As the large feline with the shiny armor faced her, she noticed his posture shift as his muscles tightened. A ray of sunlight caught the helmet and shined directly in her eyes, causing her to shift slightly to the right and let out an angry shriek at the large feline. She hated the humans' shiny metal; it reminded her of the cages and weapons used against her. Ready to attack, she paused only when favorite food giver placed himself between her and her target.

As usual, she couldn't make out any of his words besides food and her own name. Frustrated, she lowered her head slightly and hissed in his face, her tail lashing behind her. If he wanted to communicate with her, his pattern of throwing an endless stream of talking seemed more harmful than helpful. She couldn't pick out the individual words among the stream of garbled noises, much less learn what a single selection of syllables meant. Besides, she felt in no mood to play games with him now; he stood between her and the source of her rage, which only seemed to agitate her more.

She leaned back slightly, her sickle claws tapping the ground - demonstrating her impatience. She readied herself to start the assault; she disliked the idea of getting rid of her favorite food giver, but she hated the shiny human metal enough to chance stepping on him in the path to her target. However, a microsecond before she lurched forward, she stalled as a ray of light shined in her eyes again - with an accompanying smell, stinking like a mix of metal and the mammal pack. Enraged, she sharply turned towards the dog wearing the shiny metal, letting out a second shriek of anger.

With celerity unusual for a creature her size, she accelerated into a sprint as she charged at the dog - her feet slammed against the ground, with her sickle claws held high above the dirt and ready to sink into flesh. Lowering her head, she attempted to snap her jaws into the metal object on [member=1148]CHURCH[/member] with the expectation her backwards-facing teeth would find some purchase into it. She doubted she could fully destroy it; her teeth proved ineffective against the bars of her cage, but this shiny metal seemed thinner.

Washington had plenty of different creatures that wanted him dead. Some of which probably would end up being his former teammates if he wasn't careful enough. He didn't know what their views were now and if they would perceive him as a threat if he did come across them in the future. The most prominent threat that Washington had to deal with during his military career was probably the aliens that had been attacking them. The ones that were harder to kill were easily bigger than that of a regular human. They were close to the size of a spartan though, which meant that they were even more of a threat at the end. They had shields like the Spartans did, meaning that they were going to take a couple shots to actually be able to do damage against them and hope that their bullets pierced the armor that all of them wore. The issue with the alien race that they were going up against was the factor that there were different species of them that were trying to kill them. There were smaller species that were the easiest to kill but also the most numerous out of the bunch. One burst from a Battle Rifle could easily kill the smaller ones.

The medium sized ones usually had shields that they could hold with their hands and the only way to make them lower their shields were to hit the small bit of their hand that was exposed or to throw a grenade at them and is prepared to shoot them right before they dodged. Then there were those that were the size of the humans that had different weapons and were easily the smartest species out of the group of aliens that they were working with. The largest alien that he was fairly certain that he had ever come across was around the size of a rhino, maybe a little bit taller. They were covered head to toe with armor and the only way to get passed said armor was to shoot the exposed portion of their back. One hit with the weapon though could easily vaporize a human being. Washington didn't have to really deal with those kinds of threats on the factor that they were above his pay grade and that would be the likes of a Spartan to take care of. But they didn't exactly have the easiest of times getting hold of the likes of a Spartan and sometimes had to make due. And hope to survive the next day without missing a limb if they could ask for it.

He would have to say that the weapons that the enemy had were more terrifying than the aliens that wielded them. Sure, the aliens didn't exactly look all that friendly, but he could get used to looks. When there was a weapon that if someone got shot with it too much caused a chain reaction causing them to explode, well, he would consider that pretty lethal. Their sniper rifles were more lethal than what the UNSC could really provide. They were powered by energy, of course, and treating plasma energy burns weren't exactly easy. There was another weapon that basically worked almost like an EMP, where if shot with enough charge it could stop the shields that they had or even stop their technology short-circuiting it. There were always moments of panic when no one could use their gear as there was bound to be an explosion soon after. Most of the weapons that the aliens had were similar to the uses that the soldiers for the human races had just powered differently. He had to admit that the different vehicles that the enemy had were easier to move around than the likes of a warthog, which was a simple large jeep that was basically all terrain.

