"Reptile?" Jin asked. The four of them crowded around Cassie, into the halo of the glow stick light. His body was buried, half-concealed underneath the eggs. But from what Takeda could see of an arm sticking out from between them, it was definitely Reptile. The skin that was left between the two arm bones looked textured in hard scales and jagged edges of torn flesh. Oddly enough, his hand was still in tact. The fingers were curled but not closed into a fist, giving it a sense of dynamic movement that looked grossly alive. "Then that really sucks to suck," Jin chuckled darkly.
Takeda hummed in agreement, instantly transported back to their fight with Reptile in the woods during Shinnok's invasion. Reptile had spit his acidic saliva directly into Takeda's eyes. The pain was immediate, like he rubbed hot peppers on his eyeballs. He had scrubbed frantically at his face, spreading more of it around and searing more of his skin. He was more than sure that half his face had melted off and that his eyes were dripping out of their sockets, not his tears. The irony that he would be blinded forever like Kenshi had not been lost on him, and with it came a very real expectation that he'd never have his sight again.
Despite being the one to actually defeat Reptile back then, Jacqui scoffed. "Have a little respect for the dead, Jin," she chided. "If it was Kung Lao you wouldn't say that."
"No, because I have real respect for Lao, whether he's alive or dead."
Jacqui rolled her eyes, staring down at what they could see of the body. "I guess he never found another Zaterran. Right? Wasn't he looking for more of his kind? Wonder if that's why he came down here."
"Could be," Jin said. "Maybe he started looking on separate planes of existence and found this one."
There was a twinge of something in his heart that Takeda couldn't immediately place. He couldn't have said he would miss Reptile - not after their last encounter. But he did feel a small amount of regret for Reptile over his abruptly ended quest. If he truly was the last Zaterran, then an entire race, history, culture, and heritage ended with his end. Takeda could relate, in a way. Reading minds naturally came accompanied with second-hand empathy, and more than once he shared Hanzo's random bouts of intense heartache over the eradication of his entire clan and family. He felt a bit of his bitterness abate in pity.
" . . . Maybe we should do something for him," Jacqui suggested. "Something like what we did for Sub-Zero."
"Hah!" Cassie barked. "You're way too sweet, Jacqui."
"It doesn't have to be elaborate," Takeda said. "But something."
"Since when do you care about Reptile, Takeda?" Jin asked. "Didn't you fight him in the Dead Woods? What is it that he did, spit acid in your mouth or something?" Jacqui barked out a laugh at his mistake. She quickly coughed into her hand to cover it up.
"Okay. Ew. It was in my eyes. I just pity him a little. Like I said, doesn't have to be elaborate."
"Just something respectful." Jacqui chimed in again as soon as she recovered. "We should help him."
"Help him?" Jin mocked. "He's beyond help at this point."
"You know what I mean."
Cassie shook her head. "Yeah, no. Hard pass this time. For a few reasons. First, I'm not climbing over these eggs and through those webs to get to him. I was willing to do that for Sub-Zero, but Reptile? No. Second, he's gonna stink, just like Sub-Zero did, and I'd prefer to not fill these caves with anything nasty. Third, look at him." She lifted the glow stick so they could all get a better look at him, buried under webs, grime, and egg sacs. His ribcage had hard, decomposed, leathery skin stretched gauntly over the bones, but there was a single large hole torn outwards where spiders and other bugs had clawed and torn out of him. The chest cavity was hollow, devoid of any organs, and the ribs they could see through the hole were picked completely clean, near neon green. Some bug and baby spider carcasses lay dead and partially dissolved around the body, unable to withstand his acidic blood. Other random bones stuck out through holes in the eggs as well. They had devoured him.
The in-tact hand was curled in on itself, but was lifted out towards the tunnels. At one point the fingers had been outstretched. Reaching towards his escape route. What looked like bandage wrappings covered the palm and a few fingers, but it was mostly decomposed as well.
"Yeah, no," Cassie said again. "I'm not dragging him out here for a proper burial or whatever you had in mind. Lastly, and I'm just gonna say it: I'm bummed for him too, like, R.I.P and everything, but thank fuck we never have to face him again."
"Cass," Jacqui whined.
"You can't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing. Whatever. I know you all were thinking it. Can we please keep going?" That was Cassie's way of avoiding any further discussion. She pushed past them and walked forward, leaning around the corner to glance ahead, then immediately turned back around. "Nothing. Dead end."
