Scene #9644: Roadside Village

Owner	Pose
Holly Asturias	Today's little outing is going to be leagues simpler than the previous, or the endless Q&A's of being around Holly. Mind you, you're not escaping her company! She's coming along, since she knows which village it was and roughly what happened. "It was this morning," she begins, although it is barely not morning at this point, leaning towards almost noon, "An injured Revenant Hunter wound up on our doorstep. One of the Association's. They were patrolling near a little village not too far from here," she continues, ignoring the fact you have been walking with her for a hour already. 'Not too far' takes a different meaning when you don't have vehicles, or horses, or supernatural mobility of any kind. "Horrors by the dozens. The poor woman barely made it to us in one piece. Her squad, and the village... we're hoping for the best." It's cloudy, and dark, and a bit cold. You get the feeling it'll rain at any moment, or maybe snow, or hail, at this rate. You've passed more trees than you can count, the road is unsteady and frequently broken by jagged rocks that spike out of the ground like something deformed the land. There's those gross, skeletal totems here and there, fused together grotesquely and making a wary eye constantly alert for one of them to move. They never do. They're dried up, singed, slightly golden ornaments, long-dead bodies. But it's ahead, finally. A small village, twenty-seven buildings large to be exact. Surrounded by thick fencing, metal and wood, reinforced. It holds. The gates, though... something smashed them open. There's a dead man half-embedded into one of the broken gates. His back is hollow, the edges of the cavity gold-lined on his black uniform like it's a fancy collector's display case. A Jail, surely, though there's no Revenant's heart in it. The Horrors must've eaten it, specifically. The village ahead is fairly simple in layout; there's a big square (it's round) around which most of the buildings are arranged, in two different rows. The back row is residential, the inner is amenities. A bakery, a smithy, a clinic. The buildings are what's left of a larger little town, past the fences, completely ruined. Not much more than foundations left behind. Sturdy, early 2000s constructions, patched up the best people could. Holly's golden blood bursts out of her arms in strands and strings, forming her trusty rifle in her hands. She motions forward, into the village, where you can see movement already. Dozens of humanoid figures, clambering all over the buildings. Torn clothes on their bodies, patches of gold on their skin. From afar, human-enough. Some are munching on bodies. Some are trying to get into barricaded buildings. And one, amongst the pack, seems taller, more intelligent-- it's got a massive shield and a cavalry lance in the other hand, it's got a long, flowing mane of gold and pink hair almost the same size as it is. It raises its lance, and smashes the wall of an upper-level floor right open. You can hear screams from inside at the intrusion. Someone shoots a rifle, and it barely flinches. But it acts as a siren for the other Horrors. No longer clambering. They're headed towards the survivors. "We're a bit late, but let's get to work!" She takes a shot, from the entrance, at one of the smaller Horrors. It's a streak of blue-and-white light, that hits the thing dead-on and almost freezes it solid, though it struggles against the ice and starts breaking out quickly enough. From so far away it's hard to tell the exact ways in which these aren't 'people-shaped' just yet, but that one, turning around to face you, has a hollow skull filled with candles.
Riku Asakura	Riku walks the path to the village; it's sort of a long walk by his standards, but he doesn't complain. He also side eyes the totems, remembering them from the walk to the fairgrounds. This is sick, but there is nothing to be done about it right now. Maybe someday they can clean these up and give them a proper burial. Holly gives them the rundown, too, about the Hunter who came in injured from the village. It makes Riku want to run to get there, but he knows if he shows up there exhausted, he won't be any use to anyone, so he keeps up the walking, but at a hurried pace with Holly. When they get to the village, it's already busted out with horrors eating bodies and a group of them trying to bust in. It doesn't take Holly drawing out her weapon to get Riku to act. "You go!" he says, pulling out an Ultracapsule. He pushes a button on it, activating it before sliding it into a holder. "I go!" he does this again, but with a different capsule. This causes the illusory images of two different Ultramen to stand next to him. Both are mostly red in color with silver armor on them. "Here we go!" he says again, drawing the Fusion Riser across the top of each capsule, scanning them before he brings the Fusion Riser up above his head. "Time for my courage to burn bright!" he declares. He brings the Fusion Riser down over his chest and pulls the trigger on it, causing blue fire to roll off him in waves. "GEEEEEEEEEEEED!" FUSION RISE! ULTRASEVEN! ULTRAMAN LEO! ULTRAMAN GEED SOLID BURNING! The newly transformed Ultraman runs forward, keeping himself about a head taller than a normal person as he rushes forward to distract the horrors trying to pour into the building. His right hand glows brightly, coated in fire as he tries to punch his way through and tries to interdict himself between the opening and the group of horrors. A second later, steam hisses out of the back of the fist, as he makes a stance and gets ready to protect lives.
