How the NPF Saved Christmas Chapter 2: O Holy Night, Batman!
 

And so, the warriors finally breached the walls the castle. I'm not entirely sure how Santa felt about the large hole they left...but given the situation, I'm sure he couldn't really complain.

However, getting inside the wall may of been the easy part...
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With a flash of red and in a shower of dust and rock, Toastburner left through the hole that mammothtank had started. The walls shook, shaking those on it, throwing those without good footing over.

As Toastburner landed, he was immedately forced to dodge an attack. A large, freakish creature with hooks instead of hands attacked him. Toastburner dodged, then countered. The creature made no attempt at a block, and instead used his last moments of life to slash TB across the arm. With a hiss, Toastburner exploded the monster's head with his right paw.

He looked up...twenty-nine of the creatures remained...and there were still yeti prowling the wall.

When Krylo had landed on the other side, he hadn't seen the creatures, as they had been, wisely, ducking away from the yeti corpses that had been sent flying off the wall. However, they only waited long enough for him to put his weapons away to attack.

It was just as the wall exploded outward next to him, distracting him even further, that five of the creatures burst into attack, seemingly from no where. He couldn't react fast enough, and each of their clothes found itself a home in his torso.

When Toastburner came through the opening there was a truly grisly sight about ten feet to his left.

Krylo was lifted up into the air on the creatures' hooks, one through his throat, one through his right lung from behind, one through his left long from ahead, one through his right leg, and one blade was protruding directly from the center of his chest.

Blood oozed from each of the wounds in viscous rivers, and the man's face was contorted in pain, as the beings twisted and ground their hooks, knowing that, somehow, the human had survived the assault.

However, it was only a moment before Krylo regained himself, and his grimace of pain contorted into a sadistic smirk as his eyes opened back up to look directly into the face of the creature infront of him, the one who had driven its hook through his throat.

His hands sunk into his coat quickly, and a fraction of a second later his .44 was pressed against the hook of the one in front of him, the barrel at an angle so it was aligned with the beast's head as well. The shot echoed through the night, shattering the creature's hook arm and progressing directly through to blast its head apart.

Before the others could even register what had happened his body twisted, tearing the blade from his right leg in a shower of blood as Krylo brought his .9mm against the forehead of the thing which had once had its hook inside of him. The bullet exited the chamber, spraying blood and allowing Krylo to drop to the ground.

As soon as his feet touched he charged to his left, the barrel of his .44 preceeding him, and smashing one of the three remaining in the solar plexus, knocking it back and ripping its hook out of his body, even as a bullet was fired into it.

And then blood sprayed outward as Krylo turned completely around, tearing the last two hooks from him, and simultaneously planting a bullet from each gun into the skulls of the creatures who had been standing behind him.

This done, he dropped to his knees in exhaustion, as his wounds began to knit themselves together. He'd be better in a minute.

Premonitions floated gently to the ground the many explosions and fires distracted the yeti from his slow descent to the other side. Just as he was halfway down, the wall exploded in a bright red flash and threw him far into the courtyard. He landed in a pile of rubble and crashed into some horrible sick looking creatures.Luckily he was able to get up before them and summon his sword, he began delivering crucial slashes to large numbers of each of them around him but not killing any. After damaging enough of them, he jumped high into the air and flipped back a safe distance. They advanced toward him at a steady pace as he reached back and drew out three disks with blinking green buttons on the tops and powerful suckers on the bottom he threw them out in front of them as the first one advanced and depressed a button Premonitions smirked"Heh" a brief second later their were three rather large explosions that sent his enemies flying backward many of them were destroyed completely and stil more were soon to die but a good amount were undamaged and continued to march towards him "Welp, time to run"

Phil ran through the hole Mammoth and TB had made and skidded to a stop when he saw the horrible critters on the other side. Devil dogs and yetis were one thing, but these things looked like monsters from Silent Hill. Phil knew that if any of them caught wind of him, he'd be a hairy flesh-pile in short order. It was time to summon something fierce. Phil stooped to draw a summoning circle (or "Grant's Ear") in the courtyard snow. Standing well back (because this thing was gonig to draw attention, and he didn't want the Berserks to see him), Phil raised his hands and summoned his patron monster. "۞Summon: Kraken!"

A great jet of water burst out of the summoning circle, flying high above the wall before falling freezing back to earth. Slowly, a giant, prismatic cap rose from the ground, followed by an giant, sapphire eye the size of a car. Soon, its horrible, talon-lined tentacles emerged and the jet subsided. Kraken hung in the air, tentacles waving like whips. Safely hidden behind the great beast, Phil directed it with a point of his hand toward a group of Berserks. One of its tentacles whipped out and crushed two of them, but it was wounded in the process (you know, like if you were to smash your hand on a board with nails through it). It gave one more whip of its arms and knocked a few of the Berserks apart and into the walls, then dismissed itself. Drained from summoning such a strong beast, Phil stayed hidded next to the hole in the wall and hoped that the Berserks didn't know what a summoner was.

Shortly after everyone went through the gaping hole in the wall, CheshireThief found an unlocked door a few yards away.

"Figures."

He opened the door and stepped through. Seeing that his allies were engaged in battle with those weird hook-handed things, CheshireThief began looking around for an alternate route. As he stuck to the shadows and moved swiftly to the outer edges of the room, a grin lit up his face (figuratively, not literally). This is Santa's castle... I am kinda still a thief... There's bound to be some loot somewhere... Who knows? I may find a way to stop these demons in the process!