She led them down a different path to their right, and the surroundings changed abruptly to more elaborate decorations. The floor that had degraded back to dirt and loose rocks while they traveled had a single, makeshift clay step that inclined up and back onto the smooth marble design. This section of path even sported a stone trim that gave it a special, finished cut. The tunnel was carved wide enough that the tips of the ribs didn't touch on either side, and the blood on the walls was sparse, nearly nonexistent. No fountains, no intricate patterns that dripped down the walls. Just a simple drop or two that had fallen accidentally over the course of people existing there.
The changes looked to be like a conscious decision. It looked like they were approaching something of importance, and the Osh-Tekk people who lived there had wanted to keep it neat and clean, even of the blood they cherished so highly. Another wide, square sconce sat at the end of the tunnel, and it was perfectly in tact. No pieces had broken off, the square base still had the sharpness in its design, and the claws that poked outwards off of it still looked sharp enough to rend flesh. The flame cast a dim, yellow light around it, illuminating a sharp left curve to the tunnel and the spiderwebs that still clung to the walls and ribs, reminding them the spiders were still a potential threat.
Cassie led them around the corner, and they came upon an archway carved of two ribs. It was packed as full as it could be with a crude attempt at a blockade. Misshapen bricks and stones had been thrown in the opening with little care to make them fit. It was clear that someone had done it in haste to keep something out. Cassie walked up to it and pushed it with her hands, and from the frown on her face she expected it to fall right out. Despite its looseleaf appearance, the rocks were packed tightly in the hole. She crouched down and closed one eye, peering through a small gap between two rocks that didn't quite fit together.
"I don't see anything on the other side," she said. "Hopefully it was some of the people we're trying to find that did this."
The concept reminded Takeda of something he read once. "They bricked themselves up in the cave basement," Takeda mused distantly. "You guys ever read The Cask of Amontillado?"
"Not funny," Jin said. At least someone understood his reference. "I think that's the first joke you made since we got here. You take missions pretty seriously but you're usually the one making small jokes and wisecracks."
"Well, you know," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Hanzo and Kenshi stuck down here, girlfriend's dad's stuck down here, I'm stressed, she's stressed, we're all stressed, and all that. No big deal."
"See, that!" Jin said, pointing at him. "I missed that personality. Bring it back."
"Maybe if I wasn't injured and freezing inside my own body right now."
"Well, at least I know you're feeling better if you're making jokes," Jacqui said. "Right?"
"Yeah, I feel fine right now. My arm doesn't hurt at all since Cassie put that numbing agent on it." He twisted his arm to look at the wound, but the white shine of bandages blocked his view of it. He flexed his fingers, and though they still felt stiff and hot, they were easy to move. He readjusted the straps of his gauntlets, ensuring the whips were on a straight line down his arm.
"Jacqui, think you can clear these rocks?" Cassie asked.
"I don't know," she said, holding up her bandaged arms. "I can't use my gauntlets right now."
"Oh. Right. Okay, so how can we get through?" Cassie asked, crossing her arms and tapping the end of her gun against her chin.
"I've got a little bit of C-4 in my bag, but I don't know if we should use it. It could bring down an entire section of caves."
"Hm," Cassie frowned. "Yeah, you're probably right."
"Is it that strong?" Takeda asked.
"Yeah. One pound of the stuff can do some real damage. Plus, it could release toxic fumes after detonation. We were warned about it in our training."
Suddenly, an idea sparked in Cassie's eyes. "Hold on. I got this. Move." She waved her hands to either side of her, telling them all to back away. She put her gun away into the holster, then lowered her arms to her sides and shook them out. She rolled her shoulders back, turning her neck to either side to loosen whatever tension she had.
"What, you finally gonna put that hard head to good use?" Jin joked.
"Shut the fuck up, Jin," Cassie snapped. "I let you do your whole Raiden staff thing. Let me do this."
"Have you guys noticed that there are no skeletons here?" Jin asked. Judging by his wild smirk, he was only saying it to annoy Cassie, who started to pace back and forth in front of the blockade.
"There were a few," Jacqui said. "Back in that one really big room where we rested for a bit."
"No, but those weren't full skeletons. They were just randomly scattered bones."
"Then something ran through and absolutely demolished them," Cassie said. "But either way, that means there were bones. If there are bones, something died."
