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Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)


Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Erica stood around counting the votes, which looked to be fairly close. In the end, charging the castle won out by a handful of votes, and the elder succubus quickly set about giving the orders. "The ones with the slimes, who can climb walls, do so and join the ones already up there. When the rest of us begin our attack, you’ll attack the battlements. The few of you who are archers should hang back before the castle gate and try to soften up their own archers on the battlements. We’ll have some airborne reinforcements coming to aid the two groups in that. The rest of you gather the tentacles, we’ll rush in once the shapeshifter batters down the gate. There’ll be a lot of hallways and differing rooms, so I’ll expect many of you to peel off along the way and take some tentacles with you, to clear out more of the castle. A select group of us will continue on to the throne room, kill the queen, and then we burn the thing to the ground. Any questions?" No one spoke up, and they all began to filter out quickly, those who were assigned a special task, like the arachne, moving swiftly through town to get to the walls.
Mei-Lien would follow after her mistress and Rosa, to the middle of the mass of tentacles. The lieutenants who didn’t have special orders began to count off units, getting the creatures into order again after a brief lapse without anyone to keep them in line. Erica gave them a few minutes before ordering them onward, through three main streets towards the castle. She took the middle, assigned Rosa the right, and put Mei-Lien on the left. Now the redheaded demon had a rather overwhelming amount of force she was able to bring to bear in the relatively small space of the street, unlike earlier, when she had split her soldiers three ways. She had even picked up two more lieutenants to replace the slimegirl, and more tentacles than she had had before, since the archers had come with her and her centaur. As such, the first line of soldiers opposing her move to the castle was cut down with ease. The demon didn’t have to lift a finger, as arrows shot into the group of men with terrifying accuracy, cutting them up before the tentacles even got to them, and it didn’t take very long at all for the creatures to tear them apart once they hit the line.

It seemed, however, that that group had only been there to stall in any case, though they hadn’t done the job well. The next, and likely final, line of defense before the castle was better equipped and had more soldiers in it. The barrage of arrows shot at them did much less damage, not downing any of them, but this only gave Mei-Lien a chance a crash into them along with the tentacles. With a flurry of punches and kicks she was able to dent in the line quickly, along with the armor of the two men she took on, and the huge crush of tentacles slammed into the line with enough force to push it back instantly. Still, it settled into something of a slog after the initial success of the charge. Mei-Lien received a few slashes from the sword of a young officer, and a stab in the leg from another soldiers spear, but she gave out far worse than she got, smashing in noses, snapping knees, and otherwise wreaking havoc on the bodies of the soldiers arrayed against her. A number of tentacles were also killed, perhaps more than had been cut down with the demon in her assault to reach Hannah’s home, but they far outnumbered the men they were facing. After several minutes of frenzied combat the streets were red with blood, which seeped into the cracks between the stones and ran behind Mei-Lien, away from the castle. The soldiers fought to the last man, even when the outcome became clear, seemingly focusing on the demon towards the end, but they were overwhelmed before they could do major damage to her.

The lieutenants quickly reordered their troops, giving Mei-Lien some time to rest and heal before they moved on. They got out of the residential part of town and began to clearly enter the government quarter then, large and magnificent buildings made of expensive stone from elsewhere on the island, with huge columns supporting ornate overhangs. The demon could still hear the sounds of battle coming from the street to her side, but it seemed to be winding down. When she finally came out she saw the city’s castle for the first time; it was quite a magnificent sight. There was a vast courtyard in front of it, with numerous fountains and decorative trees scattered about it. The building itself was quite tall and imposing, made of the same stone as the city walls that connected with it to one side, but it was polished to a shine, perhaps magically, to make it match with the grandeur of the courtyard. The battlements were teeming with soldiers, almost all of them archers by the looks of things, and Mei-Lien could see where the others were massed near the place where the wall connected with the battlements, facing down the slimes and the arachne, who seemed to be placing herself at the front of the action. Rosa and her group had already broken through and were at the edge of the courtyard, with Erica and her group coming along shortly, ready to move on to the next phase of the plan; Mei-Lien could see one of the tentacles handing the shapeshifter a rather giant sledgehammer with which to tear down the castle gates.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

As she had expected, Mei's side won the voting round, though just barely. Having confirmed the decision with her counting, Erica moved on the briefing of the task ahead, apparently having had plans for both occasions. After going through the instructions like usual, the demoness assumed her position as they started moving towards the castle, the queen as a target. While she had not known about it before, the prospect of a queen ruling this place was not a surprise by any stretch of the imagination.

