Banana Republic IV

Instead of responding to the series of questions, one of the three figures, the middle one that was blocking most of the glare from the bright sun, lept from their position and landed onto the ground with slightly bent knees.

Dust and rubble swirled out of his position, forced away by the wind that followed from the force of his landing.

The figure revealed itself to him. Wearing a thin black V-neck shirt, tight dark blue jeans, a necklace made of tiny seashells, a pierced left earlobe, and bottle-blonde spiked hair, the young man that looked like someone out of this world's version of the television show "Entourage," gave him a cheeky smile.

"Cortege" was what it was called, a favourite of Ella.

His eyes were dark as the moonless night, the skin around it showing strained black streaks. He was possessed by a demon, a powerful one, at that, given the potent rancid smell he produced, strongly contrasting the handsome figure the demon was presenting.

"Hell, that was faster and cleaner than expected." It said, whistling amusedly as it scanned the twisted necks and bent bodies of the dead monsters.

It was then it saw a werewolf hunched over on the ground, still alive since all Irwin did was destroy his trachea.

"Well, looki' here?"

It walked over to the werewolf, raising its left foot before gazing up to the other still figure.

"Wanna save 'em?" It asked the right-most figure.

The figure, who Irwin surmised to be the werewolf alpha, shook his head, much more ruthless than his vampiric counterpart.

The demons snorted in delight and, right before Irwin's eyes, it stomped on the fallen werewolf's head, smashing it to a pulp in one strike. The demon clicked its tongue as if the blood and guts on its jeans were stained by watermelon.

It merely sighed before turning its attention back to Irwin. "Now, where were we?"

"You were about to answer my questions." Irwin replied with a soft smile on his face, not one bit externally perturbed by the actions of the demons. Of course, the act riled up a slight sense of revulsion and dissatisfaction inside of him, but he made sure not to give the demon any advantage in this ensuing fight.

"Ah, yes. Name's Sibili. An Ignictus working for someone very special." It introduced itself, placing a well-meaning hand on its vessel's heart. It then proceeded to introduce the rest of its companions. "Up there are, as you mighta guessed, Kirthnaja, the wolf mercenary, and Silver Rigging, a vampire hoping to earn herself a pass through the coming storm. Wave hello to our friend, you schmucks!"

When the two didn't wave, the demon sighed in exhaustion. "Damn 'em. Anyway, we called you 're 'cause you've been handling these demon businesses like Rambo. My boss don't like that and when my boss don't like it, we don't like it. Crystal?"

"Clear." Irwin responded, nodding his head as he briefly eyed the nearby yellow shipping crane that suddenly came to life and began clutching a container. 

"Good. Now why don't you enter that container right over 're and get yourself nice and cozy." The demons snapped its fingers at Irwin, pointing to the original reinforced shipping container.

Irwin stood still, even after the demon snapped its fingers a few more times. The demons became frustrated, grunting in anger before snapping at Irwin. "What the fuck are you doing? GET THE FUCK IN!"

Its eyes flared even darker, as if its void-like eyes wanted to devour his very form.

The demons sighed once more. "Hard way, huh? Don't kill 'im."

It was Kirthnaja that moved first, leaping up from his position and soaring through the air. 

Under the rays of the afternoon sun, his clothing fell off his body as tough matted fur began to emerge from every patch of skin, his mouth and nose grew long and dark enough to be called a muzzle as elongated sharp carnivorous teeth emerged out of his now toothy maw, his fingers, then, grew as large as the blades on his snout and created dagger-like claws.

His mid-air howl reverberated across the surroundings, resonating with the bestial nature of every human that heard it. He dove and firmly placed his trajectory to hit Irwin head-on when he landed.

But before he could descend past the three-story tall cul-de-sac, the yellow shipping crane, as tall as the skyscrapers that pervaded the skylines of the city, dropped the container it had clutched into its claws. The sound startled everyone as more than a hundred of crystal statues, locked in place by thick wires, broke into a thousand crystalline shards.

Irwin suddenly rushed forward, ignoring the sound of glass crashing against metal and itself. His left hand left the pant pocket, clutching a small leather bag before winding his arm back as he unleashed a fiery blue flame.

"Flagello!"

The Flaming Whip emerged like a butterfly out of its blazing cocoon, tearing through the air and wrapping itself around the demon's right arm.

With his speed and reeling in his caught fish, Irwin arrived next to it as he tried to tear a hole in its chest, but before he could, the demon moved back with inhuman agility. His arm passed through the tangled flames as if it was nothing, a dangerous smile on his face.

Irwin was taken aback by the sudden movement, his arm still following through with the attack but hitting nothing but air. Seeing the demon evade his capture, he moved back and distanced himself from the dangerous monster.

"Ignictus, it's in the damn name!" The demon, Sibili, laughed uproariously, spreading his arms wide as the werewolf landed beside him. "Lemme show you how it's done!"

"Krousurgy!"

