[IC] Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

[Muttonhawk]

The kick made Sabine grunt painfully and forced her face into a rictus. She shrunk to the side she was kicked. The immediate hurt was too much to object to Arinette's lies.

After a moment of sobbing in the dirt, Sabine whispered something through her teeth.

She thought about drawing Arinette closer. Close enough to blow a jet of magic into her face and freeze the water in her eyes. What little she had would be enough. She didn't. Her magic was the one thing she had. She needed to wait until she was left alone again and do something more useful. If she blinded Arinette out of spite, they would make sure it could not happen again.

"Meesei is my mother." Sabine drew her eyes up to finally meet Arinette's. "You are wrong about us. I will die before letting you kill her."

[EliteCommander]

"Hmph, your 'mother.' That, uh...lizard is your 'mother.'" Arinette scoffed, her eyes briefly glancing around the camp. She had her own Argonian team member, so she most likely had intended to be even more insulting than she was. "Well, regardless, I suppose I have my answer. It would be easy enough to kill you now, but I think I can make you come around to my line of thinking. The Champion's death really is the best outcome of all this. Remove the chains, then stand her up." She ordered to one of the Orcs.

As instructed, the Orc removed the chains keeping her bound to the tree, though the enchanted manacles were still locked firmly around her wrists. He then grabbed a hold of her and forced her to stand to her feet, all while Arinette was rifling through her large leather bag. The Orc lifted both of her arms up above her head and held her hands together so that one was on top of the other. Arinette almost seemed to be taking her time in order to build up the dread that Sabine was no doubt feeling about what was to come. Dread that she, unfortunately, intended to deliver upon.

The objects that Arinette retrieved from the bag were a simple wooden stake and a hammer, and she allowed Sabine plenty of time to consider her intentions as she raised the end of the stake up and pressed it against Sabine's palm. Around her, the Orcs appeared apathetic, and Do'rhajul even looked to be uncomfortable about it, but the look in Arinette's eyes revealed the true kind of person she was. She was beyond just being heartless, since she actually smiled as she started to hammer the stake through Sabine's palms in order to pin her to the tree.

[Muttonhawk]

Standing up only made Sabine shiver further. Goosebumps covered her body. She could no longer conserve the small warmth afforded by holding her legs to her torso.

Her shaking breaths quickened as Arinette approached. Especially as the stake and hammer lifted to her hands. It was clear what came next. Sabine was hyperventilating by the time the point touched her palm. The first hammer blow did not cause her to make a sound. Her rising and falling chest stopped as her eyes widened in shock. The next few strikes breached her hands. She threw her head back against the tree and scrunched her eyes shut as whimpers turned into pained shouts and screams. More tears streaked back from the corners of her eyes. A seemingly burning heat ran down her arms, though the brief relief from the cold was not enough to turn the sight of her own blood running down her pale skin.

"Stop! STOP! PLEASE!" Sabine shrieked. "We are not the ones spreading the curse!" She sobbed desperately. "We are not the ones spreading the curse..."

[EliteCommander]

Do'rhajul was not looking directly at Sabine, though he did raise his brow at what she shouted. Regardless, Arinette did not waste a moment in addressing the claim. "Oh please, do you think you are going to be able to stand there and lie right to our faces? We have been in this fight from the beginning; we know the truth."

Arinette held her staff up to Sabine's hands and cast a healing spell upon them. It closed up the wounds around the stakes to stop the bleeding, but of course, Arinette went out of her way to make sure that it would do nothing for the pain. Once she was finished, she drew a knife from her belt and stepped up close to Sabine, bringing her face mere inches from hers. At the same time, she pressed her knife into Sabine's stomach just enough that she could feel its point, but not enough to break the skin.

Arinette spoke softly, but still just as threateningly. "I am going to ask you questions, and you are going to answer them. And only them. You refuse, you say anything besides the answer, or you say something we know is a lie, and you will. Be. Punished. Understood? Now, first question. Where exactly is your...oh what do you call it again? Clan. Where is your clan located? And do not merely say 'Skyrim', or 'in a cave.' That is not enough. Tell us where we can find it." She demanded.

