When the next wave of Falmer reached the fountain, Lorag, Janius, and Ahnasha's thrall were the ones to first meet them in melee. The attacks of the Falmer were direct and uncoordinated, but this time, the Falmer had numbers. Both Lorag and Janius had to contend with at least two foes at once. For Lorag, his chestplate deflected the blade of the first Falmer to attack him, and he managed to retaliate with a strike that broke a few of his opponent's ribs. However, the next Falmer in line landed a solid blow between his neck and shoulder with a club. It was not lethal by any means, but he found his shoulder in serious pain. Ahnasha's thrall lacked any ability to think tactically, so while it was able to wound a Chaurus, which did not immediately understand the concept of a reanimated Falmer, it was quickly killed and disintegrated to ash by the blade of another Falmer.

Kaleeth finished her transformation behind Janius, so he only had to hold against his opponents for a few moments before he gained her assistance. The nearest enemy was a chaurus moving to Janius' right, so that was her first target. The creature did manage to spray its poison in Janius' direction, but Kaleeth's jaws snapped down on the giant insect's body seconds later. As tough as its chitinous shell was, her teeth tore through it like parchment under the weight of her jaws. Before she could even drop the corpse, however, one of the Falmer ahead of them hit her with a thrown, poison-tipped spear. Her tough, armor-like scales meant that it penetrated only partially into her side before falling out and onto the ground. The poison did make it into her body, but fortunately for Kaleeth, her transformation did not stop her Argonian blood from resisting most poisons.

Meanwhile, Meesei had bolted out of the open in a wave of lightning and made her way to the fountain with the others. Ahnasha and Saras had taken slightly elevated positions on the fountain itself to get clearer shots on the Falmer ahead of them. Although, because they were outnumbered, some Falmer were able to simply run around the rest of their pack to flank them directly. As such, Meesei remained next to them to help provide protection. From the direction of the lift, Meesei could hear the sound of Dwemer gears turning, so they would likely receive reinforcements very shortly.

"We need only hold for a short while longer." Meesei answered.

The situation had not gotten any better for the pack now that they were under shelter. Whatever harm they had to withstand under arrow fire was being replaced by the sheer numbers crashing against them.

Janius tried his best to find opportunities to quickly strike out against his multiple opponents. A shield helped immensely, though he did not have space to do much more than cut at the enemy arms as they lashed out with their chitinous weaponry. Meesei said to hold, so they would hold.

Behind, Sabine had too many targets to cover. She tried dissuading the flankers by casting a stream of frost against the floor around them that radiated such a chill that the ice crystals alone looked like enough to cause immediate frostbite. The frost lingered to harm and slow any that passed over it. Between that and the ice spikes she was launching out, she was running out of magicka.

Another gobbet of poison spat his way forced Janius to reflexively raise his shield again. This time, it left him open enough for a cold pressure to run across an exposed part of his weapon arm. He then shouted out and bashed the offending weapon away with his shield. The pain ran though his arm a second later, but it was more than a shallow cut suggested. There was a dull burning feeling. Thankfully, at least, the Falmer that had cut him with its mandible axe was not skilled enough to stop Janius' axe cutting into its skull.

Since her thrall had been killed, Ahnasha selected a chaurus from among the corpses to reanimate. It's shall had been cracked, so it would not be quite as resilient as normal, but it would serve as another surprise for the Falmer. It was resurrected next to Janius, so this time when it launched an acidic spray, it was onto his opponent.

