They'd come. They'd come for her. Kiriko's heart pounded in her chest, her head spun. She raced through the bamboo, doing her best to dart among it, to hide. She needed to hide. The fear coursed through her system, thick and hot. Everything hurt. Her lungs ached. Her muscles ached. Her chest ached. Head spinning. All of it. Everything memory of the original fall of the empire flooding back to her system, Kiriko could feel it. It hurt. How did it physically hurt so badly? It's then that she realizes, she's stepped into some sort of trap. Though the bleeding wasn't bad yet, the wire had sliced into the flesh some. That's where the ache was coming from. More red splashed on her red and white coat. No, it wasn't a trap Kiriko had stepped into. It was a trip wire. There was an alert of some sort that rippled through, and suddenly she was under hot pursuit. The hottest. Though the creature making the noise was far smaller than herself, it was also far more vicious. The creature had advantage on her, cutting through the bamboo brutally. Kiriko lashed out with a yelp, a snarl. Hattori's voice calling to her-- her heart. He knew they were here for her. The beast, the intruder, reaches out and grabs her hind leg. The red koi turns and snaps, a yelp ripping free from her chest. Pain bloomed heavily through her system. She couldn't keep running. Though the intruder tried to trip her up, tried to tangle her, Kiriko dove forward. She kept running. "Hattori!" Breathless, all she can do is call his name right back. Bursting through to where Hattori stood, bleeding from her right rear leg, Kiriko made her way to Hattori's side. She couldn't help but whimper, doe eyed, as she stood by his side. Standing tall, trying to look every bit as regal as she usually did, though she could only mostly conceal the trembling. "Speech"

Before Yarou could reach her target, she felt a weight against her side-- dual impacts before teeth closed on her back in an attempt to break her spine. Yarou screamed.

Her scream was not one of fear,

But mingled rage and pain and hatred. A spasm took her hind legs as the wolf tried to crush her down, but Yarou braced herself and lurched forward, blood spattering from the wound on her back. The akita cross cursed the packmates that did not help her, but so many of them were also struggling with their own fights. Yarou scrambled from the wolf that accosted her, dodging a second snap.

A desperate burst of strength took her, and she closed her jaws on a bamboo shoot. Her body twisted, and she broke the shoot, turning before jabbing with the shoot.

The wolf charging her recoiled-- Yarou's strike didn't kill it, but did impale its right eye, sending it rearing up, screaming.

The woman was swift but not swift enough as Áskell's fangs found purchase on her belly. His abnormally long fangs sank in deep, spilling blood and tearing flesh. The woman screamed and twisted, her fangs digging deep into his back, just in front of his hips. Pain lanced through him like electricity, firing on every nerve. His legs quaked, suddenly struggling to support himself but he didn't need to worry as the far larger woman ripped him from her, throwing him into the bamboo. She swore violently at him before retreating to nurse her wounds. From his spot on the ground he could see what looked like her entrails starting to creep from the gaping wound he'd inflicted.

Áskell struggled to his feet, noting how strange his hind legs felt, like pins and needles racing all the way down them. Blood sopped down his sides. Ari shrieked out a warning and Áskell turned just in time to save his throat from a massive, rust-pelted male. The man bowled him back. Áskell's own fangs snagged the man's knee, digging deep just behind the patella and popping it loose. The man yowled and spun in rage, snagging Áskell's left hind leg in his massive jaws and with a powerful bite snapping it. Áskell screamed in pain, his vision swirling. Out of the darkness he saw Ari spring onto the wolf's back, wrapping a clay cutting wire around the beast's neck.

The enemy was relentless, but so were they. Through the cacophony of the bamboo, he knows not only are his pack mates injured, but so are they. Rage surges through the pup as he pushes forward in front of his sister. As much as he wanted to stay and protect her, his mother, and other siblings, he knew that they weren't the ones the enemy was after. His assumption was confirmed when Hattori's roar for Kiriko burst into the air. Kicking out at a shadowed figure, Akito grinned at the replying yelp. Swinging his head toward another as his horns dug into a throat, he felt the slice of sharp claws down his shoulder. Ignoring the swelling pain, he broke into the clearing just as Kiriko dove to Hattori. His breath is heavy, sides heaving as he fights to breathe through blood and humid air. Swirling around, Akito faces the enemy. Backing up so that he can help cover the other side of Kiriko, he snaps and lunges at the oncoming predators. There were so many of them. Too many of them. Fuck running. He knew Hattori had advised him of this tactic when there were too many. But he couldn't. Not when other's lives were at stake. His eyes darted back and forth as he assessed the pressing attack. What was he to do? There he sees a broken stalk of bamboo off to the side. Ah, yes, his answer. Darting over to the bamboo, Akito picks it up between his teeth. Swinging it back and forth, he uses it to his best ability to keep the dogs at bay.