damned_institute | NIGHT 65: ROAD TO DOYLETON

Entry tags:

flora,
lloyd

NIGHT 65: ROAD TO DOYLETON

_{[From here]}

This wasn't get any easier.

The hurting voices in Flora's mind never quieted, and every time she took a step she was fighting the urge to try again, for all the good it would do. She knew that she had to keep going and had no intention of stopping or giving up, it was just hard, wanting to help and normally being able to, only to lose it, suddenly. It was bad enough for herself, but when others suffered it just made things a lot worse.

'Just keep one foot in front of the other, Flora. You'll fix this soon.' She wished that she'd been able to transform. "Soon" would have been a lot faster coming; they could have already been at Lee's village by now if she'd been able to teleport.

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The lack of even a yelp when those two attacks landed was unnerving, but Lloyd didn't have much time to think about it before the monster was on the move again. It took him way too long to recover from the momentum of his own missed attack, his movement sluggish as he turned, and again the thought rang through his head that he shouldn't be this tired. He was too late even to do anything to help before the tailypo was on Flora.

"No!"

He lunged again, almost the same time as Lee, and this time he went for the tailypo's neck, and nevermind that it brought him too close to the monster's teeth, he needed to get its attention off of Flora now. He couldn't tell how badly she'd been hurt.

Pain exploded along two places on the creature's spine, almost at once. Its head tipped back, teeth gnashing, and then it started bucking, trying to shake the pain out of its bones. Blood poured from the wound on its neck. It took a few steps, still twitching and bucking, towards the woods, and then turned around. The humans had hurt it, but they were still its best chance for a meal. One of them was bleeding too.

The one with the single, gleaming claw had done the most damage -- it fixed its eyes on the hand holding the dagger, and licked its lips. Then it approached, this time more slowly.

After landing the hit, the shinobi quickly drew back, careful to keep his arm fully tucked behind him even as she staggered back onto his feet.

Lee wondered if maybe this time it was retreated for real, but it turned back again, going for the third member of their party. Lee was getting tired of this game. He was also just plain tired. Lee would offer another attack, but he was already exhausted. He didn't know if he had any more steam left in his arsenal. Unless...

Lee closed his eyes for a moment, drawing on his last reserves of chakra. He pushed the mixture of energy into his brain, breaking through The Gate of Opening. Already his body was reacting, his nervous system shutting down the pain receptors and allowing him freedom to use his body as he pleased without holding back. It was a dangerous move, but it was his last card to play here.

Lee's battled-oriented mind spun through his options, and the best he found was not pleasant, though necessary. Removing his injured arm from his back, he found he was able to move it without pain although he heard the bone crack. As he thought. The best move would be to aim with this arm, however, rather than pulling muscles and breaking bones in other areas of his body. That in mind, he raced for the beast, hoping on beating it to Lloyd. With all his might, he swung with his elbow out, intending to lay the monster down with a hit to the side of the head. With any luck, he'd manage to snap its neck. Then they could put the thing out of its misery.

She's had just about enough of this. "Summer Thunder!" Flora called for vines to restrict the monster, but they weren't rising. Her spell didn't work! "Wh-What?" Her blood ran cold in that instant, but she didn't have time to think about it. The creature was injured, but still able to stand on its feet and was headed for Lloyd, who was having a hard time standing on his own. Its movements were slower, but that might change at any instant.

Her head darted towards Lee who'd begun to run right for it. He looked like he was going to try something. If he was going for the monster itself, then it would be her job to keep it from Lloyd.

Her pounded in her chest, and she hoped. 'Please let this work.' As much as she wanted to run for Lloyd if it didn't, all of them being so close to it as they were was just not a smart play. Flora raised her hands and reached deep inside, trying to break past whatever was holding her power at bay and cried out. Winter Rose!" But it made no difference. The earth remain undisturbed, none of her briars appeared. Oh no! No. No, not again! "Lloyd!"

Their attacks had all hit, and the monster was definitely in pain. Even its movements seemed to have slowed down. Lloyd felt his spirits lifting up. They could do this. They had a chance. They just needed to keep going and finish this before the monster had a chance to recover. Throwing caution to the wind, he lunged right at the beast, knife slashing at its throat once more to finish the job he'd started.

It never crossed his mind that with him closing the distance so quickly, there was no way for Flora or Lee to be fast enough to reach the tailypo before him.

A blow to the head, and the darkness that was usually such a friend to the institute's creatures became overwhelming. The tailypo staggered, and collapsed. It could hear the humans, especially the glowy one, shouting, but no light appeared. Its limbs flailed out, claws aimlessly scrabbling at the air. One of them caught it on the neck -- or was that the human. It gnashed its teeth without opening its eyes; it was losing strength rapidly, and needed food now more than ever.

If he'd had his swords, there wouldn't have been any problem with what Lloyd had done just then. With a dagger, though, his reach was so short, but he wasn't used to taking that into account. On top of that he was already exhausted. Exhaustion led to mistakes.

Lloyd realized all this a moment too late, the moment after his dagger struck home and the tailypo, thrashing desperately on the ground, raked its claws right across Lloyd's ribs and the top of his left arm. He stumbled, far too tired to catch his balance, and he went down as a cry of pain tore from his throat. It was all he could do not to fall right into the monster's claws - but he still hit the ground hard.

This monster was much more sturdy then Lee ever would have given it credit for when he had first seen it. Lesson learned. Learned too late.

