Just before the creature’s claws were to pummel into me, I shot both hands out and attached to the harpy’s forearms, spinning in a half circle and releasing her off into the air. The second hit me from behind and together we tumbled down. Thank the gods Braxton was a massive monster and had a broad back; otherwise that hit would have sent us both free falling. We scrambled to our feet, and I finally got a good look at the demi-fey.
They were definitely female, their bird-like features holding a semblance of a humanoid shape, hunched over a little in the shoulders and with defined breasts and hips. Her skin was gray and leathery looking – I guessed tough and hard to penetrate. Small, squinty eyes watched me as we circled each other. Braxton was still keeping the others at bay with claws, teeth and flames. My opponent opened her beak-like mouth and squawked at me.
“I don’t speak bird … or bitch,” I snarled at her. Not a total lie, I really didn’t speak bird, but I was damned fluent in bitch. Some would say expert levels.
The harpies didn’t appear to have any weapons, but seeing how lethal their hands looked, they mightn’t need any. I loosed some of my shifter energy and transformed my hands into claws.
It was on, bird-biatch. We were going to rumble.
Her movements were strong and confident as she took a large step across the scaled hide and came in swinging. I knew her style of fighting – direct, no illusions, so I was ready for that first move. I had my hands up protecting my face. I deflected her jab, mindful of how sharp her clawed hands looked.
Wide eyes and a snarl were my indication she had not expected me to match her in speed or strength. She clearly hadn’t fought a shifter before. I came back at her straight away, my jab combo slipping past her defense and clipping her chin. She shrieked as her head jerked back – this wasn’t a sparring match, I was not tempering my strength at all. I followed my punches with a roundhouse kick, which was harder than it looked considering I was on the back of a flying dragon. I knew Braxton would have landed to help me, but there were even more enemies on the ground.
My kick hit her in the gut, and it was enough momentum to fling her over the side. I threw myself down and crawled to see over Braxton’s edge, watching as she fell, her face contorted in fear, but there were no more shrieks. She took it like a warrior.
Right at the last minute, before she was about to become harpy pancake, her eagle caught her. I pushed myself up. Braxton was flying again, his movements reasonably smooth, although without my wolf reflexes I’d definitely have fallen by now.
There was another thump. I spun around. Two harpies. They rushed me as one, clearly not underestimating me any further. I shifted my hands back to claws; it took very little effort to hold them in this change. I expected the two to stop right before they hit me, but they barreled straight into me, pushing me back. Their talons cut across my biceps, my right arm copped the worst damage.
The scales were too slippery to gain traction, so I did the only thing left to me – dropped to my knees and clawed upwards to grasp two handfuls of leathery gut. My claws slid through easier than I’d expected, and my biceps burned as I strained to lift both harpies above my head, splatters of their watery orange blood raining down on me as I hurled them backwards over the edge.
I didn’t bother to check if they hit the ground or not. There was no time. A sharp pain hit me in the back almost knocking me off the edge. Talons had pierced between my shoulder blades, the harpy pushing in hard, trying to get to my heart. Through the back door.
Not today, warrior-witch.
Ignoring the pain, I threw myself back into her, slashing with my claws over both shoulders. I must have hooked something. She let out a low wail, although she never lost her hold on my flesh. The surface of Braxton was slippery with blood and sweat now and since my pain was pretty intense, I knew a fair amount of the body fluids were going to be from me. My wounds were deep.
I slashed again. My claws caught, ripping out a mass of whatever I’d connected to. Her hold loosened enough for me to roll free. I hooked both legs under her and flipped her over the top of me. She landed on her back, too slow to get her hands up, and I didn’t hesitate to dive across her and start laying into her face, slashing at her until I had her teetering on the edge of consciousness. Then I snapped her neck and threw her off the side.
Yeah, I was pissed now, and it was about to get fucking bloody if anyone came at me. Well, more bloody. I could still feel the hot pulse of fluid down my back. The deep wounds would bleed for a while, but I’d heal up soon enough. Braxton started to dive, and I’d been on him enough to know what was coming next. Evasive flying. I lowered my aching body down to his back and kind of hugged myself as close as I could. Where I was positioned I didn’t have much to hold onto. The spikes on his tail would have been good, but I wasn’t close enough to them.