Ignis watched Aeria go forward with sharp eyes, preparing to order Cora to attack. Amicus peeked out from within her cloak, watching for trouble.
A few imps distracted Ignis, who kept them at bay with a few well placed shots buffered by gunfire from Cora. Aeria's scream made the engineer whip around, horrified. She had missed one.
Ignis could feel her heart in her throat. The imp was too close for her to blast it away using Cora without hitting her friend. They were moving too much for Ignis to be sure she wouldn't accidentally shoot Aeria, but the enlil knew she had to do something. There wasn't a lot of time to contemplate.
The sound of an empty click made her stomach sink. She was out of bullets. Hurriedly, Ignis pulled a second firearm from within her cloak and took a split second to aim before squeezing the trigger harshly as if that could make the bullet go faster.
The projectile punctured the imp harassing Aeria, drawing forth a pained shriek. Another one silenced it. The demon fell away from the spurii with a soft thud on the deck.
Ignis rushed over and knelt by the downed woman's side.
“Aeria!” she exclaimed in a harsh whisper, “Are you alright?”
Amicus squirmed out of Ignis’ cloak and held glowing, green hands over her.
Anxious, the more experienced engineer looked around again to make sure they would not be caught unawares.
Cora released a spray of bullets at the head of the demon Palamedes struggled with.
Ignis returned her gaze to her friend, frantically trying to assess the damage.
The pain was hot and immediate, although Amicus’ healing touch helped alleviate the worst of it, so Aeria answered Ignis through clenched teeth.
“It hurts like Vis-damned bloody hell, but I think I’ll be alright. It isn’t too deep, but it sure as shit feels like it should be. I just hope the nasty thing didn’t have some kind of poison or something on its claws, although I suppose that Amicus’ touch might dispel some of it, if so.”
She gritted her teeth even harder as she used her halberd to stand up. However, the pain had at least reached a point that was more manageable. She was lucky that it hadn’t been her dominant arm that was injured. Now she stood watching Ignis’ back while they got their bearings.
She whispered to her companion. “Thanks for that. Now let’s finish off Palamedes’ attacker. On three...one….two….three!”
Ignoring her throbbing arm, Aeria thrust the pointed blade of her halberd forward, driving it at the back of the creature wrestling with Palamedes, hoping for Ignis to follow up on her attack.
Ignis’ shoulders sagged in relief. “I'm so glad you're alright,” she murmured. Unfortunately, Aeria was already up and preparing to attack the demons again. She whipped up her arm and fired at the beast, squeezing extra to release two bullets instead of one.
As soon as the shots were fired, the enlil scooped up her familiar and ran after Aeria. Amicus needed to stay close to finish healing her. Ignis hoped to Castus her eager friend hadn't already reopened her half healed wounds.
Cora fired a volley of shots at minor demons attempting to flank them as Ignis’ eyes darted around. Fortunately, the horde looked thinner. The end of the attack was coming.
The loud discharging of Deni's firearm ensured the aquatic daemon was truly dead.
"Just making sure," he uttered with the semblance of a grin. "Now grab your sword. There's just another... couple of dozen left."
The pale velen crouched down and wrapped his free arm around Aelflead's waist. Maintaining a civil front was much easier during the chaos. The bleeding in his arm slowed as the wound began to clot. Aelflead was a little more torn up than him. Had their roles been reversed, he would have wanted someone watching his back, even if that someone was her.
He elicited a grunt as he heaved the spurii onto her feet.
"I'll cover your bad side. I assume you have enough swinging left for the both of us, so let's get this done."
The spurii's body tensed instinctively at the velen's touch, but she suppressed her body's natural response to throw the man with a deep breath while he helped her keep upright. It wouldn't do to accidentally knock the man out on this ship still filled with hellish beasts and apparitions.
She released a short nod the Deni's offer, and with flash of Gold and green she stuck the massive blade in her hand into the ship's floorboards. Strong as she was to swing the immense blade at all, her dominant arm was injured, and she couldn't wield that behemoth one handed in her right. Instead she kicked her silver sword into her hand, and turned towards the velen with a response.
I've got more than enough if you can keep up Quickdraw."
The two women had enough firepower between the two of them to aide the grizzly vorax, and without much more of a fight, the avian demon died in a violent spasm -- disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Palamedes turned and lunged at the next nearest demon, repeating what had worked so well before.
Ioannes did what he could, which proved to be far more than he was doing before. The new rifle was a wonder, and some small part of him -- the gunsmith -- wanted to disassemble the stock weapon then and there.
But something greater spurned him on to keep fighting. Anyone else might have felt the will to live burn in their chest, fueled by fear and desperation. Certainly, many of the men on the deck felt that way as they scurried about to get the ship out from berth, and yet not Ioannes.
He was afraid, to be sure, but that fear was muted against the same thing he had felt that night in Terminus -- only now he couldn’t ignore it. The Call. That thing that demanded he do something dangerous, and stupid. It forced him to fight, to stand his ground when all he wanted to do was get his companions and stand next to the nearest wall. Keep themselves protected until the swarm died down.
“Palamedes, rampage!” he ordered, as he loaded a fresh magazine into the rifle’s well.
The training wasn’t finished, but until their situation was better, Ioannes needed his vorax to do more damage. Needed him to be a blunt instrument while the rest of them cleaned up.
The old voraxes hackles rose, and he let loose a terrifying roar before turning to charge down the nearest demon.
“I don’t know who’s at the helm...,” the old spurii shouted from the gunsmith’s right. She had found herself a group of Conexus men to join up with. They worked in tandem to protect one another while one of them was doing something to one of the cannons.
She fired off one of her shotguns, sending another imp back to its home while another swooped in and caught her left arm. In a smooth reaction, without looking, the spurii wiped one hand around and blew the demon away. A look of shock and horror playing across its face just before she pulled the trigger.
“...but I would really like to be underway about now, Colonel.”
