging from the shadows, never mind senior Pearson arguing about kills, the demon had some scrap of knowledge related to the tragedy that befell his seniors. It was now the sole object of Adi's attention. Besides, what was senior Pearson going to berate him for anyway? He clearly was the one who fought it first and consequently, he had called dibs way before she did.

"I had dibs," he shouted back to her and lunged again and midway through, he heard her speak to him.

"Adi! Try to capture that demon!"

Ah, such a harsh taskmistress she was. There was no guarantee that he would be able to prevent it from ending itself.

They met eye to eye, the exitimus' arm shot past his head by mere centimetres. The demon had contorted impossibly out of his blow and made to latch on to his head with its closest hand. Adi jumped forward, his back leg forming in to a knee strike. The leap got him out of the demon's reach and his knee strike only made the exitimus disappear.

He knew now why many people thought they could disappear and reappear at will. The demon was almost like a solid pocket of dust that dispersed itself and they reformed elsewhere. Likewise, the teleportation was perhaps a result of them manipulating themselves, the small but somehow physically power particles manipulating objects as if they had a hand in it, which they literally had. It also explained why they always left nice neat piles of sulphur whenever banished back to the hells that spawned them.

The fact that he could see it happen like watching a sand clock was surprising in itself. Adi could see the demon reform itself, its vague expression of shock still plastered on its face as he traced its path. It had moved itself behind him, something that would have granted it an advantage if Adi never knew it was there. He landed and jumped backwards, his elbow flying towards where the demon would complete its movement. The connection resulted in a sickening crack. Something had definitely given, it was Adi's elbow joint. Laughing, the demon grabbed his injured appendage and tugged backwards, attempting to wrench it from its socket. It was a great pain, but the kind that was expected in mortal combat. While he still could, he wrapped his fingers around the demon's arm, much like how the demon held him, and brought his opposite arm, weapon in hand, down on its chest.

The blow was stopped by the exitimus' other arm. It was to be expected as they struggled to gain the upper hand. Reversing his strike, he pulled back with his weapon, catching the demon's arm as the holy armament cut through it. Thank goodness that it wasn't a banshee or his ears would be ringing. The demon's left arm disappeared in to dust as it was separated from the host body. Adi didn't stop there. His weapon came down again this time taking the demon's right from the elbow. It came loose with ease, detaching itself neatly as Adi pulled his left shoulder back before throwing it forward once again. He was using his now mostly useless left arm, with the exitimus' rapidly dissolving forearm still gripping his, as a flail, striking it in the back of the head as it stood frozen in the thrall of shock.

It hit the ground with his full body weight on it as he brought his weapon to bear again. Switching hands, he used his right to pull the demon's head back and using his left, cut a path where a human throat would be, with his weapon.

Since his silence towards the demon, he let out his first words directed at it,

"You lied," and took its head.

Maximilian was rather shocked to find himself neck deep in a new and, well to put it lightly, hostile world. But what caught the boy even more off guard was the swarm of carnivorous bats that were swarming towards him leaving him little time to respond. With no source of water near by, and no hope of actually being able to use his power, Maximilian could only rely on his own strength. Quickly the boy raised and crossed his arms above his head in a guard positions as the column of bats closed in almost instantly.

ooc: it would seem that I somehow deleted Wizzquizz's post... Oh my.

OOC: Dun worry 'bout the scrapyard, next chapter boyo

Ashley laughed gently, the kid had drive, and she admired that. "Well, no magic is the strongest really, " she said with a shrug "Any clever magus can outsmart another magus or dispel an enchantment with the right spell. Magic is one big puzzle, with the right words, and a strong will, you can turn any spell against someone else," she clapped her hands together and looked down at the boy with a calculating expression "Now! While I'm glad that you have managed some minor magical feats, spells can only work for a trained mind. You need to get the ether to learn to obey you, and that can only be done through meditation. We here specifically have the newbies chant 'Voluntas tibi est voluntas mea. Vim tibi est vim mea. Praecantio facam.' All you need to do is do a bit of meditation for a bit, and then we can get you started on real magic."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite the youths being quick to cut through the swath of demons seeming to crawl out from every nook and cranny in the alleyway, yet more seemed to arrive in droves. Their hisses and the sound of gusts of wind from Phora were the only things that could be heard as the fight continued.

