Hunting Monsters

Rai arrives at a shattered rail of wooden fencing, splintered into the mud and nails splayed about. The trail of blackened demon blood splattering through the split fencing, lighting up in her eyes bright red against her otherwise monochrome sight. The individual droplets grow closer together as the trail continues meaning it was slowing down, perhaps growing tired from it’s wounds. Grimorah shifts beneath her as she realizes continuing the trail would be easiest on foot to notice finer details as she tracked. The reaver dismounts as the horse disolves into sulfur and ash, leaving back into the abyss beyond dimensions.

Earlier:
Rai bounds back to dodge an incoming boney tail. Never would she ever opt to fight in as cramped of a place as a warehouse full of textiles to fight such a large demon, however choosing the location of a fight was almost never a luxury to her, so she’d have to make do here.
However Rai was finding it so much harder to dodge the incoming boney claws of this beast of demonic abjuration. It was about 10 feet tall with a very heavy resemblance to a moose. It was skeletal and smelt of mould and stagnant water. It looked to have wolf’s teeth jammed into it’s elk-like maw and it’s body almost fully skeletal with bear pelts fastened to it’s animated bones with twine. The inner bellows of its chest burned with bright fire. It seemed to gather in air in it’s undead cavities and moved to blast forward a torrent of flame, to which Rai quickly ducked behind a steel railing to avoid. She winces at the heat, soul clinging to her body as the flames kept licking at her.
Finally, it ran out of breath, leaving Rai an opening to leap out from behind her railing and close the distance. She dashed into range, slashing down once into the grand beast’s shoulder, then up once under it’s chin. Black ichor spilled into the burnt concrete floor as the beast wailed with the screams of hell before rearing up. Rai goes to toss her scythe to the side to try and escape the range, but found herself sluggish due to the previous fire bath and ended up taking a clawed swipe into the right side, but managed to stay standing… the blow did however keep her clouded enough to never even see the demon bowing its crown of horns and thrusting Rai upward, points gouging through her armor and her ribs crackling. Blood sprayed as Rai was knocked back into a nearby wooden crate, crimson blood pooling beneath her as she sucks in a bubbling breath trying to stand. However as her blood drains cold into the floor the creature turns an about face, crashing through the pull up door from which it entered and fleeing into the dusk. The reaver picks up her scythe to follow as the world grows cold and she falls.

Rai had been pacing through the pasture, watching for the occasional spackle of blood before she noticed hoof marks in the grass, hoof marks that had been swept up in an instant… then the smell of calf blood tainted her airways. The ground was stained freshly crimson but no cattle. Great. It’d eaten something and now it was going to be back at full health. As she tracked she then came to the unfortunate cow. Gutted. The soft insides completely plucked from the carcass from a jagged gash from throat to udder. Nothing was in the body cavity anymore. Yet it was so fresh the beast was still warm.
Surely this wasn’t the only cow here. Perhaps the rest of the herd ran when this one was quite literally snatched up. Her eyes narrowed as her path of blood had run cold. It had been healed from devouring this poor thing, much to Rai’s disdain.

Cebra had a long day already; Fixing the Lucas family farms tractor. delivering the milk to the market along with eggs, the myriad of domestic farm chores and a high speed chase in the city after some drug peddling meta. He lay on his couch in the living room with a bottle of gin dressed in a black t-shirt and boxers. The television news anchor droned on about some kind of mutant attacks by a corpse creature. Another thing Cebra might have to deal with if another hero didn't take it on. He could drink as much as he wanted but his nanobots would always purge him before he could get shit faced.

His home inside was in rather good condition, he spent a lot of time away on his main job of dealing with white and blue collar crime. It wasn't until out of the corner of his eye he spotted a chicken on the ledge of the window fluttering around in distress he knew something was up. The coop was built solid and there was no way out for them unless someone let them out, maybe it was Janine's kid Mark again. Punk kids around town have a habit of trying to cause trouble like they do. Cebra was already in no mood, and then the scent of blood wafted in. "...What the fuck?"

Without another thought Cebra jumped to his feet and put his jeans on in a flash. He grabbed his shotgun as he passed it and pumped the barrel before opening the door, the light from inside flooded outwards illuminating a good deal of the crops in front. The chicken coop looked wrecked but only like it took damage from debris. Cebra's faced grimaced at the sight, he cared for these creatures for a long time. There were noises coming from the pasture, Cebra sprinted fast through the corn field to break upon the pasture. He stood in the open witnessing the form of some woman over the corpse of Mary, one of his younger dairy cows.