Skipper	> 'Not too far' takes a different meaning when you don't have vehicles, or horses, or supernatural mobility of any kind. If anything, an hour's walk is really short, given that Skipper's coming from a world where commonfolk transportation technology levels max out at 'handcart' and don't even have beasts of burden, and the closest/only real town to Skipper's home is half a day's travel. The village is an hour away? That's practically in Holly's backyard! > "Horrors by the dozens. The poor woman barely made it to us in one piece. Her squad, and the village... we're hoping for the best." "By the dozens..." Skipper repeats. "... We need to stop this. We're going to stop this," they say. "Nobody should have to lose their homes or family or their lives. Not when we can do something about it." Skipper does a quick gear check as soon as the village comes into view. Today's loadout is their sword (a weathered blade that looks as though it's served several years of plowshare duty) and a hip-slung pack of throwing knives. And then: "Thank goodness. There's survivors." And then: "Who are in danger!" > "We're a bit late, but let's get to work!" "Right!" Skipper draws their sword, gripping it in both hands, and focuses. Everyone else might be running forward, but they're lagging back. "... Over to there, past the fountain, twice around the square..." A few seconds later, Skipper crouches into a modified sprinter's stance, and then lauches forward. The mouse is practically a blur, sprinting forward from a standing start and quickly reaching automobile-like speeds as they dash into the village, zeroing in on a course that'll take them right past the closest horror, and they're swinging out as they pass, slashing forcefully with their sword. Skipper doesn't stop to confirm the hit. They don't even look. They're already focused on the next target, the next closest horror, fully committed to another run-by strike. And then the next thing in their path - it's the bakery wall. At the speed they're going, Skipper is going to have a hard time stopping before they hit it. And they don't even try to stop. The mouse(-like person) slams into and bounces off of the wall at full speed, changing direction like a billiard ball with basically no loss in momentum or speed, now heading towards a third target for another strike, and from there to careen off of an intact section of fencing. Skipper ends up dashing all over the place, heedless of the direction they're going as long as speed and momentum is preserved. After a few bounces they've clearly reached the extent of their planning and are just bouncing around the town randomly, trying to still hit whatever horrors they can while being unable to correct their course.
Kukuru	Since it's noon, that means Kukuru arrives with brunch! There's a little box for for everyone, too, although it's subject to the usual sort of batch cooking she does: A quiche lorraine with a dense egg base, plenty of bacon and swiss cheese incorporated throughout, and a soggy-flaky bottom from getting crammed into those plastic boxes. She forgot to bring forks, but at least she's got a whole roll of paper towels to compensate. "Dozens? Oh my... I do hope she's okay. If it was just today, theeen..." Pursing her lips lightly, Kukuru flicks a finger up as a green light pulses around it, and then it disappears just as quickly while she gives Holly a sympathetic look. "Let's hope it hasn't gotten too bad." She smiles weakly, making it pretty obvious she's not expecting much. "And if we can help the one that escaped settle after what she saw..." There's a pause, and then Kukuru claps her hands in front of her face. "Oooone thing at a time. Do stay close to each other, okay? It'll be easier to keep you all nice and healthy if you're grouped up." Taking out a fluffy pink shawl as the weather gets colder, she's more than willing to let anyone stay close while everyone's on the way to the village. She's quick to stop once she sees that embedded gate body, though, smellling it seconds before she sees it. She's already firmly on guard by the time she reaches the fence, bringing out her pair of massive metal claws and skimming the ground with the tips as she heads in on Holly's direction. "That suuuure is a lot of them. Okay, let's get this cleared up aaaand...." She slows down briefly, having trouble figuring out how to finish that sentence while also switching gears to actually fight. Giving up on the former to focus on the latter, a dark cloud appears beneath Kukuru to let her fall right through it. A second cloud appears above a pair of horrors in the middle of eating, dropping Kukuru right on top of them with her claws swinging forward aimed at smushing them right into each other with her freakish strength.
