EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Though still breathing, Kaleeth was not terribly responsive to Janius. She did not resist his attempt to give her a potion, but she did not actively accept it either. She looked around slowly, and with confusion in her eyes. She seemed to have a hard time concentrating, and when she tried to speak, her words came out as slurred and nonsensical. Even without any extensive restoration training, it would be easy to recognize that she had a concussion, and one serious enough to require quick attention.

Although he was able to walk around without trouble, the blood on Lorag's armor betrayed his injuries. It poured down his arm, and at another place on his side, out of the small gaps in his armor. The plating protected most of the vital areas of his body, but that did not mean his wounds could not be serious. The silver wounds would not stop bleeding as quickly, and Lorag's body could not recover as quickly as it once had. Regardless, the pack knew him well enough to know that he was not going to let on to how badly he may or may not have been injured, especially with other members of the pack being hurt. "Kaleeth...needs help first." Lorag announced to Sabine. "I'll...get our things together, as quick as I can. We've got to move soon."

After the danger had finally passed, Meesei essentially collapsed. It had been all she could do to hold herself together and stand against Arinette. There were patches of fur missing from the burns she had retained from her Argonian form, as well as frostbite and distinct lightning scars across different parts of her body. She looked as if someone had tried to take her apart with magic. Fortunately, none of her wounds were made from silver, so her magic and natural regeneration both could actually start mending her body.

Underneath her fur, Ahnasha's back was frostbitten, and her arrow wound was still bleeding. She had lost a fair amount of blood by this point, but she could see that some of the others had it worse. Or at least, they had more immediate concerns. She kept her hand pressed over her wound to try and staunch the bleeding. A healing potion would have to do for her for now. Meanwhile, aside from Kaleeth, it was actually Leaps whose condition may have been the most dire. With his size, the crossbow bolts had not done too much damage, but he had been surrounded by several of the wisps. They could not survive his attacks, but they had caused plenty of damage in the time they had. Traces of their frost magic was all over his sides, back, and legs. The signs of frostbite were not as obvious on him, but its effects were even more damaging. His body was not equipped for the cold, and his overall body temperature was dropping dangerously low. With a low whine, he instinctively walked over towards Janius and Kaleeth for comfort.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

“It is the Staff of Magnus, and I…do not know.” Meesei answered in her deeper, gravelly voice. It was possible she could teleport inside the barrier, though she had no idea what the energy inside would do to her. It was true that the Breton mage was standing near her, and seemed to be unharmed, but that might only be because she had not directed the magic against him.

Do’rhajul marched up to the edge of the magic barrier. “If you’re going to use it, then use it to get us out of here instead. I know you can do that. That staff could tear all of our souls into another plane for all we know. How would your master reward you then?”

Arinette remained glaring at Meesei for a few, long moments before looking away and letting out a frustrated yell. “Fine! Everyone, to me!”

Just then, the barrier that Do’rhajul was pressing against allowed him to walk through unharmed. The Argonian fighting Lorag had the easiest time escaping, as he merely needed to bolt through the barrier and to safety. The two Orcs had been disrupted just as much by the wisps as Janius, as the Orc with the warhammer was having to stay at his twin’s back, swinging at any of the magic anomalies that came too close. The other was going to try to get a swing on Janius while he was distracted by a wisp, but the order from Arinette was something they immediately had to follow. Both of the twins made a run for the barrier, and unfortunately, the pressure from the wisps would make it difficult for Janius to follow, particularly since leaving Kaleeth’s side would leave her entirely undefended against them.