Cebra being a wee bit intoxicated didn't have much inhibition at the moment and was rather consumed by rage. For someone to just come to his land and butcher one of his livestock like some savage, well there was only one answer for poachers. He aimed his weapon and BANG! buckshot blasted right towards the womans face.

For a few moments Rai was distracted, searching for what might be left of a trail. She found herself standing over the dead calf, looking for disturbances in the grass or even residual bits of blood the creature no doubt would have left. No way such a massive creature could just disappear after a slaughter as large as this one. She never even heard the racking of shells.

She had but a moment to look up before the crack of thunder and searing pain at her left temple. Her hand went to her scythe, but ended up elsewhere as she found it hard to control her hands. She didn’t even feel herself hitting the ground as the world swirled into nothing but light. Rain began to fall and hit her cold, painted face.

For all around Rai absolutely appeared dead, however her face was not nearly as mutilated as a close range hit with a shotgun should have left it. She had a pretty bad wound under her left horn, which is what put her down but the majority of the pellets seemed to just bounce off stone skin and blood didn’t spill, rather it seeped.

Rai’s mind at the moment is a strange state of blank and alive. She hadn’t even seen what had killed her and part of her limited consciousness was still trying to piece that one together. The other half of what was left of her mind was still piecing together this strange world. It was not a world of fire and blood. There were no wailing widows and screeching hoards every second of every day. No demon lord castles to die attempting to take. No lands that must be conquered for survival and defended to keep. On the other hand this also meant no other Reavers, which Rai half enjoyed and half lamented. Reavers were meant to work in teams, therefore Rai having to fight monsters by herself has been a learning curve that has resulted in bodily injury not once but twice now. Trailing off this thought she felt her body for once as the vision of the spilling sky came into view through open eyes. 8 minutes she was down.

The devil rider's eyes come back into focus but not blinking as the creature that shot her looms over her. He was fuzzy. He had a soul yes, but it was so very static and muddled she couldn't really tell. However, she did discern he wasn't human and thus was fair game to fight with lethal intent. She quickly blinks to the scythe just to her right on the ground, leaving her in a slightly displaced but no longer prone position and moved to sink a sythe deep into Cebra's ribs, deciding to use the element of surprise against him best she could.

Cebra hovered over the boy of the... mutant woman? He'd not seen such odd outward biology like this. Her attire was foreign as well, Cebra had met enough so called heroes and villains to know this one was out of place. He had no experience with magic and was even skeptical of it's existence despite having seen arcane arts. He simply dismisses them as an unknown or experimental science. Maybe he unloaded too soon, maybe there was some reason this woman had slaughtered his cow. Not like it mattered now anyways, Cebra would have to dispose of the body or hide it somewhere. It was still an anomaly that he could investigate with an autopsy. Speaking of cutting things open she revived from her wounds, teleported and now had a scythe suddenly buried in Cebra's side all in a blink. "... Wh... What?" And proceeds to gush blood as he stumbles away from Rai.

Cebra feels the pain of the deep wound strike throughout his body, the radiating and pulsing agony has him fall to one knee holding his side. He grits his teeth and already the nanobots work at the open wound, a small silvery blob emerges from his pores around the wound and cover it. At this point killer instinct took over and Cebra wasn't in a chatty mood, he raises the shotgun again and unloads the second barrel one handed hoping to catch the woman off guard, maybe give him a second to recover.

Rai didn't have a lot of time to inspect what she'd done on that one pass, but she did know she'd done damage as the smell of blood tainted her senses. She quickly tossed one scythe about 10 feet to the left, it staking blade-town into the softening dirt. Always good to have a fast escape option incase shit went south. She still wasn't entirely sure what exactly wasted her the first time, surely he was using some form of ranged weapon as she'd neither seen nor heard him coming.
Rai's remaining blade raised lightly in a guarded position as she witnessed the seams she'd sliced through his form begin to close up. Seems he had a healing ability like hers... well.. except he was still standing and conscious. Not at all what she had wanted to see. And so the reaver assessed, rain bouncing off her armor and skin, her hair curling into smoldering smoke at the ends and trailing off into dark and cold embers in the wind. Her nature both demon and human. She was Dis.
Rai quickly became grateful for that secondary scythe as she noticed the tip of that strange stick come up at her. She quickly blinks to her other scythe, as the loud crack of thunder and shotgun shells scattered into the wind. Peppering her outline just as she showed up elsewhere. Sure the pellets had bounced off her after she managed to get away from the main spray and left her mostly unharmed save for a few imbedded pellets that seeped more blood down her skin, but at least now she knew that the thunder stick did.
Another quick assessment gave her a general objective: Make him unable to aim. For all she knew this strange weapon was limited to a range only beyond the end of the strange stick. If she either stayed within the space in which the gun wouldn't fit or never sat still long enough for him to actually get a full slug into her, she'd be fine.

