The psychic compulsion had no effect on the liches (least of all on Lord Death Despoil, who had been resistant to mind-control even BEFORE his death). They could feel it, but it held no power over them. (Unlucky, despite his centuries, was the second-youngest among them and unlike the youngest, but not a lich himself and thus not so bolstered.) The Furnace Knight desired a direct, one-on-one confrontation; so he would not be granted one; not until there was only one of them left standing. At its core, above and beyond the inherent resistance to mind-control, the Furnace Knight's compulsion itself had the problem that the very idea was an athema to everything the Aotrs stood for; an assault on their core virtue of co-operation. And on top of that, it went against the doctrine better part of three millienia of experience (for all of them except Bowblast): never allow the enemy to dictate the terms of engagement. This was already a suddenly-forced battle, they would not compound that error further by yielding to the enemy's strategum. So without even so much as a twitch of instruction, Foul Skream and Shatterscatter smoothly attacked the Furnace Knight from the either side. With shields - further boosted by the full plethora of defensive spells from Combat Law themselves, concentrated on disruption and damage mitigation. Both took damage from the Knight's strikes, but not debilitating damage and instead focussed their own on making the Furnace Knight have to abort just enough of his own attacks that he couldn't follow-up to do that damage. They were taking more damage than they were inflcting, but that wasn't the point. Though both concentrated most on melee, as their enemy did, while Foul Skream holstered his pistol to more easily use his spells (and the occasional psionic blast), Shatterscatter retained hold of his coldbeam rifle. Ordinarily, such a weapon might not have affected the Furnace Knight, but the Aotrs's coldbeams were just as heavily enchanted as their melee weapons - though it had to be observed that their swordwork was still superior after so many more centuries of practise at it. Bowblast - who, despite his relative youth was the second-strongest spellcaster after Death Despoil himself - started working through his own repatoire of spells on the Furnace Knight, starting with direct-damage spells, and then gravitating to dispelling and indirect attacks, including opening Gates directly under the Furnace Knight's feet or directly in front of him or even where his blade swung. Mixed in with the occasional trick arrow (because if you were going to carry around a bow in the modern era, you had [i]better[/i] carry trick arrows). Tactics all designed to frustrate and deny the Knight what he wanted - a fair fight and a shot at Death Despoil. (Or rather, Bowblast, corrected, a fight in which the Knight could tell himself was honourable, by forcing his opponent to fight only on [i]his[/i] terms - so not a fair fight at all. But that was duels for you, wasn't it?) Yeller and Death aimed to deal with the berserkers - guns off the field. Over two millenia of sparring with the individuals that mastered the SCIENCE of frenzy stood them in good stead. The pair of them worked smoothly in a concerted team, keeping the berserkers fully occupied, avoiding the unstoppable charges and trying to ensure their own life-draining and cold auras contributed to the speed at which the berserker's lifeforce expired. Death Despoil himself remained on the defensive, watching, measuring, and acting only with deliberation. Here, a vertically-aligned momentary [i]Gate[/i] to drop Boldness at Lucky's feet mere seconds after she fell. There, a precisely targeted [i]Disintigration Bolt[/i] to the blindfold of one of the berserkers in front of Deather - partly to see what happened. Here, a pin-point thaumic rupturing spell (a form of explosively destructive dispelling) targeting the runes of the one appraching Yeller's flank. There a [i]Disintegration Beam[/i] to annhilate one berserker whose charge would have interrupted Shatterscatter's own disruptive attack on the Furnace Knight... The Furnace Knight finally shoved Foul Skream back hard, skidding several feet as Foul Skream blocked a swing. This created enough on an opening that the demigod could make a full stroke at Death Despoil. But the Lichemaster's eeriy combat-precognition and incredible reaction speed was enough that he was already moving, and a [i]Bladeturn True[/i] spell was enough - despite substantial resistance - to deflect the first blow. The follow-up was blocked by Deathblood, the Lichemaster's own blade, already in motion. For something less than a heartbeat, the [i]Law of Kings[/i] was halted by the Lichemaster's surprising strength - but only for that instant, and only due to the Lichemaster's measured, precise application of strength and leverage and the angle of block. He knew better than to ever to risk fighting head-to-head with an equal or an superior, nor to risk his own blade against the much larger one, for all Deathblood's power. Then he was back out of immediate reach with a flash step that might not even have been teleportation - it was too fast to tell - and the Furnace Knight had to block two vehicular-level coldbeams from Foul Skream and Bowblast from opposite directions at the same time as Shatterscatter's attack at his rear. Delay and measure; Lord Death Despoil's razor intellect was assessing the Furnace Knight's capabilties as they fought, and committing everything to his perfect recall with computer-like efficiency. [DD: D100 roll of 30 (+75 RE bonus) = 105 on Tactician ability ('If an open-ended roll of 101+, adding RE bonus is made, the character can receive information directly from the GM pertaining to the tactical situation.') Used here less for that than as a good a measure as any of how much he's getting from this observation. (I thought it was a 50% chance and he failed, then I checked and went "oh [i]snap[/i], it's D100 + RE bonus, he DID make it...!") [Unlucky RR vrs effect: 11 on D100. Still affected.] Unlucky's head was still too muzzy, but he knew what he had to do and [i]why[/i] they were delaying. He glanced at the fallen Boldness. "Guh... Think you might have over-estimate us, snake-lady. Might have mentioned it was demi-god. Plus-side, now know, can't let that thing be so close, so looks like you stll got ally..." He grabbed Boldness by the unshattered arm and started tugging and dragging her towards the [i]Gate True[/i]. " You going to be very not-me, get to see Citidel..." He did not add that was going to be the case even if she was dead, since that was hardly a limitation to the Aotrs. Though, the part of his brain that was not involved in fighting for control detachedly wondered if these divine folk could snag souls on the way out, across interstellar distances. Well, if they could, that was intelligence too, wasn't it? * * * * * * Stab and Feltain reached Alpha squad, just as Shadowflight opened the [i]Gate[/i]. At the precise moment a squad of aliens rounded the low ridge. "Blasted scum of a lich!" She was surprised to hear it in tandem with Feltain. As Stab dived for cover, she wondered if Lord Unlucky was contagious...