The thrum of a bowstring being pulled and loosed filled the air as Casey went to work. It could barely be heard—or not at all—against the boom of Rick's shotgun as he braced himself, stock firmly against his shoulder as he fired at the Roc. A shotgun wasn't the most effective weapon, not at the ranges they needed, but it was slightly more accurate with the slugs than his pistol and were more likely to do effective damage. The Roc's size worked against it in this case, though Rick’s ability to hit it with a tight grouping was significantly degraded compared to Casey.
Of course, once they got close, the shotgun was going to do a lot more damage; which was why he seemed to be taking his time firing, lining up shots rather than slamming shells out. Or perhaps it was because he was running out of ammunition.
Hard to say, and not really Arthur's job.
He only had a few moments to check things over before he was in among the vines once again. He dodged and tore his way through, using the spear he wielded to smack against vines and allowing his body to block the others, letting the vines glance off his armour. The few that managed to get hold of him, he used his greater strength to tear apart before they could get a good hold on him. It was never easy, but so long as he kept moving, kept cutting them apart before enough of them gripped him tight and strung him up, he was safe enough. The razor edges hurt if they found an opening in his armour, but that was the thing about good armour—the razors couldn’t get to him otherwise.
Deeper and deeper he dug in. Unfortunately, the closer he got, the denser the vines waving before him grew. Soon enough, he couldn't even swing his spear properly and cut his way through.
Again, not unexpected.
He released the Refined Exploding Energy Dart and jumped backwards, hopping again as fast as he could to retreat. The outer edge of the explosion still caught him, making his ears ring and his sight darken for a moment before he reoriented himself. At the point of impact though, various vines had been torn apart, many of them blasted away.
A more-than-sufficient gap for him to heave back and throw, sending his spear arcing in to plunge deep into the monster's main body. He left the spear there as he grabbed at his kris and waded right back in, cutting at each of the vines that came in close. He watched as the thrashing vine monster's own movements widened the gap that his spear, still embedded in the body, had created. One of the things about such creatures was that the plants just weren't smart enough to grab and pull weapons out, so it just thrashed around.
The combination of his Refined Exploding Energy Darts, his strength, and his cursed kris was more than sufficient to kill one of the vine creatures. In fact, he was one of the fastest to deal with them; though fast was not something any of them really did, other than Uswah. Plant creatures were just stupidly tough.
The grunts and shouts, the cries of his companions, and the smell of sweet sap filled his senses, roaring into place and then disappearing in between the careful, deep breaths he took. After all, one of the greatest dangers about battles, especially large scale ones like this, was running out of energy and breath at the wrong time. It was too easy to go in all blazing and gas oneself.
So. Breath control, taking a moment to relax muscles when you had a moment, was important. He backed off a little, knowing he needed to catch his breath. Not that far that he was out of range, but enough that the few vines coming at him could be struck and parried with the kris easily.
Already, he could see the way the kris was affecting the vine creature, making it slower, making its thrashing subside. Before he could make his final move, though, a shadow tendril reached up, grabbed and held his spear and pivoted it. The large wound it caused as it tore the spear out made even more sap fall out and caused the nearest still-functioning vines to droop. A moment later, he was catching his spear as the shadow tendril disappeared.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. No need to smash it." Heading away from to tackle the next vine creature in line, knowing that the current plant would die off sooner rather than later even if it tried to chase after them, he started the process all over again. Rush in, utilize a Refined Exploding Energy Dart, tear apart vines till they bunched together, and then finish it off.
All the while, he fell back a little, using his kris to block and defend just to get a view of what was happening elsewhere, to check that everyone was fine.
He caught when the Roc, having gained enough air, did its dive bomb attack. The way Rick and Casey scattered, leaving the creature to grasp at nothing. Except, rather than sweep upwards and flap its wings to rise again, the Roc instead crashed hard enough to throw both of them onto the ground again as the earth itself cracked. Then, as they tried to stand up, the wing flared outwards, knocking Casey to the ground once more and nearly slapping Rick in the face.
Only Lam, rushing in with his spear, kept them from being eviscerated as he threatened the Roc's eyes. Of course, that put him right across its face, and the sudden pecking motion nearly caught him out. As it stood, the spray of blood as his arm was caught by the razor-sharp attack was vivid in the air.
