Impossible || Druig

19

Outside, dusk was falling and settling the forest over with a blanket of gloom. The air was muggy and distant bird calls sounded through the trees, but the most pressing issue was the deviant throwing a human across the clearing and out of sight between the trees and buildings. "Clear the camp!"  Sersi's voice cried out. 

There were two deviants that Soro could see. One shaped almost like a wolf or some sort of canine with large claws and powerful legs. The other was like a cat with a barbed long tail that shredded through wood like a whip. It lunged towards Sersi but Soro was there, coils of gold flicking from his hands and lassoing the deviant back. It growled and hissed at him, struggling against it's bonds. "Get them in the hall!" Soro called across the clearing as Sersi began shepherding the panicking humans into the building. Once they were inside, her hands began to transform the wood into metal. 

The second creature, the canine one, was being occupied by Kingo and Sprite. The man firing shot after shot into the beast as it dodged. Soro glanced over, risking a second as he fought the struggles against his threads. A yelp escaped his lips as the tail flicked out, shredding through one of the threads and lashed towards him. It caught him on the side, sending him spinning away and into the trunk of a tree, threads snapping as he went. 

The deviant burst free from the coils of gold as they lost their power and wriggled to it's feet. Gunshots echoed as the surrounding humans all fired. Their eyes familiar gold. The deviant snarled, tail sending one man flying away over the camp with a scream. Then Druig was there, skidding past the beast in the dirt and snatching up the fallen gun. Nimble feet running up the Deviant's back to fire into it's skull. The beast yowled and moved to bite him as he jumped back. Soro pulled himself up, winded and ribs aching, and flicked his wrist. Golden coils, tangled together like a whip, flared and wrapped itself around the beasts neck. It pulled it back, allowing Druig to jump out of range of those sharp teeth. 

"Druig!" Sersi called out a warning as a tree of metal came crashing down on top of the deviant, pinning it to the forest floor. Soro sighed and shook off the ache in his back as he righted his glasses on his face. He made to stroll over towards them, finish the deviant off when a screeching echoed above them. Soro had just enough time to look up as a deviant swooped down towards him. 

"Soro!" Druig's voice echoed out as the deviant sunk it's claws in his shoulders and he was being  hoisted up into the air. Soro cried out, almost a scream as they climbed higher, high enough the break the tree line. The pain in his shoulders from the torn skin restricting his arm movement. Suddenly the ground was hidden below him and the sky was bright with the setting sun above. 

The deviant reared it's head back, viciously sharp beak pointed down at the eternal held pinned in it's claws. Soro gritted his teeth as he kicked the thing as hard as he could. Unfortunately deviant skin was quite tough so the kick did not do much, except distract it for an extra second as Ikaris soared round behind it. His laser vision cutting through one wing and they were dropping. Soro did scream this time. "Ikaris!" 

"Relax Soro", the flying man offered him a smirk as he swooped down and yanked him from the dead deviant's claws. "I've got you". Soro hung from his hold under his arms like a disgruntled cat. Tshirt stained with blood steadily dripping down from his shoulders. "Can you still fight?" Ikaris asked, less smirk and more concern. 

Soro flexed his wrists. Moving his arms were painful but bearable, skin now beginning to heal. "Let me at them". 

Ikaris nodded. "Gilgamesh needs help. I'll go after the ones at the camp. I'll circle around and drop you off", he instructed as he flew around the trees in a circle. Halfway through the circle he let go and Soro had a moment to curse before he was dropping. He hit the branches like an arrow, feet wrapped in golden netting that burnt a way safely down through the canopy. It was a move they had not practiced in centuries and that only worked in forested environments. Soro was a bit out of practise. 

Still, he was skilled enough to catch the sight of a large Deviant sparring against Gil several feet away. Reacting as he fell, Soro reached out one arm to coil thread around a branch and use it to turn his fall into momentum that slingshotted him through the air (a move which he might have learnt from watching those videos of Spiderman). The deviant had just caught Gil in one hand, tentacles sprouting from it's body to latch onto skin. Then Soro's feet was colliding with it's shoulder, the momentum sending them all toppling across the ground. 

Gil groaned as he pulled himself away from the tentacles reaching for him. "Great entrance Soro!" He called as he picked himself up. Soro's whole body hurt yet he managed a chuckle as he managed to get his elbows under him. 

"Had to make an impact", he shot the older man a grin as he got a foot under him. To their right, the deviant was rising but Gilgamesh knocked it back with a thunderous blow to the head. He went for a second but the beast was rolling away faster than it's girth should have allowed. It was larger than the others, almost humanoid in some ways. Soro managed to right himself and felt a whip of golden threads coil from each hand. The deviant turned and a burning gold whip lanced across it's forearm. It hissed and recoiled backwards to face Gilganesh's fist to the abdomen. 

Soro struck again, gold flicking back tentacles at it's hands reached out to catch one of Gilgamesh's fists in it's own. Gil grunted then head butted the thing right in the forehead. It let go and staggered back, Soro's whips chasing it. Each strike a burning laceration on the deviant's limbs. He flicked the threads out and caught one of the thing's arms, pulling it to the side as Gil came running in with a war cry and a  heavy blow to the middle of the thing's chest. It seemed for a second that they were winning. 

Then the thing yanked hard on the thread and Soro was pulled off his feet. He gasped as he was caught in the hand he tried to grab, it's huge fist tightening around his waist and restricting his breathing. "Soro!" Gilgamesh shouted as he came running back in to lay another punch on the Deviant. Except the creature moved Soro out as if to shield itself. Soro couldn't move and Gilgamesh hesitated, unwilling to hit his fellow Elemental. That hesitation was all the creature needed to kick the man away. Soro cried out, he couldn't breath. The grip on his chest was so tight that his sore ribs were creaking. He could see Thena peaking at the fight round the trunk of a tree, eyes wide and uncertain as gold flickered warningly across her brow. (It was unsettling and made the situation far more scary to see her so afraid. She was their goddess of battle. She was never afraid)

"Stay there Thena!"Gilgamesh called. The man had gotten to his feet but he was breathing heavily. Soro felt himself being lifted up to face the beast. His hands moved to conjure his powers but the tentacles were tangling themselves around his limbs and pulling them apart. He screamed, high and shrill with pain as they dug themselves into his skin. 

"Soro!" Thena cried out at the sounds go pain emanating from Soro's lips. It hurt, it hurt so bad. It felt like they were taking the very warmth from his bones. Soro watched through pain dizzy vision and crooked glasses as the tentacles began to glow gold. Then something hit him from behind and the pain ripened into white hot agony. He was out cold before he even hit the floor. 

Unedited

Oof long update for you. Not happy times.