[i]Cassidy Lynn Daniels[/i]

Getting a teacher before handling this? Well, admittedly, that hadn't occurred to Cassidy, who even in the most desperate of times generally tended to shy away from getting the help of authority. This, of course, qualified as the most desperate of times, but there didn't appear to be much of a choice-no teachers were stepping up to the plate, and there didn't appear to be anyone noticeably older amongst their ranks. Of course, as the "little girl" had demonstrated, looks were certainly not something that carried much weight at the Academy. Cass continued walking down the hallway, gauging by sound how close they were to the beast.

A few more snide remarks from Lupe, mostly regarding the hat. She took these in stride-literally-and continued onwards to the beast. Ugh. How disgusting. It appeared to be some sort of...wretch, it was certainly unlike anything Cassidy had come across before. Her smirk twisted into a snarl, and she readied herself in a fencer's stance, turning to the side to minimize how much of her was able to be ravaged by the monster at one time. Lupe fired a blast of light at the thing, shearing the hallway with a blinding pink glow-yes, good. That would hopefully knock it off guard a bit, although predators tended to not have the best eyesight anyways. Then Lupe's attack faltered-Cass still stood a few feet ahead of them, hat turning over in her hands. Lupe shouted to Diego for him to take the reins, but nothing came. What? Were the boys powers psychic or something? That didn't seem to mesh with the earlier lightshow...

Grr. No time to figure this out now, damnit. Diego, whether he was paralyzed with fear or his powers were acting up, wasn't doing much. "Lupe, hold your fire!" Cassidy barked, her normal easygoing tone replaced with harsh professionalism. Cassidy began walking calmly towards the monster, forcing the fear down, attempting to contextualize what she was doing. These were just tricks. This was just one big ugly fencer. [i]Don't let him land a touch on you, eh?[/i]

The beast turned, rearing its deformed mass of a skull and beginning to come towards Cassidy.

And that was when the show began.

In the ambient light of her bioluminescent comrades, Cass twirled the hat around and flipped it upside down, reaching inside and throwing out a fistful of doves at the beast. The baseball cap seemed to crumple inwards as four or five of the birds squawked with terrified confusion and fluttered right towards it-this was, of course, not of Cassidy's accord, but given the distance and angle, there wasn't really anywhere else they [i]could[/i] fly. Before the beast had time to register what the fuck had just happened, Cassidy was moving, one hand staying on the jacket draped over her shoulder to keep it from falling off-the jacket was crucial, yes. Completed her look. 

Cass leapt to one side, dodging the beast's angry swipe about a full second in advance-it crushed a few of the birds, and the sole survivor flew off into the darkness, screeching for a moment or two more. If one were to follow the exploits of this dove as opposed to the exploits of Cassidy Lynn Daniels, one would find the bird simply faded away into nothingness within a few moments, but no one was paying very much attention what with the man-eating abomination in the hallway. Cass spun, coming out of the twirl with a dull kitchen knife glittering in her hand. She hurled it at the beast, not expecting it to stick-she was no ace knife thrower, and knife throwing was difficult enough against stationary targets, let alone with the chaos of a fight such as this-but she had several to burn, and the goal was to disorient it long enough for help to arrive. Either it landed and hurt something or it bounced off and confused it a little more-it was of no matter to Cassidy, who fought with a kind of erratic grace. She did not know what she was doing, what she hoped or expected of her endeavors, and therefore her opponents never could, either. 

The beast swung upwards and Cass ducked down, taking a step and sliding under its swiping paw. As she rolled out of the slide, another knife slid out of her sleeve and into her hand. The beast was off-center, having twisted to slash at her. To the girl whose reflexes seemed to dance about two beats ahead of the others, this was her golden opportunity. The knife was not sharp and Cassidy was not strong, but adrenaline did her the courtesy of shutting off her inhibitors. Cass stabbed down with the knife at the other front leg-which was now holding the front half's weight. As she did so, she curled up her other fist, smashing a fistful of salt down onto the wound as she ripped the knife out. Cassidy had once heard of people using rock salt in shotgun shells-she was not a doctor, but this certainly seemed like it would hurt like a motherfucker. She held onto around half to be thrown into the beast's eyes, should push come to shove. Of course, if her fears were accurate, this thing used scent more than it did sight, and all three of them had traces of Titus' blood on their clothes. That thing must've ripped open an artery to paint the walls and floor as red as they were-and yet he still seemed to be alive and kicking,

At this Academy, Cassidy had time to ponder as she darted backwards, perhaps nothing could really be reliably counted on. Cassidy stepped back and narrowly avoided slipping on the hat-she kicked it towards the animal just to clear it out of her way, and moved back towards Lupe and Diego, straddling the middle between the two parties-if the beast rushed, she darts around and begins to harass it from the flank and rear. If it stays back, she can rush in again and keep it from tearing up Titus. They couldn't keep this up forever-Cassidy was feeling a bit of a strain-nothing that would cost the girl her life, but people often underestimated the raw physical toll of heavy fighting. The beast seemed to be doing fine, but she doubted any of them could keep up intense close quarters combat for very long, especially when one factored powers into the mix. Taking shifts, they could last a bit longer, but she didn't count on more than three minutes before one of them slipped up.

Not to mention that Diego's powers-if he was a pyromancer, as his flaming hand would suggest-weren't conducive to team play. If he unloads on the beast, there's a good chance he either flash-burns Titus or ignites the entire damn hallway. Cassidy let her right hand fall to her side and the last of her knives slid into her palm. She dropped it to the floor and kicked it back to Diego, letting it skid across the tile. "Diego," Cassidy said, "If you're able to do so, try heating that thing up. I can distract it and then you shove it inbetween its ribs or somewhere. Don't unload with your fire or we'll all die here."

Standing with her torso facing the wall, Cassidy was able to spare a quick glance at Lupe, her green eyes glittering with the fear-frenzy of battle. She had never been in a situation like this before. It was...terrifying. But some primal aspect of it felt right, and as much as Cassidy wanted to run and flee and hide another part of her wanted to show them the sorts of tricks they'd be talking about for years. [i]Let us see if this beast can survive being sawed in half, eh?[/i] "And that would be a shame, wouldn't it?"