What Good is Peace?

It was freezing. Ridiculously cold. Sam sighed and pouted while looking down at the city. She was sitting, looking at the cityscape just after the sun had set. Sure it was pretty, but that's not what she climbed up here for. She heard a resounding ten chimes ring out from around her. She couldn't see the clock below her dangling feet, but she was sure it's 10 pm. Big Ben is supposed to be always accurate, right? Looking at her watch, she confirmed it. She sighed again in frustration.

"Oh, come on! How can such a large city have nothing going on?" Sam complained to no one in particular. "This is so boring! Somebody blow up a car or something!" She hadn't fought anyone but robbers and thugs in the past few weeks. London sounded like a pretty good place to look for a rumble. So far, no dice. She was getting antsy.

A small 'girl' hovered excitedly about Sam's head. It marveled at the scenery in contrast to its stewing master. "Aaah...!" Puu's eyes sparkled at the scene. It appreciated the city's beauty. Sam glared at her with feigned annoyance. "Since you're so damn cheery, I guess you don't need any more candy tonight?" This snapped Puu out of its awe. It now looked at Sam with pleading, tear-filled eyes. "Auuuwa..." Sam smiled, pleased with her effect on Puu. "You're so spoiled..."

She took another look at the city below, concentrating once more. "Maybe I should just call it a night..." Her thoughts were interrupted by screams. She could see people running down the street away from something. "Hot damn!" Sam exclaimed. With that, she jumped from the tower. Puu glided down and flashed in a burst of light. It quickly formed a scarf around Sam's arm. The scarf extended to a streetlight and wrapped around. Sam swung using Puu as a rope and hit the ground running toward the disturbance. "Good things come to those who wait, Puu!" Sam said as she whipped Puu around her neck.

Up ahead, she could see the cause of the stir. There were three werewolves snarling in the street. They looked rather large, abnormally large in comparison to the ones she'd seen before. They were chasing people to and fro. What are they even doing here?

Sam held up her arm and flicked her wrist. Her watch bathed in light, and shifted into her hand. The watch had become a gun. "Hold it!" Sam yelled as she pulled the trigger. A bullet of light shot from the gun and rammed into the side of the closest beast's head. It didn't pierce through; she didn't really feel like killing them unless provoked. The werewolf reeled and rubbed its singed face. The other two noticed her and began to slowly creep toward her.

"Heh" A wild smirk crossed Sam's face. She could barely contain her excitement.

Juro had taken some time to himself to explore the Earth Realm. Prince Laharl had decided the vassals could 'get out of his hair' for a bit and do what they wanted. It in short had been a thinly disguised way of saying they earned a vacation but he didn't want to appear soft and just outright say it. Etna would have never let it go, and he had to least 'pretend' there was some other reason he was doing it. Whether he admitted it or not, Laharl had matured quite a bit as a growing young man(and oddly now appeared older there may have been some link)

London wasn't his first choice to be, but he had been curious of what the other cities had to offer so he traveled. Hotaru was currently with Etna, and last he heard, they had headed to the Ando Sisters concert which she had been wanting to go to badly. She was probably going to get Haku Rosecourts autograph, no doubt in his mind with the fact Etna and Laharl both knew the Biodroid sisters.

'Been rather slow, still..'

The ninja almost lazily jumped from roof to roof, feeling the wind rush over him. Normal people never did things like this but he was hardly normal; this was just merely part of training was all.

He stopped, hearing something's. That was when he spotted screaming people and Werewolves. That was strange. Judging by their size, if he had to guess, they were more of the feral kind then saptient but he could be wrong.

'What's that saying? When in Rome..'

Juro climbed down from the building, lugging a rock at one of the creatures head. Even with his strength, it wasn't likely going to do serious damage but that wasn't the point. It was followed by another, from a different direction and angle. While they were confused and scattered, he dropped down by the angel.

"Sorry to intrude on this dance, but looks like there was still one empty space was getting lonely."

Sam scoffed at the newcomer's comment. "I was beginning to think the people in this city didn't know how to have fun!" She sprinted forward and held her gun with both hands. It quickly flashed as the barrel changed. The werewolves had regained their composure by then, and the closest was charging Sam in turn. She ducked as it swiped horizontally at her head. She rolled to the side as she pulled the trigger. The shot hit home at the beast's stomach, but burst unlike the first shot.