On the other side, the rest of the vine team was doing good work. Jan had shifted targets without asking, going after the creepgrass that was threatening the other team, using her aura to catch them out and then stabbing them to death in short order the moment they curled up. In the meantime, Uswah was doing the most damage, though Arthur knew that wouldn't last. Her shadow techniques used a lot of energy, which meant she would need to fall back and try to recuperate soon enough. Yao Jing, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about that, since his Wood Body was a low-cost approach; for attacks he relied simply on his strength and his parang. It meant Yao Jing was the slowest of the group, but the eight vine plants that formed the ring were less than half active now.
The last team, the ones going after the baby Rocs, were having the hardest time. Even though they were not full grown, each was the size of a horse and had a beak sharp enough to pierce armour if it wasn't blocked right. No surprise then that the pair of spear users—Leia and Eric—were keeping back, harrying the Rocs rather than going for a direct, immediate kill.
The good news was that, of the three smaller rocs, one was trapped. Bad news was, whether it was an instinctive flock behavior or just something they had been told to do, the pair that were free weren't leaving their sibling to be attacked. They clustered close, forcing his seniors to attack around them, stabbing and twisting to keep the birds moving, the squawk of the creatures continuing to ring through the air. Unlike the mother, the babies weren't as versatile in their attacks, not really grasping how to use their wings better.
A portion of Arthur's mind was cursing, wanting to get involved in the main fight. He wanted to be part of the battle against the Mama Roc, against the babies—not the plants. He wanted to plunge his spear in them and act like the big hero. All children dreamed about being the protagonist, the one standing in the middle of a war, the one who held the attention of the big bad. Arthur was the same.
The big difference? He wasn't a child anymore. He had a job taking on the vine plants.
He shifted away from his most recent kill, leaving it for Yao Jing to finish off, and took a moment to assess. His skill set, the techniques he had, was quite wide ranging, allowing him to support in a variety of ways. He could hit at range, get in close, and even maneuver better than most. He couldn't stall people, yet, but he knew he'd learn a technique for that eventually.
It didn't make him good at any one area. But he could spot problems coming while he was pulled back and also deal with the issues as they arose.
Uswah was cultivating, spending the time to pull energy into her core. She was keeping an eye out for the fights too, ready to try to web the Mama Roc if needed. Which was a good thing, because Lam was looking the worse for wear. He was wielding his spear one-armed now, even as Casey and Rick fired at the Roc from either side.
"Web!" Arthur shouted, waving his hand back and forth to get the attention of the team. He moved towards the baby Rocs, knowing that Leia would need to back off to assist Uswah. In the meantime, he shouted again: "Uswah, one attempt. NOW!"
Pulling herself out of the brief moment of cultivation, she concentrated. As the Mama Roc tried to step forward, clawed feet sinking into the earth with ease, a series of shadowy tendrils reached up and grabbed at it. They held the monster still, causing it to stumble and face-plant on the ground, beak slamming into the earth not far from Lam who had thrown himself backwards when he saw the creature falling.
Scrambling back to his feet, the bodyguard threw a quick thrust with his single uninjured arm, the blade scoring a line of blood along the twitching head but missing the eye he had been targeting. On the other side though, Casey didn't miss, her conjured arrow plunging deep within the other eye and causing the monster to thrash about, wings beating against the ground and legs and tearing free of shadow and earth itself.
Spinning around and around, a wing knocked Lam senseless. Thankfully, it missed seeing him vulnerable on the ground. The massive bird, blood pouring out from another wound that exploded with feathers and skin as Rick fired, took to the skies once more. Even if the shotgun shell blasts were doing a ton of damage, the size of the thing meant that it was not dying just yet, even if it shed blood all over the surroundings, causing the group to squint.
"Shit. Boss!" Leia said, skidding to a halt. She was halfway between both groups, looking puzzled as the creature rose up, unable to hit it with her own web system. She was without a effective long-range technique unless she shifted to her less deadly techniques. She hesitated, uncertain of what was best.
Arthur, glancing back, shouted, "Group up! Let it hit you all together."
Then, he had no more time to worry about them, because he was next to Eric and had his own problems to deal with.