Terrify Her

At the edge of city, where there still was the remnants of destruction from the assault so long ago, people built small makeshift homes and tents. They were too poor to afford proper roofs over their heads and too poor to move anywhere else. While no one sole person own any of the property in the old ruins of the city, it was still land that was owned, so the people who built these small homes made them to be temporary. Many began to migrate around the edge of the city, trying to avoid the authorities who would have to pull them down. A roaming shantytown, filled with people who were just trying to make it by. As it stood, they had enough hardships on their plate to last a lifetime, but life is never so kind to cut even the most misfortunate a break.

Around the edges of a still standing, yet long destitute factory, one of these shantytowns found a new misfortune in a shape that they were not prepared for. One that would come in the night and drag unsuspecting victims into the depths of the factory. They couldn’t leave this side of the city yet either, patrols were still in their other stomping grounds and to go there would mean they would lose their makeshift properties, potentially torn from their families, or thrown in jail. Some did seek that option out, a roof was a roof after all, but those who wanted to stay together were forced to stay put. Those that stayed would only have hope that whatever came in the night would come for some other.

Talk, whispers really, began to spread. Nicknames and legends spread. They called it the Harvest Man, though many doubted it actually was a man. Some people described it as a shadow that didn’t belong to anyone that would drag you away into the darkness. Others said it was a serial killer. That it was a tall, gaunt man who would string you up in bowels of the old factory and do unspeakable things to you. Others would call it demon, a spirit of someone who had died there and held bitter feelings towards the world, wanting to see them pulled away and torn apart. In the small, makeshift town in the center of a destroyed city, in the shadow of an old factory, everyone could agree on one thing alone. Whatever stalked them was a monster.

Melody now stood at the edge of the shantytown, hands in her pocket as she stared up at the large looming factory. She let out a small whistle and shook her head. To her, it looked like the epitome of a scene from a horror movie. The sun was slowly setting over the town and long shadows crept towards her. She could see, only briefly before they ducked away out of sight, the faces of dirty and scared people who tried to catch a glimpse of her. The streets themselves were empty, minus the trash and debris, not even animals seemed to linger around narrow streets. And what was worst of all was the encompassing silence. The kind of silence that buzzed in your ear and made itself known, which each quiet breath you took in felt like a shout that would draw all attention to you.

She let out that breath. “Okay!” She said, almost a bit chipper, sounding unworried. “Best get at it…” She said, starting to stroll forward, seemingly unafraid of whatever awaited her here.

This misery of destitution was not lost upon the reaver, rather the stench of squalor reminded her of home. The shanty town was very much like the streets of dis where beggars fought to cling to the very lives they were cursed with. She didn’t know who had it worse, the poor or the reavers.

Grimmorah’s hooves splashed through a puddle of muck as he passed by the tents of the shanty town, grumbling a steaming breath every so often and a startling snort at the occasional scared wretch who didn’t duck into hiding quick enough. Each outburst at the people earned a reprimand from Rai in the form of an unloving pop in the jaw with the reigns. To normal human eyes the path she took seemed random, but to Rai she traced the small traces of glimmering human blood through the mud as the rains tried to wash it away. Someone had been injured recently, spilling blood in the streets as he ran frantically. An occasional spatter here, a smear on something there, all dull to normal sense, but gleaming a bright silver in her eyesight.

She suddenly stops as the trail leads to a dried pool of blood. He’d collapsed and bled for a while. Rai slides off Grimmorah’s back for a closer look. Hunched over in the street she takes notice of every detail for any clue about whatever horrible monstrosity had her blood running hot for a fight. Strips of clothing fabric scattered about, shorn in a manner that suggested a wickedly sharp blade or claw. The occasional torn out hair or scrape in the mud asserting that the victim did put up a fight so hope of him or her being alive was not completely lost, although the trail continued but rather than a splatter of blood it became a drag site from here, clear to the underbelly of the factory looming like some form of haunted castle.

She grew angrier the longer she stared into it.

