Kabuterijerk's muzzle slams into Vixi, but oddly instead of a boneshattering crunch, it's the sound I'd imagine a volvo would make running into every mattress from a mattress factory. It's a sort of soft whumf. Despite something with mass equivalent to a locomotive driving into her at high speed, Vixi somehow manages to only skid back a few dozen feet at first, before bouncing to one side and letting the insectoid monstrosity pass.

Vixi weathered the blow like a champion, but it definitely connected with staggering force. I struggle to move my limbs even the slightest bit. I don't want her dying to protect me. especially when I might be dying anyway. If nothing else, I want her to escape from this thing, alive. Maybe if I can get away from it, she won't fight it on my behalf. I haven't had a friend since, since the incidents. I've kept everyone at arm's distance for a reason. I don't need anyone else dying. It's too hard to even think about the deaths back then, the trauma, the suspicion. I couldn't go through that again. Well, if I even manage to survive for more than another few moments.

Frustrated, I growl at myself, gritting my teeth I fight against every ounce of my own mass. I struggle against the pain as I tear myself skyward in an epically slow fashion. Slowly my arms and abs begin to respond, and I'm able to drag myself to a seated position. The gashes on my palm are oddly no longer bleeding, but my right leg is torn to shreds still, nothing helping with that I'm afraid. I'd only been able to limp away from Vixi in fear, backing away slowly, while barely putting weight on that leg. After taking a spill, I don't think I could put weight on it at all.

Vixi spins, and I'd swear her tail turns to stone as she slams it into the muzzle of Kabuterijerk. Is she a tanuki? They're shapeshifters, right? Like, statues or stones have something to do with them. I'm not very studied in Japanese mythology, lore, and religion, and she certainly sounds like she's from Japan. Actually, I think Tanuki are supposed to be raccoon-like, or something. Isn't there a fox-demon, or foxlike yokai or spirit that also shapeshifts? Kyubi? Nine tailed fox or something like that. Do they also have something to do with shapeshifting into stone?

Ugh, no time to get distracted, she can't keep this up forever. Is, is Kabuterijerk summoning a lightning storm!? What in all the salted earth are these creatures!? Definitely, definitely kaiju. The famous one had radioactive breath. Come on Vixi, just, just get out of there. Crap on a cracker that was close! I gulp as I inch away from the steaming impact crater where lightning just struck near where I'd been laying a moment earlier. I could swear Vixi launched a sheepish glance my way in embarrassment.

Is she embarrassed that I almost got hit? Or embarrassed that she let an attack angle my way? That's a ridiculous thing to be concerned about when fighting something that has to be hundreds of times your own size. I glance around for any sort of advantage I can grant Vixi. The only things I spy at hand for the most part are the numerous rocks and pebbles strewn about the path. I'm not sure what good they would do even if I were fighting fit, in top form, not on death's door. Huffing a sigh, I can only conclude that it's better to try something, anything, than to give in to despair.

I struggle to grip the sharp pebbles and small rocks strewn about the path, and flail them towards the combat helplessly, feebly, ineffectually. Okay, okay, we have a second or two, Vixi is somehow still okay, she dodged a lightning bolt. How you dodge a lightning bolt, I have no idea, but she did. It seems like Kabuterijerk can just keep producing them though. Get it together. Jaku, heh, I like it. Get it together Jaku. My pants are already shredded, let's hope I can just tear them in a horizontal fashion. Okay, two thirds of a pant leg, my over-shirt, and some rocks, and a single long twig. What else do I have? I've got my phone, but even with its hardened rubber protective shell, the screen is shattered beyond recognition from the beating we took earlier.

Can I use this fabric like a sling? Hm, the answer is yes, but my limbs are still feeble, and I've never practiced with one before. My attempts amount to nothing as Vixi gets struck with lightning on my behalf, for the first time. I hastily rub tears from my eyes with my forearm. While I attempt to load several pebbles into the fabric, and spin it like I've seen in movies and videogames, it doesn't seem to launch them with any more force than my overhand fastball. It also seems to provide far less accuracy, though that may specifically be because I hadn't practiced with such a method of propulsion prior to today. Regardless of its possible effectiveness in the hands of a trained warrior, in my hands, a sling is a useless joke, a toy at best. I'd be better served jumping at my target on a broken leg.

Obviously me trying to help the combat is pointless, let's try patching ourselves up and getting out of here. I hastily wrap what fabric I have around my right leg, including around the twig, hoping to maybe offer some semblance of stability. It's not a splint, but it's all I've got.

