Vash flinched as the dragon made its presence known, not expecting something so menacing, so insanely fast, so… [i]legendary[/i]. His gaze remained locked on the creature for a few seconds as his mind raced, trying to think up a plan of action, before Vash choked on the toxicity spreading through the air, and he quickly pulled the fabric of his coat up over his mouth. Glancing over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of the entire team together — [i]everyone[/i] having just been thrown into a fight with the mighty dragon. In particular, his eyes widened sadly as he caught sight of poor Whitney, the girl who was so afraid to see anyone else die, caught in the middle of it all as she struggled to withstand the dragon’s poison. 

He then watched as various party members, particularly Archer, prepared to strike, and almost instinctively, Vash prepared to stop them. But, he hesitated. His thoughts returned to the last dragon they fought in that cavern. Very quickly, the fight turned from trying to defend the dragon to needing to defend his teammates, and himself. And that’s when Vash realized: he couldn’t handle a fight like this the same way he handled fights on Gunsmoke. While a human life could be so easily extinguished with a single bullet, a dragon like this was not at all the same. He didn’t have to worry about anyone taking it down with a single blow. With the previous dragon, it seemed unlikely; with [i]this[/i] dragon, it seemed [i]impossible[/i]. It would, no doubt, take everyone quite a few hits to bring the dragon anywhere near death. In the case of his teammates, though…

The sound of a gunshot rang through the area, soon followed by another, as Vash fired an expertly aimed shot at the base of each of the dragon’s wings, hoping to at least somewhat limit the amount of pollen being thrown into the air. Vash still didn’t approve of killing the dragon, and if the others’ attacks started to go to far, he wouldn’t hesitate to step in. But as things currently stood, his teammates needed protection from that dragon far worse than the other way around, and he couldn’t allow the dragon to harm any of them.