Desperation

The Beast in front of him was a powerful, monstrous creature that was nearly two stories in height, with a body that was twice that long. The whole of its body was like an oval, without much in the way of definition aside from its sand-colored hide. Four powerful limbs came down from approximately where front and hind quarters would be, the flesh a deep orange, ending in four claws on each of its 'feet.' But the creature had no neck, and no head, as the only thing resembling such was a slit that ran up the entire length of its body, and when that opened, the creature's mouth was visible.

A mouth that was almost as wide as the creature was long, with what appeared to be thousands of teeth within that gaping maw. And worse yet, as they had seen with Shannon, the top part of its jaw could also unhinge to go sideways, forming into another mouth altogether.

Wesley frowned as he took a step backward away from the creature even as it roared, seeking to take a healthy bite out of him, it seemed. However as it charged forward, he rolled out his shoulder, not fleeing away from it- at least not yet. The Distance Skill wasn't active any longer as he wasn't rushing toward it, and he once more felt the sudden rush of acting on his instincts as he threw his right arm forward, using that same long-distance strike that he'd done just a moment ago, copying Andrew.

The beast gave a loud growling whine in response, but this time it had been far more prepared for it, and so it showed virtually no sign of pain as it stepped forward once before that step turned into a bounding lunge, and it brought one of its claws down toward Wes' position faster than he had expected it to.

However, as the claw came down, it slammed against a sudden Force Shield that had appeared over it, and he saw Sasha's hands extended outward, forming that shield in the moments betwen his life and death, it seemed, and he turned, beginning to scramble away from the creature.

"Dude!" he heard his brother call, the Acceleration making Jay's movements exceedingly fast, almost as if one was watching someone in fast-forward. He moved quickly over the ground before leaping upward and with all of the power in his arm, snapped his fist forward, sending the beast's head- or rather, what would have been its head- to the side, and as soon as it snapped, John was on the other side to strike it again, sending it back the other way, the pair of blows sending it stumbling back and forth for a moment.

As Jay landed, he grabbed ahold of Wes and lifted him, even as Wes contracted the Space between the two of them and a nearby building and with Jay's Accelerated movement, they were behind the building in seconds, the pair of them panting. "Dude. What the hell was that?" Jay asked, looking at him, frowning. "You got some sort of Space Framework now?" At that, Jay paused for a moment, his eyes widening. "The firebird. You weren't trying to Restore it at all."

Wes shook his head. "It was already dead. So it didn't really matter what I tried," he spoke. "Granted, now I'm going to have to explain it to the other group."

"Don't have to explain shit. They don't have to know what you can do or what Skills you have or whatever. Leave them guessing," Jay spoke, and Wes blinked. He hadn't really thought of that. It wasn't like you had to share your Skills with any of the other students. It helped within your own team, sure. "So you think you can beat this thing's head in, or what?"

"I have no idea," Wes said, giving his brother a small, almost embarrassed smile. "The idea was to buy time for the more experienced Soldiers to arrive and we haven't seen them yet. With all of us working together we can probably keep beating this thing down, but if we make one mistake, someone's going to get hurt really badly, like Shannon did."

He glanced over his shoulder where the Beast let out another one of those shrieking cries, and Wesley winced slightly at the sound of it, before he looked at his brother. "What do you think? Are you damaging it at all or is it just kind of ignoring everything?"

Jay grunted. "I can't tell, dude. It seems like we're doing a number on it and it seems hurt, but then it's just back to trying to bite us in half or smash us with those big damn claws." He exhaled. "I know there are a lot of Soldiers that are just Tier One that handle these things. I just don't know how. Maybe luck?"

"Maybe they don't and they just hold out until it gets bored and leaves," Wes commented with a small smile, one that was full of bitter frustration. "How is John doing out there? He's their Tier Two, right?"

At the mention of John, his brother stood, rolling out his shoulder as if he were looking to get right back out there and start swinging. "He's good at what he does and he's honestly doing most of the damage on it. But even still, I don't think we're making any headway, dude."

Wesley swallowed as he too stood up, and watched as the creature let out a roar, aiming to smash Mr. Woodhead into the ground, but before he could, John teleported the puppet back away, leaving the ground broken and damaged under the foot of the Beast as it gave another annoyed sound. The constant teleporting seemed to sincerely be getting on its nerves, and Wesley was thankful that the Beast didn't have any way to stop that.

He shifted then around the building, before he glanced at Jay. "You think I should try?" he asked, holding up a hand that was faintly surrounded by that grey aura. "It might weaken it enough for us to do some real damage."

"I think we should go for it, dude. I'd rather the other crew ask questions that you ain't gotta answer and we all live, rather than we die trying to keep a secret," the man spoke, glancing at his brother. "You get where I'm coming from?" he asked, and Wes nodded.

"Yeah. I hear you. All right. I guess if I've got some Space Framework... I should be able to do a Teleport too with my Elemental Emulation skill." He didn't really know if it worked that way, but so far nothing else had been forbidden from him. "So I'll get close... and then try it. We'll see what happens after that."

Jay nodded. "All right dude. Let's see what moves you got," he called, giving his brother a grin before he sprinted out toward where the Beast was, tearing across the ground to get there. The Acceleration skill made his movements incredibly fast and in a blink, he was already gone.

Now alone, Wes could feel his heart hammering in his chest. Jay was right, of course, but Jay wasn't the one who had to deal with all the repercussions of using the Devour Energy Skill. Jay was able to just sit back and watch if things started to fall apart around his brother.

Wes frowned, but he knew they didn't have much choice, if what Jay was saying was true. If this thing was just ignoring whatever was being thrown at it, then maybe what he could do was the only way that they could actually make some real progress. However, as he shifted to come out around to the building, his eyes widened as he saw John struggling with one of the creature's claws. The tips were digging into his side, and Jay was currently protected by one of the Force Shields as one was coming down on top of him, but it was beginning to rapidly lose its opacity, and they knew from experience that meant it was running out of defensive power.

He didn't have any time to lose. They were already in a bad way. He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly before he focused on just doing what he wanted. Ignoring the needs of the many to focus on the few. That was how the Space Framework generally worked as he acclimated his mind to it, before he willed imself forward. He didn't know how the Teleport Skill felt to be initiated- even if he knew what the process was like.

There was a briefest stutter, teleporting only a few inches forward before he tried again, getting a bit further. He could hear John's painful cries, but it wasn't until the Force Shield broke and the claw came down onto his brother that Wes launched forward, the Teleportation skill taking him rocketing forward, further and farther than any of the previously had.

Wesley blinked, as his reality finally caught up with where he was. He looked over, seeing that he was eye-level with the window of a building before he realized that he was standing on top of the Beast. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing its maw split at the shoulder, and his eyes widened as the enormous mouth was suddenly right in front of him.

"Oh shit."