Ruby smirks. She was right to volunteer to retrieve Weiss and Yang's weapons. She is now alone in a room with the weapons on some shelves that lined the entire area and also full of metal coins with strange designs pressed into them, such as a magic circle on one side and a pair of horns and a spade tail on the other side. These are lying on almost every area of the shelves near the doorway. Ruby somehow knows that this is coins called Dark Currency. She figures how she knows this is the same reason she knows about being a succubus now. Ruby checks the door that leads out into the mall before whistling as quietly as she can to call her servant.
A snort reaches her ears, and Ruby smirks as her nightmarish equine slowly comes out of another doorway, possibly one that was a closet for a moment. He steps towards her before giving a small nuzzle to her chest and then a little lick.
"Start storing as much of these coins as you can," Ruby orders quietly as she starts grabbing the weapons when she notices a vaguely familiar board. "Is that…" she mutters and looks carefully at the floating hoverboard. "Why do I remember this thing?" she asks herself and taps her chin, struggling to rack her brain for answers. Then she comes across the Vital Festival and who was in the fights. "Wait…that girl?" she says out loud and thinks to a green-haired girl who flies around before she is tricked and eliminated in a match with her team. "That must mean…"
The nightmare snorts at Ruby, sounding as if a question to her outward thinking. It then taps a hoof against the ground to get her attention.
Ruby looks over to the nightmare before smiling at him. "Just an old hunter that my team and I faced. She must be around so we can take her as well…somehow…" she mutters to the side and then feels the nightmare brush his nose against her neck. "Oh. We have to find a girl who owns this board. She could prove very valuable," Ruby explains and pats him on the head. "But for now, take all the money you can carry and get out of here," Ruby instructs, taking the weapons with her before exiting, using her semblance.
The nightmare neighs and continues to use his tentacles and collect all the coins in the room.
"It's this way," Evie explains on top of a dumpster and prying open a small air vent. "Best and quietest way to make it inside…though maybe leave her or find a door on your own," she notes, looking back at Herleva and her armor and weapon. While Richard eyes the girl and how scruffed the uniform looks but still looks fine and stitched up. It was as if she has been doing the job herself of cleaning up while still looking like a three-year-old hand me down outfit. And he is also seeing the simple white pair of panties peeking out from under her skirt as the girl bends over slightly to work. From the way it hugs the curves and even wraps around the inside of her legs to give such an innocent look with those stockings of hers. All Richard does is look for a second or two before glancing away and notices Herleva as the knight seems to regard her uniform.
"She might be right. You could help in taking some heat off of us when we need it," Richard suggests. That and he didn't want to say she is too big for the vent. Might always get taken the wrong way.
"Her sword itself might be too big," Blake points out.
Richard sweatdrops and smiles. 'Leave it to the girls to be blunt to their gender,' he thinks in some amusement. Herleva even looks unamused at what they suggest.
"And what idea do you have in mind for me to cause a distraction?" Herleva asks, crossing her arms.
"Well, you could just destroy a wall or something to make monsters come running while you slip away and rejoin us. Buying Ruby and us some time," Blake suggests, gesturing to the rest of the lengthy walls.
Herleva raises an eyebrow before Richard leans over into view. "It's not as strong as castle walls. This place was meant as a marketplace. Not an army front," he assures, giving some level of smiling.
"It's mostly made of some concrete. I have seen you smash stone while training should be no different," Blake explains, getting an 'oh' expression from Herleva.
'Why am I bad at explaining?' Richard thinks worriedly as he steps to the side before remembering what his life was like. 'Oh yeah. My life sucked hard, and I barely had anyone.'
"I will do that and just follow the demonic energy after that," Herleva says before walking away.
Richard sighs in relief and looks to the girl who just got the air vent off. "Guess we are following you to this succubus? You don't have to go back inside," he notes, hoping she agrees, and, considering her time here, it would be for the better.
"If I don't go, you both will be lost and never find your way," Evie informs while gripping the edges of the vent. "You pansies coming?" she asks almost mockingly before pulling herself inside and giving Richard one last peek at her panties as she crawls into the building.
"Stubborn girl," Rachel notes while walking to the vent and peeks inside. "Better hurry before she slips away," she says, starting to unhook her utility belt, which Richard does the same with his sword.
"Let's get going," Richard notes as the girls handle their weapons and bags before following him into the vent.
"Don't make too many heavy steps. It's loud in stores," Evie warns, hearing the metal bending and moving behind her though her eyes keep looking straight ahead while seamlessly turning and winding her way through the maze. The cramped quarters are not helping much on the others as they follow close behind, but at least faint light and reflections allow them to see where they are going. "There should be some vents that give you a look at where this woman is," she notes.
Richard follows along as they make their way through the vents, soon hearing what seems to be fighting below them. He tries his best to keep looking past Evie, but only able to see the white panties in the low light as his eyes flick to them with every movement of her crawl. Though, his gaze soon locks for a long while until he notices that Evie has stopped and is looking out a vent, not seeing the grown man staring at her shapely and bubbly ass. "We're here. She's over there," Evie whispers, pointing through the vent on the side.
Richard leans over and peeks through to see a frosted window and doors. A shadowy figure moves around on the other side, a slim one at that. The door then opens, and a very annoyed man walks through, trying to look down the mall and see what all the commotion is about. "I thought you said succubus? That's a guy," Richard notes and looks over to Evie while Rachel leans over to look as well.