When the units combined once more, Mei's unit was swelled to massive, almost unstoppable proportions. Assuming the assigned positioning, her unit was to be the left side of the combined attack. Two more lieutenants were also added, probably a good enough thing to help manage order in all the creatures that she was leading. Along the narrow confines of the first street they went through, she had no need to even get ready as the unit that had been stationed there were overrun in a matter of minutes by the oncoming monster mass. "Well.. ok, that was good. Hope we keep this up, will get through easily..." the redhead thought as they passed towards the next areas. Some further distance away, there was another, bigger and getter group of soldiers waiting, this one likely being the main defense unit. Still, they were the last line of defense before the castle walls, so they had to be broken through. This time, there was a lot to the battle, and she had to fight like the rest of the beasts. All over her, body parts were breaking and blood being shed, not all from the opposition either as she too acquired some wounds from the squad leader and a random other soldier. But soon the bloodbath subsided, leaving the slightly reduced creature army to move onwards once Mei had restored herself to 100%. The lieutenants took the time for keeping order in the meantime, something which she liked.

The castle was a remarkably huge structure, something befitting the ruling estabilishment of a whole island. There were wallfulls of soldier on the high battlements, while further troop were at the courtyard, engaging the initial attackers. Seeking to join the others, Mei pushed her group towards the other two units while witnessing the events unfolding, most notably massive hammers being handed over.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Once Rosa had the giant hammer firmly in hand she began to steadily and quietly walk forward, towards the gate. There was an unnatural silence then, an air of anticipation settling over the courtyard and castle, the only sound the splashing of the fountains and the click of the shapeshifter’s shoes against the stone. The archers on the castle had a few tense moments before they notched their arrows and readied their bows, but Rosa seemed completely unphased at the sight, not even really casting a glance their way. Then, when she had almost reached the central fountain, the soldiers unleashed a rain of arrows. When the dust cleared the shapeshifter’s body was stuck full of several dozen arrows, from her head to her legs, and yet she was still advancing forward steadily, as if she wasn’t bothered at all. Mei-Lien could see the effect this had on the soldiers on the castle; looks of distress and fear and disbelief clouded their faces, what little of them could be seen from the distance she was at. Another volley of arrows was launched at Rosa, and again it seemed to be of little concern to her even though she looked like a pincushion by now. She walked over and through the fountain before picking up speed, hefting the huge hammer on her shoulder as arrows continued to rain down on her, breaking out into a run.

Rosa slammed the hammer into the metal mesh gating that protected the stone gate of the castle with all of her momentum, smashing a hole in it and ripping it to the ground. She lifted the huge hammer with some effort, strangely for her, and continued to pound away at the metal. It wasn’t long before she had destroyed that portion of the defenses, and then moved on to the big stone gate. The archers had given up on trying to kill the shifter by then, saving their arrows for the mass of tentacles. Blow after blow hit the castle gate, chipping away at it, until finally, after several minutes of work, Rosa managed to break through it, the gate crumbling to the ground. There was a line of pikemen in the doorway, but the shifter ignored them, instead turning around and walking calmly back towards their line, pulling arrows out of herself all the while. When she got back she offloaded her hammer and took up her sword again, and got herself ready. "The arrows are going to be rough on most of us. Ready yourselves" Erica shouted, as the lieutenants readied their portions of the monsters to rush the gates. This would be the last few moments before the final battle began…
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Like she had done before, Rosa acted as the siege machinery of the demon army, her massive hammer going to work at the castle gate like a demolitionist on an old house. The archers hit her again and again, but the whole pincushioning seemed to hardly matter as she pounded away with the implement of destruction. Eventually, the bowmen gave up and let her do as she wanted, which eventually led to the gates going down with a gargantuan crash. This was the sign for the shifter to take out her blade and discard the hammer, which was likely a smart move, considering how unwieldy hammers could be with their weight. The arrows went flying off from her form with casual swipes of the hand, like one swept accidental food crumbs from them if these things happened. Preparing herself, Mei too would join the charge when they did burst forward, she didn't have anything to do really besides get in there and fight like all hell.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Erica began to run at the downed castle gate after a few seconds, and everything else followed along behind her. They raced through the empty courtyard, leaders and lieutenants and tentacles, the archers on the wall eyeing them nervously and preparing their volley. At the same time, Mei-Lien could see something in the air… A group of about twenty harpies and a few other flying creatures were swooping down at the castle, all of them carrying other monsters, some of them quite nasty-looking. All the while the slimes and other wall-crawlers were charging at the soldiers guarding that entry point, led by the arachne that had been with Mei-Lien. This distracted some of the soldiers, drawing their attention away from the charge on the gates and drawing some of the archers away to shoot at them, which was probably a good thing, because the whole mass of troops was reaching the central fountain...

