Coal, under the control of his master, sprung into action and put himself between the predator and its prey. Grabbing the beast by its gaping maw, one hand on the lower half of its beak and the other hand on the top, he dug his heels in.
The sheer force from the beast's charge caused deep furrows to be carved into the asphalt until he finally forced it to stop.
At the same time, two powerful torrents of air pushed the young woman across the ground and into the awaiting arms of Sirius, who quickly carried her over to a few of the other civilians that were taking cover behind an upturned car.
Once he completed his task, the man with the jet-like arms cut off the streams of air and lowered his hands. He took out his sword and hurried over to the raven, which was still being held in place.
Different figures converged on the raven from a multitude of directions, all hoping to get a few good shots in while it was being somewhat held in place. But, unfortunately, it wouldn't last long enough.
While some did manage to land some blows, their weapons simply could not make deep enough wounds to properly damage the beast. It was near impossible to land a well placed strike as it thrashed in place, defending itself with sweeps of its wings. Of course, the raven itself would not stand idly by and let these inferior creatures attack it.
It didn't help that none of them were truly experienced with their weapons. It was easy to stab a spear or swing a sword like a baseball bat in a small fight, but against an enemy like this critical issues like edge alignment quickly reared their ugly head.
Blades would get stuck in its hide or simply chip away with glancing strikes, hardly any got the devastating slashes so much fiction had built their expectations for.
Seth, through the eyes of Coal, could see the blue glow start to build in the raven's throat. It was hard to miss, after all, since he was staring directly down its gullet.
Deciding not to test the flammability of his favourite, and only, puppet, he lifted Coals leg and slammed his knee into the bottom of its beak at the same moment he let go of the ravens maw.
A crack echoed through the streets as the powerful blow made the raven snap its beak closed and sent its head careening up as it stumbled backwards in a temporary daze.
Taking advantage of the stumble, Seth immediately set about extending the duration of that daze. He controlled Coal, making him keep pace with the staggering raven as he kept raining blow after blow into its head.
Giving it an unrelenting barrage of haymakers, uppercuts and hammer fists. Each blow caused it to let out deafening cries of pain and reel back as its brain rocked in its skull.
Without appearing to look, Coal reached behind himself and caught the whip that was sailing through the air towards him. A whip that had been kindly tossed to him by his other pair of eyes, the man behind the metaphorical curtain.
Once he had the whip in his hands, Coal sent out another devastating haymaker before quickly wrapping the length of the whip around the raven's beak before it could recover. He wrapped it tight, immediately pulling its head down and mounting on its neck.
WIth the beasts beak forced closed by the whip, Coal rode on it like a cowboy breaking in a bronco, keeping a tight grip on the reins lest he fall off.
All the while his battle companions were chipping and slashing away at the beast. Even inexperienced fighters could get a few lucky swings in, especially when they targeted the right place.
Cynthia slithered forward before leaping into the air as she brandished her dagger, plunging the blade into the inky wells of the creature's soft eyeballs, causing it to let out a shrill, yet muffled shriek of pain.
Yet as everything was going well, attacks slowly but surely whittled down the beast as he kept its flames at bay, something couldn't help but nag at the back of Seth's mind. Something that he noticed but hadn't realised yet… but what?
He watched from a distance, stood next to Alfie, the 'scent master', and observed the fight. All the while he racked his brains, trying to figure out what it was that he had missed. A small part of him deep inside drowning in an ominous feeling, as if it knew that something bad would happen if he didn't figure it out soon.
The beast was being contained, the fire wouldn't get out, even if the people weren't the best swordsmen, they were still landing attacks through the beast's forest of feathers and… Oh, that was it! The feathers!
The one's they had seen in the store were soft in some cases, yet hard as steel in others. If that were the case, some of the poorly directed blows should have been glancing off its natural armour. Yet they weren't, and in fact some were even being sliced apart themselves.
So how could-
Seth's vision abruptly shifted and tilted, his train of thought being derailed as he suddenly found himself falling to the side. He twisted his body, everything seeming to move in slow motion, as he looked at where the sudden force came from, only to see Alfie with his leg outstretched. The bespectacled man falling backwards, offset from the force of his own kick.
A sudden jolt followed by a bracing cold rushed up his right side, snapping him out of his stupor and causing time to follow its natural course once again. As he hit the ground, it trembled slightly, yet not from his fall but instead from something nearby that kicked up a large cloud of dirt and dust.
Letting out a grunt of pain as he slammed into the ground, Seth coughed and wheezed at the dust cloud, before trying to look for its source. He narrowed his eyes, trying to pierce the brown veil until his eyes landed on the only thing different nearby.
A car that they had been standing in front of was crumpled and cut down the middle, the ends folded up like the wings of a butterfly. Inside the newly created gap of the car was a single, large black feather with edges that glistened like steel and were dripping with fresh blood.
His eyes followed a few drops of that crimson life wine as it fell from the ridged edges of the feather blade, and created a puddle on the black river of asphalt. But this growing blood lake also had another source, a trickling river that his eyes swam up until they reached a single, severed arm with an eerily familiar silver tattoo on the back of the hand.
The world around him grew dark and silent, his vision tunnelling until all he could see was that arm and the crimson river that flowed out of it.
He only looked away when he was forced to, his head being grabbed by someone and forced to look up at a pair of golden eyes that burned like heavenly bodies. The one holding him shook him a few times, his mouth moving yet no words reached Seth's mind. All he could think about was the arm and the bone chilling cold emanating from where his limb once had been. That was, until it was replaced by searing pain, and the smell of cooking meat.