Before she knew it, Rei had found herself being gradually dragged off by David. She heard bits and pieces of Sophia's speech and frowned. She was extrapolating quite a bit about her own feelings for him. Maybe in a distant past there may have been something, but now there was little room in her heart for someone who had betrayed everything that her family tried to teach along with the trust lost.

She doesn't respond to Valdis' remark about the chains, but when David he pulled her away enough and he said that he would leave at the end, she shakes her head.

"...Violence should always be the last resort, but sometimes the Priesthood has to defend others..." she says, reluctantly expressing her understanding and in a way allowing David to act with her approval. Before he could respond, she runs off to a storehouse, presumably to look for something.

Kail frowns as he figured that this thing would shrug off the emotion attack and its fury exploded. As it roared and started to rapidly attack Sophia with her barrier up. He assess the situation from where he was standing as Valdis's attack backfired and caused more hazerds around the battleground. The knight looks over at Valdis "Nyx strafe and fire on the youma from the air. Find a weak point if it has one, everyone else hit it hard or give support. We need to wear this thing down. I'm going in " Kail barks out as he rushes back into the fray. His super heated blade flares to life again and comes at the youma's left side. He raises his sword high up with a double handed grip "CHESTO" he bellows out and comes down with all of his might on the youma.

Falling backwards after getting slashed, Sophia can’t recall ever being in this much pain. She lights up her shield again, but it’s obviously dimmer and weaker this time around. She gets up quickly, but her wound protests the action. Doubled over, she moves back from the former priest and out of the way. Kail would have nothing in his way from his hit, and nor would the others. There was nothing she could do about the fire right now, but she hoped that this place wouldn’t burn down. Violence and death… this was always the path they ended up taking. Now, everything was just worse…

She keeps up the love powers, but she’s not even sure why anymore. This would end like it always would. Beat them within an inch of their life and purify them. Maybe he wouldn’t die, maybe he would. However, the victory would have nothing to do with talking to his heart. What good was she in this world?

She looks back at the former priest with newfound understanding now. What good were the two of them? Without powers, it seemed like one could do little to affect the world around them. People held high hopes on the team because they had powers to make a difference. But with powers, she still had the feeling of being incapable of doing anything. Uselessness.

“Fine… you want to feel like you have power over something because you never felt like you could or did make any difference. Because everything ends up in failure,” she says, her face somewhere between angry and sad. “I’m not giving up hope on you… I’m not…” But perhaps, more accurately, she couldn’t.

Valdis growled as her flames made the battle field a hazard, she raised her hand and her flames at least diminished. She took a moment to glance around and outright swore when she saw what Sophia was doing. Yes she was doing what she asked but she didn't think Sophia would go and put herself in a vulnerable position to do it. Valdis heart seemed to leap up into her throat as Sophia's shield broke; the smell of blood reaching her nose. Reacting she dashed through the hazardous flames reaching Sophias side as she tried to scramble away. She slung Sophias arm around her shoulder as she helped the girl get back to a safer position.

"My god Sophia, of all the idiotic things to do..."

The girl however was in her own world at the moment; she looked down at the girls wounds....they were bad. However she heard Kail call to her, her head whipped around to see him charging.

"God damn it...Sophia lie down; Kaguya! I need you to keep pressure on her stomach, move her if an attack comes. Sophia don't fight passing out"

There wasn't time to heal her and provide the back up that Kail was expecting from her. Something had to be done though. She placed her hand on the girls stomach and without warning a blazing flame erupted on the worse part of it, yes it would be extremely painful for Sophia but it would slow the worse of the bleeding. She yanked off her jacket and placed it on the girl, it would be something to press on the wound. With that she would let Kaguya handle the rest. She left Sophias side to join Kail, however she was a bit later then he would probably have liked.

'There is no room for the weak; so stop being soft. This one was kept trapped by a human this whole time? Why save him? You are superior yes? The next Zodiac; This thing has harmed what is yours.....put him in his place. Stop worrying about the girls feelings on the matter. The dark voice was back, the one who kept whispering to her in her mind. Ever since she had gotten the mark of Gemini; her maroon eyes grew slightly darker. Usually she ignored the voice however...the voice was right in this case. The beast had harmed what was hers...she was in a station higher then it...it was time to put him in its place. The mark of Gemini glowed on her palm.