She decided to get in close, going for another blindingly fast dash into Cebra, this time feigning to the left to attempt to hit the side she hadn't nailed the first time. but before even assessing if she'd done damage she throws her scythes, one to the left, the other to the right and goes to throw an elbow into cebra's side to attempt to force him off balance. She knew she was taking a risk staying so close so long but her next move was to immediately blink to the scythe on the left and make no attack, rather an absent dash to the right to pull attention.

Then she was on to the remaining scythe imbeded into the ground in an instant, coming right for Cebra. If he'd fallen for her plan and was soley tracing her movements he'd be facing away from her and she'd be going right for a nasty drag of both blades up the spine on either side, moving to cleave ribs from the spine. However seeing this creature was getting increasingly difficult. He was already basically static to her, the addition of rain didn't help at all.

(Getting on the trail)

The warehouse, shortly after the carnage

The gunslinger had been drawn to this remote place by the rattling of her rosary, and dead livestock and innocent folk- sure signs of evil abroad. She parked her bike outside a warehouse that had seen better days. It seemed as though an entire locomotive had decided to pass through it, leaving trails and clues. She entered; her way lit solely by the dull flame of her prosthetic’s inner combustion. Blood, broken crates, claw marks and scythe marks all told a story of a violent struggle.

The blood left behind had intermingled, and Diane knelt to identify it. She held out her dull silver revolver, and brought it near the fresh stains – the fiendish blood sizzled in the presence of celestial forged weapons, confirming Diane’s fears. There were two trails leaving the warehouse, which meant the two parties that fought here didn’t finish each other off. She retrieves her longarm, the .45 repeater rifle, and proceeds the rest of the way on foot.

(Meeting the duo)

Diane followed the trail of the beast, finally coming across a confrontation. Some manner of woman as strong as a bull throwing scythes around, and twice as tough seeing as she took a blast loaded for Bear. Diane wasn’t sure if one of them was the cattle killer, so she decided to find out.

She fires off two warning shots into the air, to get their attention and stop this brawl. Each shot created a brief trail of golden light, as the bullets carried the fiery, holy energy of the firearm forged of angelic silver-steel.

“Howdy. Well, what do we have here? Looks like I’m not the only cowpoke lookin’ fer calamity Jane.” Diane approached, speaking in that period slang straight out of a western, complete with a duster and hat.

In a show of civility, Diane twirls her piece and holsters it, showing her hands free. She gives Cebra a squint, seeing he was mostly a human, and a homesteader defending his land. Rai however, with her odd markings and odd powers, warranted two squints. Maybe even three. Diane’s spurs jingled with each measured step, not wanting to make any sudden moves. Given the walking stereotype she is, Diane could quickdraw the big iron on her hip.

“Now, from what I reckon, neither of y’all are in cahoots with our cattle rustler. We can get on with his hoedown, or we can set aside our armaments... and have a civilized discussion over yonder porch by the busted coop.”

Cebra was still confused as to how exactly her powers worked, but he put together quickly that she was teleporting to those scythe weapons. The instant his shot missed her he activated his S.E.M program, his eyes glowed a deep red and darted about in a seemingly erratic pattern. The shotgun in his hand surged with saxon energy that flowed form Cebra's body in it's light blue charges. From his skin seeped the silvery liquid like a living liquid metal, his nanobots. They swarmed the shotgun and rendered it to liquid only to immediately shape it into a short sword of Grecian style. All of this process happening in two seconds. He is able to block her strikes this time watching her pattern of attack closely. Her elbow was fast enough it caught him off his calculations but still fell short of a good hit.

