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Neko wasted no time continuing his journey toward the stage. If he could just round everyone up and get out of there it would be a miracle. Shoving and pushing Neko found himself so close to the stage's edge he could nearly touch it but that wasn't going to happen just yet. The biggest of the guards had stayed behind as crowd control around the stage and his focus was suddenly and fiercely on Neko.

"Oh damn...."

On stage, the matter was a little different. The words that Hitsu uttered in warning never reached Mitsu's ears as she lowered her head and bared her elongated canines. The blood of rage was pumping so quickly through Mitsu's body that hardly a thought reached her mind. Only one thing was in focus and that happened to be Tessa.

"Do ye want a piece of me too, Lass? I hate to disappoint but I will not be going easy on ye. Yer blasted mutt of a dog has pissed me off so maybe it's ye that will pay the price?"

Mitsu didn't move from her spot though she seemed to vibrate from head to toe. Out of no where the sound of popping and cracking bone resounded from her body as her fingers contorted and lengthened. Sharp claws reached from her finger tips were normal human nail had been before. The rest of her mouth was now filled with razor sharp teeth and her eyes had changed into something far from human or friendly.

"What in the world..?" Tessa took a step back toward the edge of the stage, her sword drawn up to protect herself. She had never seen an animal hybrid do this before.

The answer to Blade's mental question was: not very. While the guard had considerable size and strength on his side, speed had eluded him entirely. He had just begun to raise his horseman's axe in preparation of attack when Blade was suddenly at his side to divert his attention. Since his weapon was already raised, the barbarian of a man turned it on Blade instead, slicing the axe downward executioner style.

"Blade d-" To hell with it. This was no time to throw opportunity to the wind. If the thief was certain he could take down the big one by his lonesome, Neko wasn't going to stand in his way.

Moving away from the hefty man and his axe, Neko once again made a beeline for the stage. He caught sight of the injured dog and had just managed to touch the wooden platform ready to hoist himself up when a shrill voice called out to him.

"Going somewhere?"

Nearly too late, Neko moved back and away from the swinging whip that had slash at where he had been only seconds before.

"Dammit, where do you people keep coming from?" Neko hissed.

The man merely smiled in amusement as he spun his whip around and aimed another attack at Neko's feet forcing him to jump. Without a seconds hesitation the whip was spun around again to do the same thing again and again until Neko was practically dancing to avoid the whip strikes.

"Damnit, stop toying with me!" Neko leaped forward and instantly got a whip slash across his upper shoulder. There was no time to assess the damage as another attack was aimed at his face and there was just barely enough lag in the attack to duck and roll out of the way.

----

The transformation that Mitsu was undergoing was happening much slower than it had the last time. Enraged by the current events and the pain that was now evident in every part of her body, Mitsu trudged forward. At first, it was with little confidence in her balance but quickly she picked up speed until she was right upon Tessa.

The slave trader had raised her sword yet again to strike at the witless wretch who had decided to face her but was confronted with a bit of a surprise. In mid swing Mitsu had caught her sword and though her hand was now bleeding from the contact there was no evidence that the sword was moving any further forward. Trying to draw it back Tessa found that Mitsu had quite the grip on it and refused to let it go. "Stupid girl, learn your place!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Something close to a snarl escaped Mitsu's throat as she ripped the sword from Tessa's hands and threw it to the side. Hand poised to strike, Mitsu swung at the slave trader and made solid contact with her face leaving deep cuts along her brow and across her cheek. Tessa screamed as she grabbed her face stumbling back toward the edge of the stage.

"You little b***h! You little b***h what have you done? What have you done to my face!" Tessa looked completely disheveled now as she clung to the injured side of her face, eyes wide in bewilderment.

'I saw what happened to your friend. What those mean animals did. I can give you what you really want right this second... I can give you the power to kill them all...'

The ooze began to crawl up Riyo's legs and devour her form. "Get outta here Atticus..." Riyo's voice held a ping of worry. To be frank, she had no idea what the hell was happening. Her heart was beating so fast...And there was a burning sensation on her skin as the ooze made contact... But what was worse is that feeling of helplessness. She was loosing to herself, of all people. It was an alien feeling, like being touched by the numb arm you'd spent the night sleeping on...

Atticus scooped the key up before it was lost forever in the black sickness and continued to step back. Those guards were of little concern right now. There was a sinking feeling in his gut that had long been removed by the blessing and curse of reincarnation. As if the air around them was somehow affected as well, he found it harder to breathe.