With a loud grunt, the werewolf was blown back a few feet. It snarled in rage and lunged at Sam. Suddenly, Sam dove backwards onto her back while her scarf animated, lengthening itself then coiling around the werewolf. It struggled in vain as the scarf suspended it in place a few yards away. Sam's gun charged and glowed slightly before unleashing a larger burst shot into the werewolf's chest. The beast flew backward and slammed into a nearby building.

The other two werewolves darted past Sam and the first. One stopped several yards short of Juro and howled. Its mouth glowed a dull red before a blast of demonic energy burst forth, headed for the ninja. The other ran on all fours up the side of a building and leaped into the air. It aimed to pounce straight down on Juro, with timing to land after the oncoming blast.

'We'll I'll give them credit, they do have some tactics feral or not.'

While Juro did them that credit mentally, he did so in almost bored fashion. It wasn't that he was arrogant, it was just this was hardly anything new. In the Netherworld, fights were about as common as rocks. There was just about one rule of the that realm, power was among one of the most important rule but it wasn't iron clad with all situations. There were other rules as well, but for the most part the Netherworld was a somewhat violent realm but it wasn't evil.

Monsters like this, they weren't anything new. Juro had fought Werewolves, Unseelie and other various monsters so this was nothing new. On the flip side, he still needed to be careful, they were huge creatures so they could very well be stronger then him, not to mention most Werewolves were pretty damned fast as is.

Without any warning, he suddenly vanished in a swirl of leafs. The spot empty, Juro appeared behind the airborne one. "Fancy meeting you like this." He said casually as he attempted to crash into the things back, it likely couldn't change its position airborne as is.

Juro's target took the hit full on, crashing down to the pavement below. The blast of energy flew and smashed into the prone beast, hurling it further down the street. It looked like it was down for the count, but it quickly rolled up to all-fours. Its eyes now glowed red and a dull red electricity sparked from its head. It looked as if it was trying to shake something off before roaring with immeasurable volume. Its body convulses as its muscles increased in size. Its fur hazed in visibility before the entire being was invisible, save for its glowing red eyes. It charged Juro with a much greater speed than before; its red eyes leaving a light trail wherever it moved.

The second werewolf who shot at Juro before readied another blast after changing its angle, so as to not fire at the other. "Don't forget about me!" Sam was about to engage this werewolf, when her original opponent followed suit of Juro's target. With a deafening roar, two red eyes darted out from the ruins of the building toward Sam. "Whoa!" Sam readied her gun and burst in a blinding flash of light. In the next instant, she was in midair behind the invisible assailant, aiming for where it should be. She fired into its back and watched it stumble and slam into the building across the street yet again.

Just what the hell are these things?!

'Try to outspeed me huh?'

The dangerous thing about Juro wasn't his power or even his skill even though he was definitely no slacker in that department. It was the fact he was far faster then his opponent that made him hard to deal with at most times. After all, if you could strike your foe and leave a crippling or fatal blow before they could properly defend themselves, then all that power was going to do nothing.

The demon ninja dashed forward at an insane speed, his body then got covered in energy looking like a human comet as he activated his Dragon's Charge technique. This in turn actually increased his speed, thus increasing the force of impact and the general power behind the attack.

Juro's target smashed into him, only to be blown back by the attack. It bounced down the pavement yet again and laid in a heap. Trickling with dull red electricity, the beast convulsed and began to reshape. Its muscles shrank and most of its hair receded. What was once a 12-foot tall werewolf was now a unconscious human male. His features were disfigured, as if the transformation was incomplete.

Puu wrapped its long 'arms' around Sam's initial target, still recovering from the second blast. Suddenly it was hoisted high into the air then swiftly brought to the ground. Its head crushed the asphalt below. Surprisingly, its skull held intact. The werewolf lost consciousness and reverted in a similar fashion to Juro's. "Humans?!" Sam was even more confused than before.

The last werewolf had been charging during the fights; its aura growing. It opened its mouth looking down the street at Juro and howled. A colossal slicing wind tunnel erupted forth, slashing and obliterating everything in the street. The speed and power of the blast were nearly unfathomable.

Even for a ninja of his speed, Juero didn't want to take chances with this blast. Even if it didn't kill him there was almost no doubt in his mind it would do serious damage. His mana sensing was going beserk at the mmoment.