He observed carefully the placement of her scythes and had a plan of his own. When she didn't attack but dashed right Cebra was ready for her teleport strike. Under his foot rested a broken wood planks, when she teleported he would attempt to kick it towards where her scythe was and try to estimate where her leg would be. He would attempt to kick the plank to trip her the instant she reappeared. That would be his distraction in order to leap up high and strike from the shadow of the night sky.

But before she could teleport and initiate his plan shit got even more weird. As if things were not already aggravating Cebra in comes some other weirdo. This one dressing up like a real stereotypical cowgirl, his patience was strained as it is now the situation was a circus. And the way she spoke just dumbfounded Cebra, it was almost cartoonish. No this wasn't happening, none of this at all. "Firstly shut up, secondly cattle rustlers? This is the modern era 'partner', thirdly I'm in no God damn mood for this clown ass circus." Cebra still itching for a little payback and drunk enough not to care.

Rai’s plan had been a bit bamboozled. She wasn’t really used to fighting anything that was too smart other than the fully sentient demon lords. And even then, she never fought anything smart by herself. She felt the wood slice through the leather of her boot splintering and sinking into the bone of her ankle. She grits her teeth, setting her scythes for a strike before two loud cracks split the air. Snakish eyes lift to see a bright human soul with a strangely dull arm. She couldn’t quite understand it but the distinct brightness of silver caught her eye.

The devil hunter straightens herself, keeping an eye on Cebra still but deciding not to piss off the human holding the silver. Rai squinted as the woman spoke, the wheels in her head turning as hard as they could to try and understand her. Who is Jane?
“Cahoots?” Rai asks, her accent sounding somewhat old english with a light accent of something else. Almost arabian.

She moves to stand straight but finds it hard to do so due to the fresh wooden stake in her ankle. Should she speak? The humans didn’t much like it when Reavers spoke, some of the clergymen would get angry enough to report to a handler immediately and demand they be burned. A cloaked reaver may not have to fear that as much as the younger ones were typically the first burned to brashly. However being too brazen could bite her if she wasn’t careful.

“Medias Erati-’ Rai stopped. No human she’d ever met understood reaver-common. However it did sound very similar to latin, those who knew impish would also pick out bits of their language as well. It was natural for Reavers so much that some of them didn’t even know english at all. She started over in her heavily accented voice that rang like a bell through silence. “I was in the middle of ch-”

Cut off once again, this time by a loud ‘thunking’ against the ground. Another carcass had been thrown from the nearby treeline like discarded trash. Thrown with such force the origin wasn’t visible but the carcass rolled to the trio much like the first. Gutted of entrails but this time crumpled from the impact. However on this one, the eyes were missing.

“Shit.” Rai breathes, if she could get any paler, she just did, attention turning itself to the clearing treeline. Its massive crown of horns clearing the brush first, it was huge, almost a full head taller than a fully grown bull moose. It’s hooves sank into the mud as it walked, jaw agape and throat glowing with embers. From either side the trees dip over under the weight of two more slightly smaller demons of the same type. All three locked eyes onto Rai as she struggled to keep standing. She glances back at Cebra, then to Dianne, unsure exactly what she was supposed to be doing at the moment. She knew she was supposed to fight demons though so she supposed she ought to do that.

Rai lets the glass figurine slip from her fingers and fall to the ground, shattering into glass power. The smell of sulfur and hellfire emerges as a sickly green glow shows from the ground. The screams of hell turning to a horse's whinny and thundering hooves. Out from the portal leaps a pale horse.

Grimorah was a beast in his own right. He was about 17 hands tall at the withers (5 1/2 foot at the shoulder), his hooves easily the size of dinner plates. His body a pale grey, but furless. Instead it looked more like just skin, with man markings carved into him, leaking a pale green light and he had a massive cut from breastbone to hind legs across his belly. His saddle and bridle metal, taked cruelly into the devil horse’s back and shoulders, but he did not bleed nor balk. His eye sockets empty save for a green light that seemed to have focus, his teeth sharp like glowing glass jammed into the teeth sockets of his boney face. He gallops to the side of his rider as she mounts in one fell swoop.

“Go.” She waves to the two behind her, urging her horse forward a step. She takes a deep breath, scythe in each hand. This was probably a really stupid idea but it was really the only way she could really fight these three by herself.

