Saber

Saber landed, armored feet clanking on the cave ground. The creature seemed stunned for a moment, which would leave them quite open to simply escape. Saber did not want to risk the others in pursuing an attack on the creature further. She felt it wasn't likely that it would follow out of its-

The moment the water hit the dragon, she could tell something was wrong. Her Instinct warned her, she could feel that something terribly wrong had just occurred. And then... she realized what some of the objects in the current of water that had washed over the wyvern. They were eggs. The creature had been defending her next. If Saber had been the type, she would have cursed the fiery skeleton for disturbing the monster in the first place. It was an incredibly stupid, foolish move, and now those in the group who could not withstand the creature's attacks would pay for it.

The blast of fire was still fueled by magic, on some level, and Saber had already began to back away. As such, while the force took her off her feet, her body was unharmed. She still tumbled through the air, before finally finding ground beneath her feet, skidding backwards and casting up streams of dust. Her head snapped towards the others.

"Leave! Now! It will be more interested in recovering its eggs then us, run!"

Saber did not feel this opponent was insurmountable, but there was no reason to risk the lives of the people here. Saber simply hoped no-one was a fool enough to do anything like the skeleton had.

---

Jakuzure Nonon

And there... there was one dead cat... dragon... thing.

"Jeez, that was annoying. And pretty hideous," Nonon said, stretching, "At least the idiots aren't hideous. ... Mostly."

Nonon folded her arms... and then noticed that it was stirring again. Oh, hell, they hadn't killed it? Now it was going to do more noise pollution. and something seemed... seriously wrong this time. Like it was kind of... out of it, and it was bleeding like crazy. Was it going berserk or something? It barely seemed alive anymore... "... Is it a zombie? Jeez, what a cliche!"

And then it turned invisible again. Nonon narrowed her eyes. That was really ticking her off... and then she had barely any time to dodge a volley of spikes. They hissed through the air past her, and then there was another volley. One of them hit, but bounced off of her uniform. Nonon let out an yelp when it hit, all the same. She felt that! Not hard enough to actually do anything dangerous, but it hurt! ... Bastard awful stupid monster!

Nearly growling, Nonon ascended and aimed downwards. Fine, it wanted to be a bastard then she'd rip it a new one! "FINE! How about I just lay waste to your whole fucking forest you rotten pile of garbage?!"

A pink glow ignited around her cannons. She really was going to do it, as long as that girl got the hell out of there already...!

The skeleton climbs out of the crater, unscathed as far as anyone could see. He was however dazed in surprise and from the impact. He stumbles a bit on his feet, and looks up to see the dragon charging at the group. He sighs and shakes his head. He started it, might as well finish it. He didn't care that it was a mother protecting it's eggs, he was going to have to see if he could keep it down til they left, or grab it's eggs and run with them.... But he shook the thought off. Instead he grows in size until he is close to the same size as the wyvern, and slams into it, tackling the giant beast.

Minna

Minna had been around enough Neuroi to recognise that Nonon's ominous glow was a sign of imminent Beam Spam. Which left one problem.

Slinging her machine gun across her back and throttling up her Striker, she pulled herself into a dive, heading for the redhead having a PTSD moment right in the way.

Archer

The knight in red could only stare as the skeleton took the worse possible option, and tried to drive off with the dragon's eggs: if anything was going to endanger the rest of the group, this was it. Nothing that threatened the safety of literally everyone else could be allowed to carry on... unless the perpetrator was offered as a sacrifice to buy everyone else some time. Archer knew two weapons that could be projected to keep Ghost Rider in place long enough that everyone else could get out. One was the favoured weapon of the King of Heroes but such an item functioned best with his particular abilities; Archer simply couldn't replicate the conditions that gave it such utility without time to prepare.

The other, however, wasn't even a Noble Phantasm. It was a weapon known to Church Executioners: the Black Keys. Particularly effective against spiritual entities, the daggers had an additional utility that would prove particular useful against the flaming skeleton: if they struck something's shadow, it was pinned in place. Though it was definitely possible to break free, or to avoid such a fate, it would buy precious time by pinning the idiotic monster in place whilst everyone else left.

Archer rid himself of the twin swords, fading into spirit form to avoid the wave of moisture before reappearing elsewhere in the cave. A bow was once again projected--this time with an altered version of the Church's favoured weaponry put in place, altered to serve better as an arrow but with its fundamental properties intact. The white-haired man didn't stop at one, repeatedly firing over a dozen at the skull's shadow; more than enough to prevent the blonde from shooting each blade out of the air, even if he wanted to deflect arrows that would only hit rock--in the process, attracting the dragon's attention away from the group and towards its eggs.