"This is your end" spoke the head of the demon which Adi had decapitated, "As I have said, Arclight is ours, this territory belongs to the kingdom of darkness. You cannot defeat us."

The hell hounds were each dealt with swiftly as Li deftly outmanoeuvred and countered the beasts as they lunged to attack, though he too found himself swarmed by the approaching lesser demons which began to swarm him.

Quite suddenly, the atmosphere in the alleyway began to change. The hairs on the backs of their neck began to raise apprehensively as if something were about to strike. It seemed almost similar to the sensation that they had felt in the apartment building a mere month or so ago. The memory brought with it a sense of foreboding as a breeze began to blow throughout the alleyway. The wind began to blow even harder, kicking up debris and smashing windows, the walls of the apartment buildings creaking loudly, as if they would snap in any moment. Fire began to roar across the ground, nipping at the feet of the demons who yelped and howled as each tongue of fire licked their shadowed flesh.

"What kingdom can there be, when founded on revolution?" spoke a rumbling voice that sounded of thunder and crashing waves. The fire continued to spread in the alleyway and the demons continued to retreat away from around Adi, Li, Alice and Phora as lightning bolts began to strike in rapid succession blasting demons into dust and whirlwinds tore through the alley ripping apart the buildings. All the while, it seemed to have no effect on the youths who stood in awe as what appeared to be a natural disaster of epic proportions took place in the cramped alleyway, threatening to destroy the buildings beside them, if not the entire city block. It was then that they saw him approach from the opening of the alleyway.

He had three pairs of wings, each were brown and spotted with white flecks, reminding one of a falcon or an owl, and he wore golden armour over his torso that seemed to emit its own light shining brighter than the moon as he stepped into the alley. At his waist was a sword that burned with golden flames, but it never lit his white robes that extended to his calves which were covered by golden greaves inscribed with strange unrecognizable letters and images of wings as if they were wrapped around his legs ready to take flight. He wore a helmet that seemed similar to Roman design of an even brighter gold, making it seem as if the sun was hiding behind his head as the flames in the alleyway reflected off of its polished metal. He took his helmet off, revealing shoulder length black hair, dark brown skin and stern amber eyes. He looked neither young, nor old; he had an air of agelessness. He was flawless and he was beautiful. He was an angel.

The angel raised his flaming sword and swung it horizontally in front of himself in a casual manner, that almost seemed to slow time down as the sword flowed through the air. A wave of golden fire emanated outward throughout the entire alleyway from wall to wall, wiping out all the demons aside from the lone head that Adi still held.

"I am called the father teaches" stated the angel in its grand multi-layered voice, "I greet you as Yuriel" He began to glow intensely bright, causing them to shield their eyes from the light, and when they opened them again, they found themselves in the alleyway alone, with it looking like not even a scuffle had occurred there.

Not too far away though, they could hear more fighting, suddenly reminding Alice that Logan and Dom had also followed them yet she had not seen them in the alleyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Exitumus had returned with a wicked smile, then paused, as if it had smelled something horrible. It was in that moment that the claymore struck it, and the attack was quickly followed by the butterfly twist by Dom that conjured up a powerful gust of wind that struck it and pushed it away from the boys and the old woman.

It looked up at them surprised, and curled its thin lips into a smile that looked as if it were almost pleased with the situation before it.

"Let's see here," spoke the demon slowly as it approached threateningly "A witch, and two –" Ms. Ignianus had smacked the demon with the rounded top of her wooden walking staff.

"Bellua monitoh, ti rorosum! Phasma, amicus mi, nokosopor bellua salumus, ti rorosum!"

The demon quickly got up, rubbing it's face with an annoyed expression, but before it could further attack the group, ghostly chains stopped the creature preventing it from moving and continued to crawl up its body until it was completely restrained. The old woman leaned against her staff panting.

