Salem immediately rolled to his side and pushed to his feet. Had he hit Rathien? He thought he saw some dust fly up in front of him, though whether from Rathien or from his own weapon blast, he wasn't sure.
In response to Jocun's question about whether the blast might disable the cloak, he simply called to the Yeerk, "Combat cloak." Essentially, he was trying to say that this particular mechanism was designed to be tough under fire. He couldn't allow his attention to waver any further- Rathien was very close, and from the sound of the beeping, very still. Even so, however, he allowed himself a slight smile at Jocun's taunting of Rathien.
"Not good enough, hunter!" Salem called, getting in on the action. His weapon-arm wouldn't be usable for much longer. He pushed himself to his feet, allowing a bright orange cylinder, about the size of his fist, to fall to the ground. As he stood, he backpedaled and thought-spoke a command at the cylinder, causing it to begin spewing a thick, acrid, purple-hued smoke. It would obscure him- normally, he'd take this opportunity to escape, but he had no idea from which direction Rathien was watching him. Besides, now seemed as good a time as any to end his worries with this hunter once and for all.
He re-holstered his weapon- it wouldn't be much use in a moment, limp gun-hand or no- and pulled the bandanna that was draped around his neck up and over his mouth. Strapped into the bandanna was a breathing apparatus, which could serve as a gas mask, among other things. He dropped into a low, ready position and sent another thought-speak command to activate a small "patch" sewn into the back of the right knee of his pants. The device would burn hot and bright, setting up what amounted to being almost a miniature electromagnetic storm. It would only last a minute or two, but during that time, it should disrupt the proper function of most electronic devices within a few meters of Salem. This included Dracon Beams, he knew from experience, and most of his own equipment. He hoped it also included Rathien's cloak, to some degree.
He dropped into a low, ready stance and used his left hand to grab a piece of equipment from his belt. It looked somewhat like a piece of nylon rope, a little longer than his hand, with a large ball-bearing on one end and a metallic ring around the other.