Kaleeth, in here werecrocodile form, naturally made a large and immediate impact on the Falmer before her. She swept her arm across a group of three attempting to move around to the right into a flanking position, against which any attempt to block would just result in losing their shields. Two were knocked completely off of their feet, while the third was disemboweled by her claws. Taking a single, lumbering step forward, Kaleeth crushed one of the Falmer she had knocked down under her weight, while grabbing up the other in her jaws and biting down. She trashed it around in her mouth for a few seconds to ensure that it was dead, then tossed its remains in the direction of the other Falmer. For the rest of the Falmer, as savage as they were, they were still living beings intent on preserving their own lives, so they were afraid of the massive beast slaughtering their allies. Those that were not actively fighting the rest of the pack turned their attention to her, letting out hissing screams to threaten her. With Kaleeth protecting one side, and Sabine's frost blocking off access to the other, their mages and archers were no longer under threat from flanking Falmer. Unfortunately, most of the threats were now directed squarely upon Kaleeth. All of their spears, arrows and spells were about to bear down upon her, and unlike last time with the Ring of Hircine, she did not have the control to deftly avoid most of the attacks. From above, a strange, flying chaurus floated down from one of the bridges above, spraying its poison onto the top of her head and slashing at her with its sharpened appendages. Kaleeth might have been immune to the poison itself, but it was still acidic, and still burned her scales. When she tried to slash it out of the air, it was more than quick enough to fly out of her range.

Luckily for Meesei's pack, their time holding on their own was at an end. The lift on the far end of the room reached the bottom of the shaft, and the gates opened to reveal the first of their reinforcements. At their lead was Hjergir, shifted into his werewolf form. He was a large, muscular alpha with snowy white fur, who let out a roar that echoed through the chamber as soon as he saw the battle before him. Immediately, he took off in a sprint ahead of his warriors, towards the fountain. Although, he did quickly prove that he was not acting entirely upon instinct, as he was still very much aware of his surroundings. As soon as he was out in the open, he spotted the silhouettes above, he began to dash side-to-side in order to use his speed and maneuverability to make himself a more difficult target from above.

The focus on Kaleeth was a minor help to the rest of the pack, despite the extra hits that she was taking. Sabine had enough time to pull out a magicka potion to replenish her reserves, while Janius had an easier time with fewer opponents in his slowly blurring vision.

However, that small fortune was not going to be enough. There were still more Falmer than they could handle on their own. They were dependent on the reinforcements. The sounds of barking orders from the elevator were the first sign of relief. The next was a Falmer falling from the vantage points above with an arrow through its throat. The roar was the true signal for the fight to turn around.

Fendros could be seen leading out a small group of archers to fire volleys at the enemy above. Most went to ground, retreated, or were hit. The fighters that streamed out took a mix of transforming and forming a new line to flank the enemies around the fountain. Only one warrior was left behind with the lift to take it back up and collect more fighters.

"They're here! We're..." Janius stopped to deflect another Falmer sword and chopped the creature's upper arm open. A shriek of pain later and Janius had brought another chop to its neck. He stepped to regain his swaying balance. His cut arm felt like it was on fire. "We're saved."

With the chaos that Kaleeth's transformation, and their reinforcements' arrival created, Meesei was not going to let the opportunity go unexploited. She had expended a considerable amount of magic providing cover for her pack to reach the fountain, but now that she had a moment of rest, she was ready to go on the attack again. Charging herself with lightning, she bolted across the ice Sabine had created to bring herself to the side of the Falmer, safely out of the way of her own pack. Then, she charged through herself enough lightning to make the hair of anyone around her stand on its end and unleashed it into the crowd of Falmer and chaurus in front of her friends. Their shamans were not ready to absorb the magic with wards, so it arced through about half their number. Some would certainly die, particularly those closest to her, but since her lightning lost energy the more bodies it arced through, most would only be injured. Just as before, however, it was the disruption of the enemy that she sought more than their deaths. Ahnasha and Saras were already taking the opportunity to pick out any ranged threats, like shamans or archers, with their arrows.