Maybe, maybe interfering with the combat is not entirely pointless. If Vixi sees that I'm finished, she wouldn't just throw her life away, right? She's fast and strong, she could escape. I, I'll try to distract it once more, with my own body if I have to. I drag myself up the rock face propping me up, and stand weakly on my left leg. As Vixi dodges yet another pass by Kabuterijerk, I thrust myself with all my pitiful might as it passes by. I cling to a portion of its exoskeleton, and the, I guess it's the scapula, of one of its wings. My grip already slackens, my damaged hands barely listening to me. I pound uselessly against this thing's back, its enormity no longer registering as frightening, only as a threat to my friend. Unable to make a dent, I instead try to delimb it of one of its wings, yet fail miserably at that as well. As a last resort, knowing I'll likely be flung wide, I try to snag its wing membrane, in the hopes of tearing it.

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I did it! Sort of. I caused the tiniest tear in its wing before its flapping tossed me like a ragdoll back towards where I'd been propped up moments prior. That whole ordeal, all that effort, and it amounted to scratching Kabuterijerk's back. My blood loss is feeding a migraine, the difference in pressure my head expects versus what it's experiencing is maddeningly painful. I stumble towards the cliff's edge on the eastern side of the path. I gulp as I glance down at the sheer drop, it has to be sixty feet or more. Worse, the only things that might cushion such a fall are the spear-like tops of the short trees that dot the greenery below.

As I struggle against a sudden case of vertigo, I reel back away from the edge, nearly toppling onto my arse once more. I doubt I could even stand again if I took another spill at this point though. I'd better prevent such a thing if I can. Hopefully my having at least moved will sway the fight in some fashion. Preferably towards Vixi fleeing instead of trying to tackle a thirty some odd ton insect. Maybe we can both flee the conflict, and at least get to safety away from it before I pass out from blood loss. I think there might be a convenient location nearby. Crud, what was it though?

I know there's a, what is it, a viaduct? aqueduct? Some sort of old drainage tunnel that's been dry for years. It's somewhere nearby. I think it'd be too small for the kaiju to fit inside. Where would it be though? I glance around, my brain still addled from the series of impacts. I know where I am, think gorramit! Okay, bird's eye view of the park on gmaps, picture it in your mind, you've seen it a million times. I would be about, about, about right there. The brown path stretches through the park, it's this rocky nature trail past Founder's Rock. It ends up winding around north back towards the bike trail that leads through the residential area. There's the whitish grey of old concrete in the satellite images of the park over on the east side. Crap. That's a steep drop from here, and there's no way I could run all the way back to the base of the rise, then all the way back up along the dry canal while this badly hurt, much less while trying to outrun a monster.

Vixi takes another hit, and another, and she's struggling harder and harder to return to standing each time now. She's so brave. I reach for her, and barely flinch back in time to prevent my own arm being taken off by Kabuterijerk's next pass. Vixi rolls to one side, barely dodging the same strike. We exchange glances, a wealth of emotions playing across each of our faces. I couldn't have asked for a better friend to enter my life in my final moments. She deserves better than this.

I beg of her. Staring her down, I plead, "Please, go, save yourself. Please."

She turns her attention towards me and growls with determination, "N-never! That's not what friends are for, Jaku."

Why can't she just realize she's worth saving and surviving? Why would she even spare the time to tell me no? I gulp as it appears that I'm seeing her turn her attention back towards her foe in slow motion. It's almost like the world wants to extend the agony I feel at watching the upcoming disaster. Oh no, no I've just distracted her, no, no no no!

It's happening in slow motion, Kabuterijerk's massive horn is set to impale Vixi. I nearly hurl at the prospect of watching such a thing in slow motion. Frantically I try to scrape through my brain for any idea, any single thing whatsoever. I've got only one unused object left not tied to my body. I grip the only thing left at hand, my broken phone, and feebly toss it towards the fray. I was aiming for the bug's head, instead my phone bounces off of one of its talons, and clonks Vixi on the noggin'. I fume with embarrassment, and rage at my own ineptitude.

I struggle to race closer to Vixi, if I can just shove her even slightly, if somehow I can move faster than molasses in this slowed time, she might live. I don't care if it costs me the remaining few moments of my life. Please, whatever strange dilation that's slowing down time, please just let me move a bit faster. Just slightly faster. All I want to do is push her a few inches, maybe a foot to one side. If any power in the universe can hear me, I'm begging you, let me save her.

Vixi's eyes beam with pride, of all emotions, for some reason. Of all the possible things to be feeling at the moment, why that one?

While time somehow still remains slow, Vixi shouts, "Good idea Jaku!"

I'm, I'm not sure if that was patronizing. Is she trying to make me feel good in our last moments by calling that a good attempt? Is she teasing me with sarcasm? Is she, wait, why are there so many glowing polygons, and ones and zeros? Why does Vixi look like she's stretching towards my phone in spaghettification? Why does it feel like I'm spaghettifying?