Letting out a breath she heard footsteps a bit more steady than that of a wretch, someone more well fed and fast paced. Her hand rests on her scythe as a soul clears into view. Bright and bouncy… with ears that towered over the silhouette of her head. How strange. Easing up her stance she relaxes a bit. “Are you here for this thing too?” She assumes, realizing she’d been running into more and more people chasing the same kinds of creatures she did.

When she turned the corner there was a lot she was ready to face. Serial killers, a monster of some kind, a supervillain...hell, a big bear or some kind of wild animal. She stared at the woman who she had found standing there. Over a body. With a scythe. She stared for a long, quiet moment, leaving the question unanswered as the gears in her head turned.

It couldn't be this easy. She couldn't have run into the killer this quickly. That would've taken all the fun out of this. No...no no, this had to be a misunderstanding. That's what she kept telling herself at least, but the images of body, person standing over body, and dangerous weapon, all sprung up in her mind and contradicted that thought. Any normal person would see this, call the police, and that would be it. Case closed. No need for doubt or reason to suspect there was more to be found here.

Finally, she opened her mouth, though shut it before replying giving the woman one last hard look. Then finally...again, she began, "So..." She pressed her hands together and then pointed a finger at the woman and then brought it down to point at the body, "You uh..." Her ears flicked a bit as she was finally putting words to the situation. "I'll give you a moment to think about this situation." She said, her eyes now locked to the scythe. "The only saving grace you got right now is the fact that thing doesn't have any blood on it, so you at least have that going for you, but I'm still gonna need some kind of answer or like...reason not to suspect you?" That felt more like a question than a demand, but honestly she was still pretty taken aback by the scene.

"While you talk about that, let me take a closer look at the body." She said, now striding forward kneel down next to the potential murderer and looking at the victim. She reached over and grabbed a random stick on the ground and started to poke it. She nodded knowingly as she did, "Yep...this is a corpse..." She murmured very insightfully. She really was checking for the kind of wounds this fellow had, but found herself not really focused on this as her attention was split between this and...her eyes went back to the scythe.

Who used a scythe as a weapon? That was just plain edgy...

Rai couldn’t help but stare blankly at the rabbit lady, whatever was she getting at? It took a few minutes of intense thinking before she realized this woman thought SHE had done this. “Because I did not.” She asserts, sure that because she didn’t kill this man and it was the truth that it should as much of an explanation as needed. Her accent thickly laced, but hard to place. Latin? Maybe eastern European? Either way the horned woman slides from her saddle, boots splashing in the mud as she slogs to the corpse turning it over by the shoulder only to find more damage to the back to the dead man, gored from behind as he ran, but the killing blow was from the front. An ambush no doubt. Whatever she was chasing knew this shanty town well enough to cut him off.

“It’s a demon and a vicious one at that. It didn’t even eat him.” She thinks out loud staring into the creepy shadow of the factory, cringing as it just felt wrong. At this point she realized it was probably either one very powerful demon or multiple semi-strong ones working together for sport, which was never the kind she wanted to handle, especially by herself.

She glances to the rabbit woman with the stick just poking the dead guy. “I’m going to go kill this thing. Want to come with me?” She asks as if it were the most normal question in the world. Just come right in this factory of doom with her and murder something awful with her as if it were just an everyday occurrence. A building was no place to take a horse as Grimmorah fades away into a smoking pile of ash, to be called again whenever Rai felt like it.

Oh yeah, that was a good...trustworthy answer. Ten out of ten, all suspicions erased from Mel's mind. What a good, solid argument.

Melody honestly didn't think this woman had killed the person she stood over, again the weapon was clean and the wounds didn't quite match it, but...come on. There had to be better excuses besides just flat out denial. The woman had an accent of sorts...maybe it wasn't her first language? If that was the case, then some more leeway could be dealt out in her favor, but still. Come on. She could've at least sounded a bit surprised or realized how it all looked to an outsider...

She sighed as the body was kicked over and more wounds were exposed. At least that affirmed that it probably wasn't this woman. Melody's eyes peered up from the body and at the woman, and a raised brow, "...a demon?" She asked. She had fought supernatural beings before. It was common in her line of work, but this was a lame reveal. She hated when it was just spelled out before her, took all the drama and fun out of investigating. She stood up and brushed off her knees before returning her gaze to the woman, "I guess it could be..." She muttered, "And here I thought it was gonna be a serial killer."

