Masks 2

The assault of the heroes was relentless as they sought to slow down the kaiju's roll! Ezren ceaselessly assaulted it from the front with a swinging spine while Theraea put obstacles in its path. Finn's electricity arced into it from all sides, and Candy overwhelmed its senses with voices and distracting noises. Esen continued to save lives by pulling people out of the way, saving a few resistance fighters in the process.

Ken, seeing that the lasers were only annoying the creature, searched for heavier ordinance in the city's stockpiles. What he found was an undeployed squadron of defense drones that could arrive on the scene within the minute, if he so chose. They were armed with miniguns and missile launchers, and would probably be capable of doing immense damage to the mutant hordes if nothing else.

The Demon, Harpwn, Bloodsport, Lady Light, and the resistance soldiers continued to hold the line against the mutants while Folly, seemingly uselessly, continued loitering far from the fight. Gullgirl covered Theraea as she did her work, slamming flying mutants out of the air with her flail.

Inside the belly of the beast, Orla stabbed and slashed and did her best to generally rip the creature apart from within. It seemed to be working! The creature was letting out cries and roars as she attacked, and it wouldn't be long until it went into shock from the pain at the very least!

And then everything went bad.

Outside, the group saw several enormous pulsating roots shoot up from the ground and drive themselves into the kaiju. Before their eyes it began to shift, growing larger and spikier and generally more terrifying. Inside the creature, spikes grew from its stomach, impaling Orla in countless places as the stomach contracted. She felt a lot of her bones breaking, her skin melting away from intensifying acid, and her consciousness fading from the utter agony of the situation.

And then the creature exploded, sending spikes and spines and barbs every which way. Finn was immediately impaled through the chest (going right through her armor) by one of the creature's spines, sending her flying back into a brick wall with a shredded right leg and a mangled left arm. Candy was shot through by about six spines and collapsed to the ground, bleeding out. Orla was left a mass of crushed melting flesh on the ground where the creature had exploded, but was slowly pulling herself back together as Khazra took on most of the pain. Ezren was shot through by two spines and a load of barbs, but his demonic nature mostly just made this annoying. He could rip them out if he wanted. Esen managed to deftly dodge all the flying spines and spikes with her agility, but wasn't able to save anybody else as she did so. Similarly, Theraea was further away when it exploded, giving her time to throw up a barrier that saved herself and Gullgirl from impalement.

Ken was thankfully in the internet, and was in no danger of impalement. Being virtual rocked!

The fighters on the mutant front fared no better than the ones fighting the kaiju, having their backs turned to the monster when it exploded. The Demon's armor held up against the smaller barbs, but one of the spines went through her shoulder, severing her left arm and part of her torso as she went crumpling to the ground. Harpwn was impaled through the chest and lost his right leg, while Bloodsport deftly dodged behind a burned out truck, avoiding any serious damage. A couple of the resistance soldiers were impaled, but most managed to avoid damage by rushing INTO the mutant fray, letting them take the barrage instead. Lady Light, with her super durability, was able to avoid suffering any damage. Once the barrage had ended, she flew down into the fray and rescued the stranded soldiers, sending out as many panicked light blasts as she could to stem the now overwhelming mutant tide. Even Folly got a barb through the shoulder, sending her sprawling to the ground.

By the time the dust cleared from the explosion, most of the heroes were left strewn across the battlefield, mortally and horrifically wounded by the cataclysmic kaiju detonation.