As they charge through the gates, something immediately felt off about Crow's Hollow, it seemed... unusually quiet and empty. Already on edge, Anselm stopped at the town square, catching his breath as he looked back at the others, then the smoke rising above the treetops. Everything is going crazy, he should have stayed home, should have heeded his gut. Today was a bad day, and it was getting worse. He could sense a threat was even here, with them. Then he heard a slow clap. He turned his head and some men in armor had positioned themselves around the center, holding some of the residents hostage.

"Well, lookie here, boys, the cavalry arrive," one man says, before getting a good look at Anselm. He furrowed his brow and spat on the ground before him. "Get a gander at this one, ugly as sin. T'think they allow mistakes among them."

Anselm looked around at the men, armed with blades and a few even had guns. Annoying, they must have snuck in while they were out. Of course the people would trust them, by their looks they were perfectly human. Anselm scoffed and cracked his neck.

"Don't imagine any of ya ugly bastards've looked in a mirror lately," he retorts, causing some of them to mutter amongst themselves and reach for their weapons. "The hell do you want? Raiders right?"

"Please, we ain't no raiders, our cause is a righteous 'un. We are liberators, purifiers," the man responds, letting a woman hostage go and scramble back to her house. "Case and point, she was clean. The clean have a right to live. You, on the other hand, do not. You see, these people let us in, knowing our cause righteous, and now we will free 'em. Besides, our cause has... outgrown our sanctuary, so we will erect another one... here."

"Great, a whole bunch of holier-than-thou psychopaths," Anselm responded, slapping his hand over his face. He then slid his hand down a bit, a thought coming to his head. He could work with this. He grinned and paced around the invaders. "Hah, well, suppose you want to pry it from us then? I don't give a shit what happens to this place anywho, bein' surrounded by you humans all day makes me sick. Weak, sniveling, afraid to take two steps outside their little dens liked scared little bunnies. But I'll tell you this much, this is our property, and you ain't takin' it."

The apparent leader who spoke before twitched. "So that is how it is, eh? Maybe this will be easier than I thought! Well then, let em go boys, looks like we'll just have to kill these'uns." With that he waved his hand out, and, with a battle cry, his men charged at the three hunters. The first charging at Anselm got a knee to the gut, his tougher body allowed him to dent in the sheet metal.

Above on a roof, the thieving critter peeked over the edge and watched quietly at the ensuing battle for dominance. Contemplating what to do, and if these new people would make her life more miserable than it is worth. In her mind, obviously far outgrowing her body, this was her domain... whoever won was going to be in the way.

Magnus stared at the now armored human with a strange weapon, it would seem to breathe fire from the end and he knew it would be a danger. All he saw was a threat that he should either avoid or to kill, at this point all he could think to do was to fight. He looked over at Bella, a look of acknowledgment in his eyes that could let her know that he was willing to work together to take out this threat.

He took a leap backwards from the stream of flame coming from the weapon and he began quivering all across his flesh as he started to take on a much larger form. organic spikes began sprouting across his arms and back as his jaws began distending to inhuman proportions.

Of course raiders had appeared in the hunter's absence, well-outfitted ones too. Such a shame they were dumb as rocks. Anselm's bluff worked and they released the only thing keeping them alive. "Listen brutes, it has been a painfully long day, if you would?" The first one that rushed her as she spoke received a saber through the eye, a well-placed thrust that ceased upper brain functions. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Leaving the saber in the man's skull, Ein cut her hand open via the dirk on the other end of her blade. Violently outstretching the bleeding hand sent a stream of blood onto another man, which promptly covered his face and congealed, cutting off air flow. The man scratched at his face to no avail, and began to wave an axe wildly, striking one of his compatriots who cussed before turning and putting a bullet into his doomed friend's head.

"You know, it's ironic really. As you are here to liberate us, and yet we end up having to liberate you... from life!" Lady Ein chortled, covering her mouth with her free hand.

"You bitch!" The man who had just had to kill his comrade fired off a shot at Ms. Crowley but blood shot up from her hand, almost in sync with the gun, and created an impromptu shield that the bullet was harmlessly absorbed into. "Now, now... The more munitions you waste, the less we can scavenge from your corpses before dumping you for the buzzards."

Dahlia turned her head left. Then right. Then sighed tiredly, lifting her hammer and shield up. "You all have dug your own graves coming here" She said offhandedly as she twirled her hammer and charged in bearing her shield in front of her and bowled a cluster of the invaders over and trampling over them without a care or second glance. Showing through as a brute in every sense of the word. What she lacked in technique was made up for using overwhelming force like hitting a nail with a sledge hammer to avoid missing.

A swing of the hammer here. The sounds of cracking bones followed. A swing of her shield and the soul unfortunate enough to be caught by it was sent flying 15 feet to tumble across the ground. She let out a frenzied growl as she turned to her next target and grabbing them by the ankle before doing a Hulk Vs Loki with them and then throwing what remained at some of their fellow invaders.