She squeezed in her heels, Grimorah’s haunches buckling down and kicking off toward these three demons which ducked their heads, crown to crown, A row of sharp spikes ready to skewer the cavalry riding upon them. The rider hopping up into her saddle, right foot on the seat and left foot on the swell, whip at her hip, estoc on her back and scythes in hand as she rode closer, devils waiting as she slings a scythe completely over their heads, staking it into the wood of a tree behind them as they break their lines to surge forth to meet the horseman. God how she wished for a distraction right now.

(Standoff)
Diane let the drunk rant, and spoke once he was finished. “Hmph, ain’t never had a problem being understood in Texas.” She mutters to herself. Diane attempts to explain it in simple words that the inebriated Cebra may understand. “What I’m trying to say, is you got a DEMON problem, fella. This young gal has the otherworld blood in her, and something nastier is prowlin’ about.”

Additional discernment led to Diane concluding that the young woman was indeed of fiendish origin. She tried to speak, but muttered only a handful of words, and in Latin. In her book, Rai attempting to communicate meant shooting her was not the first option. So she decided to reach out with her silver crucifix that hung from her belt, pointed it her way and began reciting scripture.

“(Latin) The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides…” Diane paused, reconsidered and figured she quoted the wrong verse. “(Latin) I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them!”

(Demons arrive)

Van Helsing barely finished her scripture when a loud thud startled her, and in less than the blink of an eye she swapped out Jesus for Smith and Wesson. The archaic but very functional revolver was aimed one handed at the mutilated animal before them. This was a sign that there was indeed, bigger game to hunt.

Then from the trees emerged a trio of monstrous demons, and there were no more special words or spells needed by Diane. Fanning the hammer on her piece, the dark night was lit by four streaks of gold light in the direction of one of the smaller demons, the bullets imbued with a portion of celestial energy by the angel steel guns. Then, with her steampunk prosthetic hand, very nimbly retrieved bullets from her bandolier and started rapidly loading her revolver.

Rai already led the charge summoning her steed, so Diane turned to Cebra “Well don’t just stand there, do something!”

Cebra's Anger was starting to simmer to frustration and confusion. Why was everyone using Latin? What was with the silver and a bible? He pinched the bridge of his nose with two finger and grit his teeth. "Ok stop! Demons?... Seriously that's your best explanation? Well for those who don't believe in fairies and goblins and ghouls. The logical explanation is this mutant woman just butchered my cattle to feed herself!". When the cowgirl started to read passages like she was exercising an ACTUAL demon Cebra wondered if this was some hidden camera prank for some social media shit.... Then another one of his cows corpse smashed onto the ground...

Cebra was just at a loss. He finally saw the real culprit of the murders. It was a rather large mutant creature and ugly as sin, Cebra could even see a cows leg hanging from it's grotesque maw. He heard everything the Cowgirl yelled at him but he didn't move, in one ear and out the other for the moment. He closed his eyes and let out the most tired and frustrated sigh he had ever mustered and mutters under his breath a series of curses. He abandons the two others to the creature and heads back home limping.

He gets inside and and closes the door to the front porch. There in the corner lay a navy blue trunk with brown trim, Cebra flipped open the trunk and reached inside. He pulls out a baseball bat made of rusted iron and nails welded onto it. The shaft was odd looking as it had what looked like circuitry leading up two thirds of the way. Blood stains covered a good deal of it as well like it had been recently used. Lower down near the grip was etched the name "Justin."

Cebra dragged the bat as he left his home again, he made sure to scoot the chickens inside out of danger before he walked back over to where the fight was happening. He could see the two women going at this beast, they seemed to be doing fairly well as far as Cebra knew. He kept to the shadows and walked along the eves of the woods where the mutant had emerged. The cyborg, with his second nature being stealth. Ceased to exist as he moved and positioned himself in the creatures blind spot. He waited for the opportunity and then with brutal efficiency sprinted to the creatures right hind leg and pounded the bat into it's flesh and bone with a sickening crunch and splat.

Rai winces as she nears the line of horns facing her. It was as if she was running into a line of pole arms in a cavalry unit again… only issue was there weren't a hundred men in a unit, just her. And breaking through was an impossibility. Luckily she didn’t plan on attempting to ram against them, rather to go over. She blinks back to the thrown scythe into the trees behind the line as the bullets began flying silver, singing the flesh of the beasts and smoking upon impact. They roared in pain as Grimorrah took a quick right to avoid the points. This was the distraction Rai was praying for however now the hail of silver wasn’t so wonderful. One hit solid could end her, even if it was an accident.

