[I][color=0072bc]Oh God[/color][/I] Kaitlyn's heart leapt into her throat at the thunderous roar of Quinshe's weapon. How could something so destructive exist... How could she, in good conscience, point this thing at another human being? This wasn't just defense, this was mur- [I][color=0072bc]No, he's dangerous. I'm just incapacitating him.[/color][/I] She breathed heavily in the aftermath, a little dizzy as she blinked the dark spots in her vision away. The aftermath of her actions... Was enough to make her sick. Then the shield fell. She went pale as the thought... The very idea that the person erecting that barrier might have been gone... [color=0072bc]"This is private Kaitlyn Price, addressing the Arms Master who was maintaining the barrier. Please report your status."[/color] She tried to keep the tremors out of her voice, looking up at the sky. She half expected the second sun to spontaneously snap back into existence and smite them all. [color=39b54a]"Hmm, excccellent ssshot for a firssst try~!"[/color] sibilantly praised the serpent head with a squinted eye-smile of its gleaming emerald orb. There was no response from the Arms Master Kaitlyn called for, but the serpent hummed again. [color=39b54a]"Ah~, ssshe mossst likely hasss yet to attain a communication deviccce. Ssshe and her partner arrived quite without warning, you sssee. They have not been granted asss much accesss to equipment and logisssticsss asss might be prudent."[/color] The serpent's neck briefly flared like a cobra before settling down into ripples of ebony scales. [color=39b54a]"Ssshe yet livesss. The ssshatering of her ssshield sssems to have knocked the wind out of her, however..."[/color] Kaitlyn wasn't sure whether to be relieved or concerned. A mix of both, really. She wasn't dead... But it sounded like her situation wasn't exactly ideal, either. She didn't have long to think about that before something else caught her attention. She'd been passively monitoring radio chat- as any good soldier would, she assumed- when she picked up on a distressing tone. It wasn't hard to guess at the source... [I][color=0072bc]What the...[/color][/i] Kaitlyn went pale at the sight of the churning mass of earth. She didn't need to hear the screams to imagine them. [color=0072bc]"Please tell me there's something you can do for them,"[/color] she said, watching- until the nausea made it impossible, and she forced her attention away from the visceral scene. [color=0072bc]"Can't you seep into the sand and teleport them out?"[/color] The serpent turned and frowned at the shifting sands, remaining quiet for a while, only the crackle of static and boom of gunfire left to fill the silence. [color=39b54a]"It isss... not quite ssso sssimple..."[/color] The ebony-scaled creature's face scrunched up in thought, before it let out what sound like a breathy, hissing sigh of resignation. [color=39b54a]"Sssometimesss... there are people you sssimply can't sssave...."[/color] It froze, a heretofore unseen expression of deadness overtaking its demeanor for a long moment... And when the moment passed, the cobra's hood flared, as a hard look entered its glowing eyes. It glanced to the battle with Huo Ren, its mouth working in movements akin to a snake swallowing. It glanced back at the sands. [color=39b54a]"Tian Fei... isss not a foe I covert the opportunity to challenge, but given that isss the cassse... Isss it really more resssonable to exxxpect othersss to faccce her where I would not? Hmm~? But what ussse isss teaching othersss not to rely on you... if you don't ssstep up when it'sss truly necccesssary~?"[/color] It chuffed, a slow smile of predatory anticipation beginning to grow upon its scaled lips, fangs lightly bared. [color=39b54a]"Very well! Yesss~!"[/color] it seemed to muse solely to itself. Hungry slitted eyes flicked to meet Kaitlyn's own. [color=39b54a]"[i]Prepare yourself, Private[/i], for a rare treat~."[/color] All of a sudden, the hissing undertones were gone, and only the clear, lilting voice of Qingshe remained, her voice filled with unfettered excitement ringing through the pod, the buzz of static growing in the air. From her elevated position in the pod, it was far more easily visible to Kaitlyn, as the shadow that had thus-far only lounged around the vicinity of the remaining central front defenders began to explosively expand across the western beach and seep into the city. A hundred feet, two hundred, five hundred, a thousand. In less than a minute, the lands were swallowed by the bubbling tar-like, crackling ooze, as it made for the river, the lone barrier between it and the writhing, tidal sands. Across the vast mass, inky, bubbling bulges and arcs of emerald electricity began to protrude and crackle. As if sensing the ooze's approach, the sands seemed to become all the more agitated, lurching back and forth in a frenzy of barely-contained bloodlust. [color=39b54a][b]"Somehow, Miss Price~"[/b][/color] Qingshe's lilting voice was suddenly all too near to Kaitlyn's right ear, the woman herself now partially sliding from the ooze covering the inner wall of the pod. [color=39b54a][b]"I don't get the sense that you've ever experienced what happens when two upper-echelon A-Ranks clash without restraint, [i]hmmm[/i]~"[/b][/color] Her golden eyes bled into a burnt orange with the widening of her smile. She giggled, her piercing slitted gaze flicking back towards the sight in the distance, as if beckoning Kaitlyn's attention to the imminent clash of earth and shadow. The serpentine woman smiled predatorially, as she sidled up to Kaitlyn's side in the cramped quarters. It would be a clash of the titans, something most could never hope to witness in their lifetime. ...Assuming they even survived to tell the tale. And through her pleads for solutions... Kaitlyn may have gotten one... [color=39b54a][b][i]"Would you like to~?"[/i][/b][/color] Kaitlyn didn't really have a response to that, other than a flustered flush at the close proximity. No, she did not, in fact, want to witness the apocalyptic event that was two A-ranks duking it out like Mortal Kombat, but she got the feeling she was about to bear witness to that all the same.