EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag did not have much time to think, so his first reaction to Gallus' suggestion was also his final decision. "No, we don't know where it leads, and it might just throw us straight into the middle of the enemy. If we can't join up with Ri'vashi and the others, we're as good as dead."

With no one else giving any argument, the group continued to rush through the halls, and down the stairwells. Since they were facing no resistance, and already knew the way to the exit, they were able to move down to entry chamber in under two minutes. Unfortunately, the keep was crumbling just as quickly. There were more explosions all around them, and they could see stones falling from the ceiling of the chamber. What was worse was that, as they stepped into the entry chamber, Meesei spotted some of the insidious violet gas flowing into the chamber from underneath the doors on the far side of the chamber. It seemed that Vile's forces were releasing everything they could to kill as many of the lycans in the keep as possible. "Hurry, to the exit!" Meesei shouted. "That is the gas; do not breathe it!"

As fast as their feet could carry them, everyone rushed to the exit, and it was not a moment too soon. On the second level, just above the main entrance, there was another, deafening explosion. The alchemy fueled fireball entirely collapsed the floor beneath it, and most of the wall around it, straight onto the entrance. Masses of stone the size of Senche fell into the entryway, but everyone in the group made it outside safely...save for one.

Peiter had been in the back of the group, and thus was the last through the exit into the courtyard. When the wall collapsed onto it, he had not made it entirely through. He let out a blood-curdling scream as he was knocked to the ground, and a massive portion of the stonework landed straight on his right arm. The haft of his halberd was snapped in half beside him, and the intense weight on his arm had likely crushed the limb beyond any recognition. It was, however, still keeping him pinned, and unfortunately, most of the others were in no position to help.

Based on the bodies in the courtyard, while they had been assaulting the keep, Ri'vashi had been fighting a much larger ambushing force, and somehow, had actually been winning. The bodies of Vile's forces significantly outnumbered those of the lycans, and by this point, the lycans actually outnumbered the enemy. Unfortunately, over the course of the battle, Ri'vashi had evidently moved her forces over closer to the western wall to put them in a better defensive position. This meant that there were enemy soldiers close to the main entrance of the keep, and they turned their attention to Meesei and Gallus' pack as soon as they made it outside. Lorag set down Meesei and stood in front of her to guard her as he ordered everyone else to form up around him to hold them off. Meanwhile, Peiter was crying out to Sabine for help, though she would be nowhere near strong enough to lift the stonework on her own, even in lycan form. In fact, it was a task beyond most werewolves.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

There were none among the group who could react well to seeing Meesei in such a state. With her power, it was hard to even imagine what could do such a thing to her. Tears came to Kaleeth's eyes upon seeing the wounds, while Ahnasha was afraid of whatever had caused them. Lorag just seemed to grow more angry, but internally, his fear was just as pronounced as the others'.

For Meesei herself, she felt unbelievable relief upon seeing the faces of her pack, but was in far too much pain to express it. She had just managed to make it to her feet when Fendros and Janius ran up to support her. "The General...escaped. I could not defeat him. Everyone else is dead. Our enemy...they have a new weapon. A gas. It kills immediately, rips our souls from our bodies."

Just then, there was another explosion beneath them, followed by even more intense shaking and crashing sounds from below. A wall had just collapsed, and the keep was becoming even more unstable. As much as everyone likely wanted to heal Meesei and keep her comfortable, there was no time for any delays. Lorag rushed up to Meesei and snatched her up in his arms, lifting up her weight effortlessly. "We need to be out of this keep five minutes ago. Come on! We're gettin' to the courtyard, then gettin' out of this place." He shouted, and Meesei certainly did not protest. While Sabine would likely want to try and healer, she could still turn her own healing magic onto herself for now.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Once they had grabbed everything they could which was nearby in the laboratory, Meesei and Gallus' packs, along with Ra'kalesh, headed out of the back exit of the room, while the rest of the soldiers left from the front to return to the courtyard with Ri'vashi. They did not know in which direction the two soldiers carrying the barrel had gone, but Lorag could guess that they would have been heading up to bring it to the General. That would mean they would need to keep heading upwards in the keep, staying towards its center.

