With the plan in place, they were able to escape the school's gymnasium relatively unscathed. Anne and Mitsuru worked together to protect the transports' rear side while Rise, holding onto Ryuji's arms, worked on establishing the reflective hexagonal walls in front of Captain Kidd and Necronomicon.
As soon as the group found a large enough area that had little Shadows roaming around, Rise made quick work of them, sending the walls flying into them as they rotated.
After making sure that the area around was safe, the refugees, for lack of a better term, were unloaded one by one from the makeshift transports they were using. They huddled together in a circle, the girls gathering together in the insides, while the boys formed a ring around them.
Rise stayed in front of the refugees offering both defense and navigational advantages from the ground, while Oracle watched from above to offer support and further advantage to navigation.
"A horde of Shadows incoming everyone!" Rise relayed.
"A lot of them block or repel the elements that you specialize in." Oracle added.
"Skull, use Agneyastra." Mitsuru barked. "Panther, replenish Skull's stamina every time he uses his Persona."
"Roger!" Anne and Ryuji confirmed as they faced the shadows that appeared.
"Go!" Mitsuru yelled out. "Artemisia!" She bellowed as she pointed towards the approaching horde of Shadows.
Artemisia appeared behind Mitsuru and brandished her whip and flailed it around, sending a barrage of icicles towards the enemy, freezing them in place.
Some icicles were redirected back at the Kirijo but her Persona's whip just shattered those immediately.
"Let's do this Captain Kidd!" Ryuji yelled as he pulled his mask.
Captain Kidd appeared behind the Skull-masked Persona-user and raised its cannon-arm up in the air and fired a set of three cannonballs into the sky. A moment later, a number of falling fiery balls hit a large group of shadows, knocking them all down.
"Skull, you sure showed me!" Futaba remarked jokingly.
"Let's Dance Carmen!" Anne shouted as she pulled her own mask.
Carmen appeared behind Anne as she fired off a beam towards the sky and made it rain yellow-green dews on the three battling Persona-users.
Ryuji continued to use Agneyastra on the enemies as Anne continued to replenish his stamina when Rise alerted the combatants.
"Karasuma-san, Sugino-senshu and Yamamoto-senshu are approaching." Rise cautioned.
"Risette, you can do battle right?" Ryuji asked.
"Yes." Rise confirmed.
"Cover for me." Ryuji asked.
Ryuji faced the swarm of Shadows and summoned his Persona. "Let's do this Captain Kidd!"
The Persona appeared beside Skull and fired off a barrage of cannonballs that collided with each other and formed a rather large dust cloud. A moment later, lightning came crashing down from the said dust cloud, paralyzing or destroying the enemies as a result.
Ryuji got on his Persona's boat and willed it forward, intending to save the three men.
"Skull! Don't do anything reckless!" Mitsuru barked.
"Skull! Wait!" Rise called out but she stepped forward nonetheless.
"Dammit Skull!" Anne shouted.
Ryuji ran over the Shadows with Captain Kidd's boat as he charged toward the people who volunteered to stay behind while the Captain himself fired off a barrage of cannonballs to the sky and made them collide with each other, calling forth more lightning strikes.
"Get on!" Ryuji immediately beckoned the trio.
"Sorry for this." Sugino apologized as he grabbed hold of Yamamoto before jumping towards the boat alongside Karasuma.
"It's fine." Ryuji dismissed. "Hold on tight."
The boat made a sharp U-turn and made a beeline towards where the others were staying, running over the Shadows in the process once more.
As soon they arrived, the trio jumped off of the boat and immediately deposited themselves into the shelter that the refugees were in.
As soon as Ryuji arrived, Rise immediately let Skull take back his position while she returned to providing defense and navigation.
"Hey guys, I think these people need to sleep." Futaba suggested. "I don't think they can handle what's happening right now."
Ryuji and Anne glanced at their schoolmates and classmates. This was their first time encountering this kind of situation and they'd been thrust into escaping a large amount of Shadows despite their inexperience.
"Very well." Mitsuru nodded. "Panther, you stated you have dormina, correct?"
