It was almost cute, in a way, had she not been on the receiving end of its wrathful anger. Mei had no choice but to back the hell up, under the assault of the Lagavulin. Its sharp legs were crafted like blades, able to slice apart many things; this included Dave’s kinetic rounds, which were virtually useless against the beast. The bits of shrapnel clattered against its outer shell, in a chorus of tinks, chinks, clinks, and Dave’s disappointment.

“I’m disappointed,” said Dave, throwing the empty weapon behind him with the help of his armored exoskeleton. He subsequently reached into a small container on his back, retrieving a comically large custom built light machine gun. Instead of performing the logical option of mounting the thing on a bipod, he whipped out a SECOND one, mounting both on his shoulders.

“I call this little number: [Stand Proud]!” epic jojo reference

Inundated with gunfire, the massive shelled creature could only try desperately to crawl out of the way, giving up entirely on slashing the individual bullets apart. It was simply infeasible to strike so many at once, especially that they were of higher velocity and caliber. Despite the hardness of its exterior, the bullets began chipping its sturdy armor, some even embedding themselves into the surface.

It was frankly astonishing to watch someone mount two machine guns on themselves and fire them without even touching them, and then cementing dominance by striking a heroic pose. The casings spilled across the ground, burying Dave’s alloyed boots in waves of gunpowder traces and discarded metal.

Unfortunately, the Lagavulin was not so appreciative of his incredible feat of engineering. The evidence for this conclusion lay in its response: a screech of defiance, and a multi-legged charge with intent to kill. Not even dual bullet hoses served to deter its unfaltering advance. Backlit by the occasional lightning bolt, thunder rolled over the intersection as the four faced down the mega-size mollusk.

“Damn. I would say I needed to pull out the big guns, but I already did and it’s not working.”

Vola channels [Aspect of Destruction]!

The wind and rain retreated for a moment, split and scattered by Vola’s awakening. Wisp was awed.

“Oh my goodness gracious don’t tell me you’ve been holding back.”

“You think I was trying my best? Against those walking trash bins?”

With a powerful dash, he slammed the Lagavulin, withstanding its maniac rage and picking up the entire thing. The beast flailed around its legs in an effort to find its footing, eventually hooking its sharp limbs into the nearest building and scaling the side with incredible agility. However, without the threat of imminent death bearing down on his head, Dave was free to continue suppressing the accursed monster, eliciting a horrible screech.

“Its shell has to give eventually. Cover me Vola. Try not to get hit.”

“If all it took was a gun to do me in, I would’ve been dead years ago.”

For once Wisp was glad he wasn’t fighting. It would suck balls if he had to run in and be chopped up a million times to do any meaningful damage. In comparison, Mei was a lot more eager.

“I’m going in too! I just got this power, and I wanna make use of it!”

Wisp glanced at the slick wet asphalt, watching the water slough off of windows and chipped concrete walls, the tinkling of bullet casings freshly ejected, the dust and grime flung everywhere by the battle between Beast and Berserker, and he gave Mei a stern

“Are you serious? You’re gonna get bisected! Or at minimum a literal victim of friendly fire.”

She raised a hand and waved away his concerns, sparkling in anticipation of getting to experience the combat high typical of overeager warriors.

“I’ll be fine! I can deploy my stand kind of far from me. Like ten meters at most.”

“I’ve never seen you do that when you fight.”

“It kind of gets weaker really fast past five meters.”

“And you want to fight THAT thing? Without being at full strength?”

“Shut up. Just watch me.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Unlike before, she actually needed to concentrate to summon her stand fully. Energetic gales drew arcs and swirls around rain drops, soul forming into a humanoid torso, head, and muscular arms. Even as it began to float away from its host, the claws seemed to be no less deadly, or merciful. The Lagavulin, who nearly grew accustomed to holding off two opponents at once, was not prepared in the least when a new foe tried to hack off its back legs from behind. So the mollusk was on its toes once again, dancing around fist and nail.

“I appreciate the effort, Mei, but it’s not leaving much more than dents in the limbs.”

“That thing is tougher than it looks, okay?”

Despite the group’s less than stellar relationship, the shelled insect was adequately cornered and caged. By itself, it could not defend against multiple attackers at once. Vola’s small stature belied the incredible strength of her punches, each successful strike leaving a small web of cracks on its otherwise reasonably intact surface. At the same time, Dave and Mei buzzed around it like annoying flies, scraping away at its defense. The monster would surely tire before its opponents did.

The Lagavulin possessed enough intelligence, at least, to grasp that it needed to change up its game. In an instant it changed its mind and scuttled backwards in an attempt to snatch away a moment of peace.

Lagavulin is preparing something…

Vola grinned, taking this opportunity to pummel the thing, even as it sunk its legs into the ground to anchor itself, slashing at her with one free arm.

“What’re you trying to do, huh? You think that’ll save you? Or did you accept your fate as a punching bag?”

Dave stopped firing for a moment to give his weapons a chance to vent their heat into the rain and fog.

“Crack that thing from the back, Vola. Can’t risk friendly fire, and it's hard to maximize DPS when you’re standing in the way.”

