Well. That went worse than anticipated.
The crowd's in a chaos, Chu is humming to herself as she clings to Doc's mane, hiding her face- should've listened to me, you damn spiral- and Tabby is getting pretty close, despite hitting every tile that's been missed. Doc swears as he has to dodge out of the way of a skydancer's attack- straight into a burst of colorful magic that grazes his side, and by the 'Bringer, that hurt.
He shakes it off, ignoring the throbbing in his side as he gets up again. Chu's still clinging to his mane, hiding her face. Things are looking dire, alright.
They need to get going as soon as possible again if they want to salvage this.
Deimos- where's Deimos? He's gotten away from the slimey aberration, that much is clear, but in the chaos Doc's lost sight of him. Tabby gives them a questioning and concerned look look from afar as she gains on them, and Doc curses, eyes flitting about for the orange wings of the nocturne-
There.
Not wanting to waste any time, Doc swoops into the air after him.
"Deimos!" he yells, quickly gaining on the nocturne with powerful wing flaps. "Over here!"
The nocturne is quick to notice him, but as he starts making his way over, he's interrupted by the attack of a ridgeback, being forced out of the way. Doc doesn't let it deter him as Deimos, disoriented from the attack, tries to rebalance. Doc's already with him by the time he's shaken off the disorientation, grabbing the nocturne by the hem of his shirt as he tucks his wings, sharply diving down towards the glass board to waste the least amount of time possible. He throws Deimos onto his back, trusting the nocturne to cling to his mane, even if only by instinct and habit from doing the same with Sanford, and soon enough, he touches down. The magic burnt into his side throbs a little at the mmovement, but otherwise, everything seems fine.
"Everyone good?" he asks, plucking Chu out of his mane, who blinks owlishly at him as he sets her down, "we need to get moving."
"Uh- Doc. Your side," Deimos begins, dropping down from Doc's mane himself, but Doc waves him off.
"Looks worse than it is," he says- which is true. It looks absolutely nasty, a colorful explosion singed into his ribs, but it's fine. It's fine. When he's gained some breath, he can cast healing magic to get rid of it, but for now, he'll put up with the slight burn-y sensation of the magic. It clearly wasn't actually intended as an attack, but rather as a distraction. Despite the slight discomfort, it's not actually hindering his movements, so.
Besides, they're falling behind. If they want to win, they're going to need to haul butt.
"Uh-huh, right. If you say so, Doc," Deimos puts emphasis on his name with purpose, at which Doc rolls his eyes. "Aaaanyway. The plan's still go, right?"
"Of course," Doc replies. It was going well before they got... sidetracked, after all. He turns towards the crowd, nudging Chu (who has, again, started weaving flowers). "Pay attention. We're going."
He waits just long enough for Chu to get into position again, before he takes off again.
He keeps up a steady pace, lowering his head and- there- a mirror who wasn't paying attention to them goes flying off his horns, their team squawking in surprise as they barrel through. An aether turns towards them, only to gasp at the colorful swirl in his side- and he takes advantage of the distracion, pushing them aside with his massive body. Tiles light up as they run, Deimos and Chu keeping up mostly with ease (a flower crown lands on the head of a nearby bogsneak- and Doc scoffs as Deimos flits around to make up for Chu's lost tiles). Dragons are pushed to the side as they come through, either jumping out of the way by their own accord, or forcibly being removed out of the way by Doc's shoulders, horns, and claws.
Despite the earlier setback- they're doing good. They're doing great, even, and Doc feels a swell of satisfaction as he watches the scoreboard in the distance. They're steadily climbing the ranks. Good.
"Heck yeah!" Deimos whoops besides him as he pushes another dragon out of the way, "how do you like that, losers? Move it- move it! Coming through!"
Doc huffs out a small chuckle at Deimos' antics, the nocturne making taunting gestures as he hops around on the tiles near Doc.
Coming through indeed.
