Chapter 12. Bells


Gen whistled as he scratched in on the item in front of him. He inspected it one last time before putting down on a piece of paper with a magic circle. He put his hands together and chanted in a demonic language. While he chanted, the ring glowed and the words inscribed on it floated up. It spun around the item before it stopped for a second and enclosed it, inscribing itself onto it. Gen stopped chanting and picked it up. "Alright! That's one product finished!" He looked at his phone. "Hm. It's eight am, the Purge today is gonna start at two. Gonna have to work on the others later and hope there's no early cleansing." He made a call, planning for a gate.


"Think it'll happen today?" Jack asked Poch in the break room.

"It's already happened twice so a third time isn't unlikely," Poch told Jack, getting two cups of coffee.

"The others are gonna be here at twelve, right?"

"Right." He added some milk to one cup. "The Purge starts at like two, and seeing how the length of it is usually an hour and the early ones have been coming at the end, I'm guessing around 2:45 is when the early one would start if at all." He added a bit of sweetener to the coffee.

"Let's hope it's just an if….by the way, who's the coffee for?"

"Me and Loona. She's kinda groggy today so I asked if she wanted some coffee."

"Boss told me she tried to stay over the last few days." Jack gave him a sly look.

"We're just friends, stubby."

"Hey you leave my horns outside this, pretty boy!"

"Pretty boy?"

"Yeah," Jack took out his phone and showed Poch a pic of him in makeup and nail polish, "Pretty boy."

"Howd you get that!?"

"Paid Loona for it."

"Oh, I'm getting her for that." He checked the time. "It's a little past nine so we got about five hours till a supposed early Cleansing. We can do some hunts and train a bit too."

"Wouldn't you rather spend some time with Loona?"

"Well, yeah, but gotta do my job." He felt Jack's sly grin to what he just said. "Fuck off." He took the mugs of coffee and left, not giving eye contact. He walked up to Loona and gave her a cup. "Added one pack of sweetener and a bit of milk, just as you asked."

"Thank you, butler," Loona said with a smirk, taking her mug.

"Alright," Poch did a gentleman's bow, "if m'lady is satisfied I shall inform her that Dinner will be at eight. Were having fried croquettes with a side of steamed carrots. The croquettes have a dressing of red sauce that adds a sweet and sour taste to the crunchy juicy texture, and as a drink, I will serve us a fizzing lemon lime flavored water, that some call soda." He said that all in a bad british accent.

Loona tried to hold back her laughs. "You have… such a bad accent."

"My Scottish is better!" He said in an even worse scottish accent.

Loona busted out laughing. "Oh man that's bad!" She said between laughs.

"I'm still working on my French one, wanna hear?" He said normally.

"No-no I-hoo, I can only take so many bad accents."

"They're not all bad." Poch sat next to her, sipping his coffee. "I wasn't lying about dinner. Wanna come over for it?"

"Much as I want to, Blitzø wants me to have dinner at home tonight. Something about me and him spending less time together."

"We have been hanging out a lot this week."

"True, though it's your fault for having such a nice place...and being a great cook doesn't help."

"Think I'm a great cook, huh?"

"Duh, have you seen what you make?"

"I don't cook blind so yes I do," Poch chuckled.

"Fair point. Where'd you learn how to cook anyway?"

"Taught myself. Would see the food in anime and would want to try it myself so I looked up some things, experimented a little, and viola, master anime chef."

"That's not a thing."

"It is to me, and that's all that counts."

"...hey, if this early Cleansing doesn't happen...mind taking me somewhere?"

"Uh, sure. Where?"

"That place with the fireworks."

"The one I showed you to make up for the plushy?"

"Where else?"

"Why do you wanna go there? Wanna see the fireworks again?"

"Yeah, I do actually...I also wanna talk a bit more...and this time it'll be more about me."

"Cool! I've wanted to ask you a few things anyway."

"Great! Until then, let's watch something while we wait for clients." She turned on the computer screen and when she opened up the browser she saw a picture of Poch and the others as a thumbnail for a news article that said "who are these demons? and why can they fight angels?"

"Hello, what's this?" Poch got closer.

"Well I guess after seeing you fight Angel's so much, denizens of hell got curious."