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine's screams had quietened to shuddering sobs at this point. The lingering pain in her hands made her vocalise with every outward breath. Her red face streamed with tears dripping down her neck.

Arinette's question only made Sabine gently shake her head. "I cannot..." she whimpered. "I cannot tell you."

[EliteCommander]

Arinette's response was as quick as it was brutal. She stabbed her knife into Sabine's stomach and started to twist it slowly. "Tell. Me. NOW!" She yelled into Sabine's ear.

"Give me step-by-step directions for how, exactly, I can find your clan. Make them clear, make them accurate. I warn you that the punishment for lying is much worse than this." Arinette said before twisting the knife even further.

The Orcs nearby did not seem to react at all to the horrific scene before them, though Do'rhajul could not help but to turn away from them.

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine was let out a short shriek when the knife entered her. The pain brought her panic to flash back to when there were silver bars all around her. She was in so much pain that her body fell into a focussed shock. Like a nightmare, she could not perceive everything around her. Only what her mind picked out for her. Hot blood poured down her front and her leg. She felt as though she was going to close her eyes and die. She closed her eyes just in case death helped her escape how much it hurt.

Breathlessly, she struggled with the few words she was continuing to say. "I cannot..." It hurt to speak. "I cannot..."

[EliteCommander]

Arinette practically growled in frustration. She slid the knife out of her, only to quickly and violently stab her another three times. Blood poured from the wounds, but just as quickly as she had created them, she was able to use the staff's power to close them shut. Physically, it was as if the wounds had never happened, but all of the pain was still there, and would linger for a while yet.

"You don't want to answer? Well, time to be punished, then." Arinette said, as if Sabine had not been suffering already. "Grab the whip." She ordered to one of the Orcs.

Arinette grabbed one of Sabine's shoulders and twisted her body to one side so as to expose her back, then allowed the Orc to move behind her. She did not say another word, nor ask any more questions of Sabine. Instead, she just gave a nod to the Orc to begin. The whip cracked across her back, cutting a long gash through her back. Then, he did it again, and again, and again. Arinette allowed him to land a total of twenty lashes before finally telling him to stop. Arinette used her staff again, but only to cut off any excess bleeding. She decided to leave the wounds open to the air just to prolong the pain.

When it was all over, Arinette grabbed Sabine's face in her hand and forced her to look her in the eye. "Just so you know, we already know where your clan is, in a cavern underneath Skyrim. The entrance shall not elude us for long. I was just testing your...honesty. To think, all of that pain for...nothing. I do not even know why you want to bother protecting your so-called friends when they could not even protect you. Do you think your 'mother' would be willing to do the same. Do you really think she would endure all of this just for you? No, you lycans are selfish beasts; just look at your 'traditions.' The strongest are supposed to rise to the top, because I'm sure that having a leader who is decided by who can best win in a fight will have the most strategic acumen. Just give up. All I want is your Champion. If I get her, then all of this pain ends. You could just walk away."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine was convinced by the time the third stab was healed that Arinette was not causing her suffering to convince her of anything. She was attacking. Sabine could not do anything.

The lashes were in some ways more cruel than the knife, for their wounds stung sharper with every stroke. The slower pace drew out the pain. Each made Sabine yell and whimper between.

Having her forced to face Arinette made Sabine at first darting her eyes, fearful of what would happen next. But something Arinette said made her flash a hint of anger through her suffering. "You know nothing!" She shouted. Her throat was too raw from screaming to shout loudly. "Meesei already suffered worse for me! She is loving! You know nothing!"

[EliteCommander]

Sabine's defiance resulted in a predictable amount of anger from Arinette. In response to Sabine's shouting, Arinette took her dagger and stabbed it straight into Sabine's mouth, through her tongue, and into her throat. Of course, that only lasted a few moments before she once again mended together the mutilating wound at a seemingly impossible pace until Sabine was back to normal. "You're far too stubborn for your own good. But don't worry, I think a few weeks, or months, will be enough to change your tune. Now, I have other matters to tend to."

Arinette turned her head to the others surrounding them. "Make sure our guest here does not stay comfortable."

