Twisting, turning, bucking. Wings rapidly beating a tattoo on the ground, on his arms, in the air. Stinger dripping poison, the fumes themselves choking the air, causing Arthur's eyes to turn red, for his breathing to tighten and himself to wheeze. A kris embedded in the body, threatening to slip out with each juddering movement, sent its own ethereal poison into the creature. Large as it was, the Boss Wasp was fighting it off, though blood, sticky and pale yellow, spilled out from the growing wound.
A nasty stalemate, as Arthur struggled to hold onto the body, one that he might lose. But more worrying was all that happened around him.
Arthur caught a glimpse of it in flashes, as he saw sky, ground, and fleshy body as they thrashed, side-to-side, and he tried not to get stabbed by the massive stinger. Even then, his legs were torn up, the barbed sides of the stinger tearing at exposed flesh and cloth, leaving surface wounds that spilling poison could enter.
No, not a worry except for the battle as dozens of massive wasps took to the air. The shuddering, percussive blast of a shotgun tearing into the sky. Wrong shells loaded though, meant for the monster Arthur clutched tight. The slugs shredded each wasp they hit.
In the meantime, the team was battling the creatures individually, using swords and spears and the occasional arrow from a bow. Lam, keeping them off Casey, his metal spear blocking and striking. The tip of it was a little longer, the head meant to help tear into creatures with a twist, rather than a simple cone like most of their weapons. Better made too, as befitted the Chins. In the meantime, Casey drew and loosed, her brows furrowed with concentration. Each arrow blasted through a wasp, and then curved a little to hit a second and sometimes third.
Not killing blows, but damaging enough that often the creatures would falter, fall to the ground. Forced to crawl towards them, their ire undiminished.
Leia and Eric were in the middle of the clearing, doing their best to try to near them. The pair fought together with casual ease, covering for one another in a display that would have movie producers salivating in the olden days. Even now, they were more like choreographed fighters than scrambling madly for survival like the others. Years of fighting together, of training, and a deep connection kept them from being overwhelmed.
Barely.
Over there, Jan and Mel, backed off fighting near one another. Working together, though neither had the skill or synchronicity of his seniors. Uswah was over by Yao Jing, trying to patch him together, a bubble of shifting darkness wrapping itself around them as it fended off four wasps.
He needed to get back into the fight, but releasing the creature he held was a guarantee of them dying too. Not that he had a choice, moments later, when a sudden and unexpected curl and rotation had the creature pop free, the kris torn out of the wound. It popped free like a seed squeezed from a mango, blood slick as it flopped around and climbed upwards.
Movement lethargic, even as Arthur managed to roll over. He released the attack he'd been holding back, the Boss Wasp too slow to dodge the Refined Exploding Energy Dart this time, the Yin poison having caught up to it. The eruption of energy as the dart struck along its back tore out wings, sent gobs of flesh and dust spiralling outwards, and blinded Arthur due to his proximity.
"Aaargh!" Backwards, backwards, he scrambled on his butt, one hand covering his eye. He desperately tried to blink, to shake his head to reorient himself, to get the ringing to fade away, and failed. A buzzing noise, an impact along his chest. Something digging into the armour around his shoulders, surging pain as flesh was torn and poison seeped in. Then the stinger was withdrawn as he swiped at the air with his kris ineffectually.
Backwards, he scrambled, till a hand gripped the back of his armour. It hauled him to his feet and he halted his attack halfway towards the body, realising it was help.
"Careful!" Rick snarled, stepping back. The bark of his pistols, quieter than the shotgun, erupted around Arthur. Instinctively, Arthur froze, scared to move and get shot. Forcing his eyes open, he began to see around him again, the world a watery haze.
"Kill the Boss!" Arthur said, when he realised that Rick was shooting the wasps around him, not the finally grounded Boss that was struggling forwards. It was healing, he knew it was healing.
"I... have... trouble! Bevkoof" Rick snarled. "You. Do. It!" Then, one last bark of his pistols. "Reloading!"
Instinct had Arthur moving forwards, putting himself between the man and the wasps. He jabbed his kris outwards, catching a wasp as it came forwards with its stinger. Felt the impact of the stinger as it struck his bracer, nearly tearing it off as his own kris ripped along the body. A line of fiery pain coursing along his arm, as he struggled to keep hold of his weapon and swing at the random moving bits.
Even then, he was working on cultivation techniques, kept building the necessary energy for his next attack. Arthur knew what he needed to do, as the Refined Exploding Energy Dart formed at his third eye and he dropped the Heavenly Sage's Mischief and attempted to accelerate his healing.
The Boss had to die, because unless they managed to kill the other wasps or did enough damage that they would expire anyway, the fight would never end. Instead, they needed to kill the one monster that was offering them a boost. At least, Arthur hoped it was an overall boost and not just the natural nature of these mini-bosses.
If not, this was really going to suck.
His eyes began to clear up. The big body, moving and struggling upwards. He swung again, a creature ducking in close, stinging him. It tore at his pauldron, glanced off it just enough that it missed plunging deep inwards. A tap on his left arm and he instinctively stepped away, towards the creature that had tried to sting him.
Moments later, the bark of pistols firing again as Rick let out a series of attacks. The creatures hovering around them fell, and in that moment, Arthur had a chance to focus. He released the Refined Exploding Energy Dart, watched it fly through the air. Only for a wasp to dodge in the way, detonating the attack moments before it could hit the Boss.
Again, dust and bodies and gobs of flesh, even as Arthur felt his eyes finally clear up. He glared, trying to pull at the energy for another attack, knowing he was already running low. Healing himself, the Energy Darts, Cloud Step and all, it was just energy down the drain. He knew he had to be careful, but finishing the fight was more important.
"Cover me!" Arthur snarled, as he ducked low and underneath Rick's line of fire. He dashed forward, keeping close to the ground, spotting the Boss Wasp already rising upwards. Over his head, he could feel the passage of bullets, moments before he slammed into the creature.
Kris plunged into soft, yielding flesh. Stinger entered the foolish, human body.
A lightning bolt of agony coursed through him, nerves on fire as they clenched around the stinger that had managed to find the gap between his ball cup and the bottom of his breastplate. The curved movement of the creature plunged it upwards, tearing open his stomach muscles, pumping poison into him.
His own kris went deep in, angled downward between bulbous eyes. It pierced chitin and flesh, tore into the brain and pumped Yin poison, even as the wavy dagger sawed at skin and flesh. As the wasp retracted its attack, Arthur pulled forwards, tearing the kris downwards towards him, pulling the wasp together.
Face and shoulders battered by weakening wings, he hunched over the creature, shoving with all his strength to push the wasp onto the ground. He fell onto it, bearing it to the floor as his legs gave way, blood pouring from under the armour as his legs gave way to the poison.
Unable to move, Arthur could feel another sting strike him between the shoulder blades, hard pressure bouncing off his armour. Again and again, before it fell, the hard bark of a pistol. The corpse bounced on his body, moving feebly, even as Arthur rolled off the Boss Wasp. It hd stopped moving at last, poison and wounds finally causing it to succumb.
Now, they just had to deal with the rest of the wasps, all of which were still hovering around them, angered even more at the loss of their leader.