Holly Asturias	Riku is quick on the draw; well, everyone is, thankfully, but he'll be the one the Horrors are focused on, without a doubt. A showy transformation like that isn't exactly common here, and the way he runs up at the besieged, formerly barricaded house only barely leaves any of the gathered Horrors any time to react. From up close, their natures are a lot more obvious; though they're all PEOPLE-SHAPED, the way a lot of them have missing skin, exposed gold skeletons, sometimes whole extra limbs, or grossly deformed features like hollow skulls full of candles, or shoulder joints popped out of place to make room for large candles, or maws full of sharp teeth where they shouldn't be; it all makes it painfully obvious these aren't human anymore. Or Revenants, for that matter, if it's even possible to distinguish much at this point. The most "human-like" of the Horrors is the larger one, armored, with hair, a shield and a spear; it's distinctly less "beast" by the very inclusion of the armor and weaponry, though the way the armor caves in places, or looks half-molten, reveals that it might be fused to the wearer by now. Punching a few of the lesser ones is easy enough! They go crashing through buildings, or bounce on the ground a few times; but they're sturdy, and they get back up, even if they have to do that with broken limbs (can they even feel pain?). The larger Horror raises it shield, to take Riku's blow head-on. It does mean the survivors are safe as long as Riku blocks the way in, but the larger Horror won't give that to him for free. Its lance glows an ominous blood red, and it surges forward with flames and blood alike causing an explosion on impact if it hits. Skipper is close behind Riku, slashing at one of the lesser Horrors as they pass by! There's a splatter of red-and-gold blood as they do, and a thud on the ground. But rather than that being that, as they bounce off the bakery wall, they can feel... something? Grabbing their leg. It's not physical. A deformed wisp, vaguely in the shape of a person, that stretches from the downed Horror to Skipper's leg, a sudden force that tries to slam them down into thee pack of lesser Horrors. All of which would be all too happy to take a bite. "The candles! Make sure you destroy them, it's the only way to prevent the Horrors here from projecting their spectral bodies outward!" Kukuru just drops onto a pair of the things, rather than run up to them. They're not as freakishly strong or durable as she is, so it's really not that hard to smoosh them together and crunch them. It does leave her sitting near the pack and having attracted plenty of attention though. One of the Horrors liquefies in a mess of red and gold, reforming behind her with a sudden intent to grab her arms and rip them off! Another, holding a broken sword, capitalizes on its partner's back-attack to try and stab her right in the gut. They're apparently capable of coordinating!
Riku Asakura	Ultraman Geed's plan had worked; they were now focused on him, or at least the leader was. This would give the survivors time, and all he had to do was hold the ground in front of the way in. He was glad for that, willing to take any blow as long as people were okay. Is that what it means to be an Ultraman? Who knows, but it's how Geed operates! The human-like Horror concerned him the most, seemingly directing the group of horrors and having taken an interest in him. When the spear aims for him, he calls out for something. "GEED CLAW!" he shouts, and in his hand is a claw-like weapon held in his main hand. He thrusts the weapon forward, aiming to catch the spear mid-air, which prevents the explosion from hitting him directly. It does catch him, however, causing sparks to rain down from his chest and arms. He doesn't go down, having redirected most of the force of the weapon. He takes this time to use the claw to grip the spear and pull it down into the ground while Geed's other hand is coated in fire, aiming to punch the human-like horror across the chest, aiming to burn through them. He uses this to try to hold the leader horror in his grip, trying to prevent them from using that spear again or directing any more horrors. Hopefully, this gives Skipper, Kukuru, and Holly time to thin the rest of the horrors down.
