Another day, another session of flying on a magical broom[1] while being chased around persistently by a shadowy creature why- Oh, right, Demony was in a horribly foul mood after its efforts in defending the Beanies while they went foraging all went to waste as they accidentally threw out all their harvest in a fit of panic, which sent hordes of creatures their way and caused a whole lot of trouble to Demony who had to fend off the bastards. After all was said and done, the tenebrous creature directed its roiling malevolence at their eternal enemies and attempted to claw them, which was sadly (or not sadly, depending on who you were rooting for) dodged due to Goody reflexively pushing down their fellow Beanies, then it attempted to pounce on the plushies to pin them down. That failed to stick, too, thanks to the little teddy bears being ultimately more flexible and speedier than Demony at its current size, which was to say, the size of a large, murderous panther.[1]

The trio quickly ran to their flying broom and flew off as quickly as they could, weaving their way around trees and trying to avoid Demony's wretched wrath as best as possible. So occupied were they with the thought of escape that they continued flying even after exiting the forest and completely forgot about returning to their wagon, paying little attention to how odd they must seem to a common passersby. Demony could not give a damn about the discretion it should practice either, and continued its pursuit viciously and unerringly.

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[1]Flying Broom

SPOILER: Click to show

A normal seeming broom made out of wood and able to sweep up dirt or dust. However while standing or sitting on the broom, its owner and give a command to cause the broom to rise into the air. The owner can then ride this broom as if using the fly spell.

[2]Armored Feline

SPOILER: Click to show

Mounted Felines are giant cats, like tigers, lions or other creatures belonging to the feline family. These cats are large enough to be ridden and can be drove into combat, allowing you to attack from their backs. Mounted felines come with a very light set of armor, usually cloth or leather, which protects them from debris in the battle field. They can also use their claws or teeth to attack and defend themselves.

Kara was picking flowers. Beautiful purple flowers with white spots on the petals. Kara sighed wistfully and brought the flowers up to smell them. Perfect. These would give that butthead of a merchant the worst stomach ache of his life once she mixed it into his tea. The man had earned Kara’s ire by offering quite the indecent proposal, and Kara had learned that stabbing people for saying things to you was illegal, so she had to find more creative methods of revenge.

She paused, thinking about the interaction with the merchant. In truth, the first time something like this had happened, she hadn’t understood what it meant, and once she understood, she hadn’t cared. But the longer she stayed on Charon, the more she understood the disrespect it carried with it. And she hated being disrespected.

Why were all the men of this realm so focused on this one thing, anyways? Didn’t they care that she was strong? That she was a perfect vehicle for combat? She was quite proud of this body and its violent potential. But no, all men saw was an object of desire. An image flashed through her mind for a second, a Half-Grem woman, and Kara frowned.

Why did I think of her?

She sighed, then stood up, grinning wickedly at the thought of her revenge, when a broomstick flew past her, chased by a shadow.

Kara blinked. Blinked again. Blinked a third time.

Wat?

She looked down at the flowers in her hands, then at the retreating broom. Were those… tiny bears? She looked back at the flowers, then dropped them and took off running, leaping over root and vine with the graceful agility she had designed into this body. She could have flown after the broom of course, but she was in the mood to burn off some energy, and she occasionally leapt up and pushed herself off of tree trunks, propelling herself forward with an ever increasing momentum.

The Beanies flew along the open path and soon they would notice a downwards incline towards what appeared to be a valley, which meant that if they could maintain their current flight altitude they would likely be able to escape Demony's meanie grasp! Unfortunately for them (genuinely this time), however, Demony had other ideas. Demony had managed to grab ahold of some vines that so happened to have a fruit close to one of its ends, allowing the shadowy creature to swing the vine overhead like one would a grappling hook, and hurled that towards the Beanies' flying broom, twining the straw that made up the broom's mundane functionality.