She offered a shrug and set her hands behind her head, relaxing a bit more. "Yeah, sure. I was just gonna set up a patrol and maybe check out the weird factory but if you wanna take the lead on this one by all means. I don't usually fight demons so I don't mind leaving you in charge of this one." She went on before starting down the alleyway, looking to her new teammate.

Rai was very much still getting used to the concept of non-reavers choosing to fight demons… especially if they were willing to do it with her of all people. Something Mel said did catch her attention. “Serial killer?” She asks, as though she’d never heard of it, her accent bending around the unfamiliar word. Killing grain now are we? It took a moment of processing to use the context clues to at least have an idea of what Mel meant.

“Oh. You mean those weird times where humans kill other humans for no reason at all other than madness. That happens here enough that it has its own name?” She seemed shocked, the idea of humans killing each other was not lost on her, but usually they had a reason. Sometimes a damned good one too. Either way the meddlings of man within his species was none of her concern or business. There was a demon killing people and that was what she cared about. Once again she found herself leading the charge against a demon.

“I am Rai. If you do not fight demons, then what is left over to fight? I am afraid I have not fought many things but demons.” She voices as her boots hit the pavement just in front of the building. The closer she got the more she could feel her nerves winding tighter, looking for a fight. Upon looking down she noticed a slight shimmer of dried blood, invisible to the naked eye, but still there enough to glimmer in a reaver’s devil sight. “I have a feeling we’ll find more like our friends here.” She hums, pulling her scythes from her belt as they blaze to life with a sickly green aura that pressured the area around her into a sinking feeling of unease. “Tell me about this place. Where exactly are we? We do not have buildings this big where I am from other than churches… and even then, they aren’t this big.”

Melody blinked at that first question. Her head canted to the side as some gears began to turn in her head. That accent of hers...her lack of knowledge of types of villains, her claim of demons, even the woman's appearance. Things slowly began to click into place for her. Her face scrunched a bit more as she came to a conclusion.

"You're not...from around here, are you? I mean like...Earth around here." She made a wide gesture with her hand, trying to encompass more than just the surrounding area. "Like...are you...an alien or...?" She tried to work this idea over in her head. "Something magical? Like a different realm or something?" Realm felt like too fantastical of a word for it, but dimension didn't feel right. Plane seemed like a word Sam might use and she didn't want to be that nerdy.

As a hero she was no stranger to dealing with the, well, strange. She knew magic existed. There were some meta-researchers who claimed her power had some...strange elements to it, though they could never confirm. She had fought a few false gods, demons, ghosts...so on and so forth. There was all kinds of strange out there and if this was one of those times then...well, she was glad she at least had someone like this on their side.

She nodded, "But yes, one of those weird times where humans kill humans for...well, usually serial killers have a thing that they go after? Like...some might go after middle aged men that have orange hair cause it reminds them of somebody that once bullied them or something like that. So...there's a loose reason? Not really a reason...yeah, you were right, madness really." She gave a second nod as she finished, "It's a crazy world."

She let out a small laugh at the second question. "Evil scientists, invading aliens, supervillains, corrupt corporations which are basically another kind of supervillains, dangerous killers...there's a lot honestly. More than you'd think." As she went through each person she'd tick off a finger.

Melody made a motion with her hand signaling for Rai to follow. She would walk with a casual pace in the direction of the factory. For someone who just saw a body she didn't seem to be too put off by it, managing to keep a casual tone to her voice. "This is a shanty town of sorts. A group of traveling homeless people use the rubble from the old city to build up these temporary homes before law enforcement folk come to tear it down again...since it's technically not legal to be out here cause it's dangerous. Corrupt system, it's being worked on but it's long goings, anyways..."

"These people can't really leave here just yet because the law enforcement is on the other side so they can't set up camp there. It seems as though something as moved into the factory here." She pointed up at the large looming factory ahead of them, "And is killing them off. They're caught between having their families torn apart from legal proceedings or literally torn apart from whatever is in there. Given that it only probably gets one person or two people a night, less of a risk staying here..." She explained.

