From: Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 23:15:40 EDT Subject: attack! <> Teri stood, frozen and still against the sword pressed to her throat. Without looking down, she couldn't tell exactly what was held to her throat with the exception that it was cold and sharp-- "We don't have any food," she whispered, her eyes closing. She was gripping the scaly wrist as hard as she could, but with her diminished strength and the seemingly abundant power of whoever was mugging her (though whoever heard of someone mugging a college kid for food rations?), she was being pretty ineffectual. Roland couldn't have stood more still, his muscles seemingly frozen, but coiled taut; he was on the edge of springing. "Let her go-- whoever you are." "Give me your food rations now, don't lie to me, humans!" "We already told you-- we have no food!" Shinji crouched, ready to flip over the monster.. Roland leaned slightly towards Shinji, about to whisper, but the monster's eyes were watching his movements. Shinji clenched his wrist. Teri suddenly had an image flash through her mind of a time when she was in 7th grade and her social studies (they called it 'social studies' back then, rather than 'u.s. history') teacher was explaining some of the non-violent protesting in america during the vietnam war-- teri let her muscles go slack, and the monster, who had easily been holding back Teri's defense, was surprised at the sudden lack of struggle. Teri hung limp in the creature's arm, the sword no longer against her throat. She was still, however, securely caught. And she was so tired... Shinji gritted his teeth. The monster was holding the blade to Teri's throat, and from the closeness of their proximity, it would be all but impossible to help her. For now anyway... Then, all of the sudden, Teri went slack. The monster looked perplexed at the sudden action. The sword edge left Teri's throat. Every instict in his body screamed NOW! Dashing forward, he flipped over the monster and it's captive, landing directly behind them. The monster, distracted by Shinji, didn't see Roland as he darted forward. With reflexes no normal human could have mimicked, he snatched Teri away from the creature, and following through with the motion, planted his foot into the monster's abdomen and pushed hard. The creature staggered backwards, directly into a waiting Shinji. Shinji crouched back as he watched Roland pull Teri to safety. "Great job. Now it's my turn!" he thought to himself as the dragon-human staggered towards him. With a loud battle cry, he executed a half-crecent kick directed at the monster's head. Just before it hit, the monster ducked, letting the attack sail harmlessly over it's head. With a growl, it charged forwrard, the blade of it's sword ready to swing. Cursing his mistake, Shinji waited for the immenent swing. The creature swung, but the attack was clumsy, the sword to heavy for it to weild, and Shinji easily sidestepped it. Before it could attack again, Roland hurled his staff forward, hitting the enraged monster square between it's shoulders. It fell onto it's hands and knees. A normal person might have collapsed under the pain, but the monster's dragon blood gave it the strength to sprint like a cat, then with the same agility, lept into the air, wings outstretched. Seeing that victory could not possibly be attained, it fought down the urge to stand and fight. It couldn't win, not against all three. But against only one? Smiling slyly, it flew off away from the group, praying that it's human heart wouldn't give out just quite yet. "Oh no you don't!" Shinji exclaimed, and ran after the fleeing monster. Behind him he thought he heard Roland call after him to come back, but he ignored him. Soon he would be too far away to hear either of his companions. Suddenly the monster turned around. With a cruel smile, it hurled the sword towards a very suprised Shinji. He barely sidestepped the spinning disk of death, the deadly weapon stabbing deeply into the ground. Shinji looked franticly for a way to retaliate. The monster was hovering too high for a jump attack, so the only way to reach it would be...that's it! Quickly making the calculations in his head, Shinji ran towards a large tree. Jumping a high as he could, he rebounded off the hard bark, flying straight for the monster. He collided with the creature, sending them spinning to the ground. As they fell, they both rained blow after blow upon each other, fist and claw the only weapons available. Shinji finally got a square blow in, smashing his fist into it's jaw. Snarling in anger, the monster grabbed Shinji by his shoulders, it's razor sharp claws biting past his armor. It spun them around, and upon reaching the ground, it was on top, leaving Shinji to take the full brunt of the landing. He grunted in pain as the air was knocked out of him. The monster rolled off him, then dashed away into the thick underbrush, still growling in pain. "God damn monster," Shinji wheezed between gasps for breath. "Human bastard," Iya growled as it staggared away.