Grey, Zigera, Draklin and Minerva used a great deal of their remaining energy to hold off the lightning bolts, but each were blasted backwards, blood pouring from them until Minerva sealed their wounds.

Ezekiel grabbed True Death, and landed near his brother. "Inferno, attack his left knee, I'll go for his left wrist......."

Grey looked to Draklin and Lamia, both of whom were heavily injured, but still able to move. "Alright, the two of you, go for his damn spine, I'm going for his shoulders......" Looking to Zigera, he used his eyes to signal her, looking to Friend's right heel.

Ezekiel shot forward, splitting into two at this time, one of him real, the other self made of shadow, then split three times, then four, while Grey shot at Friend, and Lamia did the same, firing with her minigun of a left arm.

Zigera summoned a set of metal arms and fired from four different directions, metal, explosive rounds.

Draklin flew up above Friend and fired a stream of light energy down upon his skull.

Cereza was slow to wake. As she slowly opened her eyes, she stretched in the bed, and sat up in the bed. She smiled softly, seeing Kye sitting at the end of the bed. "Morning." She said, as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Kye smiled, "Well my dear, did you sleep well?"

"How could I not sleep well?" Cereza replied, as she got out of bed.

Deus raised one arm to the air, keeping his gaze fixed on friend,
"One thousand blades...",
blades began to form in the sky at a rapid rate, each almost completely opaque, reflecting the light around them,
"Blade Dance!",
The blades soared to the ground, covering a wide radius.

Kye grinned, "I suppose you couldn't do anything but sleep well......I slept wonderfully as well......you're so cute when your sleeping, you know......and very warm too........."

Weiss appeared near Inferno, "So, what would happen if one of knight, celestial and demon blood were to attack him?"

Cereza stretched again, then looked at Kye. "You're fairly warm too you know." She said, as she walked towards him. "We are warm blooded creatures." She added, then kissed him softly.

Kye chuckled, "So true.....now.......where would that Mountain be that you mentioned earlier, I wanna take a crack at it." He nuzzled her a little.

Inferno turned to Weiss.
"Do I look like an expert?! If I had to guess, I'd say you'd be able to hurt him - although I doubt you'd do much damage, considering he'd focus his attention on you and take you down."
He heard Ezekiel and readied his blade.
"Let's go, brother. I want this son of a bitch ready and waiting to be sealed again."

Kiadred was about to rise and join the assault when she heard her son's voice call her name.
She went to his side again.
"What is it?"
"Mum... just... just trust me... I need some of your power..."

Kiadred paused.
"This will take that bastard down, I swear... please..."

She relented, and sent some of her power into Mawthrough, causing his wounds to heal. Unfortunately, this weakened her so greatly that even Inferno noticed.

What's she doing? What's he planning?

Friend's eyes scanned his assailants, working out the ratio.
Zigera, Lamia and Grey were human.
Ezekiel, Minerva, and Inferno were celestials.
Kiadred, Mawthrough and Draklin were demonic, although two of them seemed relatively out of action right now, leaving a focus on Draklin.

He was the weak link.

However, two unknowns had entered the mix - Deus and that new knight character.
He seemed strong... but at the moment he was an anomaly.
Things were getting confusing.

But, he operated off what he knew, and what he knew was that at the moment, he was bleeding, they were launching another concerted assault from every angle.
Another interesting factor - Draklin was at present the freshest for battle.

With that in mind, he acted.

He hurtled upwards into Draklin, slamming his shoulder into the demon's gut forcing them higher into the air, forcing the others to chase them.
He crushed Draklin's arms in his hands - then dived, sending them both straight into the ground, blowing through the bullets and Ezekiel clones in a cloud of dust.
His only chance was to keep them all away from him, and take out the demon he held before Kiadred recovered enough to attack.

Yet Deus's swords still fell - except Friend rolled over, holding Draklin in place as a shield.
"I can't kill you. Doesn't stop him doing it."

Before Chastity could charge, Mawthrough called to her.
"Chastity... come over here... please..."

Deus smiled as the swords stopped then veered sharply around the human shield, once more shooting towards friend

Draklin chuckled. "A little trade secret........" His body reverted to a small handgun, a power of the weapon master demons.