Before they had even reached the first staircase, they encountered the enemy. It was a force smaller in numbers than Lorag's, but even if it had not been, they seemed more occupied with escaping than fighting. Another explosion rang out from the floor beneath them, during which the hostiles ran into a side passage. Lorag was not usually one to allow his enemy to escape, but they had more pressing concerns at the moment, and could not afford to waste any time. Instead, they moved up the same staircase they had saw the enemy walking down.

Moving up to the third floor, they were closing in on Meesei. The enemy was clearing out of the keep quickly, so they would encounter no more resistance within. Ahead of them was a corner in the hallway, and as soon as they rounded it, they would be able to see Meesei at the hallway's far end, covered in blood and trying desperately to get to her feet.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Step after step was like torture for Meesei. Even though she was using her spear to keep the weight off of her leg, the small jolts from each step sent sharp pains through her entire body. As strong as she was, she could not hold together her composure. Her whole body was shaking, which only made her steps more unsteady, and more painful. Tears mixed with blood as they streamed down her face, and she had to fight her own mind to maintain the will to keep moving. An increasingly strong part of her mind was telling her that the pain was not worth it; that she would be better off allowing herself to die before her pack, or any other lycans, could see her in such a state.

As Meesei neared the bottom of the spiral staircase, her spear slid off of the edge of a step, causing her to fall and roll the rest of the way to the bottom. She screamed out in agony, without a hint of the usual stoic strength that defined her. Her ribs felt like they were stabbing her in the heart, and she was surprised she had not pushed the bones in her arms and legs through her scales with how she had just twisted them. Laying on the floor, she could hardly even think about trying to bring herself back to her feet.

Meesei was uncertain of how long she had laid on the floor before she heard an exceptionally loud noise through one of the walls, followed by the entire keep shaking. It sounded like a massive, fire salt fueled explosion within the keep, and it did not take much thought for her to imagine its cause. Her own forces had not brought such weapons, so it seemed like the General, having been pushed back with his remaining men heavily outnumbered, was going to destroy his entire fortress just to make sure Meesei was killed inside. The staircase had only brought her down one floor, and there were still two more beneath her, so she did not see how she was going to be able to escape in time.

---

There of course was not evidence enough for Ahnasha to be certain of anything, but looking through the records at the sheer number of lycans that had been released by Vile's forces, another possibility crept into her mind. She had no idea of its implications, and honestly, she hoped it was not true. "What if...we have been noticing them? The number of lycans in Tamriel has been growing tremendously over the past few years. You're seen how much our clans have grown. But that would mean that Vile's forces have been giving us the means to better fight them. It's just...none of this makes sense."

Shortly afterwards, an exceptionally loud explosion shook the entire keep, effectively ending any current conversation. They could not know what caused it, but Lorag knew that he was not going to sit idle for long. "I don't know what that was, but we've got to get out of this keep. Everyone! Grab anything that looks important and form up in the hallway!" He began, turning his attention to one of his officers. "Take the soldiers out into the courtyard and form up with clan leader Ri'vashi. If the enemy's still outside, do whatever she tells you to help hold 'em off."

"Gallus." Lorag continued as he looked to the Imperial. "Get your pack and form up with mine. Fendros is right, we've got to find my Alpha."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

In a manner of speaking.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag nodded to Gallus. "Yeah, makes sense. Vile's crafty. Probably wants to pit as many people against us as possible. Not really that hard, seeing as how most of Tamriel already sees us as monsters. I guess it's just a matter of motivatin' them to get off their lazy backsides and start actually doin' something about us."

Ahnasha had at first been inclined to agree with Gallus, but as she turned the pages to see more and more records, she was becoming both increasingly skeptical, and concerned. "No, no you don't understand. This isn't...this isn't just a few ferals. This is...there are records here going back months. And it looks like it goes back a lot further still. Over the last few months, they have turned and released hundreds of lycans out into the wild. A few would make sense to sow some discord, but hundreds, maybe thousands depending on how long it's been happening? We would be picking up a good portion of these lycans; they would just be feeding the size of our army. It...it doesn't make any sense.

