Path of Sorrows

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry
Chapter Summary: The ultimate villain of the Mission appears for a fight.
Word Count: 1253
Rating: Teen

          It turns out that Arawn is pretty good for taking out a number of inhuman limbs, though it’s super annoying when bits of her just keep going intangible.  He growls at that.  And he kind of has to go to an area where it’s kind of thin, because unlike videogames friendly fire is a thing that exists.  Plus, it seems like they have to do enough damage to the limbs to make them disappear; it’s a little different to when they’re just a single Shaede all by themselves.  Only Arawn and Kryvi (at this point, he’s had his glut of demon blood, so he’s at the peak of his power) are able to take out a limb in one attack—though there’s a spear he’s seen that’s super neat, and there are a couple really powerful Fae swords he’d love to try out and probably never will.
          It’s not quite like fighting Shaede.  The limbs can be used as slow crushing things, which he’d kind of been guessing just based on the look of it and there’s easy enough to simply get a sword in the way so it impales itself, but it also can do the shadow-spear thing, much bigger than Shaede but with the same speed.  Those he finds he has to dodge or deflect.  It can make axe-like things, though, and swing them down, which did catch his shoulder the first time and healed just about immediately (spiky form is useful in combat; he’d really not gotten a chance to play around with that before). 
          “hOw dARe YoU crEtiNs? yOU aRe aLl beNEaTh mE!” it booms, and well, somebody’s probably figured out something is going on by this point.  It’s not like they’re quiet and stealthy, anymore.
          “Yeah, well, when you go for fifty feet tall, nobody’s gonna be on your level,” he corrects, aiming for another limb don’t go intangible don’t go intangible.
          It’s probably be safer to have him just sit back and use Arawn over and over, recharge notwithstanding.  More boring, but safer.  Problem is, the longer they take, the more powerful the thing gets, since it just keeps absorbing Shaede if it’s allowed to do that, and it’s also got some sort of move where he starts to sink into the shadow if he doesn’t keep moving that slows him down (it took him a moment to realize what was going on because it was kinda similar to his teleport move), and if he’s not wrong it feels like it’s tugging him toward the thing, so it’s probably got some other point to it.  The only way to not get targeted is to get out of range to use Arawn, so that’s a no-go.
          “To me!” Buffy calls from the other side, and he makes sure to finish his swing before he pulls himself over there.  Be the worst if he just came in and lopped someone’s head off, and he’s still working on getting the full picture on what’s on the other side before he gets there.
          “What’s the plan, oh fearless commander?” he asks, lobbing off one of the shadow tentacles at it reaches out to him.  It falls, wriggling, on the ground.  Everyone else is fine, but no, he keeps getting the tentacles, and sure, he gets it, half-devil and all, but really, there’s enough of him to go around.  There’s no need to get so grabby.
          “You’ve seen those weird eye-things, right?”  She points at it, and well, he’d been thinking of those as blood pustules, but sure, that could be an eye, too.  “I’m thinking that’s a weak point.  If we can get it to fall down, we might get it in reach.”
          “So if we concentrate our fire on the limbs in this area, maybe it’ll fall down.”  This Fae has a nasty looking spear, even cooler up close.  Which he shoves right into the maybe-leg in front of them, and there’s another ground-shaking screech.
          He’s reassessing his categorization.  He hasn’t had this much fun in a fight, ever.
          “You got it.”  Then louder, so the rest of them can hear, “Back off for a sec, I wanna use Arawn again, and you don’t wanna get caught in the boom.”  It’s faster than the Amalgam can react, because he waits only enough time for the rest to back off before he’s shadow-stepping away, and the missiles are away.  Interestingly, Buffy doesn’t seem all that surprised when he appears within range,  Kryvi cutting cleanly through one of the arms reaching out for her.  Arawn’s only got so many missiles per use, especially when he’s using the Devil Arm’s secondary form, and anyway, he hadn’t wanted to run the risk of hurting their allies.
          “I’ve started to get the hang of feeling where you’re going to be, though the Shaede helped me figure that one out,” she explains, hacking at two different limbs at once without glancing at either of them. 
          They react simultaneously; she sheathes the swords and does a series of backflips, doing a landing that he’s pretty sure would’ve gotten her maximum points, while he just throws himself backwards landing in a half-crouch with Kryvi in one hand and the other flat on the ground.  “Get away!” she yells, and most of the Fae get out of the way in time.  Some of them had even started moving away from the Amalgam before her words, feeling the sudden increase in power at the same time they had.  Some of them…some of them weren’t so lucky.
          No, his blood screams.  He’s not weak, he’s not helpless, he’s not having this.  No.
          He manages to teleport three times and grab a few stragglers, including the Maid Fae, before Buffy grabs him, restraining him with the strength of a Slayer, shaking her head at him.  Gjallar screeches in, digging her claws into his shoulders.  He could break free.  They’re standing in shadow.  It’s as simple as sinking into the shadows, and he’s gone, but instead he growls, planting Kryvi in the ground and leaning as he watches for the despairing inevitable.
          A cloud of black fog rises around it, slow at first before reaching out and snatching the ones that hadn’t managed to get far enough away.  They scream before they’re sucked in, and then they’re gone without a trace.
          Xander mentally downgrades the fight again, glee being replaced by a solemn, smouldering anger.  He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told Alisha it was a good day when no one’s died.  It doesn’t help that that Amalgam bitch is just cackling madly.
          “That was the power of the gem, Master.  She’s gettin’ more powerful.  If that hack of a chaos sorcerer don’t hurry…” Kryvi…actually looks vaguely worried, but it’s for a good reason.
          “Thought it looked vampiric,” Xander agrees, taking a little bit of solace from Kryvi resting his hand on his shoulder.
          “If it’s vampiric, then that means…” Buffy reasons, turning toward the Amalgam…and yeah, it’s regrowing limbs.
          “You know that third option, where we have to kill her?  Not sure that’s actually an option.”  He tries to think about it logically.  “If we could maybe keep the Amalgam in place somehow, then I could just keep using Arawn, but I’m not sure how likely that one is.”  It’s too big.
          “Well, if Giles does this right, we’re just stalling for time anyway.”  Buffy’s doing her best to sound optimistic. 
          “Once more unto the breach?” Xander suggests, and gets a nod from the Slayer, who’s just as fueled by her rage.