[The Mythic Scribe]

"Oh I wish," responded Aurora. "Unfortunately, I left my pest repeller in my luggage, silly me." She kept running on after Gwylan, thinking that they would never be able to catch up to Nero and the Deathstalker if they didn't speed up or she didn't slow down.

"Hey Nero!" she hollered out. "Slow down! Or like, double back!" Maybe not the most graceful, smart, or creative plan... but it'd do for the moment. She just hoped there were no more Grimm wandering around the maze at the moment.

[MonsterManic]

Tina just kept running, head down and legs pumping. She really needed to get out more instead of just playing video games. But hey, that's what VR sports was for, right?

"If I see that Death Stalker, the first thing I'm doing is freezing it's legs. I'm tired of running." she called.

[Dusty]

"Ugh, this is so annoying!", Gwylan grumbled as he started putting a bit more effort into the chase, pushing himself into a proper sprint. "I came here to kick ass and look cool, not go for a run". Next time, they were gonna have to just kill it off immediately, cause running through a maze was not fun. At least the giant piss off scorpion left a hell of a trail behind it for them to follow. Hide and seek would be horrible with the Deathstalker, even if it was bigger than the bushes.

[The Mythic Scribe]

Aurora groaned in annoyance. She worked out a lot, running especially for an excuse to get out of the house, so she wasn't too bothered by the running. But she didn't like it either. Nero'd better lure the thing back soon because they had to take care of it one way or another, losing it in the maze wouldn't be good enough considering the maze was the way out.

"Running's good," reasoned Aurora rather pathetically. "Burns fat if you do endurance runs. Builds muscle for high-tolerance runs. Though I do admit that I didn't really expect to be doing so much so soon."

[MonsterManic]

Tina mimicked Aurora's groan, pushing herself further into a full-blown sprint. "Nero, if you can hear me, turn that thing around RIGHT NOW!" she yelled in pure frustration, completely out of character. Who knew exercise could make someone really mad and ticked off? When they eventually met the Death Stalker, it was getting a full load of Dust bullets up it's gullet.

[Pyro_Ferno]

Not 12 feet from the front of the group, a very scared and focused Nero jumped over the top of the maze walls, apparently having scaled them to take a shortcut back to the group. She seemed to be breathing heavily, but not exactly out of breath. "You don't have to shout Tina. Sensitive ears can hear you from across the maze." Nero said as she drew her swords, switched one into a shotgun, and readied a shot. Then, a very annoyed looking scorpion charged through the flimsy plant wall. Nero fired one shot, one which had much more recoil than her previous rounds. As the round connected, a brilliant flash of red kinetic energy exploded just beneath the more distant Deathstalker. As the HEAP round exploded in the right claw, said claw seemed noticeably more sluggish.

Current aura:87%

[Dusty]

"You know what does the same thing and is actually enjoyable? Swimming!". Why were they having trouble finding it anyway, it was a giant scorpion, not a freaking ninja!

Gwylan shooks his head slightly before joining in with the yelling, "Neroooohh look, there she is!". What convenient timing. And she'd brought her friend too, what joy. Guess it was time to get serious then. Keeping up his sprint, Gwylan twirled Irvine around his hand to ensure he had the proper grip for his quickly thought out plan and tore past Nero. Pushing himself as hard as he could, he leaped forward and slammed the base of the trident into the ground and pushed off like a pole vaulter, so he could sail through the air and hopefully land on the Grimm while it was distracted from being shot.

[The Mythic Scribe]

Aurora stopped in her tracks as Nero and the Deathstalker came into view. Good, the Faunus'd managed to turn the creature back without endangering herself it seemed. Props to her she supposed.

Like Gwylan, Aurora also dashed forward straight at the creature, though she went down instead of up. Deathstalkers were pretty well armored, but its legs and even the part where its pincers connected to the rest of the body were fairly open. They were a little tough, exoskeletons and all, but not as tough.

Once the HEAP round could do no more damage, Aurora dragged her machete along the right side of the Deathstalker, slashing at the part where the legs met the body. Dust in her blade activated, she further increased the damage on that side. It however, might've made Gwylan's job a little harder with the imbalance it'd caused.

[MonsterManic]

While Gwylan and Aurora lunged for the Death Stalker, Tina kept running, past the claws, and jumped onto the tough outer shell, before grabbing hold of the armored tail and shooting all 12 rounds of Dust bullets into the cracks between each plate of armor.

Flame, ice, electricity and bits of bone erupted from the chinks in the armor, but unfortunately the tail stayed intact. Whether it could still use the stinger, Tina couldn't tell, but she thought it wise to bail before something bad happened, leaping off and starting to reload.

[Pyro_Ferno]

That was an opening she needed, sadly, she could not take it. Going through an entire maze dodging stingers, pincers and body mass was not easy on Nero's stamina, and the fact that her aura took a few blows while she was at it. She was breathing heavily and slightly unsteady. She was not, however, out of the fight. Loading a few regular slugs, Nero decided that she has had enough of that thing's extended reach. Aiming directly at the base of the stinger, where it meets the tail, she fired six shots. Four shots were harmless, but the remaining two found their marks. The stinger was still attached, but has been reduced to a bludgeoning weapon. A very massive bludgeoning weapon, but not so stabby-stabby.