Looking up, Mei-Lien saw a hail of arrows coming down at them, the sky nearly black above them. The demon quickly ducked herself down and covered her head with her gauntlets as the shafts got close. They hit their mark all around her, tentacle beasts flailing and falling as they were hit with multiple arrows, some of the lieutenants suffering the same fate. The redheaded succubus came out of it without a scratch, however, a few arrows plinking harmlessly off her gauntlets. Erica was similarly unscathed, and Rosa seemed to have reached out in an attempt to be hit by as many of the arrows as possible, to protect the tentacles around and behind her. The first volley of arrows had thinned out the massive crowd a reasonable amount, but now the monsters on the castle’s top and the flying creatures were providing them with more of a distraction, and the few archers the monster group had with them began to fire back. Still, there was a steady stream of arrows coming down into the mass of charging tentacles, picking more and more of them off. Mei-Lien could hear the cry of the centaur archer from before as an arrow pierced her flank, but still the counter-fire kept up.

When Erica was almost to the gates she suddenly stopped, motioning for Mei-Lien to do the same, and the fighter quickly discovered why. The soldiers on the battlements sprung a trap that only hit the first few tentacles due to the elder succubus’ anticipation, pouring molten lead down onto the creatures. There were horrible screeches as the tentacles writhed and died flailing, their flesh crackling with the heat. Still, this was no place to be as arrows kept raining down on them intermittently, and after giving it only a few moments for the danger of lead dripping onto them to pass before rushing forward again, lashing out at the line of pikemen with a bit of dark magic that tore into a few of them. The tentacles surged forward as well, along with Mei-Lien, but the tentacle beasts took up much of the small space. It was a good thing, too, as most of them were speared by their own momentum and the bracing of the pikemen. By the time Mei-Lien was able to join in the fighting the tendrils had prepared the way a little, loosening up the formation a bit. Erica got in on the action as well, stabbing with her lance and with her magic, creating little seams for her soldiers to exploit. Mei-Lien managed to get out of the initial contact without a scratch, managing to smash into one of the front pikemen with all the force she could manage.

Their defenses broken, the soldiers let go of their pikes and drew swords and other weapons more suitable for hand-to-hand combat. Mei-Lien took a light cut, but answered the blow with another that smashed in the man’s helm, rendering it useless for the future. The overwhelming crush of tentacles came to her aid quickly, grabbing many of the men and holding them in place or hindering their movements enough for Mei-Lien, Erica, or the one lieutenant who had gotten up this far, to pick them off. Rosa was back behind them, and in some ways that was better, as she was able to defend the vulnerable tentacles and lieutenants with her body. The fighting was fierce, and the men were skilled, managing to hurt both of the demons assaulting them a few times and kill many tentacles, but the numbers were simply overwhelming. Mei-Lien made steady progress, smashing them with fist and foot, soon having one of them unconscious, another beside him dead. Tentacles poured into the hole, but the line was three deep. It was a long fight, and by the time most of the men lay dead on the ground the floor was soaked in the blood of both man and tentacle, Mei-Lien and Erica both fairly injured and sort of winded.

"Get in, make room for the rest!" Erica shouted, rushing into the castle, Mei-Lien and the tendrils close behind. What they found was… atypical. There was a large stone room at the end of the short passage from the gate, lit through magical means. Beyond that were three passages, one to each direction. It looked rather like a maze, really. Erica cursed under her breath. When Rosa finally got in, and all of the soldiers were crammed into that space or spilling out slightly into each passage, she muttered "who builds a castle like this?" The elder succubus sighed as she replied "no one does. I was afraid of this. The queen is a mage, and it seems she can manipulate her castle. I’m sure it’s filled with traps. I don’t really want to split up, but… the spaces are too narrow for such a large force to matter. Same as before, I suppose. I’ll head forward, Mei-Lien will head to the left, the shapeshifter will go to the right. Be careful in here, and stay alert."
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

At the mistress' call, the entire army rushed onwards, aerial reinforcements joining them to take on the soldiers high up on the ramparts. The climbing units made maneuvers to distract the archers even more, providing some needed relief from the soon-to-come rain of death. But the thing soon came like a swarm of Persian arrows, not all of the archers falling victim to distractions and focusing on proper defense of their castle instead. The volley managed to deal significant damages to the army of monsters, even felling a few lieutenants, but her armor and gauntlets protected Mei from any damage. Taking a look around for the other two, she saw that Erica had escaped any damage while Rosa even used herself to block some of the wooden shafts from reaching more valid targets. The torrent faded a bit from there when the distraction got more significant, but other traps waited for the beastly army. Another common thing used in siege warfare was utilized, the soldiers dumping a cauldron of searing hot lead down onto the army seeking their destruction. Even that wasn't enough to stop them, the masses of monsters pushing onwards through the hellish liquids and arrow clouds to meet with their next objective, the ground-level defenders and their better equipment. Another bloody and protracted combat followed, but the tide was not to be stopped, the fight leaving both Mei and the mistress somewhat ragged. Having disposed of all opposition, they advanced into the final part, the inside of the castle. The final stretch, the home run. This is where it would end.

