As though emerging from underwater, the distant sounds of battle that had suffused the march through the forest came into sharp relief the moment the group of three reached the battlefield.
 
The beast that walked with the human and the demoness only allowed itself a moment to scan the scene, a moment to see the maddened charge and retreat of demons and angels that brought to its mind scenes of a frothing wave, before it threw itself into the current with a snarl.
 
It did not wait for the command of she whom he had gifted the right. That had been given when the Imp had confirmed their objective, and there was little doubt in the beast’s mind or instincts that the key the demoness wished for would be found inside the besieged mausoleum.
 
It could not have stopped were that not the case, regardless. Fenn had been forced to reign himself in when the angels had threatened his chosen Warleader, and this new outlet to his aggression was too attractive. The call of the battleground was much too strong.
 
The Hellhound plowed through the back ranks of demons pouring into the field. It killed with its weight and its jaws. Blood coated the inside of its mouth when its fangs found the amphibian heads of the small monsters before him. Innards coated the ground when tree trunk arms fell over them as though it was stepping on frogs. No flames escaped its blackened scales even then. It had been told to restrain itself, after all, and this command had not yet been lifted.
 
Fenn’s loping run quickly overtook the pace of the current.
 
It was unavoidable. Even as the Angels sought to fortify the Mausoleum, they could not so rapidly cede ground to the demons without breaking formation. A large enough crack would result in a massacre. The demons were slipping past the openings they made, but many ended up tied down in the skirmishes surrounding the structure, slowing the tide. Such thoughts of battle [i]did[/i] penetrate the red haze of the obsidian giant’s mind—and this fact was a trait that had made him the deadliest in his prime—but were quickly discarded when deemed unimportant. Those on the path could barely penetrate its scales, never mind block its advance.
 
A pair of Assault that managed to clamber onto his back quickly came to regret it when steel snakes split from the beast’s arms and constricted around them, unyielding bodies crushing their limbs. Angels that saw the savage hesitated, for what could the obsidian giant be but another monster come to take their lives? Then they aimed their weapons at him, but their arrows of light were answered by the terrified screeches of the monsters held in chains when they were brought to the fore as shields. Those winged soldiers that dared approach were tossed away in great sweeps of his arms strong enough to shatter stone, and that was a great mercy in the eyes of the giant, for he wished to do worse.
 
The beat of larger wings entered his ears as he caught sight of an Orto—[i]exotic meat[/i]—and its rider wheeling around for another pass at the monsters below. The chains still holding the smaller demons writhed and twisted before snapping into the air, tossing the creatures up towards the flying beast.
 
A surprised cry escaped the winged creature when its rider forced it to swerve, and the blast of holy energy that would have crashed against the hound instead seared the monsters just in front of him and raised a plume of dust.
 
Fenn did not slow for a moment, his large body sweeping the cloud away with his passage in his charge to the mausoleum.