Meanwhile, the Redguard on the other side of the battlefield had conjured a daedroth to attempt to deal with Leaps. However, since most Daedra were inherently weak to shock magic, that in itself was a one-sided battle. The wamasu had, as he often did, opened up with his lightning breath before pouncing on the daedroth. Since the magic was particularly effective, it stunned the daedroth enough to give Leaps the upper hand. The two creatures were of roughly equal physical capabilities, but Leaps had leverage and was able to bite down on its neck. Though, in that time, the Nord fired another two crossbow bolts. Neither quite hit the wamasu’s throat, but they both embedded themselves into his flesh. Ahnasha was able to land an arrow on the Nord, but unfortunately, it had not quite hit a weak point in the armor and would leave nothing more than a bruise. Regardless, Ahnasha had been able to force her opponents into cover enough to protect Leaps.

Unfortunately, one of the magic anomalies came into existence just behind Ahnasha, and she did not react quickly enough to prevent its frost magic from striking her square in the back. She let out a scream and spun around, swinging her bow at the air. At the same time, the Nord and Redguard made a run for the barrier, leaving the tower shield behind, dug into the dirt.

Meesei wanted to try to bring down the barrier, as it might respond the same way to magic as a ward, but the magic anomalies made it impossible to focus their efforts on breaking through, as the pack had to defend themselves from the wisps. Once all of Do’rhajul’s team was inside the barrier, Arinette let out a slow breath, then slammed the end of her staff into the ground. There was a sudden flash of light and a strange sound, and after it cleared, everyone inside the barrier had seemingly disappeared. The portals which had created the wisps had also disappeared, though the wisps themselves remained.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

As experienced as Yerig was, his aging body was not perfectly capable. By turning his attention away from Janius for a moment, he gave him an opportunity to strike that Yerig was simply not quick enough to respond to effectively. Finally, Janius was able to land a solid blow that nearly knocked the old Nord off of his feet. Were Janius not focused on saving Kaleeth, it might have been an opportunity to finish him.

Though alive, Kaleeth had still been dazed by the blow, and was not seemingly making an effort to stand even after the ice dissipated. She was quite vulnerable, though Janius soon forced the two Orcs’ attention onto himself. Like with Kaleeth, one of them approached Janius from the front, while the one with the hammer moved to flank. However, this time, they were weakened from their fight with Kaleeth. Namely, one of the Orcs could not even raise his broken shield arm.

By the time the Breton mage reached Arinette, he was drained of magicka, but even if he had not been, Arinette was certainly a more major threat. The fireballs she slammed into Sabine’s ward were intensely hot and carried with them a great deal of explosive force. The first would stress the ward, and the second brought it within a hair’s breadth of shattering. The only reason she did not fire a third was because Fendros’ arrows forced her to put up a defense. Using power from the staff, she put up a barrier that seemed similar to a ward, but was definitely visually distinct. Unlike a normal ward, which would provide some resistance to physical damage as well as magical, this barrier blocked all of his arrows entirely. However, Sabine’s defense and Fendros’ attack together had given Meesei enough time to complete her transformation.

Meesei stepped forward in front of Sabine in her large, imposing werewolf form, though it only produced a somewhat surprised chuckle from Arinette. “Is this your solution to your impending death, Champion? Do you think I cannot handle a beast? I would think you would know you are even weaker to me in that form.”

Meesei spoke with another, low growl. “Is that so?” She said as her claws erupted in a storm of lightning.

For a brief moment, Arinette’s eyes widened. “What in Oblivion-“

Without delay, Meesei made use of another of the esoteric schools of magic she had studied in Apocrypha: shadow magic. Disappearing into a black cloud, she teleported and reappeared behind Arinette, already mid-swing. She successfully raked her long, sharp claws all the way across the Breton’s back, sending a spray of blood onto a nearby tree and leaving behind four deep gashes under her shredded clothes. At the same time, the lightning she charged through Arinette caused her body to convulse and drop down to her knees. On reaction, Arinette attempted another powerful telekinetic blast to force her attacker away as she turned to face her. However, Meesei had been learning through their fight, and was ready to adapt quickly. As Arinette was making the motion, Meesei teleported again, this time just a foot or two in front of her to place herself directly in front of the Breton. In doing so, she timed her spell perfectly so that she would teleport across the telekinetic wave, and therefore be unaffected by it.