Kaleeth stepped into the cage on the other side of the Khajiit, then carefully rolled her over onto her back after she gave no response to janius. The other soldiers started breaking into the other cages as well, but in all cases, the prisoners were just as unresponsive. There was absolutely no sign of injury on any of them; no bruises, lacerations, or recent scars. They were all breathing normally, and other than being unconscious, were in perfect health. However, no amount of shaking or shouting was going to wake them. It was possible that they were being kept unconscious through magical or alchemical means.

---

With Spellbreaker protecting him, Do’rhajul started with a shield charge to close the distance between them, to which Meesei reacted in her usual manner. With a quick bolt escape, she teleported herself off to his side. Having never seen the technique before, even the General was momentarily confused, giving Meesei the time to hit him in the side with quite a potent lightning bolt. The involuntary spasms of his muscles caused Do’rhajul to collapse to the ground immediately and cringe with pain. However, even through it all, he was fast enough to bring the nigh unbreakable ward of Spellbreaker around to protect himself from Meesei’s following stream of lightning.

Seeing as her magic was not making any progress, Meesei rushed forward with her axe, turning it around to make use of the spike on the back of the head. He was attempting to recover and had made it back up to his knees, though even then, he still matched Meesei’s height. She tried to bring the axe down onto his head before he was ready, but even being off-balance was not enough to prevent himself from bringing up his shield to guard himself. His counterattack was rapid, as he slashed his blade straight towards her neck. Fortunately, Meesei was able to jump back and angle herself enough that his blade deflected off of the shield spell that encased her body.

Meesei backed far enough away to get out of his range, while the General made his way back to his feet. She hoped to catch him off guard by bolting straight through him, but to her surprise, Spellbreaker’s ward stopped her entirely. Normally, a ward would absorb the electrical energy, but she would still pass through. In this case, however, she was stopped and knocked straight onto her back in front of him. It was, perhaps, surprising to him, but not in the way she hoped. Do’rhajul attempted capitalize on the situation with a thrust straight through her heart, but Meesei managed to save herself by bolting once more. This time, she went through his feet, which his ward was not protecting. He was actually stunned this time, so she scrambled to her feet and made another swing for his head. Unfortunately, he was quick enough to bring up his arm to protect it. The spike on her axe hit his forearm directly, and sounded like it may have done some damage through his armor, but it was certainly no lethal blow.

Meesei was knocked back quite forcefully by a bash from the General’s shield. Luckily, it took him too long to get to his feet for him to be able to follow through in time. Seeing as the more direct attacks were not working, she adopted a strategy much like the one she had taken to fight Harriet years prior. She bolted around, keeping her distance and attempting to get spells around his ward. No matter how quickly he could react, he could not move faster than her. Unfortunately, even if he could not attack her, his defense was nigh unbreakable. No matter where she moved, he could always bring up his ward to defend. Every lightning bolt she fired drained some of her magicka, while doing nothing at all to him. Unlike Harriet’s ring, Spellbreaker showed no signs at all of weakening, so she could not simply outlast him. She had to find some way to give herself the advantage.

Breaking from her pattern, Meesei suddenly turned and let loose two streams of ice on the ground behind her, then quickly bolted to the other side of it. Particularly in armor, even the most experienced of warriors could not simply rush straight across a sheet of ice. Do’rhajul would have to either slow down, or go around the ice. In either case, it would give Meesei enough time to complete her transformation.

Do’rhajul opted to run around the path of ice, and Meesei finished her transformation just as he was starting his swing. She jumped back to evade, then immediately rushed forward to try her hand at overpowering him. In her werewolf form, she was indeed stronger than he, but the difference was not as severe as she would have liked. He was a Cathay-raht werewolf, so while he could not match an alpha werewolf like her without transforming, his strength could still challenge hers enough that he could stand his ground.

