Hey there Little Red Riding Hood

[timid_kitty]

CLOSED TO LILY and BEN until the aftermath

Alex had done what he could to warn others to stay out of the halls. He had no way of knowing if Ben was going to be able to keep him in his cabin, but he was hopeful... he had to be hopeful. The last thing he wanted was to hurt anyone because he'd been unable to take proper precautions.

All those thoughts, however, had begun to flee his mind as he'd slowly given over to the beast at its most feral. He'd changed and with that change came the lust for blood and fighting; everything that was at the most base of his desires.

He was approximately two and a half times larger than his natural counterpart, bodied more like a mature tiger than a leopard, but retained all the agility that he would if he were smaller.

And then he'd succeeded in managing just what he'd been trying to avoid; he'd attacked and ultimately gotten past the werewolf and was now stalking the halls of the Black Tide, searching for the one thing that would satiate him... blood. Blood already flecked his muzzle and paws from the successful it he'd made on Ben while escaping, but it wasn't enough; not by far.

He pads on silent feet through the halls, cupped ears flicking this way and that and whiskers fanning widely as he scents for anything that might entice him.

Comments

[dogfighting]

Lily would think this was totally fucking awesome under any other circumstances.

She watches the wolf go down, and she's tensed and ready to help before Ben is tossing Alex aside. Just a few seconds ago, she was in it to win it, ready to fight Alex to the death (his death, that is), but now she has a new goal: get Ben to see a damn doctor. Lily can bleed for hours before she dies, but what about Ben? How long can he fight like this?

"Ben!" Lily calls, jogging forward. Man, it would be so embarrassing if this wolf wasn't Ben. Her eyes flicker up to Alex for just a second before she looks back to Ben. "Ben, we gotta get you outta here. You're hurt. And bleeding. A lot."

Says the girl who can't even move her arm from how injured it is.

[timid_kitty]

Once he's airborne there is no stopping the spring of movement and it carries him straight at Ben. His claws find purchase and dig into the wolf's flesh, but even as he does so, Ben drops and uses Alex's own weight and inertia against him. His claws are still in Ben's sides, but they are jerked free in a spray of blood as the leopard is flung across the hall.

He shakes himself out, rising back to his feet again with a snarl of frustration. His angry gaze darts to Lily as she moves in toward Ben, intent on getting him away from Alex. He sneers, whiskers and ear pinning back as his tail lashes angrily behind him. He thinks himself the stronger and best suited for this match, cocky in his own abilities.

"Yes, Ben," he rumbles mockingly, moving to circle the pair now that Lily has given up her distance to get closer to Ben. "You're bleeding. You should go now." Both of them are hurt, and that puts him at an advantage; even if it's not as good of one as he imagines it to be. His muscles tense and he's darting in with only that warning, slashing and snapping for any purchase he can gain on the wolf.

[particularlynonhuman]

Bennett figures it out when the cat starts hissing more abuse. Odd that an articulate creature would still be so... animal in its behavior. Mindless drive to hunt is going to be easy to counter with a bit more level-headed intelligence.

Or, at least, a little agility.

The leopard closes in, and Ben, again, leaps up and into the attack, countering from below. Claws catch him in the shoulder, but Ben's got his jaws around Alex's throat. He bites into the cat's leathery flesh and the two go toppling end over end, crashing into another wall. Ben absolutely refuses to let go.

[timid_kitty]

Alex lost this particular battle shortly after it began. Had it been just he and Lily, or just he and Ben, it might have been different. As it is, Ben takes advantage of his agile form and the fact that he's thinking and not simply reacting.

Alex connects again with claws, and just as he's gettingg ready to sink in with fangs, Ben makes his move. The cat chuffs and snarls, but the sound is strangled as Ben latches a secure hold 'round Alex's throat. He scrambles at the floor of the boat, tearing deep marks into the wood beneath his paws as he struggles to shake loose the wolf. Ben is inside his strike range, but the thought has gone out of his motions and now it's survival only. He scores several more deep hits on Ben as the wolf clings to him, but nothing shakes that locked jaw loose.

His larger form thrashes about in the hallway, but his vision is beginning to grow a bit fuzzy on the edges as he kicks out violently with his hind paws, searching for purchase on Ben's underbelly. He wheezes breath, but can't squeeze one past Ben's mouth. He slams the wolf against floor and wall, leaving a messy bloody trail all around them that is shared now between himself, Ben and Lily. All the while, Ben's grip never falters and it's a losing battle for the leopard.

He finally collapses, unable to breathe and out of the fight. Foam and bloody froth flecks his muzzle as he pants, but no air escapes and his gaze begins to lose focus. It's another long minute or two before his sides no longer rise and fall, his pulse growing still beneath Ben's tongue. A moment later, he goes fully limp as he dies.

[dogfighting]

Lily waits for just a second, making sure Alex is dead, then rushes to Ben's side. His leg has been badly damaged, and there are clawmarks and bitemarks all over his torso, many of them bleeding profusely. Lily doesn't know how long Ben will last, or even if he'll heal quick enough, so she grabs him by his least injured arm and gives him a good tug.

"We need to go. Now. You gotta see Kenna. Can you walk?"

If not, Lily could just drag him all the way.