"It will be soon." Koyuki said with a hint of anger at Drak's "helping" her, aswell as malice for the wolf demon catching her off-guard. Granted, Drak was an excellent shot, making use of the wound she had created in the creature's head, but Koyuki perferred single combat. She didn't complain, however. "I'll take care of this."

The wolf was down, but not dead. It was in a perfect position for Koyuki to drain, however, with a bit of work. Taking the Angetsu Shouten in one hand, and hoisting it into a reverse grip, Koyuki drove the blade into the wolf-demon's spinal cord, paralyzing the beast. Then, pointing the index and middle finger of her left hand at the creature's head, she began to siphon the beast's demon-essence. Black tendrils of energy rose from the creature's wounds, merging at the space equidistant of Koyuki's fingers.

"Much better." she said with a smile as she finished leeching the wolf's remaining essence over a few short moments.

OOC: I'm thinking a snake demon is something like a Naga, so please correct me if I'm wrong with all these descriptions.

Suzume had just entered the main entrance before the spider demon had attacked Kurama and Drak. He was about to run forward and help, when his instincts told him something about ducking. He'd been so out of touch with them, he barely squatted down in time to dodge a katana speed past his head. He turned around to see the snake demon of the guardians, swords held ready in his arms while his body squirmed around under his human-like torso.

"Not going to work this time!" Suzume yelled as he charged, swords flashing and clanging against those of the demon.

"I should have just killed you while you were defenseless," the demon mocked while he was locked up with Suzume. "Besides, you're behind in your ability!"

Suzume gasped for air as, out of nowhere, the tail of the demon slammed into his chest, winding him as well as making him fly backwards through the air. It wasn't long before Suzume was on the ground gasping for air while a demon was lunging at him. Not even thinking, Suzume shot a hand outward toward the demon, but the glow on the gauntlet changed from red to blue, and a shield sprouted out in front of his arm instead of a destructive attack.

Even as the snake demon's swords clashed against the blue translucent barrier, its tail reached around and snagged Suzume's foot. Flinging the helpless demon hunter in another direction, the demon chased after the flailing human until he hit a wall, and prepared an attack to finish the job.

Suzume didn't quite allow that, though. Sending out a charged up blast of energy using up about five souls, Suzume bounced a bit on the ground before getting up just in time to block the demon's attack. the blast had delayed the demon just enough, but once again they were locked up.

"You're getting full of yourself, aren't you?" Suzume asked the demon in a very mocking tone.

"What?! What do you mean?"

"You just use your swords and tail. A little predictable, to me."

"I'll show you predictable!" the demon yelled as it pushed back with sudden strength, making Suzume fumble a little bit before tripping him with the tail. He was obviously out of practice.

Rolling out of the way of a downward stab, Suzume was still barely able to block and evade the blows of the demon while on the ground. It would only be a matter of time at this point before something happened in the demon's favor.

Still being as cafty as possible, Suzume aimed a shot at the demon's head and let loose. It dodged rather easily, but that allowed Suzume time to get up and run back about ten feet. Seeing this, the demon failed to notice the rocks falling from the cieling from the occuring blast. It moved enough to get its torso out of the way, saving its life, but it couldn't save its tail, which got covered in enough rock to slow it down enough so it could turn around and get the rock off its tail.

When the demon turned around again, tail now free, all it could see was a blue flash heading downward toward it. It squirmed to the side just enough to save its head, but a lifeless arm flopped to the ground after the futile attempt.

"This is for putting me in this hole," Suzume muttered angrily. Swinging toward the head as the demon cried out in pain.

Then the tail again. it shot out and slammed against Suzume's head while he was feeling confident. He flew across the room once more and landed rahter messily this time. Half his face was red from the strike, and he couldn't control the way he flailed around on the ground from the force.

"NEVER think you can win. I got you in here because I'm better than you," the snake demon noted over Suzume's ringing head.

"No, I'm in here because you sneaked up on me while I was sleeping. You killed innocent people to get to me too!"

"Hmph, confident to the end. Just give up now..." the demon muttered as it raised its sword in one arm.

That was when Suzume did something unexpected. He lowered his guard, even while lying helpless on the ground. The demon smiled as it raised its sword in its remaining arm and swung down...

