Maximilian was completely dumbfounded by the situation he was in, but regardless he did as Miss Rachel ordered and he summoned up his weapon and prepare for combat.

"What exactly is going on here?" Maximilian felt clueless, anxious, but above all angry. He wanted to know how the school- no... how Miss Rachel could have let something like this happen. How the hell could she have just let the other students walk right into a trap like this, why was she unable to warn any of them? What was she going to do if someone was seriously hurt? What was she planning to do if someone died?

Id continued to feast behind Logan. After hearing Evelyn she stood and shouted over Logan's shoulder "Look I'll do what I want when I want." Id screamed at Evelyn. As she yelled bits of food fell on Logan. With a huff she sat back down behind the boy. "Hey Mr. Meatshield, How many do you think there are? Couple Hundred? A thousand maybe?" Id took a swig out of her flask. "As much as I'd love to fight these things forever we will run out of energy before they do. So I have a plan but you have to trust me." Id slowly stood and stretched she had gained enough energy back to be somewhat useful.

Lotus looked around at the various hounds before summoning Dot. Once Daniel's question was asked she looked at him "I don't know? look into the future? Throw it?" She shrugged. Lotus began to fight the hounds her blade was as swift as it was sharp. Lotus and Dot began to cut through the hoard of enemies working a path to the treeline. The two were working more in sync than they had ever done. They moved as one as they fought. No delay between their tactics. Even those that watched could tell something was different about the two.

[sorry, one-liner incoming]

Daniel nodded at Lotus's first suggestion. He looked towards the glass orb for guidance as to how to escape.

Tsubaki visibly winced at the demon's banter, but the fiend made a mistake letting or making Fiona plead for Damian's help, because in that moment it was right. Tsubaki was showing her true colors, she had in the past as well, though it was this time she finally saw them in full.

"Even if I might lose myself, the person I will be until that moment, is the person that would die so another does not need to suffer!" It wasn't a shout this line, but it wasn't a whisper either. Only those that needed to would hear it. The next statement did need to be what could pass as a yell to be heard over the sound of the groan, though. "Damian, don't hold back. Even if it seems we're hurting her, it's the demon trying to trick us, because we're really only hurting it."

It was a lie she told, that last line. At least that's what she suspected. Johnathan hadn't come out of his possession unscathed, and he was aware during that time, so he must of felt something, but perhaps it was nothing compared to the possession itself. But it wasn't the time for that, Fiona was gearing up for another attack, and Tsubaki needed to prepare. Evasion already proved it wasn't enough, so when the attack came Tsubaki used her mobility to instead try to close ground on Fiona while attempting to slash away at the oppressing chain.

OoC: Banking my luck that Fiona's chains are (at least mostly) spiritual manifestations that only act real, in the same vein as Tsubaki's own chains from Ligare.

Logan’s gung-ho smirk faded into an irritated pout. He was none too glad to have his posturing cut short. Accustomed to it or not, suffering Idelia’s usual vitriol was never a very pleasant experience. Her embellished estimation of the enemy forces aside, however, the junior was nothing if not accommodating. Moreover, knowing the girl, she would probably blow up all the imps at once or something.

“Alright,” he sighed. “I’m listening.”

Fear turned into defiant anger as the demon mocked Tsubaki and him, leaving him glaring back with clenched fists. As much as he wanted to discourage the demon, it's cruel display with Fiona pleading for salvation riled him up further and the main deterrent in battle seemed to be the safety of Fiona. Tsubaki's reassuring statement seemed to be the permission desired to attack. "Good." Before his dash, the chain came hurtling towards him, prompting him to fall flat on his back, his hand reaching for his bauble to infuse it with energy once again.

Johnathan, habitually and eerily ritually, armed himself with his sigil: arx. He was in complete agreement as Maximilian voiced his concerns about what was happening. Everything was moving so quick and there was no explanation as to what was going on and what exactly they were doing. All he knew at the moment was that he needed to fight his way through to the main hall and some monster made of fire was standing in their way. That much information was not enough to satisfy him. It obviously seemed like this problem was bigger than the school, but Miss Rachel kept them both in the dark. For now, hopefully.

