Just Looking Around

[Albert Wesker]

His jump barely carried him out of the way in time. One arrow whisked through where his torso had been but a moment before, and the second put a hole through the tail of his long coat. He had managed to avoid an injury, but it was cause for concern; he should have been able to dodge something like arrows with ease, and not even be anywhere near where they had hit. Come to think of it, he should have been able to jump a lot higher than he was, too.

"Oh, boy...things just keep getting better..." he grumbled to himself, turning his attention back to the group on the ground. Already the two archers had more arrows nocked and ready to fire, and just as his momentum failed completely and he started to fall, they did just that. His first reaction was to simply use his Logia power and let the arrows harmlessly pass through him.

But it didn't work.

He panicked for just a split-second, long enough that any chance to try and react to the incoming arrows was lost. One grazed his left arm, the other nearly put a hole in his right. The wound wasn't great, but the stinging in his left arm brought him back to his senses. He was far from helpless, even without the majority of his powers. He took hold of his icy blade in both hands, and as he fell to the earth again he readied himself to act immediately.

He hit the ground and immediately bolted straight for the group of three, though one of them was missing. A quick glance told him that the leader of the bunch had retreated a short distance to pursue the fleeing young man. It wasn't likely he'd catch him on foot, but if he knew where he was going...well, there was a chance.

Dashing straight at someone with a drawn bow wasn't the smartest tactic, and though he didn't have much experience dealing with archers, he knew enough about projectiles in general to have an idea. Rifles and even pistols were generally much more difficult to dodge due to simple speed on their projectiles. It shouldn't be impossible to dodge an arrow. Or two.

....well, hopefully, anyway.

He made a quick hop to one side to throw off the aim of the two archers, and immediately bolted back the opposite direction, skidding along the ground nearly as a blur. He launched himself back at the two. They just had their arrows trained on him when he reached them.

A sharp cry of pain sounded loud and clear, one of the two archers being knocked flat from the sheer momentum behind the strike of ice that left a bleeding wound in his side. It wasn't a fatal wound on its own, but it would keep him out of the fight. The other man, having another few seconds to spare, threw his bow aside in a panic, reaching for his sword. A swift, lunging kick sent him sprawling on the ground, the breath knocked from him. A quick blow from the jagged blade of ice to his sword arm ensured he wouldn't be a threat in the immediate future.

Turning away from the two incapacitated ambushers, Kuzan scanned the area for his next target. The larger hooded figure was still pursuing the young man, and seemed to be hurling some sort of projectiles at the gryphon, preventing it from making a clean getaway. Some sort of energy bolts, from the look of things.

Breaking into as swift a run as he could with the unwieldy prosthesis that made up part of his leg, Kuzan sprinted toward the hooded figure. There was no small amount of distance to cover, and he wasn't positive he could cross it before he got in a lucky shot. But he didn't exactly have many options. He could have just left the situation alone, of course, but that wouldn't have sat very well with him, even if he hadn't already said he would help in just such a situation as this.

He hadn't been expecting anything of this sort, and had honestly been expecting the man to just be paranoid.

But that would have just been too easy.