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The smoke was disappearing, slowly but surely. Yarah could now (somewhat) see the Raider that was shooting him and the woman. After the man stopped shooting, Yarah ran at him with his shield up.

The raider brought out his swords again. Yarah after a series of blocking attacks, Yarah found his opening. He used his tail, yet again, to stab the Raider - instead of going from the top and slicing the neck, he aimed from below to go right through the Raider's heart. If that weren't enough, Yarah twisted his tail to make the pain that much worse for the poor soldier. With a solid punch to the face, the man flew back leaving Yarah's tail bloody.

Now Yarah would have gone after the Raider to make sure he was good and dead, but there was an ally not too far from him in dire need of help. Blood was flowing fast, so Yarah had to work faster to stop the bleeding. Putting his hands on the man's chest, he concentrated on healing the wounds. Normally that wouldn't take too much magic, but he also had to worry about the blood filling the man's lungs. This is troublesome.

When Ty woke up, he'd see a demon-minor above him. Yarah only hoped that the man wouldn't attack the medic.

Ty awakened to see Yarah, with the blood-soaked Desert Raider behind him, leveling a pistol at the back of his head. It briefly dawned on all of them that something seemed to have disrupted the velocisphere, if there was shooting occurring.

And then everything exploded.

--

Divinity clashed with divinity as the Cypher Weapons reacted against each other, sending a shockwave across the battlefield, emanating from the two implacable warriors. Compressed mana expanded at exponential rates, sending waves of raw kinetic energy, heat, pure chaos, all radiating outward from their furious combat.

The Raider swung at Tanto's feet; Tanto jumped and brought his blade downwards. The Raider rolled sideways, magically shielding himself from the blast as Tanto's Cypher Blade swung through the mana wake behind his stun baton's strike.

Isaac, sheltered from the waves by his REF, swung at the Raider from the back as the Raider flicked his baton at Tanto's weapon to cause another shockwave. Isaac's silver blades sliced against magically reinforced robes; the Raider kicked Isaac's knee, dropping the surprised young knight to the ground; as he swung the baton down at him, Tanto punted him, no longer constrained by the velocisphere.

"Ridley!" he called out. Edward Ridley turned and saw the Raider flying at him. He brought his mostly-sheathed sword against the baton that the Raider was leading his flight with. They clashed and another shockwave emanated; Edward released the clips on his sheath and swung, the momentum releasing the blade; as the Raider deflected the swing and delivered a thrust of his baton at Ridley, whose hand burst into flames from his channeling as he intercepted it, fire and lightning declaring war on each other in their weapons and bodies, a torrent of power releasing from the collision. Both were thrown back and Tanto once again took the lead, throwing Edward Ridley's sheath back to him as he renewed his assault on the vulnerable raider.

Yarah joined as well this time, his shields dispersing the divine lightning the Raider brought against him. Sword and shield clashed against the baton as Ty assisted, refreshed by the healing forces Yarah had cast upon him. Ty, however, was soon forced out of combat by the stun baton's unpleasant effects on his body.

As Tanto brought one blade around in a diagonal swing, the Raider dodged around Yarah, rolling around him and stunning him with a tap to the tail; he then bumped his hips against the stunned demons and rolled away, forcing Tanto to cease his current attack. He spun his baton and got in a stance to engage Tanto again.

Tanto's evilly grinning face took on a uniquely devilish and sadistic quality as he faced his opponent. The humming from his blade increased in volume, seeming to press against the ears of all who heard it. He brought the sword up, reality itself seeming to tear apart around its path. He swung it down and the Raider brought his baton up to block.

The wave of force from Tanto's blade passed through the baton, unmaking it and progressing down the Raider's hands, chaos and divine might unweaving the very fabric of his being, cleaving flesh from soul, leaving nothing but a small crater where the remainder of the force discharged after disintegrating the Raider's whole body.

A cursory glance afterward showed that the velocisphere's end had allowed the Coven gunners - particularly Carlyle and Cassandra - to make short work of the remaining Raiders.

Yarah got up with a small frown. "I did not dodge fast enough." He saw that the the fighting was basically finished and won. He looked between the two men and asked perfunctorily, "Are either of you injured and in need of assistance?" It didn't matter whether they needed it or not - it was his job to ask (not to mention, it became habit to ask).

Cassandra glared at Tanto as she slapped the release on her rifle and allowed a magazine to hit the dirt. "Nice, a*****e," Cassandra hissed. Of course, she was not (wo?)man enough to stand up to the demon. This could have been passed off as a sense of wisdom in not sparking conflicts between the two freshly allied forces. Portraying it as such would have been nothing short of a lie, as Cassandra was certainly not thinking about that at all. A sort of helpless anger ran its course for a brief moment before she got a hold of herself.

At least this time the killing had seemed less personal. She wasn't soaked in blood, so sleeping would be a reasonable thing to expect tonight.

"So, uh, thanks," Cassandra added to Yarah. She wasn't quite clear on if she'd gotten her name, and if she had, she certainly didn't remember. Hopefully the awkward thank-you would be sufficient. She prepared to report to whatever superior was around - more importantly, she prepared to determine if Sai had made it through the encounter alive. She had no reason to believe otherwise, but it was possible something had gone terribly wrong.

Yarah's attention was torn away by the woman that he'd helped. "You are welcome," he calmly stated. She seemed very uncomfortable around him, but it didn't affect him. At least the woman has manners.

His attention was then directed to the man that he'd saved. He was surprised that Ty had actually come to plainly say hello. He looked at the man carefully - it truly seemed that this was the man's honest character. With a slight nod, he answered, "Greetings. My name is Yarah. To answer your question, yes, we are currently allies."

He checked Ty out and asked, "Are you still injured and in need of assistance?" He could only assume that Ty just wanted to be healed. However, he has a very interesting personality.

Edward slammed the sheath back over his blade, feeling the demonic influence recede, fire dispersing from his body.

Oh, come on. We were just getting warmed up, Corhir cooed.

Shut it, witch.

So harsh.

"Yeah. Allied for now, a least. Why did the velocisphere go down partway through, though?" Edward asked.

Isaac shrugged jerkily. "I-I guess I did O-OK. I was f-f-fighting that one Raider, then that guy..."

He looked over at Tanto for a moment, who was staring up at the sky with absolutely no expression on his face. His composure was one that can only be observed in a creature ageless and in no hurry.

"That guy saved me; saved us. How d-did he do it, do you th-think? That was one of the greatest displays of Cypher assault I've ever seen." Talking about things he knew - namely, weapons and how they ran - slowly blocked out Isaac's innate nervousness.