Would his weapons work against this? Johnathan summoned his billhooks and charged at the being and was completely confident in arx which allowed him for trial and error in order to defeat this thing. He charged head first and slashed diagonally down at what appeared to be its upper extremities, which would then cross into its torso if it worked. It might appeared to be reckless, but he was merely conducting a test. If that didn't work out it left him with two options, one of which he hesitated to use.

----

"It's about time something interesting happened!" Lloyd shouted, completely ignoring the wanna-be emo boy's stare. He had tried his hardest to keep from daydreaming while they continued to not take his advice. Lloyd could have honestly said he was not successful in that regard. He turned all of his focus towards to the action which was about to start.

Hellhounds were nothing to them. A ball of light surrounded Grayson and he emerged into his true form. He took a mighty jump and stomped on some hellhounds as he reached out and slashed more that were approaching him. Lloyd rushed towards his vicinity with his weapon summoned and spun his weapon protecting him from some more hounds that were trying to sneak up on Grayson.

"Did you work on your new skill you obtained a while back? That would be useful right about now." Lloyd asked sort of absent-mindedly as the duo worked as a finely tuned machine proud of its features. He also didn't notice he was speaking Griffin, something that came naturally to him.

"No, its too dangerous to be used right now." Grayson replied in his native language as he twisted and slammed a hellhound into ground with his spiked tail.

"You must believe me" she said while summoning a medieval sword into her hand, "This entire experience is new to me. I - I don't know what's going on here" her eyes narrowed as they darkened "This is almost like that apartment building, I could not sense the angel until it was too late."

One of the giant spiders began to quickly crawl towards Miss Rachel with its two forelegs raised above its head to strike her "Be still!" she yelled once it had reached striking distance, and she thrust her sword into the torso of the creature. The creature hissed as it shriveled and collapsed onto the ground with a large "thud".

"My whole life I lived seeing the bigger picture, allowing me to always be one step ahead of those around me. Even while I hunted the foulest of demons in the depths of Africa, I always just knew things. Ever since I've come here however, it's been like there's this film of darkness encircling my sight, making things harder for me to see. For the first time in my life, there have been instances where I could truly say I do not know what will happen next. This is one of such cases, and I can only react to what I sense."

As Johnny charged at the being of fire, the creature stepped away quickly and rocketed out of his range with a burst of fire. It raised its hand in Johnny direction and loosed a ball of fire, arching over his head and setting one of the spiders on fire, it screeching as it burned to a crisp.

"I'm on your side" said the creature with a musical voice, the sound of crackling fires echoing from its mouth.

"She," indicated Miss Rachel to the fire creature, is another aspect I was and have been unable to see with my sight. "However, our odds are slightly better with an esper. I don't know what we'll face beyond these doors, but if we do not get beyond them, we will have a catastrophe much worse than the explosion from last year."

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Tsubaki and Damian's response to Fiona's attack almost seemed synchronised. The scythe cut through the chain with ease, as Damian's electrical disturbance delinked the chains that were about to strike him. The possessed girl was far from finished however, she opened her mouth and began to scream a blood curdling cry. Their ears rang as and the very core of their sixth sense trembled as blood streamed down Fiona's cheeks in the stead of tears. Swaying back and forth after she had finished her scream, she snapped her attention towards Tsubaki and launched herself in the girl's direction with her arms outstretched to grab her.

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Daniel looked into the glass orb and focused. A thick cloud began to fill the orb and swirled about, though he could see nothing when he tried to look deeper into the clouds. Before he could stop and consider why this was happening however, Daniel's thoughts were interrupted by Basil.

"Orila, pungyor ibus, ti rorosum!" yelled Basil while pointing towards a pack of animals. A large boulder materialized in front of him and collided with a pack of the frozen hellhounds that were attempting to attack Daniel while he was focusing. "Pay attention!" he yelled angrily at the boy.

In the meantime, Sorbet chirped excitedly as his timeless green eyes began to glow and a sudden gust of ice, wind and feathers surrounded Alice. The first transformation between totem and omnivident was always the most magnificent, a marvel of light and power bringing together two beings from different worlds.

