Drifts of dust rained down on the scoobies as the towers of crates tried to shake themselves apart. A series of crashes in the distance told Dawn that some were successful. For a moment she had a vision of row upon row of crates toppling over like giant dominoes. The image would have been funny, if it hadn't involved her being squashed by a crate of prehistoric diapers or something.
Buffy raised an eyebrow at Giles. "You know this is your fault, right?"
The giant crate in the middle of the pentagram started to give off a weird whine. The noise quickly rose in pitch in a way that sounded like one of those deathrays from one of those sci-fi movies Andrew kept trying to make everyone watch. Or rather like a deathray that was being overchar...
The front of the crate exploded outward with a deafening roar. Dawn flung herself to the ground. Even as she fell she could see that the other scoobies were doing the same thing. Except for Willow. The witch had raised her hand in a 'stop' gesture, the air in front of her wavering like a mirage.
Which would have been more reassuring if there had not been an enormous plume of glowing water about to crash into them at high speed. Only it probably wasn't water, what with the glowing and the giant pentagram and all. She'd be happy if she came out of this only covered in demon snot. No, more likely she would be dissolved by some sort of extradimensiomal acid or something. Judging by just how much of the stuff there was the entire gang would probably be gone within seconds. It was amazing that Willow had held it back this long...
The witch lowered her hand and the glimmer vanished. Dawn expected to be obliterated. Instead the plume of probably-not-water started moving away. Dawn watched in amazed horror as what looked like tons of water slowly retracted back into the crate through the hole it hade made in its side.
Dawn clambered to her feet and stared at the vertical pond within the crate. The surface of the glowing water was moving as if moved by a breeze.
"Nice water-repelling there, Wills." Xander said and got to his feet as well. "No wonder you never take an umbrella anymore."
Before Willow could answer the not-pond rippled and five red balls of energy shout out of it in rapid succession. The first two ripped flaming pieces out of what remained of the crate's side. The remaining three shot towards the scoobies and crashed against the hastily re-summoned shield, the impacts driving the witch backwards. Dawn and Xander grabbed Willow's arms and kept her from falling.
"Whoa" she said, slightly out of breath. "Those things punch harder than Buffy."
There was a loud crack and the Slayer appeared beside them, holding a spar of wood as long as her arm. "I bet whoever's throwing those can't handle a big piece of wood like I can, though." she said. Then she frowned. "Wait, that didn't come out right."
The portal rippled again as three more bolts shot outwards. Willow made a slapping motion and the balls of energy veered sideways and crashed into a pile of crates. Which promptly caught fire and toppled into the tower next to it.
"Oops." The witch said.
Xander nodded sagely as the second pile burst into flames. 'I'll second that 'oops' and raise you an 'Oh god oh god we're all gonna die.'
The portal spat out another volley. This time Willow redirected them into the ground. "Ha!" she shouted "Not so tough now, are you?"
Dawn winced. "Oh, you so should not have said that. You know it's going to spit out something horrible now."
The pond rippled again, stronger than before. Dawn braced herself for whatever mindscarring horror might emerge. Buffy for her part raised her spar of wood like a javelin, ready to throw. There was a weird 'gloop' sound and from the glowing not-water emerged:
Two guys in military fatigues.
The older one was wearing a baseball cap and was obviously wounded judging by the way the younger one with the glasses had to support him as he hobbled. The blood drenching one leg of his trousers was another hint that something might be wrong.
In spite of the injury the two men were moving quickly, which wasn't doing them any favors: they crashed into the part of the crate's side that was still intact. The younger one was all but flung through the hole by his momentum and faceplanted rather painfully on the ground. The older guy grabbed onto the wood, showing off impressive reflexes, and managed to remain upright for a moment.
Then he was barrelled over by the blond woman who sprinted out of the portal after him and the two of them joined their friend on the floor.
"Huh." Xander said. "That's not..."
A large, bald black man came flying out of the portal. Dawn had seen her sister throw enough people around to know that this guy wasn't flying under his own power. She felt affirmed in her assumption when a tall figure in menacing black armor stepped through the portal right behind him, arm still raised.
"...a demon." Xander finished.
Willow's hand snapped forwards and caught the flying man with her magic. Buffy had flung her spar of wood the moment the... demon? ... with the mantis-like helmet had appeared. The improvised javelin struck the creature square in the chest, only to shatter without even rocking the thing backwards. The creature pointed its arm at the figures on the ground. The three were already scrabbling out of the way, just in time to avoid another volley of those energy balls that shot out of a bump on the demon's gauntlet.
"Buffy, catch." Willow said and flung the floating black man sideways. Buffy shot forwards into a sprint before pushing off into a leap. She intercepted the man's trajectory at just the right moment to tuck the two of them into a roll instead of a crash. Dawn wondered whether the guy wa mute. In his place she would have been screaming her head off the entire time.
Meanwhile Willow's feet had risen about a foot off the ground, arcs of electricity playing along her body as the witch charged up her spell. Then she thrust her arms forward, twin bolts of sustained lightning striking at the demon with a thunderclap that made Dawn's ears ring.