"Wonder if they know Jack and I work here."

She clicked on the tab and scrolled through the news feed. "Doesn't seem like it. Makes sense considering you haven't really met the clients. Except for that one guy."

"Oh yeah that Doctor….looks like all they know is what area we frequent in and that we attract the angels."

"Looks like it."

"Hm….if given the chance...you don't think Blitzø would try and get on an interview to try and talk about us to increase business do you?"

"He….definitely would."

"May need to talk to him about that, make sure he doesn't blab anything two personal."

"Yeah...anyways...wanna start part four of Jojo?"

"Actually I wanna show you something. Ever heard of an abridged?"

"Think so. Their comedic parodies right?"

"Yeah. There's one channel that's super popular with their abridged series. They're called Team Four Star and I wanna show you one of their series. That ok?"

"Sure."

"Sweet!" Before Poch could go to YouTube, the front door opened and Gen came in. "Hm? Gen?"

"Poch! Just the hound I'm looking for!" Gen smiled.

Poch got up and walked in front of the desk. "Need me for something?" Gen tossed Poch an item. He grabbed it and inspected it. It was a new leg brace but black with red edges and eight white arrow brackets pointing on the side of the clip. The red edges had runes inscribed. "A new brace?"

"It's what I wanted the first one to be but it wasn't strong enough to handle the runes, so it could only do its second function of holding your blade. Put it on!"

"Alright." He clasped the brace on his right leg.

"Now, give your right foot a quick twist."

Poch did so and he heard a click sound. He looked at his brace and saw some of the arrows were lit up. "What the-?"

"Now," He pulled out a target from his bag, "kick at this."

Poch reeled his foot back and kicked straight at the target. From between the clip and the brace came a small white opaque dagger blade that stabbed itself into the target, near its center. "Whoa!"

"Now twist it three times and tap your heel like this," He tilted his right foot forward, raising the heel but keeping his toes on the ground, before tapping it down, "then kick again."

Poch gave his foot three twists, hearing three clicks, before mimicking what Gen did, hearing what sounded like a gun being loaded. He kicked at the target again and all three daggers blasted out, nearly hitting the target out of Gen's hands.

"Nice," Loona commented.

"These are ethereal daggers. Twisting your foot loads one up and each kick will shoot one. Tapping your heel stacks them to be shot all at once, however if you load up more after stacking, they won't be added to the stack," Gen explained, "they disappear after a short while."

"Sweet! Now I can use this without the chaos blade." Poch said.

"I didn't use that halo you gave me for it, just so you know."

"Did it turn into a pure black blood jewel?"

"Close,but not quite. If it had one more strip of white it could've, so I'm gonna save it for a weapon or some armor."

"Sounds good. Anything else ya need?"

"Well Jack did wanna see me. Where is he?"

"He's in the break room." Poch pointed to where it was.

"Thanks." Gen headed off there.

Poch went back to Loona's side. "Now where were we?"

"Aren't you gonna practice with that?" Loona asked, pointing at the brace.

"Nah, I'll practice during theCleansing, early or actual."

"Alright. What he mean by pure black blood jewel?"

"So the gear he makes is made out of corrupted halos, which turn into Demon jewels. The purer the halo, the more impure the jewel."

"Ah ok."

"Anyways," Poch brought youtube up on the computer, "let's abridged!"


2:14 pm

Poch and the others stood on the roof, waiting for an early Cleansing to happen.

"Hya!" Poch swiped his foot at Jack, releasing an array of four ether daggers, all spinning at him.

"Seriously," Jack spun his scythe to deflect them, "dagger kicks are cool!" He ran up to Poch, swinging his scythe at him.

Poch jumped back and ducked below the swings. "You want your own?" He gave his right foot two twists.

"Nah," he swung his weapon up at him, missing as the hound jumped back, "they suit you better." He sweeped Poch's feet.

Poch tapped his heel before jumping and buckshot kicked two daggers to Jack. "This is gonna be handy against angels."

"Speaking of," Jack rolled to the side to dodge, "if there is gonna be a boss, I wanna do a resonance with you."

"Resonance? We haven't done that in a while." Poch stood up, not continuing.

"That's mostly cause you were...out." Jack said, leaning on his scythe.