Meesei first attempted to rip the shield out of his hand to rid him of his greatest asset. She pulled him straight towards her, and nearly brought him off of his feet, but his grip held, and she had given him ample opportunity to retaliate. She was not able to move quickly enough to evade entirely, so he slashed her across the right side of her chest. It was too shallow to be lethal, but deep enough that the gash would cause enough bleeding to worry about it. But, in the short term, she just had to focus on ignoring the pain and continuing the fight. Even if she could not absolutely overpower him, he no longer had any physical advantage over her.

Meesei gave a feint, then dashed to the right and feinted once more. She needed to get him to swing so that she could get a chance to attack. Immediately after the second feint failed, she swiped at his legs, which finally prompted a reaction from him. He swung towards her arm, which she was actually able to evade, then rush straight at him. Instead of pulling on his shield, she swiped it to the side, then tried to bite down on his neck. She managed to latch down on his shoulder, and attempted to reposition to get at his throat, but the delay was enough that she felt another sharp pain of his blade sliding down her back. He bashed the side of her head with his shield, then managed to pull himself away from her.

Again, Meesei had another injury, and was bleeding more heavily, but she had to keep up the pressure on him. She tried targeting his sword arm on the recovery from one of his swings, but ended up with another gash across her thigh. She tried disarming him of his blade, but ended up with her palm slashed open. She tried injuring his leg to get him to the ground and give herself the advantage, but narrowly escaped death with a thin slash directly across her throat from the very tip of his blade. She did wound him with a few cuts where her claws managed to find their mark, likely gave him a lot of bruising, and perhaps even fractured a bone or two with the sheer force of her strikes. Unfortunately, all of her attacks were met with an even greater injury on herself. She simply could not stop his blade, and her wounds were causing her to lose blood. Her attempts at fighting him with magic before had not worked, but what she was doing now was slowly killing her.

Once she had the opportunity, Meesei simply shoved Do’rhajul’s shield to stagger him back, then sprinted across the chamber much faster than he could possibly move. It gave her the time she needed to transform back into her Argonian form, but only just. He was upon her as soon as she had regained control of her body, and she only barely managed to bolt away. Her body was covered in her own blood from the wounds that were steadily weakening her. She was in a worse position to fight him than she had been when she started, and he was now going on the offensive against her. She could bolt outside of his range, but no destruction spell she could cast was working against his ward.

Meesei bolted around Do’rhajul, trying everything she could think of. She tried casting at his feet, but he was quick with his shield. She froze parts of the floor in an attempt to throw him off balance, but he was good at avoiding the ice, and she could not freeze the entire chamber. Even when he was forced onto the ice, he simply moved slowly and kept his shield up to defend until he could move once more. Meesei simply did not know how to fight against an unbreakable ward.

Charging a lightning spell in one hand, Meesei tried to bolt behind Do’rhajul, then cast her spell behind her in the hopes of hitting him before he could react. She would not have time to aim as she had been, so she had to bolt closer to give her spell a better chance of hitting. While the spell did indeed hit him, it came at a heavy price. Even as the lightning was jolting through his body, he spun around and smashed Meesei directly with his shield. It threw her back onto a table pushed up against a wall behind her, and his blade was not far behind. Her lightning bolt had disrupted him enough that his aim was not perfect, but he still managed to thrust his sword straight through her left forearm. It cut through her muscles, shattered the bone, and left her arm pinned to the table underneath. She could not stop herself from letting out a scream of pain, though it was interrupted when he smashed his shield into her body hard enough to break the table in half underneath her, as well as cracking several of her ribs.

Do’rhajul had lost his grip on his sword when he forced Meesei through the table, so she tried to reach over to pull the silver blade out of her arm. However, she was stopped by another surge of pain when the General stomped with all of his might onto her right leg, snapping her femur in two. He grabbed his sword and pulled it slowly out of her arm, exacerbating all of the pain she was already feeling. Her body was broken beyond any reasonable hope of physical resistance, and Do’rhajul was poised to execute her right there, but Meesei was not yet dead, so she was not going to stop fighting to survive.

