Kat didn't halt her descent and so she could drop as fast as possible. Landing in the snow, Kat' impact through up plenty of stray snow and obscured her vision. As Kat was trying to identify Grace's figure through the snow her tail whipped out and cleared most of the snow obscuring her vision.
Grace had a serious look on her face and her bow drawn "Details Kat, what can you tell me"
Pulling out her fans Kat moved forward and stood next to Grace and kept her eyes locked on the fast approaching figure "I dunno, it's some massive bird with really sharp beak and talons. Oh and it's yellow"
Grace felt her mouth pull into a frown "That sounds an awful lot like Barbarashi. What colour was it's eyes?"
"No idea" said Kat
Grace sighed "Well Kat, that happens to be very important and relevant information right now. Red would pretty much be a death sentence, green is doable, and black is probably easy for us. Oh and your holding those fans wrong"
Kat glanced at her hands and back up to Grace "Well, I didn't see, and even looking at it now it isn't really close enough to tell. So how am I holding these wrong exactly?"
Grace just shook her head "I don't think we have time to mess with it Kat, just put them back in your sash and use your fists, as much as that might pain me to say"
Kat complied and once again got ready. Staring at the bird Kat brought more demonic energy to bear to try and identify what colour it's eyes might have been, but it was still a bit far out for Kat to tell the details.
"Could we hide or something" said Kat
Grace shook her head "Not really, a green eyed or red eye could see us from that distance and would know where we hid. Then we aren't even scared of a black eye, so truthfully hiding does nothing"
"Oh, well it certainly saw me from even further away, it beelined for me when I was up there" said Kat
Grace cursed under her breath before looking towards the indistinct shape she could see in the distance "Ok, red or green it is then"
"Kat, watch my arrow" said Grace.
Grace knocked an arrow and shut one eye. Breathing in, Grace activated her gauntlets causing sigils to surround the arrow. A second later the bow itself started glowing and another sigil appeared in front of it.
Letting the breath go Grace released the arrow. The moment her fingers left the string there was a massive boom. Air whipped around Grace and Kat as the arrow soared straight towards the bird in the sky.
Kat watched its entire travel, and as it approached the bird it looked about to hit then, the creature banked sharply to avoid letting it clip its wing. "Dodged" said Kat
Grace cursed again "Well of course that would be to easy. Dam"
Grace looked around for cover but found the border area lacking in trees. Sighing Grace knocked another arrow but didn't draw the string back. "Ok Kat, seems like it can dodge. In that case we have one real chance. Barbarashi aren't known for their courage despite their hunting prowess
"If we can land a good hit on it as it dives for us it'll probably run away. The thing is, those feathers might as well be a suit of plate armour and the beak is hardly an option" said Grace
"So where do we strike then?" asked Kat
"Good question. Ideally the eye, but if we actually poked one out it might work up the courage to stay and fight. Trying to crush the wing joints is probably best. We won't deal any serious damage, but it will show we mean business" said Grace
At this point the Barbarashi was fast approaching and preparing for its dive. Kat took a fighting stance as it dropped straight for them. Its eyes locked on Kat, Grace opted to move slightly to the side and poured her mana into her bow.
Kat spared no expense. Circulating as much energy as she could just underneath her skin, priming her muscles to be ready to react as soon as the bird approached. Kat was not ready.
As soon as the Barbarashi started its dive the speed of the thing doubled and was next to Kat in an instant. An arrow shot out distracting the bird for just a second a forcing it's beak just barely to the side.
Kat took this chance to rely on her instincts and bend herself out of the way. Leaning back and away from the Barbarashi Kat watched the beak sail over her head but then came the talons.
Kat's tail stabbed into the ground correcting her balance and allowing Kat to jump up and over the Barbarashi's wing as it flew past instead of being torn up by the talons as it flew past. As Kat soared over the wings, she tried to bash them with her hands, but she'd jumped just slightly to high.
Choosing instead to rely on her tail Kat empowered it and sent it spearing down towards the wing tip. Her tail made contact with the joint but harmlessly bounced off… or so it seemed.
The spot her tail had made contact burst into flames that slowly spread across the Barbarashi's left wing. The Barbarashi let out a cry of panic and annoyance and tried to angle itself back to the sky.
Of course… its efforts were severely hindered by it's now frozen wing. Its left side dragging, instead of flying up its wing clipped the snow on the ground sending it into a freespin. Crashing through the snow and knocking over the trees the Barbarashi cleaved a path of debris through the snow and ice.
Kat went to share a look with Grace but found the elf still focused on the downed foe. "Kat. We might have an issue"
"What?" asked Kat confused
"We wanted it to FLY AWAY remember?" asked the now concerned Grace.
*Oh right* thought Kat as she watched the bird recover its footing and turn to face the pair. Its emerald eyes burning as it faced Kat down. Rearing its head back it the Barbarashi let out a screech.
Kat felt her energy rush to her ears to protect them, while Grace fell to the ground clutching her head. Kat glanced between the Barbarashi and the downed elf, but it seemed to have eyes only for her.
The Barbarashi took one step forward then three sigils appeared around it. As it took it's second step it was already just a few metres away from Kat. The demon launched herself as far as her legs would carry her to the side.
Good thing too, because just as Kat left the area the Barbarashi came charging through not letting up it's speed at all until well past Kat's previous area. As it started to slow the Barbarashi dug one talon into the ground and let it's momentum carry it around to face Kat once again.
"Well at least we know it has green eyes now" said Kat with a furtive glance towards Grace who was slowly regaining her bearings.
The Barbarashi seem to take offence at this because it opened its beak. Kat assuming it was going to scream again placed her hands over her ears only for five sigils to appear in the birds mouth.
*Ah shit this better not be.* Kat dropped her hands and lay flat on the ground. Pulling her tail in close and flattening her wings in the snow as much as possible. Just as Kat had fully flattened herself, she felt a massive gust of wind flow over her despite being half buried in snow.
Once it passed Kat raised her head in time to see a beak charging for her. Rolling out of the way Kat saw deep gash where she had just been. But she didn't have any time to rest because she knew the talons weren't far behind.
Keeping the roll up Kat felt something scrape her back and a burning pain. Gritting her teeth and pushing herself further sideways Kat turned to watch the Barbarashi pass her blood now covering its talons.
Kat pushed herself to her feet to get to a standing position. Clearly being flat on the ground was a poor just against such a mobile foe. However as she did this she felt that pain in her back intensify.
Gritting her teeth and standing anyway Kat could feel the blood dripping down her back. Her breath was starting to turn ragged. Checking her energy reserves she felt they still weren't too low. *Ok, I still have energy to spare but perhaps not quite the blood I'd like… Hey system is it possible for me to die of blood loss?*
If User Kat tries hard enough it is certainly possible
Kat let a wry grin appear on her face. *I guess that's good to know*