click click boom

Freed from the cat's jaws Valdis was able to intervene when the cougar attempted to swat Chaos with its free paw. Caught between the two, it could lunge neither left nor right to bring its jaws into play, even if Ash hadn't also been gripping it between the shoulders. For one absurd moment Chaos had to fight down a bubble of laughter that threatened to burst out at the way the three of them were tugging at the mad cat like a bunch of pups fighting over a toy.

Then Ash had let go, and for a moment Chaos had to struggle with his balance as the cougar was suddenly able to press forward towards them, though since Chaos easily outweighed the tawny kitty he was able to brace himself and push back. Then Ash's jaws were around the cat's leg, trying to tug it from him, and Chaos had a moment of irritated bewilderment. Why hadn't he taken the opportunity to sever the beast's spine? Well, if Ash wanted to hold onto the leg instead, Chaos wasn't going to waste time playing tug-of-war and risking finding himself with the cougar's teeth in his face.

Chaos sprang back for an instant, giving Ash the chance to brace himself against the cougar's struggles. He stood poised and waiting for an opportunity, and then there it was as the cougar flailed and tried to flip onto its back to bring its hind claws into play, throwing back its head and exposing its throat for an instant as it did. Chaos dove back in, slashing at the exposed target in the manner that his long, serrated fangs were especially suited for. Not to grip, no, because that put painful strain on the lengthy teeth, but slashing and bouncing back again, a time-honored wolf trick that he was even more suited for than the generations of kin that came before him. Blood spurted beneath his tongue and across his muzzle as he bounced back away from the cat, the powerful spurt of an arterial wound, and he grinned a savage grin that would have made him look more like his mother than ever before had it not been too dark in the cave to see it.