Meirion began to dislike the way Raphael acted. There was something wrong with his breathing, which was like fingernails being drawn down a chalk board. She gritted her teeth at the infuriating sound and waited until he finished talking.

At the word fear, Meirion snorted in contempt. A name to be engraved in memory perhaps, but not to be feared. She took a step back as a cracking noise issued from him. Most likely his wings. They certainly looked dodgy enough.

The Professor nearly jumped a foot in the air from the second scream that night. She whipped her head around to glare at the man, but stopped as something seemed to take over him. Her expression morphed into one of horror, as blood poured from his eye. The mixture of black and red was startling, a big contrast to what it was before.

The gun landed by her feet and she bent to pick it up. She looked at it in a dazed stupor before looking at the man. If he thought she was going to shoot him, he had another thing coming.

As Meirion looked on, she couldn't disguise the disgust. From the eye to his arm, it was like one big nightmare. What have I gotten myself into...

She realised that her shield was still protecting him. Well, he certainly wasn't going to have the privilege of it now, Meirion thought. Quickly pulling her arm back, she let it drop to her side, the barrier along with it.

He had changed. Something... demonic. Great. This was all she needed. Here she was, stranded with two demons. It felt as if her thought was really going to come true. Fight until the end...

Meirion looked around her, her eyes lingering on the sea. Without a moment's hesitation, she began to absorb as much energy from the sea as she could. She would need it later on.

Replenished, Ruane waited for the first attack.

(-_- the whole point of him blowing himself up was to get rid of the barrier... but I forgot to write that down. Oh well, lets see what happens now XD)

The devil finder looked between the black armored demon and the woman. In this field of vision the world was black and only auras were visible. Leo could see the hellish purple aura that surrounded the large demon, which was a color that seemed to represent his kind, but something bothered him about the woman.

Like before her aura was blinding but there was that same demonic aura around her heart. Deciding to go with whomever was closer, the now demonic Leo pointed the hammer at the woman letting loose a stream of fire from the tip of his arm barrel. The flames scorched the sand a few feet in front of her making a wall. Though she wasn't completely surrounded he assumed she got the idea.

"You will burn later woman."

Now the eye focused on the demon in front of him, deciding what to hit first on his body.

"I can see your soul." he laughed "I can see everything!"

He aimed at his face and let loose a fire bolt that screeched toward its target.

Raphael grimaced slightly, this would be interesting. It was not surprising that the other demon had singled him for his first attack. Demons were not a sociable lot for the most part, they got rid of their own kind first.

He watched the flames fro his weapon hungrily consuming the sand; the gears of him mind turning quickly. He knew he would not have enough magic to consistently regenerate his decaying body; he could even imagine the scenario involving his flesh melting away from his bones in a malignant soup. He would end this as quickly as possible.


His face was grim beneath his visor as he removed his right gauntlet, revealing his skeletal hand. Like his wings, they were covered in a thin slimy membrane, it provided lubrication of sorts. The bones themselves were an off-white, the appendage itself permeated a foul smell hinting at long term decay into the air.

He drew another rasping breath and laughed at the other demon, "Then certainly you can see that your demise is assured!" he spat back, his voice dripping with venom.

Before his discarded gauntlet even hit the sand, the first attack was upon him. He brought his wings up to protect himself, the pain was excruciating, but he grit his teeth. There was a sizzle as the slime on his wings boiled and evaporated, filling the air with an acrid stench. The force of the attack had driven him deeper into the sand, but he leaped out swiping at the creature that he had once taken for a man with his right hand.

The results of his magic was not the same on a demon as it was on humans, the corruption happened slowly, leaching their strength before it hurt their bodies.

The wall of fire rose to meet Meirion's calm appearance. She would be dealing with fire then, she thought wryly. Or was it elemental? The burning seemed to be his speciality, but maybe it was for Raphael's purpose as well.

"In your nightmares," she muttered to his comment.

The fire didn't spread, which was a relief. The Professor consumed the energy but because she had so much within herself, she couldn't store it. Converting it into electricity, Meirion let loose a volley of electric slides heading towards the man. "Woops..."

There was no point going back now. She watched the encounter between Raphael and the man with morbid curiosity. Raphael burned and let off a pong that soon hit her sense of smell. Meirion gagged under the awful stench of it. It was like walking into a place of famine, 2 years ongoing.

Looking back and forth with the attack, she wondered who would come out of this alive. It was a close call...

Demon Leo took in a whole breath of the horrid stench that produced when he hit the other demon.

"This odor suits you, its just as ugly as you are."

Somehow his sense of humor and sarcasm always stayed in tact no matter who was in control of his body.

The devil finder made an awkward 90 degree turn to the left, making Leo see through his own skull. He saw that an electric current was heading straight to him, sent by the woman no doubt. Turning his body, allowing the red iris to be visible again, he pointed the hammer at the incoming energy and fired several fire bolts.

There was an explosion upon impact, leaving black ashed scar on the earth.

"It seems you wish for an early death, I won't ignore you anymore"

Suddenly the other demon came lunging at him. Not having time to turn around and fire again the gunner lifted up his 'good' arm to block the impact. Leo was lifted off his feet and fell back on the ground once more.

"Ugh!! What the hell is this?!"

There was a infection slowly spreading across the his arm where the demon had hit him.

"You have some nerve attempting a hit while I was distracted."

Lifting himself back up quickly, he ran a couple of feet away from them both. Not letting the arm bother him, he pointed the hammer at the general direction of the two.

"Lets see how you like this."

There were six bone like appendages sticking out of his cursed arm aside from the main barrel at the tip. They were all shaped like gun barrels in a grotesque fashion, draped by flesh and blood. Making a disgusting crackling noise, the gun barrels all pointed forward attempting to be as straight as possible.