With Arinette's orders, the others in her team took over Sabine's torture. They were not even instructed to ask her questions; they were merely ordered to periodically extend her suffering. The first of the Orc twins took the simple, but effective approach of beating her with his fists. He broke her nose, a few ribs, and left her face mostly black and blue. The second Orc was much the same, except he also made occasional use of the whip. Once they left, others from the camp started to take over. The Breton male made use of a particularly refined form of illusory flames, which had the effect of causing all of the pain of being burned, without actually harming her. The Argonian ripped off each and every one of Sabine's fingernails and toenails. The Redguard conjurer preferred lightning, while the Nord archer made many precise cuts across her body. All the while, Do'rhajul did not take part in any of the torture himself, but neither did he stop it. He just stood nearby, standing guard. Arinette was called over occasionally to heal Sabine and make sure she had not lost too much blood, but it was not until hours later that she began to take another turn at causing Sabine yet more pain.

Yerig had not shown his face for any of the hours of torture. However, just as Arinette was stepping up in front of her, Sabine might have been able to notice him emerging from one of the extra tents they had set up, carrying something familiar in his hand. Although, he may have been distracted from that sight when Arinette pressed the end of her staff against Sabine's chest. It was a similar form of torture that the other Breton had used, as her body quickly started to feel like it was ablaze with intense flames.

"This is...this is just...barbaric. I can't take this anymore! That girl...what could she possibly have done in her life to deserve this?" Yerig shouted. "Rhajul, how can you stand for this? The man I knew all those years ago would never have allowed this to happen, and he certainly wouldn't have tried to get me to help with his madness. You brought me here to kill monsters, not...this." Yerig shouted.

Arinette turned her head and glared at the Nord. She looked almost like she was ready to turn her staff on him, but a quick glance to Do'rhajul tempered her anger. "You are, Yerig. This isn't a 'girl,' this is a monster. An abomination to everything that is good in the world. If it wasn't for our numbers, she'd be just as quick to tear you to pieces and eat you for dinner. You saw what happened last night, how ferocious these beasts are. What you see here is a monster."

Yerig clenched his hand into a fist. "Oh, I see plenty of monsters, but none of them are nailed to a damn tree!"

After Yerig's shouting, Do'rhajul did his best to speak in a more calming tone. "Yerig, my friend, I understand. Believe me, I understand. I never wanted this either, but you have to understand that this is for the greater good. If we don't succeed, the whole of Tamriel could be corrupted by these beasts."

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine's continued screaming only lasted until the last hour and a half of her sustained torture. From then on, she hardly seemed present in the world. She hung from her wooden stake with eyes glazed and barely enough life in her. The cuts and burns from the last two tortures still marred her skin. She struggled to even keep breathing beyond the sobbing moans of pain she elicited upon being struck. She wanted to die.

The same pitiful moan sounded when Arinette resumed her method.

Sabine did not even look up when Yerig interrupted proceedings. She was concentrating on dulling every sense she could. But nothing she could do stopped her hearing them.

Some automatic response make her squeak out familiar words. She could not be heard over the raised voices but she kept repeating her words. "We are not the ones spreading the curse...We are not...the ones...spreading the curse..."

[EliteCommander]

Arinette's gaze jerked back to Sabine as she spoke. "Just give up with your lies, dog. You aren't convincing anyone." She said, further intensifying the pain she was sending into Sabine's body.

"I don't know about that. I think it sounds more credible than you think." Yerig remarked. Stepping up alongside Do'rhajul, he handed the book to him.

"What is that?" Arinette demanded, quickly bringing her attention back to Yerig. Though, her question went entirely ignored.

Yerig opened up the book to one of the early pages as Do'rhajul took it in his hands. "Do you recognize this, Rhajul?"

Do'rhajul took the book, curiously reading through the words in front of him. Curiosity that quite quickly developed into concern. "I...yes, I believe I do. I recognize the handwriting. My head researcher, back in Elsweyr. I must have read thousands of reports from him; it looks like he penned this, but...what am I reading here? This doesn't seem right."

Yerig shook his head lightly. "It doesn't. I read it. All of it. I marked some of the more interesting pages for you. I don't even want to describe the horrible experiments that book contains. But it also sounds like whoever wrote that book was kidnapping people, infecting them with lycanthropy, then just let them loose."

