Aw, crap. Exter's blast shot away one of the tendrils and he managed to dodge a few more, but there seemed to be dozens--and they pursued him by bursting through the roof and cutting straight through brick.

He was outmatched. Badly outmatched, and his heart pounded with it. When he'd been a lone sniper he'd never have found himself in this situation. It wasn't his job.

One of the tendrils wrapped around his ankle and yanked him down, and even as he fell Irvine was already summoning Carbuncle. Green light flared around him before he hit the ground, and Carbuncle leapt out of the hole in the cracked roof. Its jewel flashed and a green shield flowed around him. The other tendrils struck it and rebounded off to wherever the girl was hiding. Irvine hit the ground and it took all his breath away, but he didn't try to breathe when he couldn't. He just levelled Exeter at the tendril around his ankle and fired a foot lower to make it dissolve.

He couldn't win this one. Time to run.