Skipper	Skipper gets grabbed and dragged downward. They seem to actually get a bit of whiplash from the forced sudden stop, after running at full tilt. "The what? The candles?" They're slashing desperately, trying to fend off the lesser horrors. Skipper's much more used to freedom of movement. "Oh, those candles-" Skipper goes for the pack of knives on their hip, yanks one out, and flings it towards the head of the downed one that grabbed them. "It was a lot easier when I only had to worry about one monster at a time!" They're back at a standstill again, and it takes them another moment to plan their next move, when an idea strikes. "Hey! Kukuru! Could you please do that teleport thing, get me up on a roof?" With knives in hand and sword sheathed, Skipper takes a more reasonable run as they hop from rooftop to rooftop, flinging knives at targets of opportunity (often throwing them mid-leap). They're still staying in motion at all times, though, not giving any of the horrors the chance to group up on them if they can!
Kukuru	Seeing the Horrors up close has Kukuru grimacing slightly, not enough to stop crunching the first pair up, but enough to stop and give the next group approaching her a closer look. "Oh dear... I wonder who put these all in them like that." She comments, eyeing the candles in their bodies moments before she feels something grabbing her arms from behind during her moment of self-distraction. Glancing back as someone might do when something's grabbing them from behind, Kukuru whirls around with her claws still extended, ready to hurl that one into a wall or just gouge her claws right into it if she can't quite fling it with that momentum. "They're pretty tricky, too... Aren't y-" Once against distracted by herself, Kukuru sucks in sharp breath as she feels that broken sword jabbing right into her at center mass. Looking ahead again, she sees the culprit, and there's a brief whine of pain and annoyance followed shortly by her grasping that Horror and backhand-hurling it at the shielded horror Riku's dealing with. Her accuracy isn't always on point with throwing things like that, but she's certainly got the arm strength for it if nothing else. "Ow, ow, itchy... Mm?" Hearing Skipper calling out to her, Kukuru holds a clawed hand over her wound (more for mentals than actual need) while it glows green with that regenerating power of hers. "The roof? Oooh.. Okay!" An inky portal appears one step in the ground in front of Skipper, and the other appears at the roof, providing a convenient access/egress point right then and there!
Holly Asturias	The 'leader', if it could be called that, recoils just a bit at the clash and impact. Its spear gripped, pulled down to the ground, means it relies on its shield immediately, raising it to take the punch a second time. The steel and gold of the massive shield dents and bends from the blow, but a deformed shield can still do its job just fine. Bright red eyes glare at Riku from inside the... helmet? It's really hard to tell if its face has hardened into a golden, metallic shape, or if that was in fact a helmet in the first place. It was surely a Revenant before, though. The aesthetic is too strong, and through gaps in its armor, Riku can see the beating golden heart of the Horror in its seemingly hollow chest, like the armor and flesh are just covering up nothing. The Horror leaps backward, abandoning its spear in Riku's grip. It distorts, shooting upward and then crashing down in a blur of red Ichor, delivering a kick (fittingly enough) enhanced by its own fire. Skipper throws knives at the Horror's head, snuffing out the candles in it. The spectral wisp of its secondary body shrieks out of existence! This buys them the time they need to get teleported up onto one of the houses and start hopping between them, throwing knives and generally making themselves hard to catch! This works for a moment; knives cause Horrors to slow or trip, until a few of them start channeling red-glowing Ichor through their deformed golden hands. They fire bursts of it at Skipper; it's raw kinetic force, but it's bloody, with a greater chance to open wounds than you'd expect energy blasts to. One Horror even empowers a leap to try to reach Skipper, but is promptly shot out of the sky by Holly, who is still way over there with her rifle. She's your support artillery! But that doesn't help with the blasts. "Oh dear... I wonder who put these all in them like that." "Put them? They just grow there. Something about this forest causes it, but that seems to be a spiritual matter beyond any of my knowledge. I'm hoping Lilian and Tamamo may be of assistance with it, eventually." Two more Horrors get shredded via proximity to Kukuru, even if one managed to wound her. The thrown one even smashes into the larger Horror trying to divekick Riku, though that just ends up splattering it in the crossfire. At least it's dead? Three more Horrors head for Kukuru. They're leaning, somewhat, that that isn't someone to just engage in melee. At least not without some tricks. One, with a large candle growing out of its back, projects a spectral copy of itself to suddenly attempt to paralyze Kukuru. Just long enough! The other two, with fingers like knives, jump in unison to try and rip her apart in the moment of vulnerability.
