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

Something was wrong.

You would think, given the situation, that Rose would have been relieved to see one of the Warped begin to slink away from the fight; limping away on three legs while the more intact one blocked her path. She wasn’t though, because Warped were not in the habit of retreating no matter how badly injured they were; the things, wherever they came from, didn’t often show a sense of self-preservation, so for one to do so now, for one to act [i]differently[/i] than she was used to seeing?

It was worrying.

She couldn’t let it get away. Honestly, she had no idea what would happen if it did, but it wanted to get away which meant Rose wanted it [i]not[/i] to get away; in situations where she didn’t know what was going on, simply denying the Warped their objective was good enough. Usually that objective was killing her, which she was happy to prevent, but the idea was still sound.

Before she could stop the more wounded of the two from leaving however, Rose needed to deal with the one that was standing in her way. Any move she made to get past it was blocked as it moved it body to intercept, the thing far faster and more agile even with its size; she wouldn’t be able to kill its partner before without it stopping her. Any time she took her eyes off of it to look at the other one it began to edge forward, threatening an attack if she focused her attention anywhere but at it. Her only apparent choice was to tackle it head on, kill it quickly, and then go after the other; that would have been difficult and risky enough as it was, but she had the distinct feeling that as soon as she committed to fighting the weasel in front of her fully, the wounded one would break out into a sprint and be gone before she could disengage or win. So, she needed to kill the Warped blocking her path quick enough that the wounded one didn’t have time to open up an insurmountable head start, without being reckless or giving the Warped an opportunity to kill her.

Great. No problem.

Gritting her teeth, Rose burst into action. She leapt forward suddenly; not towards the Warped, but towards what was left of the building they had just been fighting on, jumping up to the edge of the half-collapsed roof and leaning her body far enough forward that her next leap, which would take her past the Warped blocking her path and after the wounded one, was highly telegraphed. She leapt forward again, pushing off of the raised ledge at the edge of the roof as she shot herself forward at the same moment that the Warped timed its own leap to intercept her in mid-air; their two leaps sending them both on paths that would end with Rose skewered on a pair of lethal sickle-like blades that she would be unable to avoid.

Except when the Warped’s path intercepted her own, Rose wasn’t there. She was still at the edge of the roof, her forward trajectory being harshly halted by the fact that the red blades on her tail had been secured anchored into the side of the building. The masonry cracked and the blades tore a foot and a half long path through the concrete and it felt like her tailbone was being ripped right out of her back, but Rose had successfully feinted the Warped into leaping to catch someone who wasn’t there.

Pulling her tail out of the wall, Rose rushed forward for real this time; jumping forward with her arm blades extended as she lunged for the weasel-like Warped while it was still in mid-air and wondering why its prey wasn’t impaled. The blades of one of her arms plunged into the side of its chest, sinking all the way up to her fingertips as it pierced through ribs and lungs and heart; assuming it had any of those things, she’d never done an autopsy of them. The blades of her other arm found its neck, cutting through arteries and windpipe and spine.

It fell limp and Rose pulled her arms free before its weight could drag her down.