John is late, but not too late.

Tricia's Eye blasted a hole into the bared body of the mage, but seemingly for naught: however strong the **** of her shots, each enough to decimate sprites or put holes in stone, the Hellbat's body always seemed ready to reconstitute, bleeding fire instead of gore before her wounds re-sealed. Their duel had carried on like this for painful minutes, with fire sprites being summoned in waves between lashings from the fire whip, answered only with Gorbachev's restrained power and occasional retreat to hide behind debris or some remains of a classroom. Her suit's alarms constantly screamed at her about escalating the threat category, and thus the **** with which her power could fight back. She dismissed it every time.

The Eye on Tricia's shin flickered at Tara with malicious red light once again and, no matter how ready she thought she was, she could never seem to dodge it. This time her fire arm took the impact, destroying it and the whip-like extension that was once her hand. "Your attacks are based on light, aren't they? They can't be real projectiles..." Her arm reformed as she addressed Tricia. Her latest wave of sprites joined the last that still clung to her prey. "I can't react to them in time... but you're not hitting me as hard as you hit the roof, are ya? Think I can't take it?!" She bashed her chest with her reformed arm, sending cinders out in a nova as she walked closer to the chunk of wall Tricia now cowered behind. "Maybe you're afraid to find out how little it'll do to me. You're only feeding my fire, girly, so unless you've got some other card to play you ought to give it up!"

"No!" Tricia's hand finally came free from the merciless, burning hug of a sprite that clung to her hip, and her Eye appeared there. Three rapid strikes found their marks, obliterating three of the nine sprites set upon her before another leapt to her hand to snuff out the baleful gazer. Her suit was starting to run out of material to keep repairing and reproducing itself, and soon she wouldn't be able to keep the creatures off of her real skin, nevermind the vicious hellfire whippings of her enemy. She breathed heavily through the sealed mask on her face, and she could feel all kinds of heat building in her as their unintentionally sexual **** escalated. Tara's whip rose back into the air, and only then did the two sprites hanging from her breasts leap down to her hips. Tricia could barely move with the one gripping her ankle, and so couldn't dodge the latest of strikes to tear through her feeble cover and rip away the protection on her chest. "Aaah!" The pleasured cry was followed by the suit's regeneration, one of the last it would manage, just as the two miniature elementals leapt up to grip and bite at her nipples through the material. She could no longer be numbed even to this, and her knees began to buckle inward as she struggled to stand. With only the smoldering lower half of a chunk of wall to protect her, Tricia was a sitting duck for the next attack.

"Give it up! You're done here, Gorbach-"

Silence. They made no noise, and came from no Eye. The first dashed through the two mauling sprites on Tricia's chest, imploding them as their flames followed the bullet's trail and died. Another speared through the one on her ankle, punching a baseball-sized hole into the ground as well. The two crawling up her back, nearing the small, purple crystal hidden just under her hair on the back of her neck, each received their own and perished just as easily. The last, hugging her left hip as it was, tried to scamper to the opposing side only to get caught by the last shot through its tiny head. There were no sound of gunfire, but these were the undeniable shots of an expert marksman... or at least someone made to appear as one. Tara turned to regard the source... and found a stranger there, standing in the hall that still led to the staircase. Was this the one Desden vanished to kill? Tara raised an eyebrow as she peered closer at the young man... and realized his identity just as Tricia could process the same. "Newman?!"

The gun in his white-gloved hands, glinting with a fancy silver design but made from no metal known in the real world, bore its fake brand on its slide: Glock 777. A cylinder of gold sat on its mouth, the length of it lined with small glowing red stones that cooled to blue; a silencer with its own enchanted properties, just like so much the boy seemed to wear. A black velvet tunic, pinned to his chest by a wine, almost crimson-colored vest buttoned with ruby-studded discs of gold, a circlet of silver around his head, the ring of hunter's delight on his left now joined by a new, green-tinted band on his right. Even his shoes were unfamiliar, but magical; Tara could not identify them from here, but she knew magical wear when faced with it. Certainly, this went well beyond what Rurik had already detected and reported. The boy was certainly dapper, Tara found herself thinking, moreso than even his school uniform could achieve, and though his expression was grim Tara suspected he had overcome the Artificer after all; he wasn't wearing a collar, for one.

His gun and gaze fixed on the insane-looking fire mage, as terrifying to look upon as Rurik had described to him. "Tricia, are you alright?"

Tricia panted into the fogging lens of her mouth, but she nodded as she looked at him through her pure black mask as produced by her suit. "You... you recognize me." There was relief there in her voice, the sort John wasn't in the right mindset to recognize.