“Who cares? It’s hopeless. Damn thing already dug itself halfway into the floor like its trying to get away. You know, like those little guys on the beach!”

“Sand crabs from the beach are a bit more different than this big guy, I think. Plus I’m pretty sure they’re extinct, like most of the species on Earth since the Superstorm came into our lives.”

Mei was beginning to breathe more heavily now, little clouds of white dissipating into the wind and rain as she struggled to maintain her stand’s power output continuously at range. Slowly her knees began to buckle, clothes soaked through without anything to protect her from the elements. In the shivering cold, [Feline Fine] struggled to crack the surface of the shell at any reasonable pace.

“Fuck, this is tiring. Hey, idea, maybe you could help, Wisp. Better than standing around and watching.”

“How??? I don’t exactly have weapons or anything. I don’t really fight often, you know.”

“I don’t know, go ask Dave. He has guns, maybe he can give you a spare.”

“Dave?”

“Don’t get lost in the backpack. Trust me, you’ll be trapped there for ages.”

Wisp didn’t quite understand what he meant until he raised his hands and opened Dave’s gun pack, left on the ground behind its owner while he continued to hose down the Lagavulin with ruthless efficiency. Immediately, gadgets of all kinds burst from the rucksack, sliding across the wet asphalt. A comically long railgun of some kind had to be pulled out manually, as various little spheres began to roll away, free of containment. Pistols and grenades, wrenches and handsaws, blowtorches and flamethrowers, weapons and tools and fun little bits of all kinds.

He would’ve loved having enough time to comb through it all, to test each one with the utmost attention and care, to explore the depths of Dave’s storage. Shame.

Lagavulin targets Vola…

Lagavulin casts [Siphon Soul]!

“Dang, Dave, I didn’t know you were this loaded. Hey Vola, you should see this, you could use a gun and not even have to go into melee range! It would be an easy win.”

“I… tired. Hurts…”

“Vola? Vola?!”

He wasn’t sure why, but Vola felt magnitudes weaker all of a sudden. The destructive energies coursing through his veins, encasing his arms, all of it was dispelled in an instant. Knees scraped the ground, palms on the earth, his lungs devoid of breath. Skin pale, chest empty.

If the Lagavulin could grin, it would’ve. Only Mei’s quick response saved Vola from a quick death, cleaved in twain by the beast’s scythelike legs, carried away by Mei's stand. Unfortunately, [Feline Fine] gave up the ghost soon after, its form dissolving and returning to its owner. Mei did her best to project it around her own body, but her lack of endurance meant it flickered constantly, floundering in a vain attempt to maintain its lustrous physical body.

“Shit, shit, shit, Vola’s down, and I don’t think I can fight it alone. Wisp, I hope you’ve found a gun, cause I think you’re gonna have to support Dave right now.”

Wisp was still rifling through the giant pile of weapons, trying different ones, anything that could halt its slow and steady advance towards the delirious Vola, still lying on the ground after being saved, and Mei, trying to put up a fight in her weakened state. Dave likewise tried emptying as many magazines as possible to arrest its advance, but that only earned him its ire.

Lagavulin targets Dave…

Lagavulin casts [Siphon Soul]!

The monster turned to stare at Dave, and he did not stare back, already limp inside his suit. The servos locked up, keeping him upright, but he could no longer respond. Now it could advance without being shot in the back all the time.

“I can’t support Dave, he stopped firing. I think he got hit with whatever Vola is afflicted with.”

“Goddamnit, this stupid fucking bug should just die already!”

The thing chortled, or at least that was Wisp’s best interpretation of what noise it was making. Mei tried her best to charge the beast with her stand deployed, only to be swatted aside, thrown into the rubble of a nearby building.

“Oh this is looking very bad. I guess it's just me now. If only one of these weapons could penetrate its shell faster…”

The Lagavulin oriented its shell to face Wisp, crawling towards him. It loomed over his small, diminutive form like a person before an ant.

Lagavulin targets Wisp…

Lagavulin casts [Siphon Soul]!

And then Wisp felt the pressure. It reached into him and tore at where he was most vulnerable, ripping apart the soul within his physical vessel, and absorbing it into the shell and body of the Lagavulin. With every moment more energy was drained from him, a waterfall of energy lost to the enemy.

Therein lay its critical error. For all the being’s strength and ferocity, it lacked in foresight; Wisp’s soul was not as finite as it thought.

Wisp’s soul poured from his body in droves, rapidly filling up the monster mollusk with his energy. Even when it needed no more, its body was forced to continue absorption of his spirit. The Lagavulin’s soul, in comparison, swelled, trying to process all of this new power it had consumed, and was still consuming, faster and faster, until:

The Lagavulin could hold no more, and its shell exploded like a balloon filled to capacity. All the residual energy stored inside of it burst forth and quickly seeped back into the body of the original owners, most of all Wisp. As the other two began slowly rousing from their impromptu nap, Wisp stood in the street drowned not only in the pouring rain but the guts of the weird monster beast that had come close to wiping them entirely.

“Well. Okay.”