She jumped into a nearby tree, jumping from that to another then another. She couldn't fly so this was the best away to get the air strike Kail asked for. She rounded the area until she was behind the youma, she flipped high into the air; the heal of her foot extended. Concentrated purple flames surrounded her foot as she aimed a powerful blow to the crook of the creature's neck.

Kaguya looked wide eyed when Sophia got slashed up by the youma, this shock though turned into fury. But the pink haired senshi held it back. As Valdis came to her with Sophia dragging her there through the battlefield. "You don't have to tell me twice....I wish I could rip that thing a new one" she said and then turns to Sophia. Sighing and now looking worried and kneels down at the girl's side. She had seen Valdis use fire to close the wound but it would be a temp job. Kaguya then holds the jacket down with a good amount of pressure. "Stay still.....and save your breath. Your going to need it.....Darn it...I wish I could do more" she said. Since she was the Sailor Senshi of Earth, the protector of planet she was on. Could she not call on the powers of the earth to heal her friend. But at the same time she did not want to drain the planet's power. Since it was fighting off the Covenant taint and was trying to hold it back.

Kaguya just looked more frustraited at her self since she wanted to help the team badly. But kept her focus on Sophia's wound.

Yinko could feel it, somehow, in the recesses of his mind. Sophia had been hurt, and the plan had failed. Checking the weapon one more time, he jumped to his feet, sprinting towards the action. He'd have to trust Priestess Hino could handle herself. Besides, he was the veteran of how many Covenant engagements? Of course, killing Nihil operatives in the field and mobilizing against large light infantry forces in guerrilla raids was different than the typical senshi "bug hunt."

"Kaguya, Sophia!" David shouted, taking a position just ahead of them, rifle at the ready. Aiming at the creature, he kept his finger on the trigger. "Is she stable? Can you move her?"

Well, at least Val's attack seemed to help things out, and Kail was wailing away at it. That would keep it occupied, but they needed a way to better control the situation. They really needed to get inside it's decision cycle, and keep it off-balance.

A thought started to work it's way through his mind.

"The forest behind the shrine is pretty thick, right?" he asked. "I mean, it wouldn't be able to move as effectively in the woods as open country."

Amarissa winced as she watched Sophia's shield break. The girl was obviously injured by the attack with Valdis and Kaguya rushing to try and stabilize her. Ama rushed over as well, having to turn her head as Valdis seared the wound. She didn't want to imagine that kind of pain. Placing her own hands over the area, she concentrated her energy there. "Pure Soul," she whispered, doing what she could to at least cleanse the wound from infection or dark corruption. "That will help a little," she said to Kaguya and Valdis. Turning her attention to Sophia she spoke again, "You did everything you could. I'm sorry but this is becoming too dangerous. We need to try and get him down."

Standing, she surveyed the scene around here. It was pure chaos, with the flames and everyone scattered. This could only be feeding into the creature. She noticed Valdis get up as well and something seemed off with her. A glow on the girl's palm caught her attention and her eyes narrowed. But even she knew now was not the time. Kail needed help and David wanted to take the thing out to the woods. She turned to him. "I have teleportation powers, I can help. You want it in the forest? Done." she said steadily.

Amarissa waited for Valdis to finish her attack, since she started first. Meanwhile, the moon senshi made her way around the back of the youma, making sure to keep as much out of sight as possible. After she saw Valdis's foot hit and the girl was out of the way, Amarissa rushed up behind it and found some hand holds. Her hands glowed with silver as she worked to transport the two of them. "Everyone to the forest!" she yelled a second before they disappeared.

Landing on her backside in the woods, the moon senshi blinked slowly for a minute. Then what happened came back to her and she scrambled up. Her breath was heavy, having used a bit of energy for that and also having knocked her breath out when she landed. She moved behind a stand of trees and began to fire arrows and beams at it as she kept moving from tree to tree, trying to keep it distracted until the others made it out.

