It just took a few shots for Haruka to realize that her machine gun didn't do much damage to the strange creature which had emerged from the ground; and even though she didn't like the thought of leaving Michiru unprotected, she knew that she didn't have much of a choice, holstering her machine gun as she ran to the car.
The creature roared in response to her sudden movement, and from the corner of her eye, she saw how it raised one of its thin arms; not letting the appearance of the appendage fool her, Haruka forced herself to wait until the last possible second, performing a daring dive the moment the arm came down, the ground trembling when it slammed down onto the spot where the blonde had been the blink of an eye earlier.
Quickly, before the creature could try to land another hit, Haruka climbed up to the gunner seat, dropping into it and taking firm hold of the mounted machine gun; now she was glad that they hadn't been in any firefights since the previous day, and that Michiru had thought of reloading it before they had made camp for the night, gritting her teeth as she took aim, then pulled the trigger.
The rat-tat-tat of the mounted machine gun was loud enough to bring Michiru back from her shock-induced stupor, at least far enough to let her realize what was going on; reminding herself again that she was Michiru Kaioh, and that she wouldn't let a few scratches take her down like this, she struggled to sit up, setting her jaw against the pulsing pain in her arm, keeping her gaze away from the wounds, knowing that seeing them would only make it worse again.
Giving her best to not move her injured arm too much, she pulled her gun from the holster, knowing that her sniper rifle wasn't an option; her hand shook as she brought up the gun, but she set her jaw and reminded herself who she was, of the things she could do, and after a few heartbeats, the trembling stopped, her pain forgotten as all she focused on was the creature and the shot she would have to make.
Haruka still was firing away from the gunner seat, not even stopping when the creature slammed one arm against the vehicle and made it rock; clearly though, the bullets didn't do much damage, and even if the blonde by now had figured out what she had to aim for, the mounted machine gun didn't have enough accuracy to let her aim properly.
Keeping her hand steady, briefly wondering if she could do so only thanks to what her father always had called her iron will and her mother had referred to as unbelievable stubbornness, a trait a lady should not possess, or if her newly discovered Siren powers were helping, Michiru aimed carefully, not taking longer than absolutely necessary though; then, she pulled the trigger, and the creature roared in pain as her shot took out one of its eyes.
In the gunner seat, Haruka flinched at her shot, then looked at her in surprise, clearly not having expected her to join the fight; she got over feeling startled quickly though, focusing on the task at hand again, trying to aim for the eyes as she kept firing, cursing herself for getting a gun which was so inaccurate, feeling a bit better though when one of her bullets found what she had been aiming for, taking out another one of the creature's eyes.
Another shot from Michiru took care of the third, leaving only one; eager to finish the thing off, Haruka kept firing, but before she could land another hit, the creature let out another massive howl, then slammed one arm against the car again – which much more force this time, the blonde yelping in dismay when she felt the vehicle begin to topple beneath her.
Hurriedly, she scrambled out of the seat, then jumped, just as the car began to fall over; she hit the ground harder than anticipated and rolled a few feet, ending up close to Michiru, the sniper gritting her teeth so hard that her jaw muscles were working visibly beneath the skin as she tried to take aim again, her hand now shaking again, despite her hardest tries to make it stop.
With another roar, the creature brought its arm up again, Haruka's eyes going wide as she realized that the thing was aiming for Michiru, now that the car had been taken out of the fight; without missing a beat, she shot forward, mentally apologizing to the sniper as she tackled her, took firm hold of her and, using her own momentum and Michiru's added weight, rolled out of the danger zone with her, the flattened end of the creature's arm slamming down onto the ground just the blink of an eye later.
"Should have seen that coming", Michiru grumbled while Haruka hurried to get off of her, giving her another chance at firing; again, she took a moment to aim, once more forcefully steadying her hand, then pulled the trigger, letting out the breath she had been holding when the shot hit the last remaining good eye of the thing.
It let out another shriek in reply, a shudder running through the massive body; then, it began to pulse oddly, contracting and expanding, Haruka realizing just in time what was happening, grabbing Michiru's good arm, not bothering to explain, making her yelp as she dragged her over to where the car laid on its side, both of them finding cover behind it just seconds before the creature contracted one more time – and then it exploded, bits and pieces of it raining down onto the landscape while rocks flew from around the area where it had been, several of them hitting the car hard enough to put dents in the metal.
"Well", Michiru finally was the one to break the silence a few minutes later, her ears still ringing from the explosion, "that certainly was unexpected. Tell me, Haruka, does it happen often on this planet that the very soil spits out creatures eager to eat a person?"
