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I found this construction I'm not sure about:

追い討ちをかける形で逃走中の数グループを何者かが襲撃

I think I understand the general meaning of the sentence: there are groups fleeing (逃走中の数グループ), someone unnamed was pursuing and attacking them (追い討ちをかける), and someone attacked the fleeing groups (何者かが襲撃). What I don't understand is 形で: I was guessing it could mean something like "The fleeing group, that were in the situation of being chased", and I found that the kanji can mean 物事の様子。「形勝・形勢」 as per definition 2 here, but I'm not sure that's the case.

Also: would that be read 「かたちで」?

Here's the page:

Mauro
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    ～形で basically means "in the form of ～" or "in ～-like manner", but here it expresses the 襲撃 happened to look like an 追い打ち. – naruto Aug 29 '21 at 02:50
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    The 「（~に）追い討ちをかける」 here is used in the sense of "to deliver another blow to someone who is already suffering hardship", not in the literal sense of chasing and attacking someone who is fleeing. (Note that the noun phrase marked with the に is not "逃走中の数グループ" but "アオギリの樹".) – goldbrick Aug 29 '21 at 05:07
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    The definition you cited is for the character "形", but since we are dealing with the word "形" here, the more relevant entry is "かたち【形／▽容】", a little further down the page, under which we find the definition "３ 物事の結果としての状態。「どっちつかずの—になる」". ("どっちつかずの形になる" translates to somewhat awkward "Things get into a situation of indecision between two choices.) – goldbrick Aug 29 '21 at 05:11
  • So if I'm understanding correctly, there is no group chasing the 逃走中の数グループ? I'm asking because I have a published translation, and it goes "The pursuit of Aogiri Tree started, but during their escape various groups were attacked by someone", which sounds like there is someone escaping, someone pursuing, and someone attacking those who were escaping. – Mauro Aug 29 '21 at 07:55

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