She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at the rest of the city that loomed further back, "And that is basically where all the people whose homes weren't destroyed by a villain attack and can afford to say there. It's a big market and housing district, if you have stuff like that where you're from."

“I am not. I am from Dis… I don't really know what Dis actually is.” She ponders for a moment, before realizing it was a topic far outside her very limited scope. She could barely read at an acceptable level, much less stew over the complexities of dimension theory. Meanwhile Mel’s explanation of what to fight if not for demons only confused her further. She at least understood what “scientist” meant, loosely. Artificers kind of followed Reavers around like buzzards to pick at the corpses of whatever horrible monster they felled, using their bits to create things. She never paid the Vulturs, as the reavers referred to them, much mind but she hadnt realized they could be ‘evil’ either. Even the word ‘evil’ hit her language barrier like a brick as in Reaver-tongue the words for ‘demon’ and ‘evil’ were interchangeable.

She follows, keeping an eye out for more signs of the devil she was here to kill. “Why would the clergy tear them down? Can you not build anywhere outside the city?” Rai’s internal gears of thought were about ready to smoke from effort of thought. There were no walls so why would these people have to pay for their protection? Anyone who chose to live outside the walls were pretty much left to their own devices in Dis, only having to pay taxes in grain and crops, within the walls of larger cities such as Rome or Teirni, tax was paid in coinage to maintain the walls, roads and abbys. She supposed she could understand the logic though as being arrested could spell death depending on how cruel the local bishop felt that day. Between only getting killed maybe and absolutely getting killed, the choice seemed easier, even if she didn’t know arrest was not execution.

“I suppose. People who pay city tax just tend to get moved to another city if a demon attack destroys their homes. I am unsure about what happens after that.” Rai crosses her arms in thought for a moment. Sure some people probably ended up destitute, but just building a home outside the walls was always an option so shanty towns weren’t really a thing. Sure people built close to cities and roads so reavers could come if they were attacked, but it was the free option. Homelessness was really only a problem for the old, sick or injured as they could not build themselves a home.

“Um… what was your name again?” Rai asks, taking note of some heavy claw marks scraped into the metal wall on the entrance. "I am fairly certain whatever is here is at the very least not human."

A million puns ran through Melody’s head at the name of the dimension or world that this stranger came from. “Well, Dis is Earth!” She settled on, giving the otherworldly stranger a big, dumb and cheesy smile. She wasn’t sure how people from distant worlds took to play on words like that, but she knew she enjoyed it and that somewhere her sidekick would’ve also appreciated it. At the very least, they were talking. Some semblance of…comradery was being built here and that would be good. The doubts she had of Rai were quickly melting away the more they spoke, and the more they melted away the more they could focus on working together and getting the job done.

Of course, though, otherworlders always had the hardest question. There was an entire history behind her question and with the time they had she would have to try and bulletpoint it. Words struggled at first and Melody’s eyes were cast upward as she tried to work through it, “Well…uh…I mean. It’s complicated.” That was a strong start. “So…the police, what you call the clergy, they aren’t…they uphold laws that our leaders make. Some of the laws, while good in idea, don’t account for some problems that others have. So, this out here is property of the government and the homeless don’t really have permission to be here, they are trespassing. But they don’t have anywhere else to go, so they stay here despite not being allowed. So…the police have to back the law, even if it doesn’t help the people out here.” She gave a small shake of her head, a deep frown forming, “It’s not a perfect system and most heroes, myself included, don’t enforce those parts of it. I know I’m voting to try and change things, but it’s hard with the history we have.”

That was the best she’d be able to do for now and hoped it at least made some weird sense. Or at least would stem the questions.

“Shit’s fucked.” That was a better summary of it.

Melody lifted to fingers, giving Rai the peace sign, accompanied by that big dumb grin on hers, “Folks call me Rabbit Punch, though you can call me Mel. Just not in front of civilians.” She gave Rai a hard, but friendly pat on the back, “Pleasure to be working with ya!”

She gave another, small nod, looking to the factory that was getting ever closer. “Oh yeah, probably not. It’s at least gonna be some Meta who is unhinged or something.” She wasn’t ready to commit to the idea of it being a demon, not yet. But…in her limited experience...

