Location | The Ruined City
Time | Febuary 23rd - Morning
Interaction | Notes Various Rear Guard Squadmates; Lysandra @Force and Fury
The Sword heard them before they showed. Before they spilled out onto the street that the team was on. The desperation in their run, footsteps like raindrops on aged and cracking tarmac. He felt the sudden rise in his system, his heart. If his mask were off, one could probably see something of an uncomfortable smile on Ajax’s face.
Fresh meat. Was what the voice in the back of his head whispered to him. Though the problem lied in the question that came with it; did it mean the Lost approaching…or his teammates?
Regardless of the mental tug of war, Ajax pulled his trusty jian from its place. The mission was of prime importance, and the plan was key to success. That made him eye their position in relation to the front team. The gap between them was perfectly split by a parking deck’s entrance, and right on cue, some Lost out like a dam had cracked. Taking into account the types of Lost they were getting, the Sword’s eyes narrowed.
”Remember the plan! Push forward to keep ranks!”At least, those were his thoughts expressed in a command initially. Lysandra had predicted a herd to be hitting this area previously, but it was meant to be in a half-hour. Clearly, she may not have accounted for the lurking ones. The ones that could smell fresh humans— something they surely hadn’t had in quite a while. Ajax growled under his breath, as the developing mist from Poppy’s bomb made thrm difficult to number. If they continued at this rate, more would hear the commotion and come, then they’d have to break to keep the humans safe. They had severely limited stamina, even with how trained they were.
Ajax needed to act quickly, but he needed a vantage point to prioritize where the concentrations were. Turning his head to the side, he caught an alleyway. It surely looked like a dead end, the walls between three buildings being the clear barrier. To Ajax, it looked like a quick way up as he studied the sturdy enough looking fire escape of a rundown apartment building. Returning his jian to its sheath, Ajax eyed the others briefly as they sprung into action. He measured it out, and despite the infernals, they should last just long enough…
With that, he begrudgingly but swiftly broke formation to slip into the alley. Making a break for the back wall, his canter broke into a gallop, and from a gallop to a sprint. Calculating the angles he wanted, Ajax started a diagonal wall-run. With clearly well practiced posture, he maintained his momentum to keep him on an upward incline. Eyeing the fire escape one more time to confirm its sturdiness and his landing target, his view flickered to the rapidly approaching back wall. Propelling himself forward, Ajax flicked the curved knife hidden in his jacket sleeve to latch into the back wall. He only took half a second to brace before spring-boarding himself backwards and off. Contorting his body to turn around, his free arm extended to the railing of the fire escape.
His gloved hand crashing into and gripping the railing, he got about four-fifths of the way up the five story structure. It took no time to get up the rest, and once on top of the rundown structure, he jogged to the edge to survey the situation. So far, there hadn’t seemed to be anymore exiting the parking deck, making this seem to be the group as a whole. He could estimate roughly 25 in all, a small group really, but the tentacles and infernals were the main threats. The Forward team seemed to be managing alright, on that front, thus, he focused on his own team.
The ranged infernal, while clearly disrupting Vincent’s advancement, it would keep its distance. His focus on that left open the other, as the purple shield was closing the distance with more thralls in tow. Thus Ajax ran forward and dove off of the edge of the building he was standing on. Timing his landing to be just as the Shielded infernal passed, the Sword used one of the thralls to break his fall, landing between them.
With his boomerang knife still in hand, he spun downward into a wushu cross stance, ducking an attack from one of the thrall’s rudimentary axe. He used the brief spin from the cross stance to generate just enough power for him to throw the knife ahead. While it flew off for the unsuspecting Shield infernal, Ajax unsheathed his jian again to make short work of the four thralls in his vicinity.
From his lowered position, he uncrossed his legs and swept One with a dragon tail. Using the momentum from that spin, he brought his jian up through a Second, slicing the torso diagonally in half with little effort. The Third tried at Ajax again with the axe, but the attack was sidestepped and redirected with one hand into the lunging Fourth.
All the while, the knife sent by the Sword arched into a slash across the back of the Shielded’s back. Clearly wounded a bit, the creature turned its head to look back at Ajax. When it did, it saw the knife caught by Ajax, who smoothly jabbed it into the Third. Roaring his way, it turned around and barreled for him. Ajax repositioned his blade for battle, but that was when he noticed Dallas go down, beneath a tentacled Lost. What was more, his eye caught the glow of another going for Desmond and Lys’ position further back. It looked like the poetic dance of Sword versus Shield would have to be cut short as priority immediately shifted. Turning around, he cocked back his arm and tossed the knife again.
Once done, Ajax sprinted for the Shielded directly. When close enough, he jumped to vault over it, kicking into a sideswipe to clear the purple shield barrier. Once clear though, Ajax kept running past it, to some of the infernal’s slight confusion but it turned to give chase though. Ajax slightly altered the course of his run just slightly as he noticed Dallas suddenly get up, given some aid by drones near his location. Then an explosion came from ahead. It seemed she put up a fight, given the bits that resulted weren’t human, but one of them wasn’t dead yet.
Looking over his shoulder, as expected, the Shield followed after him. Deciding to take advantage of it, Ajax slowed with a jump and tucked his legs. As it cut the chase, the shield glowed once more and made contact with Ajax’s feet, launching him further away. When the Shield infernal briefly stopped after being used, Ajax’s boomerang knife returned, slicing clear through the heart and exploding out of the chest.
Airborne now, Ajax extended his limbs to slow his arch just a bit, his coat flailing like a cap around his form. As he started descending, he flipped his jian backward. Just when it seemed Wheels time had run out, Ajax suddenly crashed down on the tentacled creature. Clearly caught off guard, it tried to writhe free but the sword of the Sword came down hard.
After ensuring the job was done, Ajax looked over at the brains of their operation stuck in a crack in the ground. There was something of a scoff that came from him as he walked nearer. Planting his sword into the ground for the moment, he took hold of Lysandra’s chair, jostling the wheel up and out.
”I thought you trained to have a leg up on those kinds of obstacles…” He commented, handing over her keyboard.