Alexander lunged forward like an arrow released from a drawn bow; his claws tore through the cold night air as they slashed toward the face of the enemy predator before him.
The collision was savage.
They slammed into each other with bone-shaking force; claws sank into flesh almost at the same time. But Alexander's strike did not land as he intended. His opponent had lunged forward as well, rising onto its hind legs to gain a bit more height; because of that, Alexander's claws pierced not its face but only the thin scales and the underlying bony osteoderm layer on its shoulder.
He failed to break through and reach its brows.
Pain exploded across his back.
The other Nuxali's claws tore through his skin and sank into his back. Heat and wetness followed instantly.
With fury and agony, Alexander threw his head back and roared, snapping his jaws toward his opponent's neck.
But the scaled hunter moved with unexpected speed.
Despite appearing heavier and more armored, it slipped aside with fluid agility. Alexander's teeth bit into empty air. Continuing the same motion, his opponent used the momentum of his failed lunge to slide over him and land back on all fours beside him.
Without wasting even a second, the scaled predator attacked again. With its claws, it pushed Alexander's mouth filled with sharp teeth away from itself while at the same time lunging for his neck, but this attempt also failed.
When neither could seize the other's throat, they began trying different approaches. After exchanging several claw strikes, they fell to the ground and started wrestling. During the struggle on the ground, both predators once again aimed for each other's throats, yet neither managed to succeed.
Throughout this, the razor-sharp claws on both sides did not remain idle and kept trying to pierce and tear into their opponent's body.
The scaled hunter once again gained the upper position in the grapple, and Alexander struggled to throw it off.
Deep wounds had opened across his back and abdomen, and with the intense fury brought on by the pain, he finally managed to hurl the creature off and rise onto all fours.
In the instant Alexander got back up, he had a brief moment to focus on his opponent's appearance, and what he saw only made him angrier.
"Damn you, bastard, die! If my claws won't work, I'll tear your scales apart with my teeth and spill all the blood beneath them right here!"
Unlike Alexander, the scaled hunter's body was in good condition. It had suffered very little from his claw strikes. The durability of its scales was clearly far superior to his smooth skin.
The struggle resumed. They threw themselves at each other again, Alexander trying to sink his teeth into it, and the scaled hunter doing the same. In the end, using its advantage in strength, the scaled predator briefly disrupted Alexander's balance and sank its teeth into the side of his upper back.
Roaring in pain, Alexander retaliated with all his strength, driving his teeth into the root of the clawed limb that was pressing him down, into its shoulder joint.
It was as if he were trying to tear the scaled hunter's foreleg clean from its body, but at the same time his back was being ripped open, and the pain was driving him mad.
This deadlock between them lasted only a short while before a scaled predator wrestling nearby and two allied Nuxali crashed into them, sending them rolling across the ground.
Alexander struggled to rise, and right beside him his opponent did the same, but suddenly Eowyn, covered in blood, lunged for its throat.
The scaled predator slashed at her face; its claw nearly reached her eye and would have blinded her.
But Alexander was already on his feet, and to help Eowyn finish it, he immediately leapt onto the creature at her side, throwing his full weight onto it to prevent it from standing.
At the same time, he caught the claw striking toward Eowyn's face in his jaws and clamped down with all his strength.
He could almost hear the cracking inside his head; he had shattered every bone in its limb.
The scaled predator tried to scream.
But no sound came out.
Eowyn had locked her jaws around its throat so tightly that not a single breath could escape its lungs. Its muscles tightened, its body trembled, its broken claw scratched meaninglessly at the air. Alexander was still holding its forelimb in a shattered grip; the broken ends of bone slid within torn flesh.
The predator writhed in pain. Seconds passed slowly, but eventually the struggle slowed as well. The creature's strength to resist gradually faded, and finally its body slackened and its eyes grew dull.
And it stopped moving.
Alexander slowly pulled his teeth free and rose from the corpse, breathing through the pain. The wounds on his back were bleeding. His breath was uneven. But when he looked at his opponent, he saw only one thing:
The threat was gone.
His gaze immediately shifted to Eowyn.
She was covered in blood. One side of her face had been torn open by deep claw marks; a horrific wound ran from beneath her eye down to her jaw. That scar would be a battle mark she would carry for the rest of her life.
But he had no time to dwell on that now. His slow, heavy mind had to devote all its focus to the fight.
He focused again and turned his head. The battle was not over.
Two scaled predators still alive were surrounded by five Nuxali. The numerical advantage was on their side, but the enemies were still dangerous.
The end of the battle was visible, but the cost had been heavy.
The queen lunged toward the more heavily wounded scaled predator.
She was the queen of the other pack.
Her target was clear: the hind leg.
But the scaled queen's reflexes were flawless. She slipped aside at the last moment. At that very instant, another Nuxali leapt from the side and knocked her to the ground. Someone else seized the opportunity and sank their teeth into the exposed abdomen.
The thin scales and the bony layer beneath slowed the jaws for a moment but did not stop them.
The belly was pierced.
The scaled queen roared in pain.
Nearby, the other scaled hunter was being held with difficulty by two Nuxali, prevented from rushing to aid its mother.
The queen lunged for the throat to deliver the final blow.
At that exact moment, a sudden and intense mental wave spread from the scaled queen.
The two Nuxali holding her flinched for a brief instant, their grip loosening.
The scaled queen did not miss this opportunity and jerked her head sharply, slipping free from the descending jaws, and in response drove her own teeth into the very center of the Queen's knee.
She clamped down with all her strength.
Crack.
The sound echoed inside the scaled queen's skull.
This was not like the paw bone Alexander had broken.
This was a clean break.
The knee bone split in two.
The Queen screamed, both physically and mentally.
This time the mental wave spread from their own pack. A command filled with fury and pain.
The two Nuxali regained themselves. They threw themselves back onto the scaled queen, forcing her to the ground. Teeth once more sank into flesh.
There was no escape this time.
Before long, the scaled queen lay motionless.
With her death, the resistance of the last remaining predator collapsed. It was surrounded. Torn apart.
As the ravine sank back into silence, blood spread across the stone, mixing with strands of fungus.