"Yeah, sorry."

"Hey, none of that now, we already told you we're glad you're back!"

Dundy's phone rang. "Hello?" He said when he answered.

"I know Jack." Poch looked at the back of his right hand. "...let's do it. When a hoss shows up...let's resonate."

"Sweet! Tag team in action!" Jack cheered.

"That tag team will have to wait three days," Dundy spoke up, "that was Jared on the phone."

"What he say?"

"He was monitoring for any tears in space and has found none in the time frame one would need to be opened to access hell."

"So that means no early cleansing?" Solis asked.

"No early cleansing."

"Sweet!" Shelly grabbed onto Solis, "Now we can work on that gift we're gonna give M&M!"

"You're giving them a gift?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, Shelly wanted to give a gift for an awesome double date," Solis explained.

"Cool, whatcha getting them?"

"It's a photo frame that symbolizes them and their love for each other! It's gonna have guns, knives, bullets and blood hearts!" Shelly said excitedly.

"You're making it by hand?"

"Duh! You forget we're a crafty couple!"

"I'm good with my hands," Solis said with a smirk.

"Don't I know it!" She said, making Solis blush.

"Well if we don't have to worry about it," Poch said, "I told Loona I'd take her somewhere."

"Ooo- Ouch!" Jack cooed, before getting punched by Dundy.

"Have fun, Poch." Dundy smiled.

"Thanks! See ya guys!" Poch waved them off and headed to the lobby.


Loona laid down on the fake grass as Poch went to start the machine. The ceiling lit up and the fireworks started. He came to her and laid opposite to her, his head next to hers.

Loona marveled at the fireworks. "Just as great as the first time."

"Would hope so. These weren't easy to make," Poch said.

"How did you make these?"

"Celis did, mostly….when it came to science, he was the better brother. I only helped by doing what he told me too...even then I still couldn't get it."

"...what about this place? He do most of it?"

"Not really it was….we found an old large silo in a junkyard once, just the top half, and I was thinking maybe we can make a clubhouse with it or something. Tim's dad, Alex, helped us move it somewhere...secluded...we washed up the inside and laid out the grass before he set it down. Once he did we realised how darkened it was in here and that gave Celis an idea. At first it was just gonna be lights up there but...Celis thought I'd find that a little boring so he spiced it up...I was so surprised when I first saw it...called him a super genius too." Poch chuckled.

"Wow...you brother sounded pretty cool."

"He was…"

"...Damnit, I said we were gonna talk more about me but I ended up getting more out of you again! Sorry."

"It's fine...it's nice to be able to talk about him again without reflecting on…." Poch stopped himself.

"Reflecting on what?"

"...So, how did Blitzø adopt you?"

Loona knew he was trying to change subjects but wasn't bothered by it. "Well...my biological parents were...pretty shitty...it's not like they abused me or anything, they just didn't care. I mostly took care of myself. Where I lived was crap and full of scumbags so I only ever left to get food then come back, always wielding a bat. I got into a scuffle once and Blitzø happened to watch me kick someone's ass. He followed me home, saw how I lived, asked to adopt me, and...here we are."

"I see….he kind of sounds like your rescuer."

"Hah! Nah...I appreciate the living area but I never needed him then, still don't need him now, I was fine by myself."

"...don't say that."

"Huh?"

"Don't say that you don't need him. He helped, cared, and looked out for you...hes family for you...never say you don't need them," He held his arm, "cause one day….you're gonna say that to them, realise it was a mistake, want to apologize, only to notice your realization came too late along any chance to apologize or make up for it….cause by then...they'll be gone…I know from experience." He tightened his grip on his arm.

Loona looked at him and noticed how sad he looked. "I'm sorry...you're right...I… I should be grateful."

"It's fine...I should be the last person to get onto you….though I still don't get how an awesome hound like you has no friends other than me." Poch smirked

"Is it really that surprising?" Loona smiled, glad for the mood improvement.

"Yeah! Have you seen you? I thought you'd have a load of friends!"

She blushed slightly. "I don't see what you mean. Think your eyes are broken?"

"That or you doubt yourself too much. I'd call it a goth syndrome but I'm not fucking that fear turkey."