"Woo, been a while since I cast a spell like that" she said while out of breath, "Go on, do what you will" she said urging the children onwards, "Wouldn't expect a pair of green eyed seers to know how to deal with an Exitumus."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many of the monstrous bats screamed in what could only be assumed as pain and exploded in a burst of black smoke as they were blasted by the bolts of electricity from Damian. His strength was more than enough to take out the creatures as he struck each of them with his fists. While appearing monstrous in size, it appeared that they were of weak constitution and had feeble bones, at least for the teenage boy as he struck out.

Just as Tsubaki had predicted, her sigil manifestation of ligare only lasted for a short while and the chains of spirit energy soon faded. However before the bat could turn to attack the girl, Lotus and Dot came running, or rather hopping from floating landmass to floating landmass and diced the bat into nothingness with her nails having sharpened into tiger claws. It allowed them a moment of reprieve but even more bats soon swooped down upon the girls.

Evelyn was quick to react, though she was mildly surprised that the bat-creature had dodge her glaive's blade, and she flew in a loop over the bat as it went to attack her in return. She saw Maximilian as he was attacked by the swarm of bats and fired a series of her light wisps at them causing them to disperse. Not wanting the creature that she was focused on to attack her while her back was turned, she simply allowed her glaive to drop on the ground near Maximilian so that he would no longer be defenceless. Her wisps would be more than enough to deal with these creatures. She released a volley of energy blasts at the bat-creature.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny was sure he would have gotten the ghost, but to his surprise it deftly dodge his strike and flew over his head. Next thing he knew, the ghost was now shooting arrows at him.

"Look out!" called Carter, too far to go to his friend's help in time.

OOC: is it weird that i listen to black metal and my main character is basically a little fairy

Daniel just stared at the girl as she spoke a string of seemingly unpronounceable words. What the hell kind of language was she speaking? "I'm supposed to chant that? Okay..." Nervously the new magic user cleared his mind and tried to recite what Ashley had said.

Alice was stunned by the sight of the angel as it obliterated the monsters. "Uhh, nice to meet you, Yuriel." Just as quickly as he'd appeared, he vanished in a flash, along with all the evidence of the battle. "Wait!" She called out, but it was too late. "At least say something useful..."

Phora didn't notice the angel at first (because she was having the time of her life carving up the simple demons), until the evil creatures were destroyed by his sword. Bitterly, she turned and glared at Yuriel. "Who cares what your name is?!" She shouted over Alice. "Nobody asked for your help!" She continued to glare at him even as he disappeared, while everyone else covered their eyes. With a sigh the pixie glided over to Alice's side. "Angels are such pompous snobs. Always showing up just when I get to cut loose..." She muttered to her master, who seemed to be regaining her composure. "My eyes burn like hell, by the way-" At the same time, the two of them noticed the sounds of battle behind them, and they both made the exact same horrified expression as they realized they hadn't seen Logan or Dom at all.

"Maybe... Maybe we should go check that out." Alice said quietly.

"They're probably dying... But whatever makes you feel better." Phora replied.

While running through the alley, Alice played with the idea that they might have another shot at capturing a high ranking demon. Her fighting spirit was reignited, and when they reached the site of the battle she was elated to see that not only were Logan and Dom okay, but they also had the Exitimus bound in chains. "Yes!" She hopped into the air excitedly. "Excellent work you two! And YOU-" She leaned in close to the demon with a wide grin. "Should be getting ready to spill it. Or else this is going to be a very unpleasant experience for you." Alice looked to her juniors again. "Where'd you get the chains? How did you two manage to beat this in the first place?"

"I bet it was the witch." Phora said while pointing to Ms. Ignianus.

"... Are you really a witch?" Alice said suspiciously.

Logan was the one to address Alice's inquiry.

"Oh, absolutely. This woman's a sorcerer if I ever layed eyes on one." He decided to withhold the fact that at no point had he actually seen one before. "And aye, she's the one what put the exitimus here under lock an' key. It would've done me an' Dom in otherwise. "

Logan couldn't help but chuckle at the though of how humiliating this was for the arrogant creature.

"As fer the demon, it shouldnae be too hard to get the information ye need out of 'im. He just loves to talk. Interrogation isnae really my strong suit, though, so I'll leave this to ye."

