–You have taken 18 Impact Damage–

David snarled into the wall of fur that was trying to scrape him off along the ground, rocks and branches digging into his back and scraping along his wings. He ignored the steady stream of notifications that were pinging in his subconscious as he hammered the beast with Nocturnal Strike as quickly as he could physically perform the motion. David briefly registered that he could utilize the attack with both his taloned wings and his bites, but never both at the same time. He alternated between the two as rapidly as he could, eyeing his readout with a glance as the tusked bear reared off the ground again to slam them both back to the ground heavily.

–You have taken 26 Impact Damage–

–Health 51/90–

–Stamina 194/215–

David was reasonably sure that he’d stolen a huge chunk of the creature's Stamina, and even a decent amount of its health as he watched his own slowly tick back in his periphery. When the beast reared up to slam him again he simply released his grip and dropped to the ground, activating Glare as he lunged straight for its face, fangs bared and snapping. He heard the Combo notifier chime in his ear and the beast hesitated, arresting its shoulder slam with a heavy paw and instead swinging one of its sharp tusks at him in a defensive motion. David slammed his wings out, killing his momentum to avoid the attack before using it as an opportunity to gain a bit of height, dropping straight down onto the beast's back like Kai had done and hammering down with another Nocturnal Strike for good measure.

He heard the first animal howl in agony a split second after his hunting companion let out an almost respectable screech of victory. He shot a glance towards the sound and saw the larger mammal crawling along the ground away from the bird as he darted in for the kill. David’s eyes widened when the monster turned slightly to face him, and he saw the tusked bear's eyes begin to shine with an unnatural red light. He quickly spat out the mouthful of bear he’d been busy tearing at and hurled himself over the beast's shoulder into a hasty Glide, looking for an angle to land another Glare. The ability connected soon after but only served to enrage the beast further before it sucked in a massive breath and roared loudly enough that David heard Claire roar in response from farther down the river.

“It’s using an ability or something! Get the fuck away from it!” David screeched loudly as he flung himself from the air with a hard flap, snatching at the thick bark of a tree and scrabbling to a halt momentarily in its temporary safety.

Kai reacted to David’s warning rapidly, twisting his head to the side and continuing his predatory sprint in a wide arc, wings held out slightly for balance. He didn’t try to take the air again, instead choosing to hold a wing slightly extended towards the creature at all times, almost like he was shielding himself with the delicate feathers somehow. David didn’t bother trying to figure it out, assuming it was an ability or mutagen at work he simply hadn’t seen yet as he turned his attention back to the beast he’d been distracting. The creature wobbled unsteadily on its feet as it stumbled towards the raging specimen Kai was still fighting. He could tell that it was resisting the soporific but only just, and launched himself towards it without a sound as he picked up speed across the short distance to the enemy.

–Health 78/90–

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–Stamina 166/215–

David buzzed the creature, allowing his wings to catch the wind roughly and scatter Gloom in a thick cloud instead of the usual faint haze that surrounded him in flight. The creature reared up drunkenly and grabbed for him, but only succeeded in taking a faceful of dusk powder while David blew past to circle towards Kai and his opponent, darting out of the grove of trees briefly, soaring out above the river only to reenter from another angle. He knew he had used a decent amount of stamina with that maneuver, the telltale burn and pain of his shoulder and chest muscles making the readout almost redundant as he rejoined the fight.

Glare just made it angrier, let's try the stunt with the tree again, it’s way faster than turning. We need to hit it hard before it manages to get any momentum.

“Kai! Light him up, we need to finish it off fast!” David chattered as he barreled in on them.

The tusked bear charged forward, blood pouring from its mouth and nose as its eyes shone bright with crimson light. Kai simply shoved his wing in its face with a slashing motion, the beast snarling with pain and drawing back quickly as its face was reduced to hamburger from the brief contact with the feathers. Kai pressed the attack, pecking with swift, fluid motions and following up with flaps or swings of his golden wings, the long pristine feathers leaving precise punctures and slashes everywhere they touched. David shot over their heads and repeated his trick from a moment ago, snatching a tree with his wings and claws, then using it to hurl himself in a new direction entirely. He plummeted down onto the lower half of the monster's back, below the large hump of muscle at its shoulders where it was less protected.

Fur flew and hide parted easy under his assault, splattering his face and wings with hot sticky blood as the creature howled in pain once again and turned furiously to bite at him. The huge golden bird never gave it the chance, hurling itself straight at the creature in a raptor-like leap, seizing the tusked bear’s shoulder in his talons once again. Kai and David both screeched furiously as they attacked together, Kai flapping his wings brutally onto the bear's face and neck as David pounded its back with a series of Nocturnal Strikes as his fangs and talons rose and fell in a frenzy. The berserk animal didn’t last long under the combined assault, fighting furiously to shake them off until the red light suddenly left its eyes and it collapsed like a puppet with its string cut.

“Shit, good job.” Kai panted as he hopped back from the dead beast and looked at David with wide eyes and a gaping beak, “Where the fuck did the other one come from?”

“How should I know? We should probably finish it off before it wakes up.”

“Wait, you didn’t kill it?”

David detached from the corpse after taking a moment to work his talons free of a bone he’d struck in his haste, “Nope, I have a lot of Control effects. I put him in time out, over there.”

Kai looked towards the quivering pile of predator as it gazed blankly at the dirt in front of its face where it had slumped forward onto the ground, pupils hugely dilated and face covered in a faint sheen of silvery powder. The bird gave him an extremely overt sizing up as he glanced between David’s small but powerful body and that of the debilitated slab of muscle that he’d locked down. David saw him open his beak to say something else when he suddenly jumped about a foot into the air as trees splintered and cracked under the force of two tons of extremely agitated Claire.

She ducked her head as she burst through the foliage from the river, slamming her neck into a smaller tree blocking her path and obliterating it without slowing down. Her cold reptilian eyes took in the scene at a glance before she simply continued forward and seized the second creature by the middle of its back and shook it savagely. Kai and David stood in total silence, the only sound the faint rushing of the river, Claire's rumbling snarl, and the heavy thuds of the tusked bear's body being hammered into the ground a dozen times in half as many seconds before she stopped shaking and dropped it.

“Claire.” David began, “I’m pretty sure it’s extra dead as fuck now.”

She stomped on it just to be sure.