Feeling the pull of the creature's vortex of a maw, Akoni only narrowed his eyes, grit his teeth, and powered through. Thankfully his blow struck true and he managed to tear off a piece of the abyssal's flesh before narrowly escaping. He had succeeded in keeping the thing's attention away from Souta, but they were not yet out of danger. The "librarian" proved that it was a creature of thought, or at least an adaptable one, when it evolved a defense for the attack strategy that Akoni had just utilized. Unfortunately, Mary (now in a form Akoni did not recognize but had no time to theorize about) was now attacking in a similar manner to what he had just done. In response, the monstrous beasts lashed out by firing a volley of projectiles directly at his team mate. 

With nary a second to think, Akoni had to react. He had no way of knowing how durable Mary was, but that beast was truly something to be frightened of. Five barbed spikes shot directly at her, but they would not hit if he had anything to say about it. Akoni opened a set of gates to redirect the spikes harmlessly into the side of the dome, figuring that throwing the attack back at the abyssal would mean nothing based on what he'd seen so far. Unfortunately the distance between them was taxing the maximum range on his gates, and Akoni could only redirect three. Mary would have to deal with the others himself, as unfortunate as it was. 

While he did his best to defend his team, the others were hard at work doing what they could to further damage this creature. Silas had issues of his own, but it was not anything that the old mage could assist in. Meanwhile Midori had managed to take the abyssal by surprise from above and actually caused some real damage. [i][color=dodgerblue]Just as I thought. Stronger than you let on.[/color][/i] Souta put himself in even greater danger than before as he changed where he hung from the great beast, using his weight to open up the librarian's existing wounds to even greater attack for their flying demon companion. [color=teal]”Well, here’s your chance.  I’m gonna drop off in a sec so it doesn’t stab me.  Get going!”[/color]

Akoni immediately dissipated the gates he had used to defend Mary, and threw up a new set. One directly below Souta's hanging feet, and one significantly closer to the ground. That way he wouldn't suffer injury when he dropped. [color=dodgerblue]"You're safe!"[/color] the old man called out. [i][color=dodgerblue]I'll just have to keep working defense and support. I simply don't have the stamina to take any hits from that thing if I get in close.[/color][/i]