Again it would seem as though Maximilian's schoolmates were quite quick to act, leaving him nothing more to do than watch and wait to see if his presence was demanded in combat. At this rate the mission would be completed without Maximilian ever lifting a finger and to him that was completely fine. He found it much more interesting to watch his companions battle it out then to actually throw himself into the fray and brandish his weapon.

Johnathan flinched for a couple of reasons. One of the less extreme being almost the whole group again sprung into action, leaving Johnathan on the sidelines for another round. The other reason being he was confused. Was Rachel hiding something? Everything seemed all fine and dandy at the meetings. Still, something didn't seem right and he couldn't pin point what. He shook his head, maybe he was just overreacting. The last reason was the gruesome sight he and the whole group saw. He squinted his eyes as he looked at Rachel again. Nothing straightforward came to his head as to what was going on, except for negative stuff that he refused to believe. Still, he couldn't let anything distract him. Arx was still on, and he braced himself for anything that might come his way.

The possessed individuals reared away from the explosion of holy fire and hissed angrily resuming their charge once the flames had died subsided. Carter ran towards one of the hooded men, who continued charging despite the approaching child. When Carter aimed a strike at the ribs, the possessed man caught the boys fist in his own and flung the child with one arm into the wall opposite where Miss Rachel was placed. It then ran towards Carter with a screech.

The other possessed man who was struck by Logan's dirk seemed to stumble momentarily, as if confused, and began to cough up a bit of black smoke before it hissed once again and he seemed to remember what it was doing and went to scratch the youth with hands that seemed more like the demented claws of a beast than a human.

The black smoke hovered over one of the unconscious bodies before disappearing into the body. Moments later the body began to shudder and unnaturally sat up as if being pulled by puppet strings and it too made a charge for Logan. It appeared that the possessed individuals were avoiding Adi intentionally.

"On your toes Scotts" called Evelyn swooping in from above and pelting the newly arisen demon possessed individual with her light wisps, until it backed away from its initial target and attempted to make a climb for the wall.

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

"August" spoke a man's voice, that none but the boy could hear, "Why serve others, when you could rule as a god? Let me in and together we will reign rightfully as kings. Never again will anyone get in your way."

August jumped, caught unaware by the voice that addressed him. His hair stood on end as he scanned the room, anxious to find its point of origin. He had not, until that moment appreciated how very morbid was the scene in which he found himself. The symbols on the walls. The blood spilled liberally on the floor. Bodies strewn about every which way. As he turned, rapier extended, he wondered whether he had gotten himself into something beyond his own understanding. Unable to ascertain where his interlocutor stood, he spoke with as much bravado as he could muster while his eyes continued to dart to and fro.

“Ok, listen, bud. First off, try some originality. I was made the same offer less than fifteen minutes ago. Second, unless you can be a whole lot more convincing than missy downstairs, then I’m going to have to ask you, as politely as possible, to buzz off.”

August spun again, checked behind him one last time before finishing; “And third, you’re not doing so hot at number two, because anyone who was anything more than a coward would look me in the face instead of playing hide and seek.”

Alice watched the scene with shock. There was little she could do against possessed humans, nothing that wouldn't kill the innocent people. While she could try to use Phora's dust to put them to sleep, it would do the same to her and her teammates in the enclosed space. Yet she had never felt such peach in her life. It seemed to emanate from that huge, ridiculously attractive man, who looked Photoshopped onto the room filled with blood and bodies. Noticing the ragged, drained woman on the plate, it wasn't hard to connect the dots. At the moment he could probably tear one of the students apart with his bare hands.

From the corner of her eye she noticed Maximilian and Johnathan, looking a bit lost. "If you two have nothing to do," She said, "How about seeing what you can do for Mrs. Rachel? Or maybe help protect Li? If we can buy him time he'll be able to finish his binds and exorcise these spirits."

How odd. She was completely relaxed right now, her anxieties were melting away. With a shout she summoned her bow and familiar. If she could feel this peacefulness during every fight, her life in SDU would be much less hectic. But while the girl was focused for now, Alice almost felt as if she would just float away on a little cloud and never care about anything.

"Wow, look at that guy," Phora said, pointing to the man in white and snickering. "His man-beauty is blinding. Makes me wanna scratch his face up."

"Get to it then! We don't have much time." The Pixie simply shrugged and took flight towards her target, while Alice readied an arrow and waited for an opportunity to strike.

Logan's eyes widened as part of the spirit severed itself from the rest, resurrecting yet a third body to do the demon's bidding like an undead marionette. Attacking the creatures with his knife was out of the question, apparently. Temporarily distracted, the possessed body he was currently grappling with lashed out and grazed his mail. The thing's fingers were long, and tapered to a point at the end like some kind of claw. The third body was now rushing toward the junior as well, almost seeming to shun Adi. Logan braced himself for the impact.
"On your toes, Scotts." Evelyn chimed in, flying at the things and bombarding them with wisps of energy. Her assault left Logan open to contend with his own opponent. Shielding his face against the creature while holding it back with his targe seemed to be working wonders. It hindered any forward progress, while the chain mail did an excellent job of protecting the junior from the thing's wild flailing.
The display was almost... primal. It was difficult for Logan to believe that the spastic creature before him was even human. In fact, there was much evidence to the contrary. The black wisps of smoke had resurrected what was clearly a corpse earlier. Perhaps they were all reanimated dead.
"Evelyn!" He called, still holding the possessed man at bay. "Are ye sure these things are e'en alive anymore? Ye saw whit that smoke did to the corpse."