With a quick jerk, the broom would be pulled backwards and swung like a whip behind Demony while the Beanies would end up being sent flying upwards, scattering away from each other from the consequent change in momentum, leaving them ripe for the harvest and completely defenseless against Demony's gaping maw now fast approaching its unusual menu of three plushies stuffed with cotton and beans.

Kara let out a laugh of pure glee as she launched herself after the bears and the shadow, her hair whipping out behind her, the wind in her face and the- Oh no! The bears! Those adorable little bears! They were going to die!

Not on my watch.

Kara kicked off of an old oak and shot up through the air, and right before the three teensy, tinsy, cutesy bears got viciously swallowed, Kara blurred past the shadow and swept up all three of them in her arms, before dropping back down and landing with a heavy impact on the ground, her knees bending slightly on the landing, but her arms still holding tightly and securely to the precious cargo in them.

She looked down at them and grinned wide, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “HI! I”M KARA!” She beamed at them, filled with pure joy.

The shadow thingy landed near her and galloped over, and she backhanded the shit out of it without even taking her eyes off of the three little bears, a pop of light accompanying the strike [Angelic Light], the light searing the creature far more than it would have seemed to be able to.

Kara snuggled the three little bears, and beamed down at them.

“You guys are adorable. You can be my pets! Ooh, please say you’ll be my pets!”

There was barely any time to even register the sudden presence that appeared out of nowhere before Demony was slammed with levels of hurt it had never tasted before, amplified by the sheer Goodness contained in the attack, sending it recoiling backwards and its feet grinding against the ground from the sheer momentum. Ugh, it hadn't been hit with a Light this strong since... when was that again? It had no recollection of dealing with any enemies specialising in the usage of light thus far in Charon, so what could it have been? Anyway, though. It wasn't about to take this pain lying down, and so it zigzagged around as it charged towards the blasted angel in retaliation.

Meanwhile, the Beanies found themselves smothered and snuggled tightly against someone's chest. Well, it wasn't anything new to the trio, though they certainly weren't about to accept being someone else's pet.
"""Hi Ms. Kara~.""" That aside, it was only polite that they said hi before anything else, even as all three of them shuddered at the sheer violence their prospective Beanienapper had just inflicted on their cranky shadowy frenemy.
"We would very much like to not be your pets, please," Star spoke with a rather awkward tone.
"Chili wants freedom to enjoy food! Can't be free as a pet!" Chili flailed their limbs around in a futile attempt to break free.

"Also, um, please don't kill Demony. It's just very angry at us right now." Goody pleaded for the tenebrous creature who just tried to chow down on them in annoyance, if mainly because Demony can't actually eat anything other than their emotions, so them being swallowed wouldn't actually have done anything to them other than make them feel really scared. Or annoyed. Probably a mix of both.

Kara looked over at the approaching… Demony, the bears had called it? She looked down at the three creatures in her arms and shrugged. “Don’t kill it? Sure.”

She crouched down and let the bears hop out of her arms and onto the ground, then straightened up and faced Demony. She held out her hand, and her eyes glowed golden briefly, and Light Piercer formed in her hand [Returning], and she pointed the spear at the oncoming shadow.

“I’d stop if I were you, servant of the Dark. You face an Angel of the Light, a warrior of Auriel.”

She didn’t know if this creature was of the Forces of Darkness she had faced eons ago, and she didn’t really care. It was threatening the adorable tiny bears, and she wouldn’t allow that to continue. It was only by the grace of the little creatures that she wasn’t smiting the ever-loving life out of it, but she wasn’t opposed to laying down a beating if it wouldn’t stand down.

She smiled a challenge at the shadow, silently daring it to take her on.

Come on, coward. Do it. Do it, I dare you.

She glanced down at the bears for a moment to make sure they had gotten out of the way, then refocused on Demony.

The Beanies hopped down once Kara let them free and ran as far as they could with their little legs until they were at what counted as a corner of the impromptu battlefield away from the two.