"More often than one would think", Haruka gave back, smiling weakly when Michiru rolled her eyes, "but usually, they're not that big. And not that hard to kill."
"That's calming", the sniper dryly told her, earning a low snort; now that the fight was over, the pain from her injuries came back to the surface, and she grimaced, still finding it hard to look at her arm, remembering all too well how bad the wounds had looked.
"I'd say we should clean and bandage that", Haruka stated, making the smaller woman look at her, "but all of our supplies are in the car, and the car fell over, so…"
"Also, we are quite messy", Michiru pointed out, the blonde having to admit that this was a good point, both of them covered from head to toe in Rakk blood, dust and dirt from the ground, "we should clean ourselves up before we think of cleaning those wounds."
"One of those camps we passed had a water hole", Haruka remembered, "and it wasn't too far, so we should be able to walk there, if you're up to it? Maybe we can find some useful stuff there, too."
"Let's go, then", Michiru gave back, still carefully avoiding it to look at her arm, "but first, we should check if anything can still be salvaged from our bags."
Nodding her agreement, Haruka told her that she would take care of that, and that she should get some rest in the meantime; grateful, Michiru smiled and nodded, then watched how Haruka moved to search the bags which had not been squished flat by the car, smiling slightly to herself as she realized that this was the first time she showed this sort of weakness to anyone, by merely allowing it that someone else did the task at hand while she did nothing but sit there.
Perhaps, some day, I'll find the words to tell you how special you are, she thought to herself while Haruka rescued some clothing, medical supplies and ammunition from their supplies; the rest of the bags was either trapped beneath the car or had their supplies leaking out of them, and thus, she gave them up as a lost cause, somewhat proudly presenting her findings to the sniper as she moved back to her side.
"Ready to go?" she then asked, making Michiru nod; she came to her feet, and side by side, they started walking, heading back to the abandoned camp, both of them eager to get there so they could clean up and have some rest after the unexpected and difficult fight.
Before they got clean, they used the water hole to fill up their bottles; then, they both undressed and stepped into the surprisingly warm water, Michiru letting out a content sigh as she sat down and got comfortable.
"Am I glad this water is not ice cold", she then told Haruka, briefly gritting her teeth when the water made contact with her wounds; the blonde nodded her agreement, then moved closer to her, taking careful hold of her arm, giving her an apologetic look when the sniper let out a wince at the small movement.
"Sorry", she then murmured, not letting go though, knowing that the gashes had to be cleaned before they could think of stitching them; she briefly was glad that their little first aid pack hadn't been damaged when the car had fallen over, "I'm trying to be careful, but…"
"It's alright", Michiru reassured her, knowing it had to be done; Haruka gave her another unhappy look, then focused on the gashes, grimacing as she got her first good look at them, dismayed by how deep the Rakk's talons had cut into the sniper's arm.
"It's unfortunate I don't know how to heal myself with my Siren powers", Michiru commented, hoping that talking would distract her from the pain when Haruka started cleaning the wounds, "or these cuts would be gone fairly quickly."
"Well, I was out cold the last time you used those powers", Haruka reminded her, "so sadly, I can't really help with that. Hey, maybe I should get shot again, that might activate them once more."
"Don't you dare", Michiru strictly told her, making her chuckle, "it was distressing enough to see you get shot once, thank you."
"Okay, not getting shot then", the blonde smirked, "that wasn't a serious suggestion, anyway."
"You don't say", the sniper snarked, earning another laugh from the taller woman; she smiled back at her, somewhat relieved when Haruka, after a critical look at her arm, told her that it was as clean as it would get, and that they'd have to stitch it up next, perhaps after adding some disinfectant.
"If the bottle didn't break", she mused out loud, failing to notice the way Michiru was looking at her; the warm water had soothed the pain after the initial brief increase, and she found herself quite distracted from the necessary medical attention the gashes still needed as she took in the blonde's lean form, water dripping from her hair and trailing down her shoulders and arms.
"Well", she half said, half purred, making Haruka look at her in surprise, an emotion which quickly was replaced with a by now familiar glint in her eyes, "I imagine you are right. But perhaps it can wait a bit longer? This water is so nicely warm, and watching you clean up, well… it has given me a few ideas how to make good use of this pool."
"Is that so", Haruka smirked, already moving closer to her; Michiru just smiled, then reached out with her good arm and pulled her closer, her injuries fully forgotten as their lips met, the leftover adrenaline from the previous fight making the kiss even more passionate and hungry than their previous ones, all wounds and worries which had been on the sniper's mind soon forgotten at Haruka's kiss and touch.