"Of course they're not dead" replied Evelyn as if it were something a two year old should know, while in fact the only reason she herself was so sure was because she had been raised to know the intricate details of various spirits and supernatural phenomena. "There is only one force on Earth that can raise the dead; holy energy. In order for the dead to be raised by any sort of other force, it requires something to be living. Which is how necromancy works, by drawing on the energy of the necromancer, or how Strigoi survive by consuming the blood of the living. Even then they are not truly alive, which is why our ancestors classified them as the undead. Thus, entities possessing human bodies only need the barest amount of life left in an individual to take control. The person could be in a coma, or even brain dead and they'd be good. Though they normally do not look for those who are sickly, as that requires them to actually put an effort into empowering the person they're controlling. So yes, they are alive..." she paused to look at the rest of the bodies on the ground "though I don't know what's keeping them in that death-like state, but they are most certainly alive. In fact, I'd be wary if I were you guys on the ground."

Upon finishing her ten-second spiel, she fired a wisp at the gnarled hands of the possessed man who had been climbing up the wall to attack her as she floated, and watched as it fell and landed on its feet without even a flinch. "What makes it tough however, is that while possessed they have superhuman invulnerability, however once they are un-possessed, every wound, ache and pain they were inflicted in the past will affect them naturally. If they've received something fatal while possessed it could kill them when they're un-possessed."

The possessed man who had been attacking Logan roared as it struggled to topple over the boy and continued to claw at the shield.

The seven foot tall man dressed in white did nothing as Phora approached, though out of nowhere the pixie was thrown against a wall by an unseen force.

A cloud of smoke began to snake around August's feet. "Coward? What you see is who I am. The others shall bow before your might when we are united. All you need to say is yes."

Carter stopped, mid-run to look at Logan, and knew that he had to help him. Carter started to sprint to the man and elbowed him in the back and yelled to Logan, "SHIELD-BASH THE BLOKE!"

Summoning his weapon for the first time, Maximilian grabbed at it awkwardly and after a bit of fidgeting made his way to Li's side to protect him. If anything he could at least act as a guard for his classmate while he worked to protect the group, though he doubted strongly he would be of any actual use.

Johnathan nodded at Alice's instruction, excited at the order. It seemed the new kid was going to help Li which would leave him with Rachel. Wasting no time, he darts over to her limp body. He summoned his billhooks. He wasn't going to take any chances, dead or living, nothing was going to touch her on his watch. "Don't worry, you'll be fine, don't give up." He says to Rachel, after finishing drawing Arx onto her. He then stands in front of her, both of them protected with Arx, waiting for anything that might try to get her. Maybe he could try to get her down first. He then tries to get her off the wall.

They ignored Adi. Was it because they did not see him as a threat? Or was it because they were going to bring down the weaker ones around him before using their numerical superiority? Either way, the puppet master was no fool. But then again, a puppet was a still a puppet. All you needed to do was cut some strings though even then he was unsure of the outcome. As junior Augustine said, they were nigh invulnerable when possessed but they still operated on the mechanics of the human body. That meant targeting them in specific areas, areas which he had learned of from his study of Silat.

St. Augustine had knocked down one of the climbing possessed and it landed perfectly fine. Before it could do anything else, he launched himself at it to strike in to their armpit. It was the least lethal but most effective method of paralysis through nervous trauma that he knew. Arriving in an low crouch, his unarmed fist flew first, to dislodge arm away and expose his target. His armed fist flew second, the pommel of his karambit seeking out the target from below whilst his second returned to his side to protect himself from attack.

If this did not work then he would have to think of something else, something that could be lethal.

OOC: In case I wasn't clear, Miss Rachel is literally plastered to a wall and held in place by an invisible force. She isn't unconscious, she's just immobilized. Sorry for any sort of confusion.

The demon possessed individual who had fallen on the ground seemed to almost shriek as it was approached by Adi and reached out to scratch the youth just as he stuck the pommel of the karambit striking the possessed man's armpit. The possessed man's eyes widened in shock, and the clouded beastly expression disappeared for a moment before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground. A mass of black smoke began to snake out from the man's nose.

The possessed man who was elbowed in the back by Carter turned his neck sharply with a crack and growled at the boy. He immediately pounced upon the child and began clawing at Carter rapidly, and pinned the boy to the ground, it's attention turned away from Logan.

The third possessed man, who had earlier thrown Carter against the wall immediately began to charge towards Li, having realized what the young man was doing.

Miss Rachel looked down at Johnathan with a hopeful expression, as if his placing of arx was a good idea.

"GET... THIS... DAMN... THING... OFF... ME..." Carter said, gasping and nearly losing conciousness. He hoped Logan would come to his senses, and he had better help him... fast.

Logan was caught off guard and stumbled as the creature turned around to address the Carter problem. As it pounced on the alchemist, Logan rushed up behind it, wrapping his arms around its shoulders and pulling it away from Carter in a full nelson. As he struggled with the man, he turned to face Adi so that he could get a clean shot at it.
"Right here, Adi!" He shouted, then turned his gaze to Jonathan. "Hey, use tha' holy water on th' black smoke before it resurrects any more o' these things!"

Carter got up, thanked Logan, and punched the demon straight in the face, "Geez, are you TRYING to take away my good looks, ugly?"