AVP Rift War 20

They wouldn't be expecting a traitor in their ranks, though. Rather than her back, Ca'toll should have been watching above her. She cursed herself for an unblooded as a Xenowing pulled her off her feet. It was the biggest one they'd encountered so far. With long front claws hooked under the armor on both shoulders, it lifted her as though
she weighed no more than a jivening.  Unexpected pain spiked through her shoulder muscles and Ca'toll hissed, but there was no time to dwell on it. If this creature took her up too far and she destroyed it, the fall might kill her-or worse, leave her to a fate like Ny'ytap's. If she was destined to die today, she would not go quietly. By all that she held holy, she would see to it that this monster never attacked another living soul.

With her arms free, it took barely an instant to reach up with her wristblades and shear off the legs holding her captive. Her attacker screeched, and the fall was minimal, twenty noks at the most.
Ca'toll landed on her feet at the same time the Xenowing came after her again, apparently unfazed by the loss of its front appendages. So far she'd seen them only in the chaos of combat. One-on-one combat presented an entirely new set of challenges. She relished the prospect; the progeny of two savage creatures, the Xenowing was an ui'stbi-an abomination.

She threw herself backward as a mouth lunged out of its insectoid face. Pointed teeth splattered her facemask with the disgusting slime of a Xeno. Ca'toll arced one of wristblades at its head, but the Xenowing was quick and nimble. First it was on the ground, then it wasn't, teeth out and ready every time. She whirled and there it was, behind her back while on the ground again. Despite its size, the monstrosity was skipping around her so fast that each time the plasmacaster targeting system locked onto it, her transponder canceled out the signal. It leaped and bit at her again, this time giving her helmet a groove along one side. Ca'toll's back arched, and within the mask her mandibles spread. She let out a deep snarl and turned again to face the Xenowing. She was in for the fight of her life.-pg.258-259 chpt.41

Without disturbing the soil, the huge, mutated creature set down and time seemed to stop. It appeared to wait, evaluating her. She went into a crouch, leaning first to one side, then the other; her adversary followed her movements with its head but stayed where it was, watching. The hunter repeated the same back and forth motion, then again, and again, until it looked like she was trying to hypnotize the creature.

Fetch felt himself being lulled. Abruptly she sprang straight at it. With impossible speed, a sort of second mouth shot out of its face, with blunt teeth that Fetch knew were still somehow deadly, dripping fluids as they tried to fasten on her head or body. When he thought she would run
right into its maw, she dropped and slid feet-first under its massive head, like the players in that old Earth game, baseball. The bite missed and for a moment the creature fumbled, unable to figure out where she was. That instant of hesitation cost the winged mutation its life.

The hunter twisted beneath it, bringing up a short weapon that suddenly extended into a long rod with a sharp-edged, hooked spear on the end. She thrust it upward through the center of the beast's neck, then yanked sideways with both hands until the weapon came free. The riftwing-creature's shriek was so loud and piercing that it took everything Fetch had to stay still and not slam his hands over his ears. Its head wobbled then fell to one side, too many of the muscles severed to hold it up. Blood sprayed in all directions as its appendages spasmed wildly. Wherever the blood landed, there was a burst of smoke. The leader dodged out of the way as the monster fell, twitched, and finally died. Rivulets of air moving in the rift caught the smoke of the burning brush and leaves around the corpse. Swiping absently at the splatters along her arms, the female glanced at the other of its kind, where he still stood out of the circle of battle.-pg.264-265 chpt.42