She couldn’t really see a better option, she’d just have to trust in this stranger’s aim. She leaps down, into the back of one of the beast, digging both scythes into it’s back ruthlessly and tearing her way down it’s left side, The beats rears, throwing it’s head upward and immediately catching one of Diannes bullets to the underside of the skull, blowing out the top of it between the eyes and sending the creature over.

The demon to the left never saw Cebra coming as his back leg was suddenly knocked out from behind him, causing him to falter as the bones fell to the ground. They spun, unsure of what to do. The pelleting of bullets was doing them no favors, filling them full of smoking holes as they turned upon the devil woman and the strange baseball-bat wielding man, filling in air and both blasting an angry torrent of fire. One at Rai and the other at Cebra. Rai wasn’t able to move out of the way much due to the wooden piercing her ankle and rather was forced to take the brunt of the blast. Her teeth grit as it bore down, following her every movement with concentrated fire.

Rai yelps, feeling her soul pull away from her body. As the fire scorched her body it began to push her soul away. She fell to her knee, unable to handle it. Suddenly the fire ran out on Rai as the holes in the creature's hide affected its ability to hold air. It was sucking in more air to continue blasting Rai with fire as that seemed to work. However the never ending rain of bullets was making this increasingly difficult. It turns tail, seeing as Rai was basically taken care of at this point. It lowers it’s head into a charge straight at Dianne, moving to cover the distance like a raging bull, braving the bullets coming it’s way and providing the cover the other demon needed to continue blasting at Cebra.

Rai however, was struggling to get to her feet. Her vision was limited to pinholes and although her body looked unharmed, her soul’s ability to puppet it was severely limited. And this was not a problem that stopping to regen wouldn’t fix. She would struggle with this for at least a few hours. She works her way to her feet sluggishly, staggering a bit due to the injured leg.

“Aim for it’s head.” She calls to Diane, turning her attention to the demon that currently had it’s back turned to her as it was busy trying to blast fire at Cebra. It’s back leg was broken as hell and all its weight was on its back left leg to compensate. She limps toward it as quietly as she could manage before wrapping both blades around it’s back hoof and quickly severing the connective tissue cleanly, causing it to stumble back onto the knee joints, trying to redirect an attack at Rai with it’s horns but failing as it had no back legs anymore. It snaps forward at Cebra, crawling on it’s front legs best it could but no use. It was stuck.

Rai couldn’t really get to Diane to help with the last remaining demon. She did good to move at half her normal speed. She quickly dashes forward to get into range but finds herself so sluggish she couldn’t really hit it hard enough to do anything useful at the moment.

Shots from her six-shooter went wide and punched gaping holes in the animal as though acting like a much higher caliber than just man-stopping .45 ACP. However, her erstwhile allies were the up-close sort, and that meant Diane could not keep shooting with her pistol without risking them, with one shot dangerously close to Rai. They needed help sure, but Diane needed to focus on the beast charging her like an enraged beast.

Diane remembered a small piece of wisdom in her ranger days. No use running from a charging bear.

Diane put her revolver away and pulled out her repeater rifle, slowed her breathing, and meeting the beast eye to eye as she put it in her sights. It was moving in a straight line now towards her, meaning her target only got bigger as the seconds ticked.

CRACK!

The first shot went off. She Squeezes the rifle to her shoulder and stabilizing with her mechanical arm, she begins unloading a much tighter group of shots on the demon that put its head forward towards her.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Diane unloaded and didn't stop until she'd see the red in its eyes. She could probably go for a roll at the last second, and hopefully rip just her duster...

Cebra felt the solid impact shatter the creatures leg, only looked to be bone now anyways. He wasn't completely sure what this thing could do but his sensor reading picked up a huge thermal reaction in the creature. Fuck was this thing anyways? Where was it made and why? No time to really think about that! The blast of fire barrels towards Cebra as he goes wide eyed, he quickly turns about and swings behind a tree for cover from the blast. He catches a little flame on his arm giving some nasty third degree burns, it gets a pained growl from him as he grabs the wound. "Fucking... Grr!"

He peaks out from cover to see the horned woman performing some inexplicable combat abilities. This is technology far beyond his comprehension and possibly from another world. No! Damn the creature was back on him, though only crawling pathetically. That fiery breath would be problematic though, being incinerated wasn't exactly a fun experience. Regenerating doesn't make pain any less undesirable, and regen itself was agony sometimes. Never the less into the breach, cowardice isn't his weakness.

