Yeah.  Let's try that.  DRT ops, can you clear more of the little guys?  Crabwhackers on the approach to the portal, then shotguns when on the approach to crabs?

You got it, Sleeping Beauty.  Boil that thing for me, you hear?

When the portal draws nigh, Tim's pistol barks.  Only a few shots this time, no point wasting ammo.  Does that draw out the big guy?

It sure does, and a TON faster today!  That crab was sandbagging last time - it takes a little bit to get up to speed, but that is a VERY fast crab.

"I'll engage it," Sara calls to him over the noise, "You be ready to take out a leg!" 

So saying, she puts herself in its way, ready to tank and defend. 

"I've got you buffed, medium-strength!  Don't get grabbed!"

The DRT would like to help clear the incoming Crabwave.  Really, they would.  But since Crabzilla over there is charging, they have to get to the portal faster than planned.  So.  Tim and Sara get a little bit of firepower, more than zero.  But definitely not a lot.  The good news is, the civvies are getting out pretty damn fast, they got good practice in getting people out yesterday.

Sara wasn't sure they could expect help from the DRT at this point at all, so anything is pretty nice. She's going to get covered in the little guys again either way, though, with how focused she is on the big one. 

Speaking of: incoming! Sara readies herself to catch and deflect! 

Well, she sure is getting Crabbed.  She can feel dozens, but the notable one is the one that grabs on to the back of her calf.  It's notable because when she takes a step, her calf muscle bulges and shatters the crab claw as it expands.  But in a few moments, she has to contend with an ENORMOUS crusher claw swiping 'up' at her.  It looks like the aim is to get her into the air!

Oh, okay, in that case she will be dodging that one. Being airborne is very much not in her best interest! 

It also lashes out at her with a vicious kick!  If Sara's paying attention, she might have noticed that it now has eight legs again.  The broken one is looking differently-mottled than the other eight.  But while it's lashing out at her - 

- Tim's circling around behind it - the crab can't see behind it, and therefore cannot dodge him.  He's latched onto a crab leg with his arms, but he hasn't quiiiiite wrapped his legs around it.  He's holding on for dear life, though!

She has enough attentional capacity to notice the leg! She has a split second to decide whether to dodge or catch, and she dodges; breaking legs is not her job right now and Tim needs her distracting it. 

With that in mind, she makes sure to evade towards its eyeline in the hopes it will keep focusing on her. 

It does swipe at her a little bit, but right now it's trying to kick Tim off while not, actually, kicking off its own leg.  It has a limited number of those, and even if it can regenerate spares, it would prefer not.  Can it rip Tim off?

No.  It cannot.  He's dialed in significantly and has both hands grasping the other forearm.  If he can just...manage...There!  He manages to snag one leg around the crab, and from there it's just a matter of physics.  He briefly pulses himself with even more power and - 

CRACK!

This time, he drops free before the leg falls off, or is kicked off.  He's kicked away, but manages to drop bouncing when he's only twenty feet away - comfortably within power distance.

"Yes, Tim!" 

Sara darts in closer to the megacrab, going for one of the other legs! 

The crab isn't really defending itself against her - it's swinging its too-flexible-to-be-natural claw at Tim.  There's a desultory clawwave at Sara.

Tim, meanwhile, is covered in crabs.  He jumps up before he can be carpeted, but one of them has somehow managed to climb in his MOUTH.  He bites down and spits repeatedly, clearly disgusted by the taste of raw dungeon crab.

Oh for fuck's sake fine Sara will actually grab onto that leg, then, gripping one arm with her other like she'd been shown! Can she get her legs around it too? Let's see! 

She can!  As soon as she does, though, the crab sits on her.  Her arms and legs are being crushed between herself and the crab, and the crab is rotating around to face Timothy.  This, of course, means that she's being ground into the sand.  On the bright side, there's not much space for miniature crabs - only sixish are currently climbing on her.

-she swiftly shoves the sand out of her way, making a cavity at the expense of a chunk of backlash. Her power is really not meant for this kind of scale, but it's fine if it's only the once. 

And then she can simply squeeze as hard as she possibly can! 

Sara may or may not be able to hear Timothy screaming.  "SARA!"  She's okay I can feel it with my power, she doesn't need anything more than medium for this, she's fine, running away was a greater threat than just this.  He can see the crab's eyestalks and that means he can shoot the crab's eyestalks, at this close range, he's going to get it eventually.

Bang.  Bang.  Bang.  Bang-and-splat.

Seeing as how the Massive Crab can't crush her like it's grinding salt, it chooses a different strategy.  It leaps in the air.  Admittedly, crabs are not widely renowned for their ability to leap, but five feet is pretty impressive for a crab this size. When it leaps, it pushes down on the leg Sara's holding, ripping it out.  And when it falls down to earth, it's aiming to land foot-first on Sara.

-Sara lands and then she dips down a few meters into the sand, still above the crab line but giving herself some room, and then solidifies a three foot shell of sandstone around herself. That, plus the sand buffer, plus Tim's buff, plus her own endurance- 

Well.  The sandstone is almost instantly demolished.  It smashes down, through the sandstone, into Sara.  Her vest cracks instantly, but Sara’s survivability onion carries the day.

It lifts up its foot for another strike -