Your sleep is filled with nightmares of jagged tongues and buzzing wings growing louder and louder. So loud that they drown out all else. Phantom pain stabs through your wing and you jerk awake.

The pain vanishes as you hyperventilate, adrenalin flooding your system. The grey light of dawn is just kissing the sky above you, giving everything a ghostly cast.

The buzzing remains.

You struggle to your feet, eyes adjusting to the dim light. You can feel several of your scabbed over wounds stretch and tear, bleeding anew.

“Mercy!” You whisper, you voice harsh enough to cut though the noise. “Mercy wake up!”

You peer through the morning gloom towards her sleeping form and are horrified to see that the tree she was leant against seems to have half swallowed her, bark and branch wrapping around her and pulling her limbs into the trunk.

You call again, and she begins to stir, but it's too little, too late.

A burnt, pissed off beast is slowly descending through the canopy, wings thrumming a familiar beat. You shrink back. Its eyes, milky, oily white, are faced away from you. Towards Mercy. Mercy, who is attempting to pull away from the tree that has her captive, with little success.

The Tranquil Mosquito's eyes have a certain smokey quality they did not have before, its smell a singed component. The humanoid mouth under its eyes is open wide and it seems to chew at the air before slowly turning towards the little grunts that Mercy was making as she attempted to pull herself from the cloying grip of the tree.

This is your chance, you can still get away from it. It doesn't seem to have been seriously inconvenienced from being set on fire, where as you had been severely weakened.

You start to back away, slinking into the scrub, when the thing's tongue ratcheted out of it's maw and Mercy whimpered.

You pause.

Gods damn it all.

You turn back and watch as the tongue extends, end dripping with yellow slime. Mercy looks to have frozen, her eyes fixed on the knife like tip.

Neither Mercy nor mosquito expected your limp, bedraggled form to crash into its left wing. You pounce in such a way as to kick off with your back legs as you hit, and a nasty cracking noise accompanies the message

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Crippling damage dealt to Left Wing

“How's that for payback?” you crow as the mosquito is forced to land, a full half of its wing torn free. Your heroic acrobatics have definitely aggravated your own injuries however, but your main goal of placing yourself in between the mosquito and Mercy was achieved.

“Red, what the hell are you doing?” came the dryad's frantic cry.

“Buying you time. I'll just respawn anyway.”

“It's not a condition, Red, it's a subtype!” You both pause as you digest this, staring at the freakish creature in front of you. “If it gets you, dying is just the start of it!”

The mosquito makes its move, lunging at you. You dodge backwards, only for the tongue to telescope further than you expected, grazing against your ribs.

“I... really wish you'd said that sooner.” you grunt, batting away another attack with your good forelimb. Mercy doesn't deign to answer as the puss ridden monster in front of you harries your weaker right side, forcing you to stay moving to defend yourself.

“Umph, Red!” Mercy calls, and you realise the creatures ploy – you've moved yourself out of position, and only a thin blast of flame makes the creature recoil enough for you to return to your position in front of Mercy.

Who appears to be...*CENSORED* . She's pulled one arm free from the bark that still holds her other limbs and is furiously *CENSORED* *CENSORED* with her eyes clenched shut.

“Is now really the time?” you yelp, unsure you're seeing straight but equally unsure as to what else you could be seeing.

“Not help- umph – helping, Red.”

“You think?” you yelp again, diving forwards to slam your tiny horns into mosquitoes side. Sensing an opening, you fall back on one of your old tricks – as it teeters, you spin, taking out it's other legs with your tail. The pain brings tears to your eyes, but the gangling insect struggles to right itself without usable wings. The background noise of a woman desperately attempting to *CENSORED* provides a surreal soundtrack to your throbbing pain.

You clear your head and ready another burst of flame when Mercy moans again. “Red, come here. Like, *CENSORED* , right now.”

“Little busy here!” you respond, dodging backwards as the bug finally pulls itself mostly upright again.

“NOW!”

Abandoning your offensive for a moment, you leap backwards towards Mercy's imprisoned form. Mid air, her other arm tears free from the tree, trailing a thin mist of sap-ish blood from splinters still dug into her flesh. Her newly free arm catches you and pulls you to her mouth for a searing, mind numbing kiss.

Not just mind numbing, you realise. You wounds stop hurting as her tongue probes your mouth. Your vastly different forms leave much to be desired, your maw against her lips, but the raw passion is undeniable.

Crippling Wounds Healed

Mercy drops you, panting, and you flair your winglets to slow your fall and direct you back towards the Tranquil Mosquito.

The still crippled, earth bound, Tranquil Mosquito.

You smile, dangerously, showing off your brand new teeth.

With your now restored mobility, it's child's play to dance around the crippled bug, until all that remains is a blackened, smoking husk.

You look up at Mercy, still half enclosed in her wooden prison.

“What the fuck was that?”