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The pipe connected, and where it landed, a sizable dent was creased into the metallic flesh - it couldn't be a very solid metal that made this thing, to crease so easily to such a blow. However, this was as much damage as a single swing from the pipe could manage - and it was enough that the bull's attention was drawn to the Fa'e falling in front of it. It would have to turn to get another shot at the Arthurian child, anyway. There really was no reason not to rear back and slam its front hooves down on Caoimhe, was there?

Dustin might be grateful for the bull's distraction, however. Because in that same moment, breathing heavily and assuring himself that yes, he was still alive, he hadn't been dashed to pieces by the same hooves that were lashing out toward his Selkie friend, he made a rather disturbing discovery that one of his limbs had been shortened by a full 33%. And, even if it didn't bleed, it hurt like the ******** dickens!

The deerkitten sprang to his feet with a shout - and while there was pain there, yes, there was also indignance, and a seething fury. His tail - that had been his tail, damn it! The thing that had kept him upright when he'd learned to walk, that he'd twitched to tell people when he was interested, lashed to warn them off! It might not be as useful as say, a hand, but it was still a part of him, and a bloody important one. What kind of motherless b*****d of a bull trampled over a poor child's tail?

Angry, luckily, was more useful than cowering or agonized, which were generally the only two choices to be had in a situation like this. Furious, Dusty hollered and launched himself at the bull's right flank, bringing his sword down with all the power he could manage. He was too short to hit higher than the bull's leg, but the bull was distracted and the attack was unanticipated. The sword hit and dug into the metal, managing to rip a gash into it, before Dusty wrenched it away and raised it to strike again. His tail would have VENGEANCE!

It had become almost custom in Roth's house - he would disappear to Hell for a visit that dragged out longer than expected, his mu qin would be less than pleased about the length of said visit when he returned, and then she would force him to go visit Fa'e HQ to "mingle with his own kind". Roth snorted. As though he were in danger of forgetting he wasn't wholly demonic, that he had these strange ties to his Guardian and to other reborn figures of power.

Still, some of them he didn't mind. And some of them he did. Logically speaking, there was a 50/50 chance of Roth running into Fa'e he actually tolerated. Realistically speaking, his chances never seemed to work out that well.

So, when he heard strange rumblings and roarings and clangings as he walked towards the Fa'e building, he was understandably intrigued. It sounded much more interesting than a boring few hours watching new fa'e he'd never seen before wander in and out of the old building (were the others constantly breeding like rabbits or what?).

Hmm. The noises were off to his right, away from the main path to HQ. Golden eyes darted back and forth. HQ or fight? HQ or fight?

Roth snorted, giving up the pretense of being at all torn. FIGHT. The demon hefted his Lunar Spear over one shoulder and followed the angry noises. A glow was coming from the same direction, growing brighter as he grew closer.

"Huh." Having finally located the site of the brawl, Roth was beyond surprised to see a giant, metal bull charging down several other figures. That explained the rumbles and roars. Idly, he wondered where one found giant metal animals that could be used to hunt down one's enemies. That could be useful.

As proof of his terrible luck, he didn't recognise either of the grown fa'e facing off against the beast. Ugh, waste of time. About to turn and leave, he caught sight of a smaller figure - black, gem-encrusted, and sporting deer ears and ... huh, a shorter tail than he remembered.

"Dusty," he recalled the deerkitten's name as he moved closer, dodging large bronze hooves, "is this giant creature yours?"

Dustin was understandably distracted at the moment Roth called out to him, occupied with swinging down another heavy blow on the bull. This left another gouge next to the first, bigger than the last but still ultimately inconsequential. It wasn't as though the bull were made of tissue and sinew, after all - there was no way to lame it, except perhaps by taking off an entire limb somehow. Within the cuts left on its skin, a strong infernal glow burned - and for a moment, Dusty could see shadows twisting within, as if something were moving inside....

With Caoimhe moved out of its sight, however, the bull chose now to reorient itself back on its original target. Turning in these quarters was difficult, but of course, the bull had little regard for the obstacles in its path. It merely ripped through the brick of the surrounding walls, facing down the street toward where Dusty, Caoimhe, and now Roth stood once more, refocusing its attention on the youngest of the Fa'e gathered.

Which made it a poor choice of timing that Dusty would take notice of Roth just then. It might have been easy enough to acknowledge the Fa'e, even gesture for him to come help, and keep his eyes on the enemy - but it had been quite some time since that brief meeting between himself and the horned Fa'e. And more recently to Dusty's mind was what Nil had told him, that Regas had returned in the form of the devil. Bad enough that this bull were here, but if Regas himself had come.... No way -- it couldn't be...!