Meesei's attack meant that there were less mages and archers focusing on Kaleeth, but since she was on the opposite side of the fountain from Meesei, many of those near her were unaffected. She took another swipe at the chaurus hunter attacking her, but she was too slow to hit it effectively. While she was distracted, a Falmer managed to chop its axe into the side of Kaleeth's neck, but with her size and durability, the axe only found its way into muscle tissue. Kaleeth retaliated immediately with a crushing blow straight to the Falmer's head, which was accompanied by a menacing roar. However, the chaurus hunter also managed to jab its arm into her back at the same time. Fortunately for Kaleeth, Hjergir arrived to remove that threat shortly afterwards. The far-quicker white werewolf sprinted to the fountain and snatched the chaurus straight out of the air, ripping off its wings and crushing its head under his weight.

The reinforcements soon closed the gap with Meesei's pack and formed ranks to repel the Falmer ahead. The rate at which the blind creatures were dying only increased with the combined steel, magic, arrows, claws, and teeth.

After a moment, Fendros observed that the numbers of archers and mages above had thinned from the suppressing arrows that he and the warriors around him were launching. He instead turned the volleys towards the crowd around Kaleeth. The attention she was getting had bunched the Falmer up and kept them facing away. They were the easiest shots to make out of all of them. An order later and Fendros joined in loosing a flight of arrows into the crowding Falmer.

Sabine replaced her now empty potion skin back in her bag, feeling empowered again to launch deadly frost over the enemy. However, before she could even bring ice spike spells to her hands, she noticed Janius listing slightly as he tried to defend against one of the Falmer spear warriors. He was slow and off-balance. Sabine had a good guess at what was affecting him. She shouted out. "Janius! Get back!"

By now, Janius could barely see further than an arm's length in front of himself. The din of battle around him was fading into a melded racket beyond all recognition and his arm had gone from painful to numb. He was barely able to strike out at his opponent. He took the order to step back by Sabine when a clear spike of ice appeared in the Falmer spearman's eye socket and slumped to the floor. He couldn't quite turn around, so he began stumbling backwards. He fell backwards into Ahnasha by the time he realised that he was losing consciousness.

In the face of larger, and now more numerous foes, the Falmer were starting to be given pause. Unlike the automatons, they were living beings with some sense of self-preservation. The creatures were obviously no strangers to fighting, but they likely had little experience against lycans. Massive beings like Kaleeth and Hjergir gave them fear enough to retreat, at least for the moment. The Falmer that remained at the fountain began to turn and run for the ramp leading up above them, and many of the archers and shamans above them had already backed away. And the chaurus, without their Falmer masters to keep them in the fight, did much the same. For creatures with as fearsome of a reputation as the Falmer, it was unlikely that they would retreat permanently, but every moment they spend regrouping was more time the warband had to get reinforcements down the lift.

Kaleeth was far too focused on the fighting to notice Janius collapse. When the Falmer began to retreat, she chased after them, crushing, clawing, and biting at any she could get a hold of. Indeed, Lorag did the same, managing to crush the head of another chaurus, and at least break the arm of a Falmer that managed to slip away. However, once they reached the ramp leading up, Lorag reigned in Kaleeth to keep her from chasing too far. They would be in a better position to fight the Falmer once they could bring more of their number down the lift.

Once the Falmer were less of an immediate threat, the pack was able to turn their attention fully to their own. Kaleeth was wounded, but not under any threat from them. Janius, however, was suffering from a poison. While Janius was still conscious, Saras did what he could to get his attention. "Poison...the concoctions of the Falmer are not always lethal, but regardless, try to transform if you can. Your beast form is larger, so it takes a larger dose to give the same effect."

As Ahnasha lowered Janius down onto his back, Meesei quickly made her way back to help. Naturally, she was going to help heal her packmate, but she first approached Sabine. Despite her own fears for Janius' health, she showed no sign of panic. "I will keep him conscious, but I believe you are more qualified to deal with a poison than myself."

Sabine nodded and rushed to Janius of command, dropping to one knee beside him. He was still breathing and he appeared awake, but his glazed eyes did not even hint at focus. That he didn't transform at Saras' advice only added more weight, even as Meesei kept him awake.