"Yeah, but I was expecting there to be more. Remember how I said that some Osh-Tekk definitely settled here? And I said that we'd know based on the bodies we'd find. If we found Osh-Tekk skeletons, and spider carcasses, we'd know that the Osh-Tekk were overrun. And either they all died, or they packed camp and left. And then I said if we only found spider carcasses, then we'd know the spiders were hunted by the Osh-Tekk. I really haven't seen any skeletons. It's just weird-"
"Okay, shut up!" Cassie yelled. "I'm ready."
She backed several feet away from the door, like a bull readying its charge. She stared down the door, then took a running start at it. She lifted her leg for a sharp kick, and suddenly all the light from the sconce behind them seemed to dim. It all gathered around Cassie, and her green halo sparked to life around her form. She kicked, launching her foot straight out at the door, and her boot connected to the rocks with a solid crack. Her body froze where it was, but a green copy of her form slid outwards from her and its foot shattered and broke stone, punching through the barrier. Brick and rock dust exploded into the new area, littering the ground with sharp clicks and scrapes.
"Nice job, Cass!" Jacqui said.
"Yes!" she cheered, pumping her fist in the air. "I'm getting better at that halo thing!"
"Did you really need all that build up to do that?" Jin taunted. Cassie opened her mouth to fight back, but Jin raised his arms up in a peaceful gesture. "Kidding. Good job." He nodded and raised a genuine smile at her, showing he was proud of her too.
Cassie started into the new area, ducking under the archway. She took one step onto the smooth marble, but her boot connected with a splash rather than a dry, dusty scuffle. She paused, lifting her shoe. The bottom of her shoe looked like a child's stamp toy, dipped in red ink. The blood on the tread was so moist it ran down her foot to the tip of her shoes and dripped down onto the floor. She pointed to the floor, and from the puddle she had stepped in, there was a thick, nearly two foot wide trail of crimson leading further down into the blackness to their right. The wall directly in front of them was coated with it, arcing from the floor up in an obvious spraying pattern. Like someone's throat was slit on the ground and an unreasonable amount of blood had arced up over the wall. Then they had been dragged down the tunnel, whoever they were.
Cassie glanced back at the four of them, and the horrified look on her face was enough to give them all pause. Without reading her, Takeda knew what she was trying to say. There was the chance that if they followed the trail it could belong to someone they knew. If they had lost that much blood, it was likely they wouldn't find them alive. His heart dropped into his stomach with the dread, and he knew the others were likely feeling the same way.
He thought she would stall, but she rolled her shoulders back, sighing loudly. " . . . Let's go," she said, and she ripped a gun from the holster on her back. "Jacqui, Jin, either side of me. Takeda, bring up the rear." As Jacqui left his side, she cast him one final, lingering glance. A final check to make sure he was alright. He nodded as well as he could, even though he knew the look on his face definitely did not match his resolve. She took her place to Jin's left and Takeda followed behind. He fed a length of whips through his hands and clenched them tight.
A sort of fear he hadn't felt since they first arrived in the graveyard crept up on him. Different than his growing anxiety, it was far more subtle and slow-moving. The sensation that he wasn't meant to be there, defiling the stillness of the Osh-Tekk caves. The feeling that something down there had made its home and had made its way hunting those unfortunate enough to explore. They didn't belong there, in the Osh-Tekk's space or in whatever was down there's space, and he felt as though if they went any further, they would pay the price. The caves were free to swallow them, and whatever made its home here had free rein to destroy them as it destroyed whoever else decided to venture down further.
Cassie clasped her gun with both hands as she continued, keeping it down in a low ready position, inching down the tunnel on alert. With each step they took, the metallic scent of fresh blood grew thicker and thicker, as did the stains until they covered nearly every inch of cave. It was obvious that it was not placed there intentionally as in the other sections of cave. Instead, someone - or multiple people from the volume - had been blasted apart and their insides had painted the cave. It grew more and more wet, more and more fresh, dripping down in certain spots until it ran down the walls in rivulets. It even dripped from the spider webs on the ceiling.
"Where are all the bodies?" Jin whispered. "I still don't see any skeletons."
"Shh!" Cassie hissed.
"Something dragged them away," Jacqui thought to Takeda, and he looked back at her.
"Yeah. Whatever it was, it attacked and shredded them and drug them off. This is a hunting ground," Takeda announced out loud. "There's something down here that waits for people to come down here, and then it attacks."
"Shhhhhhhh!" Cassie hissed again, glaring at him.