Riku Asakura	The spear is abandoned, which catches Geed by surprise. Before the Geed Claw could release the spear and let it fall to the ground, the kick from the Horror caused him to rear back, sparks raining down from where it connected, causing Geed to grab at his chest in apparent pain. However, it would be a long way before such attacks could put him down for good. For the moment, the two opponents stared each other down. The shield was going to be a problem as long as that Horror continued to hide behind it; it was going to be an uphill battle. Geed also noticed the golden heart, figuring that it was a place that could be hit to either hurt it or kill it. The first thing, though, was to strip that shield away. Geed lifts the claw into the air. A beam shoots out into the air before the sky is lit up with beams of light. "DIFFUSION SHOWER!" he calls out, before the beams of light rained down like spears, aiming to pierce the horror from all sides, literally raining down from the sky all around the leader. Geed takes a moment to look into the building behind him, checking in on the people inside in the brief moment he has.
Skipper	"Okay so the candles are the weak spot - it's like the vital core," Skipper calls. At least they're safe up on top of the roof. Then Skipper squeaks loudly as they take hits, now dripping blood from beneath their cloak. The horrors are learning! They're not allowed to learn! What sort of rigged fight is this? Luckily Holly's there to assist. "Thanks Holly!" calls Skipper. They take another leap to another building, twisting around in midair to fling another knife, before landing easily on the far roof. Skipper might not be safe up here, but staying in motion at all times means they'll still need to get close, and if Skipper can manage a little bit of stealth they'll need to find them first.
Kukuru	"They just grow there." "Huuuh... That's a pretty weird thing to grow, then. And a spiritual thing, too... Yeah, that definitely sounds like something that might be interesting to them." Kukuru comments aloud again, nodding quickly at Holly before tapping her chin lightly in thought with little regard to the gunk that's steadily accumulating on her claws. "Yeah, that's an idea..." "Maybe we can bring one of these back. Oh, but if they can get all goopy and move around the way they've been, then that might make holding it suuuper hard." Still trying to solve that predicament, Kukuru really leaves herself open as the new trio comes for her once more while she's still mulling that over. "Unless we can turn them off for a while...? Oh! You're-" By the time she realizes the copy's upon her and pinning her down, the two with knife-fingers set upon Kukuru, and she makes another pained yelping noise while they get her all bloodied up. Even with as long as she can last in a drawn out battle thanks to her healing nanites, she's still made of relatively normal flesh and blood! Their strikes might even sink in surprisingly deeply, too, almost like they're pushing her deeper into the ground before she falls right through... Another portal! Having opened one up beneath her, Kukuru falls backwards where the ground would be, and the exit portal drops her out of the sky from above the two that had just bloodied her up. With her nanites working overtime to seal up her newer wounds and push out that paralytic, she swats at the spectral copy and even tries grabbing it to throw at one of the knife-fingered assailants in midair. Upon landing, her claws once again come together to take hold of the other one, forcefully grabbing for the candles (and the flesh around them) with one claw to rip them right out while a new portal appears behind her. "Don't think I didn't see you over there!" Calling out her attack, she twists and puts all off her hip strength into flinging that one through the portal, sending it out the other end and aimed directly at the Horror that had made a spectral copy of itself.