There were a few things that Sabine did in sequence, not one of which included keeping aware of her surroundings. She was wide-eyed and committed. She first gestured for Meesei to lift Janius' head up so he could drink from a small skin she pulled out of her bag. Sabine did not stop to explain what the concoction was, but whatever dribbled out of Janius' mouth did get down his gullet.

Sabine was not done yet. Logical deductions began to spin in her mind about the nature of the poison, leading to a few assumptions. Her next action was to begin unbuckling the armour on Janius' arm and pushing back the fabric so that she could see his wound. All the while, she began chewing on a small leaf. This was apparently without purpose until the wound was exposed, upon which time she lowered her head and spat on the wound itself. When she raised her head, her saliva had turned a sickly red upon contact with the edges of Janius' shallow cut. This was apparently enough information for Sabine to pull out a second potion for Janius to imbibe as well.

"He has to be still for a minute," Sabine explained after swallowing whatever leaf had been used.

The effects in Janius' body was immediately apparent to Meesei. The magic from the second potion seemed to be sweeping through his blood with sch precision and speed that it would cover his body in a tenth of the time it would take for a healer to do so manually. It was very specifically neutralising the poison and doing nothing else.

It was barely ten seconds before Janius began blinking rapidly and regained his focus. He didn't even look at his packmates around him before he grit his teeth and growled in pain. "Have to...get this poison out!" He shouted. Meesei was also noticing him in the earliest stages of transforming. "Have to keep fighting!"

Sabine spoke to Meesei, not being confident of directing Janius when he was so visibly worked up. "The first potion was to slow the poison. It slows the heart. He has to stay still until the antidote finishes."

Meesei gave Janius some space as soon as she noticed he was starting to transform, though he was still rather delirious. Being in werewolf form would cause the current dosage of poison to be less severe, but depending on his state of mind, it could be difficult to keep him still as Sabine wanted once he was in that state. Of course, if he was going to transform, there was nothing Meesei could do to stop it. Even she could do nothing to manipulate lycanthropy magically. However, that did not mean she was powerless to mitigate the risks.

"That could be difficult, but...I may be able to do something for him. It will require maintaining a delicate balance, but...I can do it." Meesei answered. Leaning forward, she placed her hands gently onto his shoulders and concentrated intensely. She was attempting to drain his stamina so that, when he completed his transformation, he would not have the energy to move around and disrupt Sabine's treatment. But, at the same time, she had to keep his mind energized enough to keep him conscious. The two goals were in opposition to one another, but she had to fulfill both through the precise and targeted application of her magic.

Meanwhile, Kaleeth was feasting on the corpses of some of the Falmer she had slain. She had been under a measure of duress when she transformed, so while she was not out of control, her mind was also not entirely her own. It was easy for her to focus on her basic, immediate needs, so she was distracted from what was happening with Janius. At the moment, there was no one hurrying to inform her either, as the last thing the pack needed was a distressed werecrocodile unable to control her emotions.

Janius remained prone due to Meesei's slowing of his body. He threw an arm each up a couple of times, but otherwise did not move while he transformed. Cords made to snap stretched and gave way as his body expanded and morphed into a dark-furred werewolf.

Sabine stood up and took some steps back during the process. "It is working," she said.

A low growl left Janius' snout and he bared his teeth. He still could not focus enough to act.

After another short moment, Sabine carefully approached Janius and knelt to put a hand on his ankle. She charged a yellow spell to probe his blood, and then looked up at Meesei. "It is safe," she said. "He can move now."

By this time, the sound of the elevator dropping off another group of soldiers echoed out from behind them. They had gained a foothold. It would only be a matter of clearing out the remaining Falmer now.

By the time Janius was ready to move again, Hjergir had taken care of ensuring that the ground floor of the chamber they were in was secure. No one had yet gone up the ramp leading up above, but Hjergir had his archers training their bows on the ledges. The next wave of reinforcements included Ri'vashi, though they had far less to do than the previous wave. For the most part, she focused on getting the warband into formation again. The ramp leading up was much narrower than the halls they had been using, so she started to adjust their formation appropriately.