Lamia, who was a full demon as well, though unknown to Friend apparently, despite her red, translucent skin, continued flying forward, firing demonic energy toward him, while Draklin, now out of fire range of the swords, reverted to his normal form and fired a stream of demonic light toward friend.

The real Ezekiel had closed the distance, and swung toward Mawthough's back, while Grey fired a stream of Omega and Oblivion's power toward Friend and two feet to the left of Friend in case he tried to dodge.

Minerva sped forward, on the right side of Friend, and attemped to claw his right wrist, wanting to take it cleanly off of his body, while Zigera summoned up her river of metal, and started firing metal spikes toward Friend's feet.

Weiss gave a sly smile, "Oh, this'll be just peachy if I do it right!" He moved forward at an incredible rate of speed, a trail of ice left behind, as appeared above Ezekiel, and swung his blades at the same time as the Arch Angel, aiming for Friend's spine.

Friend realised he had miscalculated. Again.

With almost wonderment, he realised there was no way out of this intact.
They had pinned him perfectly. Up was covered by the cat's soul swords, backwards was Ezekiel and the newcomer, to his left was and in front was Grey and and the demon - who thanks to that blasted cat's attack he'd been too disoriented to detect properly - his right was covered by the archangel, and the river of metal pooling around his feet was going to root him in place.

He was trapped.

The only trick that remained to him was to choose what attack he took - by moving in a single direction, he could choose the least dangerous attack to hit him last, resulting in the best outcome.

He turned right, to face Minerva, caught her wrist with one hand, and used the remaining hand to crush her throat.

Ezekiel's and the newcomer's blades crashed into his shoulder - and to Friend's surprise, the newcomer's blade was able to cut him. Not actually cut deep - the skin was merely pierced, causing a dribble of blood down his arm.

Next, Grey Mystic's energy slammed into him, almost causing his knees to buckle - then the soul swords, sending a feeling of great heaviness through his body. His feet suddenly prickled as the metal spikes crashed into them

And last but not least...
The demonic blasts of Lamia and Draklin slammed into him full force, blasting him back, shredding his chest, sending him flying out of the crater that had formed, rolling along the ground, slowly rising, cursing, Minerva's blood dripping from his hands.

"That's... your... healer down..."
He got to his feet, and now, above his stomach that bore Mawthrough's claw marks, his chest now both glowed and bled red too, his blood dripping from his chest as he staggered to regain his footing.

Inferno looked in horror at Minerva, who had fallen to the floor, then thrust his blade in the air.
"Gggraaagh! Come on - one more hit and we've got this bastard!"

Kiadred finally had managed to get to her feet.
"Best words I've heard all day."

As Chastity looked over at the others, Mawthrough reached up and stroked her face.
A single tiny bolt of power flickered from his finger to her cheek - and suddenly Chastity felt numb, her eyes starting to close, the urge to sleep suddenly overwhelming.
"I'm sorry... but you would do anything to protect me. Allow me to do the same for you."
He caught her as she started to fall, watching as the spell took effect.
"I'm sorry..."

Weiss moved rapidly, summoning up several spears of ice all around Friend, and with his blade, swung downward, aiming for his left shoulder, wanting to take the entire arm off.

Minerva was on the ground, holding her throat, gasping for air.

Grey sped forward, shedding his offensive capabilities in order to grab her and take her to the farthest point away from Friend. "You forget, Omega's power is creation, and deconstruction.........." He placed his hand over her throat, and slowly reconstructed it, though this would take time.

Zigera readied herself, as she charged her river of metal with Oblivion's foul energy. With a great deal of effort, she sent it forward, aiming to immobolize friend at the knees, while Ezekiel, filled with rage over what happened to Minerva, jumped back, then forward, with the force of a proper Arch Angel, he swung his blade downward, toward Friend's right arm, wanting to take his hand off at the very least.

Draklin rolled backwards, and fired a continual stream of energy from his handgun to the left of Friend, aiming for the waist, so that if he tried to run, it wouldn't work in his favor, then finally, Lamia, with the last of her strength, fired from her weapons, one last burst shot, aimed for Friend's abdomen.