But as they got inside, more hazards and trickery waited for them. "Blah... why does everyone have to be a damn mage... less cheating and more fight..." the redhead thought as more plans went on, the split ending up on exactly the one it had been before. Not seeing any real trouble with this, Mei took her troop onward along the ordered path.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Mei-Lien and her troops began to press on down the narrow hallway, the situation less than ideal. Tentacles were stretched out for a long way behind them, and they wouldn’t be able to really bring their numbers to bear on any enemies that blocked their way. It was the perfect set-up for the defenders, really. "Cowards. What a joke" came a comment from very near to Mei-Lien, and she saw one of the lieutenants, a Cyclops with mid-length purple hair and a warhammer in hand, though it was nothing compared to the one Rosa had used to demolish the gates. "I’ve lived in a magical labyrinth before, I’ve seen how these things work. Keep your eyes open" she advised, hefting her hammer onto her shoulder as she ran. Soon enough there was a turn up ahead, and just as they rounded the corner a number of arrows shot down the narrow hallway at them, the trap triggered simply by being in line for it. The Cyclops had quick enough reflexes to duck and weave out of the way, but Mei-Lien couldn’t avoid all of the arrows, catching two in her side. Her leather armor managed to keep them from doing much more than poking her skin obnoxiously, however. Even so, a more of the tentacles behind them fell to the arrows.

To top it all off, the passage was a dead end, and there weren’t even archers at the end of it. "Fucking…" the Cyclops muttered, and they turned back only to find another corner that hadn’t been there before. The tentacles were already starting to move into it, the crush of them large enough that they simply spilled in wherever there was free space, and as Mei-Lien and her temporary Cyclops companion were just getting to it a sudden burst of intense, white-hot flame blasted down the narrow hallway, frying the tentacle beasts that had gone that way and nearly catching the demon’s hair on fire. She could still feel the heat long after the fire itself had died away, leaving only the sickening smell of charred flesh in its wake. "Alright, I don’t know about this. This is a powerful mage. And a tricky one too" the lieutenant said, clearly a little bit disturbed by this magical maze and its active traps. "We almost have to stay still. Every way forward is just a trick to kill us all."

It was then that Mei-Lien heard a voice in her head, Erica’s, saying "hey, can you hear me?" When replied to the elder succubus would continue "I know it seems strange, and you aren’t that good at magic, but I need you to meditate now. If you try hard enough, you should be able to feel the magic the queen is using to manipulate this place. See if you can feel it. If you can, you’ll need to follow my instructions carefully. If you do, we might be able to break her hold on it and turn it into a normal castle. If not, I think we probably die here. No pressure. The shapeshifter will keep moving around to keep the queen distracted." Mei-Lien would have enough time to get herself centered enough to feel the flow of the magic around her, the question was whether or not she could concentrate hard enough on it, whether she had the ability to rise above her lack of talent at magic.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

As the demoness took her units onward, a particularly grim lieutenant spoke up, almost instanly managing to get in Mei's good side with her words and opinions. They went around the halls, soon coming under fire of a unit of archers. While redhead and the cyclops managed to get through without a scratch, their unit suffered some casualties. But it was a surprise to see that there was no actual archers there, a fact that came to the fighter when she recovered from her defensive position. No, there were no archers, and there was no corridor onwards either. With curses, the unit retreated to find another corner to turn and hopefully advance in the sizeable castle.

Beyond the chosen corner, the tentacle creatures were already spilling onwards. But it didn't seem to be any good going there either, for once they made a little way onwards, another trap was triggered. This time it was fire, the entire hallway getting briefly torrented with flames. With her demonic resistances, Mei managed to avoid getting lit, but it was not far off from happening. It was almost as if they were just supposed to stand there and die, since most directions seemed to be dealing out lethal force against them. Then, there was a telepathic message from the mistress. "Yeah, I hear you." the demoness replied, taking in what Erica had to say.

