It was debating what to do. No more sitting around and relaxing, no more taking 3 cycle long naps, no more pretending to be training and doing nothing after all, Beta needed to make up for all of its lost time. It couldn't go back home until it had improved, even just a little bit! Well, no, if it had only improved a bit, then Vargas would most surely deem them a failure. It was no longer a funny concept, because it was no longer something in the distant future - it was a burning reality that was not only possible, but quite plausible, should it return to Tunnel P in this state.

No. No. No, it was going to hunt more. It would find more opponents to knock to the ground. It didn't care who it was, as long as it was target practice. As long as it was something.

It looked down at its feet. Bones, bones everywhere. Huh, it had wandered into Canis. It shouldn't go farther, then - any close to Tunnel P and one of them might see. It could probably find someone here. Wheels were turning in its head as it figured out a plan. A little mindlessly, it threw itself forward, digging into the pile of bones, loudly scattering many of them to the side, making quite a ruckus as it dug down. Perhaps someone would think there was a fight going on over here, from the amount of noise it was making. It dived down into the bones, pushing the pile so that all the rocks and remains tumbled down and covered most of their body. They hoped that it would be good enough to hide them.

Of course it was Wilder that heard the sound of clattering bones and scampered right over, terrified that someone was getting hurt. She'd told herself that she'd keep her head out of trouble, that she'd stop worrying about others in case she accidentally hurt them back, but...she just couldn't resist. It really sounded like someone needed help!

She sprinted to the place where the bones had been scattered, but didn't notice anyone in the many piles of bones. "Hello? Is someone there? Are you alright?" She quickly flared up an orb or light to illuminate the area and make it easier to see. She began to poke her nose into the bones, to see if anyone had been buried beneath them. As she sniffed, she smelled the scent of blood in the air and panicked. "Hey, if you're hurt, I can help, seriously! Please be alright!"

Beta was still, listening carefully as someone came close. They sounded young, very young, or at least foolish, nosing through the bones. The light appearing was a bit of a bad sign - they wouldn't be able to rely on the darkness. Okay, switch tactics, then. No more grabbing her when she gets close - if they posed as wounded, as she was obviously looking for (and, obviously, it was, wound on the shoulder), then maybe this would work.

They shifted and let out a low moan, trying to sound convincing enough to get whoever was there over to its location. To hopefully get her to come rushing over to tend to the oh so poor wounded. But the sound wasn't loud enough to get her turning around. But when it tried again, it heard her voice retreating. Shit, it was already screwing this up.

Wilder kept searching through the bones, nosing through and trying to find the source of the blood scent. It was a bit hard because of the reek of Canis and all the overturned bones that had thrown up dust into the air, muffling her sense of smell. But there was a noise, then, and her ears switched up, turning around, trying to find its source. "Hello? Where are you? Please, call out to me so I know where you are!" She turned and trotted off in the opposite direction from Beta's location.

Dammit, she was moving away. How did it mess that up? Whatever, it wasn't over yet. She still wasn't too far, she would still be able to hear it. So Beta took a deep breath and put on its best groan of pain, shifting the bones as well, causing a few of them to clatter and fall. Its injured shoulder throbbed as a bone smacked against it. It hoped it had started bleeding a little more, to make it more convincing.

Hopefully, she'd be fooled.

She heard it, loud and clear. Her ears swiveled and she turned, pinpointed exactly where the voice was coming from. Without delay, she scampered over and immediately spotted the purple fur beneath the bones. "Oh no!" she gasped, diving forward to begin pulling the bones off of it. "Are you okay?!" There was blood matted on its shoulder and she gulped. She wondered how bad the wound was or if there was more somewhere else on its body.

She began adding her magic in with her scrambling, flinging bone after bone away from the creature, panic hypercharging her spell and sending some of the bones flinging far, far away. Within only a few seconds, she'd completely uncovered the creature and immediately began checking for other wounds. "Hey, can you hear me?! Seriously, are you okay?"

Perfect, she was doing just what Beta wanted. But as soon as bones began flying out of the way, it paused. Damn, she was a magic user too. They were always dangerous, because you never knew what they were going to pull. It was quite annoying, but Beta couldn't wait to try and figure out what kind of spells she knew. It had to strike, quickly.

While she was working, Beta dug around beneath the bones, covering it up with another shift and a moan, until they felt their claws hit something powdery. Dust, dirt, or ground up bones, whatever it was, it would work. And as soon as the last bone and rock had been flung off of it, it flipped over, hurtling the pile of dust right into the cat's face.

She had dived forward to try and revitalize the creature, somehow, when it jerked beneath her. Surprised, she toppled back, just in time to get a faceful of dust, some of it going right in her eyes. She screeched and staggered back, eyes snapping shut as her magic flared, attempting to stop the sudden chaos that had begun. Time slowed a bit and Wilder's let her sudden panic go for a couple of seconds.

So, what had just happened? She thought that she was trying to save someone, but were they just faking it the whole time? They were just lying?! She needed to calm down and get back in control or else she was in danger.

It was all she had time to think and when reality began to move again, she'd managed to get over the sudden shock, but her eyes were still filled with dust and she wobbled around, unable to see. She needed to run, but the instant she did, she tripped right over a bone and fell on her face.

It didn't know how she'd gone from screeching and shocked to perfectly calm in just a couple of seconds. That was incredible, but Beta wasn't going to just wait for her to fully recover. The point of this training was to practice their ability to assassinate - not just sneak up on a target, but neutralize it too. It needed to get her under control.

Beta lunged forward to get at her, maybe to slam its paw down on one of her legs and get her to stop moving, but it stumbled getting up from the bones and didn't land its hit in place.

She had a moment. Even on the ground, she could cast a spell and she only had to know where it was. And she did, so she reached out to that place with her magic and gripped it tight, holding it there, in place, so that it couldn't move anymore.

She climbed to her feet, panting, holding onto the creature tightly. She was about to run, holding it there until she was out of sight, but then she had an idea. She wasn't just going to walk away from this with no clue what had happened. She had it in her grip - she could do whatever she wanted.

She turned towards Beta, and stepped forward, trying to look confident. "Who are you? Why did you attack me?"