[Center][img]https://i.imgur.com/er5FgrY.png[/img]
[h3]Grimm Studies[/h3][/center]

Skye braced herself as the thick glass containing the Dionaea lowered and the great beast took stock of its surroundings. She noted that each of the smaller heads angled toward them as if those were its main sensory organs. But she still could only guess at what senses it used to track them. With a chilling cacaphony of shrill shrieks from these mouths, the Dionaea began its assault. It managed to attack everyone surrounding it simultaneously with incredible speed and coordination, and [i]still[/i] had plenty of limbs waiting to strike or defend.

Skye kept half her attention on her surroundings and other students nearby even as she was attacked by two tentacles that skirted around their group. The first to reach her came from her left and slightly above, and it tried to smash into her perhaps to knock her down or away. Or into the other tentacle approaching low from the right. Skye stepped into the left side attack and threw her elbow as hard as she could into it to stop its momentum. Surprisingly, the attack seemed like it had to be half-hearted or weaker for reaching so far around her allies. Skye's counterstrike sent it reeling away but she could feel a few things within her body that might be a problem, the most alarming of which was the aching and strain of her muscles. That was a new development and could only be a very bad sign. Fighting at her normal capacity was putting a lot of strain on her weakened body, and her overall strength and speed was notably less than normal. 

But there was nothing she could do about that. Her team needed her to watch their backs no matter what condition she was in. And the Grimm, as always, would never relent until either it or Skye was dead. Just like any other fight there was no alternative but to push herself to her limits or beyond.

The second tentacle tried to slither around her leg, counting on her to be distracted. She stomped down hard, crushing the tip and momentarily pinning it to the ground. With her other leg she kicked as hard as she could, shredding the flesh under her foot as the tentacle was knocked away. She had a moment to catch a breath as the rest of her allies were doing just as well if not better, so far. In fact the other three managed to avoid getting hit and caused some significant damage to the first wave of tentacles. 

Ben asked how everyone was faring and Skye called out a quick affirmative, even as Bianca put her spear through one of the tentacles severing it fantastically. 

Of the ones that had gone for Skye the damaged one had pulled back toward the body and the other seemed hesitant to attack again. This let her take stock of her allies farther away. She was not surprised to see Jack darting almost effortlessly between the Dionaea's roots, easily evading and slashing and keeping incredibly mobile. It was an impressive sight as far as shewas concerned. The other group Jack had been strategizing with looked to be having a bit more difficulty, but managed to hold their own well enough that she wasn't too worried. They were even managing to put firepower into the upper heads of the creature, which would likely take some of the pressure off her group while they pushed towards the trunk.

And then she saw Ashe and was shocked to see her isolated and taking a major hit. [i]She doesn't have any cover...[/i] Skye mentally kicked herself for not noticing until now, and assuming Ashe had another group to join for support. With a creature like this and without the kind of speed Jack displayed she doubted anyone alone like that would last very long. With no time to spare for coordinating with her other teammates Skye made a decision.

[b]"Ashe! Over here![/b] She pointed to a spot mostly in the center of them, closer to Sangue's side while Skye shifted her position a little closer to Bianca. As Ashe moved to join them Skye made sure the others knew what was going on. [b]"Friendly joining us, at your backs."[/b] 

She faced the Dionaea proper as it still seemed to debate if it was worth it to come after her again. She watched as the main head of the thing moved and, disturbingly enough, seemed to be looking at Ashe. Then it turned that eyeless gaze onto their group, and she couldn't tell if it was looking at one of them or the team as a whole. It also scanned over the team shooting at it, but at this point Skye knew it would be too risky for her to dart out and help them, they had pressed too close to the massive riesen.

As if to confirm that assessment the Dionaea picked up its pace in an already largely relentless assault. It was now throwing about three roots at each combatant with greater ferocity than before. And it still had appendages it wasn't actively using. At some point they were going to push this thing to its full potential and that would truly be a terrifying storm to weather. This was already bad enough.

Apparently concluding Skye was a worthy enough target on her own the Dionaea sent three completely fresh tentacles her way, fast and all at once, each from a different angle. She attempted to strike one of them away, then block a second with her arm, and stomp on the third, lower one to stop it. Her first two attempts at deflection met with success, but the low approaching tentacle stopped short, and her foot slammed into the ground. Overextended an slightly unbalanced the Grimm slammed its low tentacle into her poorly planted legs and droped her facedown. Water splashed chaotically as she rolled onto her back as fast as possible, in time to see all three tentacles poised to deliver crushing blows. 

She rolled, pushing herself as fast as she could and just barely managed to evade the first two impacts. The third compensated for her direction and came right down on her. She was lucky enough to be on her back at that point and able to catch the attack. But the shock was still incredibly jarring and she felt sharp pricks under her skin as some of the crystals in her body shifted. She kicked upwards forcing the root on top of her away, and turned in time to knock aside one of the others that tried to capitalize on the brief distraction. She managed to roll to all fours and leap just out of range as the Dionaea relentlessly attacked. She had a split second of room to get to her feet and face the continued assault. 

Now that she had a taste of how intelligent this thing was she managed to keep up and push her attacker back this time. But she didn't think she was doing well at this point. All she was managing was to defend herself and at any moment someone might need her help. [i]Pick up the pace, this isn't good enough! I need to do better than this, I'm going to fail them at this rate.[/i]