An instant after she reappeared, Meesei essentially impaled Arinette through the stomach with her claws, lifting her fully off of the ground with one hand. While blood was pouring from the wounds, she again sent a sustained charge of lightning through her. Although, it lasted only a second before Arinette was able to manage releasing the magicka that the staff was absorbing into a lightning-infused wave of force that finally pushed Meesei back away from her, and causing a few more lightning burns in the process.

Unfortunately for Arinette, the act of blasting Meesei away from her caused Meesei’s claws to essentially rip open her abdomen. She fell to the ground in a rather gruesome puddle of blood, with her organs visibly spilling out of her. It was the kind of injury that would leave one with only a few moments of life before finally bleeding to death. However, in those few, long seconds,
Arinette was able to weakly grip the staff and use it for one last, desperate spell. As opposed to the offensive magic she had been using, she soon demonstrated that the power contained in the staff could be used for seemingly any form of magic. In this case, her body started to glow like the sun as she was enveloped in the single most powerful healing spell that Meesei had ever witnessed. It was hard to see through the intensity of the light, but her body started to quickly put itself back together before their very eyes. There was no technique to the healing, just the raw, overwhelming power of enough restoration energy to heal a battalion of soldiers. It was perhaps even more energy than would be necessary to keep her alive. Regardless, even with completely limitless magicka, there were inherent limitations to healing spells overall, so even she could not force her body to recover completely. Weakly, and using the staff for support, she struggled to stand herself back to her feet.

“No…not…will not fail.” Arinette stammered. The orb on her staff glowed more brightly, and a full, circular barrier similar to the one she had used to block Fedndros’ arrows surrounded her. The inside of the barrier was filled with a strange, blue glow, which made Meesei hesitant to teleport inside. Anyone that was at all attuned to magicka would be able to feel an immense magical charge in the air shortly before strange portals started to open all around them, from which odd, glowing, wisp-like magical anomalies started to emerge. The creatures, if they could be called such, immediately showed themselves dangerous as they began to attack anyone and everyone, Arinette’s allies included, with frost-based magical attacks merely by touching them.

Do’rhajul, after being left by Sabine, was struggling just to remain standing. His legs, particularly his joints, were in immense pain from the ice shards. He had tried to chase after Sabine, but only ended up falling down twice in the pursuit. But, at this point, he was back on his feet and stumbling in Arinette’s direction. “What are you…what are you doing Arinette? You can’t use the staff like that, we agreed! Using that much power…we don’t know what it will do!”

“It will kill her!” The Breton woman shouted, glaring at Meesei.

“And us along with her!” Do’rhajul growled back.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha was able to seek cover from the Breton’s fireball upon Fendros’ warning, though it did force enough of a break in her own arrows to allow her opponents to go on the offensive. Meanwhile, the Breton let out a pained scream when the arrow pierced his hand. For the following shot, however, his ward, plus his own shield spell, slowed the arrow enough that it was not a crippling blow. It pierced his leg only about as much as the first arrow of the fight had penetrated Ahnasha’s chest.

As his desperation reached its peak, the Breton sought to survive by getting help. He poured all of his remaining magicka into every destruction spell he could create that would put a gap between himself and Fendros. Walls of frost and lightning, explosive fireballs to disrupt Fendros’ aim. He seemed perfectly willing to exhaust himself completely as he backed quickly in the direction of Arinette for assistance.

