EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag charged into the illusions, passing through each one with no hint of resistance. Other lycan warriors folloed suit, but none of the well-over a hundred "soldiers" ahead of them so much as moved in response. It did not take long after lycans began pushing into the illusions that the enemy decided it was no longer worthwhile to maintain them. Suddenly, almost two-thirds of the enemy force's initial numbers disappeared into thin air. About half of the lycan formation now had a mostly clear path to the treeline, and those that were still in the middle of the split enemy force could now advance straight ahead without fear. The situation, it seemed, was not nearly as dire as it had first appeared. All that was between them and the forest were the enemy mages that had been maintaining the illusion, but they seemed more interested in fleeing than fighting. If Meesei's mist ritual prior to the battle was any indication, their spell likely drained them of magicka.

Between Ri'vashi, Kaleeth, and Janius, they had killed the enemy which had Ri'vashi surrounded, and the remainder ahead of them had been simple illusions. Seeing as there were now no longer any enemies ahead of them, Ri'vashi turned around to help those still behind them. At present, the lycans actually outnumbered the enemy by a good margin, though Ri'vashi was still intent on retreating. That gas alone was enough to kill every lycan present, and they had no way of knowing how much the enemy still possessed. "Soldiers, to the rear! Hold here to cover the escape of the wounded!" She shouted.

Ahnasha and Fendros had just reached the empty clearing where the illusions had been when the order was given to turn around. There had been no time for Ahnasha to receive healing, though she still did not seem to recognize herself as counting among the wounded. She conjured up a sword with her good arm, then turned around along with Fendros and her thrall to help hold the line.

Meesei, meanwhile, had no illusions of where she needed to be, but her strength was rapidly failing. In keeping herself upright with telekinesis, Meesei had been forced to neglect the healing magic she was using to sustain herself. For a few seconds, she tried sauntering in the direction of the treeline, but her magic was growing too weak to hold herself upright. Soon enough, she collapsed, and was only barely managing to cling to consciousness as she tried to form another healing spell. She still had the magicka for the spell, but she was too weakened to focus on it coherently. Her bleeding had never halted entirely, so her blood loss was quickly catching up to her. As well, the insidious effects of the silver were causing increasingly severe harm. At some point during her fight with the General, silver had chipped off in her body, and was now in her blood. The pain was unbearable, but her cries did not last long before she lost consciousness. Laying face down in the grass, she of course attracted the attention of any lycan within sight of her. She had become eerily still.

Her heart had stopped.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak took Meirin up in his arms and, with a running start, pulled them both up into the air. Taking off from the ground was usually the most difficult part of a flight, particularly when carrying any sort of weight. He could use his legs for an initial boost, but it took a lot of work with his wings to gain any sort of altitude. Given his experience in flight, however, he knew how to save energy wherever he could. Tall structures, like towers or mountains, tended to create updrafts of which he could take advantage. As such, he flew alongside the College's tallest tower to use the wind to carry him even higher, until he had taken them above the tower. From that point, it would simply be a matter of flying in a spiral upwards until his wings could carry them no higher. He would take advantage of thermal updrafts whenever he could find them to speed along the process, but it was not something he expected to accomplish quickly.

The pair were already higher than the tallest landmark in sight, though it was no height they had not reached before. Since the flight had steadied out, Ssarak readjusted his grip on Meirin to be more comfortable for her. With her weaving magic, she could easily save herself if something went wrong, so he did not have to carry her with near as secure of a grip as he had in the past. Of course, he still took pleasure in holding his arms firmly around her. "I should probably say, it could take a while before we reach the height I am wanting. There is heat rising from the College below, which is helping, but it is still quite the height regardless. I hope you do not mind being in my...gentle, loving embrace for such a time." He chuckled.

Ssarak's gaze shifted down to the landscape below. The College itself was starting to appear increasingly small beneath them. The College was an impressive sight, certainly, but when compared with the entirety of the horizon in all directions, all of the forests, plains, and other features that expanded out beneath them, it almost looked insignificant. To Ssarak, such sights had been normal in the Scorched Lands, but he did not often take the time to seek them out since he had arrived at the college.

Above them, the clouds that were growing increasingly closer were thick, and somewhat dark. Smiling, Ssarak moved his head so he could look at Meirin. "It looks like it could rain soon. Fortunately, that shall not be an issue for us. Just...be ready for some humidity in a few minutes."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha tried to sit up and draw in breath after it had been knocked out of her. She was sore, and would be bruised rather badly under her fur. Not to mention, she had an intense pain in her left shoulder and was having difficulty moving the arm. "Ah, I think that...flailing corpse dislocated my shoulder. Maybe...cracked a rib."

