On motorbikes, he, alongside five of his best subordinates went after the woman, catching her before she even got out of his territory. Despite her speedy escape, she obviously couldn’t keep up that smoke-form for long… And he knew this area better than the back of his hand, as did his squad of five.
He had her in a back alley, with two behind himself and two at its other end waiting for his signal to come over the top of the wall.
Cassius pulled one of his pistols and fired. Two Pale-Red Reapers tore out from his gun at once, throwing him backwards with the force of recoil. These marginally weaker versions of the Red Reaper had the advantage of being much smaller both as bullets and as manifested projectiles, focusing two-thirds the power into one-third the blast radius, while also having a higher maximum velocity and accelerating to that velocity instantly. They also had the advantage of operating on Arcane principles, generating the explosion in a manner that would retain effectiveness against barriers, and two of them could be energized with just one Class Three Lesser Eidolon, the same as Yellow Atropals. Being custom-tuned to him alone, his Pale-Reds were still significantly more powerful than Yellow Atropals, however. With his double-barreled howdah pistol, even the defenses of his superiors couldn’t hold up, allowing him to keep his cushy, comfortable position without politicking.
At this distance, That Woman would have, at best, time to raise a Barrier, if she had an exceptionally fast expansion time combined with fast reactions. However, the impact would surely leave her melting down for him to finish off with a third shot from his double-barreled shotgun, into which he had loaded two Crimson Reapers, the opposite of a Pale-Red, being far more forceful but also larger, slower and with a limited range and collateral damage akin to a Bloody Reaper.
But… When the white-red flash passed, and the explosion came, it was not through impact with a human body or a barrier, but with the cobblestones and crates right behind her, sending up a spray of dust and debris, ripping into the wall. Confused, he quickly reloaded two more Pale-Reds, and raised his gun, seeing That Woman walking out of the dust with a demented grin on her face, holding up a Pattner-type pistol to her face while running that charred waste of a left arm through her hair. An ember-like glow emerged from the limb, and at that moment, fanged mouths opened down its length, and slick, black tendrils emerged from those mouths and from behind her, as if sprouting from that ridge that ran down the length of her spine.
“Oh man, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this!” she exclaimed, a melodious laughter ringing out from her as the tendrils continued to expand, enveloping her and even pushing under the edges of that black suit she wore. “How many did you bring? Five? Ten?!”
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He wasn’t sure if that question was about his ammunition or his reinforcements. He fired again.
Again, his Pale-Reds passed through her like she wasn’t even there, but this time, he saw it clearly. Just for a moment, she changed, a devil of smoke and fire, a blazing spine-and-ribcage seething inside her and green-burning embers in place of eyes, hair billowing as if blasted upward by nonexistent wind. She walked three steps’ worth in the span of two, and then snapped back into physicality. He instinctively raised his Barrier as he loaded two more Pale-Reds, only to find those tar tendrils setting upon him with thunderous impacts, smashing down his Barrier before he could set off another shot. He knew better than to let himself be forced into meltdown, and so let himself be struck on the Wards, hoping to be thrown back by the force so he could use the velocity to escape.
It seemed as though it would work, until he saw the bangle on her wrist flash with light, and felt the ground right behind him shudder. When the next strike came, he smacked back-first into a solid stone wall that absolutely wasn’t there before. With a snap of his fingers, he fired a whistling, reddish missile straight upward, one which burst with a bright flash and loud noise. It was the signal for his squad to go in, and they did - the two of them at the other side.
The Woman’s eyes briefly tracked the flare, and, hearing the sound of Cassius’ allies, she flicked her gun hand towards him… But didn’t shoot. Her finger wasn’t even on the trigger. Instead, the bangle on her wrist began to glow and floated from its place, spinning. Protuberances emerged from the wall behind him, seamless as if they’d always been there, followed by thin rods of the same material from the ground and walls. The wall itself even grew taller, as if specifically to forestall any aid from that direction. He was stuck; his gun arm was mostly free, as was his left forearm, but they were too far apart to do anything besides fire one more time. The next moment it seemed as if something was erupting from inside That Woman’s chest, only for her suit to tear open, a black blur flying out, down the middle of her chest a fanged maw yawning into a swirling void of eldritch blackness that dragged the eyes. It snapped shut right away, leaving just a tear, which began to close as if even that suit was alive.
The shape landed on her gun’s barrel, and Cassius saw clearly what it was; a raven of smoke, with red coals for eyes.
“Keep an eye on him,” she said to the bird, and it flew off, perching somewhere above Cassius’ head while its mistress arrogantly spun around on a bootheel. He held out his hand in an attempt to shoot her in the back, but realized that the thrice-damned bird had flicked the break-open switch on his gun. The forward lurch of his arm was enough. The barrel tilted, the extractor pushed his bullets halfway out the chamber… And the thrice-damned bird snatched them in its beak, changing positions from right to left.