"So you want to fight."

Thirteen said plainly, not moving from his stance. The only reason why he hadn't decided to attack was because the two had not reached an agreement. Yet.

"Think carefully, metal man. I don't care which way it goes, but perhaps you might be concerned about keeping yourself alive."

"Reply: I have no deathwish here, Thirteen," Bl.An.C. said, his plasma gun hummed. "But if even you can't leave, we're all going to die anyway."

He gazes at Handyman's form.

“Thirteen…I g-guess I n-need your…um, help.”

The words just came out…unexpectedly…so much so that Venox was startled by them. Instinct told him to attack, to burn the wretched human to blackened cinders. But his heart was stronger, crushing the violent idea. Venox’s fangs lengthened. His body tensed and his foot spikes stabbed in and out of concealment. He felt like he was at war with himself.

His serpent twisted in the air behind him, twittering nervously.

No trust, it protested.

Venox just kept his eyes locked on the android, as it frantically tried to decide which threat to harm first. He then answered his Darkwing, in the same mental tongue.

We may not have to.

"So let me clarify what you want."

Thirteen gestured with a finger at Bl.An.C., almost mockingly.

"You think we're all going to die anyway, so you'd rather have me fall first."

There was a single clap.

"You clever man."

He wasn't concerned. He was willing to take out everyone, and now that one has swayed over, that was one less nuisance he could take care of.

You had better have a good reason, Seventeen, He voiced those words in his mind, a suppressed fury that could barely be felt in his emotion.

"Statement: I don't need you to fall first," the armored scientist said. "Its assured we all die. None of us can take out the beast and you know it."

A wager, a deadly one but it'll have to do. I need to jab at something. Get him pissed off.

The creature swarmed, for lack of a better word. Arms clambered and hands scurried, and for a moment, one could forget that all those limbs and appendages were attached to a singular being. It no longer needed legs to stand, tens of hands setting onto the ground just to rise up and be replaced by another. Earth underhand was flayed bare of anything that was on it, caused from the incessant scuffling above.

And yet, throughout all the moving parts of this menacing machine, one part stayed still, and that part smiled.

The only warning that appeared for its next move was its body as it suddenly locked up, appendages innumerable shaking to a halt as it did so. And then it started.

Instead of focusing on Thirteen, as it did before, it threw several open-handed palms towards each of the characters in the area, attempting to snatch and grab them for food.

An alien feeling built in Venox's body. Rage. The fearful side of him cowered in its presence. His urge to survive was stronger than his fright.

A storm of the finger beast's arms surged towards him, and he wove through their fleshy mass, aiming for one creature. Thirteen.

Fire burst from his jaws, aimed at the arms heading the Host's way. In the shadows, his Darkwing waited and watched. The arm storm wasn't coming this way yet, so it watched its master, ready to aid him.

Thirteen was watching every move. And when the beast moved, he was already stepping away and into a blindspot between the web of arms. What he did not expect was the hurtling figure of Venox, who seemed intent on assisting him. His brow furrowed, but there was no time for him to speak. In a series of quick steps he adjusted himself to deliver an open palm blow to his left before spinning around with a kick that came from below, striking away at the arms intended to target him. The actions came fast and explosive, as if both fist and kick struck like bullets of a rifle.

If anyone had been in any condition to watch, they could tell he was no ordinary fighter.

The android watched the numerous arms that exploded from the creature's form. A bracer manifested on his forearm. Another notable event was Thirteen's combat prowess.

The armored scientist was against a skilled combatant but this was nothing new to him. Every battle he was on, he was the underdog. Powerful abilities overcome by strategy. This is no different. He watched Thirteen cautiously as his own sensors kept track of the arms. Fists came up towards him, from everywhere. The energy blade buzzed alive and he did his best to cut up what he can whilst he moved. His gun fired at an incoming fist, another was sliced as he sidestepped it but he couldn't beat them all. A fist struck at his faceplate and another to his abdomen.

The armored scientist didn't like the odds of the situation. Deciding not to die a horrible death by pummeling, a flash of light exploded on his back and in a few seconds, the wingpack came through. He didn't like the idea of being trapped but a few choice boosts should help him survive a lot longer.

The creature cared not for its heavy, thick arms being deflected, sliced and incinerated, though the birght light from Venox's flames and Bl.An.C's plasma tools singed at his surfaces. Its hands withdrew away from the scientist and the bat creature in tatters, tatters that regenerated back into clenched fists in seconds. There was one that did not wield light, the easiest prey of the three.

It tore off the ground, limbs shattering as it did so. Handfuls of dirt and grass was thrown behind and around it, particles of earth thrown into the air just to fall back down, a rain of filth to pelt all below.