"Pfffft AHAHAHA!" Loona busted out laughing, knowing the context of the joke.

Poch joined her in laughing, though not as hard. After they calmed down Poch had a proposition for her. "Want me to help you make new friends?"

"Huh?"

"New friends. Cause I bet you'd want more than me as a friend."

"Well...having more friends would be cool I guess...but...i doubt any of them are as cool as you are...so now...i'll hold off on finding new ones….for now at least."

"Till you get bored of me?"

"Maybe." She smirked.

"Uh oh, better get my entertainment on!" Him saying that made her chuckle. "...how bout the next few days...we do a movie marathon? One movie and dinner at my place then intake you home before Blitzø gets doting dad on us."

"...sure...sounds fun."

"Sweet! I'll pick the movies. That way if you enjoy them, that'll prolong my expiration!"

"Better make it good or else I'll shorten it," She joked

"Noted!"


Day of the Cleansing, ten minutes till it starts.

"I dare you to do that during the cleansing," Loona dared Poch as they finished watching something on the computer.

"What? You're crazy!" Poch retorted.

"Yeah you're right. Stupid of me to think you got the balls to do that." She grinned

"...you better be so glad I got lima beans at home." He got down and made a blue gate, walking through.

Dundy, Solis, and Shelly walked in. "Hey Loona," Solis greeted.

Loona waved at him. "Hey guys."

"Where's Poch? It's weird not seeing him next to you."

"He went home to get something real quick….it's not that weird is it?"

"You two are almost always together so...yeah it kinda is," Shelly informed.

"It just shows how good you are as friends," Dundy said.

"Well yeah...we are good friends." Loona admitted with some pride.

Dundy smiled along with the others. "I'm glad to hear that. It warms my heart seeing him get along with you so well. Feels like his shell is breaking better, thanks to you."

"I guess but, you're his friends too, shouldn't you be the one doing the shell breaking?"

"Hah! I don't know Poch that well," Solis said, "but from what I've heard and seen it definitely would've taken an outside source for that shell to break. I probably could've, if the timing was better but you beat me too it."

"...what exactly happened to him?"

"That….is not our place to tell. He will tell in due time...just give him time." Dundy said.

"I'm fine with waiting." Loona shrugged. She had hoped to get a clue but wasn't bothered either way.

"Glad to hear it."

Poch came back holding a small brown sack. "Can't believe I agreed to this." He noticed the others. "Oh, hey guys."

"Hey!" Shelly waved. "What's the sack for?"

"Someone dared me to do something based on a DBZ Abridged episode we just watched." Poch glanced at Loona who looked away innocently.

"I think I know which," Solis inquired.

"Anyways," he put the bag in his jacket, "Jack's waiting for us up top with Blitzø, he decided on going first. Let's roll!" He left with the others.

"Good luck!" Loona waved them off.


The others met Jack and Blitzø at the top.

"Hey guys!" Blitzø greeted. "So we doing the same as last time?"

"Yeah, but a little different." Poch stated. "Solis is gonna be paired with Dundy, since the hound boy can't kill angels."

"Hound boy? Really?" Solis wasn't amused but smirked anyway.

"I'm gonna be paired with Jack and Shelly's gonna be turrent again while you do your support."

"Oh! You gonna do that Resonance thing?!" Blitzø asked excitedly.

"What haven't you told him?" Poch asked Jack.

"Pfft lots of things, I still keep secrets," Jack responded.

"Anyways, yes, we're gonna do resonance if there's a boss."

"Oh I hope there's a boss!" Blitzø remembered the last boss. "...well...a really weak one…"

"Three minutes guys. Let's get into position!" Shelly announced.

"Alright!" Blitzø got his gun ready.

"Let us go," Dundy placed 9nnhis arm braces and picked up Solis by Looping his arm around the hellhound's middle, "hold on tight." He hopped off the building, going to the one nearby.

"Woohoo!" Solis cried out in excitement.

"Take care baby!" Shelly yelled. "Alright," She wrote the words for Le-armes, "Le-armes!" She summoned her unique shadow demon, putting on her glasses before the visor came on followed by the guns. The sirens went off, the Cleansing has started.