[Dusty]

Boy, this flying through the air trick seemed sooooo much better in Gwylan's head, a world where people didn't shoot guns indiscriminately at a giant scorpion while he was sailing towards it. He couldn't say that it wasn't more enjoyable this way.

The original plan of landing on it's back went out the window as Aurora and Tina made their plays, so Gwylan had to think on the fly. Twisting his body enough that he could viably land on it's claws instead, Gwylan pushed off again, pumping a little bit of his aura into his legs to ensure he'd get a good enough pounce at the Grimm. He drew back Irvine with both of his hands and, right as Tina moved aside, came sailing in, Irvine stabbing right into the spot Tina softened up, as Gwylan sailed past it's tail entirely, using his momentum to twist the trident as he went, so it carved the side of it's tail apart. That stinger had to be useless now, right?

[The Mythic Scribe]

The Deathstalker currently was not very happy at the fact that its stinger was now probably not too useful venom-wise and not useful stab-wise at all. Didn't mean it was going to give up, though. As Gwylan impaled its tail with his trident, the Grimm quickly flicked said tail backwards in the hopes of getting the pesky human off. Well, it worked. Because the stinger and part of the tail ceased to be part of it, snapping off and sharply sailing through the air in front of it.

Aurora, startled, looked to see how Gwylan fared with that when the scorpion-like creature suddenly turned and charged at the three remaining members of team Atlas, apparently preferring not to go over or around but rather through anything in its way. What bad manners. Once again, Aurora did not get to see how the rest of her team fared with the attack, herself being caught by one of the creature's claws and flung into the hedges once again.

This was particularly upsetting, as the nature hippie look was really not her thing.

It did, however, place her in-between the Grimm and its fallen stinger. Or at least what was left of it. Reaching out with her semblance, Aurora pulled it to her at 40 miles per hour, the chunk of... whatever it was made of... crashing into the Grimm's side. The action rendered her pretty much done for the moment though. Up to her teammates to deal the-hopefully-killing blows while it was momentarily stunned by its stinger.

Spoiler: ShowHide

 Whoops, forgot: Aura 95%

[MonsterManic]

Tina glanced up from her task (boy, reloading with two revolvers was much harder than it seemed in games) just in time to see a chunk of...something...comedically spinning through the air like a UFO and smacking the Grimm a new one. Not much she could do to capitalise on the chance but keep jamming bullets into the chamber as fast as possible. Make no mistake, when she was done, that Grimm was going down.

Spoiler: ShowHide

 So so so so sorry, I completely blanked out. Do please PM me to rant about my dereliction of posts if I take such a "break" like this again.

[Pyro_Ferno]

Nero was honestly sick of that things claws. Why am I stuck in this things claw? One would think it would be 110% done with me after I ran it through half the maze yelling various insults at it. With her hands still free, she loaded both Nightshade and Death Bell full of HEAP rounds while the big bad was messing with something in it's right claw, about to throw caution to the wind. That was when a glowing whatever decided to whack right into the Death Stalker's left side. The stinger had managed to crack a hole in the armor, which is thankfully weaker than the white plates, as well as free Nero from her crushing prison. It wasn't big enough Tina to get dust rounds in from range, but maybe allow Nero herself to shove in Nightshade and/or Death Bell.

And that is what she did. Twelve rounds of high explosive slugs were shot into the weak point, detonating a fraction of a second after the last one. Twelve near simultaneous explosions rushed throughout, and the scorpion's armor plating didn't help it one bit. With the force of the blast effectively contained within the beast, but still having enough to rocket Nero into the hedge wall behind her. By her guess, The contained force should have been enough to pulverize that things innards, but, Nero wasn't a medical expert in the slightest.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Aura:65%

[Dusty]

Gwylan swore violently as the Deathstalker sent him spinning through the air like a discarded children's toy. Being flung end over end really didn't too much in the way of improving a man's planning ability, so Gwylan hoped he wouldn't get yelled at for doing something as dumb as stabbing his trident into the earth in the hopes of slowing himself down. Instead, he happened to find what had to be the most tightly packed sod of dirt in Remnant, as he was whiplashed to a sudden and painful halt, his aura flaring up to prevent his shoulder ripping from it's socket or his fingers from breaking. The mouthful of dirt he got was really only adding insult to injury.

Now Gwylan was angry. Spitting out dirt, he got to his feet and yanked Irvine out of the ground with his off hand, shooting daggers as he stomped over to the creature that was in the midst of what could only be it's death throes at this point. If looks could kill, then his would...... probably not do as much as what Aurora and Nero had with the stinger, but still viably hurt. Spinning on his feet to avoid a wild swipe of it's claws, he drew his arm back underarm, then stabbed straight up under it's chin, or chin equivalent anyway. Gwylan wasn't a bug specialist, he didn't know.

"Prick!"

Spoiler: ShowHide

Aura=80%