<She's fine, thank God.>

<Of course she's fine, John Newman.> Alysha noted bitterly through the psychosphere, <After all, you've the audacity to "borrow" my talent with ranged weaponry; you could never fail such a minor feat of marksmanship even if you tried.> John thanked the small band of green around his finger; without it, he'd probably just as likely shoot Tricia full of holes instead. With her safe for now, he gave the battlefield a quick scan. The kneeling weeaboo in a bubble was strange, but stranger still was the message received while Gamer's eye was in what he decided to call "Effects" mode:

Non-barrier, reality-parsing anomaly lvl28
Creator: Unegia Dassal
User: Automatic, Multi-User, Mana-Free, Green Energy, Sustained and Secure Apparatus for the Dispensing of Single-Entity False Illusion Barrier Containment Fields with Tolerances for Inter-Barrier Unilateral Deployment (Patent Pending)
Population: 1 (maximum)

Were there not a hellish flame witch between him and getting Trish out of here, he might've contemplated the mystery for longer. Instead, he switched to "Enemy" mode to assess the beautiful, terrifying, and wonderfully naked Hellbat.

Tara Dase / Shvoorrf
Level 11 Evoker / Level 9 Hellfire Elemental
<The Cabal>
989/989hp
598/402mp
Status Effects: Overheating (49%)

What the hell is the Cabal? Does that mean she's a member of some other group AND a Zenith Smuggler? Wait, would it say both?

"Where's Rurik? Don't tell me he let you get away?" She stomped her foot with determination, and John did a double-take as he watched her mana go up as she cast the spell he could now identify.

Summon fire elemental lvl10, 80mp reserve
Summon fire elemental: summons one lvl9 large fire elemental, two lvl6 medium fire elementals, three lvl3 small fire elementals, or five lvl1 tiny fire elementals. Elementals can be manifested away from the user up to [5 x user lvl] feet, but must come from an appropriate, non-living source.

"He had a change of mind," John muttered before daring his first attack.

Acquisition successful.

With the egg implanted, he could more readily manipulate his enemy; in terms of min-maxing, he would have to do this with every female adversary, if allowed. Vanessa's unborn is going to have alot of mileage before I know what to do with it...

Tara winced, expecting some kind of attack... but felt nothing. "Don't play chicken, child. You better take your first and last swing while you can." Certainly she couldn't feel the fertilized ovum now floating in her uterus, still human as it was.

"I just did. But I promise it's only temporary..." A pause. "... despite my record on saying that..." Tara let her summons respond for her. The nearby remains of walls and flooring burst with sprites as they lunged to grab onto the intruder Tara found far more handsome than she remembered from the briefing-

ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP.

Static field deals 30 electric damage to tiny fire elemental, and prevents 20 fire damage. Tiny fire elemental defeated!

Static field deals 30 electric damage to tiny fire elemental, and prevents 20 fire damage. Tiny fire elemental defeated!

Static field deals 30 electric damage to tiny fire elemental, and prevents 20 fire damage. Tiny fire elemental defeated!

Static field deals 30 electric damage to tiny fire elemental, and prevents 20 fire damage. Tiny fire elemental defeated!

Static field deals 30 electric damage to tiny fire elemental, and prevents 20 fire damage. Tiny fire elemental defeated!

The creatures had almost simultaneously leapt onto John, one from every cardinal direction and another trying to sneak onto his leg, only to eat electric damage that was enough to rupture their tiny bodies. Tara hissed in fury - wasn't that Talon's gimmick? This boy was no Artificer! - and then recoiled as a cloud of golden dust blew into her face. Her hair roared to engulf her face, burning up all that threatened to get into her nose and mouth, and she was left facing a child-sized demon fairy, her lips pursed over a hand held flat that was just cradling the medium for sandman's slumber. "Well, it was worth a try," the creature grumbled. Tara growled as she swiped at the offending fae with her claws, but Fairy blinked out of her grip, fluttering her wings to hover just behind her master as she re-appeared. Tara looked her over: the creature wore a leather thong that wrapped behind her and over her shoulders to create nipple pasties that cradled her perky little breasts, leaving all the side and underboob a photographer could ask for with only the barest illusion of decency. Oddly, these thin leather straps came with pauldrons, devilishly pointed and made from the same black leather as the rest. Straps ran down her sides from them back to the thong, segmenting her bare flesh along with the trails of fur between her pubic mound and the back of her head. Were it not for the butterfly wings, Tara would've guessed she was a succubus, especially if that dust attack was what she thought it to be... but her size was the most alarming fact. "I guess you pulled her out to surprise Talon, huh? He thought you had a weak, tiny demon fairy in your service... frankly, I didn't think they even came this big." Tara's hand elongated to a whip as she prepared to challenge her younger.

