Chaos Within

[Espio]

[*Forgets Rampage made his exit.* >.>]

With the others keeping that creature well distracted, Espio has little trouble in his starting approach. A green current of wind is visable in front of Espio, shown for just a second. It took on the appearance of a swirling lance; Espio's idea to piece through the creature, and whirl dash his way up to the top cutting a swath through it. His pace quickens as he holds his right hand in front of him, two fingers up as he dashes, a pair of shuriken held between them. He can faintly hear the loud "Bwoosh" as a rocket launcher is fired from the roof over the slipstream he had formed, a grin on his face. He could see Mammoth struggling; more of a good thing than bad at the moment. Perhaps he could tire himself out to a point where Espio and the others could easily slip away after. By now hes about halfway there. A few more seconds and...

[Alpha Omega]

[I'm sorry guys, I've been really busy the last few days. Go ahead and skip me this round.]

[Gail Strafer]

[Correct me if I misunderstand this Espio.]

As the rocket whooshed through the air, the creature briefly turned away from Mammoth towards the sound. It took the rocket clean in the face, with its head briefly obscured by the smoke and explosion. Smaller bits of its shadow form literally got flung into the air. As the blast faded, only a big crater could be seen where the monster's head used to be. But even so, one could see the smaller bits of its shadow form starting to move back to rejoin the whole.

At least until Espio charged straight through the creature, cutting a swathe down the middle. Again, pieces of its form were torn from the whole and scattered around as little shadow blobs. The creature now had a very neat cut across its back.

It wouldn't be very noticeable in the chaos, but one might notice a small twinkle amidst the smaller blobs. Espio's attack had knocked one of the shards inside the creature loose. It clattered to the ground some distance away.

Despite its injuries though, the creature still appeared capable of flailing about. It staggered towards where it had last seen the rocket come from, and simply smashed right into the bottom of the building that Chadin, Gail, and Anu were standing on top of. The structure shook and started to tilt towards the street, as the load-bearing steel girders inside let out an awful screeching sound.

---

Gail smiled with relief as Anu came to check on him. He'd almost forgotten Ji and Anu had come along on this mission, with how much they seemed to just stay on the sidelines.

"So can you help? How much do you know about fixin' some deep cuts?"

Just then, the building started to totter around from the creature's impact, as Gail swiftly grabbed onto a nearby railing for support.

"Geez! I though that elephant dude had him occupied!"

[Mammoth Mogul]

The combined assault did precisely what Mogul needed, taking the pressure off of himself and allowing him time step out of harms way. Mogul side stepped as much as he could whilst the creature turned on the Freedom Fighters on the roof. Mogul cast his gaze about the battlefield, noticing how the creature's blob-like mass did not simply break off and die as one might expect. But amidst the shadowy blobs littering the field, a familiar glint caused Moguls' mouth to water. "A chaos shard! I must have it!!"

However, the creature's wanton attack upon the nearby building shocked Mammoth back into the reality of the situation. The shard would, regrettably have to wait. Sensing the chance to strike while the creature's attention was off of him, Mogul swung his cane out, launching a chaos slash attack towards the creature's hind legs in the hopes of debilitating it further.

came upon an enlightened idea. "Strike out against the smaller forms! Don't let them rejoin with the main body!" Mogul shouted in a rare moment of lending assistance.

[Chadin]

"I think I struck a nerve!" I shouted over the screeching wail of creaking metal and collapsing brick while simultaneously grabbing hold of the nearest railing to avoid falling to the floor, or worse, the pavement far below.

"Strike out against the smaller forms! Don't let them rejoin with the main body!" I heard Mammoth shout out from down below.

I didn't know if that would work, but at this point it was worth a shot. "Gail, how many shots do we have left for that rocket launcher?!" I asked as I readied myself to start picking off the smaller blobs.

[Jijeka-Te]

"Strike out against the smaller forms! Don't let them rejoin with the main body!"

Even Ji could hear that from her perch high up. Deciding the time for inaction was over, she jumped and glided down, gaining speed, seeking out any smaller blobs she could target, hoping to splatter the nearest one with her royal crook.

--

"I did my share of first aid back home when Her Highness got injured. There isn't that much I can do, but I'll do what I can."

Anu looked at the haphazard way in which Gail had bandaged his arm with his vest. He grabbed the vest and tied it carefully around Gail's upper arm as tightly as he could, hoping it would work as a tourniquet.

[Espio]

"Yes!", Espio briefly exclaimed as he cut a swath through the creature. His feet shuffled as he turned to look back, seeing the smaller masses seeking to rejoin the whole.

"Strike out against the smaller forms! Don't let them rejoin with the main body!

He turned around, briefly skidding a stop as he lets fly the shuriken he had readied at two of the smaller blobs.

Not wanting to wait to see the results, he draws a bomb shuriken from his right knee brace, aiming dead center for the hole in the creature's chest. As much as he would like to stay hidden, it wouldn't mean anything if that thing managed to tear down the building everyone else was on.

[Alpha Omega]

As the smaller blobs hit the ground and began moving, Omega charged forward, picking up a piece of debris that had been launched forward earlier, and used it to begin swatting and smashing the little bloblets.

[Gail Strafer]

[Looks like I'll get to post at least one more time before my trip then. Chadin, once May 18 gets here, take control of the shadow beast.]

Between the attacks of Ji, Alpha, and Espio, several of the smaller blobs splattered across the pavement and faded into black mist. The shadow dragon now had a little less shadow mass to work with, in addition to one less shard in its body.

Mammoth's attack successfully split a deep cut across the creature's back leg. This caused its back end to fall flat to the ground with a loud crash, as its back legs went spread-eagled. The creature wouldn't be able to move around effectively until the cut sealed itself back up again in a couple of moments. This also presented Espio with enough of an opening to get his bomb shuriken in the hole where the creature's head used to be. Another explosion tore through the creature's form, this time splitting it almost completely in two down the middle. Only its back end held the body together.

However, everyone was about to get a rude surprise.

The creature then really did split into two halves...but then the halves looked to be reforming into two smaller versions of the larger shadow creature. New heads formed on the ends of the two blobs, as new limbs began to sprout into place. And they were doing it much faster than the one whole dragon did it the first time. One of the forms sprouted wings to complete the dragon motif.

---

However, Gail was mostly oblivious to all of this. He found himself going rather lightheaded, as the blood loss sent his heart into overdrive to try to maintain his falling blood pressure. Nonetheless, even through the fog settling into his brain, he could barely make out Chadin asking him about the rockets.

"Uh....I think...there's three left..."

As he said this, Gail slipped the rocket satchel off of his back so Chadin would have an easier time getting to the rounds. With tiredness overcoming him, the wolf started to lean against the railing more, before he slid into a sitting position against one of the posts.

"Anu...thanks for your help...but..." Gail blinked several times, looking exhausted. "Lost a lot of blood. I cut myself bad with a knife once while workin' on Papa's farm, so I know what's comin' next."

He weakly looked back and forth between Anu and Chadin.

"If I go under...could...could you one of you get me out of here?"

[Chadin]

[Yes, yes, sorry for the delay folks. Been a busy weekend... and I got distracted by a weekend binge on Civilization V. Damn thing is addictive. ONTO STORIES!!!]

Mammoth watched in awe as the massive creature literally split in half and reformed itself into two near-identical forms. Mogul couldn't help but find himself fascinated by the creature's regenerative powers. Guided by a higher intelligence, these creatures could become a real force to be reckoned with.

Mogul's musings came to an abrupt end as he realized one of the smaller forms was shambling towards him. Mogul lashed out with his chaos slash, hopefully dispersing the smaller blob into vapour.