It had a giant gun on the back, but the gunner would be fairly exposed to getting shot at. Also, he had managed to learn later on that the alien version of rocket launches had their ammo bounce once it was shot. Something that absolutely made no sense to Washington at all. Either way, Washington didn't fear the likes of a damned dinosaur even if it was a bit bigger than him. He had fought hand to hand with an alien that was trying to kill him by biting through his neck and had just managed to stab his knife in between its armor. He was more afraid of the likes of an energy sword than something like this. Washington's attention turned toward Bastille when the domestic cat actually started to talk to the dinosaur. Could this thing even speak? And if it could why wasn't it speaking in the first place? It had a name though, Delta. It was a simple military term that Washington was quick to recognize. A term that was commonly used when giving orders on the radio in case the enemy was listening in. The Freelancer listened to the male make strange noises that he didn't understand and try to calm the dinosaur down.

Washington had a sinking feeling that there was nothing going to be done about the thing that was trying to kill him. Then the male said that he needed to take off his armor. This guy had to be crazy right? He wasn't going to take off the one thing that was protecting him from Delta if it could at least save his life. "It would take approximately 20 minutes to take all necessary pieces off." Washington would inform Bastille, and it wasn't a lie. There were reasons why he had specific times of day why he cleaned his armor because it took so damn long to do such things. There were latches about every centimeter of armor, and even he wasn't skilled enough to take it off on record time. That probably belonged to York. He did, however, raise one of his paws and show that he was going to try and attempt to take off the armor that was on his arm, not realizing that it was the helmet that was the real issue. Which he wouldn't have taken off anyway as it basically protected his throat and could be used as a battering ram. What Washington said was only to warn Bastille of the minimum time frame that he was going to have to distract the dumb thing. The Freelancer noticed movement out of his vision and couldn't help but roll his eyes at Church's statement. Did the canine not think that he wasn't going to be given more work by saying something like that? Then the guy was going to have another thing coming. As soon as the soldier noticed that the raptor wasn't going to start backing down, he stopped the process of taking off his armor and squared his shoulders. However, the creature's attention wasn't on him, but instead of Church.

He listened to the beasts scream and the scream of Church that soon followed. He heard the sound of crunching glass, probably the only thing that was crunchy as even if the other had jaw strength it wouldn't be able to get through a titanium alloy, and Church had the same model of armor. "For fuck's sake!" Washington snarled, and the large smilodon went into action. Rushing forward, he lowered his shoulder and rushed forward, aiming to slam his armored body against the two legs of the bipedal animal. If that worked it would certainly knock the other off balance as it was focused on attacking. Yes, the other outweighed him, although not by much, that didn't mean anything when it came to knocking something off balance. The armor that he wore wouldn't give any wounds, but the back part of his armor would at least cause a good amount of pain once he did strike the other. If Delta didn't direct her attention toward him and away from Church, Washington would aim to slam his paw on the underside of the raptors throat. Any underside of any animal was more sensitive than the top part of the said animal, and it could potentially cause her to gag if he hit her throat correctly with enough force. Washington himself was around 600lbs of force, more than enough to take on the raptor. Delta was lucky though that the smilodon wasn't capable of using his fangs due to his helmet, as he could have left a large puncture wound anywhere he would have bit. "speech"

The sensation of her teeth crushing, but not sinking into, an object never felt good. Her jaw ached as bit down, with her impressive bite force working against her. She could still hear the mammal's screams - probably communications with the rest of its pack, which meant their alpha and her Favorite would get involved again. Feeling the pressure against her teeth and gums, she quickly let go when she heard the loud crack originating from her mouth, at first assuming that she managed to break something of her own. But no pain came to her, besides the aches, as she released her hold and jerked her head sharply to the right.

