Itxaro was too focused on not falling into the raging river underfoot to notice much. Shirik's cheers of encouragement. The ominous silence that followed. It wasn't until she heard their voice again, warped and strangely distorted, did the engineer realize something was terribly, terribly, wrong. 

And by then, something had her leg. 

She tried pulling away without looking, assuming she'd gotten snagged on a branch knocked loose by the torrential flood, but it tightened around her calf, digging into the heavy cloth. Then Itxaro looked. A black tendril coiled up her leg, its grasp slowly constricting, while another crept towards her other. [i]Some kind of snake? Vine?[/i]

She barely had time to yelp before all hell broke loose.

Strange, shifting figures erupted from everywhere, all ropes of black sinew striking with deadly speed and strength. [color=gold]"Shit, shit, shit,"[/color] Itxaro muttered breathlessly as she was pulled onto her back with incredible strength by the tendril. Time seemed to slow as she watched her comrades struggle against the beasts in whatever way they knew; sword, gun, fire. It all seemed woefully ineffective.

[i]No help coming here,[/i] Itxaro thought as she struggled to keep her body out of the water. Already she was submerged to the knee, tentacle climbing up further and further. She drew her heavy revolver and pressed the barrel against the tendril's surprisingly yielding flesh, sideways so as not to blow her own leg off, and pulled the trigger. Jet black powder splattered across the wet stone as the tendril was nearly severed from the large caliber round. Her ears rang from the gun's boom and her hand felt numb from the recoil, but Itxaro seized the moment and pulled her leg free from the weakened thing, scrambling to her feet.

The damaged tentacle withdrew just as the other seized her wrist holding the gun. She might have wondered at the creature's intelligence, apparently able to realize that gun equals weapon, had it not started to try and crush her organic arm while simultaneously drag her into the water. Itxaro howled in equal parts anger and pain, her finger instinctively pulling the revolver's trigger. It fired into the air to no effect. 

She pulled against the tentacle, pain shooting up and down her arm, before realizing she had two hands. Well, one hand and a prosthetic, but a very strong prosthetic at that. She grasped the tentacle with her unfeeling mechanical hand, and with a squeeze, crushed the pliant flesh in her metal palm to black dust. She nearly fell back into the water but stumbled and remained upright. Her arm was sore, and purple bruises were already appearing around her wrist, but she was alive and free. 

Itxaro watched in silent horror as another malformed beast sprung from the water and onto the collapsed, now engulfed in fire. She thoughtlessly fired her remaining five rounds into the creature's back (was it the back?) and dark powder erupted from the exit wounds on the other side. The bullets seemed to pass clear through the monster. [color=gold]"Shit,"[/color] She repeated, knowing her gun was now empty and the ammo for it could only be found in her cinched-up backpack.