When the blond surges back up out of the water and a pair of bullets go off in the night, relief kicks in as powerful as a hi-potion. Gladio's attention turns completely on the last voretooth, his eyes wide as he watches the creature against the darkness. There's no light on him so he's following it near entirely by sound - the scrape of claws against pebbles, the suck of mud from a paw, the rancid hiss of its breath. When he hears the sudden sound - a spray of rocks - he snarls and takes the guess.

He sweeps the shield with all of his strength, and far too close for comfort, he hears the edge of it crack into the voretooth's skull. It's so close that it still makes him stagger back, nearly slipping to fall back into the water but keeping his balance only with a bit of luck. It doesn't help with the spray of gore across his left arm and far edge of his shoulder, but it's very clear that the strike had been a critical one, leaving the body to be thrown to the far edge of the pond.

There he stands in the water, panting from the rush of adrenaline in his veins. "Shit." Just a breathed word before he listens, trying to pick out the sound of anything else before looking back towards Prompto as the immediate source of light. "You okay?"