Letting loose a sudden burst of energy, Meesei telekinetically grabbed one of the halves of the table beside her and sent it flying with impressive force straight at the General’s head. Even he was not prepared for Meesei’s continued resistance, and this time, he was hit straight off of his feet. If she were in any condition whatsoever to continue the fight, she might have been able to take advantage of it, but her only option now was to escape. Taking the precious few seconds she had, Meesei scanned around the room until she spotted the door from which she had entered. Gritting her teeth in pain, she bolted halfway across the chamber, and ended up rolling upon landing to further stress her already-broken bones. She cried out again, her body feeling like it was burning from head to toe. Most of her wounds were silver, and even those that were not involved shattered bones stabbing into her flesh. Nevertheless, she lifted up her eyes to the door and bolted again, this time ending up in the hallway beyond.

Meesei had made it out of the chamber, but that would not stop Do’rhajul from simply following her as soon as she could stand. She had to block the way behind her. Rolling onto her back, she used her uninjured hand to charge a frost storm spell, which she cast upon the ceiling just above the door. It coated the ceiling in ice as the cold seeped into the stone. It caused the stone to become more brittle, so when she followed through with a quite forceful explosive fireball, it rapidly heated and weakened the stones enough that they came crashing down below and sealed off the doorway. Do’rhajul still might have been able to follow, but it would give her time. Though, Meesei was not certain of how much time she even had left. She basked her body in a wave of her own healing magic, but even she could not repair her crippled body. So many of her wounds were silver, and she had already lost so much blood already. The best she could do was to halfway numb her excruciating pain, and to slow her continuing rate of blood loss. With her uninjured arm, she managed to bring herself up to a sitting position, then conjured a bound spear that she used for support to help her drag herself slowly up to her feet. As long as she remained conscious, she could use it as a staff to help her trudge on forward in the hopes of somehow escaping, or at least finding one of her allies. Even with the attention of healers, however, she knew there was a possibility she would not survive this.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think my next post might be a big text wall on Meesei's side.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

---

Ssarak paused only briefly to let out a quick breath of air at Meirin's playful hit before he chuckled and placed his hand on her shoulder, shaking it gently. "Now, you know I am not going to reach into your mind without permission. If you wish to give me a hint on something, you will have to do so in the traditional way. Just...keep in mind that your traditions are as familiar to me as color is to the blind." He commented. It was an obvious exaggeration, given how much he had learned of Humans over the past few years, but the point still stood.

As the pair continued along through the building, Ssarak found Meirin's perspective to be surprisingly insightful. He would not have thought that a simple garment, even one as intricate as hers, could carry with it any real meaning. Coming from a society that valued practicality over all else in terms of useful resources, the idea never would have occurred to him to even attempt to apply deep thoughts to such an item. Even so, there were some common threads between his upbringing and Meirin's. They both appreciated art, just in different forms. Meirin's monastery found beauty in the movements of their martial arts, while his own village created dances in the skies with finely choreographed flights. Neither his village, nor the monastery found their beauty in clothing, but Ssarak was starting to see how Meirin could appreciate it in the same way. Certainly, he could easily see that it made her look quite elegant.

Once they made it outside, Ssarak stopped and looked up at the morning sky, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air. Meirin's thoughts so far had inspired some of his own. He smiled, though he kept his gaze focused up at the clouds. "You would know your teachers better than I, of course, but I would think you are right based on what you have told me of them." He answered. "Though, you have inspired me to think. I must admit, I have never looked at something as simple as clothing with such depth. There are many parts of human society which never would have come close to occurring to me before. My parents, my village, they raised me to see the world in a certain way. They taught me the skills I have, but also the opinions I grew up with. They...proved to me how strong our lives made us. We were the masters of the volcanic badlands of our home. It is a place that calls many ferocious and threatening creatures home, but the Esyire were the ones that mastered it. Our ingenuity, our unity, our strength. I was taught that the land forced us to be strong by necessity, that it built the character of our people into something of which to be proud. I was taught that we benefit from the struggles that other races do not have to face. After living away from my homeland these past few years...I do have to agree that the Scorched Lands make us stronger. It trains us, physically and mentally, to become stronger than we would be otherwise. Hardier. But, after being away so long...I cannot really say that it is definitively better."