Despite Janius’ warning, Yerig ran after him while still ethereal, and took a swing at him right as his shout wore off. He gave Janius no choice but to engage him, else his blade would surely find its mark. Yerig had not slowed down in the fight, and every attack he made had the potential of ending it. At the same time, Kaleeth was struggling even more. She had two, skilled opponents, and while she had landed a few blows, they had been wearing her down from multiple angles. Fighting defensively was not working, so she tried to go on the offensive. Now wielding her mace, Kaleeth managed to slam it into the middle of the Orc’s shield with a devastating amount of force. Although she had hit a shield, she had done so in a way that did not allow the Orc any way of redirecting the force, so all of it ended up going into his arm with a bone-shattering amount of energy. For just a moment, it seemed like she might gain the advantage, but in her attack, she ended up just slightly underestimating how quickly the other Orc could recover from his previous swing. She had expected his attack, and moved to avoid or at least let the blow deflect off of her armor. However, her leg trailed, and he was able to slam the heavy warhammer into the side of her leg. There was a crack and a scream from her as her femur snapped in two. Immediately, she collapsed to the ground, and the Orc raised up his hammer for a final swing at her head.

Yerig was still locked into a duel with Janius, but when he spotted the Orc start to raise his hammer, there was a flash in his eyes. It was just for a split-second, but it showed some doubt, or perhaps regret. In either case, he looked at Kaleeth and spoke a word: “Iiz”

Ice formed around his very breath and shot out at Kaleeth, immediately encasing her in ice. Some of the shards cut into her and harmed her slightly, as well as immobilizing her completely, but it also formed an extra protective layer around her head, in addition to the helmet. When the hammer struck, it slid somewhat off of the uneven ice and did not shatter her skull as it could have. Still, Yerig remained fighting Janius.

Meesei struggled to get back onto her feet and put up another ward, only to find Sabine right in front of her, protecting her from the next lightning bolt that Arinette cast. “Sabine! I need you to…buy me time. Just a few moments; it is all I need.” Meesei said quickly as she started the process of transforming. However, holding against Arinette would still not be easy. Sabine’s fireballs exploded near to her, but she had time to hold up the staff and absorb the magicka of any of the flames that came near her. In retaliation, she launched a volley of powerful exploding fireballs right back at Sabine, though her true target was Meesei right behind her.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Yerig did indeed keep a tough enough grip on his weapon to avoid slicing his own hands, but that also meant that Janius was able to successfully drag him in using his superior strength. The grapple gave Janius the upper hand again, but again, Yerig had a way to pull himself out of danger. He opened his mouth, speaking a single word this time: “Feim”

Suddenly, the Nord became ethereal, like a ghost. Janius’ arms passed straight through him as he calmly backed away and put himself back into a defensive posture. Janius could do nothing to harm Yerig in this state, and likewise, Yerig could not harm Janius.

Leaps was proving to be more of a hindrance to the Redguard and Nord attackers than they perhaps expected. Or, at the very least, their plan to deal with him was not panning out as successfully as they had hoped. His lightning had forced them into hiding behind their shield, and some arcs of electricity had still singed their flesh. Now, Sabine’s frost on the ground had cleared up just enough that he could start advancing at them.

“Get a Daedra on that lizard like you’re supposed to! I can’t get a shot off!” The Nord shouted at the Redguard behind him, who was still intensely concentrating on the storm atronach.

The Redguard did not take her eyes off of the atronach. “Just…a moment more. I almost have it.”

Indeed, for Ahnasha, she was struggling to maintain her last threads of control over the Daedra she had summoned. While Ahnasha had become a master of conjuration over the years, the Redguard seemed to have a refined understanding of, at the very least, command spells specifically. She could not ward off the Redguard’s influence indefinitely.

Thinking quickly, Ahnasha peered out from behind her tree and pointed at the storm atronach itself. “Leaps, pounce!” She commanded. Kaleeth and Janius had been teaching their combat commands to him in Jel to avoid confusing him in the middle of a fight, but the whole of the pack had taken the time to memorize those specific commands, and learn to pronounce them.