Holly Asturias	A rain of omnidirectional spears is hard to defend against with just a shield. The Horrors lifts it, it tries a rapid spin, but a few of the spears still pierce right through its chest; through the shield, too, after so many blows. It staggers to one knee, discarding the battered and pierced shield. Its lance liquefies and returns to its hand, and it makes one last desperate fiery lunge right at Riku-- no. It distorts again, slipping through and past him! The survivors behind him have scrambled behind desks and armoires; a few even have rifles, but most are just keeping their heads down. And the Horror, reforming behind Riku, is swinging right for the barricade of furniture to kill as many of the survivors as it can. Is it spiteful that Riku hurt it? Or just trying to feed to regain its strength? Either way, Riku has a moment to act! Skipper continues to zip about, meanwhile. That's not really something the Horrors here are especially equipped to handle! If they'd picked a fight with the larger one, it might be able to keep up, but not these 'lesser' ones. The best they can do is to continue hurling bolts of Ichor across the rooftops from the ground, which isn't very accurate, and it's telegraphed. But it's SOMETHING, and it's going to force Skipper to keep moving as the rooftops are slowly shredded from the incoming bolts. It does mean Holly has an easy time picking them off one by one, slowly, between new rounds of Skipper's knives causing them to stumble or stop long enough to be sniped. Kukuru continues to be a Threat. It's actually a bit... Holly's got a bit too much of her eye on her, inbetween taking shots at the Horrors that Skipper is keeping distracted. She's normal about violence, really, don't worry about it. The spectral body of the first Horror is quite grabbable, though it doesn't impact the Horror it's thrown at as much as Kukuru might have hoped. It's distracting though, and gives her space to reach for those candles and rip them off. It causes the spectral copy to disappear, and the Horror to stagger, only to be hurled back at another one. The pack is thinning considerably. The last few Horrors left don't have any tricks she hasn't seen. They just utilize them differently. Another trio, but all three project their spectral bodies this time. One from ahead. One from beneath Kukuru, reaching through the ground. One from above, like a falling spectre. No paralysis, this time. They're just trying to overpower her senses and drain out her blood to feed. It's very unpleasant, but their bodies are still while this goes on.
Riku Asakura	The shield is discarded, which is what Geed wanted. He notices, too late, the spear liquifying and returning to the hand of the horror. Geed gets ready to take the hit, but the creature vanishes in front of him. He turns, just in time to see the horror trying to get at the civilians, forcing Geed to act, lest lives be lost. He moves to tackle the creature from behind, and his right arm transforms slightly. It seems to 'open up' as panels on it vent steam. It punches the creature in the back during the tackle, aiming to release a beam of super-hot energy right for the back, and hopefully through the creature itself. "STRIKE BOOST!" Geed shouts, aiming to pick the creature up, and with the force of the strike, the boost keeps firing upwards. He aims to prevent the creature from getting anywhere near the people, even if it means taking pain himself. He keeps moving the creature back; each strike boosts, aiming to unleash through the creature with impressive force.
Skipper	Skipper throws the last of their knives, draws their sword, and leaps from the collapsing rooftop. Thistle Whiskersmith can strike twice mid-leap and still be in position to attack again on landing (assuming she doesn't break her hip on landing). Right now her grandchild can only manage it once, but it's still an impressive once. Skipper swings as they near the ground, bringing their sword down and around in a dropping slice aimed right for the candles of a lesser horror. And Skipper lands - not on the ground, but on the horror's chest, perched practically vertically like a woodpecker on a tree for a split second, then leaping back off of the horror before gravity can kick in. Skipper's leaping from the one horror to another now, attacking and leaping to the next one in quick succession. This is something that's clearly been practiced a lot, but also clearly Skipper is used to having larger enemies. (Or at least larger enemy, singular.) Still, they're covering a lot of ground with these chained leaping attacks, and are yet harder to hit. If the horrors are going to destroy the vantage points, then they can become the vantage points!
