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Popping her head out from the top of the tree that she'd chosen to climb, Xinyue scouted the skyline around her for the presence of Grimm that she sensed earlier. Lo and behold, there was the exact thing that she predicted; a Nevermore soaring confidently above the canopy as though it had ruled the forest. It wasn't alone, however. Xinyue managed to find another Nevermore not to far away, approximately a hundred meters or so to the East. Either [i]one[/i] of them would be in range of her Arcus Splinters, but the main problem was that fighting one of them could easily attract the attention of the other. She needed to plan this attack carefully.

For the moment, Xinyue retreated back into the leaves and began to strategize. She could probably start by luring the Nevermores into crashing into each other, and then have her tiger spirits lunge at them while they were in recoil. Around that point would be the time she swapped back to her metal bolts and start aiming for the wings. How good the shots she'd be able make would depend entirely on how good of a fight the tiger spirits could put up, but assuming everything went according to plan, the Nevermores would be crippled of their flight and be forced down to the ground, making them infinitely easier to combat.

Now that she knew what she'd be doing, Xinyue popped her head above the leaves again and fired Water Dust bolts straight at the two Nevermores. The vast majority of the bolts she fired had soared straight past the Nevermores, and even those that connected would splash against them futilely. But that didn't matter; all Xinyue was concerned about was that she now had their attention.

...

Xinyue managed to swap into at least one magazine of metal bolts before she was forced to react to the two-pronged attack that the Nevermores were going for; that part of the plan went well. However, the Nevermores proved to be more coordinated in their assault than Xinyue had realized, sliding over and under each other and barely giving enough room in between for her to dodge the both of them. Being squashed between the two bodies had made her own roll vigorously, making any attempt to aim all the less possible, so Xinyue resorted to firing blindly, hoping for a lucky shot. Thankfully, she managed to strike the one that was beneath her, and the one that was above had been attacked by both tiger spirits at once. That at least left Xinyue with only one Nevermore to deal with for the moment.

Even better, it looked as though this specific Nevermore's left wing had been struck by the metal bolt, sending it spiraling through the tree tops and [i]almost[/i] all the way to the ground, with it being able to recover just in time. It turned out that slight hiccup in Xinyue's plan was meaningless in the end, as the stricken Nevermore was now at forest floor level like she wanted it. Despite its injury, the Nevermore was still quite capable of putting up a fight, and Xinyue had a hard job trying to get a good shot in due to having to dodge the feathers that it would fire from its good wing on top of that. Biding her time wasn't working either. She could tell that her Aura levels were replenishing, which could only mean one thing: one of the two tiger spirits she sent to attack the other Nevermore had been defeated, and because of that, she had to assume that it was able to fight the other one off as well.

[color=6ecff6]"I've had enough of this farce..."[/color] she decided, transforming her Arcus Splinters into their melee mode, [color=6ecff6]"Come at me!"[/color]

As though in compliance to that, the Nevermore soared straight at her, aiming its beak to land square on her heart. Xinyue made no preparation to dodge, gazing fearlessly at the incoming Nevermore. She could sense that the surviving tiger spirit was on its way... and her faith was rewarded when it came in and ambushed the Nevermore from its flank, biting into its good wing and successfully pinning it down. Taking her one and only chance to finish it off, Xinyue pointed one Arcus Splinter at its throat and one at its skull.

[color=6ecff6]"Now [i]die[/i],"[/color] she whispered mercilessly as she pulled the triggers. The Nevermore squawked in pain and anguish as it was being drilled into oblivion, before its cries ceased, and it faded into nothingness. No doubt that other Nevermore would be able to hear that and try to find its assailant, but Xinyue couldn't care less. She and it had unfinished business anyway.

Xinyue transformed her Arcus Splinters back to normal, and with her surviving tiger spirit in tow, she was on the prowl for that missing Nevermore. She did [i]not[/i] want to rue the day that she left it alive, that was for sure...