Obediently, Leaps took the command from Ahnasha without question or hesitation. Despite not being obviously hostile, the atronach was now his sole focus, and Ahnasha had specifically ordered him to attack with tooth and claw as opposed to lightning. With a short running start, the wamasu leaped onto the atronach, tearing and biting at the electric-infused boulders which comprised its body. While Leaps could not cut stone, the force behind his jump and the muscles in his legs smashed the Daedra against the ground and tore apart its loosely connected form. The atronach did not have time to fight back against such an overwhelming force, even if it would have been given the command to do so. The atronaach was, of course, constantly surrounded by a cloud of lightning, but that was harmless against a wamasu.

While the attack was taking place, the Nord took aim at Leaps’ throat with his crossbow, but just as he was about to shoot, the Redguard pulled him down behind the shield as a glowing violet arrow flew through where he had just been. Ahnasha had stopped her efforts to control he atronach and instead had conjured a bound bow. She fired her arrows quickly, intent on keeping her opponents stuck behind the shield so Leaps could get closer.

Although he had saved his own life before, the Breton facing down Fendros was growing increasingly nervous at Fendros’ approach. The Breton had been outputting spellfire constantly, and was likely at risk for exhausting himself with no visible signs of having affected Fendros at all. From his perspective, his seemingly unstoppable Dunmer opponent was likely terrifying. Becoming more and more desperate, the Breton’s eyes darted around, scrambling for some other option. Between the spells being cast and the natural wind in the air, much of the smoke had been blown away by this point, allowing everyone to see more clearly what was happening around them. It was at that point that the Breton, having failed to overcome Fendros with magic, turned to using his knowledge of other parts of Fendros’ life against him.

Before Fendros was close enough to attack with his sword, the Breton charged a fireball, but instead of aiming it at Fendros, he was looking off to his left. From where he was, he had a clear line of sight on Ahnasha, which was exactly where he was aiming his next spell.

While his ebony armor provided some protection against the razor sharp shards of ice, there was only so much it could do in the face of such powerful magic. Though having only a short window of opportunity, Sabine had capitalized on it effectively. The ice hit him as soon as he had finished off the spriggan, and he did not have time to fully bring his shield up to protect his head before some damage was done. Across the rest of his body, the frost seeped into the gaps in his armor, piercing into him like blades. When the blizzard finally passed, he lowered his shield down enough to reveal a bloody, frostbitten face. A shard of ice had hit his left eye directly, as it was now covered entirely in blood. And, even if it was not visible, Sabine would have a good idea of how much damage had been done to the rest of his body. The cold would have frozen some of the water in his body, leaving him with internal bleeding and fractured bones.

Without question, Do’rhajul was severely weakened. Sabine had managed to cleverly halt him entirely before he could close in to effectively exploit the deadly advantage he had in close range. Now, it was a testament to his willpower and endurance that he was even standing at all. If there was ever a time and place that Do’rhajul could be killed, it would be right now. However, the clearing of the smoke had brought other concerns into view.
Nearby, Sabine would now be able to see Meesei’s duel with Arinette, which was going alarmingly poorly for their alpha. Meesei had tried to bolt in close to use her spear, but had been rebuked by a telekinetic blast from the staff and slammed against a tree before falling to the ground. Sabine would be able to see burns from both flames and ice on Meesei’s arms and stomach. She only barely managed to get up to her knees and extend forth a hand to bring up a ward in time to defend against the stream of lightning that Arinette was projecting, powered by the magicka stored in the staff. As powerful of a mage as Meesei was, she could not stand against the legendary power of Magnus’ staff. It could simply absorb every bit of magic that Meesei could create.

After a few seconds, Meesei’s ward shattered, allowing the lightning to strike through her. It coursed down her arm and through her body, leaving behind a distinctive fractal lightning scar. At the moment, Sabine would see her just as vulnerable as Do’rhajul, and just as imminently in danger.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While Do’rhajul was certainly prepared for the magical and physical threats that Sabine was known to pose, her clever use of alchemy had finally showed a dent in his seemingly impregnable armor. The root around his ankle stopped him in his tracks, and almost threw him off balance, while the sudden appearance of the spriggan cased a hint of surprise in his eyes. It seemed that even Arinette’s knowledge did not prepare him completely for everything Sabine might be able to do. The magical creature’s arm could not come close to piercing his ebony armor, but each strike was still impactful. And, of course, his armor did nothing against the swarm of insects that could crawl through the gaps. The magical, glowing insects bit and stung him at any bit of flesh they could reach.

