A glint in the trees revealed Alma’s location, still completely focused on the monster with her rifle.

“Hwal! Right arm!” At Alma’s command, the red elf jumped out from the trees and brought down both of her blades, sinking them straight into the nuckelavee’s restrained flesh. The eagle-eyed sniper followed suit, firing her rifle directly at the spot right under Hwalín’s blade, the powerful bullet tearing directly through the beating black muscle of the appendage and pulverizing bone—demonic blood spilling from its damaged limb as the rest of the blade plunged deeper, finally cutting through globs of sinew and meat and marrow.

“Now that’s some fancy bloody shootin’.” Hwalín took a step back, trying to avoid the torrent of blood shooting from the nuckelavee’s arm. She grinned and yelled excitedly. “Damn! Wouldn’t trust anyone else to take that fucking shot. Even if she did promise to shoot me one day.”

The nuckelavee screamed angrily in torment as its sundered arm flailed wildly in the wind. It stomped the ground and bucked trying to rip its other arm from nature's grasp. Then it suddenly stopped, its human head bolting upright once again—gaze snapping toward the trees where the shot had originated from as a large river of murky blood oozed from the wounds in its neck. Despite the stopping power of the ex-soldier's rifle, the demon's head remained relatively intact. Dark bolts of raw energy crackled and sizzled from nowhere as they converged on an invisible point between its horns. The next attack seemed to be aimed at Alma.

“No you don’t!” shouted Heloise before reciting another spell to launch her roots at the demon, slithering tendrils twisting rapidly around its conduit horns and yanking back on the nuckelavee's head in an attempt to disrupt its aim. "Your slimy mind is not allowed to even think about her."

The demon thrashed against the forces bearing down on it. Its head and arm twitching and struggling against the roots restricting its movements. It continued trying to aim its dark orb in Alma's direction, finally firing an intense blast right into the trees.

"Shit! Alma!" Heloise jerked her staff upward and aimed in the same direction.

Natura Te Protegere!

An earthen wall of dirt and stone rose up from the ground right in front of Alma, blocking her view of the battle. She sensed the monster had been charging up some type of attack but had hoped the witch's spell could interrupt it before it could finish. Only then did she realize too late that the attack had been aimed at her. The sniper had little time to react and was sure she'd be getting blasted away by the thing, but luckily her best friend had protected her with a shield that bore the brunt of the explosion as she took cover. Alma felt stupid having to rely on the person she came to save. Doubt was hitting her like a sack of bricks.

"Heli, saving my ass…" she mumbled. "I guess you really have gotten a lot stronger without me." There was a hint of loneliness in her voice. Alma grabbed her rifle and used it to stand up, trying to peer around the edge of the newly formed barrier cutting her off from the others.

"I have to show her that I've changed too. I need a reason for her to think of wanting me back in her life." Alma felt a little guilty voicing her selfish thoughts. She wondered if she was being too greedy, asking the friend she had lost to come back to her rather than just her help. After all, she was the one that had driven her off with her nagging and overprotective nature. Traits that were better suited to her sister and her overbearing nature that seemed too much for even her sometimes. Alma cringed internally as she realized this.

The nuckelavee, meanwhile, had become even more crazed now that it realized how dire its situation had become. With its tactics failed and its attacks countered, its blood now boiled with a violent new transformation. The lower bestial head had torn and gnashed at the air in a frenzied fit.

"Hey, you there. Strong-arm." Heloise awkwardly called out to Hwalín, who had been standing back, swords at the ready and trying to avoid colliding with the rampaging demon. "It's not over yet."

She glanced over at the witch silently.

"I guess since you're with Alma, that makes you some kind of soldier, right?" the witch continued. "Doesn’t surprise me that Malachias has some Hecatians in their army. So what kind of reward did Alma promise you to follow her here? Some flowers maybe? An epic fight? I know how much your kind likes combat. Or maybe you’re a fan of mine?”

“Oi, Alma!” Hwalín yelled to the wind. “After we save your friend here from that monster, you’re gonna have to save her from me!”

Alma could hear the two girls talking about something, but she hadn't really been paying attention. She was searching for a better vantage point to watch the nuckelavee from, which seemed to be about to attempt something horrid. And as if on cue, the moment Alma peered through her scope, the demon froze in place. It seemed to be staring straight at Alma with its creepy, deformed visage.

Hwalín, taking this as her signal, attempted another twin piercing with her swords, only to be deflected by something familiar.

The blood spouting from the nuckelavee's severed arm had solidified into a sticky new blade. Despite the appearance of looking like congealed jelly, it clanged surprisingly loud as it clashed against the red elf's blades. After forcing her to leap back in retreat, the demonic beast committed another unspeakable act. It brought down its newly formed blade onto its other arm, still bound up in the witch's roots. The fountain of blood gushing from its newly dislodged, amputated arm quickly coagulated midair into another dangerous blade. It brought both its arms forward and crossed them together over its chest before letting out a disturbing mumbling that could only be described as unhallowed chanting. Whatever words it was reciting to itself seemed to put the other girls in a state of revulsion.

Heloise once again tried to wrap the demon's upper body in writhing vines only for them to be shredded instantly by the clotted blades.

Alma found herself panicking slightly at the monster's sudden transformation. It wasn't something she was aware nuckelavee could do. She spent countless nights on her computer reading up on goetic monsters summoned to this world by idiots consumed by their lust for power—running simulations in her head on how to take down each one. She studied lists of them, usually right before hunting them down with Heloise for whatever secret purpose she always seemed to have in mind for them. Alma never really questioned her friend's intentions in times like those, considering she would know better about magical fauna and the like. She simply enjoyed the fun they had together and would probably be swept up in a state of nostalgia if not for the urgent situation. Now it was up to her to save her friend from another monster, just like old times.

“Damn it, kid. Put these fucking eyes to use somehow. Come on. It has to have some kind of weak point I can shoot.” Alma narrowed her eyes, observing the thing’s movements as it traded blows with the other two women, looking for anything unique, any sign of cracks in its mass of armored muscles. If it could shake off her bullets and even losing its limbs so easily like that, then any hope she had of killing it were quickly dwindling. Her friends were in danger and her head intrusively filled with the countless ways imaginable they could die gruesome deaths fighting against it. Magical beasts were dangerous enough, but among them, the demonic ones were the ones to really watch out for. They kill indiscriminately and haven’t an ounce of mercy, tearing any living thing they see to pieces.

Alma gripped the barrel of her rifle tightly and focused, burning a hole through her gun’s telescopic sight. Her gaze flicked wildly over the enemy, until finally a phenomenon imperceptibly resonated before her. A hazy new energy was emanating off of the nuckelavee’s body that was gradually causing her head to ache. Was it powering up another new attack? No. This was something else entirely. As the young sniper concentrated harder, the haze building up over the demon came into focus more clearly. Bound tightly around the nuckelavee’s murky, throbbing flesh was what appeared to be an obscurely shining blue chain.