For a brief moment, it would have likely been the bull's perfect chance to lash out and complete the duty it had come for. Even trying to keep a watch on the immediate threat, Dusty was so distracted by the arrival of a potentially greater one that he might have been blindsided. It was very lucky then, that Mikhail struck when he did, and that his dagger did indeed punch through the metal skin of the bull. The creature itself was made distracted by the unexpected acquisition of a third horn on its face, not to mention the fiery angel attached to it.

Fortunately, the construct was well prepared to deal wtih such foolish techniques - and if you thought those wild bulls at the rodeo were vicious, they were nothing comparted to the frantic bucks, kicks, bugles and charges that this one could make in its attempts to throw or scrape Mikhail off its back. The street walls around the skirmish were beginning to look rather sad indeed, well on their way to rubble, and brick was hurtled in all directions from collisions with the bull's wild thrashing. One particularly large hunk tumbled toward Dusty, but he reacted quickly, protecting himself with the hard armor on the back of one of his arms, and it was shattered and deflected.

But by that time, the memory had come back to him. As a small child exploring an unfamiliar mansion, he'd stumbled upon a library of countless books, and an odd Fa'e was there before him, perusing the selection -- "From Prom!" Dustin exclaimed suddenly, excited by the leap of understanding. Not an enemy at all, then, but an ally!

An ally that... seemed more prone to conversation than action. Unwilling, Dusty's tail twitched - a gesture that didn't quite have the same effect now as when it had had its full glory, just a few minutes earlier. "We're not exactly friends, but you could say it's mine - can you lend a hand?" Dusty shouted over his shoulder, flinching back from another stray brick.

One eye twitched slightly as Roth was identified as "from Prom". He really needed to work on his PR. People should know his name, at the very least. A flying brick distracted Roth from his petulance, teleporting quickly out of the way of the projectile coming for his head.

"My pleasure," he smirked, staring up at the great monstrosity. He did so love a challenge, after all. A gesture from one hand caused Hellfire to burst into being along the blade of his spear. Surely a metal beast would be vulnerable to flames?

Roth ducked and weaved, making his way closer to the bull. Stray bricks were the least of his worries as he came in reach of metal hooves. The fact that the bull wasn't actively trying to stomp on Roth made it all the harder - the wild bucking and flailing was harder to predict, and therefore avoid. A whooosh of air thundered in his ear. Roth dove to the left. A metal hoof missed him by a hair. Roth barely had time to give thanks to Hell before riding out the miniature earthquake caused by huge metal feet. His move to dart away was abruptly halted, outer robe pinned by the hoof. Cursing, Roth cut at his clothes before turning the blade to slash at the... well, technically it wasn't a tendon when everything was metal... above the sharp hoof.

With a feral grin, Roth darted back out of the way before the limb could retaliate. He moved towards the head of beast, wondering if taking out the eyes would effectively blind it. Summoning a ball of Hellfire to his free hand, he aimed for an eye. Eyes narrowed, Roth was about to release when something large and orange fell from above.

And landed on Roth.

Hands already full, Roth was slammed into the ground, the heavy weight across his front. He felt the Hellfire blink out and cursed himself for not reacting fast enough to teleport out of the way. Now he was bruised and winded and was that an elbow in his ribs? Struggling to get his arms under him, the demon lifted his head, cat-slit eyes glaring at whoever had had the indecency to fall on him. An eyebrow lifted as Roth caught sight of a pretty face. A smirk curled over his lips. "Well hello..." the smile fell just as quickly as several sets of orange wings registered, "angel." The last word was clearly disgusted.

"Ugh!" Roth made a face and pushed the angel off, not caring if the winged wonder thumped onto the ground or landed gently. All Roth cared about was that he didn't have to touch it anymore. "Do try to remember what the wings are for," he suggested with a snarl.

And now he was torn between attacking the angel and attacking the bull. Another barely-missed hoof followed by a shower of bricks made up the demon's mind for him. Bull now, angel later.

The ball of Hellfire returned and was quickly lobbed at the bull's face. The aim wasn't Roth's best, as he had to flip out of the way of another attack. But clearly this was no time to think of angels.

The spear struck, and metal wrenched; a new hole was formed in the leg of the bull, with disappointingly little effect on the creature's motions. However, one thing did change - a chunks of hot coals, no bigger than pebbles, were able to find their way loose from this low-lying injury. Even with the creature's thrashing, however, no more than a handful of the rocks were scattered from the small injury.