"Yes." Anne nodded. "But I also have lullaby, a multi-target sleep spell."
"Use that on the group, however leave Karasuma, Yamamoto and Sugino." Mitsuru ordered.
Anne nodded as she summoned Carmen, and not a moment too soon, the shadow-like men that followed her Persona began singing, the notes putting those they'd rescued to sleep, excluding the ones Kirijo had mentioned.
"Look alive people!" Futaba voiced out. "More are coming."
Ryuji and Anne looked in front of them and sure enough a lot more Shadows than before.
"Skull! Look out!" Futaba yelled out.
Before Ryuji could even react, a wind attack was coming his way.
Rise was quick to react and managed to send in one of her Persona's miniature satellites and erected a translucent hexagonal wall, reflecting the attack back to its sender.
"Magnifique Kujikawa." Mitsuru praised.
The battle went on for a long time, and the multitude of Shadows weren't thinning out in the slightest. Ryuji and Anne were showing signs of exhaustion as they continued to use their Personas' abilities from Physical attacks to Elemental attacks.
"There's no end to this!" Anne voiced out.
"Panther! Look out!" Ryuji pushed Anne and took the ice attack, freezing him in place.
"Skull!" Anne yelled as she faced her frozen friend.
"Skull's frozen solid!" Futaba pointed out.
"Come Carmen!" Anne shouted as she glared at the Skadi who froze Skull in his place.
Carmen appeared in front of Anne, slamming one of the shadow-like men down on the ground as the Persona summoned pillars of fire from the floor, incinerating most of the Shadows present in the school area, outside of those impervious to the element.
"Brilliant Panther!" Mitsuru praised.
The Kirijo faced the Shadows that survived Carmen's Maragidyne and glared.
"Artemisia! No Mercy!" Mitsuru bellowed out.
Artemisia appeared in front of Mitsuru and flailed her whip on the ground thrice. Soon after, huge pillars of ice started falling from the sky, piercing most of the enemies, and freezing the horde. Mitsuru's Persona then threw a purple orb at the enemy swarm and exploded on them, thinning out the enemy swarm.
"Be careful everyone! Enemy reinforcements incoming!" Rise cautioned
Sure enough another horde of Shadows started filling up the ranks of the first batch.
"Don't worry! Support's on the way!" Futaba announced as a beam of light was shot to the sky and rained yellow-green dews on the combatants, healing everyone and thawing Ryuji as a result.
"Sorry for that." Ryuji apologized before he faced the oncoming multitude of enemies.
"I'm going to show you what an Idol can do!" Rise declared. "Himiko!"
Himiko appeared behind Rise in battle form and sent three miniature satellites to the front lines, one for each combatant.
The satellites in question erected three layers of translucent hexagonal walls in front of the combatants before they pointed to the sky and shot out multicolored beams.
Suddenly, those same multicolored beams fell down on the enemy swarm, stunning a lot of them.
A few moments later, the same satellites teleported themselves towards the horde of Shadows and exploded, starting the long thinning process.
"Skull, Panther." Mitsuru called out. "Use your full force!" She ordered.
With a nod, Ryuji and Anne summoned their respective Personas and focused on the enemy, charging for a powerful attack.
"Captain Kidd!"
"Carmen!"
Anne and Ryuji yelled out at the same time as Captain Kidd shot out a barrage of cannon balls to the sky. While Carmen stomped then slammed both of her heart-headed men to the ground.
The result was a barrage of flaming cannonballs falling from the sky as pillars of fire rose from the ground utterly destroying the enemies in front of the group.
"Mitsuru!" Someone called out from the link. "How're you holding up?"
"The reinforcements keep refilling their ranks." Mitsuru answered.
"Stay put, Ken, Koromaru and I are near." Akihiko assured. "Hold out as long as you can." He added.
"What about the box?" Mitsuru questioned.
"Aigis and I are going to the location Mitsuru-senpai." Fuuka answered the query. "We have already separated from Akihiko-senpai's group."
"I see." Mitsuru nodded. "I am counting on you."
