Dueling Knights 1

Cassidy let her eye roam over the twins as they inspected the Iguanodon guards they had managed to incapacitate. Piper had a steady stream of blood dripping from her claw, clearly not belonging to the Iggy, and she was holding it close to her chest, soaking the breast feathers in crimson. Sparrow wasn’t any better, the site of his collision with the wall having bloomed into a swelling that began to crowd his mouth and eye.

“You two, fetch me Hazard,” she said bluntly, making both twins look at her incredulously.

“There’s just two guards left!” Piper protested, still keeping her arm tucked closely against her.

“You’re both injured, you’re nothing but bait now,” Cassidy reasserted coldly, “Get Hazard out here and treat your wounds, once the swelling goes down and the bleeding stops I’ll reconsider.” Sparrow looked hurt, emotionally, as he trudged into the bushes. Piper’s expression was more venomous as she scowled at the gang’s leader before following her brother. Cassidy would feel their loss keenly in the final battle, she was aware of that, but they were worse than useless now they were injured. She looked up to the top of the stone wall, like she could see over it if only she squinted hard enough. What if Cath and Kaiwi weren't there? Had the Atlanteans been executing their prisoners to keep up with the demand? They weren’t demanding a ransom, what point did they have to keep them around? A sense of urgency suddenly bloomed in the pink raptor’s gut and she whipped her head to the side when she heard the bushes begin to rustle.

Hazard emerged with an Oviraptor following closely at her heels.

“Wisteria, nice of you to join us,” Cassidy greeted, not keeping the hostile tone from her voice.

“...”

Wisteria was slightly hesitant walking into the room. The iron scent of blood filled her nostrils, it almost stung as she shivered. Nearly cowering in demeanor, until she heard her name be called, she would perk up.

“Oh.. uh, you’re welcome?” Wis was uncertain as to what was truly happening. Looking around with concerned purple eyes, she blinked a few times quite rapidly before speaking again; her tone soft yet curious.
“Are …are you guys alright?”

Part of her instincts wanted to help in what was happening. She knew in her heart, helping was the best way to stay on the good sides of others. Especially this Cassidy, it was the first time she had encountered her. There was a sense of something off but not necessarily in a bad way either. It was just mostly unknown to Wis.

“Maybe I can help you guys out?” Wisteria added, her arms flapped with a little enthusiasm with her words. Her tone, still soft yet curious. She always tended to appear innocent but her mind was completely elsewhere. The scent of blood was triggering something within her but she did her best to ignore it.

“...”

Hazard was her usual brash self, stealth was not her strong suite but she was stronger than the small utahs, a fact that was not lost on Cassidy. Plus she was good at following orders. She wasn't too sure how she came about to have Wis with her but she was unsure if the little creature would be much help in this fight.

Hazard looked over to Cassidy and cocked her head giving a sarcastic smirk, “I'm here too boss. The twins aren't happy about it though.” She wasn't a fan of the twins and they weren't very fond of her either so winding them up was a regular hobby of Hazards. 

Shifting her expression to something more serious she looked over at the two downed iguanadons, despite how little she liked the other two they did do good work and she couldn't help but be impressed by their efforts. 

Hazard made her way over to stand beside Cassidy, dwarfing her in comparison however despite her larger size and stronger form Cassidy knew she was still in charge. Hazard was a great henchman but no part of her was a leader. “What now boss?” She looked down at the pink Utah at her side. 

“...”

The Oviraptor had also been an odd duck, but acting like she hadn't met Cassidy before was certainly a new one. Nonetheless, they had no time to fuss around Wisteria's oddities.

"We have two more guards, to dispatch, they're both Euoplos," she explained quickly, "Myself and the twins have been incapacitating them by turning them onto their backs and tying their legs together. Then, we roll them over onto their fronts so they don't suffocate. Once these two are finished with, there are no more guards outside to get in our way." Hazard nodded as she absorbed the intel, keen as ever to do a good job.

"So, where do you need me?" the Cryo asked.