Takeda projected it to all of them. "Something killed things here. Viciously."
"Stop," Cassie shot back.
"No, we need to get out of here."
"Shut up." She put a block around her mind.
The cave stepped to the right, trailed another few feet, and then stepped back to the left, and Cassie stopped in front of the wall directly in front of them. She threw her arm out and blocked them from continuing forward.
"What is that?" she asked.
On one of the only bare patches of wall, hand-written in red, was a number sequence. 4, 1, 3, 2. The bottom leg of the 2 slanted down towards the floor and across the stone trim of the path, rejoining the growing stain on the ground. Someone was dragged away while writing it.
Jin pushed past Cassie to squint up at it, and she dropped behind his right shoulder. "What do you think this means?-"
He barely finished the sentence when there was a tremble in the floor. Something slammed against the underside of the marble, so violently that the slabs under their feet were lifted up. Jin wobbled on his feet but kept his balance while the rest of them backpedaled down the slant and fanned out. Then the rocks under Jin's feet exploded. Marble cracked and broke. Sharp pebbles and debris were sent out like shrapnel, and they were forced to shield their faces. Jin let out a surprised yelp before his legs sank down into the floor.
He threw his arms out and barely managed to lock his elbows on either side of the hole. His joints cracked so loudly on the stone that it echoed through the caves. He struggled and kicked, scraping Raiden's staff on the ground for purchase and looking for a foothold to climb out with. His knee jabbed into the walls of the hole around him, and the dirt around his body moved. With a shock, Takeda realized it wasn't dirt at all. It pulsed once, constricted around Jin's waist, and he knew it was a mouth. Even before the jagged, rotting, bloodstained teeth in its throat protruded out.
The jaws closed, and the teeth stuck into Jin's clothes, tugging him further down the throat. He grit his teeth and shifted his elbows, placing his palms flat on the ground. His muscles pulsed and his arms shook as he resisted, pushing off the floor to lift himself out. The mouth snapped again and he screamed, the teeth stabbing into skin. When they retracted, they were covered in fresh, red blood. His arms wobbled, and he nearly let go of the edge.
Cassie ran forward and grabbed Raiden's staff from the floor, twisting it out of Jin's grip. She ran around the hole, stepping onto the trim and squeezing herself into the corner where the numbers were. They smeared across the wall when she passed, but she planted her feet firmly. She raised her arms and jabbed the staff down into the gullet behind Jin's back then wrenched it forward, levering the jaws open. A low, rumbling burp-like growl of sorts bubbled out from the maw, with enough air to blow Jin and Cassie's hair to the side. Her nose wrinkled and she turned away but leaned her entire body against Raiden's staff.
Jolted out of his stupor, Takeda shot ahead and grabbed both of Jin's arms, dragging him up and out of the creature's mouth. Jin kicked at its teeth on his way out, but they were thick and sturdy. As he was pulled away, Takeda saw even more rows dig through the gums further and further up its mouth as though to reach for the prey that got away. The moment he was free, Cassie tugged on Raiden's staff and the jaws snapped shut. The massive underbite was so large and full of thick teeth that it couldn't fully close its mouth. One more set of wide, bug-like mandibles attached to the outside of its mouth crumbled out of the dirt and folded over the line of its jaws.
The creature burst from the ground in a streak of silver and Takeda and Jin dove out of the way in opposite directions. It crashed onto the stone where they were and spun around, facing them fully.
The creature looked like a bear in size and shape - a rounded back and a fat, stocky torso on four stubby legs. But it was distinctly not a bear. Its lack of ears and snout ruled out any possible resemblance to any sort of rational creature of Earthrealm. Its mouth was its face. The giant underbite morphed immediately into the creature's body, without any chin to speak of. The eyes of the creature sat on the front of its upper jaw, but from their milky white color and the teeth that covered its vision, it was mostly blind. It sported three toes on each foot and massive, curved claws to dig and move dirt with, and its body tapered off into a flat, spade-shaped tail. Its skin was smooth and grey, and even had a reflective element to it, as though it was wearing silver plate armor down its back to protect from rocks and to slide quickly through tunnels.