'Shit, move, move!'

He desperately activated his teleportation at the last moment, leaving a swirl of leaves behind in his wake. The spot he had been was completely wrecked, a truck having exploded, which set off another car creating something of a mini chain. No doubt in his mind with all this damage Nobus would be here sooner or later. That and more then a few people were going to be pissed in the morning.

Juro appeared above the werewolf, delivering a splitting axe kick to its head hopefully before it could react and knock it out.

The werewolf caved to the ground with the unforeseen blow. It transformed, same as the others, into a mutated human female. Sam had checked her target's pulse and rushed over after Juro took his down. She brought her fingertips to the woman's neck. "She's alive too. That's good, but their pulses are too high." She listened to the woman's breathing. It was also abnormally fast.

Sam looked up and spoke to Juro. "Well, they're alive so all's well. Except for all this damage..." Sam looked around at the obliterated street and burning vehicles. There were car and store alarms going off all down the block. "We should get out of here before--" She stopped in surprise. Suddenly, she took notice of the boy standing near one of the male werewolves. To be exact, he stood near the remains of the werewolf that had been caught in the blast. The body was barely recognizable. It had been torn to shreds and strewn down the street.

The person was wearing a long white lab coat, but his gauntness was apparent. His hands stuck out from the sleeves of his coat to hold a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other; furiously scribbling on the pad. His dark red hair covered his eyes for the most part. Curiously, his entire being seemed to be nonexistent. If she hadn't looked, she never would have known he was there.

"Uh, hey kid! This isn't somewhere you should be." Sam called out while approaching the boy. At the sound of her voice, he jumped in shock. He looked up at her through his hair, his grey eyes wide with surprise. It was like the boy had forgotten them entirely.

"Who are you?" The boy asked in a barely audible tone. Even as he spoke, he lacked any sort of presence.

Having grown up in the Netherworld, Juro was used to and been through all kinds of violence as it was a common fact to life. Seeing the brutalized body of one of the Werewolves didn't really bother him that much as it would someone normally. Then again, even without his background people would assume a ninja would be a bit distant to death and destruction, at least far as the stereotypical archetype went.

'What the hell is up with the kid?'

Juro noticed they felt..odd. His mana sensing wasn't the best but without boasting about himself he considered it pretty decent. It felt strange.

"I can't make heads or tails of your energy." Juro said bluntly. "You're not freaking out about being near a half broken up body either. Makes me think you're used to it. As for the name..its Juro." That set him a bit on edge. In his experience not everything was what it seemed, but he couldn't figure out an angle about all this himself.

"My..this is quite the predicament."

A strange, young man came seemingly out of nowhere. They had glasses, gray hair and a long black coat. "I'm Darrien Maxford." They briefly showed their Nobus badge. "I just came to investigate the cause of all the explosions and reports of some feral Werewolves.." He looked at the one broken in half. "..Or what's left of one of them I should say. You three are?"

Juro, huh? Sam thought to herself. She was about to comment on his appearance and greet as well, until the Nobus officer appeared.

Crap dammit... Sam thought to herself. She'd hoped they could get out of there without the authorities noticing. Maybe this wouldn't go that badly. The collateral damage wasn't all their fault...

"Samantha." Sam answered tersely while crossing her arms. She neglected sharing her last name, in case the officer knew her father. He, too, worked for Nobus as a well known inventor. "I just came to make sure no one got hurt." A half-truth on her part.

The boy in the lab coat took a step back in apprehension. "I-I'm Samael. I came because I was curious..." His speech as almost as low as a whipser. His name wasn't lost on Sam. "'Samael'? That's demon's name isn't it?" She brought her hands to her hips and strode up to him. Samael stepped back again when she stopped about a foot before his face. "Um, I-I don't know. I guess s-so?" Sam looked him over. "You look pretty human, though." She was starting to get suspicious.

"I am h-human." Samael managed to say. Sam watched him for another moment before easing off him. She stood back and sighed. "Then don't act like you have something to hide."

"Oh! N-no. I didn't... Oh... I'm sorry." The boy apologized and stared at his feet while fumbling with his clipboard. This kid's... kind of pathetic. Sam sighed to herself again.

Darrien had seen many strange things on a daily basis, so this while unusual wasn't anything he Hadn't seen before. He wordlessly pulled out a strange device that looked like a Very high tech PDA. He tapped a few buttons on it. "Ah, so a demon, an half-angel and a human as this boy claims. If this thing isn't malfunctioning."

