EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The sheer aggression of Meesei’s pack was followed up upon by the soldiers behind them, and it definitely served its purpose to keep pressure away from the portal. Meesei herself had bolted as a streak of lightning deep into the Daedra’s ranks, then surrounded herself in a lightning form spell. It was as if she was a being of pure lightning, and even being near her was enough to receive a wounding shock. When even so much as approaching her was a risk, being surrounded on all sides could feel more like an advantage than not.

In any case, keeping the Daedra from closing in on the portal allowed them to bring through enough reinforcements to confidently repel this first attack. The Daedra had failed to reach the plateau, so they were steadily being overwhelmed by their growing opposition. However, this initial Daedric force was relatively small, in the grand scheme of the battle ahead. They were a first response, and while they had been driven back, there was far more fighting ahead.

Ri’vashi returned a nod towards Teroiah. “Yes, the bulk of my warriors will join the main force in the valley below. Once we are off this hill and down into the valley, there will be more space for them to operate as shock troops, and fill the role of cavalry. We can also send in more waves of lycan spirits ahead of us as skirmishers. The Champion’s pack, and some of my more elite teams, will be joining your soldiers through the mountain pass to take out the watchtowers, and reach…that.” She said, pointing a finger off into the distance, towards the massive tower at the other end of the valley.

At that point, a section of their reinforcements came through the portal that drew gazes, and some looks of disgust, from many of their own forces. It was Hal-Neesa, leading a formation of undead soldiers behind her. They were all in varying states of decay, with some being somewhat fresh animated corpses, and others that were nothing but bones magically bound together. The bodies were everything from Humans and Elves, to Falmer and even werewolf corpses. Hal-Neesa herself hardly even looked to be equipped for battle. The best that could be said about her was that her bright red dress did not look quite as expensive as her usual attire. She stepped through without so much as even acknowledging the looks she was receiving. She did give a quick glance up to the sun above them, but despite her vampiric nature, she did not look to be bothered by it.

Hal-Neesa went directly for the three commanders as soon as she arrived, speaking up as soon as she was close without any care for who she might have interrupted. “Is everything proceeding as planned, or do you have any fires I need to extinguish?”

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Falul 'Taham - The Immaculate Aegis

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The Kig-Yar made a quick noise, something like a squawk, with a meaning difficult to discern for one not of her kind. “Don’t give me that. Wealth isn’t money, it’s what the money represents. You’ve got this galaxy just coming out of this whole, long civil war. Billions of casualties, thousands of ruined worlds. This Empire is being founded into a suffering economy, and we can exploit that.”

Falul picked up quickly where the Kig-Yar left off. “I have been discussing this with my advisers. The Empire is a far larger and more well-equipped force than our own, but even the largest of velithra can still be bled to death by smaller hunters. The being, Elizabeth, told us that Anubis seeks worshipers to grow his power, but there is vulnerability to his Empire right now. It’s citizens are fatigued of war, and now it will find another against us before it can recover from the previous one. Anubis has already shown his…character to his subjects. As long as we do not target their civilians directly, their people with focus their anger on their new ruler. I have been told that the people of this galaxy largely do not respect his kind of…ruthlessness. There is going to be no easy nor quick victory in this war. We will need to bleed the Empire to death slowly, with precise strikes against any weakness we can find.”

Pausing briefly, Falul reached down and disabled the hologram of the Death Star, instead replacing it with a map of the galaxy. “In any case, we will need to send out scouts and gather information to find our next viable target to strike. Anubis himself will likely be out of our reach for the foreseeable future, so unless there are any among us who have knowledge of how to cripple our enemy in one, decisive attack, weakening his Empire and gathering allies are our best options for the moment. However…there are also decisions about our own fleet that we are yet to make. We have not yet decided upon a definite command structure, in or out of battle.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For most of the lycan forces that rushed forward into the openings the conjurers had provided them, they struck quickly and did as much damage as they could, but did not stick around to be punished for their aggression. They made their kills, disrupted the enemy and broke apart their lines, then retreated back behind the safety of the Imperial Legion shield wall. However, Meesei’s pack proved an exception.