Even with the great effort Lee had put in, the tailypo had kept at it. With Lloyd closing the distance and Flora seeming unable to procure more power, there was little the shinobi could do as he attempted to regain his balance. His arm's now very obvious pain was draining away the work the Gate of Openings had given him. His power was like lifeblood leaking from a torn vein.

Flora's scream broke through at last, and Lee looked up just in time to see Lloyd hit the ground. Unthinking, and drawing on the very last of his strength, Lee let out a cry as he rushed forward and threw out a kick at the tailypo's shoulder, intending to knock the beast away from their fallen comrade. He wasn't sure how much fight it had left in it, but by the way it was flailing he didn't think it could put up much of a fight against even that kind of a kick.

Then Lee slumped down to his knees beside Lloyd. He was shaking and, judging from the limpness of his right arm, his shoulder had dislocated with the elbow drop his had landed moments before. This... wasn't good.

There have been few times in Flora's where she's felt helpless exactly like this. It wasn't something she needed to think about, it was staring her right in the face. Lloyd had taken an attack directly to his chest, and Lee was all but down next to him. She should have been able to stop it, but she couldn't.

Even if the monster was down, it wasn't out, and if she didn't do anything, her friends would die. Think, think, think. She couldn't fall to panic, especially not now, for all that her heart thundered in her chest, but she was running out of options. Her last spells hadn't worked, but she still had power--she could feel it. She'd just have to stick with what she knew she had. It wasn't much, but it would hopefully be enough.

It would have to be enough!

She took off at a short sprint and threw herself at the ground, hands first, before launching herself into the air. With a sharp twist of her body, she aimed both hands at the monster's neck, and shouted as she fell towards it, furious.

"AUTUMN WIND!"

Flora never broke her glare at it as she tried to fire her bolt, point blank. She was determined, angry, but not nearly as powerful as she's used to. It didn't matter. Death would be dealt. Either by her, or this monster, but one way, or another, this would be over soon.

Blows battered the tailypo, but it didn't stop thrashing. That was, at least, until a blast of wind hit its spine. Bones shattered, and all of its limbs collapsed immediately. Its mouth bit at the air a few times, and then its head, too, settled into the dust.

Lloyd was down, and in pain, but not out. Weak and exhausted as he was, he still tried to push himself up off the ground, unwilling to just lie there when any moment the monster could attack him again.

But then it was over. It almost didn't register, the realization sluggishly sinking in past the pain and shock. On his knees, still gripping the knife in his hand, Lloyd stared at the body of the beast. It took several seconds before he could really believe that it wasn't going to move again. That realization brought a wave of relief that made his shoulders slump.

"Is... is everyone all right?" He turned to look at the others, to gauge how bad off they really were. Blood dripped from his arm and ribs, but he barely noticed, somehow feeling too numb to even register the injuries.

Lee rested on his left hand and knees, unable to look up for several minutes as he caught his breath. His right arm hung limply, cracking every now and then. He hardly recognized the pain. Too much of his mind was centered on breathing, and what was left of it was desperately trying to force him to look up and check on his friends.

He heard a voice from somewhere to his side and attempted to focus on that. Lloyd. Right, Lloyd was hurt and very close. It was probably him.

"Fine," Lee coughed weakly, moving to sit back on his heels. He blinked up, trying to focus on his comrades. Flora and Lloyd blurred before him, over-correcting before finally settling into focus. "'m fine. Are you...?"

Flora had to touch the downed beast for an instant to flip to her feet. She eyed it warily, feet set as she waited for it to get back up again, but it didn't. It was dead.

She allowed herself a small sigh and loosened, a little. Relief threatened to crash over her, but it was still too soon for that.

"I'm alright." She remembered her wound, forgotten in the rush of the fight and adrenaline. Even so, bloody as was, aching as it was, it wasn't of as much consequence, not compared to what her friends had suffered.

"But you two are in rough shape, we need to get you some help." Flora looked them both over in utter concern, taking in what she could see. She was no stranger to fights, not even a stranger to getting through them by the skin of her teeth, but this was still something different. Flora held her hand out and tried to concentrate. Bandages, ointment, herbs, flowers, she tried to will or shift these things and more into existence, but nothing appeared. Helplessness tore at her. Even after everything was said and done, she couldn't take of things as she was used to.

"How bad are you both?"

She didn't want to have to be the one to bring it up. She wanted to let them rest as much as they wanted. They'd earned it, they needed it, but they couldn't stay here for too long. They should be so lucky to run into one and only creature out here, and alongside that, there was nothing out here to treat wounds. Forward or back, they'd have to press on. "Where do we go from here?"

That same question was running through Lloyd's head right now. No matter how the others tried to hide it, it was obvious they were injured. If they went back, there wasn't any guarantee they would make it out again as easily as they had this time. If they went forward, though, who knew what else they would run into before they could find someplace safe to rest? Who knew how close the nearest town even was? He was torn. He didn't want to go back. But...

"Let's... bandage ourselves up first," he said, trying to put the decision off a little longer. "We can't go anywhere like this. I have my dagger. I can cut my shirt into strips." It wasn't sanitary or ideal, but they didn't have much choice at the moment. Gripping his dagger, he didn't wait before setting to work. Whatever they did, they needed to move fast before they were found by something else.

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NIGHT 65: ROAD TO DOYLETON

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[so sorry for the delay!]

[no problem - also, turn skipping with permission from the others]

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