After hearing what the older succubus had to say, Mei sighed quite audibly. "No pressure, she says..." the redhead thought, not quite willing to see this end when they had come this far with the reclaiming of the lands. "Those blondies better be thankful for this..." she carried on with the ponderings but soon turned into the matter at hand, which was more important than her grumblings. Snapping a quick order at the troops to quiet down, she began to poke into the realm of magic with her mind once more. It had been a while, but this was a time of urgency, so she had to push as hard as possible to reach that magic thingy within. She had to reach for that first in order to follow what Erica had in mind, so Mei focused all her effort and mental capacity towards the task before she could carry on.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

The tentacles stopped writhing and squirming at Mei-Lien’s order, with a little bit of reinforcement from her lieutenants. The demon had to sit on the stone floor as she concentrated, trying to find her center in meditation. She had done this several times before, and it wasn’t too terribly difficult this time, as she felt the energy swirling around inside of her. The next step was much more difficult. The redhead tried to slowly expand her consciousness of the magical energy outside of herself, to feel the mage queen’s hold on her castle. It took a long time before she could feel something beside her… it was the Cyclops’ soul, playing about inside of her. Mei-Lien became steadily aware of more and more souls nearby, noting that the tentacles seemed to have much smaller such pools of energy than the other beings who made up her lieutenants. It got to the point where she could tell where most of them were even with her eyes closed, though she still couldn’t feel the free magic floating around her.

Finally, after seemingly quite a long time, Mei-Lien felt it. There was a different sort of energy all around her, at once quite unlike the souls she felt inside of herself and around her, but also similar. It was end product of tapping into that energy, pure, active magic. The demon was surprised she hadn’t felt it sooner, as now that she could it was everywhere, almost oppressively so. A few minutes later Erica’s voice was lightly whispering in her head again. “Can you feel it yet? Good. Now try to trace it back to its source. When you do that, tell me, and we’ll see if we can’t use our own energy to disrupt her” she said, and the redhead quickly set to it. Now that she could feel the magic all around her, it was a lot less trouble to feel where it was coming from. It only took her a few more minutes to find the place it was flowing out of, and then to feel the queen’s soul itself. When she had reached out to Erica, the two of them waited for a moment, counting to three before lashing out at the mage queen with all they had, their magical energies riding on her own to slam into her.

It worked almost immediately, Mei-Lien feeling the queen fall off her throne at the sudden influx of magic, and the walls slowly started to warp and change. They lost the maze-like quality, instead moving until they were normal, wide, straight passageways. "What’d you do?" the Cyclops asked incredulously, jumping a little as the demon got up. In front of them, some ways off, there was a line of soldiers, but they looked confused and unready; there was a chance to catch them off-guard because of the shifting walls, and perhaps get started in the right direction again.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Having gotten the relief she needed from all the sloppy and slithery sounds that her unit caused, Mei could focus properly into looking for the magic. It looked like fate was trying to play games with her, since the initial meditation only took her into a soul view thingy once the first step of reaching the center of being was achieved, the life forces of the others near her coming into her vision. The shapes of the lieutenants were more clear and powerful than the ones of the average tentacle creature, perhaps something to be expected from the more powerful beings. If she could maintain this state during battle, it might actually be useful as a blindsight of sorts. Still, it was not what she was aiming for, so further push into the realm of magic was needed.

It took some further mental poking, but soon enough the magic mode was reached. Now it was a weird thing to consider that it had been so difficult to feel faster, considering the nearly overwhelming presence of the magical energies, the thing was everywhere. Soon, the mistress reached for her again, with instructions as the redhead confirmed that she had indeed reached the flux of energies with her mind. The two of them followed the ethereal lines of power to the point of origin at Erica's command, soon finding the tricksy queen as the source with no trouble at all. With their combined power, the two demons gave a psychic beating to the bitch on her seat, dispersing her illusionary power to nothingness.

Snapping back into the proper world from her trance, Mei saw that they were now facing a unit of confused, surprised soldiers. It would be foolish to not capitalize on the opportunity. "Nothing special, just some basic magic stuff. Gave the bitch on her throne a psychic punch to the face to stop this trickery. But enough about that, get them." she quickly answered to the cyclops lieutenant, urging the unit onward before they lost the chance to take the soldiers unprepared.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Mei-Lien didn’t have to tell the Cyclops twice, as the eager warrior raced forward even quicker than she did, the warhammer hefted in both hands and ready for combat. The demon was right behind her, and the wall of tentacles not far behind that, spreading out to fill the suddenly wider hallway as they rushed forward. The men desperately tried to get their line set, but they hadn’t been expecting this at all, and Mei-Lien and the Cyclops were both coming in too fast. With her warhammer, the lieutenant easily smashed in one of the soldiers’ heads, and he crumpled to the ground in a rapidly growing puddle of blood as the demon caught up and began with a flurry of blows, managing to knock out two of the men before they could really react to her. The tentacles showed up next, grappling and tearing into a number of them. It was soon clear that the group would take little damage from this set of enemies, the men too shocked to really put up much of a fight. The Cyclops took a few slashes to the gut, but she didn’t seem to care, a gleeful look on her face as she crushed heads with her hammer, her one large eye almost tearing up with joy.

