Vienne had noticed a subtle shift in the way the demon fought.

Originally, the careless nature of the way it chose to attack made her extremely wary. B-3 didn’t try to conserve energy or strength, often appearing as though she was drawing from an endless reservoir and would be happy to draw the fight out to the maximum length. A near invisible tether from the portal was attached to the main B-3, so that might actually be the case. Vienne spent a few useless minutes trying to cut or destroy the tether but it simply reattached itself to B-3 or reformed if she managed to cut it. B-3 had also stopped appearing with that claymore. It had been cosmetic, nothing more.

As the fight progressed, Vienne and B-3 had both become increasingly aware of a rampaging spell in the background. B-3 had increased the scale of her attacks on the Transient population, forcing Vienne to increase her use of her ability to protect them. Of the 52,340 attacks B-3 initiated with lethal intent, Vienne had intercepted 52,340. This left little time for anything else. The endless ground spawns and the hands reaching, even now, from the portal had all gone unchecked by Vienne. Vienne simply couldn’t spare the time between knocking down all the deadly and lethal Transient oriented attacks B-3 produced.

The spell had increased in size, forcing Vienne to actively track the spell so she didn’t run afoul of it. This would have been cause for concern but Vienne noticed that B-3 was also actively tracking it, with increasing interest.

When B-3 began to abandon her Transient attacks to focus on the lightning spell, Vienne had immediately seized the brief lull to appear in several places throughout the city and in the sky, frantically knocking down and destroying as many of the hands and oiled creatures as she possibly could while her endless foe was distracted.

Then B-3 had been bulldozed by the spell.

That really got Vienne’s attention.

The spell had simply smacked her form into nothingness. The tether that was attached to the portal had regenerated B-3, but it took 4 seconds, almost 4 times as long as it normally did. The lightning spell had then wandered off in a different direction.

B-3 once again gave up attacking all the Transients and appeared behind the lightning. The intense look of concentration on her face had given Vienne pause, and for the first time she felt a sliver of hope. If B-3 wanted to destroy the spell, Vienne… wanted it not destroyed.

B-3 was starting to feel more solid. Powerful. More anchored in Aspirian space. She was consolidating her power according to Vienne’s senses. She was finally abandoning her original strategy of just beating them down with time and numbers.

B-3 turned and started to examine the Transient population.

There were a number of reasons to do this. The most obvious was to find those who were responsible for the gigantic spell that was off living it’s best life. The person, or persons, responsible, would lose control of the rampaging mana and it would likely disperse without much bang. There was so much mana concentrated in the spell it was no longer as likely to burst without direction. So much mana that if given the opportunity it would just spread outward in all directions and replace the absence in the atmosphere around them.

Another reason to examine all the Transients was to identify stronger foes. It had occurred to Vienne some time ago that if B-3 had focused solely on individual Transients with all of her images, dopplegangers, clones, whatever you wanted to call them, Vienne might not have been able to save the target in question.

These were all bad things so Vienne immediately put a stop to the greater powered examine. B-3’s gaze slid over her, highly disconcerting because the creature was split in half, and then unconcernedly she regenerated and disappeared.

Vienne chased.

B-3 had appeared in front of a Transient that had their staff stretched out toward the sky. He blinked rapidly and took a step back as she approached. Vienne appeared behind B-3 and readied herself to destroy B-3, swinging hard and detaching the head from the shoulders. Twenty other versions of B-3 sprang up in various action stances and momentums, plunging toward the same Transient with spearhead-hand outstretched. The mad display of images all fanned out like mirages as they continued to move, reappearing and disappearing in flashes. Vienne grit her teeth.

She managed to slay B-3 35 times before the creature finally slipped through and stabbed a hand through the chest of the Transient. He jerked, eyes full of disbelief as he looked at the woman with a hand sticking into his chest. B-3 was already scanning the sky, watching the lightning for a reaction. When nothing happened B-3 swiftly removed her hand and, in a flurry of motion, slashed the Transient in half, and then half again.

Vienne stared at the dead player in frustration, standing motionless for half a second before she sensed that B-3 was already targeting another Transient.

The dance began again. B-3 had targeted a woman on a roof who had been drawing back a bow and pointing it at hands in the sky. She had been vaguely pointing in the direction of the lightning. It had been enough to garner attention.

Vienne only managed to kill B-3 30 times before B-3 killed the woman. B-3 turned her gaze to meet Vienne’s gaze. The emotionless murder in them made Vienne shiver. B-3 turned back to the sky, removing her hand from the victim’s neck and disappearing when she had determined that the spell continued.

B-3 stood in the sky above Vienne, not even bothering to hide where she would go, hunting her next likely candidate. Her arms folded, looking down her nose at the city with a calm sort of calculation.

Vienne lifted her sword and waited, preparing to chase once B-3 had found a target. She would have to do better. It was taxing her spirit to the limit maintaining Everywhere At Once. B-3 hadn’t attempted to fight back yet, but if she did the creature would quickly find that Vienne couldn’t sustain B-3’s attacks AND Everywhere At Once. It was just a matter of time.

Vienne’s eyes narrowed.

B-3 continued to stand in the air, looking down expressionlessly.

Another minute passed.

Vienne snuck a glance downward, curious despite herself why the creature had ceased it’s massacre. Then she straightened and smiled, a small laugh escaping her lips in a breathless and relieved manner.

She turned back to B-3, a sneer completely overtaking her face. “Is this your first time dealing with Transients?”

The thousands of Transients on the ground, in between defending themselves from floating hands and oiled creatures, all lifted their arms palms out and followed the progress of the lightning with their eyes. It was an extraordinary act of synchronicity.

B-3 tapped her fingers on her arm for half a second. Then she disappeared.

Vienne looked down, finding B-3 attacking one of the crowd. She swiftly pursued.

B-3’s solution had come in the wake of the Transient method of camouflaging their own.

She would kill them all.