It didn't take long before Riyo disappeared under this thick coat of black, her eyes pleading with Atticus for some kind of help before they too vanished. In the blink of an eye, it took another form. The mangled, almost starved body of a large cat-like creature that somehow kept that oozy texture. Bulging red eyes that held no sense of emotions or even thought, only beastial instinct, and the face of a rabid animal, with long pearly carnivorous teeth and black liquid drooling from it's mouth. On the back of it's neck was the roman numerals XIII, the scar which Riyo had kept hidden under her hair. It gave off a dull red glow, as if it burned hotter than hell itself.

Now Atticus knew what was happening, and he wasn't about to be the first thing that creature saw. Without so much as a word, he turned around and ran as fast as he could in the other direction. There was a pounding terror echoing in his heart, and it got his adrenaline shooting through the roof. Awww, Atticus is afraid of the little kitty cat. What a shame... A familiar voice whispered to him. "I'm not falling for your trap. I know what you have up your sleeve..." He shot back, appearing to be talking to himself...

Fortunately or unfortunately, the guards happened to be the first to meet it's gaze. It gave no sounds of warning, No classic signs of an agitated animal. It simply lunged, narrowly escaping the net (as if it would've really mattered) and going for the neck of the guard who happened to be first in line.

The large guard felt a twinge of pain by his ankle, luckily for him his brain was far too small to perceive the true amount of damage. Raising his axe above his head he swept it downward again, aiming for the thief. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

----

Neko was not fairing well with his new opponent. Just being quick was not enough and though he was trying to avoid more visible damage it looked like that was going to have to be tossed out the window. Hopefully in all the chaos no one was paying that much attention so Neko did what his instincts told him not to, he stepped directly into the path of the whip and grabbed for it.

Being fairly long the whip still had enough momentum in the tip to swing around and smack Neko across the face before it wrapped around his wrist and then his arm. A small amount of blood began to bead up in the presence of the cut and a nice sized welt raised around his arm but that was of little consequence. The weapon in question was now in his hand and he gave it a hard enough jerk to bring his attacker stumbling forward and right into his swinging fist.

Yelping the man relinquished his whip as he grasped his bleeding nose in pain. Now that the weapon was unmanned, Neko took hold of the handle, unwrapping the end from his arm. "Well, this is an interesting toy." Having only a small idea of the proper use of a whip, Neko swung it around to give it a crack and ended up giving himself a cut on his other cheek.

His enemy smiled through the blood running down his face. "Not much use if your only going to hurt your-" CRACK! The whip had made solid contact with the guard's face cutting him off as he flew back.

"Not a problem, I've got time to practice," Neko smiled a little more deviously than was necessary as he continued his assault on the man.

------

Mitsu had stopped in her pursuit as an overwhelming pain shot through her body and it wasn't the pain from her hand. It felt like her skin was on fire as the sickening sound of cracking bone continued. Just as she was about to succumb to the transformation a small whimper touched her ears and she looked over to see Tobi crawling toward her. It was enough of a distraction that she could feel her blood cooling and the anger coursing through her started to wain.

"You little b***h! I'll teach you to destroy my lovely face!" Tessa rushed forward, fingers curled into claws ready to fight. Unfortunately for her, Mitsu's strength had yet to wain. Tessa remembered seeing Mitsu look off to the side, in her distraction she had decided to act. There was only a few feet to cover and she had sprinted it, fingers curled into claws. She would rip out the girl's eyes if she needed too. However, the last thing she remembered seeing was Mitsu's crimson orbs turning back in her direction and a painful jab to her stomach and chest. Then Tessa was flying, though she wasn't certain how, though the landing was far from pleasant as she hit the ground with a thud and slid to only stop a few feet from Riyo and her would be attackers.

The large man's reaction wasn't quite what Blade was aiming for, but it seemed he had missed the tendon in his foot. Either that or this guy was really able to deal with it somehow. In any case, he really needed to keep moving.

He could feel the wind off of the heavy blade of the ax as it narrowly missed him once again. Quite frankly he wasn't so sure if he'd be able to keep up dodging like this. The thief was going to need to try and get some sort of leverage on the guard, and attacking head on probably wasn't going to be the best solution for him.

As he stood from having evaded the blow, his left hand scooped up a handful of dirt and sand.. which he promptly threw at the guard's face.

'Dirty tactics' wasn't something Blade favored, but there were times when he needed to be as resourceful as he can. For now.. that meant the ground. Though, he kept a sharp eye out in case there was anything else he might be able to use to his advantage at this point.

--

The two guards that were still alive didn't have much of a chance to react before both were knocked over by their dead ally. The one that had struck the beast in the chest had lost grip of his weapon when this happened, leaving the blade to be stuck in the creature.

