[Yomegami]

Ah, the Idalani Falls. They were always considered a nice, romantic place where loved ones could enjoy themselves. This, then, is what made it a fine place for a hunt. No one expected some monster to leap out of the water and gulp them down, now did they?

That mindset is what drove Forza to the falls. As such a quiet place, he could easily find a few snacks since it was highly unlikely anyone would be preparing themselves for an attack. He expected to leave here with a full stomach. Well, provided anyone actually was here today. As the massive werebetta scanned the shorelines, he saw plenty of signs that others were present, but no actual land dwellers. Perhaps it was because it was currently in the middle of the day, and everyone knew the most romantic moments happened at night.

Well, at least this gave him some time to get used to the restriction around here. As someone who had spent all of his time up to this point in the open ocean, the confines of a river were very cramped quarters indeed. His larger-than-usual size didn't really help matters, either. However, he wasn't going to let this stop him.

With a shake of his head and a snort, Forza charged forth, ready to rip anything in his way to pieces.

((Forza: 2/10))

[Thunder]

Human Form: http://teh-silver-wolfeh.deviantart.com ... -118251625

Why was he here?

She was long, long gone. Ryuu asked himself why he had chosen such an ironic place, this "Lover's Triangle", to go to. He had no love. At least, not anymore. The only person he had now was Tori, and he had yet to find her...

But he had a good reason to be here at the falls. Ever since he burned down their lab, the cruel scientists who made him had been trying to track him down, believing he had gone insane since they thought he murdered Maylin on purpose. Those fools... he growled in his mind. The only madness in that place was theirs. Idalani, with its thick foliage and frequent visitors, would be a good place for Ryuu to hide. There were too many people to cause a scene, and if those damned scientists were as intelligent and all-mighty as they claimed to be, they wouldn't disrupt the couples just to nab him.

As he emerged from behind a couple of plants, swatting at the leaves with his sharp, monster-like claws, Ryuu's eyes caught sight of a river. He had traveled far. Hunting was easy enough, with his enhanced body, but water had been scarce. If he could a hollowed out stone, he could use it as a bowl and boil the water with his fire breath, and any germs inside would be killed. But before he stepped out to the river's edge, he looked around, golden eyes glowing with wariness. He thought he could sense some kind of presence nearby...

Although he saw no one, he still approached the river with caution.

[Indigo]

"Oh, come on, Tachless, it'll be fun. And maybe you'll find love or something."

She was really beginning to hate that Pepperwood girl. Oh, she wasn't so bad, for nobility, but it was ridiculous how she managed to talk Tachless into these things. Idalani was the last place she wanted to be right now; it reminded her too much of her obligations. Technically she was Rowan's official guard, and as such would have to protect her from inappropriate love interests along with all the other perils of her station. This particular portion of her job was one of the less desirable areas, to be sure, but being here of all places only served to remind her that she hadn't been able to convince the girl to let her do her job. Tachless was used to getting her way.

Ah, there was a river. The river. Whatever. Maybe watching the current would help focus her mind and she could think of an excuse to get out of here.

As she approached the river, she had the sudden sense of being watched. A glance around the immediate area revealed only a Paragon, who didn't seem to be paying her any attention, but just because a threat was unseen didn't make it any less dangerous. More so, in fact. Sword drawn and tensed for battle, she approached the river warily.

{16}
(This is probably terrible quality. I was distracted. Later ones will be better.)

[Yomegami]

Fortunately for the beings on shore, Forza hadn't exactly noticed their presence yet. He was too busy swimming in a straight line to notice, apparently more concerned with seeing what this place had to offer underwater rather than paying attention to his surroundings. Eventually, however, he stopped.

While the water around him was empty of other creatures, from his position he could clearly see something wandering around on shore. Perhaps a pair of lovebirds had arrived at last. To him, that could only mean one thing - it was showtime.

However, he first needed to know what he was looking at, and that was easier said than done. Normally, he would have spyhopped to see his potential prey, but this was a river. He wouldn't be able to get far enough away from the shoreline to prevent getting notice. On top of that, rivers were far shallower than oceans. Even if he didn't spyhop, if he stayed close to the surface he'd get noticed as well. It was hard to miss something the size of a battleheart, that was for sure.

For now, Forza sunk as low as he could and hugged the bottom, his eyes focused on whatever it was above water. Perhaps if it were to stoop low over the river, he could get a good look at it and from there judge if it was a good dinner or not....

((Forza: 3/10))

[Thunder]

(Just a quick question for Indigo. Is Tach in human form? Ryuu is. I should probably link to his picture in the first post I made.)

Ryuu heard a faint rustling behind him, and a quick sideways glance told him that there was a Rathril who had just arrived in the area, with a sword in her hand. The orange glow of his eyes strengthened just a bit before fading out again. He got the sense that the Rathril didn't have any bad intentions, although the drawn sword clearly meant that she was being wary. He would not want to fight such a person, but if she made any move to attack him...