It was a calculated group of shots: the blonde had shown his unwillingness to allow anything to suffer injury; thus Archer made shots that would spare most of the group, seem harmless... and at the same time rid them of their greatest obstacle. Ghost Rider would be held in place, even if he swerved to avoid missiles that would never hit, and be stuck in place for the mother to play with as everyone else escaped.

"Run!"

---

Nanoha

Nanoha's ability to follow an invisible creature's movements was sorely lacking--but responding to a physical attack was something that gave her no difficulty at all: the experience magical girl threw up a simple protection spell and weathered the assault with minimal difficulty. Trying to pin down a rapidly moving corpse was unpleasant... but she had a good response to such a thing, which wouldn't hurt the civilians that she could spot through the trees: Restrict Lock, a binding spell that could be used to summon magical rings around a target's limbs. Though the dragon cat could break free, it would be slowed by the bind--long enough, hopefully, to let both the other magic-user in the air with her to get in a hit, as well as letting the civilians get away.

Almost immediately after Vash gave the order to aim their attacks at the ceiling, he was rather perplexed to find a rather plain-looking young man casually joining them in the chaotic cave, raising his gun and offering to help. …And then, before he could so much as comment on any of this, Vash nearly had a heart attack as he watched Minato, seemingly without thought or hesitation, shoot himself in the head.

Vash flinched, unable to stop the man in time, and rather shocked that the gunshot came with… breaking glass? Light? He slowly opened his eyes and pulled his arm away from in front of his face, and his jaw dropped at the sight of the newly-summoned warrior in front of him, along with Minato remaining completely unharmed.

Because, why should he assume that people’s bodies respond the same way to guns that they do in his world? Clearly, that’s far too much.

Regardless, with this warrior’s attack, Vash’s plan seemed to become viable, as the cavern walls were already shaking, and he imagined it wouldn’t take much to cause the ceiling to collapse. …However, at almost the same moment, a flash flood came through the cave, painfully dousing the creature. Vash stood his ground as the water came past him, the torrent coming up to his knees. Letting his shoes grip onto the gravel below, he ensured that he would not be swept away as he reached for his gun, seeing the beast’s hunched-up position as an opportunity to cover it in rubble…

…Until, that is, the monster rose up again in anger, bringing the Stampede’s attention to the cause of it all. His heart sank as he became aware of what would change the entire situation in a mere instant. Eggs. The thought echoed in Vash’s mind, as his body remained momentarily frozen in realization of what a horrible mistake they’d all made. This dragon’s a mother!

The wyvern’s horrible howl pulled him out of his trance, as did the sudden danger of even more falling debris. Vash flinched as he felt the sting of the scalding water, his pain being the only thing that brought his eyes away from the dragon in that moment. When he looked back up again, his heart leapt at the sight of the wyvern charging at all of them at an unprecedented speed. Dodging for his life, he dived to the nearby ground and only barely scrambled out of the beast’s way unscathed as Ghost Rider threw himself back into the fight, having grown to a massive size, and tackled the angry dragon, managing to slow her down and hold her back at least slightly. Vash stood by with his heart pounding, slowly pulling himself to his feet as he watched on in awe. He wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to get out of the beast’s way if it weren’t for Ghost Rider slowing her down.

Regardless, he tried desperately to wrack his brain for some sort of answer. The situation was getting more and more chaotic by the minute and the gunman found himself running out of answers fast. Given that, he almost ordered anyone else who hadn’t already thought of it to leave before something terrible happened, but something else caught his eye, and urged him to act. While logical thought would’ve told him that pursuing said option could make the situation much, much worse, Vash could not go against his instincts. Through all the chaos, the rocks falling, cavern shaking and water still sloshing about, Vash caught sight of one of the eggs getting pushed along with the current, dragging it out of its nest and into the flowing water like a piece of driftwood. As the dragon charged and attacked the group, she could no longer shield her nest, allowing one of her unhatched young to float into the dangerous battle ground.

The egg couldn’t get very far before Vash darted from where he stood. The water still capable of pushing him back, Vash leapt onto the rocks and small hills that stood above the liquid’s surface, allowing him to race towards the thing as quickly as possible, running on adrenaline and impulse decisions. He splashed into the water about a foot or two in front of the egg, allowing him to gently catch it as it flowed into his arms. He shot a very nervous look in the dragon’s direction, silently praying to every possible deity that could’ve been listening that his intentions would not be misread. Cradling the egg in his arms, he trudged through the water, back towards the nest, desperately wanting to ensure that he could return the dragon’s young to safety.