The flurry of limbs had no plan, no ounce of intelligent thought behind its action, only the desire that racked through its whole body as it stormed towards Thirteen.

"This world is false. Nothing is true."

"Everything that has happened here, has both happened simultaneously, yet false in existence."

Thirteen pursed his lips. He had to withhold his urge to give into the flow of the battle, he had to think of what was happening, to keep his mind in check and active. He thought back to the very words that Seventeen had concluded with. It seemed like obvious garble, but experiencing this nonsensical world made garble sound like wise words. It was the entire reason why this tournament was conceived at all; the idea of being able to control what was happening, and most of all, those who die here would not be entirely in the real world. Nothing that has happened here need to be true, of course.

Or so Seventeen claimed. A claim which Thirteen had already began to doubt, because it lay in conjunction with another claim; everything is false. And if everything is false, new lies could be made to shape existing lies, if the world's inhabitants had believed or hoped for it to be so. Telling himself he could leave would have been simple enough to allow him exit...but that no longer applied.

The beast charged, and he laughed.

He was sure even his own thoughts were alien and gibberish to him, but nonetheless he had to cast aside any doubt and believe in the gibberish. If he could not leave then he would have to find another way out instead. Clinging to his world's logic would only be the detriment of him.

He tensed up in his fighting stance, awaiting the first strike of the beast.

Venox hovered. As he'd suspected, the finger beast disliked his firelight and the android's glowing tech. Thirteen was its main target now.

The bat surged past his Darkwing's hiding place, letting out a single, sharp, burst hiss. The Darkwing shrieked, zipping towards Thirteen in a blur of speed. Smoke began to pour from its mouth, and the glow of building flame intensified in its throat. Just before colliding with the Host, the serpent twisted its body, spitting flame all over itself. The Darkwing burst into flames, and began to surge in a widening circle around Thirteen. Any hand that got close was burned, and the Darkwing itself sent bursts of flame at any part of the enemy it saw.

Venox took a deep breath, and set himself on fire too, whirling around Thirteen. The heat hurt more than anything, but he kept telling himself the burns were worth it. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the Darkwing cock its head at him.

The bat smiled, despite the pain, and flicked his head up in silent signal. The Darkwing angled its wings, and then hurtled straight for the finger beast's face. The serpent screamed defiance, aiming for the creature's mouth.

Killing the beast was near impossible. Disabling it however...

The beast felt heat, but more than that it felt light. The glow of fire singed against its skin, though it was nowhere near yet.

There were too many things around him. He needed to feed, but for that he needed to subdue.

Tens of arms stopped in their tracks and slammed into the ground, fingers dug straight into the dirt. A leg was lifted slowly and slammed deeply through the dirt until it broke into rock underneath. Its head started to flay itself apart, pale yellow tendrils wriggled out between gaps like maggots from a corpse, until an octopus of teeth and tentacles squirmed about where its head once was.

It didn't matter what direction the flaming bat's friend came from, because all around the beast, towers rose. Black fists the size of pick-up tricks emerged through the dirt, grass and dust scattered everywhere and trickles of partcles slidoff the tree-like arms as they rose to the heavens.

And slowly, from the beast's mouth, came a deafening tone. Unending and powerful, it sounded like a dimension constantly gushed through a gap in reality itself. Fog flooded from the thing's open skull and fingers started to squirm from the dirt underneath.


A few meters in front of the darkwing's path, a gigantic open palm burst through the ground at a terrifying pace.

Bl.An.C. moved to the edge, slightly away from the fight. Venox doing fine, containing the beast from Thirteen but that wasn't his objective. The creature was now seemingly against the darkwing and its master. He took the opportunity to fly skyward and survey the scene from there. Three flashes of light came through, manifesting two pods on his leg and a blinking red light on his shoulder.

He charged his plasma gun and aimed for Thirteen's head.

When the host is done, he can move on to handling the beast.

The Darkwing smashed full force into the hand tree, sending bits of flaming flesh everywhere. If anyone had been looking close, it would seem as if the serpent caused a miniature explosion by doing so.

Venox crumpled a few feet away from the Host, his exhausted wings twitching in protest. His wounds were slowly beginning to regenerate, but that meant close to nothing. The pain of the burns paralyzed his body, leaving him a weakling once more. Venox knew he wouldn't be able to defend himself for a little bit, and the idea tried to bring back his fear.

He turned his head, and noticed the android aiming for Thirteen. Great. Could the metal creature get any dumber? Yes, the beast might rid them of the Host, but for now, they had to get rid of the beast...as a team.

If the android couldn't realize that...

Venox tried hard to focus on throwing a telepathic message to the metal human, but the pain was distracting. Maybe he only needed a few words...not a whole sentence. The bat focused on the android and shut his eyes tight, thinking as hard as he could.

I, Host, you, kill fingers.