26.3ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

The tangle of death slowed and the bear lost track of the wolf. Multiple holes punched in its stomach poured blood, but the mindless fury of the Cavebear kept it frantically pulling apart coils and corpses. It wasn't until it felt the weight on the back of its neck did it realise its mistake. Too late. Immense pressure, pain, then the splintering crunch of a spine, no more pain. The Cavebear-goblin flopped on top of the horrific pile of shredded Lamia.

Rain rested on all fours atop the Cavebear for a moment, breathing hard, his head bowed.

"Cutting it a bit close maybe," said a voice.

He looked up to see Opal pushing aside some foliage. Blood spattered her clothes and both her cutlass and rapier were red up to the hilt.

"Yeah, well, they figured out engulfing me in coils was a bad idea. I couldn't bite my way out, so I had to change the situation."

"By having a half-Cavebear land on you?"

Rain laughed.

"It worked didn't it?" he said, as he wiped gore from his face.

"Barely I-"

"SCRAAAWW!!"

Rain turned back to the Goblin as an actual full blooded Harpy, not a half breed, crashed through the canopy and snatched Opal up in her talons. The Harpy cackled and began to lift her into the air.

Rain scrambled down the side of the bear and stumbled to his feet shedding gore and blood with every motion.

"Opal!" roared Rain as the Harpy made it past the canopy and began to glide over the jungle.

Rain ran underneath her following in her flight path.

"Daughters of mine! I have the traitor that's spoken of! Come see!"

Rain snatched up a stone about the size of a large fist from the ground as he ran. He leant backwards stretching his arm behind him, tilting his waist, then with a savage growl he torqued, twisting his hips and using all the momentum of his run he swung his arm so hard he thought it might snap. His paw whipped around and with a crack the rock left his paw and shot up through the canopy with an explosion of leaves. The rock took the Harpy in the back of the head sending a sprinkle of blood into the air. The Harpy squawked and crashed back down through the canopy ahead of Rain. She hit the ground hard in a spray of dirt, her wing breaking beneath her as she landed atop it.

The cries of many alarmed Harpy-goblins rang through the air as he raced up to the crashed true Harpy. She was still alive, just moving groggily. Blood marked her pale naked skin and dripped from her long black hair, her red eyes were unfocused. Opal was lying near her, by some fluke having landed atop her then rolled away.

Rain pulled the stunned Goblin into his arms and checked her over. Amazingly she was unharmed. The cries of anger above the canopy were nearing so he quickly thrust her out of sight beneath the nearest bush.

The true Harpy blinked and seemed to gather herself. She tried to move her broken wing and hissed in pain, then she painfully climbed to her feet. She touched the corner of her unharmed wing to the back of her head and it came away bloody. She eyed the red smear.

"You attacked a Queen. That was a mistake. By Harpy law I will see a hole cut in your navel and your intestine hooked free, then I will watch as my daughters nail the end to a tree then chase you around it using a flaming branch until your bowels wrap round it like thread around a bobbin. You will then live like that until you begin to starve and become weak upon which time we shall force feed you our guano until your stomach bursts."

Rain wrinkled his nose and made a face of disgust. "I think I understand why levelers hate Harpies so much, you actually are the worst of what levelers say about monsters."

The Queen Harpy hissed and stepped forward. At ground level, and standing, she was at a height with Rain, much larger than any of the half harpies, with massive brown and cream wings.

"Insolence."

She strode forward then sprinted then leapt into the air feet first, her body parallel to the ground, her massive twelve-inch razor talons aimed at Rain's face.