It tilted its head up, and two tiny nostrils above its eyes flared and closed as it sniffed the air. It locked on Jin and the growing red stain at his stomach, and launched itself in his direction. Jin dodged, circling around the hole and backpedaling down the caves where they came. The creature followed and they blazed past Takeda, who had to flatten himself against the corner of the cave to not get stomped on. Jin's bo staff appeared in his hands and he tugged an arrow from the quiver but couldn't nock it in time before the creature bore down on him. It lowered its head in the charge and opened its jaw. The mandibles and teeth opened up, spreading themselves out like blooming flower petals. It scooped at his legs to snatch him, but Jin hopped into the air. He vaulted the creature, leap-frogging over it and sliding down its back. It whirled around and charged again like a bull. It slapped each foot against the ground as it stumbled forward, swaying back and forth. Jin waited until it was close enough then spun around, throwing his foot out in a roundhouse kick. It cracked off the side of the creature's lower jaw, snapping the head to the side, but it did little else. Jin cried out, holding his foot in the air and hopping backwards. The creature sniffed the air again and continued its charge.
"Okay, it hates me!" Jin yelled, rolling out of the way towards Takeda, backed in the corner. He came out of his roll with an arrow already nocked on his staff, and when he shot it pinged off its plate-like back and spiraled lamely away. Cassie opened fire over Jin's shoulder into its face and Jacqui drew her pistol as well, shooting at its back from behind. The shots were so loud in the small cavern that Takeda had to cover his ears, and the flashes were bright and disorienting. The bullets hit the creature's back and ricocheted off with such force that sparks flew. The creature turned its head slightly to gauge the threat, not even flinching as bullets smacked into its face and cracked a few of its teeth. The change in direction changed the angle of the ricochets, and bullets flew randomly around the cave. At one point a bullet spun towards Takeda. He barely leaned out of the way, and a harsh sting erupted on his cheek as the bullet grazed him.
"It's not working!" Cassie yelled. "The skin's too tough! Try the legs!" Cassie yelled, kneeling down.
"Don't-!" Takeda tried, but she raised the pistol closer to her eyes and aimed for a front leg while Jacqui fanned further to the side and shot at the back legs, wincing with every recoil as they grated on her burns. A few bullets managed to stick into the creature, but they didn't draw blood. The rocky skin was too tough.
"Stop! Stop!" Jin yelled, until the bullets stopped firing around them. He bolted past the creature's right side, back down the tunnels. At the sound of his movement, the creature hopped around to the right again, almost like it was playing. It lumbered down the tunnel in his direction, not quite on target. It almost crashed head-first into the cave wall before it corrected itself, scraping its plates along the rock.
"Where's the fucking weak spot?" Cassie yelled out.
"It uses noise and smell!" Jin yelled back. "Someone use that!" The creature lurched forward, lowering its head and opening its jaws like a bulldozer. Takeda ran down the tunnel after them and dashed his whips across its back to try and distract it, knowing it would do little to actually harm the beast. It followed Jin and the mandibles snapped to his left, nipping at air where Jin's arm had been. It slid to Jin's right, smacking itself off the tunnel and chomping at his shoulder. Jin forced his staff between them, parrying the jaws to the side. He backed further and further down the tunnel, getting dangerously close to a corner where the tunnel stepped back in the other direction.
"Don't let it back him against the wall!" Cassie yelled. She leapt over the hole and they sprinted down the tunnel after the creature. Takeda tried to analyze the what he could see of its body type. The flinging tail, the tan-colored underside. He latched on to it. It was the only thing he could think of.
"Try the belly!" he yelled. "It's skin is lighter, and it might be weaker!"
"Got it!" Jacqui yelled. She reached into the pouches of her belt and pulled out a small blue canister - one of the ones she loaded her gauntlets with. She pried it open, reared back, and threw it down on the ground at its feet. The charge exploded on impact, shooting blue pulses into the creature's leg. It kicked backwards, shaking them off, but caused a long enough pause. Takeda pulled one of his kunai from his belt and aimed between its front and back legs. He threw it down and the explosion blasted scorching hot plasma up onto the creature's belly. It was lifted off its right side, scrabbling at empty air. Jin rushed forward and ducked under its jaws, sliding under it. He braced his back against the creature's stomach and lifted it up, straining with the effort. He threw elbows and punches behind him into its flesh, but like its legs the skin was rough and thick. His fists bounced off of it, and he only succeeded in scraping his knuckles. He crouched low and straightened up with a growl, tipping it onto its side like a long truck. Its back crashed into the wall, and the four of them charged it from all sides of the tunnel.
