Despite her appearance, Claire was a kind, gentle, and caring person who felt deeply for those around her and disliked violence. She was personal and thoughtful in her advice, spoke gently to all but her closest friends, and always had the concerns and interests of others in mind. When she rounded the corner and saw David squaring off with the boss, wing drooping uselessly against the ground, she was terrified. When she saw Dallas’ body broken on the ground and oozing greenish ichor on the pavement the terror she felt stomped that caring, lovable, gentle side of herself into a box and locked the lid before it ignited into something else entirely that straddled the line between unthinking fury and concentrated murder.

David felt the pavement under his feet begin to shake as Claire hit her top speed in record time, her jaws open wide as an unceasing roar of fury poured out of her and he felt an unnatural invigoration fill his body while the pain in his wing receded slightly. The Crusher hunched with pain and whirled to face the new challenger, yellow foam speckled with dots of dark blood and a foul brown ichor collecting at the corners of its jaws. It surged forward, ignoring David in favor of the new, larger threat, unhinging its jaw as it shrieked weirdly and returned her challenge.

“DALLAS! GET UP!” David shrieked as he ran awkwardly towards the fallen insect while the boss pounded away to attack Claire.

He reached the man in seconds and realized instantly there was some hope. David jumped, his head snapping down to the fallen insect as he slammed out an Echolocation, seeing the full extent of the damage but also the slow healing beginning to knit him back together. His chitinous plating was strong, but there wasn’t much protection it could have provided against the crushing weight of the Boss. He was broken, his body curled and twitching as ichor seeped from his mouth, joints, and segments of his body to pool thickly below him on the asphalt. David sat there for a few heartbeats, curiously blank at the sight as he refused to accept reality, reaching down with a trembling talon to gently touch the fallen man. He didn’t know what to do, and he felt lost and angry as the fluid continued to slowly seep from the body, staining his wings green as he rested a limb on the shattered chitin.

“Why?! You were supposed to wait until Claire got here, I could have held it off with Screech for a few more seconds!” He shouted numbly as he watched the thick blood slowly drip from his talons, “We talked about it, you knew the plan! Why did you do it?”

“...because…fuck that…thing…” Dallas gasped out, “I..can’t see…go fucking kill it…think I’ll make it…more important than me.”

He snarled impotently, screaming at Dallas not to move, and flared his wings open as hard as he could, the faint sucking pop within his shoulder as it was forced back into place passing unnoticed as he lifted off.

“You better fucking make it ASSHOLE!” David screamed loudly enough to activate Screech as he powered away through the air.

–You have taken 4 Damage–

–You are no longer afflicted by |Slow|–

He wheeled in the air, coming in low to the ground and heading into the fight again as Claire and the Area Boss savaged each other in the street, trading blow for blow uncaringly while they spilled off the road onto the sidewalk. Her armored hide was torn, and one of the plates had been peeled away from her back, bright red blood oozing down her flank as she seized one of its legs when it swiped at her. The Crusher screamed in pain as Claire shut her eyes tightly and crunched down, viciously ripping into the beast's limb before it bulled into her, using its armored shell as a battering ram and knocking her back. She hissed threateningly and crouched low, her jaws open and bloody as she began to circle the Boss before it finally began to feel the effects of the toxins building up in its body.

It lunged forward, its huge rodentlike teeth descending like a trap slamming shut and catching only air, the surprise visible on its face as its pupils began to dilate and its motions became stilted and awkward. Claire seized the advantage, surging forward with a snarl and using her armored skull like a sledgehammer, swinging her head up into the side of the Crusher and smashing it sideways through a light pole, the metal shrieking in protest as it collided with the side of a nearby building. A sharp whistling cry sounded above them and Kai entered the battle, hurtling through the air and following up Claire’s hammer blow with one of his own, pounding the boss's head into the ground while it recovered.