In the background, more men, working for Nobus came to secure the werewolfs, putting strange binding runes on them just in case before moving them to be transported away in vehicles where they could be helped.

He put the PDA away for now. "Anyway, just asking for something to log away for later, are you a type of ninja by chance?"

The question was referred to Juro who shrugged. "I am. I don't use Chakra though, I use mana."

Sam turned to the officer. "I don't suppose you've seen stuff like this before? These things were pretty big for werewolves, not to mention they look like they're mutated." She looked around at the other officers retrieving the injured. She was going to inquire more when her scarf began to tremble. She brought her hand up to the "cloth" around her neck. "What's wrong?"

In the next instant, the air in the streets became stagnant. An incredible surge of demonic energy coursed through the area as it began to slightly rumble. A large, black portal opened above one of the Nobus vehicles, dropping from it a massive beast. It was a silver wolf, about the size of a semi, with sharp, spiked hair and a long cat-like tail. It came crashing down onto the vehicle, crushing it easily. Sam drew her gun and covered her eyes from the gust. Samael quickly darted behind Juro to distance himself from the wolf. Mounted atop the wolf's head was a red gem that teemed with demonic power. A buff man wearing a black leather coat stood on the beast's back. Though it was night, he kept his shades on. He hopped down to the street; his boots made an audible THUD.

"Not one day's fuckin' rest." He mumbled to himself. He glanced at Darrien and the other officers. "And shit if the five-o ain't already on the scene! What a pain..." He spouted as he kicked at the ground. The man exuded a dangerously high level of energy. It felt like a twisted mix of magic and chakra.

"Wow... that's the second largest wolf I've ever seen... bet it's far less annoying too." This voice came from a man who was sitting on the nearby roof, massive sword resting on his shoulder. "Hey, Darrien. Question. When I say 'wait for me', do you hear 'run ahead like a half-wit'?" He hopped down, landing next to Darrien, and sighed. "Seriously, I stop to take a piss and you just go off on your own? What if you got into trouble, eh? Wouldn't want my little buddy to get hurt, would I?" He then glanced at the man exuding the strange energy.

"....Do I sense chakra? My, my, maybe this could be fun..." Akuma gave a rather wolfish grin, his own chakra flaring around him, a wolf head seeming to form inside, though having no true form. "Wonder if I should let Fenrir out for some fun or not..."

Darrien was going to comment about something when the strangest thing happened(though not the strangest in his line of work to be sure) a portal opened up and a giant, massive wolf and a strange made riding them came out. It crushed on of the vehicles but luckily the person inside hadn't been crushed or anything. Hm..that'll cost some money. He thought idly, as if a uber monster and a person with a demonic amount of power, magic and chakra was a normal occurence.

Juro simply glared at the figure, shifting slightly but keeping calm. Some ridiculous amount of energy this guy is giving off. Yet part of him, whether he'd admit it or not was eager to see all what he could do. He wondered if the kid had a connection with them somehow.

When the other Chakra User, Akuma came, Darrien greeted them, adjusting his glasses. "Apologies Akuma." He turned back to the newcomer passively. "And you are, I'm guessing behind these mutated Werewolves?"

The man threw up his hands, as if to absolve himself. "Sorry, kid. That's the only one I'm in charge of." He gestured his thumb toward the large wolf. "Few test subjects got out, but it looks like you've got clean-up handled for me!" He eyed one of the bodies in contempt. "Doc always gives me bullshit jobs..."

The man's face shifted from annoyance to anticipation. "Heh. But they sent fighters?" Energy began to visibly pour from his body. It swirled around his arms and took the shape of feral gauntlets. "Shit yeah. The job can wait."

Sam had her gun trained on him the whole time. She glanced up at the man with the large sword. He appeared to know the other Nobus agent. Thank God for reinforcements... She glanced around at the others. She wasn't sure how strong this guy was, but precautions wouldn't hurt. She whispered to Juro. "Hey, you seem pretty quick. Think you can get him outta here?" Sam cocked her head toward Samael. He was still behind Juro trying to maintain composure, but his knees were shaking under his lab coat.