"I draw the attention from the front, you blindside them and flip them over, you should easily be strong enough since Sparrow was able to do it on his own," Cassidy told her, "Wisteria, you... you can find something to tie them up with." The Ovi nodded blankly. Hazard was shifting impatiently and Cassidy could see no reason to delay any further. With a jerk of her head, she motioned for the other two to follow her. 

The last two guards were packed together, clearly on edge from the sound of the chaos around the wall from them. One was green and covered in leather straps holding a sheet of leather armour in place on its side. The other was a paler, sandier colour, adorned with a cow skull for a helmet and sharp metal spurs on its hind legs as well as a bristling set of quills. The second would be impossible to jump on top of, so Cassidy silently directed Hazard to target him first. The Cryo narrowed her eyes, locking on to the Euoplo and ducking back to await Cassidy's signal. With that, the raptor knew her time had come. With a loud screech she ran from the shadows into the path of both Euoplos and struck at the green one, leaving a shallow gash across her face. She sidestepped the swinging tail that came in retaliation, she was learning their patterns of attack surprisingly quickly and it was saving her from a broken leg or two, she was sure. She skidded to a halt and turned back to hiss and splay her feathers out, raising her crest and making the biggest show of herself that she could. With both Euoplos charging at her, she could see Hazard emerging from the darkness of the jungle to make her move. 

“...”

Wisteria quickly ran back the way she came, recalling some vines that may be tough enough for tying. As quick as her body would bobble to get the vines, she lowered her beak to the cluster of them. Pulling her neck back with her back, she groaned.

It was tough! The dirt was hard and the vines would not let go.

She pulled again. Nothing. She pulled once more, finally it let loose and tore off. A low ‘umph’ crept out of her beak with the vines in her mouth. The taste of the greenery was nice but not so much with the dirt. She was not a fan.

After a moment to recollect herself, she got up and scurried back to Cassidy.
Once there back at the post where the command was requested; she dropped the vines as her mouth felt hoarse. But Cassidy was overrun by the Euoplos, fighting. The scent of blood filled her nostrils with a sting.

Man everyone is always fighting, she thought as she lowered her beak to retake the vines and headed towards the Euoplos who had been backside up.

“...”

At the sight of Cassidy’s dramatic display Hazard knew her time had come, she stalked around her target lining up her charge. With the force of a Styra she came charging out of the brush head low. Before impacting the skull wearing euoplo she threw her body side on and shoulder changed into his meaty side. 

The euoplo was completely blindsided and with ease Hazard bowled him over and onto his side. He cussed and spat in fury as his legs flailed wildly much like a turtle that had taken a tumble and ended up upside down. To add insult to injury, Hazard jumped up on his belly to get a better vantage on the green one.

Hazard grinned down from her higher position as the green euoplo held its focus on Cassidy. She hadn’t been given any order to attack the second one but she feared a good bonk from a club would put Cassidy out of commission for a while which was not going to be a good thing down here. They would need her if they were going to succeed. She was the boss after all.

Hazard jumped down onto the green euoplos club, pinning it to the ground. A genius technique she thought to herself. However her logic was flawed, she should have none better than to think for herself it always went sideways. The euoplo simply yanked its tail away like pulling a rug from beneath the Cryo causing her to tumble onto her side. She’d succeeded at one thing, the green euoplos attention was now solely on her. 

“…”

Cassidy swore to herself as Hazard ended up locked in combat with the green Euoplo. She was still on her side as the stone knight raised her club to bring it down on the Cryo’s skull and the gang’s leader acted without thinking. She lunged for the tail, aiming for the fleshy underside and sunk her teeth into it. She was dragged along the ground by its force but she had slowed the momentum enough to stop it before it reached Hazard. She spat a loose tooth from her mouth and ducked back to avoid a retaliatory strike. A short look to the side saw Wisteria standing there, her beak and arms filled with vines ready to restrain. Unfortunately in the chaos the male Euoplo had managed to turn himself back over. Now, they were into a full face-to-face confrontation with two of Atalantis’ stone knights with any advantage already exhausted. Still, Cassidy would not give up, between the three of them there was still a chance to triumph.