Do'rhajul looked to be at a loss. "What...is this, Arinette? Do you know about this? I don't want to believe this could be...possibly true."

"I don't know where in Oblivion he got that book, but it has to be a forgery. There is no other possibility. What sense would it make for your own researcher to be spreading lycanthropy behind your back?" Arinette asserted.

Do'rhajul continued to stare down at the book. "This would have to be an exceptional forgery, Arinette."

As the argument grew more intense, it also presented an opportunity for Sabine. Arinette was quite thoroughly distracted by Do'rhajul and Yerig, but she still had her staff resting against Sabine's chest. It was resting so close, right within Sabine's reach, and unknown to Arinette, Sabine was perfectly capable of freeing herself. The stake through her palms was not too much wider at its base than at its tip, so though it would be painful, she could pull her hands from the tree. Beyond that, Sabine had also built up enough magicka at this point for a fairly significant spell. If she chose to take it, there was a real opportunity to grab the staff right from Arinette's clutches.

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine arced her back and whimpered the rest of her breath out from the renewed burning. She might have tried to block out more, but just as those around her were talking, the sound of turning paper caught her attention. She peered her tear-soaked eyes up and slowly lifted her brow. She recognised the book in Do'Rhajul's hands. Ahnasha had succeeded after all. She had to do something now. She could not leave her magic to some impossible point where they would hypothetically stop torturing her.

She turned her swollen eyes left and right. A movement from Arinette nudged the end of the staff to push against her. Her gaze went to the Staff of Magnus. Her arms were asleep, but her magic was not. All she needed to do was touch it. And touch Arinette. It was now or never.

Sabine's face turned from fear to a clenched strain. She pressed her lips together. Her brow pushed down on her eyes. She wrinkled her nose. Her arm muscles bulged. She had intended to try and wrench the stake from its place in the tree. Instead, she felt her palms stinging. They were sliding up the stake. She clenched her eyes and teeth and pushed further. Tiny sounds of pain came out of her throat. Blood flowed down her arms to coat the dry brown marks that the previous bleeding had already left.

She just needed a few moments. The splinters dug into her hands, piece by piece. Near the end of it, she could not hold back a scream akin to the other pain she had been feeling. Then again, this was far less in comparison.

Her hands glowed a bright green. Swirling motes gathered around the stake and Sabine's fingers. With a spatter of bright blood, Sabine all but fell onto Arinette, barely landing her bloody hands on her shoulder and thoroughly staining her clothing. Her spell discharged. Arinette felt her joints lock up with a paralysis spell twelve hours in the making.

For lack of any manual dexterity, Sabine slung her arms around the Staff of Magnus and threw the helpless Arinette from its grip onto the earth below. Sabine stumbled, nude, scarred, and burnt, into a wide stance. She threatened away any advances from the rest of the team by pointing the staff at them. She drew from the staff and felt its power. She immediately put it to use.

Sabine's entire body shimmered with a solar light. The world darkened in her corona until she resembled Meridia herself. To Sabine, it was merely a restoration spell wrought of brute magical power. Feeling returned to her arms. Her wounds had closed to perfection. She gripped the staff properly with her hands. However, only her physical pain had melted in the light. She looked across the team with her previous pain mixed with growing fury.

What she shouted at the top of her lungs was perhaps not what the others might have expected. Sabine screamed at Do'Rhajul. "KEEP READING!"

Arinette was not going to be moving for a while yet. And she was in no position to stop Sabine paralysing her over and again until they were done.

[EliteCommander]

It would not take Sabine long to realize the power she now held in her hands. Her paralysis spell had taken Arinette off-guard, and though Sabine's own magicka was now drained almost entirely, she could feel what seemed to be, upon first impressions, a near limitless well of power within the staff. Regardless of how much magicka the staff actually contained, there was a limit to how much a mage could draw from it at once, but that limit was relative to the mage's own ability. For an average mage, the power they could draw upon was still impressive, but Sabine was far beyond average. As she started to cast spells from the staff, Sabine would soon realize that her potential with it was immense.

