Welcome to Gaia! ::

Paul raised his eyebrows. Or lowered them. What?

"Siber... I see what you mean," Paul said, trying to blink the image from his mind. "My vision flipped. Literally. Over both axis," he added, glancing around to see what had caused his... issue.

---

Fyrin nodded, somewhat grimly. "They're out there. You've heard of them?" he asked, then quickly inserted, "I think he'll move in quickly. He's already been waiting a while. Patient he may be, but not this patient. Definitely up to something." He started to get back into the car, then stopped. "Someone else drive. I want to be able to watch." One shrugged, slightly, and moved to take the wheel, but paused to see if Renard wanted to.

"Great," Fyrin muttered as a screeching filled the air. A gloom not unlike the gloom Legion sent ahead of him settled over the area as behind them, moving just as fast as the car, a shadow erupted from the ground. He was wider above and thinner below, except for where he spread out to join the ground. His eyes were a pair of glowing slits; his mouth, easily four feet wide, was grinning horribly, and shiny, jagged teeth resided within. Furthermore, two stubby arms extended from somewhere around where its shoulders might have been if it hadn't been built entirely unlike a human being. On each of the arms were stubby hands, each with three fingers and a thumb. And at the moment, all of them had claws protruding from them.

"Watch the claws!" Fyrin warned, turning around and watching carefully. "Until he gets close, he can't do too much," Fyrin began, but was silenced by what appeared to be a bolt of darkness. It struck Two between the eyes, and Two froze, then slumped over in his seat, apparently partially fallen apart. "Ah. Stunning he can do," Fyrin added, a little chagrined. "He can't kill until he's in close, though, and he's not getting any closer just yet."

"Very," Fyrin responded discouragingly. "Kinetics...? Does that mean you could blow wind at him? If you could hit him with something solid he'd still have issues," Fyrin informed Renard, but at the moment, the thing surged forward, crying one simple word.

"Hi!"

With that, it was upon the car. Fyrin broke the Charger's rear window and clambered deftly out onto the trunk. The Shadow's right arm burst out, suddenly growing massively longer, and the claws slung themselves at Fyrin. Fyrin's left arm grew transluscent and black, and he caught the blow. Everyone nearby felt an odd twinge - like a touch of fear. Again the thing struck, and again the emotional balance drifted, this time towards anger, as Fyrin caught it. "Keep going! We might be able to tire him out!"

The Shadow, its grin unfaltering (while it was intact) liquified itself to avoid the blasts, sliding into the shadows then back out, striking each time it did so. Once such strike was delivered with such ferocity that Renard considered attempting to kill himself before he snapped back into his own emotional course, and Fyrin narrowly managed to grab onto the back pillar and drag himself back onto the car. In the downtime this created, the Shadow again surged forward, this time past the car. Then he erupted upwards, slashing violently at the grill. The metal melted and twisted; the hood latch was damaged, and occasionally the wind caught it, making it look like it was going to blow up and perhaps off at any moment. The Shadow, meanwhile, crawled up, his smile and eyes appearing before Renard.

"You with this filthy b*****d?" he inquired, smiling throughout.

"Hit him! Hit him now!" Fyrin urged, attempting to climb over the roof and up to the hood. One, sitting next to Renard, raised the SCAR, but didn't fire just yet - it seemed he was uneager to risk destroying the car.
Paul:
Condition: Green
Mana: 88%
Athena KR6: <42>/42/42/42/42/42/22 (Special Rounds)
Glock 26: <12>/11/6/1

Fyrin:
Mana: 98%
Shield: Blue

One:
Mana: 89%
SCAR CQC: <31>/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/22
Five-seveN: <20>/20/20

Two:
Mana: 88%
G36C: <31>/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/24/14
92FS: <15>/15/15

Three:
Mana: 88%
AK74U: <31>/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/30/23/9
1911: <8>/8/8/8

Four:
Mana: 89%
P90: <51>/50/50/50/50/50/50/50/50/39/31
USP .45: <12>/12/12

As the kinetic blast struck the hood, the smile disappeared and was replaced momentarily by a frustrated-looking frown before the Shadow was blown apart. Various bits of darkness, looking suspiciously soupy, flew away with the blown-off hood; the car screeched and crashed on the side of the road; and Fyrin, his men, and Renard all hovered above the wreckage. Down on the ground, various pieces of shadow lay spread about the road. Suddenly another Shadow arose. It began cheerfully floating around between the cars on the road, grabbing the chunks of the broken Shadow. It looked up, calling, "We'll be back! With Sabre!" then fell like a drop of water into the shadows cast by the buildings. Fyrin's eyeslit followed their path for a while. Then he sighed.

"Nice. He'll be out a bit while he reassembles. He's lucky his soul wasn't blown clear of the little bits," Fyrin added. "I haven't seen any method of disposing of him quite so effective, frankly. Kinetics, almost instant, so he couldn't dodge, and he was still hit with it... brilliant," Fyrin praised. "When I fight him, we generally get engaged in hand-to-hand for, oh, say, fifteen minutes, until we've both sapped our mana and we can't keep fighting. Even with my elementalism," he finished.

"So where do we set down? We're not supposed to be here, after all. Best if we get moving," Renard said.

"That'll be easy," Renard pointed out as they landed. "A sensitive Sage who felt like picking a fight caught us exterminating the bodies and was able to chase us to the van. It all went to hell from there. Agreed?"