Ssarak turned his head back to Meirin. "Life out here may not be as difficult, and as such, not require as much...durability. But, I have already witnessed the ways in which Humans' lives improve their people. They do not focus their lives solely on survival, so they are free to tackle other pursuits. I have seen how people here can create in ways of which I never could have dreamed. Impressive structures, magnificent works of art, and even creative forms of leisure. It is easier, and some people may see that as inferior, but I am starting to see it as simply different. I believe that those in my village have saw the world from only one perspective for so long, that they have a hard time seeing the perspectives of others. The same may be true of your monastery. The monks have found their way to live their lives, but it is the only lives they now know. They cannot see the lives of those elsewhere in Tien. They do not have the experiences of the people elsewhere in the world. Would it really be fair of them to diminish the value of your dress without knowing the time and passion that went into its creation? Or experiencing the beauty you find within its form? I do not truly believe they can be blamed, your people or mine. I think it is in the nature of any person to see the world through the lens of their own experiences. After all, it would be quite difficult, if not impossible, to have a true understanding of every perspective in the world. I believe my clan leaders were wise and well-meaning people, just as is likely true of the monks who raised you. But, I am beginning to feel that the only way to truly understand the world, the way it is and how it should be, is to experience every facet of it that you are able."

Closing his eyes, Ssarak smiled once more, then took in a deep, satisfied breath. Glancing up to the sky briefly, he held his arms out wide in front of Meirin. "Well, shall I carry you to the edge of the sky?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With the number of people in the room, scouring it for what the enemy had been defending did not take nearly as long as it could have. For those examining the notes around the potion bottles, they were not as comprehensive as would have been preferred. The most recent notes made no mention of the purpose of the concoction. Instead, it seemed as if the their formula was already working as intended. The alchemists in this lab had merely been working on reducing the "effective dosage" of the concoction. What Sabine would be able to determine was that whatever was in the bottles was not the suppression gas.

Over near the cages, Lorag was looking over the prisoners curiously. "Hmm, this is new. Captives? I thought Vile's people always just soul trapped the lycans they captured."

Kaleeth walked up to the door of one of the cages and looked over the Khajiit woman laying on the floor inside. "Well...Janius could be right. This looks like a place where they could test things on them, but...they do all look fine. I don't see any blood or anything like that on them. It's just, none of them are waking up, even with all this noise." She observed. Focusing on the door of the cage itself, she noticed that the cage was not nearly as reinforced as she would expect from a lycan's cage. Cautiously, she grabbed the door and started to pull with as much strength as she could muster until she actually broke the lock. "These cages aren't too tough, actually. We can get them open."

At one of the nearby tables, Ahnasha had been looking through some of the documents relating to the prisoners, and it did not take long for her to show her surprise at what she was reading. "This says that these captives were allotted to the alchemists for 'research purposes,' so Janius is definitely right. But...it looks like there are dozens more of them in the dungeon below the keep. They...hold on." Ahnasha began, pausing as she read through part of the notes again to make sure she was understanding them correctly. "This is...I don't understand. It says that: 'if the subjects survive, they are to be transferred to Captain S'hadra for transportation and release'. It warns the alchemists to keep track of their paperwork so that they can be released in the vicinity of where they were found."

Ahnasha searched around the table until she found the papers of one of the prisoners. As she suspected, it listed from where the prisoner had been found, which corresponded with a marking on a nearby map. Finding more of the papers yielded the same results for the other prisoners. "This doesn't make any sense. The places these prisoners were taken from: roads, caravans, farms, villages; they aren't prisoners from our war. It...it says here that the enemy took them and turned them into lycans. But they're just going to release them? Why would Vile's followers be taking people, turning them into lycans, and just releasing them?"