She looked over the rough landscape of destroyed buildings and the poor state of the hovels quickly built up. Yeah. There would be enough suffering here to attract some kind of malevolent force.

Dis is earth? Was Dis earth? She never thought about it too much but very little actually seemed to line up with Dis and this world. There was no sistine chapel, no colosseum, none of the natural landmarks like mountain ranges added up either.Dis had to be a fully separate world as far as she knew. However she pauses for a moment just staring wide eyed at Mel. “You get to vote?” Rai asked incredulously. The concept of democracy was not completely lost in Dis, however, to vote one must be fully ordained by the church and own a good chunk of land… and be able to pay the tithe required to cast the ballot in.Was Mel nobility?

Rai shakes off her moment of star-struck awe at the idea someone so decorated was actually willing to help a reaver with a demon problem. They had a monster to hurl back to hell, she’d have to ask her millions of questions about what achieving nobility was like, or being born into it as being ordained was a familial title, as one’s family was chosen by god. “Right, ‘meta-humans’ are those people with abilities, right?” She asks. Metahumans used to be a thing in Dis… buuuut the church was unappreciative of them, often sending inquisitors to track them down and dispose of them before they caused too big of a problem. Just as Rai was thinking on the topic her skin crawls with the approaching danger. It was close and she could feel her blood boiling for a fight.

A hard wet thud sounds from under the balcony above as ten feet from their backs laid another body in the mud, mangled and cut to ribbons as loud stomping footprints ring through the factory into the building with shrill laughter. With a snarl Rai picks up the pace, staring through the ceiling following the footsteps with striking accuracy. She finds herself shocked to find no stairs or ladders up… not recognizing an elevator as a way up.

“It’s two levels up. Definitely a demon. How do we get up?” She asks, still looking for stairs or something, or even just an opening in the ceiling she could dash through.

A brilliant joke wasted on an out-of-towner. What a waste. Here Melody was dropping A-class jokes (at least according to one starry looking boy) and it wasn’t even appreciated. That hurt more than any blow a demon could deliver.  Which was a shame, given that this other dimension apparently had a language so similar to their own.

It was such a shame, but alas, they had to move on.

Melody’s eyes were drawn up to the factory which still loomed over the town. The long brick and steel building had seen better days. Its stones were cracked and the metal that kept it upright was rusted, dented, and had long since worn. She assumed the only thing that kept this entire building upright was an unnatural spite that all haunted buildings held. It had been here for over a hundred years and she assumed it’d stay for another hundred without wavering.

The inside would be just as dark. Its windows had been boarded up and the power would’ve been cut long before the city had been turned to rubble. Whatever light did manage to break through would have to be from cracks in the wall and ceiling, small glimmers of light that had to force their way through and down into the dark. The small light that would break through the dark would reveal things that were probably best left in the dark and forgotten. The entire building would best be left forgotten. Or better yet, bulldozed, blown up, or just burnt down.  

Melody was broken from her stare by her new friend’s words. She blinked once, coming to, and gave a quick nod. “What? Oh-yes! Most everyone can vote. Besides felons. And yeah, people with powers are called Metas, which is short for metahumans. Actually!” She was ready to go on, talk more on the topic, but her ears had flicked to attention at the sound of that wet slump. She visibly shuddered at that. Not from fear, but anything that was wet and with motions that could be defined as “slumping” sent unpleasant and all around gross images into the head.

She looked back to Rai and grin, “Just hold on, cover your head, and be ready for a fight!” And then, Melody was behind her. In a sudden motion her hands wrapped around her and lifted her up into a bridal carry, nothing bothering to ask the demon hunter if it was alright.

Before there could be any protest to the motion, there would be a crackle of orange energy around Mel and she was propelled from the ground and into the air towards the factory. For a moment, it would appear as though the two were going to just smack flat into the wall, but as they flew, Melody extended a still energy coated leg outward! It crashed first into the high up wall, causing the entire wall to falter and break, small bits of brick and stone crumbling around them as they landed on the floor of the second story.

