Rurik's mouth formed a thin, tight-lipped line as he stared at Verin's strange and embarrassing behavior. [i]What. The. Hell.[/i] Rurik blinked in confusion. It didn't help that his currently enhanced hearing made Verin's horrendous wyvern calls all the more obnoxious. But he heard something else too.

A rustling in the bushes. In the direction Verin was heading was large boulder, easily a few dozen tons of rock, and that was just what was visible above ground. The faint rustling gave way to a scratching sound, something hard grinding against something else hard. Something was climbing the far side of the boulder where they couldn't see. He also heard the unmistakable sound of scales sliding over the stone. Something with claws and scales was there, he was sure.

Rurik quickly came to a conclusion: if Verin walked by that boulder, there was a good chance he'd be a dead man.

"WAIT!" Rurik shouted just as Verin was about to reach it. A moment later, a large, green mass peeked over the edge of the boulder. Rurik saw fangs and scales glistening, but he was focused on Verin. Just as the wyvern reached the boulders summit, Rurik reached Verin. He grabbed his collar of Verin's jacket and pulled him back, and then outright lifted him and threw him backwards. 

A moment later, there was a flash of green and white and scales and claws sped by, followed by a crash and a cloud of dust as the wyvern hit the ground where Verin had been about to step. Rurik's eyes went wide and his body went stiff, The wyvern craned its neck around, and suddenly Rurik was nose-to-nose with the beast, feeling its breath wash over his face. If he'd taken another step whilst saving Verin, [i]he[/i] would have been pounced on!

A twitch of movement, and Rurik snapped back into motion, jumping back as the wyvern's jaws parted and snapped back shut where his head had been. It's jaws were big enough to take their heads off. In fact, it was just big in general. It's skull was early the size of his torso. 

Once safe from being bitten, Rurik ended his retreat. He saw the wyvern pause, it was confused. Why wasn't he running, it must have been wondering. Why was this puny creature staring it down? But stare it down he did. He took a step forward, and the beasts eyes narrowed. Another step and it's body tensed and its jaws parted ever so slightly. So that was the limit then, how close he could get before breaking the stand-off. 

He took another step. As expected, the beast snapped forward, jaws aiming to rip him in two. As expected. He lunged to the side, evading the deadly fangs.

"BEAR CLAWS!" Rurik's hands began to glow and the skin on his forearms took on a darker tone. He made a fist, and rammed it into the side of the wyvern's jaw. It's head was snapped to the side and it pulled its long neck back, shaking its head. That had hurt it, though Rurik had felt the hardness of its scales. It was like punching iron. However, it lowered its head and began to back away.

Well, that had been easy. It must have already seen the threat they posed. Job done.

His celebration lasted about two seconds before he caught the dangerous glint in the creature's eyes. He'd made a slight miscalculation. He had just enough time to raise his arms in front of his chest before the wyvern spun, twisting its body around and slamming its tail into Rurik. He was lifted off his feet and flew back, past Verin, bounced, flew past Chloe, and landed face down in the dirt.

Slight miscalculation. At least his magic had kept his arms from snapping like twigs...