Not only could Sabine heal her wounds, but she could essentially erase the pain from many hours of suffering. If she so desired, she could use restoration to enhance her own physical attributes far beyond what was natural, even after being maimed for hours on end. It would be trivial for her to break her manacles, though their enchantment was hardly even relevant at this point.

Sabine's sudden escape was as surprising to Do'rhajul as it was confusing. One of his hands gripped his weapon, but the order that Sabine shouted to him gave him pause. He looked uncertain, and in the back of his eyes, Sabine may have been able to see some fear. Even Yerig had been caught off-guard by Sabine's escape. He had been the only one in the camp so far to speak up on Sabine's behalf, but even he had not planned on her so quickly escaping her binds.

The others in the camp reacted much more decisively. One of the Orcs witnessed the escape, and shouted the order for the camp to come to arms. They were all on their guard after the previous night's events, so it took only moments for each of them to rush through the camp towards her. But, even they showed their fear once they realized that she now wielded the staff. Instead of attacking her immediately, they moved to surround her. The armored warriors, including the Orcs and Nord shield-bearer, took positions in front of her. The Redguard conjured up a storm atronach and stayed behind the warriors, while the Breton male started charging a fireball off to her right. The Argonian, meanwhile, strafed slowly to Sabine's left in search of an opening. They were certainly an impressive force together, but Sabine had little cause to be afraid. She was now capable beyond anything they would expect. Even Meesei would be Sabine's clear inferior in her current state. It was possible that Yerig and Do'rhajul might be willing to aid Sabine, given recent revelations, but she could be quite confident in the fact that she did not even need them to demolish any resistance against her.

When they had power over Sabine, almost every member of Arinette's team had committed terrible atrocities against Sabine. Some were more reluctant than others, but they had each participated in torturing a helpless woman. Now, Sabine held all of the power over them, and it was entirely up to her what she did with it. They were at Sabine's mercy.

[Muttonhawk]

The yellow halo around Sabine faded to reveal her healed, if still bloodstained body. However, no amount of restoration magic took away the terror in her face. She was struggling to breathe evenly, and she looked on at the enemies around her as they tried to find a way around her.

She tried to charge a spell. She yelled in frustration and directed magic to her manacles. She did not break them with physical strength. They simply burst apart. The steaming metal shards bounced to a stop on the ground around her. If that was not a great enough display of magical might, she directed the staff towards the flanking Argonian in turn. "Stay AWAY!"

With each word respectively, the Argonian was pulled up off the ground as if an invisible force had taken hold of his body before he was thrown tumbling across behind the shield bearer. With another scream, Sabine swung around and gave the Breton mage the same treatment.

It was in that moment that Sabine peered down at the staff and started breathing regularly, if still at a fast pace. All her limbs set off in tremors. In an effort to stay balanced, she planted the butt of staff into the earth and willed a powerful ward to bloom from its top. The ward curled all the way around Sabine and grew to form an impenetrable ovoid cocoon. The wavy and distorted surface was transparent enough to see her fall to her knees, holding onto the staff. The ward did little to muffle her heaving crying and weeping.

"We just wanted to show you the truth," She moaned between her sobbing, almost pleading. "We found the book in the Elsweyr fortress when we stormed it. We do not want to turn anyone into lycans. It just..." Sabine lowered her voice. "I am tired...Everything hurts...I cannot stop the pain...It hurts..."

With Sabine hanging her head and weeping so heavily, Arinette could recover from her paralysis with a few moments longer. Though unless she had a trick up her sleeve, nothing could get through Sabine's encompassing ward. And even if Arinette tried to destroy or take the book from Do'Rhajul, the damage had been done.

[EliteCommander]

The display of power from Sabine put an immediate halt to any thoughts of attack. The Argonian was left bleeding on the ground, after having been cut up by his own blade when he was sent tumbling. The Breton escaped with fewer injuries, but even more fear. He was not the greatest among their team to begin with, so even upon seeing Sabine collapsed to her knees after he regained his bearings, he was not brave enough to remain. She was distracted, so he quickly started to take off into the forest at full sprint.