It only took them a minute or two to smash their way through the group of men and carry on down the wide hallway. They were back on schedule now, running as fast as they could and following Erica’s plan from before. Lieutenants would peel off into every side hall with a number of tentacles, securing the castle bit by bit and preventing groups of soldiers from getting in their rear. This went on for a while before they ran into a bit of strong resistance, a line of soldiers that was expecting them and set from wall to wall. Mei-Lien and the Cyclops hit the line at the same time, doing quite a bit of damage, though they received some in return. Mei-Lien finally received a stab that pierced her armor, though it didn’t go much farther than that, and the Cyclops got cut up fairly badly as she swung her hammer about without care, a sort of enraged berserker. This little battle lasted longer, the crush of tentacles taking a number of casualties along the way, but the demon only suffered minimal damage. She was really getting into the swing of the battle, having no trouble landing her punches and kicks even on the more experienced soldiers inside, parrying their blows when necessary.

Mei-Lien and her troops took only a brief moment to rest and recover before moving on, deeper into the castle. More lieutenants peeled off with more tentacles to secure their eventual exit, thinning out the demon’s force significantly, but it didn’t seem to matter in such a narrow space; there was no way to bring the whole of the little army to bear anyway. They crashed through another line of troops, the redheaded succubus taking more damage than before with cuts to her stomach and legs, though she gave out far worse than she got, killing many of the soldiers herself. The Cyclops fared much the same as she had before, but without Mei-Lien’s healing factor she was forced to withdraw after that part of the fighting, too badly injured to carry on. It took some work to convince her to leave, though, something a fellow lieutenant who knew her beforehand had to take a good deal of time to do.

Mei-Lien then led her soldiers further on into the castle, ever more of them leaving to either side, and found one more group of enemies to crash through. They were a solid bunch, well armed, and well trained. The most elite soldiers the demon had ever faced. Still, no individuals were any better than Rosa when she had trained against her, and though it was a long, slogging fight, the group came out victorious, if a little ragged. The demon had been cut and stabbed several times, her armor a bloody wreck by now, but she had gotten better as the fighting had gone on, and had socked it to the men quite effectively. Many tentacles had fallen in the battle as well, leaving the others to crawl over a fairly large pile of corpses to move forward. Still, it wasn’t far after that that the group came to a convergence point, where Erica and here group were waiting. ”Only a little bit farther, and we’ll be at our destination. The shapeshifter is still fighting deeper in, but we need to keep moving and get this finished up quick. We’ve already taken pretty heavy losses, and it’ll only get worse if this drags out longer.”
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Even though she ordered the troop to take the fight to the enemy, it looked to Mei as if they wouldn't be needing her words to do so. Especially the cyclops lieutenant seemed eager to get swinging, most likely fed up with the magical trickery and now in dire need to smash things to bits and pieces. And that she did, along with the rest of the unit joining in and starting the massacre. It was only a few scant minutes until there were no soldiers left to stop their stampede, allowing the monster army could advance once more, now unhindered by any magical buffoonery.

On the move, the unit split at differing forks on the path, small splinter groups taking care to sweep the sidelines for any possible ambushes or leftover soldiers while also preventing any ambushes. It wasn't long before another group of the enemy came across them again, the determined defenders putting up a good enough fight for such a small unit. They managed to get some hurt in through Mei's defenses, damaging the unit and the lieutenants a bit as well. Still, the low number of people meant that they went down relatively quickly, allowing the unit to advance further, the sweeping continuing as they progressed along the halls of the castle. The groups moved along, the splinter groups reducing the general size of the unit as they split out to secure safe exits and such. There was no need to keep them all there anyway, given the relatively small quarters of the corridors.

After two further battles with far more advanced troops, Mei's unit had been reduced significantly in size. Also, the cyclops lieutenant had to be pulled out, since she was wounded but still sought to carry on with the fighting. Eventually, they met up with Erica's unit once more, with Rosa having more battles elsewhere. Since they needed to advance, that's exactly what Mei would do with her unit. Unless there was something the mistress had in mind, they would move onwards and close towards the final destination.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Now reunited, Mei-Lien and Erica’s units rushed forward, down a wide, long hallway in the center of the castle. A few groups split off down various hallways, but there weren’t many side halls to be found in this area. Finally, after about ten minutes of running, they ran into a line of resistance in front of a giant, ornamented door. The door almost certainly led to the throne room, making this the final push before their destination. True to that, this group looked to be in different uniforms than the others; they had reached the elite royal guard unit. The two leaders and their tentacles charged forward, the elder succubus unleashing a blast of magic into the middle of them before they hit the line. Spear and sword stabbed and slashed at Mei-Lien, but she managed to dodge most of it while getting in some smashing blows. Many more tentacles perished, allowing some of the lieutenants to come to the front and get their own licks in. These men were very good, and it showed in how long it took to break down their defenses. Erica’s magic helped, cutting them down one at a time, but they chewed through the tentacles, and the redheaded warrior had to be quite careful to avoid suffering the same fate.