When Kail approached with his blade shortly after the wounding of Sophia, he would run over some of the flames which may cause mild searing for the Mars Knight. The youma would turn as Kail approached, but was too slow to completely defend as the blade would contact the creature and cause a small explosion from the contact. Much to the groups' chagrin only an inch and a half deep, three inch wide wound would appear on the creature's left arm. The distraction would be enough for Valdis' fire kick to connect, but the blunt impact would only make the creature snap forward a little. It doesn't turn to Valdis, considering her less of a threat than Kail was right now.

The monstrous entity would howl and punch at Kail quickly...the blow having tremendous force behind it such that it would break bones if it connected. The fist would swing on a downward diagonal, causing a small crater in the aftermath of where the blow would either hit or miss Kail and follow through to the Earth.

As if responding to Kaguya's sense of desperation, a small pocket of energy begins to flow from the earth into the Venus Senshi. It would ease her pain and slowly mend her, but it wouldn't be an instantaneous healing. It was better than nothing.

As Sailor Moon teleports out into the forests nearby, and begins to fire a ranged salvo on the monstrous youma, it howls when one particularly lucky beam hits it in a spot on the spine. It turns to her, the eyes glowing red as flames begin to gather and accumulate around it. A moment later, it begins to charge Amarissa's position in the woods leaving a trail of flame in it's wake, melting ice and causing small fires everywhere as it progressed, sparking on one of the buildings.

Amarissa would have at least eight seconds to see the charge and plan her next move, but the fact that she was somewhat separated from her other allies might leave her isolated to handle the beast on it's own. When the beast would get in range of Amarissa, it open's it's maw and releases a searing beam of heat energy in her general direction, the beam widening as it traveled and would hit Amarissa if she refused to move searing her body.

A skull masked figure would appear in one of the trees in the distance, but the figure was well concealed and made no obvious movements, plus the white attire he would wear would blend in fairly well with the snow in the tree. This figure would lay low for now, making no move one way or another, watching the scene below with interest.

She had been hoping her kick would have more of an effect, but it resulted in her leg buckling as she slammed the rest of her body onto its back. She wrapped her arms around its neck as she held on, avoiding hitting the ground below it. Valdis blinked when she felt a familiar yet unfamiliar sensation of getting moved through space. If it hadn't been for Nazo's consistent teleportation that would have disorientated her a lot more than it had. She had to face palm when she realized they were in the cold dried out forest...that limited her a lot more. Unless she wanted to cause more damage to the shrine....and physical blows weren't working on this thing.

A sharp burning sensation crept up the inside of her leg as the heat from the arrow Ama had burned its way through her jeans leaving nasty burns which quickly began to heal up on itself. The pain was almost enough to make her let go of her grip on the back of the youma's neck.

"Watch the arrows!"

She changed tactics and sunk her fangs into the beasts neck, pumping her venom through its veins. Hopefully she could pump enough to throw it into unconsciousness.

Sophia turns back to Valdis when starts to yell at her, “I thought I could…” She shakes her head still bent over gripping her abdomen tightly, “He’s so angry…” And now she was angry too.

She willing goes to with Kaguya and Valdis out of her harm’s way, but the fire comes as a surprise. She screams when the flames close the wound before dropping down the ground suddenly when her legs buckle under the sudden increase in pain. The pain from earlier was bad, but coupled with the horrible burning sensation on her stomach, everything was about ten times worse now.

For doing her best to try to bring him to back to his humanity, this is what she gets. Damn priest… she tried to help him, why wouldn’t he just accept it? Why did he want to live and die like this?

With some sudden, but small amount of pain relief, she feels a little more in touch with the situation. She looks up at Kaguya when she complains about not being able to do more and David asks when she is stable. She can’t help but feel bad about causing them to worry so much.

After Ama cleanses her would, she takes the jacket and tries to the keep the pressure herself despite the pain of even touching the injury being fairly bad. “I’m fine. All of you go help Ama out. Split up and flank him on his right and left. Kail will lead the left flank and David will lead the right flank. Kaguya, go with David,” she chokes out as Ama and Valdis disappear in a flash.

