EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With the smell of blood thick in the air, and a fair coating of it on her claws, Kaleeth could not deny her beast the ability to feast. Fortunately, the headless corpse of the Orc nearby was a perfectly suitable candidate for a meal. Even after all this time, Kaleeth still gave in to her beast's desires more frequently than the rest of her pack. She could control it when needed, but she felt that she was much more comfortable in her beast form if she allowed it control whenever there was a good opportunity. Her mind was not as rational in the moment, so she was not exactly listening to any of Fendros' orders in the moments after the fighting. In fact, when Rolaan approached, still in his werewolf form, to join in her feast, her beast smacked him away with a swing of her tail. She knocked him clean off of his feet and knocked the breath out of him, but being a lower ranked lycan, he walked away with a few high-pitched whimpers, rather than to challenge her.

Malithus, meanwhile, froze up briefly when Fendros addressed him. It had only been a few moments since the last of the enemy had been incapacitated, and he was not accustomed to the quick, efficient manner in which the Champion's pack operated. "Oh, well, two surrendered and, um..." After a few moments of stammering, he turned to Shurgrag and Arthon. "Secure the prisoners and collect the wounded. Shurgrag, focused first on the ones most likely to be saved."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine, despite not being a seasoned warrior, was able to immediately break the Imperial's jaw with a solid punch, and there was little chance of her wrestling free of Sabine's grip. With her free hand, the woman tried to focus on another spell, but Sabine had taken care of herself for more than long enough to allow her friends to come to her aid. As the flames were just starting to appear in the Imperial's hand, Kaleeth returned with the full might of her beast form.

The werecrocodile put her hand around the Imperial's torso, her claws digging into her flesh, then slammed her into the nearby rock face. Since Sabine and the Imperial had been grappling, it caused Sabine to lose her balance, but to the Imperial, it broke half the bones on one side of her body. Nevertheless, the woman fought through the immense pain to bring herself up to her knees. Now that the fighting had died down, she could look over her lycan opponents with rage burning in her eyes. She was beaten, unquestionably, but she had different plans than capture in mind.

The Imperial brought herself up to her feet, ignoring the fact that she could hardly breathe. In the face of defeat, she started to laugh. "You think you've...won. But you can never win. Nothing can stop it. Nothing will stop it. You...all of you will serve him in the end." The woman raised up her unbroken hand in the air and charged destructive magic through it. Despite everything, her expression turned to a grin. When she released her magic, flames engulfed her whole body. For a moment, she screamed, but those screams quickly turned into frightening, sickening laughter.

"Your time is over! Nothing you can do will stop it! You will drown in the tide of his power!" The Imperial shouted as her clothing, and the flesh underneath, burned away to ash. Her skin blackened, her blood boiled, and her eyes were melting out of their sockets, but she was still walking slowly towards Sabine. It was a nightmarish sight: her burning body walking towards Sabine, screaming and laughing until her charred remains finally collapsed to the ground.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Time for me to get to bed, goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Since the Imperial's ward was already up, Sabine's icicle was absorbed by it. However, between that and the blizzard, it was being stressed to its limits. As such, the Imperial had never stopped charging forward. She knew Sabine to be the superior mage; her blizzard had been enough proof of that. So, she was going to try a different tactic. While maintaining her ward as best as she could, the Imperial conjured a bound mace in her hand just before reaching Sabine, then swung sideways for her center mass to try and guarantee a hit.

The last of the hunters still trying to resist were caught between werewolves on one side, Malithus and Arthon on another, Shurgrag's fireballs, and Fendros' arrows. Being the thoroughly hopeless fight that it was, two of them panicked and dropped their weapons, while the last tried to run off in the most empty direction he could find. The Imperial fighting Sabine was essentially guaranteed to lose, but Sabine would need to protect herself for the next few seconds.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

In the midst of the blizzard, Kaleeth had began her transformation. She kept her grip on the Orc's head and pushed it against the rock as her transformation commenced. As she grew larger and stronger, she continued to push with ever-increasing force until, by the end of the transformation, she had smeared his skull and its contents across the rock face. Needless to say, he was not being captured.

