The Mawzir #75

As she took cover behind the church's second-floor window, firing her pistol without stopping, Deborah couldn't help but frown at the number of corpses piling outside the place of worship.

The cynical part of her she grew after years of service as a cop in Gotham city wanted to tell a joke about how convenient the fact they were fighting near a cemetery, but she resisted the urge.

They were only here for ten minutes, five of which they spent hurriedly barricading the church before the Mawzir's goons showed up, and the rest spent fighting them.

Despite the relatively short time, there were already roughly twenty dead bodies. And the numbers only kept growing by the second as she, Monaghan, and Natt kept gunning down the incoming goons who had no cover to fall back on.

Despite their clear disadvantage, the goons kept coming, relentlessly charging the church's gates as if their lives depended on it, which wasn't far from the truth.

Some goons even managed to storm their way inside the barricaded church, but they would either be quickly cut down by Jason Blood (who was wielding a sword of all things) or knocked out by Catwoman without putting much of a fight.

The situation seemed to be in their favor, but Deborah couldn't help but worry as the thugs kept coming with no regard for their lives, and no sign of the demon yet.

Part of her was glad she'd lost her job already since she'd be losing it all the same after this mess concluded. If she even survived the encounter, that is.

"Snap out of it, Deborah!" Monaghan exclaimed from his spot at the church's tower bell after noticing she stopped shooting, snapping Deborah out of her daze and prompting her to resume shooting.

Deborah sighed, shaking her head as she took aim and opened fire.

The stalemate continued for the next ten minutes, and Deborah, Monaghan, and Natt were running out of ammo already, with no end to the thugs' assault in sight. Their numbers only seemed to increase instead.

"Catwoman, where the hell is your friend?" Monaghan asked with a scowl, having already depleted his assault rifle ammo, forcing him down to the first floor where he'd be able to use his pistols more effectively.

"I'd bet my ass we won't be seeing him again now that he's got the money and all that," Natt commented from the side with a scoff, having already depleted his heavy armor much like Monaghan, forced to rely on his pistols.

"Maybe we see him; maybe we don't. Either way, we got an army of thugs to worry about first, so quit yapping," Catwoman replied without bothering to refute the two gunslingers.

Selina was only in it for fun and out of curiosity, and she wouldn't care if Gray came through or not as she had her own measures to escape and save herself should the situation demand it.

Honestly, who could blame Gray if he didn't decide to show up? Definitely not Selina. She might even do it and double-cross Monaghan if she was in his place.

Still, she somehow believed Gray would show up eventually but didn't feel like sharing her thoughts as the two killers for hire expression provided her no small amount of amusement.

"How about a bit less talking and more shooting, please?" Blood, whose clothes were already dyed red with 'blood,' exclaimed from the side as he drove his bastard sword into a thug's chest.

"There can't be much of them left. Just hang on," Jason Blood added as he took out his sword from the thug's chest and swung, cutting down another thug who'd just managed to enter the church.

Hearing his words, everyone else gritted their teeth except for Selina, who only smiled, and they all returned to their stations, fighting with increasing intensity.

And sure enough, the seemingly never-ending stream of thugs finally came to a halt a couple of minutes later, leaving the group utterly exhausted with varying degrees of light injuries.

Catwoman was the exception as she maintained most of her stamina and even managed to avoid any injuries for the duration of the fight, prompting the others to give her displeased looks.

"That should be the last of them..." Blood remarked, heaving a tired sigh as he planted his foot into the stomach of the thug lying at his feet to retrieve his sword, stuck in the latter's abdomen as it was.

"Seems like it..." Monaghan said with an equally tired sigh as he collapsed on the ground, leaning on the wall behind him while wiping the blood off his face.

Deborah and Natt shared a look before surveying the area and promptly copying Monaghan's actions as the adrenaline rush disappeared, replaced by tiredness and lethargy.

However, despite everyone's haggard expression, they could see the relief on each other's faces that they managed to pull through and survive the thugs' onslaught.

"We fucking did it," Natt said as he shakily got to his legs, genuinely smiling as he approached Monaghan, who didn't share his enthusiasm and had a frown on his face instead.

Overjoyed and relieved, Natt had forgotten a minor detail, but Monaghan didn't as the mastermind; the Mawzir itself didn't deign to show its face yet.

"Don't let your guard down. We ain't out of the woods yet," Monaghan remarked, bitterly shaking his head at his old war buddy, causing the latter to freeze, suddenly reminded of the many-armed demon.

And sure enough, the remainder of the church's door, tattered and riddled with bullet holes, suddenly flew off with a bang, revealing a figure wearing a black trench coat and a brown cowboy hat behind it.

"Monaghan..." the figure growled, its tone cold and menacing as it glared at the hitman while ignoring everyone else as it reached a thin bony hand to the hem of its coat and dramatically threw it away, revealing the horrid figure beneath.

It looked barely humanoid, with an elongated torso and ten thin, bony arms, each holding a gun.

It had an angular face with blue eyes that ominously glowed as it opened its mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth and growled the hitman's name with extreme resentment.

"You have evaded the Arkannone lords of the gun long enough. No more, Monaghan," The Mawzir said, and it sounded as if several people were talking instead of one.

It sounded like listening to the combined screams of countless crying, tortured souls, menacing and grating to everyone's ears, causing them to cringe visibly.

"Accept your fate, and your companions shall be spared," The Mawzir said, and the only answer it received was a bullet from Natt's pistol that harmlessly bounced off its skin.

"I've killed you once before, demon. I can do it again," Monaghan said, raising his gun and firing another bullet that did no damage, and that was all the demon needed to hear as it screeched and made its move.

The Mawzir's ten arms immediately moved, taking aim at everyone present as it began firing the ten ancient-looking revolvers, causing Monaghan and the others to throw themselves at the closest cover.

Bullets flying over their head, the two gunslingers and detective kept peeking out of cover and returning fire whenever they had the chance, and it made no difference.

Everything they threw at the demon was ineffective as every bullet would bounce off its metal-like skin, save for one fired by Monaghan that hit the creature in the eye.

It still had little effect as the Mawzir was unphased by it and kept advancing despite getting injured as its eye only took a fraction of a second to heal.

However, it had to stop as Catwoman's whip came flying and snatched one of its guns before the creature could react, prompting it to growl and turn its focus toward the leather-clad brunette.

Selina smirked as she dangled the gun she'd snatched in front of the demon, further enraging it as she ducked behind cover when it started firing the remaining nine guns.

The Mawzir stopped again as a green spherical object came flying towards it, and Monaghan burst from behind his cover and shot it in the air when it was an inch away from the Mawzir's face.

It exploded with enough force to mangle the demon's face and force it several steps back, but it quickly recovered again and resumed advancing as if nothing had happened.

Natt and Monaghan looked at each other before nodding as they each took out two uzi machine guns from their clothes and began firing, emptying the magazines in mere seconds.

Again, the Mawzir was uninjured. However, Jason Blood took advantage of its distraction and charged the demon, sword in hand. He swung and only managed to swat away another gun from the creature's ten hands before it caught him by the throat.

"You reek of hell... who are you...?" The Mawzir growled as it stared into the demonologist's eyes with a bewildered tone, causing the latter to grin, which deepened the demon's confusion.

"Behind you," Jason said, his grin widening as the demon scoffed, clearly unwilling to turn around.

"What manner of fool do you take me for, human—" That was all the demon could say before Wraith appeared behind it and a devastating kick landed on its back, causing it to stagger and let go of Blood, along with two other guns.

...

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