Gritting his teeth and bearing through the pain, Do’rhajul was forced to swing around his shield to bash the spriggan and put at least a slight amount of distance between them. Then, he followed through with a swing of his sword that sent forth a cloud of splinters and branches as it cut through the creature’s body. Another swing would likely kill it, but in this moment, however short it might be, Sabine had an opening.

While the Dremora churl did have the intimidating appearance of a Daedra, his armor was of lower quality than more seasoned Dremora, and he lacked a helmet. He had a large shield and a spiked, serrated Daedric axe, which he swung directly and predictably at Fendros. The overconfident Daedra would not likely serve as much of a challenge, but it did leave the Breton with the time to stammer to his feet and run far enough into the smoke that he would actually have trouble seeing Fendros in the smoke, and vice versa. Once he stopped and turned back, his new approach was to deliver a wide storm of lightning in Fendros’ direction. Though not completely accurate, he seemed to count on the extra distance between them allowing him enough time to break through Fendros’ ward. Although, he was still operating under the assumption that Fendros’ ward was a normal one. Nothing that Vile’s followers would have learned about him through the years of fighting would have implied that he was of the atronach birthsign.

Though Yerig could not chase as fast as a younger man, he was still quick to follow through after his shout. As Yerig ran, he flipped around his greatsword and held it by the blade, then as he closed in, reared back for a crossguard strike against Janius’ armored body. Janius was mostly to his feet by that point, but not entirely in a ready position. They had been fighting long enough that Yerig expected him to be able to still guard his head and torso effectively, so Yerig feinted towards his head, then swung horizontally at Janius’ kneecap. Despite the armor, getting successfully hit full force by Yerig’s blow would still be like getting hit in the kneecap by a hammer.

Lorag’s opponent was exceptionally quick and frustrating. The Argonian was small and lightly armored; a single full swing from Lorag’s hammer seemed like it would break half of his body. However, that would require one of his swings to connect. The Argonian was continually using the same spell to bolt around, and often straight through, Lorag as a mass of lightning. Lorag was familiar with the spell because of Meesei, but he had never so much as seen anyone else that could use it.

The Argonian bolted through Lorag, sending a surge of electricity through his body and causing a pain that was a struggle to ignore. He jumped back to avoid the swing of Lorag’s hammer, then dashed forward to thrust his dagger towards Lorag’s neck. A quick movement allowed Lorag to block the blade with his gauntlet, but as Lorag used that motion to attempt to deliver a hefty punch to the lizard’s snout, he bolted away and shocked Lorag once more. It was an encounter that repeated closely several times, steadily wearing down Lorag while the Argonian avoided the frightening amount of damage that Lorag was capable of dealing. Eventually, the Argonian managed to get the distance on his bolt just right that he re-appeared right next to Lorag, already turning to thrust his blade into the joint at Lorag’s elbow. It was a clean strike that left Lorag’s arm bleeding badly after the Argonian bolted away just as quickly as he had attacked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine knew exactly how to deal with the frost atronach, as her attack stopped it dead in its tracks. Simple flames would certainly have hurt it, but her magic lingered on impact. The boiling water stuck to the atronach, quite literally melting through its icy form, which only added to the heated steam in the air. While strong, frost atronachs were by no means invincible, and the intensity of Sabine’s magic was enough to melt off one of its arms at the shoulder. However, the threat to Sabine was only beginning, as Do’rhajul was now in a position to attack. He rushed forward, his long strides giving him impressive speed as he intended to shield charge straight into Sabine.