Since Janius had managed to get through the worst of the poison, Meesei now had to focus on allowing him to move again. She had trained his energy through magic, so she was now restoring it the same way. She was careful not to give him too much energy at once, so as to avoid startling his beast spirit, so it would take a minute or two for him to return to normal.

Kaleeth had feasted enough to regain the majority of her faculties, so she naturally rushed over to Janius as soon as she recognized that he was on the ground. She had not seen exactly what happened, but from the calm demeanors of everyone around him, she gathered that he was not in any real danger. Nevertheless, she dropped down beside him and nuzzled her large, crocodilian head against his, even as her own was bleeding from the chaurus' acidic poison.

Meanwhile, Ahnasha and Fendros had reunited, but she appeared distinctly frustrated, and specifically with him. She did not speak a word to him, and looked as if it was taking considerable effort not to scowl at him.

Janius stood up slowly and threw his head into shakes and huffs as if he was clearing his nose. He sniffed around to try and find more Falmer, but was instead distracted by Kaleeth's beast form. The affection from her was appreciated, even if some of the acid gently burned through some fur. He was thankfully in enough control not to instinctively begin licking Kaleeth's wounds. Instead he looked to Sabine and Meesei and gave them a demanding huff, almost a bark.

Kaleeth had practiced with her beast form enough that Sabine felt safe enough approaching her. "Stay still," she said softly as she charged some healing magic to sooth Kaleeth's burnt scales.

The lines were cohering again, but Fendros took a moment to check on the pack, handing off the archers to another officer. The obvious injuries were being attended to, but Ahnasha was clearly less than happy. "Are you okay, Ahna?" Fendros asked flatly in case she had any wounds.

As Sabine went about dealing with the acid burn, Meesei took the time to examine the rest of Kaleeth's body. Kaleeth, in her lycan form, was an easy target to hit, but was also exceptionally durable. In addition to thick scales, she had enough muscle on her body that normally serious wounds became flesh wounds. It did not diminish the pain those wounds would cause, but she had evidently found a way to cope with pain.

When Ri'vashi passed by Meesei, she took a moment to catch her attention. Since the lift could only hold so many warriors at once, it would take some time to regroup with all of their number, and Meesei did not like the fact that they were currently trapped with the low ground. It was doubtful that the Falmer could overwhelm their current numbers in any case, but Meesei still wanted to protect her warriors. "Ri'vashi, take a group or two up to the upper ring of this chamber and make sure it is clear, then find and guard the exits. Hjergir can get the rest of the warriors in formation down here once they arrive." Meesei requested, to which Ri'vashi quickly agreed.

For a few moments, Ahnasha debated on whether or not she wanted to answer Fendros at all. However, they would not be going anywhere until everyone from above could get down the lift, and Fendros probably was not going to give up in that time. "Why did you go up with the lift? Why didn't you stay here to help us? We could have died down here!"

Fendros' brow lowered at Ahnasha's response. He glanced to one of the Falmer corpses and back to her. Predictably, his response was defensive. "What? And have us all fight these creatures with no chance of reinforcements? The lift wasn't going back up on its own, Ahna. One of us had to go up!"

Nearby, Janius was staying up close to Kaleeth, trying to keep his beast spirit calm. The combination of the smell of fresh blood and his mate being hurt made it hard enough. Fendros and Ahnasha's argument was enough to make him begin quietly growling.

Ahnasha did not yell. Indeed, her voice became softer, but much more stern. She crossed her arms, glaring at Fendros as if she were disappointed in him. "Fendros, a mage like Meesei or Sabine can pull a lever with telekinesis. Or I could summon a scamp and get it to pull it. None of us had to be on that elevator. You could have stayed and helped us, but you left so quickly I didn't even have time to try and stop you."