He stooped down near the bank of the river, searching for a stone that would fit his needs. Of course, he could just drink right out of the river, but something in his mind told him to be wary, and so he didn't want to dip his hands in. After a few seconds of digging through the soil, he saw a medium sized rock that had a bit of a sloped indent in the center, perfect for holding water.

He took it in his hands and started reaching towards the water, but he stopped. He thought he saw a faint flicker of movement, a slight disturbance of the silt in the river. Slowly, he extended his metal wings, the bright orange membranes widening, ready to give him a nice push away from the river if there was something dangerous there.

[Indigo]

(Yes, she is. Probably should've mentioned that; sadly there aren't yet any pictures of her human form worth showing.)

Tachless slowly advanced on the river as if approaching a dangerous animal. Although the Paragon clearly posed no threat to her at the moment, she kept her attention open to attack from that direction; appearances could be deceiving, and often were. It took her a few minutes longer than it would otherwise to reach the river's edge, at which point she glared into the water. She couldn't see anything dangerous-looking at the moment, but there was always the possibility of a hidden threat. Always consider all the potential dangers.

She considered leaning closer to the water to see better, but decided against it. Her years in the long-ago rebellion and brief term in an army before that had taught her the important rule of "Don't make it any easier for something to eat your face." For similar reasons, she decided not to stir up the water with her sword in an effort to see anything hiding beneath the surface, as that might end up being the last thing she saw.

With a sigh, she sat down a safe distance from the water's edge, sword still in her hand, prepared for a fight. It aggravated her that she couldn't find the source of her instinctive uneasiness, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She stared blankly into the water and let her mind wander, although not so much that she lost track of the world around her.

{17}

[Yomegami]

Sure enough, his patience payed off. Now, Forza could tell that whatever was on shore on the moment was currently a human. He thought he could see wings protruding from its back, but then again that might have been the surface tension distorting his view. Judging by its movements, it was probably wary of something in the water.

Normally, Forza wasn't fond of human. They were too small to constitute a decent meal, unless in significant amounts. However, after a long while of finding nothing else, he decided that he might as well make an exception. That was when a small light flickered in his brain. This being had wings, and upon looking again they appeared to be bat-like. Now, he couldn't think of any bird with wings like that, and it was awfully large for a batti. To him, the process of elimination left only one option: it was a dragon of some sort.

Now, that was more like it! The werebetta had never tasted dragon flesh in his entire life, and this was a fine place to try it. His target acquired, Forza readied himself for an attack. The second the dragon leaned a little closer, it was history and he would have dinner at last. He couldn't wait.

((Forza: 4/10))

[Thunder]

The Rathril girl had also settled down by the river. There was an air of uneasiness around her, and Ryuu could not discern whether that was from seeing him or something else. At any rate, it seemed that if she was bothered at all, she'd lunge at him, but Ryuu did not plan to do anything of the sort. He was here for water and shelter, nothing more. She was not one of those hellish scientists.

Ryuu's gaze returned to the water before him. If his eyes weren't tricking him and there had been some silt kicked up a few moments ago, it had settled now. Still cautious, he bent over slightly, just enough so his one hand could get the stone in the water. He did not dare to reach out with most of his arm, since losing one would not be good at all. Although he didn't know if a beast would find half-artificial flesh tasty...

If something happened, hopefully Ryuu would be the worse monster.

[Indigo]

Tachless's eyes flicked to the river, though she made no other movement. Something had moved, she was sure of it. She surveyed the water as best she could from afar. For a moment she was certain of a large white shape beneath the surface, but it was impossible to be certain. Still, there was definitely...something waiting there. Something big.

She drew herself into a crouch, ready to leap into action should the Paragon be attacked. She wasn't about to go rushing over in his defense just yet, since so far nothing had happened, but should something attack him, and should he be unable to defend himself, she would offer her assistance. Besides, she didn't want anything coming after her.

Her eyes fixed on the water and she stared into it intently, ready for even the slightest movement.

{18}
(A link to Tachless's newly drawn human form has been added to her image in my first post if anyone's interested. Not very good but oh well.)

[Yomegami]

The minute the being on-shore reached for the water, Forza wasted no time. In what seemed like a split second, the monstrous fish went from patience to bloodthirst as he lunged for the surface, ready to seize his meal and drag it into the depths to be devoured.

His plan of attack was to quickly seize his target by whatever seemed closest - possibly its whole body, since at the moment it looked much smaller than he was. Then, he would use the force to lift himself up and backsplash into the water, where a few "death rolls" would tear his food apart and ready it for consumption. If he missed...well, the werebetta hadn't thought about that. He was never one to think ahead and consider all the options.

A few moments later, the water in front of Ryuu exploded as Forza's great head emerged, jaws agape and ready to snap up the paragon. His plan had been set into motion, and now a few more moments were all he needed to see if he was successful.

((Forza: 0/11))

[Thunder]

It was only a couple of seconds.