"Bring down a rain of fire!"

The guns fired, letting loose a volley of bullet shaped flames, all screeching like fire works, sparkling and sizzling toward both targets. The wide spread was very inaccurate, but there was always a guarantee something was going to get hit. However, he wasn't firing at normal prey...

Raphael only sneered at the demon's remark, he felt such childish remarks were beneath him and he would waste little time on them. He pondered destroying the woman there and then, but decided against it. As long as she was around, she would provide a distraction and the battle would be his.


The spaced himself from Raphael, but Raphael stood his ground; it gave him room to manouvre. He considered trying to charge his wings with enough magic to fly, but decided against it. If he did, he could no longer animate his body, and he would die.

He dived out of the way as another volley of shots were fired, a few merely glanced him, but one burned its way painfully into his thigh, even though his armour took the brunt of it, the pain was such that he cried out, a deep gurgle at the back of his throat.

He charged blindly at the demon, his frustration getting the better of him and making him clumsy.

"Death is but a step to another adventure," Meirion said, not fazed by his comment. She squinted to see what the man was up to, but without light, everything was in poor condition for her eyesight.

The wailing sound came a moment after one shot of onrushing flame caught her arm. Meirion was thrown back a couple of steps from the impact, before the bullet shaped attack nosed its way into her cloak, and then her skin.

Ruane brought her arm forward to her chest, wincing from the pain. The searing burn began to travel inside her, scorching her insides as well as leaving a mark on the outside.

Muttering under her breath, a flash of light surrounded her arm, purging the foul contents the man had made.

Weakened, Meirion resolved that she would not fight in the dark. More injury would only come her way. Cursing her sight for the thousandth time, she squeezed out enough brightness so that she could see a couple of metres ahead of her.

Darkness was not a hindrence to Leo, their auras were like candles in a dark filled room. Satisfied that his attack had made a connection to both his opponents, the demon gunner raised his arm once more, but to no avail. Sparks were the only thing that came out of the barrels and only flew as far as a foot away from where Leo stood.

Figures, the fool used far to much power before I arrived

But there was another problem; examining his left arm he could see that the infestation the other demon had left was slowy consuming his flesh. It had nearly covered the whole arm and was draining his energy somehow. But the pain didn't bother him.

No matter, I still have the gun...

Slowly examing his body with his infected hand, the demon seemed to be having trouble locating the giant revolver weapon.

Where is it?! Where did that Leo put it?

He tried to summon the weapon over and over again, but it refused to appear in his hand. Thats when he recalled Leo's last few moments before he was sealed away. The human had tossed the gun...over to the woman.

Looking distraught and frantic he quickly set his eyes on the woman who was now producing her own flashlight. Then he saw it, the weapon was indeed in her possession.

Damn it all! Don't tell me Leo told her what to do?!

The demonic gunner still needed to recharge a bit before he could fire from the hammer again but she didn't know that; he made a bluff. The demon aimed his weapon at the woman.

"Give me back that weapon NOW!!!" his scream was filled so filled with anger and fear that it sounded as though he was speaking with two different voices at the same time.

"Give it here and I'll consider allowing you to see the light of day."

Alas once more when his focus was on her, the other demon took his chance at him.

"Damn it!"

Not taking any chances against the demon with his alraedy infected arm, he used the hammer against him. Demon Leo threw himself at the charging monster and attempted to use his cursed arm in a downward force in order to bring him down. But it was no good, the charging demon caught him square in the gut and Leo was trapped against his body, much like a corpse impaled by a chaging rhino's horn.

Raphael had succeeded. The demon was trapped under him, now he could leach from the pain he had caused when he inflicted the wound to his arm. He trembled slightly as he gained power, just as the other demon seemed to be waning. Though of course, he could be bluffing.

He rose quickly, his body trembling slightly as his flesh was invigorated. He jumped backwards off the other demon; while he wanted nothing more than prolonged direct skin contact so he could suck him dry of his power, but he did not know who deep the corruption on his arm ran, or even if it had begun to affect him.

Her...

Raphael was not usually an inventive creature; but now he was struck by inspiration. The woman had something that demon wanted. If he eliminated the woman, then the gun would be his. It was a successful situation either way. He could feed from the woman, and if he was correct have power over the demon; if he was wrong, he'd have enough power to take him down easily.

Reaching this conclusion, he turned to face the woman; her flashlight made him hesitate for a moment. He used it for a run up and rushed at her, trying to slash her face with his right hand. The light made it hard for him to see, his accuracy was not at it's best.

Meirion met the man's desperate look, following him as he looked down at the gun in her hands. She swore as the situation became apparent to her. His voice seemed to reverberate around her, mixed with anger and something else...

Why did he need the gun so urgently? It was a weapon, obviously. There was something else, something deeper to the meaning.

Whatever the case, Meirion wasn't going to give it back. "No," she said simply, pressing it to her chest in an act of fond possession.

She frowned at what was happening when the man made contact with Raphael. Or vice versa, Ruane couldn't tell which.

Oh great. Now he was turning around. After receiving multiple threats from the man, and now the demon, the Professor had had enough.

She pocketed the gun inside her cloak out of harm's way, and people's eyes. Her hands immediately sparked with purple electricity as she waited for the onslaught when his hand came flying into her face. She just about stopped it from touching her by producing a colossal bolt of electricity heading towards Raphael and his hand.

Meirion erected her invulnerability barrier. Instead of it covering every inch of her body, she allowed herself some breathing space. Lengthening the shield, it was like a dome had surfaced over her. A bright dome at that.

Because of the amount of light her shield generated, Ruane swamped her make-shift torch. Meirion considered whether she would be safer now. Unless the man and Raphael worked together, it would take an impressive attack to shatter her protection.