"Good luck you guys," Jack said before jumping off the front of the building with Porch, calling Dust to make wings while Poch made a gate.

The two landed on the street about twelve blocks away. "Hey Jack, I want no comments on what I do after killing an angel," Poch told the imp.

"Huh?"

"Here they come!" A group of five basic angels with small scythes landed in front of them. They charged at Poch and Jack. "Hope Loona's watching." Two went after the hellhound. He ran forward and slid under their slices, cutting their knees before turning around and stabbing them in the back, raising his blade up to their necks, killing them.

Jack stepped back from the first one's downward strike, swinging his scythe to cut off its head before the other two came in for a pincer, only for Jack to effortlessly slice them in half by the waist, right before they could try to attack. "It's always the fodder first." He looked to Poch to see him pulling out a sack. "What are you-?"

Poch pulled out a lime bean. "Senzu bean!" He tossed it at the Angels head.

"...You watched episode 36 of DBZ Abridged and Loona dared you to do that?"

"Yep."

"Ah." Two large white spiders with silver eyes and red markings landed in front of them. "Huh, haven't seen these chaps in a while." Jack grinned, readying his scythe. "You gotta senzu bean these guys too!"

"Aw what!?"


Solis held the trigger of his gun, red energy gathering at the end of the barrel, pointing it at a small tiger angel with wings, a blue jewel it's forehead, no eyes, no fur, just scales, and a snake tail. Once it got close, it leapt at Solis only for him to release the trigger, hitting the angel with a powerful red energy bullet that managed to knock it back.

It flew back to Dundy, who grabbed its neck and smashed its head into the ground. Its body became limp and lifeless. "Nice shot," Dundy complimented.

"Thanks! Think they liked it?" Solis pointed to the windows of a nearby building, pointing at the demons looking out.

"Ah, we have watchers. Something to get used to," Dundy a little uncomfortable.

"Yeah, very different from the purge, huh?"

"Very." A few more tiger Angel's surrounded them. "Let's try not to succumb to stage fright!" One jumped at Dundy, getting uppercutted by the owl and semi-charged shot by Solis to get pushed away. He sent a hard jab at the next one that came then backhanded the one after that. Three lunged at Dundy, one of them being one Solis shot away. Dundy saw the hellhound slide to the right of them with a charge shot ready. He knew what to expect. Solis shot and the Bullet knocked them into each other only for them to meet Dundy's left fist and get crushed into the ground, their ribs breaking and chests getting crushed.

"Man, it's sometimes scary how strong you are," Solis reminded himself. He noticed two tigers jump from behind Dundy. "Dundy look-" the owl reached back and grabbed their necks before slamming him down in front of him, "out...nevermind."

Dundy raised his arms and crashed his fists down on the Angels faces, crushing them. "Were you worried?"

"For no reason apparently."


From Shelly's visor came a ring that grew in size as it positioned itself in front of her. Small targets appeared on it, being placed in front of the Angels. Shelly aimed her guns at the circle and fired, all her shots became blue as they passed through, going straight for their targets, albeit much slower. The ring dispersed after a series of shots

"Whoa!" Blitzø exclaimed, amazed. "When could you do that!?"

"It's thanks to Gen's glasses! Didn't you see me use it during practice?"

"Uh, no, I think I got a call from Stolas at that time." Blitzø checked his cartridge. "Alright, switch out time!"

"Ok!" Shelly shot the Angels that deflected her tracer shots and formed another circle for a second barrage. "Hm?" Before she shot she noticed a few lock-ons on some stationary Angel's that stood on the roof. "Oh shit!"


"Senzu bean!" Poch threw his sixth bean on the sixth spider he killed. "You satisfied?" He asked Jack.

"Hmmm, maybe a few more. We got like," he looked at the clock, "seventeen minutes left, so you," his gaze went higher, "could… do...a few...shit…"

"What?"

"They're stationing themselves. Meaning-"

"Damnit! A boss!"

"Yeah, and who knows when it'll come!" A few large angel wielding axes came. Jack went after it, summoning Taurus.

