[Center][h2]Dakota Rhett[/h2]
[sub]November 29th? - Proving Grounds[/sub]
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Dakota's stomach felt a bit uneasy, seeing the horrific creatures come back into view from their more humanlike shells. Jacket easily weighed down enough by swaying chains, their returned gusts were boasts that didn't phase him the same way they had back with Pondwater. However, as their attacks came his way, it brought all those panics back. A startled yelp was what came out of brave little Dakota in response, falling flat to the ground and finding a few of his out-of-place hairs getting a too close for comfort trims as the crescent blades flew overhead, crashing into the entertainment hall. Startled, but not wanting to let anyone down, he wondered why the giant bird of his wasn't doing anything. "Hey, Thamyris?! Fight the guys?"

[b]"Fighting alone would simply cause us to be torn apart,"[/b] It informed succinctly. [b]"Our combined effort and strategy will be the only way to prevail!"[/b]

Eyes nearing bulging out of his head as he pushed himself up, he grew more worried. "You sayin' I've gotta go fight 'em, too?!" Getting a nod in response, he glanced towards the Shaxes, suddenly feeling like he had the stinking end of the deal. "Dang it... I thought it'd be like Pokémon or something, at least!" His complaints didn't have time to sit, as these demons didn't waste time with exposition. Rather, they raked more of those crescent-shaped attacks his way, which he attempted to dart left to avoid but ended up getting his torso sliced, the spark of pain and spurt of blood causing him to become a lot more alert. "Gah! D-Dia again, doit[i]doitdoit![/i]"

Thamyris, above him, rained the healing spell down and stopped his bleeding almost immediately, but brought a complaint with it. [b]"This is no game! Keep sharp, and press forward, or else you'll end up in pieces!"[/b]

Swearing in his mind, Dakota let out a grunt of annoyance but knew he didn't have much choice. "Alright, fine!" He spoke in frustration, gripping his mic stand tighter. He couldn't let Barney do all the fighting, and he didn't want these things catching up to the guys, either. Trying to rebuild the confidence he thought he'd had, his mind defaulted to a one-liner as he accepted he'd have to fight. "Let's [i]rock![/i]"

Though trying to keep a brave face, his original idea of rushing the Shaxes would have to wait; A burning creature approaching, A Buer, not that he'd recall, sent him on high-alert. Although with it's approaching speed, he wasn't quite sure on how to handle the situation. That being said, if he was the host and Thamyris was his fighting spirit, then he couldn't afford to be turned into a crisp directly. His thoughts willing his Persona, Thamyris stood in front of Dakota and brought his arms out wide, talons at the end of each slamming into the Buer as it got close and stopped it cold in it's tracks, despite sliding backwards slightly. It's flames burned, and Dakota felt that pain directly, even if his body wasn't getting flayed. 

Trying to use such pain as motivation, he reacted with an obvious intent of getting it the hell away. twisting it's arms, Thamyris spun the Buer in place with a strong movement, before delivering a firm upwards kick that sent the lion-head soaring upwards. Not nearly enough to destroy it, but it allowed for a moment of breathing room, which brought the Shaxes to Dakota's attention. No way in hell he was dealing with those projectiles again, deciding to take the breather as a chance to push forward. 

Traversing by Dakota's own thoughts, Thamyris went high while he stayed earthbound. This distracted the Shaxes enough to split their attention, Dakota taking advantage by rushing towards the one that craned itself upwards to focus his airborne Persona. Deciding to not hit it with full force, he instead brought his mic stand out, catching the Shax by it's neck and tugging it sideways, causing it to stumble to regain balance, but also causing it's attention to fully be on him again. Which was just as planned.

Having cut the view between him and the farther Shax, it let out a sound of annoyance, but Dakota had no time for it. Gesturing his hand out with his fingers spread but pointed forwards, it tightened and resembled a claw. "Shred it, Thamyris!"

The farther Shax was met with a arm-crossed Persona descending upon it with one leg extended, crashing into it and crumpling it's neck downwards, it's body getting crushed against the ground. The pressure caused it to pop like a balloon, splattering into a bunch of shadowy mass than slunk away into nothingness. A victory in close-range against the weaker ranged attacker, but being close didn't mean they were out. Dakota had to block with his weapon as the second Shax lashed out at him, the boy quickly retreating backwards to gain a little room as he didn't realize just how aggressive these things could be up close.

