One particular ogre was having a worse day than her, despite how difficult that was. Arrows had been raining down upon it, and then a Warden dived off a griffin to add insult to injury, dragging his sword down the beast’s back. 

And then the Desire-possessed ogre punched it. 

The force knocked the foe off-balance, as it crashed down onto a line of darkspawn. It wasn’t dead, even after all that, but watching it roll around trying to stand back up was morbidly entertaining. 

An elf Warden approached her, the griffin rider, and spoke up, introducing himself as a High Constable. 

Shaking the man’s hand, Celica’s voice was strained from lack of sleep and general annoyance at her situation, but she tried to not let it show too badly. “A pleasure. I requested reinforcements, but didn’t think we rated griffins.” Surveying the battlefield, it was impossible to tell who was who, let alone what side was winning. “Haven’t found anything related to its origin yet, but the darkspawn certainly don’t want us going in there, that’s for damn sure. Don’t worry about the griffin, I have bigger problems right now.”

The head of a nearby soldier was sliced clean off by an approaching Hurlock Alpha, the one Lavellan had used to springboard off. A suit of thick, burnished gold armour gave it a menacing aura. It held two wicked swords, one in each hand, walking with a purpose towards the two Wardens. 

“Hold that thought.” Celica prepared to meet the Alpha, which picked up speed dramatically when coming within two feet of her. It spun round, bringing both swords lashing towards her. Dropping into a defensive stance, the air was filled with the sound of grinding metal, as both swords left angry scores on the Warden-Commander’s shield. The woman drove her own sword at the softer mesh of the armour, around the waist. It found purchase in the Alpha’s arm instead, which had been moved in front of the blow as a defacto shield. Using it’s free arm, a fist slammed into Celica’s face with enough momentum to cause her to stagger back, slipping in the worsening mud brought on by the storm. Standing over her, it brought both swords above it’s head, and slashed downwards. 

[hr]

The mage-summoned storm was really picking up. Elsewhere on the battlefield, several Wardens were more than happy to accept the help of a blonde-haired woman, who had painted herself as someone very adept at combat. Also noticing this, the darkspawn began to drive towards the group, led by one of the Genlock Alphas. Arrows rained down upon the Wardens above, causing them to move down from the wall, beside the woman. The darkspawn rushed at them. 

In contrast to the barrage of arrows fired by the enemy, the response was calm and composed. Several individual projectiles sailed over the wall, landing kill-shots on every target they hit. Celica’s second in command, Mila Calau, appeared atop one of the towers overlooking the field. Laying down pinpoint accuracy cover fire for the nearby Wardens, she silently watched over them.

[hr]

Several of the more green Wardens stood in awe at the display of skill and ferocity displayed by the warrior and his Mabari. Darkspawn simply melted in his wake, and the sight of the blood-stained dog made more than a few wary. A hearty laugh rose up from nearby.

“You fight like a sodden dwarf.” Oghren commented, hiccuping just after. “What’s say we knock some heads together?” A Genlock Alpha began charging towards them, while behind that, a Hurlock Alpha stopped the retreat of several darkspawn. The collective group of enemies moved towards the vastly outnumbered allied forces.