"Big enough for you, insufferable-"

"He wasn't wrong," John muttered before shoving his hand sideways for the serpent's lunge. His hand flashed ever so briefly behind Tara, just enough to strike-

Serpent's lunge deals 209 damage.

Static field deals 30 electric damage to Tara, and prevents 30 fire damage.

Vest of the noble flame prevents 40 fire damage.

-124hp

Crap! John withdrew his hand from the effect with burning sensations left on his fingertips. He looked on them to find they were literally on fire before quickly patting them on his fire-resistant vest to put them out. His health pool was generous at this point, but not enough to keep suffering that kind of rebuke any time he wanted to hit her. As he contemplated the lack of "subdual" options with his gun, he watched Tara's body bend thanks to the bones he did manage to break... only to stand erect and, somehow, angrier. Her health had ticked down to reflect all of his damage, but then rapidly ticked up, all while her mana continued to grow. Only now was he able to identify the effect that explained this:

Hellbat's fury, passive
Hellbat's fury: A Hellbat (a fire or hellfire evoker merged with a hellfire elemental) does not regenerate mana. Instead, all spells cast and all damage taken add to the Hellbat's mana pool, up to and beyond its maximum, on a 1:1 ratio. Mana is bled out at a rate of 1 per 5 levels of the mage (not the elemental) per round. If the mana pool goes between 101-200% of its capacity, the user becomes Overheated and increases passive aura damage and spell damage by 50%. If the mana pool goes between 201-400% of its capacity, the user becomes Incandescent, which is as Overheated with a 100% bonus. If the mana pool goes beyond 400% capacity, the user goes Supernova and explodes in a brilliant flash, dealing 10,000 fire damage in a one-mile radius. Hellbat's fury does not prevent knock-outs or deaths by damage exceeding the Hellbat's maximum health.

No way... John marveled at the Catch 22 before him, and watched the Overheating status switched to Incandescent as Tara prepared a spell. Another ball of hellfire appeared in her hand, and John readied to blink away when he saw, for the briefest instant, a sliver of light crossing his vision to that prepared spell. The next moment burned light into his eyes as the ball erupted prematurely, bathing the mage in hellfire and melting the surrounding stone once again. He followed that brief flicker to its source: Tricia, with that mysterious eye still open, this time over the center of her sternum. "Tricia!" John called out. "We've got to get out of here! If we keep fighting, she'll just explode and kill us all!"

"We can not get out, except through them," she muttered. "At minimum, we must disrupt her physical form with enough **** to overcome her apparent immortality." There was hesitation in her voice; John looked her over, noting that her stats hadn't changed save that the Eye was open... and raised his eyebrows in surprise now that he finally got to analyze her suit.

Magical item: tactical suppression lifesuit. This suit interfaces with the user's nervous system to provide nutrients and various services to maintain the body while only needing to consume ambient matter and the occasional injection of carbon. The suit serves as the primary interface for a network of technology crafted with its aid, and supplements/discounts spells for a mage when channeled through its network/drones. It also possesses several tactical and medical applications, and has been programmed to suppress the emotions and personality of the user using a multi-level limiter system, granting the user -5 to CHA and -10 to LIB per limiter active. The suit performs sub-optimally if left unsealed. Current status: 8% of nanite supply remaining, 20 of 24 limiters active.

John's mind flew back to his encounter with her, when he denied her suit the ability to regenerate... but the cascade of realizations was stopped short as the glowing Hellbat screamed away the flames that consumed her and that seemingly indestructible otaku-in-a-ball. She was obviously unharmed even by that bizarre, unholy fire, and her eyes glowed with a fierce radiance. "THAT'S THE LAST TIME YOU GET TO PISS ME OFF, GORBACHEV!" Her fire hand elongate... and as her skin began to peel off like scorched paint, her left arm joined in the transformation as she sent both whip-arms slicing towards Tricia. John dashed towards Tricia, but couldn't outrun them. Fairy, unconvinced of John's hesitation, tried her own ****, hoping to one-shot the smuggler with the most potent spell she had not literally made from the same stuff as the Hellbat herself.

Fairy uses mana blast, and deals 250 magic damage to Tara.

The whipping fire continued through the air even as they broke off of Tara, who was smashed backwards by the five-foot-thick beam of blue energy. Both attacks connected with the target, and the suit did its best to defend Tricia one last time, shrinking protection away from her face and limbs to reinforce the thin veneer of protection left on her chest and stomach just before the blades of fire connected. They vanished under the ****, and Tricia fell to her knees as the suit blinked its final warning in her HUD: it was out of nanites, out of protection, and now nearly out of power. The crystal on the back of her neck, kept in place by a choker of black chain links, flickered.