She looks out towards the woods. The former priest was nowhere in sight, but she could still feel his presence on the shrine property. Maybe she was going about this the wrong way. Instead of trying to instigate love maybe she should just try to smoother hatred. She does her best to sense out those dark emotions in the youma from a distance and suppress it. Maybe she could suppress the darker energies if she tried hard enough... Besides, if she didn't try, this probably wouldn't end well for the former priest.

As the monster enters the woods a beastial howl resounds through them. The ward around the shrine lights up as a blood red beast rams into the ward and pulls itself through charging towards the youma. As Oni passes through the ward his skin regains it's normal color and Lance finds himself standing in Oni's outfit with a very disatisfied look in his face.

"Oh what the hell? Another one?" He grunts as he grabs a large branch of of one of the trees and flings it at the monster. "Let the hunt begin!" He shouts as his skins begins to flush red again and his eyes turn bloodshot.

"I'm going to devour you!" He roars barreling towards the youma.

Kail was shocked when his blade barely sliced through the youma and it was getting disheartening. As they had defeated Scorpio by the skin of there teeth. They all should have been a bit stronger or at least have some kind of confidence to fight these things. But the unrelenting onslaught of these overly strong ones were becoming a pain. But these thoughts were cut short as Kail dodged the youma's deadly swing as he jumped back. He then sees Amarissa warp out of there and starts leading the youma away. Kail was seething a bit as this was a good idea but then it went bad as the youma started to set things on fire. They needed to be more discreet then anything else. The redhead growls in frustration as this was getting from bad to worse. Kail runs off to fight the youma and saw Oni show up but was much more in control. A bit more a relief as this means that he could be a lot more controllable.

"Oni knock that sucker off of his feet and make its face eat some dirt" he called out as he was now going to try and get rid of its mobility. Kail keeps running and aim's his sword low to strike at the youma's kneecaps. "WEAR THIS THING DOWN, THEN LETS PURIFY THIS GUY. HE WAS HUMAN ONCE" he yelled out as he was trying to at least adjust to group's methodology to not kill people that could be saved. If it was up to him was to kill the enemy before him so that would not be a future threat. Kail also hoped that Sophia would hear him.

"Sophia you need to stay here, I think the pyro there has a plan on not to kill it. Plus I think this thing is running on some kind of rage mode. Anyway the healing field should get you patched up soon" said Kaguya as she gives the senshi of love a firm squeeze on her shoulder to stay put. She then turns to where the youma ran off to and she had to think on what to do. She then walks off to the youma and then starts running quickly as she went to one side that Sophia said to go to. "If these attacks fail I think we should regroup for a second" she said and then charges some energy up. "TAKE THIS GRANITE PRESSURE" she called out and sent a powerful earth spike at the creature's knees. So it could be knocked over and give them a second to plan on how to take this thing down for the count.

Amarissa's eyes went wide as the creature faced her. She threw herself into the air and to the right, away from it's heat blast. A second later, she hit the ground hard and a sharp crack resounded where her right arm landed, taking all her weight. The moon senshi screamed in pain as she looked at the clearly broken arm. The bone was slightly visible, she had plenty of scratches and it was pretty banged up.

She tried to use her left arm to get her feet under her at least and managed to stand just as Oni and Kail came to grab the youma's attention. She held her injured arm close and nodded to the mars knight. "I can...purify him.." she managed through gritted teeth. Tears streamed down her face which was set in a pained but stoic expression.

The whole situation was degrading into a swirling mass of confusion. Sophia had tried to organize the group, but even splitting into task-based teams, there was little coordination. Everyone was scrambling, thinking that if they didn't take some drastic form of action, the situation would spiral further into chaos.

No, combat was like that. The fog of war eluded even the best and brightest, and tactical plans, Yinko knew, never followed a schedule.

Seeing Amarissa bite the dirt hard, the Black Knight of Venus circled around, standing beside the girl. The fracture was bad, and David had to force himself not to squirm at the protruding bone. Reaching into his pack, he found a spare bandana, tying it securely to the girl's arm with two sticks to form a crude splint.

"We need a coordinated effort, here," David indicated, nodding towards the creature, "or our desperate acts of retaliation will just make the situation worse."