The Void Begins

"Look out!" a voice called from one of the Soldiers as Wesley appeared on the ground near the Beast. Or rather, that had been his intent to be near it, but instead, he had Teleported almost directly on top of it.

The Beast itself wasn't overly large, perhaps only ten feet in height. It had a central body mass which rested on the ground, and five heavy tendrils of flesh that came away from its core, almost like tentacles. However, each one of them ended with a humanoid face, and from where the head met the 'neck' a pair of arms emerged.

The arms looked incredibly muscled and once more almost human-like in composition, save for the fact that each of the hands only had two fingers and a thumb. But the call came as Wesley had appeared, and he realized that the Beast was looking directly at him with three of its heads.

"Shit!" he called out loud, the Space Framework still present in his mind, but he wasn't quick enough. He still hadn't really gotten the hang of shifting from one Skill to another on the fly. Perhaps with more time he could get better at it, but right now all he could do was watch the creature shift forward toward him.

"Move, you idiot!" The call came from Sasha, and he saw the woman's hand reach out, and suddenly the space between himself and the creature began to grow, giving him more than enough time to get to his senses and back away from it. "Wesley do not start with this!" the woman demanded.

"Sorry!" he called back, getting his feet back under him as the Beast let out a trio of screams of rage at him from suddenly getting so far out of its range. "Major Ellen sent us to help!" Wesley called over to the other Soldiers that had already been present. "What's the plan?"

The Soldiers weren't much older than their group, and while they weren't nearly as fresh-faced, they also lacked the battle-hardened expression that many of the other, more experienced Soldiers were wearing. "We've mostly just been trying to get in past its guard. With those five heads, it's been a pain in the ass," the man responded. "I'm Trevor, by the way."

"Wesley," Wes responded as he glanced at the fellow, curious on what he could do, but there wasn't a whole lot of time to really put into that. Besides, they weren't the ones who were in charge here. Trevor and his group were the ones who had seniority, and were here first. They had a better understanding of the situation.

Trevor nodded. "So far we've been able to keep about three of those heads busy. If you guys can deal with the other two, then we might have a chance at delivering a real blow to this thing. You have any big hitters? We don't," Trevor spoke, not at all ashamed at the fact that they didn't exactly have anything to do a lot of damage with.

"Something like that. I've got a pretty rare Skill that Major Ellen tells me will work good against them. So if you guys can keep those three heads busy, we can deal with the other two... and then I'll do some real damage here."

Trevor nodded. "Sounds like a plan. You heard him. Let's hope this is the last time!" he roared out toward his group. There was one other male, and three women, and all of them looked exhausted... but there was a new light in their eyes from the help, as if it were somehow moving them to an endpoint.

"Jay, Evie, you two deal with the other two heads," Wesley called out before he moved closer around the group. "Sasha, keep their group protected and Venomtouch when you can. Ted, if you can get us all moving a little quicker and then do what you can for their group to keep their strength up!"

Wesley barked the orders one right after the other, and there was no hesitation from anyone as they began to carry out their assigned tasks. Trevor's group moved in toward the creature, and it brought four of its heads down toward the ground, the hands pressing against the ground and moving almost like a set of four legs, the creature beginning to move quickly toward them as the one remaining aloft head lashed down toward one of the women.

As it did, a sudden barrier sprung into existence and the Beast let out a growl as the two arms on either side of its head slammed against it. "Is this what you call keeping it busy?" Sasha snapped at the group, her hands raised to power the Force Shield.

The Beast pulled its entire head back from the neck, and then shot forward, both firsts from its arms at the ready. The force behind the blow was incredible, and just from seeing it shatter her Force Shield, Wesley was certain that this Beast used a Death Framework. That looked like both High Impact as well as Jay's own Shatterpoint with how effectively it broke that Force Shield.

Still, Sasha had bought them enough time for Trevor's crew to get back and regroup. "Let's not get shown up by the newbies!" Trevor yelled at his group, and they moved as one. Two of the women extended hands outward, and as they did, the ground cracked and broke before the earth surged upward, wrapping around two of its forelegs.

Immediately, Trevor and the other woman moved, and suddenly a set of Force Shields appeared, but rather than seeming to defend against an attack, they were used to pin the things 'legs' down to the ground.

"Shit, I never thought to use it like that," Sasha murmured as she looked on at the others, realizing that there were more options than what one would expect to use their Skills. Even if it was just a simple change, it still suddenly floored her at how little she actually knew about her own Skills.

The last of Trevor's group, the other male, suddenly blitzed forward, moving extremely fast as he shot past the head of the creature, which was still writhing around. It saw him and attempted to move, but the Time Framework man was too quick, and as he set his hands onto the creature's neck, the single head that was up and aloft began to slow to a crawl, barely moving at all with how much it was reduced in speed.

"Nice one, Simon!" Trevor called out, before he looked over to Wesley and the others. "All right, you're up!" he called over toward them, leaving the five new Soldiers rather impressed at the efficiency.

"Go go Mr. Woodhead!" Evie called, and as she danced in excitement, the giant puppet golem appeared near her. It was squatting down, and as she called it into existence, the thing stood and began to move all in one step. It wasn't as tall as the Beast, but the Summon was still enormous, and it approached one of the two legs that was still on the ground. As it did, the head pulled up from the ground, surging toward the puppet.

However, Jay leapt forward in that instant, letting out a roar as he slammed a fist into the side of its face, the whole thing moving awry. "The other heads aren't affected by the slowed acceleration, dude!" he called out as the puppet he was standing next to lumbered forward, bringing both of its oversized hands down in a powerful swing down toward onto the creature's head, before grasping the arms around the bicep, forcing it down.

"How...unfortunate," Ted spoke quietly as he looked on, unable to really directly help, given the circumsstances. However, he still sought to help both sides as best he could, pushing the Acceleration Skill as far as he could take it, even if he began to feel the taxing effect on him for pushing himself so far so quickly.

Jay, under the effects of his own Acceleration (which allowed him to move quite a bit faster than the Skill Theodore could use on him) was already headed back to the fifth and final limb. The head was starting to raise off the ground, but Wesley struck it with a combination of Far and High Impact, causing the creature's head (on that one limb) to snap to the side, and give Jay enough time to grapple it down.

"I'll cover you. Go!" Sasha called out, the woman clearly ready for something to be over here, as it seemed like things were at a very dangerous crossroads. They couldn't really do much damage to the Beast- they didn't have the raw power of a Tier Three or even a Tier Two.

At best they could annoy it and keep it from attacking the others. Maybe if they had a Tier Two, with enough time and effort they could beat it down... but as it stood, they were all Tier Ones. It just wasn't something they could do.

But Wesley had his ace in the hole, the trump card that he had been given. And with the creature pinned down as it was... he wasn't going to miss his chance.

He darted forward, heading right toward that center mass of the creature. He knew it was a Death Framework, and so he would have to deal with it affecting him again... but he didn't have a choice.

This was the first time he'd have virtually unlimited time to work on a living creature, and he didn't know what it would do. The grey, wispy energy wrapped around his hand, and he thrust it forward against the creature's hide.