[center][h2]Elise Kim[/h2][h3]Saitama Prefecture[/h3][/center]
The sight of actual [i]blood[/i] being spilled by the Warped meant that their efforts were at least showing some meaningful sign of progress, which was honestly the best they could have hoped for. The virtual HUD in her peripherals showed that the others were dealing with similarly problematic Warped, and the call-in from Pyralis showed that at least one group amongst them was better off than they for the moment.

"I—"

Elise attempted to respond to the offer of aid, but Norika seemed to have no part in it. Given how well she was faring, such an offer would likely have been unnecessary, but if it helped resolve the situation faster, then all the better.

With that said, the call for help from the Seraphima left Elise without any worries about whether or not they could handle the beast (they clearly [i]could[/i]), but rather to distribute people where they were needed instead of focusing solely on their positions as the vanguard.

"...We should be able to handle this one on our own," Elise said, her words directed at herself as much as they were at Norika and Pyralis as she swapped out the bullets she had been loading into her rifle for something a fair deal more powerful. "Replacing live ammunition with light rounds. Aiming for the hea—!"

Before she could finish her sentence, another wave of whatever vile liquid the Warped had in store was launched at the two, and Elise barely managed to slip out of the way to dodge it. A bit had barely managed to clip one of her wings, but inorganic as it was, it seemed to roll off harmlessly.

With that said, cleaning up afterwards was probably in her best interests.

After taking a few moments to recenter herself, the Frame Pilot brought her weapon up to her shoulder and took aim at the Warped's head from above.

"As I was saying..." she said, eyebrows furrowed as a small sphere of light seemed to be forming from within the barrel of her weapon, "Aiming for the head—or whatever might pass for one on this thing. Don't get caught in the crossfire."

And with that, Elise pulled the trigger and fired.

What had formed as a small ball of light instantly turned into a thin, momentary laser that pierced through the Warped, well beyond where most of her other bullets would have stopped. Whether or not it mattered in the long run remained to be seen, but hopefully Norika would be able to carve up the rest of the monster as it recovered from the attack if it wasn't already dead.

[@JDubs][hr]
With the birdlike Warped most certainly dead after having its head pulverized into the ground below, the smaller Warped around it seemed to hesitate for a moment before the group seemed to split up. Some continued to charge at Hoshiko, apparently ignoring the beast she had just felled without so much as a scratch; others, however, seemed to be [i]retreating[/i]—a wise decision, in many respects, but an odd one in the face of what the Warped tended to do.

Not like it was any reason to be worried at the moment—fleeing enemies meant less bodies to have to clean up, after all—but the day was still not yet won as the young Frame Pilot chose to stall the remnants of the horde as her partner flew off to provide aide to their allies.

[@VitaVitaAR][hr]
Seeing its prey disappear before its eyes left the komainu-esque Warped disoriented for a moment, the heat around its body still leaving the ground alight. It's eyes flicked about restlessly as it searched for the two that had escaped, but as the monster finally figured out where the two had gone, it paused.

The poison that Xuan-Yu had managed to infect it with had been easy enough to ignore before, but with the injuries it had now, the weakness that seemed to grip its entire body left it feeling heavy and sluggish. The heat began to subside, little by little, as it began to move back towards the sole Pilot that was left in its sights.

It had burnt far too much energy attempting to kill the faster one among the two, but without that one in sight and the heat in its heart beginning to fizzle out, the Warped continued ahead, fully willing (it seemed) to throw its life away to at least take out [i]one[/i] of the beings it had aimed to kill.

[@ERode][@Laduguer]