Chapter 95: Chaos
“Dive.” Tulland and Necia both jumped out of the way, each in a different direction, just as they had initially planned. It was tempting to have Necia take the first swooping attack, but they had eventually convinced each other that it was a bad move when they still didn’t know how fast and strong this thing was outside of qualitative system descriptions.
Right now, Tulland felt the description had been understating things. Not only was the animal much bigger, but it also used that size in a much more dangerous-looking way. It was smoother in the air, much better supported by the ratio of strength in its wings to the weight of its body than the sphinxes had been.
“Heads up!” Necia yelled. “It’s almost back in diving position.”
It was. Coming out of the swoop, the Crimson Chimera had preserved much more of its momentum, using it to arc back up into the sky where it continued to rise, turned on a dime, and dove again. Tulland and Necia jumped out of the way again, but the chimera was already adapting its tactics to their plan.
As Necia moved to the left, it followed her specifically, already having favored her side of things over Tulland’s. What had been a fairly easy dodge on the first swoop turned into a desperate one on the second, and left Necia barely finding her footing again before the next swoop became a threat.
“How many more times?” Tulland called. “It’s already learning this game.”
“Four or five. We want it as used to this as it can possibly be. Adjusted to it.”
They managed to make it, although it was a close thing. Three dives in, it turned out the chimera was working a tactic of its own, finally going after Tulland once it had lulled them into a bare-minimum sense of security. It took everything for Tulland to escape unharmed. As it came down the fourth time, they regrouped in a slightly different location, off to the side.
“Think this will work?” Necia asked.