Unfortunately the creature completely failed to be fried. Instead of turning the demon into a pile of charcoal the lightning bolts simply disappeared into a rainbow-coloured field that had sprung up inches above the creature's armor. Which was so not a good thing.
It did catch his attention, though. The demon turned away from the military guys and fixed his large, glossy eyes on Willow. Dawn had a feeling that it was time for the non-superpowered part of the gang to clear the field.
Dawn dove to the side and sought cover behind the nearest row of crate-towers. From the corner of her eye she could see Xandere doing the same thing in the other direction, even as the demon raised both arms and proceeded to unleash volley after volley of deadly red balls at the witch. The lightning bolts cut off but Willow continued to hang in the air, a foot above the ground, frowning fiercely. The bolts of energy missed her on all sides, just to curve around and zoom back at the demon, where they were in turn absorbed in a series of multi-coloured flashes. It looked suspiciously like a stalemate.
Or not. Instead of trading ineffectual blows with the witch the demon started forward. He stepped over the part of the crate's side below the hole and began to walk towards Willow, firing continuously. Dawn was pretty sure that his plan was to just walk up to the witch and then rip her apart with his bare hands. He wouldn't be the first to try that.
As soon as the creature stepped clear of the crate Buffy tackled it from the side. Caught midstride the demon staggered for a step or two, but ultimately kept its balance. Buffy on her part was was whipped around the demon by her own momentum, like an overenthusiastic pole dancer. The demon had to have some mojo going on, there was no way he could have kept his feet otherwise. Unless that armor literally weighed a ton.
The barrage of energy balls cut off and the demon drove an elbow down at Buffy's neck. The slayer let go of the creature's waist, her remaining momentum flinging her out of the way of the blow. She twisted midair, hit the side of the portal's crate with her feet and launched herself back at the creature in a flying kick. The demon simply took the blow on his head, again not even swaying from the impact. Instead he hammered his fist into her chest, flinging her against the crate's side. Dawn winced as she heard the crack of Buffy's head hitting the wood. That would leave a lump.
The slayer crumpled to the ground, dazed. Even so she immediately tried to get back to her feet. At least Dawn assumed that that was what all the flailing of limbs was about.
The demon, arm still raised from hitting Buffy, simply tracked her with it as she fell, obviously intent on simply blasting her at point blank range. Before he could a large crate fell from the sky, courtesy of one pissed off witch. The crate's bottom splintered when it hit the demon's head, so instead of being squashed like the bughe resembled he disappeared into the descending box. Willow, the orbs of the demon's last volley still orbiting around her, floated closer. She gestured at the heap of crates she had set fire to earlier. The flames condensed into a ball before jumping in a graceful arc towards the crate holding the demon. There they immediately grew to twice their size as they hungrily seized upon the wood, making Dawn want to cheer.
Then the demon's fist broke through the crate's side.
Willow shook her head, her face starting to glisten with sweat. She put on her resolved face and took a deep breath. A flick of her arm had Buffy zooming over to the edge of the pentagram, where Giles popped out of the stacks just long enough to grab her and disappear back into cover. How had he gotten there so fast? The younger guy and the blond woman in BDUs had grabbed their injured companion and were carrying him out of view into the maze of crates. The black guy had pulled a nasty looking knife from somewhere and was moving back towards where the demon had been crated. As she did this mental survey Dawn wracked her brain for something she could be doing instead. Something helpful, preferably.
Willow breathed out.
Dawn's hair whipped around her face as a storm sprung up out of nowhere. The swirling clouds of dust the wind carried showed that air was streaming inwards towards the fire from all directions. The flames twisted around themselves, grew higher and brighter like a burning tornadoe until, finally, they seemed to disappear. Only a faint blue glow and a loud roaring noise gave away how intense the flames had grown.
The black man staggered. He caugt himself and stood, hesitating. Then he moved away from the pyre. Dawn could only imagine how hot it had to be standing so close to the fire.
The demon pulled his arm back into the crate. A moment later the whole side of the box exploded outwards as the creature barrelled its way through, its armour looking slightly melted around the edges.
It only managed two steps away from the fire before the air around it warped. The demon stopped as if it had run into a wall. The distortion in the air intensified and the creatures was forced back a step. And another.
Then, out of nowhere, it was lifted from its feet and flung into the flames, showering sparks in all directions that were quickly lifted away by the updraft. The black man, after enduring both danger and heat for all this time, chose that moment to spin around and sprint away from the fire as quickly as he could, directly towards Willow. The witch didn't seem to notice him at all; her eyes were fixed on the fire, unheedful even of the blood that had started to trickle out of her nose.
The man did not slow down. Instead he stepped slightly to the side of Willow, twisted around in a strangely graceful pirouette that somehow ended with Willow draped over his shoulder, and tore away towards the stacks.
The move must have interrupted the witch's concentration. The storm stopped, just as abruptly as it had started, and the flames returned into the visible spectrum. For a moment Dawn marveled at the twisting pillar of fire that rose to the sky in front of her, tall enough to splash against the ceiling and spread outwards like an upside down waterfall.
Then the pyre exploded.