Kaleeth was fully aware and in control of her beast by this point, so she was in the right mind to know that she needed to keep Janius calm. Regardless of whether or not Meesei and Sabine were finished with their healing, she helped Janius up to his feet, then guided him over to the Falmer corpses outside the fountain. There was no escaping the smell of blood, but he could satisfy his hunger.

More groups were coming down the lift, and they were nearing the point where the entire warband would be ready to move once more. Ri'vashi had secured the upper part of the chamber uncontested and was guarding the one exit she had found. The narrow bridges above them would be rather perilous for a large group to attempt to cross while under attack, but as long as there were no secret entrances to the chamber, they would be able to get everyone across unopposed.

As soon as Janius was brought nearer to the fresh Falmer corpses, he looked upon them for only a second. Realisation struck him and he stepped away from Kaleeth to feed.

Fendros put a hand on his hip and glanced to one side and past Ahnasha. He let out a short breath through his nose and breathed in to speak. He let out the breath as his retort turned out not to be true. The process repeated once more before he finally spoke. "Alright!" He gestured with one hand. His voice remained snippy, lacking the self-awareness to realise his own tension. "Alright. I made a mistake." He nodded and pursed his lips. "I apologise."

After a soft hiss out towards the darkness ahead, Fendros turned his side to Ahnasha and walked a few paces towards the rest of the pack. "Meesei," he asked, still looking cross but speaking directly. "What happened, exactly, while I was on the lift? What are we going to do now?"

Just before Fendros could walk away fully, Ahnasha gave one last soft, but stern comment. "You don't get to make mistakes like that, just say 'I'm sorry', then pretend it's all alright. Those mistakes can get people killed. After this is all over, we're going to have some new training."

Since, physically speaking, her pack seemed to be in good enough condition, Meesei was getting ready to form up and continue their advance into the ruin. Her answer to Fendros was quick and to the point. "We encountered a large number of Falmer and their tamed insects. It was more than we expected, but we held long enough for reinforcements. Ideally, we should move quickly before the Falmer have time to regroup, if they even have the capacity for such strategy. We are going to continue just as before and lead from the front. As soon as the entirety of the warband is down the lift, we advance. Now, let us get into our positions.

Meesei's pack headed to the upper part of the chamber and rejoined with Ri'vashi's group, which was followed shortly by Hjergir. Their lines had shifted somewhat, as they now had some of their number in lycan form. When used properly, werebeasts could be of benefit to an organized formation, but they also required special consideration in terms of protection, particularly against enemies that used poison. Other than Kaleeth, most of the lycans did not have any special protections against poisons, apart from the fact that their greater size required greater doses. As such, mages and shield bearers still took the lead to protect against ranged threats. Transformed lycans tended to stay in the second line back so they could quickly move forward, deal damage, then retreat back behind the shields.

It took some time for the rest of the warband to make their way to the upper part of the chamber, even after they were all down the lift, but as soon as they were in formation, their advance through the ruin was all but unstoppable. The Falmer, while certainly deadly to small groups, were barely more effective against an organized force than the automatons had been. Stray arrows and spells from their shamans caused a few wounds, but for the most part, the Falmer had no way of breaking their lines or outmaneuvering them, particularly in the relatively tight corridors of the Dwarven ruin. Meesei, Ri'vashi, and Hjergir all agreed to move cautiously, but they were certainly moving steadily.

Eventually, the warband found their way into another open chamber, to which the Falmer had been retreating the entire way. The warband had cut down most of those they had fought thusfar, so just over a dozen remained in the last chamber. A large portion of the chamber was a body of water, with a sort of Dwemer drawbridge raised up on the far side. Curiously, there were a series of gears built into the walls and columns spread around the chamber, from which Falmer were removing bones that had been wedged inside to stop them from turning properly. On the near side of the water, there was a button on a pedestal, which a Falmer shaman pressed as soon as the warband stepped through the gate.