Allowing Fendros to help her to her feet, Ahnasha looked down at the Senche's corpse and practically growled. In frustration, she kicked at the corpse's head. Archery was now out of the question for her, so she would need to find some other way to help. The other soldiers around them had pushed forward slightly, but she could not stand and think for long. Her frost atronach had already been killed by concentrated spellfire, so she had an opening for another servant. "You know, you oversized wretch, you're not done yet." She muttered to the Senche corpse. She closed her eyes and placed her uninjured hand on the corpse. With no small degree of concentration, she focused most of her remaining magicka into the horse-sized Khajiit in the form of necromantic energy. It was magically exhausting for her, but after a few seconds, the Senche rose up as her new thrall.

"Okay...it will follow your lead." Ahnasha said to Fendros. "I'll be behind you, resting."

Meanwhile, Lorag had pushed through the breach created by Kaleeth. Since she had shifted to helping Ri'vashi, he decided to forge ahead straight into the enemy. He had soldiers with him, so he had no intention of stopping the pace Kaleeth had set. Lorag's armor was now dented, his body bruised and fatigued, but he was still fighting with all of his ferocity. He hooked an enemy spear with the back of his hammer, pushed it aside, then delivered a heavy blow to his opponent's face with his fist. Using his weight to knock the spearman down, Lorag proceeded to stomp on him with his boot while simultaneously making a swing of his hammer towards the next enemy in front of him. The result of that swing, however, was more of a shock than even Lorag could have expected. There was no impact; instead, his hammer simply passed through this "opponent" as if he were not even there. The enemy had not given a reaction, no defense or counterattack, and indeed, had not seemed to move much at all. Lorag could not sense the magic in the air, but even he could tell that it was an illusion. And, looking around, he could see a similar, static behavior from the majority of the enemy's backline.

"By Oblivion...illusions." He muttered, before quickly beginning to shout. "It's an illusion! Most of 'em are illusions! We're not outnumbered!"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Overall, progress had slowed, but the lycans had still managed to push safely away from the fortress. The gas would not threaten them; they needed only push through the remaining enemy soldiers to reach the forest. The wounded were moving at the center of the formation, and for the moment, they were advancing slowly enough that carrying them was not slowing the formation down. Though, if it became necessary for the lycans to flee quickly, they would have to choose between leaving behind wounded, or leaving warriors to delay the enemy. Meanwhile, anyone particularly versed in magic would start to sense the ambient presence of magic in the air as they moved deeper into the enemy lines.

Ri'vashi certainly appreciated the assistance she was receiving, though she was still more than capable of defending herself, even in such an unfavorable situation. Before the enemy could land a precise strike to her joints, she bashed one of the opponents on her left with her shield, slices at his sword arm, then used her shield arm to grab him around the neck and pull him close to serve as a living shield. With her katana, she parried away blows from her right while using her prisoner to make the enemy on her left more hesitant to attack. Her armor could make up for glancing blows, but fortunately, she did not have to defend in such desperation for long.

Kaleeth did not hesitate to turn her charge towards Ri'vashi. There was a sword sticking partially out of the werecrocodile's abdomen, but otherwise, she was still in perfectly fine condition. She had allowed herself to be stabbed by the steel blade to protect herself from silver, and had subsequently crushed the entire lower body of the one who attacked her. It only took a quick pull with her claws to remove the blade, which had not penetrated enough through her thick scales to be an issue at the moment. She threw the sword at the enemy ahead of her, then started to deliver wide, sweeping attacks to those between her and Ri'vashi. She had to be careful to avoid injuring herself, but even among the strongest of Cathay, there was no one that could halt the advance of such a vanguard.

Even if she did not have Gallus' fervor attempting to defend her, Meesei would have at least been able to protect herself in the short term. The burned, blinded mage would be incapacitated for the foreseeable future, so she was able to release him, then telekinetically blast back one of her opponents, while Gallus dealt with the other. There was a spearman, and three swordsmen behind Gallus' opponent who were in the perfect position to help their ally, though strangely, all of the swordsmen were oddly reluctant to move forward. In fact, the majority of the enemy's backline had been strangely static for the fight so far.

While Fendros obviously could not overpower the Senche, a werewolf's strength was still enough to at least somewhat displace a normal Senche. It delayed him enough that Ahnasha was able to line up and fire a shot at the Senche's neck, though that did not stop his momentum. In his dying motions, the Senche still ended up trampling over Ahnasha as he fell.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei did not seem to be listening to Gallus' words of caution, but she was fighting alongside him. Seeing the Khajiit that Gallus was about to strike, she carefully took a telekinetic hold of Gallus' hammer as he swung and added her own force to it, making the hammer hit with exceptional force.