Her brown eyes centered on the metal object again, noticing with no small curiosity that she managed to break the shiniest bit. How interesting - so parts of the humans' technology certainly seemed vulnerable to her. Still, she went back to her original position on attacking the armored mammals: their fleshy bits remained the best target. Hissing at the dog, she didn't plan on trying to eat it; she doubted her stomach could do anything to the shiny shit either. It'd probably make her sick, but like hell that changed her attack plan. Unfortunately for the soldiers, Delta held no problems with killing animals she couldn't eat.

Brought out of her puzzlement on attacking the dog, she huffed and stumbled forward as a large mass slammed into her legs. Before she turned around, she already knew what the perpetrator was by smell - the goddamn big cat with the larger shiny bits. Getting pissed off again, the teal Utahraptor nonetheless felt a bit pleased that the big mammal came to her; while the damn shiny shit provided good defenses against her natural weapons, not all of him was covered. The most difficult part of getting to his weak points was maneuvering; but, at this close quarters, her larger body provided her more reach to get to his flank. Well, Washington did want her attention, and he certainly got it.

Spitting mad, the raptor lunged at him and raised her right leg, attempting to slam her foot on his lumbar vertebra, putting her attempted attack right behind where his ribs ended and well enough away from the shiny bits. Her sickle claw, usually positioned carefully off the ground and out of the dirt, flicked into its downward attacking position as quickly as a switchblade. Delta certainly didn't understand the best way to destroy human technology, but she was brutally efficient at using her natural weapons for their killing purposes.

As a human, there were numerous different ways to take out an opponent without actually killing them. It wasn't hard to figure out which wounds could end up being considered fatal in a certain area. He was used to the aspect of sparring with different humans the methods he could use to dispatch them quickly and efficiently. He was also forced to become better with hand to hand combat when he joined Project Freelancer as he was bound to fight at close range rather than fight at the medium range that he was used to fighting at. Washington had to be able to be decent at most fighting in general, and that's exactly what he was. He was decent. He didn't excel. What he did have on his side though was strategic thinking. Making it easier for him to figure out what his opponent would likely do next after he attacked. All the different types of opponents that came at him had their different patterns that they used with fighting. Being able to identify that pattern certainly helped during his time in the Great War. The aliens that they fought against had their own method of fighting, the large ones usually hung back and waited for the enemy to be whittled down by the smaller troops that were easier to kill. Using them as fodder.

From there the large aliens would come in, usually, try to get behind the energy and keep just out of range from any close combat. The aliens knew that almost every soldier had knives after all and getting into a physical fight with one of them could also prove fatal. Since they had the technology to go invisible, it was easy for them to make assassinations when others least expect it. They were smart just like humans were, and it was because of how smart they were that they had to adapt and learn to be smarter and even more clever than they were. He had experience when it came to fighting, and even if his body didn't match what his brain said it was better than not knowing anything at all. The Freelancer was able to learn and excel beyond what he thought was capable of when it came to the Project. They had even given him a second chance, and it was through that experience that he was who he was today. Which was both a good and bad thing because he didn't want to be who he was right now. It simply didn't feel right and what he would give to just have a rifle to shoot through the dinosaur's skull to simply end it all. They were just another animal after all and weren't built like a scorpion tank that could have bullets bounce off of it instead of through it. Although, it kinda depended on what kind of bullet it was in the first place.

Either way, Washington wasn't going to be playing any sort of games against the raptor, as it would just mean that he would be risking his life even more than he should be doing. This was ridiculous, and it was because of the Ascendant's lack of control that he was having to put his foot down. Although it was more of a paw now. The raptor that he was fighting against had three weapons. Its mouth, hands, and feet. He wasn't an idiot. Washington knew that with the length of those claws they could cause some serious damage if he wasn't careful. Washington looked through his visor as the raptor raised its foot into the air, which wasn't all that high considering that the raptor wasn't exactly flexible when it came to its legs. Washington moved slightly backward and heard the sound of scraping metal as the sickle claw clashed against the forward part of his armor. Before the raptor could pull away her foot though, Washington would raise one of his paws and aim to latch his claws onto the female's foot. Considering one her legs was up in the air meant that she was already off balance. From there, if he was able to keep the females foot into the air, he would aim to use his body weight to pull forward to cause her to trip and fall over onto the ground on her side.