Only to see its other arm slip slowly away from its torso. Suzme was standing still in front of it, swords held forward and crossed across his body instead of backward. Without a word, he swung in a scissor motion and cut into the chest of the demon, spilling its vitals onto the floor, and leaving it with a shocked face as it died to only see the menacing shadow of Suzume in front of it. It was the fate hundreds of demons had shared over the past year before he was imprisoned.

"...I won't give up to the likes of you. Not in a pathetic place like this," Suzume said pointlessly as the snake gurgled its final breaths.

OOC: Sorry, Raiden, couldn't quite resist. If you want me to kill the post for killing the guardian (although I think Suzume kinda deserved at least one kill), just tell me to and I will.

And just as a note, this is going on while everything else happens, so feel free to post your characters watching if it's ok in Raiden's eyes.

(OOC:Guh! My computer's been on the fritz, so sorry for my lateness.)

As the others fought the four guardians, Raze was busy grabbing all the seals and holy items that the demons had to keep suzume in, as well as old ones that had been used for Talkatz's strongest traitors. He found a crude metal cart in one of the vacant cells, and piled them all on top. The doors that held the one known as Suzume in were easy to remove from the wall, and were placed upon the cart. They weighed it down greatly but it managed to hold up under the strain.

Raze decided it was now time to head back to Kurama, hopefully the man would know the easiest way out. Of course, Raze could always climb back up the way he came, but then he'd need some kind of pulley to bring the items up as well.

After pushing the cart dowen the corridor at a leisurely pace, he heard the sounds of battle.

He stopped. Perhaps it would be best to avoid this battle for now, and wait till it was over. He couldn't risk having any of the items broken.

This'll be easy, he told himself. I've beaten dozens of rock demons all by myself. This one just happens to be a bit bigger...but then again, as they say, the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Why should this one be any different from the rest?

Unfortunately, Joukei would learn exactly why this this demon was different with a single strike. Having charged forward, Joukei had tried to plunge his spear into the demon's heart. Putting his weight into the attack, he had been sure that he could kill the beast with one blow...that is, until he shoved his weapon into the torso of Kongouseki and got stuck.

For a moment, the giant boulder laughed at the human's pitiful attempts to get his polearm free, before flicking the man off of his body and into a wall. "You think this toothpick could kill me, little one?" Kongouseki asked, grinning. "And here I thought even you might have some intelligence. I eat twigs like this for breakfast!" Then, as if to prove his point, the rock demon tossed the spear into his mouth and chewed.

Expecting to see a horrified look on Joukei's face, the demon was confused when the man had suddenly burst out laughing. "I can't believe you actually did that. Wow...I may be stupid, but you must be as dumb as a...well, rock!"

Angered, Kongouseki opened his mouth to speak, only to find that he was unable to make words. It found the answer soon enough, when he spit out a dozen of his long broken teeth, along with the spear he had tried to eat.

Taking this chance to attack, Joukei rushed forward, grabbing a couple of the demon's broken teeth along the way. When Kongouseki finally looked up it would be the last time he would ever see anything. Too fast for the demon to react to, Joueki shoved the teeth into each of Kongouseki's eyes.

"That was my Mutekiyari," Joukei said, dropping back onto the ground. "My invincible spear. And I...I am Joukei, though you won't be seeing much of me again. Or anything else, for that matter."

Picking up his weapon, along with a few particularly long teeth, Joukei ran past the demon while it began to thrash about. He wasn't stupid-he had known he had gotten lucky back there, and even now he couldn't kill that rock alone; not as he was now. Raze...you'd better not have somehow gotten ahead of me, or you're dead.

Suddenly, the sounds of terrible pounding boomed from the other side of the barricade leading out of the prison, no doubt made by something huge trying to get in from the outside.
-----
Blue Kimono (Kiyomi Matsuraba)
"Again!" Kiyomi shouted.
The mecha pilot geared her machine to lunge at the rock barricade with the spiked ball arm, increasing the size of a fracture that blossomed in the stone from the third impact.
"Everyone else, weapons at the ready! Once we get through, we'll have to take out the guardians."
The captain, vice captain, and two other regular pilots got ready to charge.