Yerig took a few steps forward, holding his hands up towards Sabine. "Easy, girl, easy. Sabine, that's your name, right? This doesn't have to end in more violence. I think that there's a lot that a lot of us here don't know."

"Don't...listen to her!" A strained voice cried out nearby. The paralysis spell had worn off on Arinette, so she was struggling to regain control of herself and get back to her feet. They lie! Deceive! Manipulate! No one else even sees the threat; we are the only ones standing in their way. Only lord Vile is willing to fight them."

Yerig shook his head. "I haven't believed that since the moment you first said it. Why would a Daedra even care?"

Do'rhajul stepped up beside Yerig with a bit more confidence than before. "I really want to believe you, Arinette. Lycans are destructive creatures. They stole my life from me, and I've heard the countless stories from my men of the lives they've shattered. But...this book, I have to admit that it explains so many of those strange reports over the years. It explains all of the stonewalling I've struggled with for this entire war with you...priests of Vile. All of the secrecy, the restricted meetings. I'm starting to think that...you have something to hide, Arinette."

"Remember your pact, Do'rhajul." Arinette replied with obvious, growing rage. "Remember what will happen to your soul if you fail in your bargain with our lord."

There was a pause as Do'rhajul closed his eyes. "If there is any truth in this book. Any truth in that lycan's words, then this soul is already a lost cause."

Yerig reached up and placed a hand on Do'rhajul's shoulder. "Then how about we listen to her. Listen to what this lycan has to say, and see what kind of truth she can share for ourselves. I think..."

"Silence!" Arinette screamed. Following her enraged shout, she quite suddenly cast a bolt of lightning which Yerig had been entirely unprepared to deal with. It hit him square in the chest, sending him to the ground immediately. She followed through with another bolt, but by that point, Do'rhajul had moved in between them with Spellbreaker raised, entirely absorbing the spell.

"You...you'll pay for that!" Do'rhajul growled, his blade now drawn.

[Muttonhawk]

Sabine growled into a berserk shriek and threw her arm towards Arinette. Once again, Arinette's joints locked up, though not for any paralysing effect on her muscles, but for external force pressing against every inch of her skin. She could not breathe, let alone speak. Like digging worms, tendrils of magic wriggled into her skin without breaking it, covering her with crawling itches that kissed at every nerve.

Sabine stood slouched, glowering from behind her blood-encrusted hair with her arm shining with green and gold whorls of power extending out. Arinette lifted up off the ground.

"I CAN FEEL ALL OF YOUR BLOOD!" Sabine screeched. "I CAN FEEL EVERYWHERE PAIN IS FELT IN YOUR BODY!" She took two unsteady steps forward. "I CAN TEAR IT ALL OUT LIKE ROOTS! ALL OF IT! ALL OF IT AT ONCE!"

The little tendrils of magic tugged just enough under Arinette's skin to make her feel a jarring numbness akin to striking the ulnar nerve under the elbow, though across every bone in her body. Arinette knew that Sabine was capable of making good on her claim by making the tendrils tug just a little harder.

The crawling sensation was its own kind of torture. Just enough movement was visible on Arinette's face to hint at what it was to experience it.

But just as fast as Sabine lashed out, she slumped and let her arm fall limp. The magic disappeared. Arinette collapsed to the ground, completely free and drained of magicka and breath.

"Please..." Sabine sobbed. Her screaming made her throat gravely, even at her pitiful high pitch. "Stop...I want to go home..."

[EliteCommander]

Immediately as Do'rhajul raised his weapon against her Arinette shouted to the others. "Kill them! All of them! Remember your oaths to Vile. If you betray that oath, your souls are forfeit!" However, she did not have any chance to speak further once Sabine lifted her up with her overwhelming magical force. She screamed, at first out of pain, but soon fear once the numbness set in and she realized that she had no control of her body. She could move her muscles as much as she wanted, but her limbs did not move, she could not speak. Though the sheer force of Sabine's power, Arinette was helpless.

