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](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%BD%A2), but I'm not sure that's the
case.

Also: would that be read 「かたちで」?

Here's the page:

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hpk19.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hpk19.jpg)
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2021-08-28T21:42:38.200
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2021-08-29T02:48:53.097
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question
grammar translation
Meaning of the form 形で