>"Frreeze it again!"
>Let's think twice about saying this, if we're going to speak with the thing, escalating hostilities is not a good idea.
>You consider yelling to Doubles to do what he did the first time to incapacitate the youma. Then you wonder if this would be a good idea. It would seem to be a good idea, as while the youma was frozen, you were working to secure the safety of its victims, perhaps could have found a way to free them altogether. And you might have found a way to convince this stubborn oni to leave, because he obviously isn't going to leave a fight. Maybe Ran, as well, or at least asked her why she seems so reluctant to let her suspiciously armed employee destroy the youma. And of course, it being immobilized gave you the freedom to purify it without it shooting back, or at least try to, and restore whatever precious item was corrupted to its original form. Plus it'd still be around after doing all this if you wanted to try and interrogate it more.
>So, having thought twice, you decide that having Doubles freeze the youma again WOULD, in fact, be a good idea.
>"Frreeze it again!"
>Leap back! Try to bring up another one of those shields to deflect the ice.
>But first, there's the spray of ice to deal with! Springing backwards, you wave your scepter in front of you, conjuring forth another blue veil of light. The veil ripples as the ice impacts it and vanishes into steam, but none penetrate your defensive ward. You do not turn to see how Ran fares, but you hear a *whoosh* of flame from just behind you, and no sounds of pain from her, so presumably, she weathered the storm in her own way.
>Doubles, however, is not quick as lucky as the two magic-imbued women he fights alongside of. Evidently he has no shield in his bag of tricks, and he was much closer to the ice block than you two. He is pummeled by the flying ice, and scrambles around behind the coffin to afford him some protection. You can see several cuts along his arms and back. To his credit, he never cried out.
>"Good plan!" he shouts back at you as you advice him to put it on ice again, pulling out his larger pistol, and, when the ice stops flying, turns to come around the coffin to line up a shot on the youma. Said youma, however, has other ideas, and intercepts the oni halfway, grabbing his gun arm, and hurling him violently across the length of the floor. The old oni slams heavily into the north-facing wall, so hard you think you can hear ribs break from where you are.
>The youma then follows this attack by firing a sustained beam of yellow energy into the oni's chest, pinning him to the wall.
>"You should have destroyed this youma when you had the chance, fools!" the creature screeches in mockery of you all.
