Kapitel 26: Chapter 25 - Insurmountable Odds
The beast man staring at Kojika let out a sigh and scratched his head helplessly.
"Listen kid, exorcist or not you're clearly an amateur, just go home and forget you ever saw us." He ordered but Kojika simply lowered her sword to properly grip it with both of her hands.
"S-She seems really intent on fighting us… d-deal with her Buffy." The Harpy flew up and hid behind a tree shaking in terror, child or not she didn't want to fight any exorcists.
"Why do I gotta be the one to fight a kid? You do it Gumi!" The beast man named Buffy yelled to the pink girl who just scoffed at him.
"Bah, don't look at me, you're the muscle, Tibbi is the scout, and I'm the brains." Gumi said without much care at all, putting her hands into the pockets of her clean white lab coat and turning away towards the factory entrance.
"So you two can just di*k around and not do your jobs but I gotta do mine? You stupid b*tches." Buffy growled out that last bit with anger, he was a warrior, not a bully. Killing children was beneath him. Indeed it wasn't just because he didn't like hurting kids or anything, definitely.
Turning back around, Gumi with a visibly annoyed expression grabs the beast man by the nose and pulls him down closer so they can be face to face. "This is why you're still a virgin, you slow witted buffoon. That isn't how you speak to two women."
She let go of his nose before he could retaliate causing him to grunt in annoyance and rub his nose. "I'm just saying I've fought two valkyries so far and you guys haven't been able to locate a single kid. Do you know how important this mission is? The big boss wanted this one done specifically, he seemed pretty urgent about it too."
Buffy really respected their boss as everyone apart of the Stray Devil faction did, he was a revolutionary who was helping all the strays created by the misuse of the Evil Piece system get revenge and form their own little group for protection. Under him they had already accomplished quite a few amazing things and as their numbers grew they had become an entire faction of their own, similar to the Fallen Angels. Soon they'd have rights of their own in a sense rather than always being hunted down by all of the other races.
This is what Buffy believed and what he fought for just like most of the members of the faction with nowhere else to go.
"It isn't my fault that the guy didn't even tell us the name of who we're supposed to be looking for." Gumi scoffed clearly not respecting the big boss as much as Buffy.
"I-It isn't the boss's fault!" Tibbi the Harpy yells from behind the tree she was hiding behind.
"Oh? How so?" Gumi raises an eyebrow towards the Harpy causing the young Stray Devil to yelp and retreat further behind the tree. Still, however she finds a bit of confidence to yell once again.
"Solomon's Wisdom is incredibly faulty, It can't make him omnipotent!"
"Isn't that what he told you? A leader will often lie to their subordinates, especially ones as low as you two." Gumi responds rationally.
Buffy wanted to retort but Kojika, getting impatient, threw a few ofuda which stuck to the beast man.
"Brat can't you wait-" As he yelled at her the spiritual power in the talisman began shocking his body forcing him to rip them off.
With his distraction, she moves forward for a slash using as much physical strength as she could muster. However, while the man was big it didn't seem to do anything to hamper his speed as he dodged the blade rather easily.
"Kid, I'm not in your weight class at all, go try taking a bite out of something more soft like a wafer cookie." Despite his rugged and agitated tone, it was clear he very much was against actually fighting Kojika as he believed her to be a child likely not even in her teens.
This irritated Kojika slightly as she was already 17! She was going to be a legal adult in most places soon!
She slashes once again only to have Buffy dodge easily. The strike wasn't even close, frustrating Kojika further.
"Damn it!" She wouldn't give up however so taking a step back she tosses a few more ofuda which hit their mark and released a burst of spiritual lightning.
Buffy shrugged it off, tearing off the paper easily but he didn't make any moves to attack Kojika instead backing up.
"Tsk, you wolf breathed idiot she's trying to kill you, at least disarm her if you don't want to hurt her." Gumi scoffed but seemed to not be very intent on seeing the rest of the fight as she went into the abandoned factory and closed the door behind herself pretty soundly.
"I-I really don't get why the big boss keeps someone like her around…" Tibbi mumbled but was easily heard by the beast man who grunted in agreement.
