Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.42 Can't Run Forever

“You don’t have to sprint. The Roach want chase you immediately.” Help spoke in a quiet voice with an undertone of disgust. Luca kept everyone moving at a jog with a wave of a hand even as he sort a clarification.

[Lucky: Why want it chase immediately it looked at us.]

“The Roaches aren’t known for rational thinking. They are more reliant on instincts. So they always… use… all the… resources before they hunt again lest another Roach use the… resources.” Luca listened to the careful way Help spoke and the pauses as they searched for a tactful way to explain.  Just thinking about the normal habits of insects made it possible to infer at least some of the ‘uses’ the roach would have for the bodies. It was enough to make Luca shudder.

[Tails: I think we can move faster anyway; this is a race after all.] Tails commented in the silence and was met with a round of assents. Luca agreed even if they had time before that thing came after them it was better to be further ahead.

The next few rooms would have been quite fun under regular circumstances a low gravity physics puzzle an explosion-based chemistry puzzle and two three-dimensional sliding puzzles. Unfortunately despite there attempts they could bring up the same levity and enjoyment that they’d struggled up at the start of this challenge. Luca could determine if the excessive anxiousness and fear that encroached on his mind was a result of the events or exacerbated by the weirdness of the cube.

Luca checked the map as they approached the next room. They should be approaching the centre and would have most two more rooms to clear. A flicker on the monitor from the butterfly behind them caused Luca to and the others to pick up the pace. They rushed into the room and stepped across a thin path to a suspended circle in the middle. However unlike normal the door behind them didn’t close instead a metal cage dropped down over the circle with a single entrance left along the path they had entered.

[Lucky: it’s a battle, that thing was in here deliberately.] the last butterfly was set three rooms back so they had a few minutes to prepare.

[Tails: Help do tis things have a particular weakness?]

“Not that I’m aware of, unfortunately they only way to kill them is to pierce through one of the joints on the carapace to the nerve cluster were the head and body connect.” Help raised their hands helplessly as they shook their head.

[Lucky: I’m glad I brought my swords then. Rӓv can you check it its safe to touch the cage?]

[Rӓv: Sure.] Rӓv directed the RAL to land on the cage and quickly scurry up to the top offering clear lighting of the entire area. Luca looked at the RAL and then flinched as Ghost quickly scaled the cage after it. When nothing happened to him Luca relaxed.

[Lucky: We do this by rotation, I’ll go first to test it out. Then we see if its ones or twos. Focus on disabling strikes. With the speed of this thing it will be difficult to suppress with numbers alone so we need to be canny.] The others nodded faces set in determination they’d be running this entire time. Really not something the liked they preferred to deal with the problem.

“I can fight with you Lucky, io can use my magic to try and entangle it. it would be better with some seeds to work with, but I can just use the magic.” Help flew off Luca’s shoulder and looked at the determined faces of the others before raising a fist solemnly as they spoke.

Luca looked at the small fairy and determined that it would be hard for the large Roach creature to hit Help while they were flying around and so nodded in assent. Luca didn’t help the fairy out only to get the killed.

Luca shucked his outer jacket and tossed it to the edge of the cage and then drew his swords. He would have liked to prepare a trap or something but they neither had the time, the resources, or the space for that so they would just have to be canny. If it relied on instincts, they needed to learn the pattern Luca had the best reflexes so he needed to manage to give the others as much time to observe as he could.

The Roach slowed to a walk as it entered the room. Luca decided that it was even worse to look at up front. As it crossed the path its head turned left to right but because it didn’t have a neck it was unable to look up. Luca looked over the spindly arms and the sharp claws and raised his swords. He couldn’t block because his swords would likely get destroyed, he needed to dodge and deflect.

The first strike came, and Luca didn’t even see the movement. A flash of blue light arose and shifted the strike to the side. Luca took advantage of the time Help had bought her and drove her sword into the side of the arm. It skittered of the carapace but caused a slight c***k at the elbow join. Luca didn’t stay still ducking and spinning around the body to slice at the back of the knee. With the Roaches first attack Luca determined that he couldn’t stand and defend. There was no way to defend a strike that he couldn’t see coming.

Thus Luca could only resort to moving and striking if he kept attacking and moving then it would be forced to move after him. Something chasing could be avoided because the direction and reach of attacks could be calculated. It was why they hadn’t struggled to much with the increased speed used by the faceless masks before, there lack of systematic training meant they could see through the pattern. If it weren’t for the Roaches excessive strength Luca would have just worked through the pattern and dealt with it.

Luca moved around striking and dodging and occasionally relying on Help to block the shots that he couldn’t avoid. As the time moved on Luca felt his breathing grow short and his vision started to shift. With exhaustion threatening he had to tag out. Thankfully the others where paying attention and Ghost and Rӓv dropped down from the roof on either side of the Roach. They struck out as they landed instantly drawing its attention. Luca launched his hook wing and retracted himself to the ceiling hooking his legs onto the cage Luca breathed deeply as he struggled to regain his stamina.

Bellow Ghost and Rӓv used harrying attacks moving in from opposite sides that forced the thing to either target one and suffer attacks from the other or constantly shift between the two. At the same time to two struggled to avoid ending up adjacent to each other which would give the Roach a chance to swing widely at both of them.

Before long Tails and Holly swapped in, Luca could see the accumulation of chips on the Roach but it’s movements hadn’t been affected at all and no strikes had come close to going through the join between body and neck. Moreover the thing didn’t seem top get tired. Luca could go one maybe two more rotations, but such a high intensity fight couldn’t be sustained more than that.

Resolutely Luca put away his swords with the longer reach and pulled out two step knives. The last two form his belt he would have to reach for his spares if he needed more. After a few minutes the Roach moved underneath where Luca hung. So without hesitation Luca dropped own swinging the first step knife as he fell. Tails and Holly hadn’t tired by that point, so they harried the Roach in place. Luca struck hard at the join between neck and body and the step knife activated.

It struck in with a disturbing crunch but the Roach’s back bulged as the carapace shifted abruptly and Luca was flung hard across the room the second step knife slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor. Luca slammed into the side of the cage winded as he slumped to the ground. Similarly Tails and Holly were nocked aside.

As the Roaches wings resettled the step knife popped out and fell to the floor. A small hole was left at the sight, but it wasn’t bigger for another blade to pierce all the way through. The roach turned and headed across the cage directly towards Luca. Ghost and Rӓv dropped down to intercept but it just ignored them. At most it brushed them aside with a flick of its wings.