If that was successful, the nearly 600lb smilodon would aim to leap on top of the Utahraptor, and wrapping his two front legs around the leg that he had just been attached to, he would aim to pull toward himself, aiming to dislocate the raptors hip. It wouldn't kill, and hell it would be painful, but it would also mean that she wouldn't be capable of getting up. The Freelancer didn't care if he caused her pain, it would probably show her not to mess with him again. Considering the thick scales that covered her body, her claws would do minimum damage and mostly be used to grab onto her then cause wounds. If he was on top of the Utahraptor, he would use his back legs to keep her head down as he would place his paws on the side of her neck to keep her mouth from latch onto him while he was on top of her. But that was only once he was able to get on top of the slightly larger animal. Again, the situation would have been different if he didn't have his helmet on and could use his mouth. "speech"

The sound of her claw scratching the metal immediately told her of the failure to her attack - how unfortunate. Shifting her foot, she felt his claws poke into her scales with some amount of annoyance. Unfortunately for Washington, he seemed to have forgotten about one obvious part of her anatomy that made fighting a Utahraptor very different than fighting humans or aliens: her tail. The long appendage, easily around the length of the rest of her body, provided instinctive counterbalance. And Delta, like all therapods, mastered it; specifically, her species had a long and robust tail. Without it as a counterbalance and the muscles therein, walking would have been impossible with their size and posture.

Shifting to the side, she put most of her weight on her grounded foot before kicking off-center and skidding the trapped foot off to his side - effectively placing her adjacent to him. And now she took advantage of his second mistake. With the armored front facing her tail, the bits of him exposed to her teeth were all of the flesh and blood variety. Twisting her head, she attempted to snap her jaws around the smaller mammal's hindquarters and yank him to the side. Given that he twice attacked her legs, she moved to the side away from Washington; if he wanted to get there, he'd have to pass her teeth and claws first.

How was he supposed to know what a dinosaur was capable of? He would more know what an Elite was capable of compared to the likes of whatever Delta was. The thing had never been an issue for him in the past, and that just meant that he had ignored any presence of the creature since it wasn't an issue with him in the first place. Either way, Washington knew that there was a chance that he wouldn't even with this fight and he knew for a fact that he shouldn't expect Church to try and help him. The Simulation trooper wasn't exactly the best when it came to fighting, at least with what experience he had with simulation troopers back when he was in Project Freelancer anyway. The Smilodon was more than capable of holding his own and even if the creature was able to grab him he was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to break any bones in a simple bite. If he was thinking of something that was like a crocodile. Didn't crocodiles do the roll thing to try and rip limbs off? He didn't know enough about animals to actually create some sort of idea, and he certainly didn't take into account into the females balance with her long tail. Of course, if he had used enough force, he could have knocked her over easily, but now she wouldn't fall for that anymore. That was fine with him. It would just mean that the beast was capable of figuring out patterns that were there.

When Washington didn't hear anything fall to the ground, he turned his head to look over at what was happening. Her foot was pried away from his claws, only taking a couple of scales with him which probably would only feel slightly uncomfortable. The Freelancer felt fangs sink into his flesh around the portion of his body that wasn't covered by his armor. Well that certainly sucked, but getting shot definitely felt worse than what he was going through right now. The Utahraptor wasn't the only one that was capable of craning their body to do things. He was dragged slightly, but not very far thanks to his weight and the weight of the armor that was on his body. Was that all it hard? Using his back legs he reared up slightly and twisted himself around to get to the Utahraptors face. 4-inch long hook-like claws would them aim to sink themselves onto the side of Delta's face, and the only way for her to really avoid said attack would basically mean letting him go. If he managed to sink his long claws onto the side of Delta's face, he would aim to gouge out both of Delta's eyes, and he knew that it probably wouldn't work all that great, but he would aim to slam the top of his helmet against the Utahraptor's face. The pointed edges of his helmet possibly sinking into her flesh a little bit, and the force of metal hitting flesh with how heavy he made the blow had the potential to almost knock out the raptor.  Washington didn't seem to care about his movements would probably open the wound she was making further, as it simply didn't hurt. Also considering the amount of force that a lion could slam onto an animal, one capbale of shattering skulls and knocking over larger animals, it would certainly be a concussive blow."speech"

