[center][h2]Rozaliya “Rose” Tarasova[/h2][/center]

The Warped dove at her again, jumping to land flat against the wall of a ruined building before launching itself towards her in an attack that was highly telegraphed. Rose was planning to intercept, legs tensing as she prepared to meet it halfway and gore it with her own claws before it could do the same as her.

Then she heard the second howl and instead leapt up, over the weasel-like Warpeds lunge and hopefully avoiding any surprise attacks from the other.

The second attack never came, at least not before she touched down again, meaning she had lost a golden opportunity to end this fight early. As soon as her feet hit the ground she was moving, leaping towards the roof of the house the weasel had just used as a spring board and looking around to try and spot where the second one was hiding, but didn’t manage to find it in the two seconds she had to look before the first lunged for her again.

Rose threw herself to the side, rolling across the roof of the building as an oversized claw shredded the place she had just been standing. Finding her feet she began to look again, using whatever scant time she had before she had to move again to find where the hidden threat would come from. Still she saw nothing, but didn’t for a second think that she may have misheard or that the second Warped had left to go hunt someone else; it was [i]always[/i] best to assume the worst. Sure enough, a skittering sound beneath her gave her just enough warning to dive out of the way as the second weasel smashed its way through the timbers and tiles under her feet.

Jaws snapped shut on empty air, the pilot already clear of the danger for the time being, but Rose was still close enough to lash out with her own claws. The vibrant red blades dug deep into the flesh of the Warped’s snout, tearing through its cheek and ripping out a whole section of fangs as it cut straight through the roof of its mouth and out. It howled, though whether it was in pain or fury or just because it was what something was supposed to do when it was hurt she didn’t know; Rose had never figured out if the Warped could even [i]feel[/i] anything to begin with. Whatever the case, Rose was forced to retreat again as it began to thrash about, widening the hole it had made and causing the sections of roof around it to collapse.

Out of the corner of her eye Rose spotted just in time the first weasel closing in on her, the Warped choosing that exact moment to re-enter the fight now that she was distracted with her footing crumbing out from under her. It dove again, a short hop compared to the previous attempts, and tried to take her head from her shoulders. The pilot simply ducked, she didn’t have the room for anything fancier, and swung her own claws overarm to try and catch [i]anything[/i] as it passed overhead.

She felt her claws catch on something, briefly, before their immaculate sharpness won out and they sliced through whatever it was easily. Another howl sounded out behind her and beneath it she heard a solid thud as something heavy landed next to her. Rose ran away again, jumping clear of the rapidly deteriorating building and back down to street level, but not before she caught glimpse of the bloody, severed paw of the weasel; blade and all.

Well, it was something.

Attacking when she couldn’t guarantee a kill had been sloppy, but at least she had restricted her opponent’s offensive options somewhat and hopefully made it less mobile at the same time. Still, the Warped was hardly any less dangerous just because it was wounded.