A mage was the next opponent to find Meesei a tempting target. He unleashed a stream of lightning, which she blocked with a ward from her uninjured arm. It was difficult for her to channel magic through an arm that she could hardly move, so instead of retaliating with her ward up, she simply walked towards him. He held his ground and tried to push harder to break through, but Meesei had much more magical endurance than her current appearance would suggest. Once she was close enough to touch the Khajiit, she suddenly let down her ward and grabbed his face. She did receive a shock in doing so, but the spell he was subjected to was far worse. She ignited her hand and pressed her thumb into his eye socket, both of which caused him to scream in agony. Unfortunately, there were two more soldiers on either side of the mage that were intent on helping him.

Meanwhile, to Gallus' right, Ri'vashi was indeed present, and she was already leading from the front of her soldiers. She was attacking just to the left of Kaleeth, who was firmly holding the attention of many of those in front of her. With her own soldiers following her, she did what she could to take advantage of the opportunity Kaleeth had afforded to her. She weaved between spears, even allowing one to deflect off of her chestplate, before smashing the enemy closest to her with her shield and following through with a precise slash to his throat from her katana. She made a hole in the enemy line, as she had many times before, but this time, it was the enemy that took advantage. A mage fired a bolt of lightning into Ri'vashi, which arced through her allies behind her as well. The burns were painful, but not lethal; however, it was the brief stunning effect the lightning had which gave the enemy an advantage. They cut down a row of Ri'vashi's allies behind her, which left her entirely surrounded in the middle of the enemy.

Though the lycan force had successfully split the enemy in two, that meant they could be attacked from three sides. Fendros, Ahnasha, and the others around them were being threatened from their left flank as well, so Ahnasha moved her frost atronach to help protect them from that angle. Meanwhile, she set the sights of her bow on the Senche. He was just tall enough that she could get a shot on him, the first of which landed in his shoulder, just off the mark from his chest. She was confident she could land a more precise shot, but the Senche had already settled on her as the threat to eliminate. He was already wounded from her arrow, and Fendros' sword, but they did not seem to slow his charge.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Now, time for me to get to bed. Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With a united force, and a singular effort to push forward, the progress they were making forward was almost surprising. Kaleeth was at the very front of the attack. It was a situation she had been in before, but this time, she was taking far fewer blades and arrows through her scales. Enemy archers could not fire on her without the risk of hitting their own allies, so she was only having to worry about melee opponents. She had easily broken through the shield wall, but was now surrounded on three sides. Those around her carried a mix of silver and steel blades, and at the moment, she was actually able to pay close enough attention to determine which was which. Seeing a flash of a silver blade to her left, Kaleeth grabbed the shield of an opponent to her right, ripped it out of his hand, and threw it at the silver-wielding opponent hard enough to potentially break a bone. Though, she did not relent there. With the swordsman off balance, she snapped at his head and ended up crushing it, along with the helmet protecting it, in her excessively powerful jaws. Meanwhile, a steel-wielding opponent made a thrust for her chest, but her scales were thicker than he was no doubt expecting. Since she was standing at an angle, her scales deflected the blade away and left her mostly unharmed.

For Meesei, she could not afford to stand back behind the others. They needed inspiration, and despite her state, she could give it to them. She simply walked into the breach that Kaleeth and the others had made and waited for the enemy to attack her. Seeing a swing coming from her left, she extended her good arm towards her enemy, grabbed a hold of his blade telekinetically, then pushed it in the same direction of his swing to move it with his momentum, and straight out of his hand. In the confusion afterwards, she gave him a mortal wound in the form of an ice spike. Of course, there were few among the enemy who could resist the chance to kill the wounded Champion, so there were no shortage of opponents with their eyes set on her.

Since they were trying to force their way straight through Vile's soldiers, they were quickly becoming surrounded. From the left flank, some of the enemy, led by a normal Senche, were pushing towards Fendros and the soldiers around him. Ahnasha was naturally nearby, and decided to conjure up something of a bodyguard for Fendros. Directly to Fendros' left, a portal opened, through which appeared a massive frost atronach. It was a large, slow Daedra, but one that could match the power of a Senche. It was unlikely to kill him alone, but Fendros could take advantage of it.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Once Meesei was on her feet, her whole body took on a violet glow. She was using alteration magic, similar to telekinesis, to give support to her broken leg and allow herself to stand. It was no small expense of magicka to accomplish, but it was only a fraction of what was to come.

Even with her magic to aid her, each step that Meesei took forward felt like a dagger was being stabbed into her leg. Her chest felt like it was burning, and her bleeding had still not entirely stopped, but her demeanor was almost unnaturally confident. She walked with singular determination, until she was at the front of the lycans who had not yet attacked.

