Demons For Lunch

This is joint-written.

Glide let Icarcti down again, the little bat drawing his daggers in a flash. "This is no ordinary storm..." The Varixian murmured.

Micah nodded, resting his cleaver across his shoulders. "... They're coming."

Niqi drew Scourge and Bane, the first weapons she could find on the way out of the arena. She went to say let them come, but then stopped. "I shouldn't be fighting, should I?"

"I don't know, we might need your help." Micah said. "But if you don't feel up to it, hide. We'll hold them off."

Niqi scowled. "I don't like the idea of hiding." She sighed. "I'll just stay to the back of the group, I suppose. Catch the stragglers and stuff. Try not to get too intimate in the attacks."

"Suit yourself." Glide grinned. He took hold of Befara's hilt, slowly drawing the sword from its scabbard. "Y'all ready?"

Icarcti nodded. "Hopefully, they'll prove to be entertaining."

"The Heartbreaker thirsts..." Micah smirked. "He must be fed."

A short distance away, a female margay was walking along the sidewalk, paws shoved into her long black coat. A glimmer of red caught her eye, and then she noticed the crowd gathering around a small group that had drawn weapons against an unseen enemy. Curious, she joined the crowd, wondering what the group was doing - publicity stunt? And then she realized she knew the black wolf holding the twin red blades. She gasped, and then began shoving her way through the crowd. "Niqi!" she yelled. "Niqi, is that you?"

Niqi looked to her left to identify the voice calling her name. It took her a few seconds to recognize the margay. "Eve?!" she yelped. "Eve, I thought - I thought you were dead!"

"I thought you were dead," Eve countered.

Glide blinked. "Okay, somebody wanna fill me in on what's goin' on here? Preferably before they get here?"

Eve frowned. "They?"

"Demons," Niqi replied briefly. A murmur went through the gathered crowd, the ones who had heard her informing the ones behind them. "Glide, this is my friggin' college roommate, Eve Blackwell. She's a genius. Eve, this is Glide, I think I told you about him ages ago."

"You're too kind," Eve commented, smiling, and then looked at Glide, nodding. "Except...I thought he had brown fur?"

Glide opened his mouth to make a comment, then caught sight of Eve's pendant. He pressed Befara's blade beneath her chin. "Gypsy scum!"

Eve cried out, leaping away from the sword on instinct; as a result, the blade cut her shallowly on the bottom of her chin. "W-what?" she stammered.

"That pendant is a gypsy artifact." Glide growled. "Where did you get it?"

"I don't know!" Eve yelped. "S-side of the road craft seller about eight years ago, I think."

Glide raised his blade. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Icarcti sheathed one of his daggers, touching Glide's arm with his freed paw. He shook his head.

Glide sighed, lowering his blade, turning back toward the direction of the hellfire scent. "Sorry."

Eve attempted to shake it off, and then felt the stinging on her chin. She lifted a paw to it, coming away with blood. "What was that all about?"

"Glide has a history with gypsies." Icarcti said, drawing his dagger again.

Micah readied his cleaver. "That scent's getting stronger. They're close. Be ready! A rift could open at any moment!"

"You should go," Niqi advised. "And get these civilians out of the way, too. I'm pretty sure they don't want to die today. But, wait, first-" She sheathed her swords and wrote her number using the pad of paper and pen she always had at hand. "This conversation isn't over," she said, handing the paper to Eve.

Eve nodded, putting it in her pocket. "Good luck..." she glanced to where Raven's Nest was staring, "fighting demons," she finished. Then, she turned to face the crowd. "Citizens! Death is coming! Take your families and go back to your homes!" she yelled. As an example, she ran as if she were afraid for her life, remembering a time when seeing that herself had motivated her. The citizens continued murmuring curiously for a while, and then Eve's panic caught and the crowd began dispersing in every direction.

Mere moments after the crowd had scattered, a rip appeared in the air nearby, a large, gangly, yellow-skinned demon forcing its way through.

"Kuwabara, kuwabara..." Glide and Icarcti murmured in unison, each drawing a rune in the air.

Niqi drew her swords again, trying not to fall into a more feral state, in which she was more likely to attack. She edged behind Micah. "Mommy's gonna make sure nothing happens to you. It's alright, little Alysteir," she said as quietly as possible, reminding herself of why she was doing this so she wouldn't feel like such a coward.

Micah planted his cleaver in the ground, drawing the same rune Glide and Icarcti drew in the air. "Kuwabara, kuwabara." He repeated, wrenching his cleaver free afterward.

Behind the larger demon, the rift widened, a group of fire-coated demons emerging. The feral canine demons snarled and barked, each bark unleashing a jet of flame that set fire to a nearby building, the rain doing nothing to put it out.

"... S**t..." Micah muttered. "Didn't think they would show up..."