As the sound of his fear-filled heart beating almost began to drown out all the chaotic sounds surrounding him, Vash remembered hearing someplace that mother birds will reject their offspring if a person touches it. He could only hope with every fiber of his being that this principle did not apply here.

The action was heavily escalating as the group mounted their counterattack. A flood of water rushed through from somewhere and struck the beast hard; Sazh's lightning bullets put a spin of electric charge to the water, sparking the water with pain. Someone yelled to try and knock the ceiling down on the creature. Some other man confidently strode up, put a gun to head and set it off with a blast of shattering light. Several other explosions rang out, and stalactites and other loose rubble came thundering down, crashing hard and pinning the wyvern. For a moment, that seemed to be it, and Sazh was already motioning for everyone to scuttle out while they had the upper hand.

Then, from the sloshing waves of water, some emerged. Several somethings, in fact, that looked astonishingly like...
Oh. This thing was a she.

The insuring roar and blast of fire mostly drowned out Sazh's panicked yells to "run!" An explosion of heat, fire, and rocks filled the cavern with molten rage, and Sazh was quick to duck and roll under the storm to avoid most of the flying debris. The heat was definitely on, now, in more ways than one. There was no way they were getting out of this one with any semblance of ease anymore.

"Aw, no no no NO NO!" Sazh cried out in horror as the creature threw itself forward at impossible speeds, driving straight for the group of which Sazh was in the back of. He rapidly tried to slow the monster's progress by pelting it with paw spells of sonic winds, but with little avail. A yell from the the skeleton-rider seemed to catch the attention it was asking for, as he transformed himself into some far larger size to try and wrestle the beast head-on! What the hell was going through that thing's mind!? And what in the name of Ragnarok was the spiky-haired kid doing with those eggs?

Saber's command to flee was far better heard than Sazh's. Some people seemed perfectly ready to oblige, but others were far more determined to keep fighting. Before Sazh could choose to depart, though, he noticed Saber refusing to move, apparently determined to face down the beast herself as some suicidal act. On some other ledge, too, Archer seemed to be doing his job, just as determined to distract the wyvern long enough for everyone to escape.

"Hey, hang on, aren't you all coming with?" The pilot rapidly called out to Saber and Archer. He was not the kind of person prepared to leave anybody behind in the same room as an unstoppable force of nature, however able those fighters may be.

Ghost Rider was pinned, but just roars and the whole cave floods with fire, a huge whirlwind of super-hot flame hot enough to melt steel enveloped the dragon. Ghost Rider releases a screaming and hysterical laughter as the rock of the cave starts to soften and drip from the ceiling. "FOOLISH MORTAL. YOU BELIEVE THIS DRAGON IS TRULY A THREAT TO ME? AFTER I'M DONE HERE, I'M COMING FOR YOU, SCUM! I SWEAR BY MEPHISTO'S NAME I WILL INCINERATE YOUR SOUL! RUN NOW, HUMAN. RUN AS FAST AS YOUR LITTLE LEGS WILL CARRY YOU! IF WE MEET AGAIN, ONLY ONE OF US WILL WALK AWAY ALIVE!"

Ba'al kept his attention split between the beast above and the path ahead, a steady look out for footing, since a tumble down the mountain side was not what he needed right now. And of course, there was danger looming ahead as more and more of those bugs flitted about the thing, it's fur puffing up in the process. That didn't indicate good things, if his knowledge of such affairs was anything to go by.

And he was right, as with a roar, the dragon let loose a great burst of electricity in their general direction, forks of lightning twisting and winding in the air, seeking out both him and Sorin. Naturally, like any sane person would do, Ba'al leapt to take cover behind the nearest boulder or corner, rather than be struck by those lightning blasts. To fight the dragon at the top of the mountain would require all his strength, which meant avoiding injury, and it wasn't like there was a Sarcophagus he could heal from.

Having avoided injury beyond rock splinters whizzing past, Ba'al took stock of his options. Retreat was feasible, surely, but that would let the thing rain down lightning on them. They could advance, but he didn't think close quarters combat with a dragon was the best idea. He looked to his Zat, before grimacing and looking over to Sorin instead.

"I will let you handle this," he called. "The design of my weapon makes it...less than effective against a creature that can absorb electricity." This was true. It would also give him the chance to see Sorin's skills, abilities, and how he fought, which would be useful later.

