[color=#1A1A3B][b][u][h1][sub][sub][sub]Farren[/sub][/sub][/sub][/h1][/u][/b][/color]		    watched intently, keeping the chosen positions of his comrades in mind as he made a point of memorizing the layout–and singular obstacle–of the space. He made some rough intuitive measurements of the space in his head–nothing truly mathematical in precision, but nonetheless useful–and allowed that impression of the spatial dimensions of the alcove imprint itself in his mind. When the chain stopped moving for a time, Farren’s blue eyes narrowed and he lifted one foot from the ground, bending the knee and putting that foot flat against the wall behind him. He didn’t push off it though, instead, he waited quietly alongside the others.

Then the chain moved, all at once, and the sound of something sharp scrabbling or scraping against a surface out of sight reached his ears, followed immediately by a desiccated tangle of long fur, stringy rotten flesh, and white-grey bones hurtling through the air before it slammed down into the center of the alcove.

Farren tensed, then took a single breath even as it snarled viciously in his direction, letting some of that tension ease away despite the obvious threat. His brow half-furrowed, Farren regarded the Darkbeast with a piercing intensity that belied the sinking feeling in his gut, the slowly growing hunger in his stomach, and the tightly leashed fear at the back of his mind.

Several beads of sweat broke out on his countenance, but they were barely notable. Farren regarded the thing as it too sized him up, then he noticed it shifting slightly, not approaching, not tensing–for it barely had any flesh–but perhaps winding up.

Then it moved.

Farren’s hand had already slid down from the hilt of the Effigial Blade to the stock of his blunderbus. Thus, in the moment as it wound up and just barely initiated its swing, the Azure-eyed hunter swung the firearm up and let loose a shot, the sound reverberating off the walls of the alcove. At the same time, his other hand had taken a firmer grip on Fulmen and so at almost the same time as he fired, Farren pushed off the wall with one foot, entering something of a dash. As his first foot came down during the maneuver, Farren had already recovered from the kickback of the gun and hooked it back at his hip. He palmed a silver bullet once that was done, but noticed immediately that the creature’s swing had continued.

Like back at the clinic, things almost seemed to slow down, as if so he could really take in everything going on at once. Farren himself didn’t slow though, instead he leaned into his Hunter’s instincts and quickstepped, first covering 4 meters. As he crossed that space, Farren’s sudden movement dragged the hefty hammer in his right hand somewhat back. He started a swing partway through the motion of his forwards charge. As he came out of the first, he performed a second and as he exited that, Farren’s swing had come into full force. His feet planted, hips twisting to add torque, as he swing as hard as he could so the hammer would hit midway up the forearm of the attacking Darkbeast.

Before Fulmen struck, Farren activated its mechanism, causing the cube to split at its seams and expand, partially exposing the mechanism–though hitting it would have required precision that the Darkbeast wouldn’t have in the moment. What he wondered was if perhaps he could sap some of the energy using the internal part of the coil as he struck the lightning wreathed monstrosity.

He’d know in a moment…and if his strike wasn’t firm enough, he’d also know what it felt like to be sent hurtling across the alcove as the Darkbeast’s arm connected with his body.