Demony appeared to rise up to the challenge, continuing to zigzag towards Kara in vehement anger, using its momentum to try and get a low claw swipe in. On the side, it detached a small part of itself[1] to make its way to the accursed Beanies and get its proper revenge this time while its larger self distracted the Angel of Auriel, wherever that was. Those teddy bears were going to pay dearly for wasting its efforts by hook or by crook.

The Beanies were watching the battle worriedly when the little Demony leaped at the three from right behind them and pinned them down proper this time thanks to the element of surprise and its lack of size allowing them to avert the square-cube law better. It would then lower its body mass as much as possible to make it difficult for Kara to retaliate. Hopefully.

"""Demony~! Sorry~!""" The Beanies collectively squeaked and tried to apologize, but it was having none of that and simply increased its body density, flattening the bears further in its weight.

---

[1]House Cat

The shadow being didn’t take Kara’s advice and stand down, which was only going to bring it more pain in the long run. As for the Angel, this was all the better for her. She liked a good fight. A small smile curved her lips upwards, and her eyes flashed, and then Demony was swiping at her.

She caught the claw on Light Piercer, holding the spear horizontally and blocking the swipe. As she held Demony’s paw in place, she pulled back her leg and kicked out, her foot shooting under their interlocked arms and taking Demony in the torso.

Kara leapt back, and out of the corner of her eye, noticed a second shadow pinning down the bears. She thrust the point of her spear in that direction and let loose a bolt of golden energy [Purity Bolt], but she didn’t have time to see if it hit as she refocused her attention back on Demony. Well, big Demony that is.

“Your friends asked me not to kill you.” She called out to it. “But keep coming at me like this and I might not be able to hold myself back.” Her smile turned into a large grin- Kara was enjoying herself, the thrill of battle making her heart hammer and her blood rush, and she didn't actually care if she was forced to kill the shadow creature.

This is what I was made for!

… Literally.

An increasingly large beam of light flew towards the little Demony and the Beanies were now outwardly panicking as:-
1. they were very much feeling like the piercing pain would skewer them all together and not just their shadowy frenemy
2. they might not necessarily like the meanie Demony but meanie Demony does not deserve to be gruesomely impaled just because
Amidst the whole hubbub, Goody would manage to pull out the Gingerbread Cottage Key[1] from the gap between their head and their hat, and with a frantic twist, the bolt of indiscriminate holiness would find itself among the thick, edible gingerbread door that appeared right between it, its momentum forcibly halted.

The larger Demony, in the meantime, was absolutely not enjoying this in the slightest. It should probably start learning how to expend its repertoire one of these days, but the peace-loving Beanies meant that it was excruciatingly difficult for it to find combat opportunities for any ideas, and it was immediately obvious this Angel was far, far out of its depth. Then the gingerbread cottage appeared, and assuming the Angel would be distracted long enough by the sheer 'what-the-fuckery' that was a gingerbread cottage in the middle of nowhere, it took the opportunity to perform a painful tail swipe before dashing full speed to reconvene with those blasted bears.
its smaller counterpart stomped on the Beanies, opened up the door and then threw all three of them inside.

The Beanies would find themselves flung under the gingerbread dining table and scattering around to prevent the little Demony from catching all three of them at once. The cottage was just barely large enough to fit the big Demony, and so it melted away into the shadows to recover.

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[1]Gingerbread Cottage Key

SPOILER: Click to show

A small key made of gingerbread. With enough room, this key can be pushed into the air and turned, opening the door to a lovely gingerbread cottage. This gingerbread cottage has two rooms— one for a living space, and one for a kitchen— and can hold up to six full sized individuals. It is fitted with beds and tables equally made of candies and confections, all of which are edible. The gingerbread cottage gives off a cozy warmth, and is alarmingly hardy under the most severe of weather; to anyone on the outside who does not have the key, this gingerbread cottage simply cannot be perceived or accessed. The cabin can last for 12 hours, before expelling you back out to where you entered.

Yo, that is so freaking cool!