Niqi's fingers twitched, itching to kill something. "Do something, you fuckers."

Micah glanced over his shoulder. "You're not gonna use the rune to ward off lightning? It might not be good for the pup if you get struck."

Niqi realized what they had done then, and sheathed her swords. She imitated the rune as best as she could. "Kuwabara, kuwabara," she murmured, trying not to feel like an idiot. Nothing happened. "Kuwabara, kuwabara!" she yelled as she drew the rune a second time, agitated. The rune appeared, glowing blindingly bright, and then vanished. "Ah, s**t," Niqi said, cringing away from the light.

 "What's important is the rune itself." Micah said. "You give the command too much kick and that happens."

Niqi laughed quietly. "I kind of suck at this sort of thing. Ah, well. I'm still protected, now, right?"

Micah nodded. "From lightning, yeah. But that's not gonna do anything against fire. So try to avoid the little guys."

One of the flame demons darted forward, mouth open, its bark echoing. Micah held up a paw, catching the jet of flame, snarling as he forced it into a sphere. "Do you mind!?" He snapped, heaving the flame ball down the demon's throat.

Niqi grinned. "That's my man." She stepped back farther.

"You better believe it." Micah smirked. "'Scuse me a second." He took a step forward, raising his cleaver.

Another flame demon lunged at him, getting sliced in half as Micah released his grip on the weapon.

"Showoff." Glide muttered, launching himself toward the giant demon. "Hayabusa!"

"Like you aren't one," Niqi grinned in reply.

Glide hit the side of a building after the first attack, kicking off and readying Befara for the second. "Never said I wasn't!"

Icarcti leapt over a charging flame demon, quickly jabbing his daggers into the back of its head and yanking them free. "I'll take care of the rift!"

Niqi nodded at Icarcti; they were going to need it closed quickly. More and more demons were pouring through. And then Niqi spied her first straggler, coming at her from the shadow of a building. She flew to the side as it spurted fire at her, and then had decapitated it from behind before it realized she had moved. "I love being a vampire, sometimes."

Micah grabbed his cleaver, tossing it upwards, the weapon slicing through an airborne demon as it passed through the rift.

Icarcti sheathed his daggers and dropped to his knees, a dome of ice surrounding him, protecting him from the flame demons as he began muttering a spell.

"Iccy's gonna need about five minutes!" Glide announced, kicking a flame demon aside before it could touch the ice dome.

"Crap," Niqi muttered. She ran to a demon trying to sneak down the sidewalk of the road to the east, quickly killing him along with a slew of others edging away on the outermost parts of the group. She stopped back where she had started, facing the portal from a safe distance.

Suddenly, a war cry sounded from behind her.

 Niqi whipped around just as Ambree tackled a demon to the ground, redirecting its flame at the empty sidewalk just in time. She stabbed the demon with Illyria and sent it hissing to its death. "Ugh," Ambree said, getting up and turning her body towards the rain in an attempt to wash away the smell. "Don't say I've never had your back."

Niqi grinned. "Thanks, nigh-useless mortal. Looks like you found a use after all."

Ambree rolled her eyes. "What are you doing back here?"

"Later, go fight," Niqi ordered, gesturing towards Raven's Nest.

"Yes, master," Ambree replied sarcastically, hurling herself at another demon.

As the battle raged on, the rift slowly began to close.

Micah switched his cleaver from his left paw to his right, his stance changing as he stepped closer to the rift, each swing of his weapon striking a demon with the flat side of the blade, hammering them back through the rift.

Glide smirked, sheathing Befara, drawing Magus and beginning to carve large chunks out of the yellow demon's legs.

Ambree followed Micah's lead, spinning and kicking a demon to the other side of the rift. She stabbed another in the stomach. "Hee-yah!" she yelled as she hurled him through, lifting him nearly over her head.

"Man, I wish that prick, Caseriel, was here..." Micah muttered, lifting a demon with his left paw and throwing it toward Glide.

Glide scowled, hammering the demon with an elbow strike and knocking it through the rift. "Keep your f****n' trash to yourself!"

"Goodbye," Ambree said, shoving another demon back through the ever-narrowing rift.

Niqi took care of one of the few demons remaining, snapping its neck from behind. "Just about finished!"

After another few seconds, the rift closed, the ice dome exploding outward, shards of ice piercing a few of the demons. Icarcti got to his feet.

"Nice goin'." Glide said, sheathing Magus and launching a fireball toward the large demon that knocked it backwards, into a building.

Niqi looked around for any surviving demons. She shoved Scourge into one that was on the ground, moaning, and then noted the still-burning buildings. She went into the shelter of an overhang and casually opened her cellphone, dialing 777; Hygeia's emergency number. "Hi. Yeah, I'm on Eighty-Fourth Street and Pub. You guys might want to get a firetruck down here."