The button activated the mechanism that lowered the drawbridge over the water, which revealed one of the most fearsome of Dwemer machines: a centurion. It was two to three times the height of an average person, and much more massive, moreso than any lycan. Steam bellowed from the automaton as it sparked to life, and it did not take long at all for it to take in its surroundings. Meanwhile, the Falmer fled to the far corners of the room to hide, perhaps hoping that the machine would place its focus on their lycan attackers before turning its attention on them. The centurion was certainly the most dangerous foe they had faced so far, but Meesei did not show any signs of being nervous. The centurion would have to cross the entire chamber to reach them, and the warband had a small army's worth of archers and mages that could all focus their efforts onto such a large target at once.

Fendros tensed up and closed a fist when Ahnasha took the final word. He paused and looked to the ceiling as if considering what would be an evidently angry response to Ahnasha, but he left it alone. There were more important things to worry about in that moment.

The advance through the deeper ruin was not the cure to any bad moods, but at least the warband made progress. Janius had much more control now that he had eaten and Sabine's job was mostly using magic to slow the poison of their casualties. She did not have enough antidote for everyone, so she kept it for an emergency.

The tables turned as soon as the Falmer had fallen back to what could be called a fortified position. When the centurion was released, the uncertainty permeated throughout all of the transformed lycans. Few had seen such a thing before.

Nevertheless, it was another automaton. They knew how to deal with it. Sabine and Fendros stepped up with every other ranged combatant and let loose a volley on command. Fendros tried to aim his arrows between gaps and joints, while Sabine threw lightning spells in an attempt to damage its internal mechanisms.

By the time the centurion started advancing, enough of the warband had filed into the chamber to give well over a dozen archers and mages clear view to fire upon the machine. It was struck repeatedly, all across its body with both magic and spells. Everyone aimed for weak points, though most arrows deflecting harmlessly off of its armor plates. Due to its sheer size, the ability of a single arrow to stagger the automaton was negligible, but with the entire volley combined, it was certainly slowed down. As well, some of the arrows did manage to find their way to its weaker points. It's knees were well-protected by armor, but the equivalent of its elbows were quite exposed, in addition to the point at which its torso could rotate over its lower body. It was durable enough that the arrows striking there did not destroy the joints, but their range of motion was damaged. As for the spellfire, it took a more immediate toll on the machine's components. Lightning, flames, and explosive fireballs assaulted the centurion from all angles in front of it. The automaton started to give off a high-pitched whistle from the steam expanding beyond its pipes within it, while damage to the gears within its legs caused its pace to slow to a crawl as it finally made it across the bridge in front of it. Even the metal it was made from was beginning to become misshapen from the intense heat being focused upon it.

The centurion's gears were grinding loudly and it was bellowing steam, but it was holding on to a spark of "life." Stopping in front of their lines, it emitted a stream of superheated steam straight towards them. Fortunately, Meesei had just enough reaction time to realize what was happening and project a sizable ward in front of them. However, she did not have the opportunity to charge it completely, so it was not at full strength, and she was struggling to maintain it against the sustained attack.

At first, the centurion appeared to be suffering enough damage that it wouldn't even reach the front line. However, the pack's concern increased with every step it took. It wouldn't die. The huge weapons that protruded from each of its arms looked like they could cut swathes through their formation. By the time it closed in, no one exactly expected for the blast of steam.

Sabine covered her head in her hands and closed her eyes, trying to charge her own ward. When she opened her eyes and realised that Meesei was single-handedly deflecting blocking the scalding cloud, she leapt into action. Sabine layered her ward with Meesei's in an attempt to assist her.

The warband behind began to back off a pace. They were disciplined enough to keep their formation, but they didn't know how to handle this huge creation. Fendros took the opportunity to line up a shot. He had noticed that some armour plates had flipped open to reveal the steam valves that were blasting them. It was hard to see them, but he believed he could fire an arrow into them. He held his arrow drawn back, waiting for the blast to stop, and then released.