His S.E.M turns on and he plans out the path to avoid the creatures aim should it try the breath attack or a hoof strike. Cebra sprints while bobbing and weaving left and right, he sees a tree trunk that was close to his tool shed. He leaps for distance and jump off the stump, kicking off of the shed and lands on the beasts back. Immediately he smashes the bat into it's spine and the reason for the circuitry becomes clear. The end of the bat and the nails heat up to a glowing red. In his peripheral vision his AI keeps track of the mutant woman and cowgirl, Cyco kept a detailed record of all their combat data and would give them a threat rating by the fights end.

The beast barreling toward Dianne was like a freight train, head lowered and coming even closer by the second. The first shot hitting it square in the chest as bone flies off it's skeleton but does little to slow it down. However as it drew nearer to Dianne the three holes that bored itself into the center of it's skull. It let out a roar as it's head dips down into the dirt sending it over and to a sliding stop on its side into the mud.

The end of it's antlers holding onto the edge of the gunwoman's duster harmlessly as it begins to fade into sparkling embers.

Meanwhile the demon that'd been occupied with Cebra couldn't do much to stop Cebra from jumping up onto it's back. Seeing as it's mobility was reduced to basically zero. It swung around with one of it's clawed front limbs best it could, but it couldn't use both front limbs lest it end up face down in the dirt. Either way it's arms couldn't reach much past the horns on it's skull. The make-shift mace sinks into the bone with a sickening crunch as the horrible smell of burning fur and bone fills the air. The body of the beast begins to shimmer away as well into embers and smoke.

Meanwhile Rai notices the one she'd cut down earlier work it's way to it's feet. She looks down to her very much broken ankle and pieces together there was no way in hell she'd be able to out maneuver this thing on foot. The devil woman makes a swift whistle under her breath before disappearing in a bright flash of green.

And then she was back into the fight, deathly horse beneath her as she changed weapons to a shining steel estoc. She lopes Grimmorah into eyeline of the monster, his hoof work short and prancing as if the tease it forward. It worked as the demon lurches, horns lowered and charging. With slight foot-shifts Rai commanded Grimorra to spin about to his side, dancing just out of reach of it's horns but close enough where it continued to try and gore the horse with it's antlers.

Rai rears back and slashes into the back if it's exposed neck and jamming the estoc into it's shoulder blades and kicks Grimmorah to leave it's threat range and gallop away. The beast slows but continues watching Rai as the two square off about 50 feet away. It lets out a low droning howl like a wounded elk as it charges to horseman down again, however Rai leads Grimmorah into her own charge. Just as it seemed the two would meet, Grimmorah shies to the side at the last second, letting Rai retrieve the sword on the fly by as the monster groans and turns to charge once again. Instead of meeting this charge Rai turns tail, kicking the sides of her mount hard into a dead sprint, out running the monstrous beast easily but subtly dropping one of her scythes as the demon passes it. To which Rai blinks to the scythe and then through the demon, shattering it like boned glass.

Rai huffs under her breath, rain bouncing from the black leather of her armor as she begins to fade. She quickly kneels and pulls the stake from her ankle, gritting her teeth as she does so and slumps onto her side, then to her back. She stares into the weeping sky, taking in another labored breath as she suddenly ceases... seeming to die for the third time today.

Her muted mind was alight, trying to recount what all had just happened. Although a downed Reaver was in a fog. They could think very rudimentarily and were completely unaware of the world outside their body. Who were these people and why did the fuzzy one go from wanting to kill her to helping her?

Her

Even as the last beast falls down, Diane's mechanical hands reload her revolver once more in what seemed like the blink of an eye. The clockwork clicks and the sound of the revolver closing had an almost melodic rhythm to it.

Now that the hellbeasts were apparently dealt with, she took stock of her new companions.

Cebra eyed her with an analytical look, the technologically inclined crowd not quite in Diane's purview. "You fight good, fella. Ever thought about taking up the good fight? Or ya just gon' ogle me and the southern belle over yonder?"

Then her attention came to Rai, and Diane seemed to hold her revolver uneasily, wondering what to make of her. She relents and gives her a chance, holstering the angel steel gun and decides to talk. She switches to the old language, her very texan accent replaced with a germanic take on latin. (Latin) "I'll ask you again. You smell of tartarus, yet fight demons. What are you?"