[center][h2]Elise Kim[/h2][h3]Saitama Prefecture — Western Front[/h3][/center]
It was only by the slimmest of margins that Elise could pivot away from the projectiles aimed towards her body. Thankfully, the source of the hostile attack had seen fit to aim towards her rather than the soldiers who had kept their weapons trained straight ahead. It was a small solace, but that meant that her attention would have to be focused towards the most direct threat to her safety before resuming any efforts in supporting the JSDF personnel fighting for their lives below.

With that said, though, it quickly became apparent from Rune's message to her that the Frame Pilots were their priority. It was a battle of the specialists against the specialists, then—not something that the young woman had any particular qualms about, but troublesome all the same.

"One moment, please," she remarked, quickly checking to see if anything had clipped her or not, "Need to stabilize before I try anything."

Swiftly reorienting herself towards where the projectiles had originated from, Elise brought her rifle back up to eye-level and took aim. The presence of [i]five[/i] of the creatures was not particularly pleasing to the eye, but at the very least their heads seemed obvious enough as targets to fire at. Once one of them was dead center of her scope, Elise pulled the trigger and fired.

Unfortunately, though, the normal bullet seemed to not pierce through the target as it had the larger oni-esque Warped earlier. There was damage, certainly, but nothing anywhere close to lethal quite yet.

"...Damn. Sorry in advance, but you'll probably need to keep them occupied for a while. I need to use high-power rounds for these things, and those heads are small enough targets as-is without having to keep aim," Elise followed, the barrel of her gun beginning to glow as she prepared to finish off the one she had already damaged.

[@SaltSight][hr]
Though it had missed it's initial target, the airborne Warped seemed to have no reason to stop in it's attack upon the Pilots below. There was no way to ascertain it's thoughts (assuming it was even capable of such things)—only that it began to turn around to fire another blast towards the ground below.

What it did [i]not[/i] seem to expect, though, was one of the Pilots below disappearing while it was turning. Their position would be revealed soon enough, though, as a direct from above swiftly sent the Warped off balance and spiraling—if only for a moment—towards the ground. Now aware of the threat from above, the birdlike monster seemed to [i]accelerate[/i] for a moment, diving towards the ground briefly before shooting back up towards the sky. Again, it's head seemed to reopen, and the unearthly thrum of another laser preparing to be fired towards the new greatest threat here.

There was only one enemy that could meet it in the sky, it seemed, and once that was resolved it could continue scorching the ground below without pause.

[@Raineh Daze][@VitaVitaAR][hr]
Despite it's initial surprise attack failing, the Warped seemed to be rather unbothered by the whole affair—or, well, as unbothered as a monster that had no apparent emotions could be. Even seeing that it's prey had managed to land an attack back on it seemed to leave it unfazed as it began to stalk around it's target in silence, slowly circling it as their eyes remained locked onto one another.

So long as the Pilot's focus was wholly dedicated towards the Warped in front of it, though, the shadow of another in the shadows could easily be missed.

Eventually, though, the monster pounced to the side before catapulting off the broken wall of a nearby house to strike once more. [i]This[/i] time, though, the howling of a gale piercing through the air behind Rozaliya made clear that this was not a creature that simply hunted alone.

[@King Cosmos]