Okay... brute force wasn't going to work, like he originally thought it would. Why was this one so difficult? The only thing seemingly special about it was that it could fly. It was surprising to Johnathan a bit that the spirit had managed to dodge his attack so swiftly. Which was most likely because he defeated the other ghosts so easily. He needed to be stealth, and come up with a plan. Johnathan took advantage the rain of arrows and he used telekinesis to send the arrows back at him. Turning to a near by rock, he began to carve a sigil. He was still protected by arx, so he was ready if anything sudden were to happen. 

Damian looked around the swarming bats only smirking with confidence, the disgusting creatures practically broke from his touch. He swung his fist around, beating down more of the bats until he paused to see bats swarm down on the girl and her tiger. He couldn't quite remember her name, Lotas or Lotus, something of the sort. It did not matter, he raised his hand in their general direction and aimed slightly above them, then he cast two lighting bolts and turned around, noticing the large purple bonfire. They were being distracted, or delayed, whichever was likely, bats do not suddenly attack when people are headed towards a big purple bonfire. He looked back at his comrades, unsure of whether to aid them or to move ahead towards the destination. He decided to stay and help, at the moment there were far more bats than it seemed everyone could handle. He hopped from rock to rock, resuming his pummeling of the creatures and continuing to fire bolts of lightning at a number of bats attacking the others.

Alice eyed the sorceress cautiously. Come to think of it, she knew this woman. "Well..." She said. "Thanks for the help, witch. Who would've guessed the owner of the magic shop would be a real magic user? I'll never look at you the same way again." The senior really meant that. Magic was never used with a good purpose in mind, as far as she'd seen.

Phora switched between looking at the demon and Ms. Ignianus, clearly unsure which she should be more interested in. Deciding the demon was more entertaining, she walked over to its side and knelt down. The familiar showed off her claws and teeth menacingly. "Tell me -" Phora paused midsentence to think for a moment. "Start by telling me what it is Alice is supposed to be finding out!"

To Maximilian's surprise, Evelyn all of all people had come to his aid with very little hesitation and although she more than likely acted out of instinct rather than compassion or friendship the boy was still incredibly thankful. Wasting no time Maximilian grabbed for the glaive and began to swing it about in an attempt to disperse the wave of bats who had already begun to encircle him. It did not take long for the initial batch to be chased off and so with a free moment Maximilian summoned forth his broad sword and headed off from platform to platform in an attempt to regroup with his peers.

OOC: Woops, totally forgot this thing existed. Sorry about that.

As the bright light from the angel blinded everyone, Li was extremely confused as to what just happened, which is something rare for him to experience. Just like that, the angel was gone and everything around them was back in order. It took a while for Li to take what just happened all in. After standing there in a brief moment of shock, he noticed Alice ran off to help some others. Following her, Li found himself coming across a very peculiar sight, a demon just like the one from before, albeit with his head on his body, bound in chains. Listening in on the conversation, it seems the little old lady was a magic user and managed to subdue a demon.

Since the next step was interrogation, Li decided to offer a suggestion.

"Hey Alice, why don't you let Adi and I take care of making this guy talk? You can grab those two and make sure the school isn't gone," he said, pointing to the demon. "Adi will have a lot of fun with him, and I've always wanted to pull the 'good cop bad cop' routine," he added jokingly. Truth be told, Li always wanted to be in a buddy cop movie.

______________________________

Dom stood there in awe of the chained up demon. Not sure what to add to the conversation, he stood there in silence. When he heard Li's direction, Dom stood there for a bit, contemplating where he would go next. On one hand, seeing a demon get beat up would be interesting, but at the same time, something really cool might have happened at school. He finally decided he'll wait it out a little bit and see what Logan does.

Logan shrugged in response to Li's suggestion.
"I'm fine with that if Alice is." He had no idea what the upperclassmen meant about "making sure the school is gone", but he wasn't about to admit that.

Ms. Ignianus hobbled over to Alice's side with a smile "Come now deary, no need to worry, they won't hurt you," she pointed her staff shakily at the demon which still wreathed about as it struggled with its chains, "This here demon cannot and should not be investigated here. Not only is it a threat, but while we've been strangely luck to have not run into anyone, interrogating a demon in the open is not the brightest idea. And no," she said while stomping her foot on the ground solidly "No, you may not take this abomination into my precious shop. Lastly, you must all hurry with your decision, for my spell will hold for only so long."