The demon inhaled a large batch of air, his normally thin stomach suddenly enlarged to a point that it looked as if he was pregnant with triplets, before breathing out a blast of black flames.

Like a demonic dragon, the terrifying flames spread out in a cone as it torched everything its licentious flames reached. The sturdy constructs of the shipping containers began to melt. The smell of burning bodies soon pervaded the senses of those close enough to feel the strength of the attack.

The demon inhaled once more, returning its vessel's bloated stomach into its normal one as it gazed at its handiwork, before its darkened eyes widened in astonishment.

Kneeling down in pain, Irwin supplemented the melting glass shards with another, keeping it from being destroyed by the black flames that clung to its jagged edges like it was its last meal.

Irwin had activated the skill at the last minute, having had an awful premonition when the demon ran its mouth. He had been fortunate enough that Charlotte had given him more than enough materials to create a glass wall and replaced it once it had burned down by the sheer temperature of the black fire.

He panted in pain and exhaustion, gazing deeply at the demon whose power broke the limits of his perceptions of demons.

All the demons he had fought were either weakened by having recently risen from Hell, possessed an incompatible vessel, or merely dredges that were as weak as they were in Hell.

"If Azazel has someone as strong as you in his army, then he wouldn't…" He halted his muttering, standing up from his position as he used Krousurgy to gather more of the shattered glass.

"Huh? You're still alive and talking. That's good." The demon gave a delighted smile, motioning for his werewolf companion. "Handle the interloper. Silver and I got this."

The furry form of Kirthnaja growled in dissatisfaction, howling in the air soon after, before leaping onto the slowly melting metal containers.

Irwin formed three whirling blades to block any attempted attacks from the werewolf, but found that even the mongrel dare not face his glass shards, merely snarling in frustration before taking off to the direction of the shipping crane.

He was not that worried for Charlotte since he could see her status from afar and could help her if she so needed it, not that she would. He trusts her combat ability, if not her survivability.

■■

…

[Charlotte Patricia Barbaro-Pamphili]

▪︎ Physical Health: -99%

▪︎ Stamina: +93%

▪︎ Magik Reserves: 95%

…

■■

He dismissed the window, swinging his whirling blades into a frenzy as he coated himself in the glass shards, creating an opaque glass armor. Hard as steel, flexible as plastic.

The demon dashed forward as its hands quickly engulfed in dark flames. But instead of going for close combat, it interrupted its advance, winded its hands back past his body before unleashing a slew of fiery globules of dark energy at Irwin.

Unfortunately for the demon, its black fireballs missed Irwin's form as he glided through the war-torn cul-de-sac; laying crystal tracks beneath his feet and using the glass underneath his soles to repeatedly connect and disconnect to the glassy path, effectively skiing on glass.

His movement, albeit rough and stiff, drew Sibili's attention, shooting its black fireballs at his direction, but always barely missing Irwin's zig-zagging form.

Seeing its attacks becoming obsolete, Sibili drew back, leaping away from the sudden crystal track that was constructed before its feet. But the demon could not get out of the cul-de-sac's entrenched position for the whirling glass blades, rotating high up in the sky, threatened to take off its vessel's head the moment he left the three-story column.

"Silver, where the fuck are you!?" Sibili roared, which earned Irwin's attention.

He had not forgotten about the vampire, merely focusing on killing the demon first. But had his senses out for any sudden sneak attacks from the more agile and powerful vampiric monster.

He leapt from his position, entering Sibili's melee range as he formed a sharp crystal blade that protruded from within his forearms.

The demon was agile enough to evade the first diagonal swing, but its inhuman reaction speed could not keep up for the jagged spear that jutted out of Irwin's reconstructed leg armor. 

The glass spear pierced through Sibili's chest as Irwin followed through with a backwards diagonal swing, penetrating Sibili's through neck.

Blood spewed out of both large wounds, spraying both Irwin and Sibili of the latter's demon blood.

Irwin wanted to decapitate Sibili, but before he could, the demon exploded with an unnatural energy, engulfing the immediate area with a fiendishly fiery blaze of combustive energy.

As if reacting to the immediate danger its host was about to suffer, his body ejected out of the glass armor as it reconstructed to form a wall of glass, barely protecting him from the brunt of the damage.

His body was sent careening back from the explosion and stumbling down near the corpse of a scorched werewolf. Licks of black flame clutched onto his arms and legs, singing his skin and, from what he felt, continuously sapped his energy.

Outer extremities covered in burns marks and wounds, Irwin tried to stand up as he caught the sight of Sibili walking through the black flames. 

There were barely any parts of the vessel's body that were not enveloped in black flames, yet a smile was on the demon's face.

"You got him?" Sibili asked through Irwin's dumbfounded face.

Before Irwin could figure out what the demon meant, he heard a soft clicking sound echoing behind him as a sharp object was pressed against the side of his neck. Like a ghost, a figure, most probably Silver, Irwin guessed, appeared behind him.

"I got him." She replied.