Inferno and Kiadred hurtled upwards, before diving as a pair towards Friend.
"Right, you take the right, I'll aim for his skull."

"Got it. What if he-"

"CHILDREN."

Friend's voice suddenly boomed around the area, and he had straightened up to his full height.
His eyes were narrowed and his fists were clenched.

He looked up, reached up, grabbed Ezekiel's and Weiss's blades as they descended.

Crack. Snap.

Both blades shattered in his hands, and he smashed their heads together before throwing them both aside.
"BABES, CRYING IN THE DIRT. INFANTS, SQUABBLING WITH TOYS."

He looked at the river of metal - and his eyes emitted two beams of heat so fierce that they caused the river to completely evaporate, doing the same thing to Weiss's ice spears in the process.
He turned, walked into Draklin's shot, walked through the energy until he was face to face with Draklin, ignoring the energy cascading around his body.

"LIFE. SQUANDERED."

He forced Draklin to his knees with one hand around his neck - and casually slammed Kiadred into the ground as she charged in from the side, hoping to distract him. Lamia's shot crashed into his side - and he responded by hurling Kiadred and Draklin at Lamia, sending them all down in a heap.

Inferno felt fear chill up his back - then noticed Mawthrough holding the unconscious Chastity at the same moment Friend did.

Mawthrough kissed her forehead gently.
"We will fight together. You are my greatest weapon."

Inferno leapt in front of Mawthrough, blade ready, defending him.
"Is she alright?"

"I knocked her unconscious."

"WHAT!? WHY!?"

"Inferno, listen to me - I need you all to hold him off. I need a few minutes, to hide her away so I can come back and fight for real."

"Don't be a fool, boy! We need you here NOW! Just put her down and keep one eye on her as we -"

"Inferno."

Mawthrough's tone of voice made the archangel of creation stop dead.

"If you have ever had to do one thing, one thing at all, then do this. For once, just once, I need you to trust me. Please. A few minutes. Seal him if you can, but if you can't -"

A pause.

"I'll be back. I promise."

Inferno growled.
"If you're not, I'll kill you myself, you brat!"

As Mawthrough vanished through a portal, Friend laughed - but this laugh was the laugh a cat would make if it had a mouse cornered.

"HIDING HER WILL NOT STOP ME, BOY. I WILL REDUCE THESE SPECKS TO MERE HUSKS OF LIFE, THEN I WILL COME FOR YOU AGAIN. AND THIS TIME, I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO STAND IN MY WAY."

Inferno growled.
"Speaking of standing in each other's way..."
He leveled his flaming broadsword at Friend.
"He asked for a few minutes. SO COME ON THEN!"

He charged, wanting to buy the others time to recover...

OOT: Off for the night.

Grey sighed upon finishing with the process of healing Minerva. He stood up and looked to Friend with anger. "You hurt the people I care for.....you hurt the people my friend Occidio cared for........" As he spoke, a suit of bio armor appeared over his body, one filled with Omega's protective energies. "I can muster a few minutes......Zigera, no holding back........." While he spoke, Omega's energies began to heal, and fortify everyone within the room, including Inferno.

Ezekiel held out his hand, and True Death reformed within it, though now with a crack in it. He slowly readied himself.

Draklin stood up, his body wracked with pain, but felt the need to continue, so he dropped his gun, and ran toward Friend unarmed.

Zigera's entire body became covered in metal, as purple flame surrounded her.

Cereza smiled warmly. "Not far." She replied. "This house is pretty close to the foot of it."

Kye chuckled, "That's good to hear, would you mind taking me to it? Unless of course you wanna lay in bed with me all day today, which to me, is just as tempting......" He licked his lips.

Seeing one of his prized blades shatter, Weiss grew extremely angry, flying back at this moment with a wave of ice to avoid damage. Looking to the sky, the hybrid blind to detail, did the unexpected, he prayed, to his grandfather, Gabriel, one of the Arch Angels. He prayed, and as he prayed, a new form of ice was given to him, one which would name, perma frost. s this ice covered his skin, his resiliance to damage would increase heavily. Against Friend, such a technique wouldn't hold out for long, but it gave him a chance to damage him, due to his bloodline.