Suddenly they heard a blood curdling scream. It was difficult to tell from where it had come, but it chilled them all to their bones. For a moment, all was still and silent, even the hellhounds had stopped. Within the next moment however, they all immediately turned tail and fled back into the forest. Clearly they had received some sort of order.

"Well, that was odd" stated Basil with his arms crossed.

"Adi..." began Li.

"Yes, I sense it too" replied Adi, turning to Alice who was still surrounded by the light of transformation, "Senior Pearson," he said while summoning his karambit "I do not know if you can hear me, but you must continue with your transformation. I sense a dark presence approaching."

"That's the problem with you, angel boy," stated a voice loudly from the clearing "There's never any surprising you when we're around." The ice and snow in the clearing began to melt rapidly as the heat began to rapidly rise. The rising temperature revealed the true nature of the ice forest, as the trees revealed their darkened and dead bark, and the earth was cracked and devoid of any life.

"We found him in an alley" said the voice as it approached from an unknown direction "Always getting himself into trouble, this one. The apartment proved to be too much for him, alas, it was all we needed to get inside his itty bitty head. At that moment, August stepped forth from the trees, his eyes black and his mouth twisted in a sick grin. He c*** his head at the group in that odd way that seemed to characterize the possessed.

"It's been said that the Naturae were regarded as gods," he said "I can see why." The temperature continued to rise, making it difficult for everyone to breathe. The dead trees lining the edge of the clearing burst into flame, as fire crept along August's body. "I'm used to the smell of burning flesh, I hope you all are too!"

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Evelyn soared through air as she was pursued by the divided imps that had chosen to focus on her. She loosed her explosive wisps into the cloud, frying more of the creatures as she looped backwards on them to keep them from catching up to her.

Suddenly, she heard a blood curdling scream. Although she was a considerable distance from the scream itself, the dark spiritual energy that emanated from the scream reverberated through her body. She was distracted for a few moments, and thus did not realize, nor sense that she was being rapidly approached until it was too late.

Turning in the air, Evelyn's eyes widened as she saw him rapidly flying through the sky towards her. He grabbed her by the neck and the two of them flew directly into the ground near Logan and Id, sending up a cloud of dust and debris into the air. Walking towards Logan and Id through the cloud of dust, they saw Dominic approaching them with blackened eyes and a twisted smile. A powerful gust of wind blowing around him as he stared them down cruelly.

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"Greta! Now!" yelled Miss Rachel as she sliced through more of the spiders. Ms. Shield's eyes glowed as two translucent walls appeared and slammed some of the spiders into the wall. Even more spiders continued to descend upon them from the rafters above, the esper loosing balls of fire at those that came too close to the group as they made their way to the doors.

Daniel scratched his head in confusion as he stared at the orb. When Basil addressed him, he jumped. "Why can't I see anything?" He asked Basil. Before he got an answer, the cold forest was set ablaze by the seemingly-possessed August. Luckily the dimwit had some sort of plan. "Rorina, tutor ni, ti rorosum," He said, and a veil of water formed around Lotus and himself. "I need you to buy me some time, Lotus, while I gather energy to use a large spell. I don't think he's armed, so you can probably distract him with some swordplay." He sat down and began to meditate in an attempt to draw energy from the Ether, while keeping the water veil spell up, which was quite a feat.

Alice was unable to see during the transformation, being blinded by the light, so she didn't see Basil cast a spell. Had she seen it, she surely would've been shocked and angered. As the summon finished, the group was taken aback by the magnificence of the ice phoenix. "Put out these fires," Alice told the now fully-grown Sorbet. The legendary bird bowed its head, took a deep breath, and then breathed a massive amount of frigid, hail-like ice on the nearby trees, giving the group a wide circle from which they could organize a counterattack. "Show us how much you've improved, Adi. Exorcise whatever evil spirit has taken hold of August's heart."

Phora was disappointed when the hellhounds began to flee. She flew after them at an incredibly fast speed, destroying many along the way. "Yes, hahaha!" She said. "Take me to your leader!"