The invaders, what remained withdrew back to their leader, speckled in the blood of their colleagues. The man looked to them, a mixed expression of disgust and annoyance. Things did not go as he had planned, the others were supposed to keep them preoccupied long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but where are they? What is keeping the other party from getting here?

Anselm, having brutally beaten one of the raiders with only his bare hands, threw him to the leader's feet. He barely broke a sweat during this, it was easier than dealing with mutated wildlife, and it felt... weird. Before today, he had never killed a man, yet here he was, tearing them apart, almost like an animal. Still, he gave a cocky smirk, and spat at the ground before the men.

"Ya really think yourselves some real something, huh? Yer all sick, an' you dun realize it, the world gets worse because the world is sick!" the man exclaimed, holding his arms in the air. "How long do you think you can remain yourselves, with that devil in your veins?"

"When th'ell are you preachin' about? Nature just got sick of man's shit," Anselm responds, approaching them. The remaining men back away, reading their weapons, but their superior signals for them to hold.

"We found where the world ended, and this hell began," the man continued. "In a pit we even got a piece of the devil. Maybe ya'd like to join it, I know it'd love to join with you."

"What?" he hesitated for a moment, staring the man in his eyes. The man was confident, why? He had something to this whole thing, but at the same time, that pissed Anselm off. "Why should I give a shit what you have in a hole?"

"Because I know, even if you kill us here, yer all damned in the end, and what we offered was far more a mercy," the man said, a bead of sweat running down from his brow. "How long you think you got? How long will y'hearts remain y'own?"

This day was too weird. First that creature comes after him like she was his mother, now these guys come and... this guy. Anselm hated thinking too much, and now this day has made his head hurt. Then a sharp cackling sound cracks through his ears, somewhere between a laugh and hacking. The animal atop the roof now roared with laughter, standing upon its hind legs, mocking them.

"See? The devil exists among you as well!" the man exclaims, one of his comrades pulling a knife out and throwing it at the animal. Skitters, seemingly hit, shrieks and falls back. Mere seconds pass before the creature pops back up, knife held in her mouth, tilts head, taking the knife out slowly and continues to chuckle madly, looking around at everyone below.

Anselm turns to look, looking bewildered at the thing he thought just a minor . "Th'ell..?"

"So, let me help you... avoid its grasp," drawing out a gun, he pointed it at the back of Anselm's head, but Anselm bit his thumb and flung it at the man, splattering blood in his eyes. He screams and stumbles back, wiping his eyes. "You piece of shit! I'm trying to save you! You better not have infected me!" the man yelled aiming his gun again. Anselm looking fed up with this, without warning slammed his fist right into the side of his own stomach. Grunting, he took in air sharply through his nostrils and glared at the man, who right after coughed loudly, dropping his gun and buckling over holding his stomach. His few comrades still living ran to his side, helping him back up. "So... you too are a devil..?"

"Thanks for the story, but we don't need yer kinda help," Anselm said, slightly winded, his voice rumbling almost a growl. "Die out there, die here, it doesn't matter to me. I'm finished with you."

They looked at each other for a moment, before they quietly began to drag away their captain towards the gate. Anselm watched their every move with an unbroken glare.

Noticing the look in Magnus's eyes, Bella sighed and shrugged with a smile, accepting to help. "Seems a rude awakening to us both, cher," she says softly, as something in her back pops and cracks. Hoggr had already dealt with the briars, making his way to them, seemingly fearless behind his protective gear, as he sprays flames threateningly before them.

"And before us, thar were devils, manifest of the sickness... I've seen yer eyes before, look as you do now as a woman, I know your true twisted form!" Hoggr screams, aiming at Bellatroix specifically, but something slithers through the grass, like a snake, and a black-and-white blur strikes against his armor, streaks of sparks flying. He stumbles some, his armor's weight helping to keep him grounded, he looked down at scratches in his arm armor, small trails of purple steam coming up off it, a kind of venomous sting. Bella stood now with a long hairless tail to her side, striped in black and white bands, with sharp barbs protruding from the top.

"My true form, you say? Tell me more." with another swing, she hits Hoggr on the other side, despite the weight of her swing, it also just throws him off balance some, he then manages to get a swinging blast off at them all, singing her hair and burning her right shoulder as she attempted to dodge it, falling over onto her side. She let out an awful inhuman shriek, that seemed to reverberate throughout the wilds. "You... are certainly no gentleman, are you..?" she joked, holding her shoulder, playing weak. He approached her, arming down, before swinging again with her tail, wrapping it around his body like a constrictor. He struggled for a time, before getting another burst of napalm off, burning her tail and causing it to recoil.

Atop the truck, the gunner took shots at them from his protective box as they were seemingly distracted with Hoggr.

Magnus watched the affair from nearby, taking his now more bulky form before the gunner brought his attention. With the power behind his movement he easily caved in the ground under him. As soon as he got close he leaped onto the protective barricade hiding the gunner, his sheer weight alone nearly crushing it.

All he did for a few seconds was stare at the gunner, like a predator observing his prey. What happened next was something found only in natures fury, he had the mans head inside his massively elongated jaws. There was struggling, maybe even screaming but for a moment before the sound of a crunch came from him.