---

Without hesitation, Do’rhajul grabbed a potion from his belt and quickly downed it, then took the barrel, set it onto its side, and stabbed his sword into it. As he pulled the blade out, he kicked it away, straight towards Meesei. The moment he kicked it, the barrel started to spray out a dark violet gas from the hole, as well as other cracks in the wood, and spread quickly in all directions. Ra’jorr’s men had already cut down three of the four remaining defenders, but the moment the gas reached them, it stopped them in their tracks. This was not the suppression gas.

Meesei collapsed to her knees as soon as she took in a breath of the gas, along with every lycan around her apart from Do’rhajul. The effects of the gas were immediate, and unquestionably deadly. Across the room, lycans screamed out in agony as their skin started to take on a violet glow. Then, after a few seconds, their souls and their beast spirits were ripped apart from one another, then torn from their bodies, leaving behind but lifeless husks. All, except for Meesei. She inhaled the gas just as they did, and while her lungs felt like they were burning, her soul, and that of her beast spirit, were still perfectly contained within her body. Her hand felt like it was on fire, and when she looked upon it, she saw the Ring of Hircine on her finger, glowing white as if it had been thrown into a forge. The poison, whatever it was, had torn the other lycans’ souls from their bodies, but the power that the Ring of Hircine gave her was complete control over her beast spirit, with which her soul was bound. Since the Ring gave her command of her soul, it must have protected her from the poison’s effects.

Despite the pain in her chest, Meesei stood to her feet. Do’rhajul’s expression had previously been relieved and triumphant, but upon witnessing her survival, it once again became stiff. “Of course, it would not be so easy.” He stated. “My alchemists and mages would want to study how you have survived, but I am not so foolish as to allow one as dangerous as yourself to live. You have shown yourself to be dangerous, unpredictable. I underestimated you; made mistakes in my defense. Had our plans not reached their final phase, you may have killed me here. In many ways, I respect you, and for that reason, this fight will be to the death.”

Meesei clenched her fists and barred her teeth in a rare visible show of anger. “You have done unspeakable things to my people, Do’rhajul.” She said, her body erupting with a spell of lightning form, making herself appear as a being of raw magical energy. “I would have this end no other way.”

Do’rhajul raised his shield, and brought his sword to the ready as he gave a glace to his men. “I will not force you to fight her. She can and will outmatch you all. You may join the defense.”

Though they hesitated at first, all three of Do’rhajul’s remaining soldiers followed his suggestion and left through the door behind them. Meesei waited until they were gone, so as not to temp them to come back and help, then conjured a bound axe in her hand, since he was armored. As well, she was sure to cast a shield spell on herself before he could attack.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Gallus' shouting brought Peiter back into the moment, though there was not much he was able to do before the fight was over. The sudden, coordinated push which Lorag initiated accelerated the fight to its end. It came at the cost of four more lycan lives, but all ten of the enemy were killed in the center of the room. There were still a few of Vile's soldiers still scattered around on the floor wounded, but all of them were essentially incapacitated. The entire keep was still filled with soldiers, but they now had the time to search the room and figure out what was actually important about it.

One of the most obvious features in the room were the four cages to the far left, each containing one unconscious Khajiit. For anyone who stepped close, their scent would reveal them as lycans, and while they were all alive and in apparently good health, they showed no signs of waking any time soon. They were all stripped bare like prisoners, and yet showed no visible signs of having been restrained, or physically abused in any way. Across most of the rest of the tables in the room were piles of notes, maps, and other documents. A map on the table near the cages had quite a few markings, while on the other side of the room, there was an alchemy table beside a mountain of notes. There were full crates of ingredients around the room, and three bottles about a fifth of the way filled with a strange violet liquid.

Lorag had not taken much of a chance to look around the room, but even a brief glance showed that there would be quite a lot to sift through. "Alright, everyone pick a table and look over it. Figure out what was so important 'bout this room."