The battle raged on for about 20 minutes, Mei-Lien being cut several times in the melee, a few of the lieutenants impaled on spears or cut to bits with swords. Finally, though, the last of the soldiers was killed, leaving them standing in front of the enormous door. Erica let out a sigh, taking a moment to recover her energy before unleashing a magical burst that smashed the door to pieces. The tentacles rushed inside, along with the lieutenants, and the elder succubus held her readheaded slave back for whatever reason. After a minute or two they entered the room, to find it both utterly massive and full of chaos. More of the royal guards were inside, a large number of them, and there was already vicious fighting all throughout the room. In the middle of it all, standing alone and unphased in front of a raised throne, was a rather regal-looking woman, which made sense, since she was undoubtedly the queen. She had incredibly long black hair worn in a braid over her right shoulder, which would have come down well below her ass if she were wearing it down, and her skin was ghostly pale, in contrast to the beautiful purple dress and robes she wore. "Foul demons, who darken my kingdom, come, and meet your end" she said with a voice that sounded imperious and sure, as if she had no doubts that she would emerge victorious. Erica made no reply, her face looking determined and mildly angry as her muscles tensed and she held her lance, ready to charge in, but holding back for just a moment…

Queen
25/25 HP
5/30 MP
Erica
15/15 HP
2/10 MP

Mei-Lien
7/7 FP
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

With their groups united, the demonesses surged onwards to race towards the final destination, there was not that much to say at this point. Not long after, it looked like they reached the target, a pair of doors massive in both size and decoration. There were other things there too, some sharply-dressed guards in a thin yet sturdy-looking line. It looked like they were now faced with the top dogs of the enemy soldiery, the royal guards. It was still no reason for them to slow down, and after a well-placed blast of magic, Mei was all over them. In the melee that followed, she dealt damage to all who came within range, the battle stretching out to a long and arduous deal. The redhead managed to get hurt along the way, but regenerated afterwards. When it was time to advance past the dead people, Erica decided to utilise her master key, namely deciding to blast open the door with an explosive spell.

With the door out of the way, the tentacle army surged inside, finding the throne room already under attack and full battle already happening. But it didn't matter to Mei, as she saw her target standing there in the middle of the room on an elevated throne area. The queen. Even though the situation was on knife edge, the demoness couldn't prevent herself thinking about how fun it would be to take this regal woman alive and have her as an all-purpose toy. It also might be fun to parade her through the city streets in the shame of defeat. If she could help it any, the redhead would try to win this battle in a way that enabled these things. But for now, she had to maintain caution and take this battle carefully. To test out the defenses of the opposition, she would start out with physical blows.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

M 22 vs. 16 Q, Hit!
E 17 vs. 21 Q, Miss!
Q 17 vs. 14 E, Stopped!

M 11 vs. 19 Q, Miss!
E Stopped!
Q Autohit!

M 25 vs. 20 Q, Hit!
E Stopped!
Q Autohit!

M 14 vs. 11 Q, Hit!
E Stopped!
Q Autohit!

M 15 vs. 18 Q, Miss!
E Stopped!
Q Autohit!

M 28 vs. 28 Q, Hit!
E Stopped!
Q Autohit!

Mei-Lien was the first to act, rushing forward and delivering a bunch to the queen's gut, though she seemed to be casting some sort of magical armor over her body. At the same time she was chanting ominously as she focused on the charging Erica, and just before the demon got to her she let out a shout, and the elder succubus suddenly froze perfectly still in place. The queen deftly dodged the redhead's next blow and sent a wave of magic at Erica, slicing into her lavender skin, though it was blunted by her light armor. Mei-Lien didn't miss with her next attempt, sweeping the royal mage's legs out from under her with a kick and upsetting her attempt to blast Erica again, though she did get a hit in on the unmoving demon. A quick stomp to queen's chest drew a groan out of her, but she still managed to get off her attack, and again when she rolled away from the attacking Mei-Lien, before taking a high kick to the chin that knocked her over even with her magical armor. At the same time Erica was beginning to move again, slowly, the powerful magic having taken quite a toll on her. She was already bleeding fairly heavily, her light armor in tatters.

Queen
21/25 HP
0/30 MP

Erica
10/15 HP
2/10 MP

Mei-Lien
7/7 FP
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

While she thought that might get hard for her, Mei was surprised that the queen hardly paid any attention towards her, instead focusing her magical efforts towards Erica while getting beaten at the same time. It was a curious event to say the least. The mistress took a fair deal of hits, which was somewhat alarming, since there would be hard times if she fell before they had wore this royal bitch down some. But she was getting back to it after the spell had taken her out for a while. Not sure if it would be effective, the redhead decided to try out her grappling skills against the queen, but only a few times if it didn't go anywhere. After that, it would go back to the strikes.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

M 17 vs. 16 Q, Grappled!
E 20 vs. 17 Q, Hit!
Q 18 vs. 30 M, Miss!