"Ah, how quaint" purred the demon "You think you can obtain information from me? We have already proven that you..." it paused before disdainfully adding "children" its lips curled into a sneer "Are far from competent enough to defeat us. Your souls will make for tasty morsels and your spirits for grand entertainment. The screams of children in perpetual pain, how delighting it will be."

-----------------------------------------

Evelyn was shocked and fairly surprised when her wisps seemed to disappear as they flew towards the bat. Had the creature merely absorbed the energy that she had thrown? Or somehow managed to extinguish it? In return the bat fired a series of fireballs at her, which she outmatched with her own wisps of energy thrown causing each ball of fire to explode. In the ensuing smoke, she flew downwards to track the movements of the rest of the group. They had all resumed their ascent to the giant pillar of fire, jumping from rock to rock as they made their way, fighting swarms of bats as they swooped down on them.

What troubled her was that she was having great difficulty identifying these particular bats. They weren't any particular creature that she could recognize from the various bestiary compendiums she had been brought up with. If anything, they looked like something inspired by imagination, it was something that powerful ghosts sometimes did; they conjured up creatures of illusion that were simply manifestations of their own minds, often taking known creatures and twisting them fantastically. It would make sense, but this was much more than a phantom was capable. This was demonic; every sense in her being told her that it was without a doubt.

She was right. The group eventually reached the largest of the floating rocks, and found what appeared to be a man sitting on a chair of black thorned vines twisted about as if they were alive. The man was thin, his face blue with pointed ears and predatorial slit eyes of red. It reclined casually, it's legs up in the air and each of its long thin fingers stretched out. You could see, but only slightly, that silver strings led from these fingers to places unseen.

"So you have arrived" spoke the demon in a cool business-like voice "I suppose the charade is over" The demon tugged on one of its fingers and the swarm of bats disappeared, and over floated Carter with a smile on his lips.

------------------------------------------------------------

The spirit made the arrows explode in a flash of fire and light, though Johnny was protected by Arx. Much to his surprise however, after the explosion there was no one to be seen. Perhaps he had been successful? Had he finally defeated the ghosts that were invading the school? It seemed like so, until he heard a scream. It sounded like a familiar voice, Evelyn? It was her most definitely, she was screaming for help. He looked up and saw Carter flying back from where they had come "Come on, we gotta go help her!" he called out, "Maybe we can get her the power boost too and put an end to all this!"

-----------------------------

Ashley sat directly in front of Daniel and helped the boy as he meditated. She opened her mouth and pronounced each word as clearly as she could and helped him. The first time he recited it, he felt nothing, though as he continued to chant, he felt a stirring in the very depths of his soul. An opening in the source of his power to an even greater source of power, it was fleeting, yet almost in his grasp.

The spirit had exploded it's arrows, but luckily, Johnathan was protected by Arx. Shame he hadn't had the chance to initiate his plan. He finished his sigil and as soon as he was done he heard a scream. It took him a few seconds to recognize that it was Evelyn. Was she in trouble? Was anybody else with her? For her to scream for help meant something more powerful was around. "Come on, we gotta go help her!" Carter called out, interrupting his thoughts. "Maybe we can get her the power boost too and put an end to all this!" He nodded and followed Carter. Johnathan didn't know if Eveyln would accept it, knowing her. Though, it didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

Alice sighed in frustration. "Well, we can't exactly haul it back to class. Fine, I leave this to you three. Drag it into an alley or something first." Phora gave Alice a look and turned back to the demon.
"It's your lucky day!" The pixie shouted as she raked her claws across its face. Feeling something clutching onto her back, Phora turned her head to find that it was Alice! "What the hell are you doing?!"
"There's probably something going on at the school," Alice said. "We need to get there fast, so giddyup." Phora's protests were muted by Alice yanking her ears like horse reigns, and eventually she just gave up arguing and took off. "Wheeeeee!"

Daniel, meanwhile, tried to block out the girl while meditating. He could feel a power boiling within him like nothing he'd ever felt before. He reached forward to grasp what he felt was the source of this power.