Pochs phone rang, Shelly was calling. He picked it up. "Shelly?...yeah we see them...yeah a lot big guys too so get dome ready and tell Solis and Dundy to meet near the base, they're gonna have to fight them off when the boss comes….Jack's gonna resonate with me to deal with the boss….dont worry will be fine, but try and take out the ones stationed…..You'll have time, I doubt it'll come til-"

As soon as the timer hit fifteen minutes, the sound of bells echoes from the gates.

Jack had choked out a large angel, heating the bells. "What!? Halfway through!?"

"Shelly, get Solis and Dundy There now!" Poch hung up.

Jack quickly finished off the Angel's near him and ran to Poch, almost getting himself hit by them due to trying to rush It. "They usually don't appear till ten minutes are left!"

"I know!" The gates started to close till one was left, the one near I.M.P. "Crap, its appearing there!? Jack we gotta hurry!" Poch ran to their base.

"Yeah!" Jack followed.


Dundy had his arm through a snake bodied angel when he heard the bells. "What!?"

"There's not even ten minutes left on the clock!" Solis exclaimed. He got a call from his love and quickly answered. "Shelly?...got it!" He hung up. "Dundy! we need to get back to the base!"

"Hm!" Dundy nodded. He grabbed Solis and put him on his back before making a mad dash to the I.M.P. building. As he ran he heard a loud crash followed by a tremor. "It appeared!" He ran faster, Solis holding on tight, ramming through any angels in his way.

"WOOLOLOLOLOLOOOO!" The sound of a cry came from the next corner Dundy took.

He slid to a stop and saw the angelic creature only a few miles away from the front of their base, inside the crater of its landing. It was a humongous gray stone face with no nose. Its eyes were golden orbs, its arms, coming out from the side about its eyes, were stone as well and cylindrical, the elbows being ball joints. Its legs are the same, coming out from the sides of its chin. Its cheeks were a lighter color, looking more flexible than the rest of its skin. It looked at the building and cried out again. "WOOLOLOOO!" It yelled, starting up a run.

"It's about to ram the place!" Solis yelled.

"That's not all! The Angel's that were stationary are coming down!" Dundy pointed out.

"This is bad! I see a few large ones! We can't deal with those and a boss!"

"We won't have too!" Dundy started running again. "Once I get to the front, drop off and focus on the other Angels!"

"Got it!" Solis got his pistol ready, charging it. He held on till Dundy got to the building's front. He let go, tumbled into a land and aimed up at the descending Angel's, firing on them, noticing Shelly do the same.

The boss angel charged forward, its heavy feet breaking the road. Dundy wrote XÝĐß in the air. "Asura!" Three black giant arms came out from his back. He met with the boss, thrusting his palms into it in an attempt to push it back. He only managed to slow it, grunting as he pushed all six arms against it, digging his talons into the ground, skidding back. "Grrrr!" He slammed his braces together, the bands glowing red, and thrusted both fists to its lips, a red shockwave coming out on impact. The angel reeled back, giving Dundy an opening. He grabbed its arms and pulled it forward, using his bottom arms to grab it and lift it up. He strained with its weight but powered through. He rose up, "GYAAAAA!" He flung it forward several miles. "I leave it to you, Poch and Jack!" He turned to go meet up with Solis.

The boss flipped back and reached for the ground, grinding itself to a halt. It stood up and was about to charge again.

"Haaaaa!" Poch came from it's right, his Chaos Blade in his brace, while Jack came from its left with Shadow Blitzø wielding his scythe inside two and him wielding two Gun blades. "YAA!" They both hit its eyes, making it stumble back.

They landed a couple feet in front of it. "Poch. Let's do this!" Jack said, reaching his right fist out to the hound.

"Right!" Poch met his right fist with Jack's. A blood red demonic circle with a white trim, with small X's surrounding it, with a big one in the circle's middle, appeared on the back of their hands. A dim red and black aura came from the circles before surrounding their bodies and dissipating.

"Resonance. Link!" They shouted.


"Holy shit! They did resonance!" Blitzø exclaimed with a worried Loona and Millie. They watched from their office.

"Resonance?" Millie asked.

"It's when two exterminators link up, getting a power boost, ability to call their unique shadow demons without letters, and can sense what the other is doing!"

"Wow!"

Loona wasnt really listening. "You better come back safem" She said under her breath.