While Sabine's potion did mostly protect her, Kaleeth's beast spirit was still quite intent on getting out of the blizzard. As such, she charged straight through into the enemy, crushing two of those who had been caught in the ice to varying extents, then, once she emerged from the blizzard, struck a plate-armored Redguard with enough force to send her flying fully over the person behind her. Even with all her armor, it would likely be easier to count the number of bones in her body that were not broken.

Nelise and Rolaan were the members of Malithus' pack that were charging in as werewolves. They were quick and ferocious, though were intentionally trying to avoid killing blows. They would not place too much risk on their own lives, but unless any of the enemy surrendered, their strategy for capturing prisoners would simply be to wound everyone they fought to the point of incapacitation. Some would die from their wounds, but as long as some survived, they would have their prisoners. Between Sabine, Kaleeth, and Fendros' arrow, half of the hunters had already been killed or incapacitated. The display of magic from Sabine had naturally attracted the attention of most of the Talos hunters, so Nelise and Rolaan were both able to pounce on one opponent each. Shurgrag was launching fireballs at the remaining three to keep them from closing the distance to the werewolves, while Malithus and Arthon were taking a stealthy approach to move around to attack from the opposite angle. Quick, powerful, and effective sneak attacks were something that the Champion's pack had honed into an art form over the years, and Malithus' pack was now seeing that.

Despite the chaos and death around her, the Imperial woman the Imperial woman had set herself a goal to accomplish. She projected a magic ward around herself like a shield, and walked straight into Sabine's blizzard. The moment Sabine came into view, she let out a rage-fueled scream and launched a fireball at Sabine. She was no novice mage to be able to sustain such a ward while still fighting back.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While Kaleeth took Sabine's signal to drink from her waterskin, the Redguard gave a simple, subtle shrug in response to her worried question. "Never can be too safe."

Kaleeth was even more worried when their smugglers walked them through the large group, to a finely dressed Imperial in the back. One side of them was blocked off by the steep, rocky hill, and the rest of the large, armed group was on their other side. They would have no quick route of escape.

The Orc greeted the Imperial woman with a simple nod, while the Redguard was the one to talk with her. "Alright, our part's done. Our pay?" He said.

"Of course." The Imperial responded as he handed over a pouch of coins to the Redguard. Kaleeth was fully on alert by this point, but they still did not quite have a reason to start fighting. None of the group had yet threatened them, and it was not unreasonable, if this Imperial was a part of Viper's organization, for her to handle payment of the middlemen, but it was perhaps even more likely that she was paying Viper for delivering more Talos worshipers. In any case, Kaleeth doubted it would be long before they had their answer.

The two smugglers casually walked out of the camp, leaving Sabine and Kaleeth to this Imperial and her allies. They were armed and armored like soldiers and mages, so they were not at all being discrete as one would expect from smugglers. Kaleeth, seeing no reason to delay, decided to ask a question that would hopefully force that answer. "So, um, ma'am. How long do you think it will take us to reach Daggerfall?"

The Imperial regarded Kaleeth with both immediate and obvious annoyance and disdain. "I'm afraid we shall not be going to Daggerfall. Restrain them." She ordered in a calm, assertive voice. The Imperial started to walk away, unconcerned with the two supposed Talos worshipers, while the nearest of the warriors to Kaleeth, an Orc, grabbed a hold of her. Naturally, Kaleeth was quick to make use of the first surprise she had in store for their attackers. The Orc, having not expected Kaleeth to be capable of any real resistance, had his grip of her easily broken, after which she reached up, grabbed his head, and smashed it into the stone face of the rocky hill.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Again, the Orc chuckled. "Well, if we do hit trouble, careful where you swing that oversized knife. Don't much want to get sliced in the back by a frightened lizard."

Fortunately, the four of them proceeded through the slums without incident. Anywhere closer to the docks would be ill-suited for an ambush, so if they were going to be attacked, it would be somewhere outside the city. They had a small boat tied to one of the docks that was ready and waiting for them to take. It had a net in it, to keep up the illusion of being fishermen, and was just barely spacious enough for the four of them to fit without having any danger of accidentally flipping the boat.