"Fafnir. Go." The man instructed. The wolf, who had been standing patiently, suddenly tensed up and snarled. A white, frigid cloud quickly billowed out of its mouth and began to fill the street. The cloud covered up to twenty feet off the ground, but barely obscured normal vision. The temperature dropped drastically, and the wolf's body faded slightly. Without sharp eyes, it was difficult to see. It slowly paced around its prey in the street, waiting for movement.

"Let's get this shit started!" The man was immediately behind Akuma. He easily brought his fist down with enough force to destroy the building below them whether he hit or not.

The man seemingly struck true, Akuma taking the blow and being driven into the building... only to disappear in a puff of smoke; a Shadow Clone. Another Akuma was behind the man, swinging his massive sword around to try and cleave him in half, wielding the blade as easily as if it was a simple extension of his arm. Dark blue chakra seemed to bubble up on the surface of the blade, though the reason for this was not readily apparent. Whether or not it came into play depended on whether his opponent simply dodged, or put distance between them. Or tried to catch the blade.

Juro just nodded. "I can. I'm going to get you out of here kid." Without another word, he grabbed the young man and teleported away to another location. It was far enough to be some distance but not to where he was completely out of the way as he couldn't teleport that far. "Do you know them? Are they after you?" He asked them, prepared for anything out of the ordinary.
* *

Darrien in the mean time was just making sure civilians stayed out the way. When two high level superhumans fought, there was always bound to be a lot of damage and from what he had witnessed, the man was quite strong. As for Akuma he was jokingly dubbed a 'person of mas destruction' which suited him well enough in a serious fight. It was also something applied to the Demon King Miki, sweet normally but not someone you wanted to piss off.

"Just hope no one gets caught in the crossfire." He said to Sam. "I'll try to keep the civilians out, but its a bit hard with two high level opponents start fighting like this."

Samael blinked. He wasn't fully aware of what just happened. When Juro spoke, he presumably regained his bearings. "He's not after me, but I've seen him before. He's kinda scary." He flipped through the pages on his clipboard. "I've been following weird monster things like this for a while. I've seen him a few times, but I don't think he's noticed me..." He trailed off without confidence. "But, I think he came for one of the chips. Every time I saw one of those things, I noticed that they had some sort of technology in them." Samael pointed at multiple pages of notes and drawings he'd done. They were detailed and written in multiple languages.

"I don't know much about him, but I think his name is Owen."

----------

"Interesting." Owen said, glancing back at the blade. He stuck out his arm and stopped the blade. The moment it made contact, the chakra began to be forcibly extracted from the blade. The armor rumbled slightly as it devoured the sword's energy. At that time, a clone of Owen appeared beside Akuma aiming a punch to his side.

"Then I'll keep the wolf busy!" Sam began running toward the hazy beast after calling back to Darrien. She had only taken a few steps before the wolf's form shifted. It looked like a ghastly snake as it flowed through the air to get behind Sam. She jumped to narrowly avoid it's large snapping jaws. When attempting to bite, it appeared solid. However, when Sam tried to counter with a shot, it phased through the shining bullet and flowed through the mist. "Great. Well, that's annoying." She said to herself.

The punch connected, only to reveal another shadow clone. That was when there was slow clapping from off to the left, Akuma standing there with a grin. "I love shadow clones. Very good at gathering information and exposing things I didn't know before. So, you can suck up chakra, eh? Nice to know. Question is, can you keep that up? Tricky, tricky...we'll see how you do." He then flung his sword, causing it to spin through the air like a buzzsaw.... until Akuma formed a hand seal, and the single sword split into seven, curving around to come at Owen at various angles. Akuma didn't seem to be directing them, instead squaring his stance and hunching over, hands held in a claw-like position as he watched Owen, and the swords that were homing in on him. He loved having a sentient sword.

As the swords did their thing, Akuma's eyes focused on Owen, tracking his movements, yet seemed blank, as if his mind was elsewhere.... and even those who couldn't feel the building chakra within Akuma, would see it forming a dark blue aura around him again, the power slowly building.

Juro was silent for a moment. "That answers one thing. But I have to ask, you look like you're in your preteens or something. In the Netherworld, the culture is different but here having someone that young chasing monsters is from what I gathered pretty odd. Are you suppose to be a researcher or something?"

* *

There was a dramatic sigh from the Arlain after seeing the attacks pass through, he could see the being more clearly with his special glasses. I suppose I'll have to get in there to get my hands dirty. Interesting specimen, shame I'll have to likely wreck them to tiny pieces.