Melody quickly set Rai back down and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Ya good? How ya holding up?” She knew the sudden burst of speed was enough to make someone dizzy.

The dark and dank factory did very little to inhibit Rai’s tracking of whatever it was skittering around upstairs, tracing it with her attention through the floor. It was like a cat staring down some bird it was about to murder, but just a bit more dangerous. Her laser focus only interrupted at being touched, her muscles tensing as if she was about to turn back and snap at Mel. It was only temporary as she found herself carried in a way that had her very much confused. Rai ducks her head down, ensuring she’d hit anything horns first, however, she wasn’t much concerned with getting beat over the head with anything. Her kind were rather hard to kill, and bashing a horned woman in the head would likely just result in a broken whacker. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was ready for a hell of a fight.

The sudden leap did send her eyesight for a whirl, the floor clipping through her vision just before impact and causing her to lose focus for a second in ways that her own dash never did. Perhaps it was because she was looking down rather than forward. Rai straightens as soon as her boots hit the floor, shaking the rubble and dust from her hair and giving a flick of her spaded tail just to get the last bit of dust off. “I’m alright. Now where is the fu-”

Rai hadn’t had time to refocus on the movement of their monster before an axe came flying out from the darkness, staking itself down between her shoulder blades almost to the hilt. Rather than the scream anyone would emit, Rai just had the air knocked from her lungs, and an angry growl erupts from her as she focuses back on the thing.

It was at least shaped like a person, face painted with what looked like old face paint. It was crumbling off in sheets leaving rotten pallid flesh in its wake. The demon’s razor-like teeth coated in blood and grime from god knows where stained the front of the dirty yellow clown suit that seemed less like cloth and more like skin. It waved childishly before going for its bright purple tote… before suddenly yanking out a bear trap tied to a rope. “For fuck's sake.” Rai groans, reaching back to yank the axe from her spine, spilling blackened blood onto the factory floor. Rai rushes this monster, however, it only seemed to dodge her just as quickly with a dash of its own before throwing the jerry-rigged contraption at Mel from about three feet away, teeth of the bear trap poised right at the face with sick glee.

Rai stops short, tossing her newly acquired axe to the side before realizing the floor was slick with something. Blood. Copious amounts of it. Silvery shimmers coated the floor so badly that the axe she’d dropped was almost invisible to her now due to being submerged. Looking back, the hole from which they came was now pouring the stuff into the first floor like rain.

Sometimes she really hated being right about demons and their nest-building, but damn, this one had an impressive setup.

Shaking the thought, she goes for another dash only to catch an elbow to the armor on her ribs before she could slide her scythe through this thing’s black muscles. Rai blinked back in an echo of pale green just as a flail came her way and swung right near where her face had been. Now this thing was dual-wielding a bear trap on a rope and a flail made from a hubcap and some cheap hardware store chain seemingly manifested from nowhere. “Mel, keep him fighting.” Rai huffs, voice ringing out like a bell amongst the chaos. Something still wasn’t right. They were fighting this thing,But the sound of clicking and tiny gears turning nagged at her, like the noise Cebra's wall clock made but hundreds of them. She buried the thought, choosing to continue her bombardment, leaving a scythe where she was, dashing in for a swipe only to be repelled each time. It was like he always knew where she was, no matter how much she dashed around to disorient him.

She did manage to clip him once, the blade catching only skin deep across his forearm, only to earn herself a glancing blow from the homemade flail. Dashing back, Rai reoriented. It was no use while this thing seemed to know exactly what was coming. Meanwhile, what Rai couldn't see was a light purple film coating the bloody surface like pond scum. Each time Rai disturbed it, the monstrous demon smiled, meeting her at exactly the right time to block attacks and counter in suit, going right back to Mel after each swing.

Melody blinked, almost looking casual, aloof even, as the sudden axe slammed and dug into her partner's back. Quietly, so let an "Oh." And popped a squat next to Rai, looking over the damage. She let out a sharp whistle and shook her head, "You gonna be oka-?" Her hand had started to reach for the axe, ready to pull the thing out, but the demon hunter was one step ahead of her and yanked it out herself. On second thought, looking at the blood now pouring from the wound, maybe they should've left that thing in. That's usually what medical professionals say.

