“Then we have taken our enemy by surprise.” Meesei remarked as she stepped forward towards the edge of the plateau. “But they know we are here now. Vile will have felt the breach into his world.”

Reaching her hand out, Meesei pointed a claw towards the mountains off to the right side of the valley. Even from this distance, they could see the shapes of the towers on the mountains. “There are the watchtowers. Once the battle begins, we will need to move quickly to capture or destroy them. The Daedra will have view of all of our troop movements until we do.” She said, though her attention soon went to the largest tower at the far end of the valley. The spiraling pillars of magical energy surrounding it must have contained immense power. 

“And that tower must be our goal. All of the power he has been stealing over the years, that must be where it is. Even if Vile himself is not there, we should be able to force him to come to us if we can take that tower. If we capture the tower and use our sigil stone to call Hircine down onto it, then he can simply absorb all of that power for his own unless Vile steps in to stop him. And if Vile steps in, then we can do what we are meant to do.” Meesei reasoned. 

Following Meesei’s pack through the portal were contingents of Imperial and Dominion soldiers, who all immediately set to work securing the perimeter around the portal. Aside from one lone scamp, who was promptly slain by a lightning bolt from an Altmer, there were no Daedra in the immediate area around the portal. The others that Sabine had detected were keeping their distance. 

With the first wave through and the area temporarily secure, they all cleared away from the area in front of the portal to make room for the second wave. This time, it was lycan spirits making their way through, and compared to the organized movements of the soldiers, this was more of a stampede. Quick and ferocious werewolves and werelions were the first through, most of which were running, howling, and roaring. At the same time, werevultures flew through above them and started spreading out in all directions to search for prey beneath them. If their arrival had somehow gone unnoticed before, they had certainly been detected now. Still, the advantage of their help would hopefully be enough to make up for their lack of subtlety. Right away, the lycan spirits started spreading out into the forest, and running down the hill into the valley below. 

Lorag was the first one whose impatience started to show. The sounds of lycan feet sprinting past them were like a drumbeat, and their howls like a horn to signal the start of the hunt. On an instinctual level, his beast spirit had him practically salivating in anticipation of joining in. “How much longer are we goin’ to be waiting here? I want to kill something.” 

Once the wave of lycan spirits were through, the next wave of more organized soldiers would join them, including Ri’vashi, gro-Tagnud, Teroiah, and in addition, Vera. She, in conjunction with a few Imperial and Dominion officers, would be commanding the critical task of fortifying their position and solidifying their foothold in Vile’s realm. Vile’s Daedra could not be allowed to make their way into the Hunting grounds. If the sigil stone keeping their portal open was removed, then they would all be transported out of Vile’s realm in an instant.