Archer

Further analysing the situation, it was becoming clear that things were spiralling increasingly out of control--and that the flaming skeleton was a much larger threat than the dragon, both in general and right now. The appearance was, for a start, quite blatantly demonic, the fire reflected magical in origin, and now it had grown to utterly monstrous size. The comparison with Rider was increasingly obvious: if they weren't dealt with now, they were all doomed.

The comparison brought to mind another weapon: Harpe, the hooked scythe used to kill the Gorgon herself. An anti-monster divine weapon, it was both extremely relevant to their current opponent and had sufficient reach to be put to use without getting himself crushed by the dragon.

Archer appeared to disappear entirely, changing to spirit form to cross the intervening gap without distracting the dragon from her fight--or let the Ghost Rider know he was approaching. The white-haired man returned to physical existence almost within arms' reach of the fighting.

"--I am the bone of my sword."

The weapon in his hands was a polearm, pure and simple: a hooked edge with its blade pointing towards him, and far weaker in physical power than almost any other weapon he could use, but perfect for this. With a single bone to cut through, it only took one action to pull the blade through the vertebrae. An anti-immortal weapon designed to kill that which would otherwise survive--inflicting wounds that only time and natural recuperation could heal. The flat of the blade was used to knock skull from body as much as possible, and then Archer ran, wanting to get away from the cave whilst the dragon was still occupied with its aggressor.

”You think so?” Whitney asked. Well, maybe they would. The others seemed really strong and they clearly also had experience in fighting for real. The beautiful sky and the fresh air made her feel more hopeful. The dragon monster in the cave started to seem weaker than it had looked in the cave, where it was the only source of light and filled the whole space. It was a bit like Whitney had waked up from nightmare to morning sun, scary memories always felt less scary in the sunlight.

“You all clearly know how to fight for your lives”, she said. “So I guess you’re right.” She hated to admit that others could be better fighters than her even in some cases, but she was able to do so as long as it gave her hope. So she managed to stop crying and wiped her tears. “But I really wanted to win it!” she added suddenly. The trainer really hated losing. Well, there was still hope that her surf attack had took the enemy down.

Firstly the trainer heard a howl, then an explosion. She felt the earth under her shaking slightly. That howl was nothing like anything she had heard before. It didn’t carry a simple will to fight or a will to not give up, nor was it pain, it carried something darker. It made her tremble from fear.

“Did you hear that?” she asked the obvious. “That sounded like it… wants to take someone’s live.”

The great monster benched a stream of lightning at Sorin and the System Lord, though sorin was already quite prepared for this. He had sensed a strong Red mana signature from the creature, and anticipated such an attack. Drawing his sword with supernatural quickness, he parried the bolts of electricity. Rather than being deflected, though, the lightning was consumed by the Parasite Blade, sucked intothe void of its shape.

The System Lord scrambled for cover behind a rock, and pleaded Sorin to take care of the monster himself. Sorin's only response was to look at him with an expression half a smile and half a sneer. So this was his game, was it? Sorin knew better than to think the man a coward, but two could play at this.

"Very well, System Lord, I will save your frail skin from this overgrown bugaboo." He said, not taking his eyes off of said bugaboo, "Watch and take note of why only the worthy should venture beyond their own Plane."

Sorin summoned a few minions to distract the monstrr while he continued to charge his spell. Strafing away from the cliff face, Black mana coalesced into the forms of three nondescript, identical vampires. Each hissed and drew their own blades, before rushing at the beast in ravenous fury. They would each grow stronger as they sucked the blood from the monster, though they were not particularly strong to begin with.

Rather than deplete, the mass of mana building in Sorin's free hand grew larger. Evidently, the presence of his Black summons was more closely attuning the area around him to Black mana, allowing the spell to charge more quickly. Perhaps a Red spell would have been more easily cast in such an environment, but Sorin left that sort of thing to the unthinking savages and devils that Red mana bore.

After hitting the rock the summoned Persona would vanish.

Minato watched as the events unfolded in silence. Apparently his plan of making that rock fall on the dragon worked successfully...however it wasn't enough. He sighed annoyed as the dragon started flying around, apparently fighting that thing wasn't that necessary. As he heard Saber's words he nodded his head right away, the mother would indeed be more worried about its eggs, well then, running it is.

