EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei could not help but to be proud of Sabine's performance thusfar. Accuracy had been a problem for her, so they had been drilling it consistently. Hopefully, the competition was turning out to be just as much of an affirmation to Sabine herself of her abilities as it was to the others. Of course, the contest was not yet over; accuracy was only one aspect of being a destruction mage.

"You both did well, but I believe Sabine was the clear victor of this round. Next, we can test the strength of your spells. The winner may not be as definitive for this contest, since it is more...qualitative than quantitative, but if you are too close, we can simply declare it a draw. I would like for you to cast the strongest, highest-level spell you are capable of. You need only do it once, so you do not need to be conservative with your magicka." Meesei explained as she stepped out into the clearing.

Looking to Janius specifically, Meesei held out her hand in front of her. This time, she would allow him to go first to set the bar. "Seeing as I would prefer you not ignite the forest, you can cast your spell against my ward." She said. Once Janius gave his spell, she would have a few words of encouragement for Sabine.

Kaleeth, meanwhile, simply smiled and gave Janius a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm sure you'll impress. I believe in you."

---

Peiter hesitated for a few seconds, his body language showing a distinct lack of confidence. "I...don't know, I just...I don't think there are any words that can make me stop worrying. Right now, I have all the time in the world to think about her, and what might happen. I know you're right, I know she can take care of herself, and her pack can take care of her. I know my fear isn't completely rational, but it's still there. Once we get into the fight, once my mind starts working on training and orders, I'm thinking I'll be able to focus in the moment. I don't really know, but I think so."

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Rtron said to have the knight die, so I did. What exactly is the situation with the knight's brother? I know he's manipulating trees; who is being attacked by him?

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

---

The incoming shield flying towards Ssarak deflected at an angle off of his own shield, just as planned. Although, his attempt to cripple the knight was not quite as successful. The knight’s reactions were quick, and Ssarak could not redirect his mace quite fast enough to meet his fist head-on. The knight delivered a heavy blow to Ssarak’s stomach, though so too did Ssarak’s mace slam at full force into the knight’s chestplate. Ssarak was knocked out of breath, and he expected the knight to at least have a broken rib or two.

Despite his lack of breath, Ssarak had h is guard up in an instant, and was starting to bring his mace around for another blow when he noticed that his opponent was oddly…still. He did not raise his guard, nor push the attack, but rather just stood, almost as if in shock. He coughed, then collapsed down to his knees. Slowly, blood started to pour from a razor-thin line at his neck before his seemingly lifeless body collapsed entirely to the ground.

Ssarak was not certain of what Meirin had done exactly, but it had evidently pierced through the weaker armor at his neck and slit his throat, or even partially beheaded him. With that threat eliminated, Ssarak wanted to just stop and embrace Meirin. To check on her well-being, and confirm to himself that she was safe, but unfortunately, the fight was not entirely over. Nearby, he could easily see that some of the others were still in trouble. A mage, evidently an herbamancer, was manipulating the trees themselves to attack them. He needed to give them help, and the best way he could see to do that quickly was to grab and keep the mage’s focus on himself. Ssarak turned to the herbamancer and let out a loud, animalistic roar to hopefully capture his attention. He stood in an aggressive, slightly hunched over posture with his boot pressed against the helmet of the herbamancer’s dead ally. At the same time, Ssarak telepathically probed into the mage’s mind to see if he had any wards to speak of.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei stepped out into the clearing and began looking around for options. "Well, some of the defining metrics for a destruction mage are their power, accuracy, and endurance. Accuracy should be easy enough to test, I have a few ideas for power, and the competition itself can be a test of endurance. The only question is which you wish to start with."

After a moment, Meesei found something of use on the ground. It was a simple rock of decent enough size to serve as a target, at least for as long as it held together. Meesei extended her magicka-charged hand, then lifted up the stone telekinetically. "Accuracy may be the best to start with, so that the magicka intensive trials are saved for the end. Weak fireballs and ice spikes will be sufficient to test your aim."

Meesei pushed the rock away from herself and held it still in the air. To start, they could try to hit a stationary target, then she could start moving it in regular patterns. "In this case, I suppose it is fortunate neither of you intend to use lightning. It is far easier to aim than either fire or frost. Still, it would not hurt for both of you to practice with it more. Lightning is good for those situations where accuracy is essential."

---

Peiter took in a deep breath. "I'll be fine, I just...I need to get my mind off of it. I'm sure once all this starts, the fight will be enough to keep my mind occupied."

For Irenya, Gallus' answer was actually not what she had expected, but she did not argue it. She had taken the focus off of Peiter, which was her only real intent in asking. Even if she had never personally been in a battle of this scale, she had certainly seen them before. During the Oblivion Crisis, and later during the Great War, she had witnessed all manner of engagements, large and small. She knew, perhaps more than most in the clan, what to expect from the attack.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Why not do all of those?" Kaleeth suggested, giving a shrug. "Or at least some. You can show all of your skills."

Meesei nodded in agreement. "We can find a clearing to carry out a few trials. Let us just be careful not to range too close to the other competition between Fendros and Ahnasha. From what I can see, it looks like they are practicing against moving targets. Though, since we are intending to test your destruction skills, it would be best not to involve your wards."

As Meesei started to walk towards a clearing at the edge of camp, she gave a grin towards Janius. "I would not want to give Sabine an advantage, after all."

---

Peiter answered with an unemotional "Yes sir." to Gallus' explanation. Logically, he understood Gallus' decision. Given his feelings for Sabine, it made sense that she would distract him in combat, or impede his judgment. But, he knew he was going to worry regardless, and he feared that worry would distract him just as much. He did not have any more he could think of to say, so he simply sat in silence.