He stared at the Kojika looking deep into her eyes where he saw such a great rage even a somewhat slow witted person like himself had to think.
Anger was directed at Stray Devils all the time however her anger seemed a great deal more personal almost similar to hatred. He didn't remember doing anything for such a child to hate him however perplexing him greatly.
"Yo brat. What the hells the matter with you?" He questions loudly without any tact.
Kojika's eye twitched and she threw more ofuda that yet again hit their target.
"You tried this twice already-" Rather than shock him however he was surprised as tree roots erupted from the ground tangling around his limbs restricting his movements.
Taking this chance she rushes with her hand pulled back ready to stab the beast man in the stomach. Just as she gets close and her blade moves in for the strike Buffy breaks out of his binds and slaps her with the back of his hand sending her into a nearby tree.
She hit the tree hard enough to make vision blurry for a moment and her sword was no longer in her hand but instead embedded into the ground uselessly nearby. Perhaps normally she wouldn't lose her grip on it, however her lack of good living conditions and her poor diet made her far weaker than she normally was, which was already pretty weak.
Her limbs felt flaccid and her forehead wet with blood. She was for the most part a regular human, no perhaps she was actually far weaker physically than most humans her age.
"Sh*t! Kid are you alright! Don't just come at a guy with so much killing intent!" Buffy yells stepping towards Kojika with genuine concern only to be alerted by a sudden cry from Tibbi.
"Buffy watch out!"
"Fire!"
"What!?!" He looked to the side only just fast enough to catch a glimpse of the fireball blowing up in his face forcing him to take a few steps back from the force.
Reginleif runs up to Kojika as a raven perches itself onto her shoulder.
"Just wait a second, I'll get you back on your feet as soon as possible." She reassures Kojika while healing her with minor magic. "Tosca, do you think you can hold him off for a few seconds?"
Tosca looks towards the man towering over her and grips her spear tightly with fear, her body shaking a bit as well.
Still however she stood there and nodded in affirmation.
"More brats! God- UGHHH!" The beast man suddenly went to curse using God's name but was hit with a splitting headache.
Using this opening Tosca attacked, thrusting her spear she managed to make a small cut on his abdomen despite being unused to the weight or even using a spear in general. However she stumbled slightly leaving her wide open.
"Call of Lightning!" Reginleif calls out the spell and instantly a bolt of blue lightning falls from the sky striking Buffy and stunning him.
Reginleif had learned how to weave more runes together and even how to cast more basic spells instantly without even having to move her hands to write the runes.
Tosca slashed at Buffy putting a much more substantial slash wound across his chest before clumsily backing up. She was starting to get a feel for using a spear already and actually found herself liking the freedom to engage and disengage with her substantial range advantage.
(What the hell, the wounds made by that damn spear aren't healing.) Buffy observed feeling his wound and drew his hand back to find it soaked with blood.
These kids were serious so he couldn't be so relaxed anymore, and with a weapon like that he might actually be in a slight bit of danger.
"You brats really don't understand what you're getting into!" Buffy yelled at them finally taking a more offensive stance with his claws ready and his beast like teeth were bared in warning.
"She's healed but I think she may be out of it." Reginleif said about Kojika upon stepping next to Tosca. "Remember not to let your fear get the better of you as well Tosca!"
The raven flew off of Reginleif's shoulder promptly but perched itself on a nearby tree to observe the upcoming battle just as it was ordered to by its master.
"Right!" Tosca replied enthusiastically. Reginleif had put multiple defensive runes onto the junior using up quite a bit of magical energy, but it was a necessity not only because of her extreme amount of inexperience but also because Cebrail had left her in charge while she was gone.
Reginleif wouldn't defy the Seraphim Princesses expectations, just like Cebrail did for her she would protect this precious junior of hers and possibly even get praised!
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Lambhendelta
Lambhendelta I kinda always wondered why the series proper never used the Stray Devils more. I mean there are plenty of reasons one might abandon their master like with Kuroka and yet they're still hunted for the most part.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
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Stein