But a couple of seconds was all Ryuu needed. Being a genetically and physically altered life form had its benefits, he supposed. His reactions were above average, and so he was able to get most of his body away from the Werebetta's gaping jaws. Unfortunately, his awkward, squatting position didn't make the best jumping position, and so one of the giant fish's teeth managed to catch him on the arm, creating a gash from halfway up his lower arm to the fleshy base of his thumb. Had his innards been made of one-hundred percent flesh, he would probably have died a matter of seconds after receiving the wound, but thankfully, such was not the case. But it still sent a jolting pain up his arm and caused a hiss to escape from his jaws.

Now having jumped back from the Werebetta, he evaluated the situation. Clearly, getting too close was a bad thing, so a good option was taking flight. The problem was that Ryuu had no idea how high this thing could leap out of the water. It was a strangely large Werebetta, so perhaps it would be too heavy to get him if he flew up high enough, but it was likely that the creature was all muscle and could make the height. Ryuu had been taught to fight soldiers armed with guns and other weaponry, not hellish fish.

Whatever the Werebetta's next move, he crouched and leaped into the air, and a powerful flap of his metal wings let him hover above the river.

[Indigo]

(Sorry about the wait.)

It was the fish from hell.

Well, what was she supposed to do now? She couldn't exactly run up and start hacking at a giant hell-fish with her sword--it would get her killed for sure--and even in her Rathril shape she wasn't the size of this thing. Still, there didn't seem to be much else to do, and she certainly didn't want the thing after her; the Paragon seemed able to take care of himself. So she changed to her Rathril shape in the hope that it would give her some advantage.

She had no roar or battle cry to strike fear into the heart of her enemy, having learned that things became easier when they didn't know you were attacking. She just charged, claws and teeth ready for slashing. Of course, most of her experience was with her human shape, but to her surprise the movements seemed to come naturally to her as she attempted to at least drag the fish from the water.

{19}

[Yomegami]

Well, he had almost got it. While Forza was pleased that he had managed to land a successful hit, he considered his attack to overall be a failure since he didn't seize his target. To top it all off, it was now flying above the river.

The werebetta glared angrily at Ryuu, trying to consider the best plan of action now that his first moves didn't achieve the desired results. He supposed he could slide back into the water and try to leap up and snap at the human-form dragon, but that was likely predictable. And if it could manage to get away with only a sizable gash to the arm from a squatting position, he was unlikely to grab it while it was in a favorable position.

It was then that he noticed the rathril charging towards him. A normal werebetta probably would have given up and snapped up the rathril, but Forza was dead set on who he wanted as his meal. He wasn't in the mood for a rathril dinner. So what was he going to do about this?

Suddenly, it hit him. The rathril was large enough that if it flew into something, it would likely smash it into bits. Seeing how the dragon was out of his reach at the moment...it was genius. He would hit the rathril in such a manner that it would get sent flying, hopefully smacking the dragon out of the air and into the water, where Forza could eat him at his leisure.

So, the great fish waited for the rathril to get close, then swung his head in an attempt to catch the rathril on his teeth and turn it into a ballistic projectile. If all went well, no one would see this attack coming....

((Forza: 1/11))

[Thunder]

He had avoided the Werebetta's initial attack, but what was the fish planning now? Ryuu could see that something was up. Unfortunately, he did not have good knowledge about a predatory creature's tactics, although he himself could easily be an equally frightening monster. He knew of battle positions, weapon usage, and many other things regarding human warfare, but never had he been taught to fight wild creatures. For a moment, it almost seemed like the Werebetta had now decided to go for the Rathril, which would be an easier target. This thought was confirmed when, as the Rathril charged forth in her animal form, the huge Werebetta swung his head in her direction. He was not sure if the maneuver was intended as a sort of build up to something else, but at any rate he was ready to dodge and retaliate. Hopefully, the fish could burn...

[Indigo]

Tachless yelled incoherently as she suddenly found herself in the air. Well, there went her chance of dragging the fish onto shore and hopefully incapacitating it. Strangely, it had left her relatively unharmed, apart from a few nicks in her hide that she ignored out of necessity and the consideration that there were more important things to worry about. She twisted her head around wildly, trying to figure out its purpose in doing this instead of eating her.

She noticed the Paragon overhead and made an effort to calculate her trajectory. She may have been more a warrior than anything else, but you had to be smart to get the sword in the right bits most of the time. Within moments--and a good thing it didn't take her longer, too--she had figured out where she was headed: directly toward the Paragon. With her current weight, she was likely to knock him right out of the sky, which was probably the whole point. Only one thing to do now...

Twisting awkwardly in an effort to remain upright, she changed shape in midair. Considerably less heavy in human shape, her direction of travel changed slightly, but not enough to get her out of the Paragon's way. Even if she managed to avoid him, she would end up falling, not a good plan at this point. Thinking quickly, she yelled, "Sorry about this!" and grabbed for one of the Paragon's limbs.

{20}