you just can't hide

The battle between the two continued to rage, feeling as though it was taking hours when it was only a matter of a few short minutes.  Natalya felt each movement in slow motion, her thoughts speeding up to keep time with her actions.  She felt the teeth over her head pull break contact and, as their chests had just connected, Natalya felt the shift in her opponent’s shoulders and realized that Cataleya had turned slightly to her own right.  There was an urge to flicker her left ear as she felt the stinging pain of the air hitting her wounds, but she kept both ears flat against her head in an effort to avoid further damage.  The air also felt different on the upper portion of her face and Natalya realized with a mild horror that her left eye had been removed along with Cataleya's teeth.  What the air touched now was a gaping hole with blood flowing freely from it, and the sensation had her narrowing her eyelids to protect her remaining right eye, despite her understanding that it was unnecessary.

Natalya felt her her teeth sink into the upper left side of the woman’s neck and mentally shrugged off her disappointment at her failed strike.  She elected this time to maintain her hold, rather than let go right away, so that she could feel the movements of Cataleya’s head and neck.  She attempted to tighten her jaws, hoping the added pressure would deepen the damage to her opponent.  She also tried to shake her head slightly, hoping to add to any further damage she caused.

At the same time she had attempted to counter her opponent’s effort to take her off balance by pushing her weight toward her backside.  Her right leg had raised off the surface of the ground only slightly in that effort but she immediately returned it to the surface and shifted her positioning and weight.  Her shoulders rolled forward again as she ceased her momentary backward pull, adding protection to her neck.  A pull at her teeth told her that Cataleya was moving as well and instinct kicked in to prevent her from over-thinking.  She pivoted, moving her hind legs about a foot to her own right in an effort to put her back at a slight angle to Cataleya’s form.  She widened the stance of her hind legs slightly more than before, spread her toes and bent at the knees as she shifted, her abs tightening in anticipation as she continued to focus her weight slightly more on her hind legs.  Her tail remained level with her spine and added balance as she struck.

At the moment her feet touched the ground when she swung right, Natalya released her hold on Cataleya’s right foreleg, hoping for freedom for her own left foreleg from her opponent’s grip, and sprung forward and up.  She was aiming to try and wrap both legs around her opponent’s shoulders so that she could try to pull her to the ground.  Her forward movement would act as a counter to Cataleya’s own, preventing any loss of balance.  She fought to maintain her grip on Cataleya’s neck as she moved, hoping that the position of her jaws would limit her opponent’s movement.  Her change in position, moving up and forward, would redirect Cataleya’s strike to the upper portions of her left shoulder and chest.  She felt teeth leave deep puncture wounds in those areas as she pushed, and she was certain that the impact of them from both forward movements damaged both the pectoral and sternomastoid muscles there.

(ooc;;my extremely artistic representation of what position nat is trying to get into up to this point, step-by-step:
here)

When Cataleya’s jaws made contact with her body, Natalya released her grip on the female’s neck and tucked her head again, her chin lowered over her throat.  She was abruptly pulled downward as Cataleya returned to the ground, due to her enemy’s grip on her shoulders.  Natalya would return her right foreleg to the ground to catch herself as she tried to extend her jaws again to clamp them over Cataleya’s throat, her bottom set of teeth aiming for the throat a couple of inches below Cat’s jaws and top set aiming for the left side of Cat’s neck.  Perhaps the second time would be the charm.

Round 3 of 3  |  for death

ooc;; sweet! thanks eve and luns for judging and thanks saf for a great fight :)