As the Persona users continued on battling the Shadows and maintaining their only line of defense, the three of them hadn't noticed that a few Shadows had snuck past their defenses, attacking them immediately.
"Look out!" Futaba yelled as Necronomicon went above the three combatants and fired a green-tinted beam that formed a dome over them, blocking any and all attacks.
"Thanks Oracle!" Ryuji expressed his gratitude before he summoned Captain Kidd and fired a golden fist from his cannon-like arm.
"Good job Oracle." Mitsuru praised. "You as well Skull."
Mitsuru glared at the horde of enemies as she retrieved her evoker and summoned her Persona once more.
"Such Persistence!" The Kirijo growled. "Obey my command!"
Artemesia threw a large heart-shaped ice sculpture into the air before it exploded into a million pieces and rained down on the swarm of enemies.
The Shadows that had been hit by the heart-shaped ice began attacking other Shadows indiscriminately, thinning the swarm.
"Enemies are charmed and brainwashed!" Rise pointed out.
"They'll either heal you or take out other enemies." Futaba supplied.
Anne and Ryuji didn't have time to gawk and admire Mitsuru's work as they too utilized everything in their Personas' arsenal and went full force against the enemy.
"Persona!" Two voices suddenly yelled as a huge thundercloud congregated above the school and multiple lightning strikes hit the swarm of enemies that Ryuji and the others were facing.
As soon as the lightning strikes ceased, the horde of Shadows has thinned enough to see three beings by the school gate. Two men, one was shirtless, were there and a single white dog was.
"Akihiko." Mitsuru called out. "You couldn't have worn a shirt on the way here?"
"What's the harm?" Akihiko shrugged. "I came here to fight Shadows."
"May I remind you that you are a police officer?" Mitsuru growled through the link. "Honestly."
"Don't worry Mitsuru-san." Another voice assured. "I made sure to pack Akihiko-san's police uniform."
"Dependable as always Amada." Mitsuru praised. "In any case, I appreciate your foresight in adding his clothes to pack in this battle." She voiced her appreciation. "However now's not the time for that."
"I agree." Ken nodded.
Ken looked at Koromaru's growling form and knelt beside him.
"Are you ready Koromaru?"
The dog's only response was to howl and summon his own Persona, a three headed black and blue dog with tridents for limbs.
The Persona in question mimicked his summoner's form and howled to create fiery pillars that burned some of the Shadows to crisp.
"Someone's eager." Akihiko chuckled.
"I'll say." Mitsuru smiled. "Summoning Cerberus from the get go." She chuckled. "Good boy, you deserve a treat for that."
"Hear that Koromaru?" Ken grinned. "You get a treat for that."
Koromaru barked as he wagged his tail.
"Now let's end this." Ken stated as he stood up. "Ready Koromaru?"
Koromaru responded by resummoning his Persona, Cerberus.
"Kala-Nemi!" Ken yelled as he pointed his evoker on his chest and pulled the trigger.
Ken's Persona appeared beside Cerberus and began to spin its torso as the three-headed dog howled at the sky.
A pillar of golden yellow papers started appearing in front of the Personas and in the middle of the pillar appeared what looked like multiple straw dolls that floated at the top of the pillar of papers. Not a moment later, the papers started to form a sphere with the straw dolls at the center.
Suddenly black liquid oozed from the ground and a purple scythe protruded from it. Cerberus picked up the scythe with his three mouths and sliced the golden sphere in the sky, slicing the straw dolls inside the sphere in the process.
The effect of the slicing was instantaneous, almost all of the Shadows in the area disintegrated, leaving only the bodies of the students, teachers and visitors in their wake.
"Can I get the remaining Shadows?" Futaba asked in excitement.
"Sure." Ryuji shrugged. "Knock yourself out."
Necronomicon flew towards the weakened Shadows by the courtyard and dropped a green spherical bomb with a burning wick above them. As soon as the wick burned the green bomb exploded taking out the remaining Shadows in the area.
"Victory is ours." Mitsuru declared. "That was a brilliant display of skills from everyone involved."