Derrek watched the display of powers as both combatants easily overcame the next attack. It was kind of impressive what they could do in contrast to what he had done; barely managing to pull the remnants of his chair to him from the clearing. He wasn't particularly keen on actually joining the fight, but he felt he needed to do something, just in case this fight became a worst-case scenario.

---

Flinching at such a scream was the most self control Tsubaki could keep over herself at such a time, but she was still running on instinct and adrenaline, quite literally. Fiona launching herself at her was welcome, if not also heart-wrenching, as it allowed an almost perfect chance at striking a body blow with Purgo, even if that meant trading blows with her foe. So moments before the two girls connected Tsubaki suddenly skid to a stop with a 90 degree turn, her white dress bellowing out and kicking up the equally white snow. Her hands changed positions as she spun Purgo upside down, using the momentum to bring it back up in an uppercut through the cloud of sparkling icy powder.

"Fiona! If you can hear me...! Hold your breathe..."

"Goddamn!" He groaned out, hands over his ears as defense against her piercing scream. It effectively distracted him, as when Fiona charged toward Tsubaki, he had no chance of intercepting really, he only prepared to circle them, keeping his fists raised and hoping for Tsubaki to land a good blow. Jumping in now could cause a mess.

(OoC all of what Id said is for comedy. I don't mean to offend anyone.)
Id was about to reveal her plan before she was rudely interrupted by Dominic. "Well Mr. Meatshield we're going to have to hold off on that plan. Got any ideas on how to burn this guy to a crisp? I mean other than a cross and flames, because I don't have the proper apparel for that.

Lotus nodded. She stepped in front of August. "You know August, I didn't think you'd be so eager to get your finger broken again." Lotus had no idea how to get close to him without having a heat stroke but all she had to do was stall.

((None taken. But generally speaking, characters aren’t going to respond very well to being insulted and/or bossed around. :3))

Before Idelia could explain her plan, she was interrupted by a loud crash nearby, accompanied by a cloud of dust. Logan squinted at the cloud, trying to make out the cause of the disturbance. However, it didn’t wait for the debris to clear to make itself known. As Dominic stepped slowly from the haze, the Scot found himself utterly perplexed. Dom’s presence here made no sense, and while it was good to see another friendly face, something seemed off.

He continued to look on, trying to put his finger on what was bothering him as Dominic approached with a disturbing grin on his face. Suddenly, through the settling dust, Logan saw Evelyn lying motionless on the ground. All at once, the Scot realized what was happening. His eyes widened even as his pupils shrank to pinpricks, and the corners of his mouth twisted into a merciless scowl. Red began to tinge the corners of his vision, the cold of the forest being replaced by a feverish warmth. Idelia spoke, but anything she said that wasn’t drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in his ears came through as mere muffled noise. The possessed form before the junior had his undivided attention. The wind began to stir around Dominic’s body as the demon possessing it invoked his powers. Logan snapped, all sense leaving him as he charged headlong toward the enemy with a horrific battle cry, claymore bared.

OOC: Whoops, misread. I believe this still fits though

Johnathan caught himself and the results of his test were complete. Miss Rachel still wasn't being completely clear, but judging by her urgency it would be wise to ask questions later. "Then that means we can't waste much time. We can't let something more devestating than the bus explosion happen again."

-----

Lloyd and Grayson took a more relaxed pose once again, as all the hounds ran away. They approached the group and arguably had the most calming demeanor out of the rest of them. Also unlike the rest, Lloyd and Grayson were the ones who didn't seem to be affected by the heat August was creating. With weapon in hand, his relaxed state masked the teemingly apprehensiveness that was buried underneath.

Maximilian wasn't at all happy with the answer given to him by Miss Rachel but at the moment he had no choice but to suck it up and deal with the situation.

"So what do we do once we get through the other side?" Maximilian inched himself closer to Miss Shields, with any luck her power would be more than enough to protect the group. "I mean, it doesn't seem like any of the others are here, so what exactly are we gonna' do when we bust through the doors?"