There was no helping it now, though. The demon hunter was charging in towards the demon, recklessly attacking and trying to go in for the kill. The monster itself was unnerving and made Melody's stomach lurch. Rei was right. It was some kind of demon. A clown...demon? She wasn't sure which religion or realm that lined up with, but she was more than eager to send it back from whence it came.

Rai seemed to agree and was already trying to strike the creature.

Melody nodded at the command and in a flash she darted forward towards the demonic clown. "Can do, but you better have a way to heal!" She shouted back at her. She threw a punch towards the blood red nose with an intent to knock this thing through a well and onto its ass, but a moment before it connected the bastard weaved backward in a single hop and let a horrid sounding laugh, a bastardization of what a clown might laugh like. She didn't let up in the onslaught though.

She threw punch after punch, a barrage of blows and occasionally mixing in a kick to try and knock the thing down, but all she could manage was clipping shots in between the clown's weaving. It was like it knew her moves before she could throw them. The only reason was even making glancing shots was the speed she threw them at. Those hits did next to nothing, though, and she figured it was more so the clown just...clowning around.

She wished she said that one out loud.

Next time.

She hopped back a couple paces, making some distance between her and the clown. Her eyes darted to Rai and shook her head, "Any ideas? You're the expert." She grunted out as she deflected a sudden axe thrown at her. Where was he even getting all of these tools? Her ears flicked a bit, and flicked again in rhythm of that strange metallic clicking. She couldn't tell what it was, not off sound alone, but it was enough to give her a strange vibe about this whole situation.

She paused for a moment, grimacing a bit. "You sure this thing is a demon, right?" She asked, small bubbles of doubt welling up in her tone. She didn't doubt that they could kill this thing, rather...maybe it wasn't what they thought.

Her eyes followed the demonic clown as it circled them and she tightened her stance, ready to go in for another barrage. "Either way, this thing looks like it wants to wear us down, dodging and taking pot shots at us...I think we need a change of plans..." She said, deflecting the bear trap on a chain, sending it hurtling towards a wall, only for the clown to recall it back. "I can distract it if you want take a better look around or...like...get a bandage for that cut. Seriously, that thing is gonna get infected."

Rai groans having completely forgotten that this world had never seen a reaver before. She almost always forgot to mention that most lethal strikes would be fine for her and even if she ‘died’ she’d be back a few minutes later to fight again. She just had to focus on not getting knocked down otherwise Mel might assume she was permanently dead. “I’ll be fine. If he’s going to hit anyone it’s better that it’s me.”

The clicking was getting to her, making her even more angry which only could mean there was more. Mel did say she was alright with keeping the monster distracted, so she couldn’t help but go find out what that noise was. “It’s absolutely a demon. It’s a Shimoloch.” A fear demon that Rai had seen a few times in Dis. These things sought out nasty holes that they could hide in and scare the hell out of people. They fed off the fear generated before the kill and were known for torturing people for days before finally killing them, or terrorizing cities for months. She’d just never seen one so damned fat. Usually they appeared emaciated but this thing actually had flesh on it’s bones. They were sadly a very diverse species, each molding it’s baseline abilities based on hunting tactics, some of them gaining enough power to go toe to toe with some of hell’s worst. Each one was it’s own fun bag of bullshit.

Soon the sound of the clicking got closer and soon joined with splashing in the blood. Hundreds of miniature chattering teeth, each with fuses burning down as they jump along. “Uuuuhhh Mel.” She mentions having no idea what she was looking at until one of them suddenly burst with a loud pop, spraying the blood up from the floor and onto Rai, which led to her wiping it from her face with only mixed success. She guessed they were harmless as it didn’t actually hurt her… rather just splashed her. Oh well.

She rejoins the fray, going right for the Shimoloch’s back, and so far he seemed to not be reacting to her advancement for once. Her heart swelled with hope that she might actually make meaningful contact. All hopes of this were dashed as the back of the creature splits open, ichor coated tentacles lurched forward and slam downward, swatting Rai down like a fly with no hesitation. It reacted so much faster than prior and the claws on each tentacle gouged themselves across her ribs in an attack that would have left any normal person disemboweled. Rai was left with only bone deep gouges through her armor but that paired with the gash that exposed her shoulder blade she was losing a good bit of blood and might be forced down soon.