The same flaming skull from before came back once more...and it was fighting the dragon, Minato facepalmed right away with a disgusted look and shaking his head negativelly, he reminded him of his friend Junpei, impulsive and always heading straight to the danger unecessarily, a potencial threat...which was just finished by that guy in red...that was quick. Minato glared at Archer and everyone else stunned. Who were those people? They weren't someone he would like to mess with, that's for sure, but for now he needed to escape. He needed speed, and he was sure his legs wouldn't work that much, he might have been in a track team in the past, but he had just awakened from being a freaking seal, so he wasn't at best shape. He couldn't summon personas like that but apparently he didn't have any choice, once more he pressed his evoker against his head and pulled the trigger.-"Suzaku!"-He called out and after the glass shattering noises once more, another persona was summoned, this time it was a vermillion bird, it looked like a giant peacock. Minato quickly got on its back and before starting to fly in search of an exit.-"Anyone would like a ride?"-He asked the strangers.

Pain returned before senses and smell returned before sight. Jammed between a boulder and a cliff, Twitch's bracer was pressing uncomfortably into his chest, his arm stuck awkwardly under his body. A bruise pinched familiarly on his tail. Beyond that and his mood, the rat was unharmed. Wiggle, wiggle; Air began flowing into Twitch's nose again, sorting itself into scents. Too few scents. There was ozone, long familiar from Zaun's risky technological endeavors, giving for the briefest instant the illusion that he was still where he remembered. His eyes started wildly open when it wore off, the boulder pressing intimately close to his face. There was a "Hu-hoh" vocalisation of shock as he began to squirm. Odours continued to pour into his head. Rock dust, predominantly. A similarity, vague, far away, to the trees of Summoner's Rift. Thin air. A still-dispersing whiff, weird and distinct, like a broken Nexus, like rifts from a Void champion. That trace of distortion was ominous above all else. Only dimensional faults ever left something like that.

Lack of room was never an obstacle to Twitch's movement and it didn't prove to be now. Wiggling his spine, pressing against the rock, he rose upwards, but not far. Tight spaces could be reckoned, monitored. Open air less so. Foreign open air not at all. Twitch ran his fingers over his kit, sensing his quivers, his flasks, his bow. He was safe, it seemed, only because his weaponry had absorbed an impact; Countless bolts were broken or missing, mostly his prized piercing ammo. Plenty of sharp and noxious objects presumably lying at the bottom of the crevasse, useless to him. The sight of a shattered poison vial on his crossbow incited a growl equally disdainful and furious. Killing someone now would be immensely satisfying. At least his adhesive flasks remained intact for that purpose.

There was nothing left to do but emerge. Deftly reassembling his bow, he nocked one of his deadlier bolts, desiring nothing more than to impale the first thing he encountered. As he crawled upwards, his phobia of being caught without buckets of ammunition tapped him on the shoulder, whispered gently how imprudent he was being with his limited supplies. His anger overcame his caution.

Twitch's head poked out of the stone, momentarily taking in the vast, godforsaken blight of a mountainside, the bright light of the sun, the distant woods. The glance was cut short by a streak of electricity blazing nearby, exploding in his ears, leaving a fresh wisp of ozone. Twitch's head darted back, watching upwards, waiting to shoot into the face of anything looking down. Nothing came. Straining his ears as soon as they stopped ringing, he tried to identify sounds. The breeze was against him, but... The League quickly teaches its champions what a battle sounds like.

Adrenaline flowed. Hopping momentarily from his shelter, Twitch watched for the sound, saw three men drawing swords at a glowing cloud too bright for his unaccustomed eyes to distinguish. It had indistinct feet and a tail and a hum of electricity and a million insect wings.

"Cut out that awful light!" Screamed Twitch to the heavens, firing the toxic weapon somewhere into the center of the cloud.

Agnès and Alice

Agnès continued to jump, but she was getting exausted from those leaps. If I don't find someone, I will be lost forever., she thought. On her last leap, she could see something in the sky. Possibly it's the dragon that was roaring a moment ago. If I keep this pace, I might be able to reach it!, she thought and continued to jump. It was getting closer and closer to her as she finally noticed that it was moving towards her direction. She got back to the ground, breathed a little and did a higher jump than the ones she was doing.

"Huh?!", she exclaimed as she saw that it was another girl. "What the-?!", Alice was surprised as well. Agnès came down and Alice followed her, being followed by five dolls, each one armed with a sword. When Agnès looked at her back, Alice was staring her seriously. "W-Wait! I am not here to hurt you!", Agnès said, nervous. "Oh really? And why should I believe in that? A girl comes in my direction, and all that she says is 'I'm not here to hurt you'? Sorry, I'm not falling.", Alice said. Agnès saw that the puppetmaster standing in her front wasn't going to talk a way out. "If that is how is going to be, then I will fight you and prove my innocence!", she responded.