“I have been beaten down, maimed, poisoned, and left for dead. The enemy has set their trap, and formed a wall of their bodies to keep us in it. But, as long as my body still draws breath, as long as the blood still flows through its veins, there is nothing that will stop me from snuffing out the life of every single bastard that stands between me, and our way out!” Meesei shouted. All the while, her body had begun to pulse with electrical energy, which she finally released through her uninjured arm into an exceptionally powerful arcing bolt of lightning into the enemy’s left flank. For the one that it hit first, it was immediately lethal, while those behind him suffered a varying degree of burns.

Meesei already looked as if she were half-dead, so seeing her show such courage was all that most of the lycans needed to inspire their charge. Resounding screams and warcries sounded out across the battlefield. Whether it would end in victory or defeat, this final charge would be as one for the lycan forces.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Right, of course." Kaleeth answered quickly. Even in her current form, her fear was apparent as she stepped into the suppression gas. She started to cough as she breathed in the gas, since it felt like breathing in tiny shards of glass, but the ring kept her beast spirit perfectly in control. Doing her best to ignore the sensation of the gas, Kaleeth stepped up to the gate, then thrust her massive claws into the wood on the right side. Instead of trying to pry it open from the middle, opening it from one side would allow her to use the door itself for cover as she pulled it open.

In one, forceful motion, Kaleeth pulled open the massive gate, much to the surprise of the enemy on the other side. They had been in formation, but as they had not expected the gate to open so suddenly, they were scarcely able to ready themselves to fight in time. As well, the last sight they expected to see was a werecrocodile charging through the suppression gas as if it were not even there. In a panic, one of the enemy behind their frontline even through another bottle of the gas at her, as if it would somehow stop her attack.

The degree of Kaleeth's control became even more apparent once the fighting started. A fireball flew at her from the midst of the enemy ranks, but she could react more quickly, both physically and mentally, so she was able to duck under the spell in a manner that almost seemed graceful, despite her lumbering form. And, against the shield wall she ran into, there was no contest. She swatted away the spears in front of her precisely enough to avoid injury, then used her mass to barrel through three rows of opponents.

Kaleeth's success inspired some of those in the front to charge on Ri'vashi's order, but for the majority of the lycans, morale was at a crippling low. To them, they were being ordered to charge into certain death ahead of them, and they, for the most part, did not understand the danger of the gas behind them. A sense of hopelessness filled the ranks, and some of them were not following suit in the charge. For Meesei, her expression revealed no thoughts other than pain, so her next request may have came as a surprise. "Fendros, could you please let me down?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth took the ring in her hand, but was far too stunned to give any real reaction. For the moment, she was speechless. Meanwhile, Ri'vashi's only reaction was one of concern.

"But, there is still the matter of the enemy outside that gate. They do not expect us to break through quickly, true, but they still far outnumber us. And we will be slowed by our wounded." Ri'vashi pointed out.

With his eyes back on the keep, Lorag answered with a distinct lack of patience. "Yeah, maybe, but we don't got time to argue about it. That gas is gettin' closer, and we've got to move. Right. Now. We just got to get out of that gate, stick together, and push straight into the forest. Once we're out in the forest...we can transform or somethin'. Spread out so they can't gas us as quickly. I don't know, we just got to make it to our camp."

With the gas closing in, there was quite literally no time to argue. Ri'vashi formed up their warriors in front of the main gate, just out of the range of the suppression gas. Since they would be attempting to push straight through the enemy, they kept the wounded towards the center of the formation. Most of Meesei and Gallus' pack was at the front, with Kaleeth in front of them all. Upon seeing the state that the Champion was in, murmurs of surprise and fear started to quickly sweep through their ranks, but Meesei could do nothing to quell them. From Fendros' arms, she simply looked over to Sabine beside them. "Sabine, you should transform back." She advised.

Meanwhile, Kaleeth took a deep breath, then slipped the ring onto her finger. She did not know enough about the ring's magic to expect anything, but even then, the sensation still surprised her. She was not sure how to describe it, even to herself. It was not just complete and utter control of her beast spirit, it was complete synergy with it. Her transformation, while still painful, was almost effortless, like moving a muscle. Once shifted into her werecrocodile form, she felt no hint of the usual urges that dominated her mind. She could move and think as if she were not a lycan at all; yet, her beast spirit was not simply idle. It was still present, providing a sort of passive awareness that would help her to be quicker to react.

"This is...amazing." Kaleeth said, looking down at her hands. She felt more dexterous, and her voice was clearer than usual.