Oh well! The last mental comment was cheerful, perhaps too much so.

Darrien held out a hand, which glows blue with numbers and rune symbols appear and in a digital code and flash, a energy bat formed. He pulled something from his pockets, tossing it to Sam. It seemed like a strange cube ball.

"Here. Just tap it once. When activated it allow the user to hurt intangible beings like this creature. I myself don't need it, but its helpful for Nobus members." The bat seemed to hum slightly, and he rested it on his shoulder, relaxed.

Samael adjusted his glasses. "I'm not r-really a researcher. I'm more of a hobbyist, I guess. I like studying. Anything, really. As for the coat... I just l-like it..." He trailed off. "Um. Th-thank you for helping me."

----------

"Clones are pretty great." The man chuckled. He stood, simply waiting for the blades to come. As Akuma began to focus his chakra, he would feel it being drained from behind him. "Who can't keep up with who?" The clone took the sword hits, but didn't dissipate. Instead, the swords became lodged within the clone, unable to break free.

Sam caught the strange object. She was confused, but went along anyway. She tapped the cube and tried to track the beast. She fired after spotting it again. This time, however, it dodged and spiraled toward her. She ducked out of the way as it bit. She tried to shoot it again, but barely missed. "Dammit!" The wispy wolf darted toward Darrien, but stopped short. Instantly, it opened its jaws and spewed a black mist toward him. One look at the haze would discern it was poison.

Akuma just grinned. "Hm. Good question. Shall we find out?" Six of the seven swords suddenly exploded violently, leaving the real sword to go flying. It redirected in midair, heading toward Owen... or so it seemed. It suddenly veered off as it passed Akuma, a dense chakra claw shooting out of it and grabbing Akuma, pulling him away from Owen. At the same time, two Akuma's erupted from the ground right next to Owen, on either side, and immediately exploded with enough force to level another building. Akuma jsut kept focusing his chakra for something big. The sword hovered next to him, then stuck itself to his back, before a mass of dark blue chakra left it, forming a second Akuma, though one with distinctly feral features, and a wild look in it's eyes. When he spoke, his voice carried an echo, and a strange power too it, along with sounding rather rough.

"Finally, a chance to fight! Damn you, Akuma, not letting me out more often!"

"Eh, just do your job, fuzzball."

Juro shook his head. "I couldn't just leave you like that. Where are you parents though? You're a bit young to be wandering by yourself."

"Strange times give birth to strange things." The voice belonged to a young woman that had to be somewhere in her twenties. "Odd seeing you in such a place, Juro."

The ninja blinked, turning to see the Rune Knight. "..Isamu. What are you doing here?"

"I had a few things to take care of here in the Earth Realm. I also picked up some rather high energy signatures next to your own so I went to investigate."

Juro just nodded. "I got into a fight with some strange werewolves and there's a new..friend of mine. She might be in trouble over there but I can't just leave the kid."

Isamu paused, thinking. "Very well. I'll be back shortly." Some strange energy-like wings came from her back and she was off.

* *

The posion hit a strange shield around Darrien, it didn't go through but he was never the less curious. 'Interesting, I wonder my friend, you're fast but how durable are you?'

Darrien wasn't idle, he began moving at a incredibly fast speed as he brought his bat down to strike the creature.

That was when a strange energy wave shaped in a crescent moon that came from above at the being, Isamu was in the air currently airborne.

Samael jumped in response to the newcomer's voice. He let out a small sigh of relief as she and Juro appeared to be acquaintances. "So many... fast people today." He mumbled. "D-do you live here? Has something like this happened before?" He asked.

----------

"Tonight's turning out to be a real blast..." Owen smirked to himself. His energy began to intensify. "Round Two!" He lowered slightly and bolstered his stance.

As the two attacks homed in on the wolf, it dispersed into the mist in every direction. A few meters away, it 'reformed' into its snake-like state. "What?! That's it!!" Sam yelled in frustration. She thought a few instructions to Puu. Her scarf planted its two ends into the street and hoisted Sam into the air. Once above the cloud, she charged her Sol and fired a series of fiery bursts into the mist. She blew holes into the cloud and cornered the beast. As she shot at the remaining icy haven, Fafnir leaped out of the cloud and returned to its original form. "Gotcha!"