BGM: That Person's Name Is

"That's all that I wanted to hear! Dolls, after her!", Alice ordered. The five dolls charged at her, spinning like saws being shot at someone. Agnès defended their attacks and then, with a single slash, she defeated the dolls. However, they exploded and sent her a few meters away. Those dolls are little warriors and bombs at the same time. I have to be cautious., Agnès thought. As soon as she ended thinking, Alice threw a doll at her. Agnès jumped high, out of Alice's sight. "W-Where did she go?!", Alice said. She had to quickly graze as Agnès came down, trying to slash her. The battle between them was just starting.

Morito didn't seem concerned at all by the charging Nargacuga, instead he was much more focused on Nonon's threat to level the entire forest out of irritation with the panther-dragon's attacks. The red-headed martial arts girl was still here pinned to a tree and judging by the fact that she was meowing like a cat Morito doubted that she would be evacuating in a sensible fashion any time soon. In that case the battle had become a much more urgent matter as irritating as that was. If the veteran mercenary knew anything about arrogant power-wielding girls, it was that they had a tendency towards being dangerous.

I guess it can't be helped then. I was really hoping to save these things for something more important but those damn kids up there have forced my hand early...

Morito dropped one of the razor spikes he was holding and slipped his now free hand into his pocket. He focused sharply on the Nargacuga with his Echolocation Skill as it approached and took out a pair of what looked like slips of paper with odd, indecipherable writing scribbled onto them, dropping one onto the ground just behind his feet. After that he kept waiting up until the very last second, when the Nargacuga's razor tail was just about to connect and shred him. He suddenly stepped back onto the paper slip and it responded by crackling with a sudden energy as a circle of arcane writing formed around it.

As Morito pushed off of it he accelerated forward with enough speed and force to rip an ordinary person apart, dashing from right in the tailswipe's path to directly beneath it's body in an instant. Still moving with inhuman speed he focused his ELS more and more, trying to pinpoint the beating of the panther-dragon's heart. As soon as he did so he took the second page and stabbed upward through it, directly underneath the Nargacuga's heart. The same ring of symbols formed around the second paper and as it was pierced it magnified the action and thrust it outwards in a lance of stabbing force hopefully aimed directly at the invisible beast's vitals.

Morito's momentum carried him out from underneath the panther-dragon and back into the cover of the underbrush, though he had to move quickly to avoid smashing into a tree. Hopefully that attack would be enough. After all, he was getting too old for this.

The Cavern

Taking its rage out on the thing that grew in size and therefore priority, the Gravios gored the giant supernatural humanoid after Archer severed the skull with an immortal slaying weapon. With the slack from the severing of life, the thing's body was unceremoniously tossed with a powerful shake of the dragon's neck muscle to impale itself upon the giant stalactites looming up above like fangs made of earth. A giant foot stepped on the skull of the Ghost Rider that was still guttering out from its spot on the floor and then hellfire and bone turned into ashes and powdered calcium in just half a second of intense pressure. Turning its attention to its nest, it found that one of the two legs had actually placed the unborn babies back where it was. For a moment, the heavyset wyvern stared at Vash the Stampede with glowing eyes before snorting and lumbering back towards the nest. The rest of the distractions were gone and now that things were quiet, the beast wasn't quite in such a bad mood. That wasn't to say that it was all that okay with the man still staying there for long, if the gimlet eye focusing on the man in red was taken into account.

Those who had dashed outside of the caves found them quite a bit farther up on a different part of the mountains that the other exploratory groups were on, and that the air was a bit thinner and colder up this high. Luckily, no other dragons were around this part of the structure given the proximity to the mother Gravios' territory. That wasn't to say that there wasn't company though, as what looked like a bipedal feline armed with exploratory gear was busy watching them with curious blue eyes sitting up on a higher and somewhat flat outcropping that jutted from the mountainside. The sentient cat creature was rather cute and had an intelligent and scholarly air that was tempered with the natural inquisitiveness of most feline. "Myah, are you Hunters looking for the Elder Dragonyao?" Judging by the gear set up around it, the cat was a cartographer as was evidenced by the various inks and feather quills as well as maps that were ranging about. Climbing gear could also be evidenced as well as a small pack of personal supplies lying nearby. Then the cat's ears perked up as a distant sound of wood snapping could be heard. "Hmmyah?"

