Collab: Pyromania99 and pyre101

If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. It didn’t come as too much a surprise when her partner yelled, “AMBUSH!” Bad things always went worse given the chance. She hadn’t really noticed what the ‘ambush’ was when her partner first yelled it. She readied up at this point, poised to strike if necessary.

He began to run as fast as he can, trying to track where they were. He finally caught up to his comrade, ready in an attack pose. Kael went past her, still trying to find them in the forest, but in sight. Turning around, he began to wave to her. “There are Grimm here, hiding in the bush. We must run!”

Francesca nodded at him and took off with Kael behind her. Assuming they were running towards where they needed to retrieve the artifacts from, she pushed her feet to that end, hoping to outrun the dangers that were lurking in the woods. Her next song started on her music device and she started singing lightly again. Maybe loud enough for Kael to hear. Sounds of ‘caws’ were heard as they ran however.

The sounds of the Grimm were getting closer as they ran. Kael put more of his energy into his legs, pushing them closer to their limit. They had to get away before they were torn apart by their beaks. He had fought some of them before, or, at least, a variant of them while training. He continued to follow down the path until he saw a fork in the road. Where to now? They had no time to tarry. He made his decision and went down the right path, hammering down into the soft ground when it began to gulp down his shoe. 

As the two ran, small avian creatures began zipping past their heads. Francesca put up with dodging them for a short while. The constant feel of wind brushing past her face, or past parts of her exposed flesh become a nuisance. Even if they ran, the small pests would probably just follow them. The best solution the girl could come up with was to swat them out of the air and kill them. The first two attempts were a miss. The third, however, score a direct hit from the recently reverted blade of Bulletedge. With at least one success, Francesca was confident she could take care of the rest of the avians the attempted to strike both her and her partner.

Attempting to recover his shoe, Kael reached down for his leg with his off-hand, not wanting to lose his weapon, and began to pull on it. He felt mud beginning to grip his shoe and creeping up, trying to pull his entire body down. He turned to look to see if Francesca would help, but saw she was busy trying to take down the birds. Looking back down, he tried to think through his options. He could cut off his leg...probably not a good idea....grab a hold of something….no….. While he was pondering on this, his leg continued to sink down when he heard a soft snort to the side of him. Kael turned to look and saw a white bone armored snout with red eyes. Gulping, Kael tried to stay calm, but his jitters seem to be getting the best of him. “Umm, I think we have something worse than just birds.” Taking a swing at it, he felt his weapon bounce off the armor. That is when it reached out to bat him across his chest. Good thing his aura was there. Instead of becoming eviscerated with his intestines exposed to the world, he had simply had his air knocked out of him. When he looked up, he saw a piece of metal stuck inside the Ursa’s paw. Kael smiled at that sight though. At least his ability was working as planned.

As Francesca took care of a few of the birds, she noticed something. Her partner being assaulted by a big Ursa. A few of the birds did what would have seemed like a coordinated attack if she didn’t know any better. She weaved between the attacks as she transformed Bulletedge to it’s rifle form. After turning out of the attacks, she placed a few shots into the Ursa. If nothing else, it would give Kael time to do something to it.

He pulled himself off the ground, ready to attack again when he felt the grass with his left foot. Damn it! Kael turned to look at the big Ursa, ready to strike again when it started to roar with anger after being shot at. He had to do something before it went after his partner. Grabbing a hold of his zhen, he began to twirl it around his right hand in a circle before grabbing it with his left hand. He began to do a dance of steel, striking the Ursa a good amount of times before twisting the middle of his zhen. The middle split into two halves, where he gripped one half in a forward fashion and the other opposite. He began to cut down with his right hand, chopping into the Ursa’s shoulder before bringing his left blade up into a slash for the head. Blood began to fall from those small cuts, but not much. He danced back and reattached the two blades together. He began to bounce on his heels, waiting for the Ursa to move.

Francesca finished up with the remainder of the avians as her partner continued his struggle with the Ursa. Well, it was less a struggle than a stand-off right now. Bringing out both of her swords in their bladed forms, Francesca joined her teammate in fighting the large Ursa. However, she joined from the back. Well, the Ursa’s back to be specific. With blades in hand, she dives each of them into the unplated flesh on the beast’s back. All the while she continues singing her song. 

While watching for any movements from the Ursa, Francesca seemed to join in. Wanting to press the advantage, Kael dove back into battle. He twisted his blades again, making them into two halves and began to slice and dice. He mainly tried to aim for the face, but he did have to try to dodge the attempts of parrying from the Ursa, who seemed a bit sluggish. Was something wrong with it? Not wanting it to get serious, he moved back for a second and dropped one of his blades and sprung forward with his index and middle finger out, going for the eyes. As he got within reach, he summoned forth two six inch blades into its pupils, taking out its sight. Kael hurriedly got out of reach of its arms, but he did got battered from his left paw as it slapped him over the head, knocking him to the ground. He was able to crawl away and grab a hold of his dropped weapon and prepared for its next attack.

Still on the beast’s back, Francesca felt it move as Kael did. . . something to its eyes. Regardless, she did what she could from its back. After it stopped moving around so much, she removed her blades and used Bulletedge’s altered state putting a few shots into the Ursa’s back before it started to react to her on its back. Resetting Greifen back in its place, she used both hands on Bulletedge. Backflipping off the beast’s back she placed more shots into it’s unarmed flesh. In no way a finisher, she was ready for it to die though.

Seeing that the Ursa was becoming less responsive after the sheer amount of damage to it, Kael hooked his blades to his belt, letting them hang to his knees. Out of his hand, a blade began to flow out with a hilt to it. It was a hand and a half size hilt with a good 3 feet of steel on it. Grabbing onto it, he bent his knees together, gathering his remaining strength for the last attack. At the same time, Francesca used her Semblance to teleport above the Ursa with her bladed Bulletedge ready to dive down. Kael pushed off from the balls of his feet, rushing towards the Ursa, his sword cutting through the air with a whistle as it pierced through the lower part of the neck. Francesca began to fall down, her sword seeking the neck from above. As both blades penetrated the muscle, the Ursa began to roar with pain and despair of its fate. Kael drove more of his blade forward, blood rolling down the metal and staining his arms. Francesca bore down on Bulletedge, making it sink deeper. Eventually, the points of both blades met, hitting together with a clink. At the sudden resistance, Kael began to pull his sword to the left, the skin parting. Francesca, at the same time, pulled to the left as well, cutting through the other side of the neck. 

As if time had stopped, the Ursa stood there as both individuals knelt on the ground, waiting for something. Both stood up abruptly, and the head rolled off with a sickening crunch.