~~Natasha~~
"Um, w-what do we do?"
The werewolves looked between each other, before settling on Arturo. With them all still in their Gauru forms, the physical differences between Matthew and Arturo were even more pronounced, with Matthew towering over Brianna and Arturo by a nearly a foot. But it was Arturo they looked to for a decision.
And then Arturo looked down at her.
"Run?"
Welp, looked like she'd be making the decision after all.
She groaned, rubbed her eyes with her palms, and ran over to Eric. He was still digging through the rubble, looking for Jessy. But considering there was a giant mountain of red blood on the other side of the biggest pile of rubble trying to kill them, and they all knew a red kraken lurked underneath, Jessy could wait.
"Eric, we have to go."
"No. Jessy."
"Eric! She'll b-be fine! She'll be safe, hidden!" God, please, let her be safe. "We have to go!"
Eric snapped his head and stared down at her, rage in his wolf eyes. For a second, she got ready to dodge a claw swipe that could probably cut her into ribbons, but none came. The werewolf took a few, deep breaths, fought for control, and won. Eventually he nodded, and gestured down the alley toward South Side, opposite the direction they'd originally been moving in.
"This way? Closest tear. Casino."
Right, a tear, one that led out of the spirit world and into the ghost place. It was in the basement of one of the casinos here in the spirit world, but the spirits didn't use it, as if they didn't want to end up in the Great Below.
Tash didn't want to go there, either. Damien and Jack told her plenty about the Great Below and how scary it'd been. The story about what Sabrina had done to those other ghosts also sealed the image of how deadly a place it was. But, it was less scary than dealing with Red Tide.
"Okay. Let's go."
God, if Jessy died because of this, she was going to kill herself. Or Michael would do it for her.
The four werewolves dashed down the alley, Tash following behind Eric, and Flow behind them. Red Tide chased after them with all the subtlety of a monsoon, and Tash squeaked as the earth trembled underneath her. This wasn't like the time it'd followed them into a cathedral. This was like a scene from a movie, a giant river crashing through the streets and bulldozing over every car, pushing them over and dragging them along with the waves of red.
The only reason the red river didn't reach them, was they stuck to the alley. They ran past building after building as they headed back toward South Side, and Red Tide destroyed every building on the way, one after the other. It was a constant earthquake, bricks and concrete and whatever else the old buildings were made of crashing into the water Flow left behind it. But most of the sound and vibration came from the much, much larger spirit, its own body burying the area in destruction.
Nearby spirits ran for their lives. Spirits of rats, crows, flying things that glowed and probably represented electricity or handheld devices, things on wheels or made of asphalt, snake-like things that belonged in casinos, everything panicked and ran or flew, as Tash and her friends left Devil's Corner, and ran into South Side. There weren't any cars, nothing that'd have been a very temporary thing in the physical world, but benches, lampposts, power lines that Dolareido still hadn't bothered burying, all were there, twisted modern versions that were simultaneously slick, and warped to point toward the center of South Side, the economic center of Dolareido. All roads led to Rome, and they followed the path as the giant spirit followed after them.
"It's destroying everything!" Tash said. "I thought they w-weren't allowed to destroy the city!"
"It's bound," Flow yelled from behind, pouring over the street as it followed them, but keeping its human half formed and ahead of its watery body. "Black Blood is forcing it to take actions against its nature."
"Twisted," Matthew said. Even running at full speed, the huge werewolf managed to control his breath enough to speak. Easy for Flow and Tash, not so easy for the werewolves.
"Anyway we can use that against it?" she asked, weaving around a bench. "You were g-gonna use a ban against Street-Tail King, right!?"
"Street-Tail King was a weakling," Flow said, voice even steadier than Tash's. It didn't feel fear. "Compared to Red Tide. Red Tide's bans are likely connected to violence, and not something we could easily exploit. And we still don't know its banes."
Banes, right. Bans were rules spirits had to follow, defined by their nature. Banes were things that could hurt them. What could be used to hurt a giant incarnation of Dolareido's bloody, violent side? Probably something like, the pistol of a kine who once worked for the mob, and then swore off violence when they met someone they wanted to marry, or have children with, or something else equally as dramatic and powerful. Which meant, Tash and her friends were fucked.
The alley shrank as the buildings grew taller and bigger. The deeper they got into South Side, the less room the structures provided, as everything was meant to direct pedestrian traffic into the buildings, the casinos, the bars, the clubs. Eventually they came to a solid wall, and had no choice but to steer toward the street, onto one of the wide sidewalks.
Now Red Tide was only fifty feet behind them, and the noise was overwhelming. Tash jumped over another bench and looked behind her, before snapping her head back and running faster. It was getting closer. Giant red tentacles stuck out of the pouring crimson waves, and smashed left and right against the buildings they ran past. Sign lights shattered, and huge glass windows, bigger and exaggerated versions of the ones in Dolareido, exploded into millions of pieces. The street was four lanes wide, the sidewalks massive so they could handle the busy city, and most of the buildings on the street had some distance between them and the sidewalk. Red Tide was large enough its flooding waves hit it all, while each tentacle smashed anything they could with reckless abandon.
A bit of its squid-like face poked up from the front wave, a wave of red water as high as a small building showing hints of the strange mouth and enormous teeth of the monster. Not good not good.
"There," Brianna said, and she pointed to one of the casinos. "Can cross to other casino here."
