The Primordial Weapon

[Alain the Carnedge]

Alain quietly begun his analysis of the beast again, crouching low and activating his invisibility, the black sigils spreading across his cloak. He couldn't do anything for the kid, who seemed to have fallen into the abyss in the mercenary's place. Despite seeing more than a fair few of people die, the merc did feel a slight twinge of guilt. He seemed to have incapacitated two of the members, even if it was by accident. But there wasn't anything he could do for them, even assuming that they weren't dead. Alain didn't have the means to heal Kuzan, nor the means to save Aang from the pits of Omnihell. Hopefully they either both survived, or at least they'd both "respawn" if he was to believe that primes couldn't truly die.

Thoughts of a less friendly-fire happy bounty hunter aside, the beast's "abilities" quickly became evident: It wasn't housing any secret techniques like eye-lasers or fire breath, which was a relief. On the other hand, it was still damn-near impossible to kill or even injure this monstrosity without the explosives. He was actually genuinely surprised that his blade managed to scratch the creature at all. Thankfully the beast itself was apparently occupied with identity crisis spartan and robokid, so it hadn't had a chance to find Alain alive, at which point it'd most likely resolve to correct its mistake and crush him into a fine paste.

Confident that the creature couldn't find him, he frantically looked around for the explosives. They were obviously the team's only chance of destroying this creature, and even if it wasn't much of a plan, there wasn't exactly much else they could do. They injure it without them? It'd regenerate. They run away? There was no need for this crusade in the first place. The beast would also keep terrorizing the citizens, but to the mercenary that was just a minor concern.

Bingo. Their bombs seemed that they were relatively unscathed from the battle, the stray thermal detonator from earlier aside. It didn't appear that they were in any immediate danger as well, which came as a relief. Everyone was doing a remarkable job at keeping the Tarrasque distracted, leaving more than enough time for Alain to creep towards the explosives while still under the cloak's invisibility spell. A few good hits from these things and it was hopefully going down, he thought. If anything, he might get an opportunity to destroy the beast's heart before it regenerated from the small amount of wounds that had already been inflicted. Time was of the essence here-the beast was also, if the analysis wasn't faulty, capable of even regenerating lost limbs and bone, which made the destruction of one of it's horns seem almost negligible. Even the holy oil surely couldn't stop the beast's ungodly regeneration for long.

He carefully stepped across the ground, but at the same time, attempted to be as quick as he could. Falling into a fissure again wasn't on his to-do list. Strangely, it was all he could manage not to run away in spite of how many monsters like this he'd faced. This Omniverse also seemed to have an adverse effect on his mind as well-usually he'd laugh and merely prepare for the battle ahead, but whether it was the creature itself or the power drop that caused these fears, he didn't know.

Reaching what was likely their only hope, Alain immediately sprinted over and hastily grabbed the last few detonators from the destroyed crate without slowing him down or accidentally triggering a detonation. That was certainly the last thing they needed, and the faster they got this done, the better. Alain summoned his blade and got ready to charge the beast. He needed just a single moment and hopefully this thing would be incapacitated long enough for them to destroy it's heart and purge the Moors of it's miserable existence. Tearing it apart would be more than a pleasure after it had mercilessly hunted him down and forced him into a fissure, and he hoped that he'd look back on the moment of it's demise later and laugh hysterically.

And so, he ran. Leaping across the numerous cracks in the earth with relative ease (he noted offhandedly that it was actually impressive that the damage to the environment still wasn't impairing the Tarrasque's fighting ability) he launched into battle, a quite literally invisible warrior hoping that at last, this fight could be over.

The first part of the plan was to injure it's legs enough so that it'd topple over. Even the most deadly of beasts usually can't do much when they've fell over aside from trying to get back up, so hopefully this wouldn't be an exception. What could it do? He pondered, still advancing towards the beast under the invisibility. All it had was the ability to thrash around and try to get back up if it fell. Surely this was the smartest course of action.

Casting his doubts aside as there was little time for such things at this point, he slowed his pace and ran low once he got close to the Tarrasque itself. It was now he understood why the beast was so dangerous despite not having some more flashy powers. All it needed was it's regeneration, and no matter how strong you were or how much pain you put it in, the wounds you inflicted would merely heal. It would always win. If you had no means to stop it's healing, then you do not beat the beast: you survive. Thankfully, they did have those means.

Approaching from the back and deftly ducking under the beast's swinging tail, Alain waited for a few seconds until he was confident that the monster couldn't sense his presence from this close, then pulled out one of the stored thermal detonators and hovered his finger over the button that'd hopefully send this thing tumbling into one of the fissures that it had created. Oh, what irony that would be! Alas, the environmental damage still hadn't reached the level where they could hurl their foe into the abyss and be done with it, but maybe with time. Not like it mattered, the beast would surely collapse if he got a good hit, right?

Despite holding the detonator that might seal their victory in his hand, he still did not press the button. It could also secure their loss, as the spartan and Roboboy were in range of the blast. Dio and the mysterious woman were still unaccounted for, however. Where they had wandered off to was a mystery to him, but it was unlikely that the bloodsucker'd managed to seduce the woman and ran off with her. Killing his allies still wasn't a priority though, at least not yet. He could warn them, yes, but the beast probably wasn't fond of letting 'em get out of range. Ducking to evade the beast's tail again, he swore under his breath.

Get it to come after me, instead. When it's ran far enough, detonate the explosives and...die, I guess. "This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" he muttered to nobody in particular.

Approaching from the back again but far more aggressive this time, he took a moment to ready his blade before plunging it deep into the creature's leg, as he had done before. Unsurprisingly, it had little more effect than it did the last time, and it didn't even react when he tore the sword out. He scowled. Surely this thing must have some kind of weak point? It definitely didn't seem like it. It's tongue was probably made of titanium or something even more stupid. Well, there was only one other option.

The sigils on his cloak disappeared, and he jumped onto the beast's tail as his invisibility faded, starting to run and then bursting before it managed to shake him off, barely managing to cling to one of the spikes on it's shell. Continuing his attack, Alain ran up to the creature's head, waved to the others with his other hand because he thought it'd be funny, then jumped down, grabbing the beast's remaining horn and hanging from it for a second or two before stabbing one of the creature's eyes. Not bothering to tear his blade out this time as living took priority, he immediately let go of the beast's horn and, when his feet hit the ground, sprinted away before it pulverised him.

Breathing heavily from exhaustion, Alain turned around to check whether or not the beast was following him. That question was promptly answered by a snarling, demonic monster charging in his direction at max speed, crushing the remnants of whatever village used to be here beneath it's feet. His eyes widened for a split second before he took off, swiftly taking out a few of the detonators and pushing the buttons. The red lights flashed, and despite fatigue he forced himself to keep going. Not much further, he thought. He dropped the detonators, the beast getting ever-closer, and the explosion sent it roaring in pain again, and Alain flying away.

Landing less than gracefully from the explosion and incredibly thankful that there was apparently no pain, Alain scrambled to his feet without any difficulties. Seemed the others caught up and managed to catch it's attention again. Perhaps the beast was too angry to focus on anyone in particular now. More magma was pouring from the creature's new wounds, but it waded through it's own lava-esque blood like it did so all the time. Deciding he wanted nothing to do with that unless there were no other options he quietly retreated, and began summoning some supplies to patch up his own wounds. He didn't know where the bag of medicine went, but they probably forgot it at the Manor. With luck this nightmare of a creature would breathe it's last soon.