As he was watching the action in the middle of the room, he ran into something hard. He looked up, and there was one of the hook demons in front of him.

"Dammit!"

The Berserker roared and slashed diagonally downward towards CheshireThief with a devastating swing. CheshireThief rolled to the left, reaching for his rapier in the process. A moment of confusion ensued as CheshireThief realized he left his rapier outside because Phil never cleaned it off. Knowing that a whip would do nothing against a beast such as this, CheshireThief dodged the next blow and popped up to his feet, grinning. He had pulled out a guitar. The beast looked confused as CheshireThief struck his first chord...

CT vs The Demon

Upon finishing the song, CheshireThief took a step back and played it again.

Raiden leapt down from the high ramparts with his sword pointed downward. The demon that menaced in front of Cheshire was pierced through the spinal cord with the sword. Raiden flipped off the demon and landed in front of Cheshire.

"Hey, can you play 'Watch Raiden kick some ass'? It's one of my favorites?"

The demon roared out. It seems that a simple sword through the backbone isn't enough to drop one of them now. He held out his arm.

"Stay back Cheshire. I doubt a sexy aura will do much now."

Raiden leapt forward. The demon cried out, and lashed with its hooks. Raiden grabbed the hooks with his hands, careful that they didn't pierce his skin. Raiden's eyes glowed, and electricity flowed through his arms. The hooks took the electricity, and the demon spazmed as its nervous system began to overload and fry.

(OOC: Not kidding either. If you can play "Watch Raiden kick some ass", I would be much appreciated.)

Mike had been standing on top of the wall almost on top of where Toastburner had breached it. This had the wonderful effect of blowing up the group of yetis that Mike had been fighting, but also launched Mike off fo the wall. He landed face down in the snow. For a moment he was dazed, but the sound of gunshots got him to look up. He looked at the bloody mess that was Krylo, but his attention was quickly diverted by a huge squid thingy popping out of the ground.

"Whoa! I didn't know Phil could summon that!"

But Mike's amusement that his brother could actually summon something worth while was quickly replaced with terror when he noticed that a group of the monsters were advancing on Phil.

"°Haste!" Mike ran over to the hook monsters, and managed to break one's spine with a jumpkick, which caught the group's attention. Not knowing what else to do, Mike flipped them the bird and ran. The pissed off demons followed, at a slightly faster pace than they looked capable of before.

As luck would have it, Mike ran in a bee line to CT. Hearing the world's sexiest thief call for help, the only thing Mike could do was cast Fire3 on the offending demon, incinerating it, but also causeing the group chasing Mike to run faster. Mike changed direction, leading the demons away from CT, but not knowing what to do until his MP recharged.

Raiden was still filling the demon with god-like electric wrath when he felt the demon begin to get hot. Then hotter. All of a sudden, both Raiden and the demon burst into flames!

"What the hell!"

Raiden turned to see Mike make a run for it.

"Yeah, you better run! Next time, watch where you're tossing your fire before you cast!"

Raiden was interrupted by a hook piercing his shoulder. He grabbed the hook, wrenched it out of his body, and looked the burned/shocked/pierced demon in the eyes.

"I'm in no mood!"

His fist glowed with lightning, and as his fist moved, a trail of sparks were left in the air. The fist connected with the face, and everything seemed to go in slow motion. The crunching of the demon's face bones, the sparks flying, the blood seeping from the wound in Raiden' shoulder. Then time sped back up, and the demon went flying backwards. It connected with the ice wall, and brought that section down on top of it.

Raiden turned to Cheshire.

"Well, that was exciting. You may want to stick by me until it clears up a bit."

"Hmph... I doubt my tank'll be of any use inside the walls. Au revoir, my fair steed, I shall return." MT closed and sealed the hatch before climbing through the hole in the wall. He instantly found himself face-to-face with a tall creature whose arms ended in long, curved hooks. The two stared at one another for a brief moment before the demon took a mighty swing and knocked MT backwards into the wall.
"Oof!" The demon rushed forward to take another swing, but MT was ready. Drawing his Silver Sword, he swung upward and parried the blow, then the next. The two traded blows for a moment before the amateur knight landed a decisive hit, distracting the demon long enough for him to finish it off.
"Yes! All ri-oof!" His celebration was cut short by a blow from behind. Trying the same strategy, MT clashed with the creature only to find it somewhat faster than its comrade. "What the hell?" Backing up a few paces, he quickly dipped his hand into his item bag and drew an Acid Vial, which he hurled at the demon. It knocked the weapon away with a precise swipe of its claw.
Well aware of his predicament, MT cried out, "Assistance!"

"I suggest clawing in deep, I am about to throw this sucker hard." Inbred went into his throwing position, and as he went to throw he started to turn. The Wind Edge reacted by having what looked like wind covered in flames surround him. He spun once, then threw. hard too. It was like watching a gun fire, for as soon as it left IC's hand, he was oushed back a few feet, and the Wind Edge took off like a rocket. He didn't aim for the hole, because he figured he might hit someone with it, so he aimed about 5 feet to the left of the hole. The Wind Edge set itself of fire, and left one ablazing, melting the snow leaving an obvious trail. The Wind Edge connected to the wall, but instead iof stopping it cut through like butter. The Wind Edge soared into the crowd of demons, easily cutting through the first two. Then it stuck in the third. The second the body the Wind Edge hit fell to the icey floor, IC said "If you stored anything in that enchantment, now is the time to release it."