It would have been the perfect opportunity to side-wind it, but before Dakota's eyes, Thamyris suffered a similar fate to demon it had crushed. The Buer barreled down from the sky and crashed into his Persona, slamming it into the ground as it's fiery body caused even more damage. This caused Dakota to plummet backwards, reeling from pain passed to him, which for a moment kept him away from the Shax, but didn't stop the building pain from the flames. He had to think quickly, but burning without even being on fire caused immense stress, and made even the most meager of planning extremely difficult.

However, a piece of his arsenal he hadn't tried yet came to mind. He'd heard it before, back when Thamyris mentioned their power. He practically cried out for his Persona to use that spell, whatever it might do, as long as it punished the Buer trying to turn them to ash. "[i]Garu![/i]"

Having been guarding itself with it's arms, Thamyris took the command and quickly rolled with it. Bringing it's arms forward, talons on both ends smashed into the Buer, knocking it far enough for Thamyris to glide itself back and away from the ground. It began to rise upwards as soon as it had the room, mighty wings swinging forward and summoning forth a magical wind directly on the Buer; The air surrounding the demon shifting as powerful gusts of wind tore at it from all directions, causing it to violently shake about as the flames on it's head were momentarily extinguished, the creature's face torn from the sheer force Thamyris' winds. 

"Hell yeah!" Dakota cheered, but was quickly interrupted by the Shax in front of him coming in to take a bite of his hand, recoiling it not being enough to stop it's long neck from barging forth to try and tear him apart. Dakota brought his mic stand up to smack it aside, but it simply began to twist around his weapon, causing a momentary panic that luckily brought Thamyris his way: The Persona grabbing the Shax by one of it's wings, before jamming a talon into it's eye. The creature shook and screeched from pain, which gave Dakota enough of a chance to stand, wanting revenge himself. Tightening his grip, he prepped his weapon as Thamyris kicked the Shax forward, the creature still screeching from it's eye and not having much of a chance to react as Dakota took a cold, hard swing and bashed it, causing a second Shax to turn into more shadowy goop.

Breathing heavily, Dakota felt victorious in a sense, but knew he was forgetting something in his seconds of relaxation. That Buer, still plenty alive, had flared up and reeled back towards Thamyris again, this time bashing the Persona in the back, which smacked the directly into Dakota before disappearing, leaving the boy to roll backwards far enough to literally end up back with Barney, his stop ending with him on his shoulders, tipping backwards one more time to end laying on his stomach, groaning in agony with his weapon laid off to the side.

"Christ," He managed to grumble, tilting his head to look towards the demon preparing itself again. "Thamyris, you got another Dia? Or two...? Maybe [i]three?[/i]"

His Persona reappeared above him, managing to give him a singular heal, which did not fully heal his tingling skin from the feeling of flames, or his aching neck from the rolling bullshit he just endured. [b]"If we excessively heal, we won't be able to fend off anything with spells."[/b] Thamyris informed. [b]"I'd suggest sucking it up and finishing this quickly."[/b]

At least well enough to stand, Dakota wasn't pleased by this at all. "That's a pain in the ass response! What happened to heeding my command, or whatever?" Not getting a response, he assumed this was a method for his Persona to say that it'd be wiser to use Garu instead of fully healing. But he wasn't the one in pain here! Or was he? Dakota wasn't sure if his Persona could actually feel pain, or if it was all being transferred to him. For now, he decided to give up on arguing about it, instead wanting revenge on the creature that knocked him over.

"Hey, so far so good, yeah? We're alive." He spoke to Barney, noting that they'd managed to cut down the ranks halfway. Leaving two of those fast Buer's, and one of those annoying Shaxes left. And Dakota already knew one of those Buer's had signed their death sentence. Knowing there wasn't much time for chatter, he picked up his mic stand and took a deep breath. They were getting through this, and before long they'd catch up with the others. He just had to man up and keep fighting for now, if he ever wanted out of here.

He felt like he'd probably sleep a few days after all this was over, even with the healing the mental exhaustion from this madness was going to make him crash [i]hard.[/i]