The trip down the river would be the hardest for Fendros and the others to follow, as they would not leave any tracks to follow, but Fendros would still need to stay out of sight. He would have to rely on finding their boat once they stopped on the shore in order to pick up their trail again. Luckily, they had stayed to their planned path so far, so the members of Malithus' pack waiting outside the city would still likely be able to follow with no issue, if something delayed Fendros.

True to the plan, the smugglers stopped the boat a fairly short distance downriver, then they set out to the northwest. Their destination was not terribly far, being only about a half hour walk. They would be meeting with a larger group in a clearing at the base of a rocky hill, who would supposedly take them both and get them to Daggerfall. However, it seemed more likely to be the place where they would be ambushed. If Kaleeth had to guess, she would say that their new escorts were actually the very hunters they were seeking.

As the group closed in on the clearing, Kaleeth kept close to Sabine. Just ahead, in the clearing, there was a wagon, along with about ten people: far more than would be needed to escort a simple pair of Talos worshipers. In fact, such numbers would only work against the goal of discretion.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The two smugglers recognized Sabine and Kaleeth by their descriptions the moment they saw them, so there was no need for any of them to show proof of their identities. Instead, they were quick to leave the inn and prompted them to follow. The part of the city they started in was by far the poorest district, and the alleyways they were being led through did not look encouraging in the slightest. Kaleeth, and most of the others, had expected an ambush outside of the city, but there was really no guarantees that they would not be attacked in a dark alley in the slums. In any case, Kaleeth was on her guard. Although, to be fair to their smugglers, it was a place that the Thalmor would not go unless they had a specific reason. They would be leaving the city via a small boat on the Bjoulsae river, as according to Viper, it would be harder for Thalmor to notice them if they were not recorded leaving the gates. It would make them seem more like simple fishermen. They would take the boat out of the city a short distance, then get back on shore and head northwest to the meeting point. Fortunately, there was a city gate near enough to the river that Fendros and the rest of those following would be able to use, instead of swimming.

The Orc, a rather tall man, looked down at Kaleeth with an amused grunt. "Expectin' trouble?" He said, referencing her sword.

"It's my brother's. He wanted me to have something to keep safe with, in case something bad happens." Kaleeth explained. She was still suspicious, but tried not to show it. They were currently cutting through an alley, and would not have many means of escape if something happened.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The morning of the meeting, Kaleeth was walking through town alongside Sabine, past the brothel they had visited previously and towards the inn where they were to meet Viper's men. Viper himself, to their knowledge, would not be joining on their trip out of the city. They were not likely to actually see him again. Instead, they would be meeting with two of his men, whom he had described to them. One was an Orc wearing a dark, yellowish tunic, while the other would be a Redguard warrior with the look of an adventurer, wearing chainmail armor. Sabine and Kaleeth had been described to them, so there would be no need for any real introductions.

Kaleeth herself had exchanged her dress for something that was a bit more rugged. She was wearing leather pants and a cloth tunic, and was carrying a shortsword sheathed on her side, along with the rest of her bags. Her ensemble did not quite make her look like a fighter exactly, but more like someone who was simply expecting to head into the wilderness; perhaps a woman who intended to go camping outside the city, or just a traveler. At any rate, it would not draw any more attention to her than the fact that she was Argonian would. She did not know exactly where Fendros or Malithus' pack were hiding. If everything went to plan, they would not be able to see them until the ambush itself, so they would just have to trust that they would be able to keep pace. Otherwise, Kaleeth and Sabine would have to find a way to survive on their own.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Well, if you have a route, then I'm sure it will be easy to pick out a spot to meet. Even if they detour from it, they probably won't detour by that much." Ahnasha commented.

When Fendros moved closer to her, she placed her hand on top of his and grinned. "I'm thinking we'll get some results together. Vile's people have never held a candle to our pack, and these particular hunters are not even looking for us. Whatever strange reasons they have, we'll figured it out."

Slowly, Ahnasha reached down and pulled Fendros' hand off of her waist, allowing her to move back onto her bed.She kept her eyes locked with Fendros the entire time as she laid down in a very intentionally provocative pose. "You intend to stay here with me tonight? I wouldn't mind a nice long talk." She grinned.