(OOC: Aww nuts. None for me? :D )

Garud had fallen behind, and panted heavily as he caught up. A number of imps had ambushed him, but they were far too small to pose a threat.

"Well...puff puff... did you all have fun with these things? Good. Can we go now?"

Garud shook his head. The sooner he got out of here, the closer he would get to investigating the source of his power drainage. He was feeling even weaker than before, and was on the verge of collapse. His face was a pasty white and he had dark circles under his eyes. Then he stumbled, and collapsed in a heap, where darkness intruded on his vision...

"You're insane. You speak of a fool's hope, distracting us from adapting to the new world." Those words echoed across the hall as one of the demons surged to his feet and gazed up at Kirakiri arrogantly. Harako, a fire demon who in the bloody wake of Talkatz's death had overthrown the current leader of his tribe and declared himself their new warchief. Kirakiri showed no response to the insult. Indeed, this had been the reason for him sending the message to the fiery mountain where Harako dwelt.

He replied with calmness, "No, I am far from insane. I was one of those tasked with the recovery of Talkatz's parts and bringing about Kurama's destruction in those disastrous final months before Talkatz's overthrow. The preservation of magic was the reason for my aid then and it is the reason I have brought you all here on this day.

"You believe I plan something too great, something of such magnitude it could not hope to suceed? A fool's hope? Your talk of 'adapting to the new world' is the fool's hope. The magic is vanishing, drawing away like a receding tide. Perhaps something of us might survive, but we would be little more than mortal in a world where the old rules no longer apply."

Harako flared up with and anger at Kirakiri's cool dismissal, tongues of flame leapt from his mouth as he sneered back. "What is your great plan then, oh wise one?"

"My plan must be kept secret. There are forces who would try to prevent this coming to pass and surprise is our best ally. Let it suffice to say that I swear upon the survival of my soul that I am utterly certain that once every stage of my plan has been executed succesfully, magic will return." Some muttered to each other at the invoking of such a heavy oath. "Those who would be my allies in this stand to gain greatly. But I will not reveal any of my strategem to those who have not agreed to aid me. You must choose now whether you truely believe the revival of an age is possible, I have no use for you if you do not."

Immediately Harako stormed out, infuriated by the shapeshifter's implacable calm and cool resolve. His two guards follow in his wake, the clattering of their obsidian armour seemed oddly loud in the silence. Others followed, the numbers in the room further diminished. Kirakiri watched emotionlessly. Harako had been invited because he would not go along with it and was a loudmouth. Kirakiri wished to be certain of the resolve of his allies. Those who remained spoke expectantly amongst themselves as he stands there, as still as a statue. The sound slowly dies again.

"Obviously some of you wish to be more certain of my intent. Understandable as I have not even shared the basics of what I intend to do. I will answer any questions you ask of me that I deem will not jeopardise the safety of this enterprise."

(OOC: I have no problems with you killing that snake demon, and since no one else has said anything yet, I guess they don't care. If anyone still wants to kill a demon, there's that huge rock demon that Ecurt left blind. Just so you know.)

Kurama got close to the exit and started to look for a place to set the explosive. He couldn't just toss it into the pile. He only had one chance, so he had to make it count. He had to find a place that would move the entire pile, but would also keep the walls from being struck, which would cause more rubble to pile on. As he worked, he thought that he could hear a thumping noise on the other side, but simply thought it nothing more than the vibrations of the battle behind him.

Joukei almost stumbled into the room, but somehow managed to keep his balance. His mouth had been open to complain about something, but went shut when he saw that they had had their own troubles to deal with.

It annoyed him, though, that they were lucky enough to get the fleshy opponents. Then again, he couldn't complain; his own opponent had been an idiot. Glancing at how the others had been doing, Joukei stepped up beside Kurama and looked at the makeshift barricade. After a moment of thought, he said, "Is it just me or is that part of the wall...cracking?"

Kurama looked, and saw that the pile of rubble was certainly starting to crack.

"This...could be bad."

Kurama moved back away from the barricade. He didn't know what was breaking it, but he sure as hell wasn't going to be within striking range when he did.