Each parry and exchange between Yerig and Janius demonstrated the Nord’s experience. He was a master at positioning his blade to both defend against Janius, and threaten the weak points in his armor at all times. He quickly built up a sense that every motion he made was a potentially mortal threat. However, an attentive fighter like Janius would also pick up on his weaknesses. As experienced as Yerig was, he was still an old man. He was not as strong, nor fast, nor agile as Janius. He did perhaps have trained reactions beyond the norm for his years, but in every other physical category, Janius was superior. If Yerig did not remain perfect in his movements and attacks, Janius was more than capable of severely punishing a mistake.

Yerig started to react to the fireball as soon as the saw the magic form in Janius’ hand, but it still served its intended purpose. The Nord managed to avoid the bulk of the flames, and those that did brush into his robe did not so much as singe it, perhaps less than Janius might have expected. It was possible that Yerig did have some magic resistance enchantments on his robe. Regardless, Yerig still stumbled back, barely maintaining his footing. It would open an opportunity for Janius, but it was one that Yerig intended to quickly close. Staring intently at Janius, Yerig finally opened his mouth, but the words he spoke were not a response to Janius’ claims: “FUS-RO-DAH”

Compared to the others, Fendros certainly had his opponent on the defensive. He might have been able to see the panic in the Breton’s eyes as he realized that the advantages he was supposed to have over Fendros did not exist. As Fendros drew dangerously close, the Breton fell back to a somewhat desperate defense. He turned his ice spell to the ground in the hopes of at least somewhat slowing down the Dunmer as he quite literally dove away from Fendros’ swings, then conjuring a Dremora churl directly in front of himself. The Breton did not seem to be an exceptional conjurer, as it was not a terribly powerful Daedra, but it at least served as a present physical threat for Fendros to have to deal with.

Even as the fight was just beginning, Kaleeth found herself struggling against her two, skilled opponents. They had enchantments that made them strong enough to challenge her directly, and clearly had the skill to match that potential. It was everything Kaleeth could do just to defend herself. The two brothers, who were arena champions according to the pack’s information, worked exceptionally well together. They moved to opposite sides of Kaleeth so as not to interfere with one another, and to divide her attention. They were both armored, so Kaleeth knew she needed to switch to her mace, but did not have the time to do so.

A hammer swing came at Kaleeth from her right, and she was able to avoid it by both ducking down low, and striking at the haft of the hammer with her hand to force it upwards. She was expecting an attack from the other Orc while she was distracted, so she pre-emptively moved her shield to block an attack from her left. However, the other Orc’s timing was impeccable. It seemed he had read his brother’s intentions perfectly, as he was already starting to swing before Kaleeth could react. He managed to get past her shield and strike her square in the back with his mace. Her armor did little for the impact, so she was nearly knocked forward off of her feet as she felt a terrible pain pulse through her torso. She turned around as she stumbled, raising her shield to protect her head, but the Orc was already swinging his mace into her stomach. The Orc with the hammer, by this point, had recovered from his previous swing and was making another attack towards her head. This time, Kaleeth was able to block with her shield, but she was unable to deflect the force, and therefore took all of it into her arm.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

As soon as Sabine started to cast her spell, the Nord with the tower shield dug the bottom of the shield into the dirt in front of him and, along with the Redguard, crouched down behind it to protect themselves from the wave of frost. Similarly, Do'rhajul crouched down so that the ward from his shield could protect his legs. Although, neither would allow them to cross the now-frozen ground unimpeded. Once the frost wave had passed them, the Redguard peered up from behind the shield, her hand glowing with a violet energy. Just in front of them, she conjured a frost atronach, which, of course, would be entirely unhindered by Sabine's spell. Meanwhile, the Nord leaned around the shield, crossbow in hand. Ahnasha and Sabine could easily hide behind the nearest trees, but Leaps did not have either the knowledge or ability to do the same. In fact, only the frozen ground in front of him kept him from charging straight at their enemy.