The wind tugged at David’s mane and flattened his ears to his head, his fangs bared in a feral snarl as he landed to the left of Claire, waiting just long enough for Kai to slam his beak into the creature’s eye and pluck it out before he began to inhale again. Claire shot him a glance and took a step back to give him room as Kai lifted off frantically and the boss began to thrash and scream, its claws tearing huge chunks out of the brick of the nearest building, red dust and rubble pouring down on it. David focused his attack forward again, sprinting into range as he exhaled, the Screech washing over the feral monster and causing tiny cracks to appear in the weakened building next to it.

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–Health: 96/165–

–Stamina: 244/390–

–n/a—

It surged out of the rubble to face them as Kai landed on Claire’s right side, wings flared threateningly while the Boss emerged and David hopped away quickly, hissing and snarling at it. The Area Boss eyed them blearily, a large amount of pus and blood beginning to pour from the single wound Dallas had left on the back of its neck as the venom rotted it internally, its body spasming as it began to fully lose control of its senses. It hunkered down in the rubble, its remaining eye failing to remain fixed onto any of them as its gaze slowly traced random patterns through the air before it struck out with its wounded limb, overbalancing slightly as it scooped the debris of the crumbling wall behind it to the side.

“Where’s Dallas?!” Kai shouted over the grinding of the debris as the boss extricated itself slowly.

“He ran in! It fucking got him, he’s barely alive!” David screamed furiously as he pounded the Crusher with another Screech, “It happened too fast!”

Kai’s eyes went cold and Claire made a noise somewhere between an angry diesel engine and a sob before she surged forward rapidly in total silence. Kai squawked in surprise, nearly bowled over by her sudden charge as she rushed in.

“KILL YOU!” She roared furiously as she seized the debilitated creature by the leg.

Muscles rippled and bulged in her neck and she widened her stance before she heaved, hauling the creature out of the rubble and dragging it with her as she turned, tossing it back into the road with a herculean effort. She sagged momentarily as blood rushed to her head and her jaws hung limply open, a dozen teeth shattered or missing from her maw. The Boss landed heavily on its side, injured limb pinned beneath it as it struggled to right itself. Kai was on its unprotected belly in a flash, sharpened wings flailing heedlessly into the soft flesh.

David pounced immediately after, slamming Nocturnal Strikes into the underbelly of the creature as Claire recovered slowly. A deluge of hot blood covered both him and Kai as flesh parted and fat was torn away, thick chunks of gore splattering both their bodies and the ground around them while the Crusher screamed a high-pitched rattling scream and fruitlessly struggled, its body refusing to obey it’s commands as the damage piled up and its nervous system was ravaged by the poisoned bait. David crammed his head into a hole in its belly and blasted out a screech as his talons rent and slashed, and the boss began to wail in agony.

–Health: 126/165–

–Stamina: 277/390–

–n/a–

Claire reentered the battle with a vengeance, delivering a titanic kick to the creature’s belly and flipping it as easily as someone might kick over a trash can, the Crusher unable to mount any resistance. David felt a Talon tear free of his wing and barely registered the pain as he shook his head to clear the viscera from his eyes.

–You have taken 6 Damage–

Claire straddled the Boss, pinning it with a single foot as it struggled weakly against her weight, looking up at her piteously with its single remaining eye when she reared her head back and cranked her jaws open before lunging for its neck. Her jaws clamped shut with a noise unlike anything David had ever heard before, and she strained hard, wounds reopening with the effort as she breathed heavily and slowly began to pull. The Crusher’s eyes bulged, and both Kai and David jumped clear in awe as she twisted her body violently and tore the head free of its body, the terrible venom Dallas had injected earlier weakening the flesh greatly.

She shook its severed head like a dog with its favorite toy, rotting flesh flying free of the neck in stinking brown clumps before she leaned back and swallowed it whole, bellowing in victory as David and Kai cheered with her.

–Area Boss Slain!–

–Quest: Buried Secrets complete!–

–Received: Fusion Token–

–Territory Challenge System Unlocked–

–SysAutogen_BossLoot–

–Received: Apical Mutagen C: Assert your dominance, add bonus effects to Abilities dictated by Ability Type. [Control: Drain a small percentage of Enemy Health and Stamina] [Offense: Sunders a percentage of Enemy Defenses] –

–Gained 800xp!–