Kukuru	Does Kukuru know Holly's watching her? Of coruse she does! Holly had to if she was asking questions, and that's all Kukuru's aware of, so there's nothing to worry about! Still, knowing that Holly's seeing her fight for the first time means the pressure's on to show off just a little, because it's important for a senior-ish member of the Concord to give a good first impression of how reliable she is. That means, when Kukuru sees the new spectres coming for her, she keeps her reactions stable. Steady. Actually paying attention this time. That means, instead of just tanking the attacks head on, Kukuru actually tries to avoid them for once! The spectre coming from head on is easy enough to avoid (in theory): A step sideways, then a quick hop back to keep herself away from it's charge. Although she still gets struck across the shoulder and chest deep enough to draw blood again, it's a shallow enough cut to heal just like her cardio in the morning! The one coming from above is an easy one to step out of the way for, too, since that kind of surprise diving maneuver is exactly the sort Kukuru's used herself several times. The one from the ground is a little harder, though, even if it is something Kukuru's done before. Looking down as she feels that sharp pain and draining sensation going through her leg, she calmly raises a foot before smashing her heel through the ground beneath her, throwing up a cloud of dirt and crushed stone in front of her. Using that cloud of debris as cover, she hops sideways through another portal to take herself right in front of one of the spectre-projecting Horrors. "Bad." A clawed grip closes around the first Horror, and then she disappears through another portal to reappear from the ground in front of the second projecting Horror. "Mean." Another claw grabs that one, and Kukuru teleports one more time to come at the third one from above. Unfortunately, she's forgotten something very important: She only has two hands, and there's a third enemy right there! Unable to stop gravity and unwilling to teleport away, Kukuru pivots forward to just sink her sharklike teeth right into its messed up face. With all three Horrors in tow, she starts thrashing around, slamming them into the ground and each other like she's trying to open them up and pull all the blood out of them like they had to her moments ago.
Holly Asturias	Riku succeeds; he puts a hole in the house's roof, but considering the hole already in the wall and the state of the village, it's really not a concern at this point. The blast goes clean through the Horror's chest, and a few hits are enough to obliterate its heart. That seems to do the trick. In a shimmering of gold and red, the Horror breaks apart into fine particles quite quickly. There won't even be a body left. Not that Horrors tend to leave much of one behind. Even the lesser ones have started disintegrating by now. Skipper abandons the safety of the rooftops to start skip-hopping across Horrors instead. It's ESPECIALLY effective, especially when they manage strikes between leaps. That skin might be golden on most of the monsters, but it isn't as durable as you'd think. It's decorated flesh. It's weird, but that plays in your favor. The last few in that pack go down with precise sword strikes easily enough, though Skipper ends up covered in perhaps a bit more blood (red and gold alike) than might have been desired from the acrobatics. A bit of showing off surely won't harm Kukuru. Her grabbing and blundering the Horrors is par for the course, but perhaps the most interesting thing she does there is bite one. It works, of course. It tears it apart well enough. From a nourishment perspective, it even tastes... great? Their blood, their flesh, is full of Ichor. If Kukuru can process that in any way, it's like she's just had the best blood she'll ever have. It's life, it's energy, it's power concentrated in the veins. On the other hand? It's also clawing at her system. Biting one little Horror isn't enough to contract the... disease? Mutation? Whatever it is. But it's certainly enough to tug at the walls of your cells, to make you feel a bit gross and unpleasant and sick. It'll pass. But that's why Revenants use Jails to feed from Horrors, and don't just... bite in, like they would for a human. The heat dies down, though. Of the hundred or so villagers (mixed; mostly humans, but a few Revenants), about two dozen can be found in a few of the rear buildings, having managed to barricade themselves. It's something, but they can't stay here. Holly offers the Sanatorium, to at least monitor the survivors' health before potentially sending them anywhere else, though she's quite unsure where that could be. A few are heavily wounded and will need to be stabilized before the trip back (though Kukuru can make that particular thing quite a bit easier).