The angel boss stepped forward and slammed his fist down on the two. They jumped to opposite sides to avoid it. Poch twisted his right foot three times before jumping up and kicking three daggers at it. One got in its eyes while the others bounced off its skin. It groaned and reached for Poch.

Shadow Blitzø came tonite arm and slammed it down while Jack shot at it, making it cover its eye from the bullets. "Seems like the eyes are a weak spot!"

"Yeah! Shiva!" Poch called his bone fragment shadow demon, having it form into two bone arms, each with two forearms sticking out along with two hands. He pointed forward and had fragments shoot out the fingertips, aiming for its eyes. Since his demon is empowered by Resonance it managed to mildly damage its stone like skin.

Jack joined Shadow Blitzø in cutting at its other arm, trying to get to its eye, their heavy strikes cutting its skin.

Its mouth opened and out came three tendril-like tongues, each going for one of its assailants.

Poch managed to form a bone shield in time but Jack wasn't so lucky, having gotten stuck in the back along with Shadow Blitzø. "Jack!" Before Poch could do anything, the angel rammed its stone fist into his shield, knocking him back into a wall. Poch goaned but toughened though, glad his shield held. He sensed Jack coming up from its behind and knew what to do. He loaded four daggers and tapped his heel to stack them. He cut a gate in front of him, jumping through to meet with Jack, who had leapt forward.

Jack vaulted off Poch's joined arms, getting higher. The boss turned to him and Jack slammed his blades down, meeting with its guarded arms. He fought with it, pushing his best, shallowly digging in while his Dust formed Blitzø grabbed Poch, spun, and threw him at the angel.

Poch placed his sword in his brace, kickin it where its nose should be, digging both the blade and daggers in partially. It yelled in pain, letting out its tongue tendrils again, bringing out four, slamming them into Poch's back and pushing Jack away. The tongues wrapped around Poch, locking his arms. He struggled. "Shiva!" He had his bone demon form ransom connected to his shoulder, making a motion with his head and shoulders to have it punch forward. It grabbed the bone hand, holding it back. "Shit!" He tried kicking at its tongue but they were out of reach for his blade.

It was about to punch him but shadow Blitzø came and hit its elbow, making it lose balance in its arm. Jack lunged at its tongue, gnashing it, forcing it to let Poch go. It went for a clap on the two. They used it as a chance to jump forward and stab its eyes. Before contact was made, a round stone shutter closed from the top, deflecting their attack. "It's got eyelids!" Jack shouted, flabbergasted. They slashed at a few times, barely making a dent, before landing.

"Apparently! Damnit even empowered we can barely make a dent! I doubt even Ardov could penetrate it!" Poch admitted.

"In that case…" Jack unbladed his Holders.

"What are you?" Poch sensed he was getting ready for something tough.

"I'll hold it back while you use a giga!" Jack called dust back to him wielding his scythe, compacting the blades, while calling back the blades, turning Dust into large shurikens.

"What!?"

"Go for a five timed Shiva! With resonance it should be enough to give this bastard some pain!"

"That's crazy! Once it sees me it'll go after me!"

"Not if I keep its eyes closed! Just don't take too long!" He charged at the boss.

"Jack! Ugh, damnit!" Poch started writing the words of Shiva.

The boss punched at Jack. He leapt over the fist, slamming his Scythe down, getting blocked by its arms. He sent the shurikens to its eyes, forcing them to close. He kept striking it, using his hands to guide the shurikens. It raised its other fist up, hitting him in the gut, knocking out some air. Its tongues grabbed him and slammed him down. It was about to crash it's right fist down on him. He didn't regain himself in time to block or counter.

Its fist came down until a red and blue cutting wave met its arm, cutting it off from below the elbow. "WROLOOOO!" It cried in pain, holding onto its stubb, its tongue letting go.

Jack looked up and saw Poch with three rows of Shiva's letters in front of him, his right arm holding his blade stretched out beside him showing that he was the one who launched the cutting wave. Small sparks ran up his arms. "You owe me!" He started slowly writing a fourth row of letters, looking like he was struggling to write them.