"It's the thing," Evie informs.
"What?" Richard asks, confused, and both Rachel and Richard peer closer as they wonder how this is possible of what she is saying. "You can't be serious."
"I am," Evie says. "It changes from guy to girl."
Rachel leans closer and almost presses her face against the vent while keeping an eye on the man. "Does have that feeling around him. Okay…so what do we do?" Rachel asks, looking over to Richard as he seems to be heavy in thought.
"You got a shot?" Richard asks.
Rachel scoffs. "In these cramped quarters? Not even counter snipers can get one in this," she brushes off before sighing. "We need to get to him and surprise him."
"Let's do this then," Blake informs.
Richard turns his gaze to Evie as Rachel looks back to the girl. "Is there a vent where he is at?" he asks hopefully.
Evie frowns before coughing a little. "Yeah…follow me," she says with a small spit at the end before crawling down the vent path again. Richard follows behind her, and the other two stay close behind. "I stayed away from there after my first time. The air always felt…heavy. Almost like I have to swim. So word of warning," Evie shrugs as Richard returns to staring at her ass while she makes turn after turn again. Though, with glances towards the vents, he can see them making a wide turn around to reach the other side where the office is and soon heading towards it. "Here it comes. I suggest you take a big breath of air," she warns, and soon, a smell washes over the group. The stench is almost smelling of something unnatural enough not to exist, yet it does in their world. "Yeah. It takes some time to get used to it," Evie coughs a little as she sniffs and rubs at her throat. "It's just ahead," she notes, pointing straight ahead of them to two vents showing a bright white light through it. Though, they do not notice the girl shuffling her legs together and licking her lips as Evie drools a bit but quickly swallows it down. Evie sighs as she thinks it could be being back here again and all the stress getting to her.
Richard tries holding his nose as they travel deeper, with the smell getting worse and worse. When they arrive at the vents, they peer down and see the man relaxing in a swivel chair, rubbing at his forehead. All he seemed to be doing was whining, and doing oh woe is me stuff. Richard pulls the rifle beside his head and tries to angle downward, but no good aim exists in his current position. Rachel slips her pistol out of her holster and starts to stand while aiming at the demon's head. As for Blake, she ends up taking her sword out before she takes the initiative and kicks the vent open, dropping right in. The demon sits up startled and glares at Blake before flinging off some fireballs at her that she quickly swipes away with her sheath harmlessly. Rachel follows behind and drops through the vent before firing away, careful not to hit Blake, who runs to the side to dodge a larger fireball.
Richard fumbles through and lands on his back on the chair that rolled away. He groans before sitting up and taking aim and pulls the trigger. The rifle charges up before the demon in the fancy suit turns and swipes at him hard, somehow extending his arm to Richard's view and sends him flying away into a wall. Richard cries out with a grunt before coughing up blood as he becomes embedded in it and slowly falls out onto the ground. "Ow…shit…" he groans, slowly reaching out and gripping the gun again, but it fires off the shot that was charging in that time and sends the gun flying away from his weak grip with a massive hole through the wall and shows the outside world as the shot hits a building just across the street if someone was to look. "Damn…" he huffs, pounding his fist into the ground and painfully tries to get up.
"Pathetic…ah!" the demon yells as something stabbed him in the back.
"Damn you…" Blake growls and tries to punch away before using her sheath and slices at his back where she can, hoping to even get at the tail that is flying around widely. "Hold…still…" she groans, as he now tries to move around and shake her off.
'Are you just going to lay there?' a voice asks in Richard's head.
Richard groans and tries to stand, but falls flat on his face. "I am trying me…shut up…"
'To think, I am contracted to one who would be this weak and feeble. Very well,' the voice speaks with a sigh. 'I will help you in teaching this upstart a lesson,' the voice in his head says as information starts to rush into Richard's mind.
Richard groans and holds his head in pain before slowly getting to his feet. He then has his hand out towards the demon as he struggles to get Blake off of him before grabbing her hair and flinging the girl away. A spell matrix then appears in front of his hand, growing bigger and larger than Richard knows of…or rather, he now does. The spell circle slowly fills in and burns symbols into the empty areas as a swirling magical ball appears in front of the spell matrix. The demon turns to the two and becomes shocked at what he is seeing while Rachel finishes off any bullets she has at that moment and looks behind her. Rachel quickly dives away as Richard feels his arm jerk back, and a beam of red light fires off from where he is pointing, sending it through the wall on the other side clean through, but also hitting half of the demon's chest, face, and one arm. The demon screams an unholy creation of ear-splitting noise before the beam ends, and Richard groans, falling to the ground to his hands and knees. He slowly pants as he wonders what the hell just happened.
The demon starts to scream in pure pain as they look at it, and it looks like acid had been thrown onto its body. Richard moans and tries to look through his tired vision and sees the demon stumbling around while holding his head and arm. He then starts to scream a demonic screech before moving towards the windows before turning around and rushing for the wall. Blake cries out as she covers herself when the demon bursts through the wall, breaking apart an even larger hole than what Richard did with his rifle.
Richard gives a few chuckles and smiles. "Finally…" he groans before falling onto his face again. "Ow…" he moans, feeling so tired and the need to sleep.
"What did you do to that thing?" Rachel asks, shocked.
Richard groans quietly. "Please…not so loud…"
"What did I miss?" Herleva asks, finally finding them.