Kukuru	Coming to a stop with the last trio of Horrors she's handled, Kukuru drops the two in her claws easily enough, but she stays still as she starts noticing what she's feeling from the one between her teeth. Unfortunately, she can totally process that flesh and blood, and it's really tempting to dig in right then and there. It does sound like the battle's over, after all, so what could it hurt to just take another bite or five? Alas, she's still got a job to do, and Holly probably wouldn't appreciate her just eating these while she's still working. That's actually all it takes for Kukuru to drop the Horror, wiping her mouth off before looking over at Holly, Riku, and Sklpper. "Hoh.... Ah. Are you all o-" Oh, there's that clawing feeling. Fighting off some of the apparent discomfort on her face, Kukuru raises her hand while going back to her usual chipperly sleepy smile. "Alright over there? Do make a little sound if you need help!" There. If there's anyone that's hurt, she should be able to head right on over to stabilize the wounded and get them prepared for safe extraction. She doesn't even look worried about how much treatment she might need, considering that her clothes are probably more covered in blood and ichor than not just from this.
Riku Asakura	Crumbling to dust around his fist, the Horror is destroyed. There is a new hole in the roof, but the village is in dire straits to worry about a small problem like that. Ultraman Geed takes a moment to detransform, returning to the human guise of Riku, and rushes towards the back of the building. "Are you alright?" he asks the assembled villagers, concerned for their safety. He notices the injured people and immediately calls for medical assistance. "Dr. Holly, Kukuru, there are injured back here!" he calls out, and with his basic training from the Paladins, he goes to start helping stabilize people while the two medics work on those who are more gravely injured. Riku himself focuses on this, instead of the lives lost, trying to put the sadness out of his mind. Though it's hard when faced with this sort of decimation of people and the destruction of their homes. It reminds him of how things were before he became Geed, and being forced to abandon his home during Skull Grimora's rampage.
Skipper	Skipper lands and carefully cleans their sword before sheathing it, and collects what knives they can find. Then to Kukuru. "Um. If you need food, I have some extra," they offer. "You don't need to eat, um. The horrors." And then to the survivors. This is the grim reality, and it's one Skipper's seen before. It's not usually this bad, their world has gotten used to posting scouts and evacuating early, so most of the time there's not this kind of casualties. Just most of the time, though. Skipper's seen it before, but they're still getting used to facing it. Dealing with it, as their new role as a hero has imparted responsibility for it. That part hasn't gotten any easier. There's of course the what-ifs... could they have gotten here faster, could they have gotten word any sooner... But then there's being the authority figure that showing up and solving a problem imparts. There's no election, there's no volunteering for it, you just simply are, for a people who's lives have been upended and aren't in a position to sort it out themselves quite yet. "See to your wounded, gather what belongings you can find and that you can carry. You'll need to leave this place," Skipper says. They're quite aware that they're a short, ambiguously-gendered mouse-like person in a world of humans and revenants, but are workshopping a strategy of 'Act like it's all normal and speak with authority and hope others won't question it too much'. "Doctor Asturias's sanatorium will shelter you for now, and there's places you can go once you're recovered. There's space in my world if it's needed." "I'm sorry for what happened. And I know that you're hurting. But see to those still living first, and then mourn those lost later." Skipper is nineteen. Two months ago their sole worry in life was the strawberry harvest. What are they even doing right now. "Some healing, also, please," They say to Kukuru and/or Holly, clutching their chest as they suddenly remember that yes they are bleeding. "After you see to the others."