Irenya spoke up suddenly, seemingly without care for Peiter's current struggle. "Well...alpha, you mentioned before that we would be staying with you except by your order. What if we are ordered to do otherwise by someone higher in the chain of command, like Ri'vashi or the Champion? You are our alpha, and we have always followed your orders, but...a battle between what is essentially two armies is not an environment that meshes well with the command structure to which we are accustomed." Although it might not have been immediately obvious, Irenya's question was intended to be a mercy to Peiter. She could already guess what Gallus would answer; the purpose in her asking was simply to fill the silence so that Peiter did not feel that all of the attention was on him.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

That's fine.

And I don't have too much in mind for the archery competition.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei was glad to hug Sabine, even if the scent did give her an unwelcome reminder of her previous activity. "Gallus' pack is having a meeting, and most of the others are spread around, finding different ways to occupy their time. Ahnasha and Fendros are having an archery competition, and I believe Lorag is watching."

"Speaking of competitions..." Kaleeth began excitedly as soon as there was a moment's break in Meesei's words. "We had a competition in mind that you might have some fun with. You see, we started talking before, and someone mentioned how much you had been improving. It might be interesting to see how your destruction skills compare to Janius here, with all the training you've had."

---

The reactions that each of Gallus' pack members had to his speech were varied. Irenya was intensely serious, and remained as stoic as ever throughout. Peiter was similarly serious at first, but once Gallus reminded him of Sabine, the thoughts he had been trying to suppress for the past few weeks came back to the forefront of his mind. Where he was seated, he was hunched over, looking almost directly down at the ground. He hesitated for a few seconds, then finally responded shakily. "Gallus...alpha...I just can't get that worry out of my head. It's going to drive me insane tomorrow, I just know it. Not being able to tell what is going on with her, or if she is safe...I just don't see how being separated will help matters. Are you sure that we'll both be safer apart?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Turning her attention to Fendros and Ahnasha, Meesei shook her head regretfully. "Unfortunately, I cannot authorize any hunts right now. We are too close to the enemy stronghold for any of us to range too far from the camp. And I doubt there are any animals in the area that would not run from such a dense concentration of people."

Ahnasha let out a slightly frustrated sigh. "Fine, I understand." She responded. Briefly, she paused as she tried to think of another solution. "Perhaps...I can just summon something without any ranged abilities, like a clannfear. That would give me plenty of time to banish it."

Fortunately for Gallus, Meesei and most of the others were too distracted by their own concerns to pay too close of attention to him. Meesei gave him a nod, and his pack members got up to follow him. About a minute later, Meesei spotted Peiter walking past nearby to join them as well, which of course meant that he and Sabine were finished with anything they were doing.

As Meesei started to stand up, so did Kaleeth. With a smile on her face, she extended a hand down to Janius. "Well, it looks like it's time to go find Sabine, isn't it? I'm looking forward to seeing how my love fares against Meesei's apprentice."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha shrugged her shoulders. "They could, but scamps tend to shoot back if you start to shoot them. Even the best conjurers cannot maintain control of a summoned Daedra after attacking it intentionally. Every summoning is like making a deal, and attacking the creature breaks that deal. Reanimated thralls, however, are much more directly controlled by the one that raises them. It would be safer to shoot at a reanimated rabbit or something. Of course, that does only work once with normal reanimation. And we would need something dead. I suppose I could banish a summoned creature right after we shoot them, I would just need to be quick."

Meesei looked away awkwardly. "No, no, it is just that we do not have a great deal of time to ourselves before we need to rest for the attack, so anything we would like to do, we should do sooner rather than later. And...well, I would not want to accidentally interrupt Sabine before she is...available. My apologies, it is just not a comfortable topic for me to think about. I prefer to avoid it whenever I can." She explained.

---

"Provided there is time." Ri'vashi answered. "Ri'vashi does have some duties to tend to before she needs to get to sleep. If nothing else, we will meet up before it is time to march on the stronghold. See you soon."

Ri'vashi started to get dressed as Gallus was stepping out of the tent, though she did not appear to be particularly rushed. She was showing far less awkwardness now than she had been a few hours before, though as of the moment, the reason for that was unclear.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha held her bow in one hand and an arrow in the other as she watched Fendros' performance. She was already prepared to continue, but was already wanting to make their competition more interesting. "Oh, you know I'm not just going to leave it there. But, maybe we can get a more interesting target? I wonder if there are any small animals around here? Something that will move around. We could take turns seeing how quickly we can kill it."

Meesei nodded to Janius. "Agreed. We should see about finding her soon and ask her about it. Um...how long do you believe it will take for them to be...finished, do you think?" Meesei asked, still showing obvious discomfort at the thought.

---

In contrast to Gallus, Ri'vashi was not nearly as distraught about what had happened. She was not as strongly intoxicated as he had been, so her choices had at least been closer to her own. The moon sugar and alcohol had made her more bold, and more willing to take risks, but she had not done anything she would not have at least considered doing while sober. It was something that showed outwardly as well. She was simply sitting on her bedroll, watching Gallus dress with no particular hint of any negative emotion.

"Thank Hircine you woke up. Ri'vashi doesn't think it has been more than a few hours. It is still dark outside. This one stayed up for a while after you fell asleep, but she tried to rest her eyes just for a moment, then ended up waking up once you started to stir. We should still be able to sleep through the day tomorrow to be well-rested. How are you feeling now? Do you have a headache? You might want to drink some water." Ri'vashi asked.