The Nord was both surprisingly quick in aiming his bolt at the wamasu, striking him directly in the center of the head, though the Nord briefly looked disappointed at that result. As any Argonian hunter would know, the skull of a wamasu was thick enough to protect against nearly any normal kind of weapon, and since Leaps did not possess the same weaknesses as the rest of the pack, the silver bolt was even less effective than normal steel. If the Nord had researched the Wamasu before this ambush, he would know Leaps' weak points, and he was likely skill enough not to miss too many more shots. In the meantime, however, Leaps reacted quickly and violently. His entire body surged with electricity, and he opened his maw to unleash a torrent of lightning at the Nord, forcing both him and the Redguard woman to duck back behind the shield, which seemed insulated enough that the electricity was not passing through to the people behind it.

Ahnasha's storm atronach hovered over the frozen ground, sending a bolt of lightning at the incoming frost atronach to stop it in its tracks. Once Leaps’ attack ended, however, Ahnasha spotted another violet glow from behind the Nord’s shield, and her atronach became unresponsive. It did not take long for her to realize that the Redguard was using a command spell to attempt to take control of her storm atronach. It prevented Ahnasha from even simply dispelling the atronach, so she had no choice but to concentrate on her own command spell to try and keep control of her Daedra, lest they end up with two atronachs trying to kill them. With Ahnasha occupied, it was just Sabine and Leaps that had to defend against the frost atronach and Do’rhajul, who had been moving around the frozen ground in order to approach from a different flank.

Yerig did not seem willing to engage in conversation with Janius, as he said nothing before feinting a strike at Janius’ head, then thrusting at the joint in Janius’ armor near his left shoulder. Each of his movements was quick, precise, and efficient. Though he might have lacked protection, Yerig could move a greatsword with the grace of a dagger. Janius might have been able to identify some of his style from all of his training with Nords over the years, but Yerig had clearly modified it into something all of his own. Janius would need to be prepared for whatever surprises the old hermit might have.

If he was looking closely, Fendros would see a flash of surprise across the Breton’s face when he put up his ward. He had likely been expecting a relatively simple victory once Fendros was separated from his allies. However, Fendros’ opponent was disciplined enough not to set into panic. As Fendros advanced forward, the mage threw a constant stream of frost at him, attempting to break through his ward. As much as the fight so far had been dictated by their enemy, the pack did still have some potential advantages. Do’rhajul had undoubtedly prepared based on what he knew of their abilities, but his information may have been somewhat outdated. Meesei, Fendros, and Sabine had all developed skills they had simply not yet used in battle against Vile’s forces.

Not to be deterred, Meesei sent out a burst of electricity at Arinette, one powerful enough crack like lightning, but as Meesei had feared the Breton was able to, with apparent ease, direct the magic into her staff. The woman grinned, exuding confidence with every detail of her expression. She did not show the same kind of fear or nervousness that many of Vile’s followers had come to feel upon knowing they were facing the Champion. She seemed to have total confidence in her victory, and indeed, the Staff made that a frightening possibility to Meesei. The Staff of Magnus was a relic that could hold the power of a divine being, and as powerful as Meesei was, she could not hope to overwhelm what the relic could handle. If Meesei was correct, continuing to use spell against the Breton would just feed into the Staff’s power, as was immediately evidenced by the fact that Arinette used the magicka held in the staff to create a wave of flame across the ground. Meesei was able to ward it, though the end of the flames was heading in the direction of Sabine and Ahnasha.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Just realize I gave myself 14 characters to respond for in this scene.

Eh, at least it's a cool scene. I can try to respond for at least two of your characters at a time, while also doing so for some of mine. I imagine some of the posts will be happening concurrently, but hopefully it won't be too confusing. You just respond for whatever you like at the time.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Probably won't be as much for you to respond to everyone.