What was even more interesting, though, was the effect of the Hellfire on the bull. It struck the construct's face as though the bull weren't even trying to avoid it. The blast was enough to knock its head back, and followed up promptly by Caoihme's stone, the bull's face was suddenly must less pretty than before. Its cheeks were sagging, and a few drips of brass slid off its horns to spatter on the ground, hissing. Where the rock had struck the heated, weakened metal, a deep gouge was formed, effectively removing one of the creature's eyes.

But that wasn't the only thing that happened. That infernal glow in its belly was taken up by the bull's head and shoulders as well, brighter than ever wherever the Hellfire had touched. The bugling was more terrible than ever now, and the bull seemed filled with new energy as it rampaged through the street, bucking ever more wildly, caring less and less about what target it was striking at, so long as it was striking at something.

In light of the construct's increasingly erratic motions, Dustin chose not to engage in conversation with Caoimhe at just that moment. Some questions were better left ignored in the heat of battle, and Dusty wisely felt that discussing the reasons behind the arrival of this particular bull was a talk better left for later. Assuming he couldn't find some way to avoid the conversation entirely....

But he couldn't just stand there if he wasn't going to be talking, of course. The bull was busy taking a stomp at Mik, and throwing itself recklessly after the dark-skinned demon - no better time to take a shot than now! Dusty leaped forward, angling his blade toward the belly of the bull, scoring a thin line that barely gaped the metal at all.

Here, too, a slight show of burning coal dust scattered, exacerbated as the bull swung around to meet the new nuisance poking at its side with its horns; but it was slow to move, and Dusty was quick to dodge backwards. Reminded again of its goal, though, the bull pressed onwards with jabs and stomps, forcing the child to move more nimbly than his hooves were suited to - but leaving itself exposed to attack in its earnest.

A swarm of Mandarin curses flew from Roth's lips as the bull grew more enraged from the Hellfire. And not only enraged, but more energetic, too? More bricks tumbled down, striking the demon on his shoulder and back. Roth cursed his luck - it was all bad lately. He quickly cancelled the blaze of Hellfire along his spear. Hopefully the deadly weapon would be enough.

"I don't suppose anyone can summon ice or water?" he called to the other fa'e. "Fire just seems to be fueling it."

Or, Roth considered while batting at the hot coals sparking in his hair and clothes, fire was fueling these coals inside it. It was only a theory, but it was his best one so far.

A yell from the angel split the air. Roth turned with contemptuous look to see what trouble the angel was in this time - only to wince and hiss when he saw the hoof pinning the other fa'e. That looked painful... Maybe Roth's luck was turning! Bad things were happening to the 'good' ones instead of to him.

That put him in a good frame of mind about his theory of the coals. Dashing forward, he rolled under one crashing foot, rising back to his feet in the same movement. Roth crossed under the bull's belly, slashing a long line with the spear as he went.

And if the attack had the added effect of trying to cause the bull to stumble to the other side, off the angel, well, that was completely coincidental. Unintentional. The angel could be smushed into a gooey puddle for all Roth cared, really.

The bull was heavy, and its weight was not shifted easily against its will. And having successfully pinned down at least one of the nuisances interrupting its work, it was not very willing to be shifted by the small and underequipped Selkie wrenching at its leg. But then came Roth's attack to its belly while it was distracted - and even if it felt no pain, it was still concerned enough for its integrity that its attention was diverted. Caoimhe's efforts won through at last! The hoof lost its footing and stumbled for even ground, freeing Mikhail.

It tossed its rear up, trying to bring its back hooves smashing down on the demon that had slipped past its defenses, but the damage was already done. The scar in its belly was gaping and deep, large enough to loose fist-sized burning rocks to the ground beneath it. It screamed its frustration, slamming its hooves again and again toward the demon, determined to squash the threat that had done so much damage - but more coal flew free with every motion now, and the glow grew a little dimmer all the time. The bull was not defeated yet, perhaps, but it was approaching its final throes.

If Dustin had a moment of reflection, he would have been bemused. Facing this enemy now, he was fearless. The danger was not passed, but the battle had hit its stride - and, frantic as he had been after receiving Nil's warning, there was a calm he would have thought impossible in how he approached the battle now.

But of course, there was no time for reflection. Whatever advantage they might have might be brief - and while the bull was not focused on him, Dustin had to press the attack, do as much damage as he could while the opportunity was open. He charged the bull's right side, unflinching from the radiating heat of the belly, hacking at its broad side to force new tears in the metal skin, new leaks of coal dust and pebbles. Every new hole sped up the cooling of the belly, and bit by bit, the bull began to act more lethargically....