Kara's eyes and smile both widened as the gingerbread house appeared out of nothingness, and she was almost taken across the chest by the incoming tail swipe. But Kara was a warrior, built and honed for battle, and she would be a poor combatant if she allowed herself to be distracted from her enemy that easily.

Her arms came up just in time to take the blow, the force of it sending her skidding back, her heels digging a groove in the dirt.

“Not nice.” She growled. “Bad kitty!”

Any chance for retaliation was taken from her as Demony took off, and then everyone was in the house and Kara was left all alone, in the middle of the woods with a gingerbread house. She looked around, the sudden end of combat a little startling. She shrugged and made her way over to the house.

After considering what to do for a moment, she leaned over and knocked on the door.

“Hellloooo? Are you still in there? It’s just, well, I was kinda having fun.” She paused, waiting for a reply, then tried again. “Do you wanna come back out and continue the fight?”

She thought for another moment, then added “...Please?”

The Beanies were too busy running around in winding circles trying to keep in random trajectories and avoid overlap, hopping up and down tables, going under beds, and just in constant panic to even register anything else. Demony was uninterested in further battles itself - those were no fun when it had zero chance of winning - then it recalled that Goody had another item with them in their hat. So it proceeded to ambush and pin down the Goody-plush, threatening to slice open its back and causing the other two Beanies to immediately go into panic mode and run over. Then, a swipe would cut away the thread keeping the hat sewn to the head, exposing the rook piece within. The paw would curl unnaturally, picking up the rook and a very intent slam would swiftly hit the gingerbread floor.

"(Demony want us to use the rook?)" Obviously, the Beanies were entirely lost, just barely catching what Kara was saying outside. The shadowy frenemy's train of thought was an eternal mystery to them. A few moments later, the word "...Please?" echoed, and well... the trio of teddy bears were terrible at saying no even if they knew that fundamentally, they really shouldn't be allowing a fight to continue. Besides, it was between Demony and Kara, not them, so it should be fine, right? Also Demony's shadows were stretching under them again. It probably had all the intention of squashing the Beanies against the wall until they acceded.

So it was that the gingerbread cottage door would open once again, and a sucker punch from a 6-foot gargoyle rook^[1] would be aimed at Kara's stomach.

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^[1]Gargoyle Rook

SPOILER: Click to show

A stone chess piece taken from a wizards chess set. This piece is a small stone gargoyle with claws, fangs and wings. By holding it in your hand and commanding it, the piece will turn into a full form gargoyle, standing six feet tall and being heavy. This gargoyle will last for three post and will defend you, protecting you from attacks and attacking your enemies. This creature can only be summoned once per topic.

Kara was flying. Not with her wings, mind you, but from the force of a stone punch to her gut. It hurt. A lot. Hurt even more when she slammed into a tree. She crumpled to the ground, a limp ragdoll abandoned by its owner.

Ow.

She slowly lifted her head as the stone creature pushed its way through the doorway of the gingerbread cottage. “Wh… What in the Light…?” Kara groaned, and painfully pushed herself off the ground. She stood and brushed herself off, anger building in her chest. “I was fighting a shadow,” She growled, starting to walk forward. “Not a Lightsdamned statue!”

As she walked closer, her pace picked up, and she balled her hand into a fist. The gargoyle started to move towards her as well. “Not that I don’t appreciate a little challenge, just warn a girl next time!” She was practically running at this point, and the gargoyle matched her speed, and they met at the half-way point between the tree Kara hit and the cottage.

Kara sent her fist flying forward, and the gargoyle did the same thing, and as they collided, their fists connected, both combatants throwing all their weight behind the punch. The impact was tremendous, and a shockwave rippled outwards from the force of their punches hitting each other, sending fallen leaves swirling all around them.

Kara could feel the flesh on her knuckles shred apart, but her arm remained solid and unyielding [Durabone] even as she channeled all her incredible strength into the punch [Bull’s Strength].

The two fighters were frozen for a moment after the impact, silence settling over the area.