The flexibility of the feline failed to surprise her - she witnessed the training spars of these mammals, and she knew the feline model seemed particularly good at flipping around. Regardless, with the twisted condition and her own eyes high on her head, the claws ripping into her scaled face bothered her little. Her blood dripped down her face, sliding into her mouth or down her chin, mingling with the smilodon's flesh. The taste of them were indistinguishable; still, Delta understood she won first blood. As she expected to.

Bracing her feet on the ground, she attempted to rip her head back and tear off the chunk of flesh between her teeth. She would have preferred if her original and usually primary strategy worked - crushing the spine or throat with her sickle claw was a quick death blow and got the fight over quickly. But her teeth, backwards-facing and backed up with a decent bite force, could do their own damage. She usually ripped chunks of flesh off of corpses rather than live prey, but the principle was the same and came easily to her with the countless amounts of practice she did. Though she didn't often kill this way, she understood that everything needed blood; the gushing torrents that came from a severe wound could kill just the same as a claw to the throat, though admittedly much slower and agonizing.

Backing up, she ignored the sharp sting in the side of her face where he'd scratched her and thwacked the bone, but she didn't act like that bothered her. Animals hardly ever showed their pain, especially in the middle of a fight and Delta certainly wasn't an exception to this primal rule. For now, she studied him, analyzing the wound's severity and guestimating with her intelligence the likelihood of him dying from blood loss. Her lips pulled back in almost mocking smirk as she stared him down, ready to wait for his slow death - or renew her relentless attack at a moment's notice.

Drawing blood was fine with Washington. It would have been better again if he had a gun as it would make his life a whole lot easier. What surprised him though was that even as something as large as him, he was only able to get a couple scales off. Which just didn't seem right considering that he was basically the weight of a car slamming into something and it had little to no effect. Unless this thing was modified like a Spartan, then this wasn't natural. Although it was a dinosaur so what did he really end up knowing. Considering how much his flesh was ripping he knew that there was probably going to be an issue with that the other was probably going to rip flesh off of his body. That's what he would do if he was in the position of the thing after all. Washington was going to have to stop that, even if there was plenty of flesh on his flank that he wouldn't bleed out to death all that easily. His skin was thick thanks to all the scars that dotted him, and it wasn't all that easy to dig into either. So, it would have been a small amount of flesh that would have been ripped off if he allowed it. From where he was at before Delta could pull away from him, Washinton would turn his body so that he was laying on his side and where Delta was next to him. From there, he would use his back legs and aim to wrap them around the raptors head. Having done that, he would use the good portion of the muscles that made up his thighs and squeeze them together, and while he did that it meant that Delta wouldn't be able to completely let go of him as he held her to his body. Thanks to the flexible spine of the feline, and him being on his side he would aim to curl his body so that he could go against Delta's head again, bringing her closer to his front paws if it worked. From there, he would aim to sink his claws into her left eye which was facing him, while using the other paw to try and rip through the raptors mouth. He was a large species, meaning his brute force could come in handy, and the raptors weren't exactly invisible. They were just reptiles after all. He had fought agianst worse odds even if he was bleeding down his side now. That was going to be a bitch to fix. This thing was pissing him off. The scar on the back of his neck was starting to burn, and sparks started to fly off of the Freelancer's armor. The Freelancer's powers that he knew nothing about reacting to the rage that was coursing through his body, which had been what happened when he was furious against Church. The electrical sparks would be somewhat hard to see and might not even be perceived as a threat. The ground beneath them would start to vibrate slightly underneatn him. "speech"