It took a little while for the two to recover, as that was quite a rather heavy hit. Most likely it would leave quite the bruise or two. When their senses came back around, both were having some second thoughts (again) about tackling the beast. By now it was fairly obvious this wasn't just some illusion. And besides... their boss said nothing about retrieving some crazy oozy black demon cat beast thing! So, once they were back onto their feet, they fled.

It was rare to find somebody who knows when their days have been numbered. Who go without struggle. She certainly wasn't one of those people.

It obviously didn't take long for the creature to catch up. It used one of it's front legs to pin her down, letting it's claws dig in. The flow of black drool seemed to pick up as it stood over the half-dead woman. One foot in the grave, as they say. The smell of blood entwined with the air around the creature, but did not overwhelm... Yet.

It lowered it's big head towards Tessa's neck, the sound of it breathing coming closer to her ear. There was a grin on it's face that even the cheshire cat would be envious of. Slowly, the monster opened it's mouth and inched closer and closer to Tessa's neck.

Tessa let out a shrill scream as she was pinned down, the creature's claws digging into her lower back. Clawing at the earth with her fingers she tried to wrench her way free but with little luck. The creature was far too strong. "Let go of me your foul beast!" She shrieked though her eyes betrayed the true depths of her fear as she felt the creature's breath at her back. In a last attempt to save her own life she began to flail and thrash wildly, cursing every word she knew in four different languages.

-----

The large guard felt his axe nick something, but it was surely not enough to have been a sufficient hit. And how true that came to be when he felt the cold metal of a sword pierce through his chest. At first there was no reaction as he drew his hand away from his dirt smudged eyes. His focus fell on Blade for just a moment, the muscles in his arm tightening like he was about to retaliate, but then his heart gave its final beat and his eyes went dull. For a moment he was as still as a statue but the sheer weight of his body brought him tumbling forward toward Blade, crumpling to the ground like a ton of bricks.

----

Neko had long since silenced his last opponent. In the end he was more or less beating a dead horse, but that didn't seem to bother him much as he licked up what blood he could get around his mouth, and wiped away the rest. He had possibly gone a little too far, but it was still somewhat satisfying to see a man that had caused him ill will to suffer so greatly. It had been so long since he had tasted victory in this way.

Assessing the damage done to himself, over all it wasn't too bad. The large cut along his chest was now a shallow irritated line, the welts on his arm were gone, and he could feel the cuts on his face had already disappeared. Over all his clothes were in worse shape than he was, tattered and covered in blood. He would have to deal with that later, now he would finally be able to reach the stage.

Turning back to the 'finish line', Neko sprinted the few feet to the stage and leaped up easily enough. "Hitsu, are you alright?" She seemed to be standing off to the side but seemingly unharmed. However, Mitsu was on her hands and knees on the stage and the dog seemed to be injured. "Mitsu, what about you?" Neko knelt down to the wolf girl, resting a hand on her shoulder.

Mitsu flinched at his touch and began to shiver. She just couldn't shake the strange feelings she had just had. This strange vision that had flashed before her eyes. And suddenly Tessa was gone, maybe she had lost interest in them and had left?

"Mitsu?"

"Tobi..." Was all Mitsu muttered as she tried to peer through squinted eyes.

"I'll get the dog, Hitsu try to help Mitsu up. We'll make a break for it out the back," Neko pointed in the direction they had been brought in. It seemed like the most likely path of escape since the crowd and more guards lay in the direction of the fleeting crowd. Leaving the girls to themselves for a moment, Neko made his way over to the dog and scooped Tobi up as gently as possible. The dog seemed to be badly injured but he wouldn't be able to do anything until they were in a safe place. "Let's move!"

The monster wasn't deterred by Tessa's flailing or screams, in fact, it made the process go faster. It made one swift bite to her throat, sinking it's long fangs in as deep as they would go, and it kept still until the body under it held no movement.

When it was over, it's head came up, fangs ripping out of the tender skin. A mixture of blood and black dripped out of it's mouth, and it's eyes wandered the area.

Atticus made the mistake of stopping and looking back in the direction he'd just left, eyes making contact with what he feared.

And that fear, to a monster, was completely visible no matter who you were. It's legs bent at the joint, and the creature took a leap into the air, to try and close the growing distance.

A lot of people are so stricken with fear that they freeze in place... But Atticus... Atticus turned around as fast as he could pivot in place and ran... In the direction of the stage.

"Jessee owes me more than he realizes!" His voice seemed to heighten by the adrenaline fueling his formally-dressed feet.