Unfortunately, whether through their fear of Vile, or just the authority behind Arinette's order, the remaining members of the team were willing to follow it. Whatever their motivations, they were willing to turn on Do'rhajul. The Orcs focused their attention on him, perhaps because he was an easier target for them to fight. At least, that was their assumption. Do'rhajul had not demonstrated much of his ability in the previous fight with the pack, but his answer to the Orcs' charge showed why he was feared among the lycan clans. Every single motion was precise and served to defeat his opponents as quickly as possible. The pair moved to his left and right to divide his attention, but he was surprisingly quick to force the Orc on his right to parry with his blade, then bash straight through to his head with Spellbreaker. He fully expected the other twin to attack him in the back while he was vulnerable, and so he both planned appropriately and executed it flawlessly. The Orc's mace was mid-swing towards the back of Do'rhajul's head when he used the momentum of his shield bash to turn his upper body and actually parry the mace aside with his shoulderplate. From there, he allowed his momentum to carry his sword arm into a swing that hit the side of the Orc's leg precisely in the gap between the armored plates at his knee. The blade cut deep into the Orc's joint, rendering his leg unusable.

While the Nord archer was unsure what to do, the Redguard conjurer was at least able to direct her storm atronach against Sabine. The daedra unleashed a furious storm of lightning at Sabine's ward. But, while it certainly looked intimidating, it posed absolutely no threat of being able to break through her barrier. If anything, she may have been able to absorb its power into the staff, with just a bit of effort. Arinette, despite everything that Sabine had just done to her, remained hopelessly defiant. She extended her hand towards Sabine to try and help the atronach break the ward, but found no magicka within herself to cast a spell.

Amid the chaos, there was another potential concern. Yerig had still not recovered from Arinette's bolt of lightning. In fact, he was not moving at all.

[Muttonhawk]

The hostilities that broke out left Sabine despondent. She moved, mentally exhausted, to point a palm to the melee. She ignored the efforts of the atronach and murmured sadly. "I want to go home..." Power gathered in her palm. "I just...want to go home." A ball of red, cloudy magic launched out and struck one of the Orc twins.

The external effects were not immediate, though the struck twin felt all his energy drain away until he blacked out.

"I just want to go home..." Sabine launched the same spell at the second Orc twin. She repeated her words over and again.

"I just want to go home..." The Redguard conjurer was hit and fell. Then Arinette, helpless to defend herself as she was. The rest of the team fell, one by one. Even the Argonian, if he was still conscious. All but Do'Rhajul and the atronach remained standing. The Breton was long gone running by now.

Sabine gripped the staff in both hands and tiredly launched a different spell at the atronach. It impacted with a chest-beating thud, and its stony components exploded out behind its vague bodily shape, before fading back to Oblivion.

None of those struck by Sabine's spells were dead. They had merely been knocked unconscious, even if the suddenness of the spells made it look otherwise. Each softly breathed on.

Sabine walked with poor balance in Do'Rhajul's direction. It was not until she approached close that he realised she was walking past him to Yerig. She extended a hand towards him along the way to try and detect if he still lived. Do'Rhajul was all but ignored.

[EliteCommander]

Against the power that Sabine now wielded, it was as if the very idea of resisting her was absurd. Not wards, enchantments, or willpower stopped each consecutive spell she launched. All of them fell beneath her magic. Even Do'rhajul reflexively raised up Spellbreaker when he saw Sabine's slow march towards him. It was perhaps the only thing present capable of resisting Sabine, but he soon realized that she was not interested in attacking him.

With the fighting now conclusively ended, Do'rhajul froze where he was standing. He looked around the camp, over his former allies, and dropped his sword on the ground. The forest had gone almost eerily silent, as even the birds and other animals had fled from the fighting. The only real sound was some wind rustling through the surrounding leaves. Eventually, his gaze fell back upon Yerig. He was greatly concerned for his friend's well-being, but at the same time, terrified to so much as get close to Sabine.

For Yerig, the lightning bolt had struck him in just the wrong way, and traveled in just the wrong path through his body. Even though his robes were enchanted to resist it, they did not stop the shock entirely. It also did not help matters that he was an old man, in quite good shape for his age, but still less hardy than he may once have been. His heart had stopped, and for most healers, it would be too late to save him. Indeed, even Sabine likely would have been unable to save him normally, but she still did not know the extent of her capabilities with the staff. There was a possibility she could save him, if she chose to do so.