Things go smooth.

Krystal pivoted out of the way of the slimy appendage and swung her sabre down with all the **** her demonic arm and upper body could muster. The blade cut halfway through the beast's flesh and stuck for a moment, but the tentacle monster's agonized shudder loosened the sword enough for Krystal to pull the blade free and take another chop. This one, aimed at the thinner tip of the now retreating tentacle, severed the end entirely. Another tentacle snaked out, trying to knock the sword from her hand, but Krystal brought her off hand up to block. The creature instinctively grabbed the nearest limb -- a mistake. Krystal pulled her off-arm back, stretching the tentacle tight, and chopped down again. Though there was less **** behind this blow, the tension in the target held it steady and allowed her to chop cleanly through the thick meaty part of the monstrous limb.

Ichor from the gaping wound sprayed into Krystal's face, blinding her for a moment, and another tentacle shot forward and grabbed her sword arm. Grabbing a knife from her belt, Krystal stabbed at the tentacle. The blade was only steel, but the shock of its penetration was enough to loosen the tentacle's grip and let her jerk free. Instead of pulling back she lunged forward, driving the point of the sword into the beast's body. It howled in agony and fear, but three more tentacles lashed out. Two caught her arms while the third pushed into her mouth, presumably another instinctive reaction. She bit at the tentacle, tasting a combination of calamari and cock, but her still-human teeth lacked the power to penetrate deeply. Krystal gnashed her teeth and jerked her head from side to side, worrying the tentacle like a puppy with a piece of rawhide.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the orange flash of a swinging blade, and the tentacle holding her sword arm flopped free. Resisting the urge to sever the tentacle currently violating her mouth, Krystal lunged again. This time she must have hit something important, because the beast shuddered and lay still.

"You're welcome," said Astrid.

"Oh... um, thanks," Krystal replied somewhat lamely.

Looking around, she saw that another of the monsters had Sergeant Mindy stretched out like a St. Andrew's Cross and decided she needed a less religious set of metaphors. Two other tentacles reached out to pull down the blonde's chainmail bikini bottoms as the other four pulled her closer to the monster's body, while a seventh picked up her discarded sword.

"You won't be needing this toy now, little Airhead," the beast sneered.

Mindy's braids suddenly snaked forward into the beast's mouth, extending to three times their original length, and pulled back holding a bloody lump of flesh that could only be the monster's tongue. "No," she agreed as the monster gurgled and crumpled, "I won't."

Five of the monsters were down now, and the sixth was running -- or whatever the equivalent motion for a demonic slug-like thing would be. Plum pointed an imperious figure at the beast and lighting shot from her hand, causing it to stumble to a quivering twitching halt. It was moving again in seconds, but those seconds were all Adijah's warriors needed to catch up. A dozen of them swarmed over the beast, hacking and stabbing. When they pulled back, what was left looked more like hamburger meat that had spent a few days too many without refrigeration than anything alive.

Krystal walked up to Mindy, who was using a kerchief she'd taken from one of the cowering schoolgirls to wipe the blood out of her hair.

"That thing with the braids was amazing," the younger succubus said.

Mindy's answering gaze was flat, almost lifeless. You spend as much time as I did getting **** by these things, you pick up some of their tricks." Krystal hurried away -- appearances to the contrary, Mindy was probably the least innocent being she'd ever met, if far from the most evil.

Adijah opened another portal. "Gather what we can and get these girls back to camp," she ordered. "This fight went well, but let's not get cocky."

"Cocks suck!" the veterans shouted in response, and began trying to herd the humans through. However the girls just clung together in a quivering, sobbing rugby scrum and refused to be herded.

"Hurry," Krystal told the schoolgirls. She flogged her brain for the Japanese word for please. "Onegai." That got through to them. They moved.