"I know!" He got up and continued his onslaught. Its tongues came out again and instead of dodging, Jack focused mainly on blocking, swinging his scythe around to deflect the tongues, getting hit a few times. He could sense how close Poch was and how much he struggled. 'Cmon Poch!' He got slapped in the face, losing his balance, but keeping up his shurikens, using his scythe to not fall down. All five tongues darted at him. He aimed his weapon forward and launched the blades out, stopping only a few of the wet tendrils. He got knocked back but it was fine, because Poch was ready.

"Giga," Poch had five words of Shiva in front of him, they resolved and went into his shadow. "Shiva!" Bone fragments five times as large as regular came out his shadow. He rose up his arm and it slowly formed into a bone arm. He sluggishly moved it, stumbling slightly as he reeled it back. Jack gave it one more strike on its eyelids, keeping them closed before making wings and flying away. By the time the boss opened its eyes it looked up to see a humongous bone arm slam down on it, slamming it into the ground with great force. Once Shiva was disengaged, the damage was revealed. Its skin was cracked and broken and its remaining arm snapped off.

Poch panted, leaning on his blade which was sending its feed back up his arm. "It's...over."

Jack landed in front of Poch. "Nice work dude."

"I hate using Gigas." Poch leaned his right fist out.

"I bet. Lucky I cant use them," he smirked, fist bumping with his right fist. The red and black aura went back into the symbols on their hands before disappearing.

"Alright let's go help the o-" a loud crash was heard at the I.M.P. building. "The hell!?"

The boss's body slowly rose.

"It's fine, it's just Dundy going ham. Like al-" Jack stopped himself when he saw the open mouth of the stone faced angel close in on them.

It scooped them up into its maw, closing its jaws. Luckily they managed to miss its teeth. "This is the second time I got bitten while thinking the boss is dead!" Poch yelled, the tongues of it trying to push the two exterminators to its teeth. Poch gave his right foot the maximum amount of twists and started kicking his ether daggers into its mouth and tongues, making it groan. His blade was outside, having been let go when scooped.

"Doesn't help that we ended our Resonance!" Jack said, struggling to stand due to its saliva. He too dropped his weapon. It kept biting its teeth, trying to bite them down.

"Don't know how many daggers I gotta kick but I'm gonna keep kicking them!"

Jack looked out its teeth with every groan. He saw that their weapons were still out there and that he never recalled dust, the shadow demon still on his back. "I got an idea!"

"What is it?"

"Keep kicking and get ready to catch!"

Poch kept reloading and kicking his ether blades. Jack waited for the right time, gathering Dust in his left hand. Once it opened again, Jack jumped forward, sticking out his left arm, sending Dust out. His timing was off, he failed to pull back in time. The teeth chomped on his arm. "FUUUUCK!" He yelped as he felt his bones break. He fought through the pain and made motion with his hand. "Catch!"

Its mouth opened again and shadow Blitzø was seen holding Jack's scythe, swinging it at Poch's Chaos Blade, knocking it into the mouth. As soon as Poch grabbed it, he raised it up and charged up a Chaos Slash. The angel rolled all its tongues together and whipped them at Poch. He was about to block until Klarna came out and sliced its tongue. Poch snarled. "I don't need you!" He waved off Klarna and felt a shock up his arm. He needed to strike now. He didn't have time to double grip so he just swung.

The chaos energy rolled around the angel down the middle. It stopped moving, its last cry coming out hoarsely, and its eyes growing dim. It split in half, the two exterminators falling out in the open space in the middle.

"FUUUUUUUCK!" Poch cried out, dropping his blade, it turning back to daggers, holding his right arm in pain. His right arm fell limp, slightly twisted and disfigured, raging blue and red sparks coming out of it. He fell back, groaning and grunting in pain, thrashing about. "Fucking god, rrrgh! Damnit! This hurts like fucking hell!"

Jack rose up, holding his left arm. "Yeah I think you won the arm breaking contest."

Poch laid back, panting, still I'm tremendous pain, tearing up a little. "This is my only fucking entry to it!"

"I can only imagine how worried Loona is." Jack looked behind him. "Oh hey, here she comes."

"Really?" Poch asked. He didnt wanna move.

"Yeah, your girlfriend must've been real worried."

"...you better be glad I'm too hurt to do shit."


End

Next chapter. Birds of a feather.