Unfortunately, intimidation only worked on the sane.<br/><br/>Swiftbeak darted his head back, but the sword scraped along the closest thing to the man; the gryphon's beak suffered a deep, ugly scratch. Instinctively he wanted to rear back, but it would take only one plunge of that sword into his underbelly to put him down; instead, he at once lowered his head to protect his throat. Another slash, this one sending a crimson line above his eyes; his vision clouded by a blood flowing down through his feathers, he had no choice but to spring backwards, still struggling to keep himself imposed between the guard and the man. With little time to think and already feeling drastically overwhelmed, he knew he had to buy himself precious seconds any way he could. He thrust his beak forward to meet an oncoming swing; the keratin took the blow better than flesh, but he felt agony surge through the delicate tissue below. For a brief second his mind flashed back to when he was human, when he was a child; he had shattered a tooth during a fall and felt the exposed nerve within- The pain was similar.<br/><br/>With the man's sword-arm occupied with his beak for that split-second, he brought a wing around, unfurling it and sweeping it forward like a limb; a full half the force needed to lift his massive body off the ground would ideally send the man staggering back and, more importantly, catch the entirety of his attention- Should he turn to face Swiftbeak, the gryphon would turn to the side, eyes still locked on his foe, and gradually lead him to look away from the Hellguard.