Serah's face went pale as she saw the tentacle beast lunge at her, knowing full well she might be straight-up dead. For some reason, however, the girl wasn't afraid. It felt oddly calming, even if the blood was drained from her head. Serah was about to close her eyes and accept her fat before noticing a rapidly moving dot on her radar. Not a split second after, Yeager dashed up and shielded her by filling the tentacle beast full of lead. The girl was speechless for a moment, stunned by the incredible display. [color=00aeef]"Roger, you-? Aaaah!"[/color] Serah wanted to say something in her amazement, but shrieked as her right barrier wing got blown to bits. She felt the shaking of AA-XOTRY as its systems overloaded for a moment, needing a moment of her own to regain composure. Serah looked back at her cameras to see an entire Cruxi squad behind her, with a tentacle beast scarily rapidly approaching.

[color=00aeef]"[i]This isn't time for idling around,[/i]"[/color] rang through Serah's head in a moment of clarity. Her face twisted into a frown, looking at her screens again to notice Magus is still alive. They needed to move, fast. A cruxi squad was coming in from the north, and Eiswolf was barely covered. [color=00aeef]"Yeager! Protect Eiswolf from the north! Eiswolf, cover for Magus or Yeager! I'll take the south!"[/color] Serah shouted with determination, swallowing the saliva that had amassed in her mouth. Serah knew very well how suicidal that plan was, at least for her. 'She didn't know anything better in the moment' is what Serah tried to convince herself, but deep down she knew that wasn't true. The girl was throwing her own life away to protect that of her comrades... Anyone else would feel fearful of something like that, but the girl almost had to laugh. A soft chuckle more than anything else, really. She had nothing coming into this. Her future's been taken, her past has been ruined and her present is war. Any normal girl would cry, but she wasn't normal.

She was going to protect her squad, even if it took her life. Because her life wasn't worth anything anymore anyway.

AA-XOTRY moved swiftly, turning with the aid of its thrusters and aiming its sword right at the Tentacle Beast. Serah was hoping to slash clean through the thing in one go, but who knows how her damned plan would go? The framewerk looked like it braced itself before charging forward, holding the blade in one hand. The other hand grabbed onto the barrier wing in front of it of it like it was a shield, making the thing look like a knight. The blade had its edge sharpened by taking out more energy from the core and sliced downwards as it approached, trying to cut the beast clean in half. If it succeeded, Serah would be staring down an entire Cruxi War Squad on her own. She wasn't the taunting type, so she simply had AA-XOTRY hold up the shield to brace itself from the incoming fire. The framewerk's back was to Eiswolf, shielding them with its body. [color=00aeef]"You've already taken enough lives... If you want some more, then come and get me...!"[/color] Serah growled softly, intending to take the full blast with everything she's got.