The Forest

The now rather undead-looking beast snarled in frustration as it found its limbs bound by pink restraints, straining mightily with its great muscles. Then, a great beam of sonic energies crashed down into the forest and began churning foliage and trees into mulch and matchsticks. As the trail of destruction meandered towards the Nargacuga's way and destroying more of the forest, the thing finally broke free... only to take a mystically enhanced spike through its body that punched through its ribs, pulped its heart, and then tore out the other side of its body to leave behind a gaping hole. Then the great beam struck after the hit and run attack to put down the thing for good as its remaining life was quashed down by the powerful sound attack.

In the aftermath of such a move, a thundering stampede could be heard as lots of herbivores began to flee away from the destruction in droves... and several big somethings began crashing through the tree towards their direction. They were still a ways off, but judging by the sound of the charge, there were quite a few predators interested in the new hunter on the block. Of course, by now Ranma was so deep in the Neko-ken that the area around her had turned into fine sawdust and wood shavings via air claws that could shred even water for a brief moment. Freed from her restraints, the momentarily pigtailed person turned mental cat then began bounding through the trees and upwards the mountain in great leaps as a red blur, intent on getting away from the loud noises.

The Mountain Trail

Inside a cloud of Lightning Bugs that trailed sparks of power between each other now and then, the great lupine monster began to drank in the charge once more and stood its ground, fur swelling up from the gleaned energies as it protruded forth like azure spikes. As the lesser vampires charged it at speeds higher than it was accustomed to, the beast found itself momentarily disheveled as they clung to it and attempted to hack and bite him. Of course, this being a monster that was hopped up on electricity at the moment, this meant that the hungry things simply allowed the voltage to better permeate their body and strike inside them, boiling their insides and blood with their metal implements. Though the distraction proved enough to distract the thing for a poisoned bolt to hit a particularly soft spot between its right fore paw, the bolt lodging in between the webbing of two individual digits, causing it to howl at the unexpected pain.

This proved to be sufficient motivation for the beast to start taking things seriously and it ordered its insect minions to suddenly flare themselves as an impromptu flashbang to hopefully surprise its prey enough for it to get close. Then the thing jumped from its perch and targeted the two below it with its massive front limbs that were strong enough to crater the ground from such a height. It had been followed by the cloud of insects too, churning the air and providing quite a bit of static as energy hypercharged their area with the presence of the lightning bugs.

Saber

The King of Knights lowerered her sword. The dragon had been placated for the moment, the blonde-haired man's return of her eggs to the nest seemed to have given her a momentary pause. There was no reason to risk the lives of the others be re-engaging the creature. Saber turned to face any who still remained in the cavern. "We must leave. Now."

With that, she began to swiftly make her way out of the cave. The creature, she was certain, would not pursue. She was too concerned with her eggs to continue attacking those who had exited the cave, Saber guessed. She would not want to leave them unprotected. The blonde girl turned to face the cave exit, then paused and glanced over her shoulder. Was... that... a cat person? It was kind of... Saber had not expected to see some kind of cat person out of no-where. They were... oddly cute... Saber found herself staring for several moments, before she swiftly refocused, turning to face the cave once more.

Saber needed to ensure that everyone made it out alive. With... the exception of the flaming skeleton. He had... seemed intent on not killing just the dragon, but everyone in the cave as well. Archer's choice, while sudden... had been the right one, in this case.

---

Jakuzure Nonon

The light faded from Nonon's cannons. While there was still plenty of intact forest, she had wrought a rather impressive path of destruction to the creature before it hit. Hmph. Good, that ugly thing was down permanently and now it was no problem. It wouldn't be polluting the air with that awful noise any longer! Or attacking people, that too. Still... had something hit the monster before she finished it off? There was a lot going on, so it was hard to tell, but Nonon though she saw something explode out of its back... Well, figuring out what that was could wait.

"Good thing that's dead," she commented, relaxing a bit for a moment, "It was so ugly I think I would've gotten a headache if I looked at it any longer."

And then... oh, great. There was more noise. A whole bunch of big things running away... and then even bigger things approaching. Well that was just brilliant. Now they had to deal with more stupid, annoying monsters... and the redhead who now thought she was a cat was running away. Well, one thing at a time. All the things sounded like they were coming from one direction... so Nonon didn't have to think for too long to figure out what she was going to do when they showed up.

Ba'al accepted the response from the Sorin, still ceding that the vampire had more use and capability in this situation than he. "I would point out that the Viewer brought me. The most I have attempted is simple time travel," he called back, before settling to watch with his Zat held out for self defense. Not that it might be able to do much, but it was better than nothing.

So he watched as Sorin summoned minions for himself, vampires that went charging in to their deaths with hisses and drawn swords, dealing some damage before they were quickly dispatched. And then all of a sudden, as a distraction, a...mole, thing, emerged from the ground some distance away, firing a weapon towards the dragon and scoring a hit in the process.