Takeda released the blades of his whips and jumped into the air, spinning down and lashing them on its belly. He expected them to cut through and tear flesh like they usually do, but the whips slapped onto the creature and didn't move. The impact only jarred up his arms and into his elbows. Jacqui shot indiscriminately at its middle until the clip was empty while Cassie swung her nightstick down on every sensitive looking area she could find. There was a collective moment of panic as they all realized none of their attacks were doing any damage - like the creature had no weak spots.
The monster roared and the four of them retreated at the warning. It curled and uncurled until it had rolled itself onto its side and clamored to its feet, shaking its head like a wet dog. As it reoriented itself, still blocking Jin from the rest of them, Takeda saw the mandibles move. They moved from having hugged around its neck, back up to the line of its mouth. It lifted its tail and whirled it through the air, slamming it down on the ground in front of Cassie, Jacqui, and Takeda, threatening them and keeping them at bay. Jin waited until the tail stopped, then bolted to the side, hoping to reach where the other three were. Faster than Takeda thought it could move, it threw its tail towards the ground to force Jin to dodge, but at the last second the monster swept its tail to the side, catching Jin off-balance. He was thrown with the force of a freight train into the cave wall, and Takeda heard all his breath leave him in a harsh gasp.
He hit the wall so hard he bounced off of it and landed on his hands and knees beside the creature. He coughed a small, dry, chest-aching cough, unable to catch his breath. Jin grabbed at his ribs. It moved forward towards him, baring its side to the three of them, so Cassie ran forward and cracked her nightstick off the creature's leg so hard it bent in her hands.
The creature paid no attention to her, not pausing in its advance to Jin. Takeda launched his whip towards it, aiming for its face. The sharp, grappling-hook end shot forward and managed to pierce somewhere soft in its open mouth, and dark brown blood exploded outward and dripped from the hole around the metal. When Takeda tugged it held firm, having latched onto a tooth in its mouth. The creature made a high-pitched singing sound - its first real sound of pain since they started to fight it. Takeda tugged with all his might, dragging its face towards him. The creature tugged back, and Takeda was pulled several feet forward. He ran to catch his balance and pulled the whip taut again while Jacqui ran over, grabbing a section too. Together, they pulled and tugged, forcing it to face them and not Jin.
Cassie ran around the creature and leaned over Jin. As she passed it tried to bite towards her, nearly pulling Takeda and Jacqui off their feet again. Takeda glanced over his shoulder at the cave wall behind him and threw his right arm out, launching the other whip for the wall. It chinked into the stone, and Takeda used it to anchor them, holding the creature at bay.
"Jin! You okay?"
"Th-the throat!" Jin rasped, voice hoarse. He gasped once, wheezing as much air in as he could. "Go for the throat!" He pointed at the creature, silently telling Cassie to fight it.
"Stay here, Jin!" Cassie yelled. "And don't move! Keep it away from him, guys!" She ran back to them, helping to pull the creature.
Together, all three of them dragged it back down the tunnels, towards the wall with the smeared numbers. Takeda's whip chafed and strained against the power of the beast, and he heard the wheel on his back groaning, tugging on his clothes and armor, struggling to stay locked in place. He grit his teeth, hissing out his breath. "These won't hold much longer-!"
The wheel attached to his back snapped completely off. Jacqui and Cassie let go, and the beast stumbled back from the sudden slack. The wheel snapped down Takeda's shoulder and arm until it got stuck at his elbow, blocked by the narrow whips' feed. He screamed as his arms were ripped in opposite directions, twisted and jerked around by the creature's thrashing. He released the whip from the wall so he could tear at the buckles of his gauntlets, shrugging it off before the creature could tear his arm completely off. The whip dangled dejectedly from its mouth, swinging back and forth and smashing his empty gauntlet against the stone.
It spun around and lumbered down the tunnels again, back towards Jin. "It's locked on his blood!" Takeda yelled. "It's not gonna stop!"
They chased after it, but it swung its tail violently, dashing across the width of the cavern so they couldn't approach. By then, Jin had recovered and was standing, but he was hunched over, still clutching at his ribs. Takeda wasn't sure he even saw the creature. Takeda closed his eyes, knowing he only had seconds before it reached Jin again. He called on Hanzo's training, on the fire of the Shirai Ryu. The heat rose from within in his chest, building and building while Netherrealm flames manifested and rose from his body, searing into his flesh. He built it up until he felt it was ready, then knelt down and released it. There was a feeling of weightlessness as the floor dropped from underneath him, then the sensation of falling. When he opened his eyes he teleported directly in front of Jin, between him and the monster.