M 15 vs. 21 Q, Miss!
M 15 vs. 30 Q, Counter!
E 16 vs. 19 Q, Miss!
Q 15 vs. 27 M, Miss!

M 26 vs. 18 Q, Further Grappled!
M 21 vs. 11 Q, Hit!
E 25 vs. 17 Q, Hit!
Q 32 vs. 19 M, Hit!

Mei-Lien charged forward and easily tackled the queen to the ground; the mage hadn't been expecting it, and so had fallen prey to the maneuver without much contest. She hit the ground just in time for Erica to come out of her stupor and race forward to stab her with the lance, her magical armor making it only a shallow wound. Mei-Lien tried to grappled her further and stab the enemy royalty with her tail, but the effort only earned her a burn to her spaded appendage, another function of the magical armor, which also deflected the elder succubus' lance. After a few moments of grappling and struggling, Mei-Lien managed to further subdue the queen, grasping her arms and stabbing her in the leg with her tail, this one going through. Erica got a good stab in on her gut as well, but with a screech the mage burned her demonic assailant until the redhead was forced to let her go. As she bounded away, she heard her mistress' voice in her head. "I know you can arouse this bitch, you've got the aphrodisiacs to do it. I can hit her with some magic that will make her even more accommodating, and we can end this fight that way if you want. It might be easier than beating through all her armor" she suggested, which fit in line with Mei-Lien's first thought, but would require grappling to work.

All around them the chaos of battle raged, the royal guard fighting the monster horde. It looked like the monsters had the upper hand thanks to numbers, but the guardsmen were quite skilled, and many of the creatures were falling, along with some of the lieutenants. Still, if all continued as it was, the monsters would probably come out on top, and there were possible reinforcements on the way in the form of Rosa's troop.

Queen
18/25 HP
0/30 MP

Erica
10/15 HP
2/10 MP

Mei-Lien
5/7 FP
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Given her unattention towards the less experienced demoness, the queen was somewhat surprised as she was tackled down and wrestled with. The magical armor that the opponent sported was enough to prevent her causing too much damage, and eventually they were at a standstill again. "Sure, that could help. But don't count on it too much, we can't trust this strategy to be a surefire victory..." Mei replied to the mistress, deciding to try out more grappling.
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

E 23 vs. 22 Q, Hit and Aroused!
M 22 vs. 21 Q, Grappled!
Q 15 vs. 15 M, Miss!

M 23 vs. 13 Q, Further Grappled!
M 25 vs. 20 Q, Aroused!
E 22 vs. 26 Q, Miss!
Q 20 vs. 23 M, Miss!

M 27 vs. 19 Q, Further Grappled!
E 21 vs. 27 Q, Miss!
Q 29 vs. 34 M, Miss!

Mei-Lien held back a little with her next attack, instinctively understanding what was about to go happen. Erica didn't make a sound, darting around to the side of the Queen to distract her from her true intention before launching the spell. There wasn't any outward sign of its existence, or its success, besides the slightly flushed face of the mage that opposed them, and she screamed out in frustration and wordless fury at the succubus, turning her back foolishly to the redhead, who tackled her to the ground again. The royal woman struggled mightily, but Mei-Lien subdued her even more, stabbing her tail into the queen's leg and pumping more of her potent aphrodisiacs into her. The demon could feel her enemy shudder under her, clearly becoming quite aroused, but she fought off further attempts to stab her, and also Erica's efforts at stripping her of her clothing. Mei-Lien managed to get her arms and legs more under control, but she could sense that that didn't matter that much for the queen, her attacks being magical.

Queen (Grappledx3, -3 to Attack)
18/25 HP
4/10 AP
0/30 MP

Erica
10/15 HP
0/10 MP

Mei-Lien
5/7 FP
 
Re: Mei-Lien (Guan Yu)

Again, the tackling and taking the opposition down proved to be effective, the mistress' distraction proving to be a valuable help in the task. The mage and demoness wrestled along the ground, the tail finding it's mark this time around. If the spell from Erica had done something, the effects were not too noticeable. The queen was stronger than she looked in the physical department, but she only managed to fend off the inevitable a bit more effectively than the usual opponent. While she could probably attack without too much trouble, given the magical nature of her attack, the bitch would still bend to the submission hold if it was properly applied. If Mei could just bring a little bit more strenght to bear on the opponent, she might be able to choke her out and end this battle quickly and remarkably effortlessly, which would be a relief after all the brutal and bloody conflict already behind them. The fall of the queen would surely affect the morale of the remaining soldiers and ensure their overall victory.
 
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