The chattering toys began exploding, causing geysers of blood to spray in every which direction, alerting the demon’s attention to anything it hit. It’s counter attack on Rai didn’t seem to at all dampen it’s onslaught with Mel and it didn’t even fein exhaustion. “It’s the blood.” Rai realizes. “We can’t fight him here. You’re right, He’ll just wear him down and we’ll never hit him.” They had to leave for now, as much as she wanted to beat her head against this brick wall until this thing was dead, it had priority here. Priority that suspiciously seemed like he set his lair up solely to defend against reavers. Suddenly rumors from Dis hit her like a ton of bricks. She knew this demon, and fought him before. He’d gotten away from multiple reacher squadrons, killing a good handful every chance he got.

“Hey Balefor.” She growls.

The demon twists and contorts at the sound of its own name, like nails on a chalkboard to it. It covers his ears, guise falling apart as its sickly skin begins to split and crack. It was a perfect opening amongst the chaos. Rai nods back to the hole in the floor for an escape hoping Mel would get the memo as she moves away from the shimoloch’s advances to keep it busy.

"It's better if it's no one getting hit..." Melody grumbled, rubbing her shoulder. "Pain is pain all the same." That was something her dad used to tell her, back when she was training to be a boxer. She wasn't sure why now of all times that memory was moving to the front and center of her head but she couldn't shake it off for whatever reason. She winced a bit, trying to force it away. But it remained all the same. Intrusive memories like that always had a habit of that.

"A shimy-what?" Mel blinked as the demon's...name? Species? was declared. She wondered if that was something she should've known or acted surprised to hear. She let out a surprised gasp just in case, still doing what she could to throw punches and distract the creature. "Oh no, that's..." She gave her ally a confused look, "Baaaaaaad? Goooooood?" She sounded out the words, trying to weigh the reaction she got before she committed to one or the other. It didn't sound that bad, honestly. Anything that shimmies couldn't be all that bad, plus it was just a clown which...while unsettling there was only so many tricks a clown could do.

It was just when she was thinking that when the chattering teeth came and began to pop with no rhyme or reason. They had fuses but they weren't in synch. Sure enough, blood splattered across Mel and while it wasn't the first time, she looked like a pissed off wet dog. She hopped back to dodge incoming swing of that axe and brushed some bloodstained hair from her face. Red wasn't the worst color, but when you had white hair and white accents on your costume...well, it had a way of staining for some time.

She wanted a shower.

She wanted to kill this thing and be done with it.

She wanted a lot of stuff.

And then it got worse. The creature split down the middle, the black tendrils lashing out as Rai moved in for a surprise attack. It slammed her partner to the ground and in the moment of panic Melody tried to rush forward, swinging a fist forward and releasing a burst of energy towards the creature. It split again, shifted and turned and then slammed her back down to the ground with the same move. She joined Rai on the floor and slowly worked herself back up to a kneel.

"Aight, so not here and not in all this blood..." Mel replied, a groan in her voice. She pushed herself to a stand and did her best to help Rai back up. She wasn't hurt just yet, bruises sure...some cuts that would probably need to be cleaned after this, but...all the same, it sucked that they had to run. She began to cautiously move back towards the hole, following along with the plan.

Melody, not missing this chance, wrapped an arm around Rai's waist, or at least attempted to, and then suddenly burst forward, not out the hole in the floor. Instead, energy building in her feet...she created her own hole in the building. She went through the wall nearest to them, bricks and debris flying around them, as she jumped from the third floor of the building out to the ground below.

"Pain is pain..." She repeated to herself, thinking of something. "Name hurts it, would that work again?" Melody asked, "And then..." Ideas were beginning to form up. "Got any silver? We'd need a lot or..." Her eyes went to gaze over the ruined landscape of a city that used to be. "I think I have an idea. Can we lure it out here?" Her eyes fixated on Rai, "Can you distract him for a little bit?"