Then there was a sudden flash bang, insects seemingly self destructing to blind him. Fortunately, his symbiote allowed himself to be healed of that rapidly enough, and his eyes followed the beast a sit rose up and began to come down. At them. With giant limbs. Naturally, Ba'al scrambled away, trusting that Sorin could see it for himself and react accordingly. He jumped down to another level, away from the impact zone, and fired at the cloud of bugs that churned around it, to see what happened. Either they would absorb it, or it would overload them, or even killing them like it was supposed to. The only way to know was to try with a few well placed bolts

"I know so." Nobuo said to Whitney. He noticed her cry some more. He looked to her. "I wasn't always a good fighter. None of my team weren't at the time." Nobuo recalled the first time he and two women became Akibarangers and their hardships in being a Sentai, let alone being an unofficial one. "But we were able to improve ourselves and become stronger." He recalled several times where he and his teammates came out on top: The time he summoned the real DekaRed to aid his fight, the time Mitsuki helped them out of their drunken stupor by quoting Boukenger, and the time Yumeria's mother came to help them during their battle. He placed his hands on Whitney's shoulders.

"I know that you'll be a good fighter as well." Nobuo heard the roar too, breaking him out of his "act like how a classic Red leader would act" moment. Whitney followed up with the comment that the dragon wants to take someone's life. He had the choice of bringing Whitney back to the fray or leaving her here and going back for the others. Of course, there's the choice of just waiting out, but that's not very heroic of him, he thought.

However, several people ran out of the caves, though at a different part of the cave than the way they entered. Something must have happened.

"Hey, Whitney, you wanna come with me or do you want to stay for a bit?" Nobuo asked.

Distracted even from the task of returning a dragon egg to its nest, Vash’s head spun around instantly as he heard Archer’s polearm snap the Ghost Rider’s head off — the gunman almost flinching at the sound. He watched on in shock and horror as the dragon effortlessly tossed the skeleton to the ground, crushing the remains as his flames were quickly extinguished. Face quickly shifting from one of shock to one of seething anger, Vash’s sharp eyes locked onto Archer as the killer ran out of the cave. He just couldn’t believe it. The thought that Archer would not only murder a sentient being but to murder a teammate — one whose size allowed them to hold back the massive beast that could’ve otherwise crushed any one of them. No way he would let Archer just walk away from the whole thing that easily. Vash turned, ready to chase after the man…

…Until the enormous dragon brought its gaze down onto the small outlaw, and Vash suddenly remembered what he’d been doing a moment ago. So suddenly that it almost seemed to startle him, as he nearly jumped when he glanced back down at the egg under his hand. Humbled by the creature’s presence, Vash’s rage subsided — at least for the moment — as he carefully secured the egg in its nest, the water that had doused the cave now almost completely gone. He then pulled his hands away from the nest slowly and carefully, cautious as to not make any sudden, potentially threatening moves that could enrage the beast again. Given everything that had happened, and what a dangerous position he was in, Vash felt incredibly relieved that the mother dragon seemed fairly calm — and not over-protective of a stranger’s hand on her young, as the wyvern seemed to understand his intentions. “Eheheh, good luck with the kids, ma’am!” Vash spoke nervously, shooting the wyvern an awkward smile as he moved towards the cave exit — first with a slow, calm walk, then gaining speed as he distanced himself more and more from the nest and the mother dragon, hastily scurrying out into the daylight.

Vash squinted as the sudden difference in light hit his eyes, and he quickly pushed his shades up further along the bridge of his nose in response. Glancing around the cave entrance, Vash needed a moment to re-orientate himself with everything going on — taking inventory of everyone in the group, making sure everyone had either successfully made it out of the cave or was following quickly behind, ensuring that no one else had been lost, and, speaking of which — especially confronting Archer about what had happened…

But he was distracted from all of this by the sight of a mountain-climbing feline explorer.

Vash tried not to let himself get too caught up by the idea of a talking, bipedal cat — stranger things had happened in this world already, after all — and instead tried to answer the cat’s question. “Well, actually, we were just-” But then he cut himself off as he became aware of something that, in all the chaos, he had not once considered since they met the wyvern. …We got the wrong dragon. He sighed. “Actually, yes, I think we are.” he answered. “That is, assuming he’s the ‘legendary dragon’ we were looking for. I don’t suppose you could help us locate him?” he asked, burying his emotions towards Archer for long enough at least to give the feline a friendly smile as he spoke.