Vanguard
Fast-
A normal person would've cowered away due to overwhelming fear and succumbed to the putrid venom, while a normal warrior would have hesitated and been torn asunder by the beast. No matter how you looked at it, Vanguard could be outmatched from the start.
Could.
Sadly for the creature, he was neither. Listening to its steps, he braced himself and prepared his body to react accordingly. In a surge of genius, or perhaps due to the madness of battle, he charged forward. Zigzagging expertly as if overtaken by instinct, he avoided the initial venomous blast for the most part, spinning acrobatically with complex movements in order to deflect most of the shrapnel. But this would not last. Running, he ripped his shirt off and shielded his face just in time. Ooze splashed and sank straight into the cloth, searing flesh and releasing burning green vapors. If there was anything left of him, it certainly wasn't visible.
In these few seconds, the creature had already closed the distance and lunged at the burning man. The pounce would have sent him backwards as the monster tore through the body as easily as butter. Weakening its prey only to finish it off with a decisive charge, that is how monsters slay humans.
But what about monsters?
Unfazed, sensing the beast's frame approaching, he knelt and used all of his power to slide off the ground, lowering his stance with expert timing despite being blinded by the vapor and burning cloth. There was no mistake about it, he was strong. But to slide just below the creature, to willingly come into such a compromising position, so close to certain death. Could one say this was madness? No, this was more than that. This was strength, this was Vanguard, this was everything that
And just when the creature's shadow overlapped with him, the muscles of his legs and back bulged and compressed, a powerful movement born of an energy screaming to be released, he shot forward above with his two fists, intending on gouging the monster's chest. The attack caused refraction, tearing thew cloth and sending the vapor away.
If one observed attentively, just before the attack was to land, one could catch glimpses of his face. It was a terrifying husk of metal, a shell resembling a skull gritting his teeth from ear to ear and smiling as ghastly blue eyes pulsated with energy.