Straightening up, he ripped the plasma knife from his belt and activated it with a hum of pulsing, sizzling, orange energy. He lunged forward, stabbing forward towards its neck. It deflected him with its mandibles, but the blade still slashed into its skin and left a sizzling burn mark on its face. It rumbled its version of a cry and retreated.
"You alright?" he called over his shoulder.
"F-fine. We gotta expose its throat." His voice still sounded clipped and tight.
"Working on it."
"I've got an idea but it's dumb."
"Most of your ideas are dumb."
"Well, add this one to the list. Back me up!" Before Takeda could say anything else Jin took off, groaning with the effort. Takeda followed after him, jabbing and burning what he could of the harsh skin with the plasma knife to distract it. Caught off-guard by the assault, the creature swiped at them with its claws but Jin blocked with his hands, throwing its leg out to the side. He raised his arms and jabbed his bo staff down. The tip wasn't even sharp, but Jin drove it down so hard on the creature's bottom jaw that it pierced gums, broke teeth, and broke skin, hitting off the ground with a dull thunk. Jin drove the metal guard on his knee up under it. Once, twice, and on the third strike he must have hit something sensitive on the throat. The creature's jaws snapped and gnashed together, closing as well as it could around the carved dragon head on Jin's staff. It choked, its throat constricted and bulged, and it recoiled. Jin ducked down and grabbed the bottom of his staff, slick with brown blood, and managed to hold it in place.
"Huǒlóng!" he yelled in Chinese, and a flash of red and smoke burst from inside its mouth. The creature tried to scream, opening its mouth, and when it did fire came bursting forth, singeing the soft tissue on the inside. The mandibles opened and closed, the creature's dead eyes blinked and watered.
Jin slid to the side of it, using its back leg as a step. He climbed back onto its back, straddling it like a saddled horse. He reached out for Cassie.
"Raiden's staff!" he yelled.
Cassie's eyes widened in realization and her head whipped to the left and right, looking around for where she had abandoned it. She sprinted down the tunnel back towards the hole, and a chill spread down Takeda's spine, thinking perhaps she had let it fall down into the creature's tunnel. Cassie ducked behind the corner and re-emerged, clutching the long weapon in her hands. She twirled it once to gain momentum and frisbeed it through the air, straight into Jin's outstretched hand. He jabbed one end between his legs, down into the slit between the plates of its segmented body. There was a wet, tearing, sucking sound as Jin levered the staff and the plate started to give way, pulling from skin. Wet, reddish-brown gums of sinew and muscle were stretched and pulled upwards, tearing up like a toenail.
The creature screamed so loud that the sound echoed through the cavern. It reared up onto its back legs and lashed its tail across his own back, whipping itself to get to Jin. It caught him and he was tossed from its back but landed in a crouch. He cried out, clutching at his ribs, and before any of them could react the enraged creature stomped forward. It pushed its snout into Jin's stomach and walked him backwards into the cave wall. Jin's back and head hit the harsh stone, and the creature nestled its face into his stomach. The mandibles clamped onto either side of him, holding his arms in place while its sharp teeth emerged and bit into the flesh of his abdomen and chest. Jin screamed, and the creature ripped its face to the right and to the left, throwing Jin's blood and flecks of skin to the side. It adjusted its face and tilted to the side, chomping down on the fleshy part of Jin's side. His staff wobbled and flopped from its bottom teeth, preventing it from getting a good grip on him.
Jin tried to push its face away with his hands, squirming and screaming in pain and agony, but he couldn't get any sort of grip on it. Finally, he reached down and grabbed the end of his staff, lifting it up towards the ceiling. The creature's mouth snapped shut and it choked again, gagging as the dragon's head moved around inside it. The creature's head was pulled from his skin, forced to look up at the ceiling and exposing its throat.
"Someone get it!" he yelled. With one hand he held the staff, and with his other he managed to grab the chakram from his belt. He spotted Takeda first, and weakly tossed the chakram over the creature. It clattered to the ground and Takeda snatched it up, sprinting towards them. He dove for the ground, sliding under the creature, and then he rolled onto his stomach using the momentum to draw the chakram across the monster's throat, so smoothly he didn't feel the impact or the cut. There was a sick hiss. Reddish-brown blood sprayed everywhere, spattering Takeda's neck and face.
There was a gurgle, a thump, and the creature fell dead at his feet.