Kaleeth had been slower to reach the enemy than the rest of her pack, but once she arrived, her impact was immense. Quite literally. The first three ranks of Skaafin in front of her, she simply trampled over until she caught up to Janius. Spears and blades tried to stop her, but they did nothing but deflect off of her dragonbone armor. The protection it offered was not perfect, though it was easy for her to feel invincible while wearing it. She naturally wanted to stay close to Janius, and the first thing she did upon catching up to him was to protect him from a Daedroth threatening him. A Daedroth was comparable to a werecrocodile in many ways, and was one of the few Daedra strong enough to really challenge a lycanthrope. Normally, a duel between the two would be quite a struggle, but when Kaleeth arrived, she was practically a force of nature. She was already powerful enough on her own, but the enchantments on her armor enhanced her strength even further. She slammed into the Daedroth from the front and, with thanks to Sabine’s spell enhancing her agility, she got a grip around the Daedroth’s arm and twisted it backwards. Despite the Daedroth’s own, considerable strength, she was able to bend it to the point of breaking at the elbow.

The enraged Daedroth unleashed a fireball from its maw that enveloped Kaleeth, but her enchantments were strong enough to keep the damage to relatively minor burns. However, it did not stop her from growing even more enraged with the beast. With a swift movement of her arm, she thrust her claws into the Daedroth’s stomach while, at the same time, grabbing it around the throat with her other hand. It seemed like it took little effort for her to lift the massive beast up entirely above her head, for all in front of and behind her to see. With a snap of her jaws, she disemboweled the Daedroth, then threw the corpse at the Daedra in front of her.

Lorag was on Janius’ other flank, and while he did not do anything as dramatic as Kaleeth, he was every bit as deadly against his opponents, if not moreso. The confidence he could have in his defenses was shaped and tempered by his vast experience. He knew exactly when he could be aggressive, when he could ignore his enemies’ attacks, and when he needed to defend himself. Much like Janius, he was cutting down every opponent in his path. The Daedra’s formation might not have been as tight or organized as the Legion’s, but anything facing down Lorag still could not simply have turned and ran, even if it wanted to. Spears and swords would require a great deal of precision to find any gap in Lorag’s armor, and he was moving far too quickly to make that an easy task. For Skaafin or Dremora, it was easy enough to rip the shields from their hands, if they had one, then either eviscerate them with his claws, or break their skulls with his crushing strength, depending on their armor. At a glance, he could recognize which opponents could actually harm him so he could deal with them just as swiftly. The moment he saw a warhammer, or perhaps a spellsword, he could pounce upon them with unmatched ferocity to ensure he remained unthreatened.

Even with just a few individuals, the impact of Meesei’s pack could be felt across the battlefield. They could push into the Daedra’s lines, yet even as they were being surrounded, they spread a great deal of confusion among the Daedra about the fact that they were simply not dying, no matter how many of their own turned to try an overwhelm them. Along the center of the battlefield, their presence made the Daedric assault more disjointed. More fragmented. Almost by themselves, Meesei’s pack were breaking the enemy lines into two separate halves, and that was before even considering what Meesei herself was doing even deeper into the Daedric forces…

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri’vashi too organized her warriors in the short time they had available. The legionairres formed a formidable shield wall, and Teroiah’s specialist mages provided a powerful offense, so Ri’vashi decided to carry out some of the tactics her warriors had been drilling. She organized transformed lycanthropes into columns in the narrow gaps between blocks of legionairres. The legion soldiers formed the structure of their defense, the mages could open up opportunities, and lycans were shock troops that could exploit them. At a moment’s notice, they could charge forth in front of their ranks as soon as they perceived any weakness in the enemy ahead of them. They could deal damage rapidly, then once the Daedra started placing too much focus on them, they could fall back behind allied lines just as quickly, if needed.

Meesei’s pack had the discretion to act as they chose, and she knew they would be most impactful at the front of this battle. “It seems we will have the chance to be the tip of the spear after all.” Meesei commented to Fendros before moving up through the ranks of soldiers, to the frontline.

Meesei moved to the very front of one of the columns of lycan warriors, followed closely by Lorag and Kaleeth. Ahnasha, meanwhile, climbed up onto the back of Leaps and drew her bow, while directing her atronach towards the frontline as well. She conjured another quiver of bound arrows to allow her to shoot more liberally into the enemy ranks. Her physical arrows were limited in number, and would be reserved for tougher foes.

Moving up the hill, the Daedra opposing them were greater in number than the amount of forces they had managed to bring through the portal thusfar. The enemy ranks were noticeably more dispersed, without the same kind of strict organization; however, they also had more than just Skaafin among them. Atronachs, daedroths, ogrims, spider daedra, clannfears, and hungers were just a few among those Meesei could see from her position. Other forms of humanoid Daedra, like dremora, were more difficult to pick out from the Skaafin at a distance.

Teroiah’s approach to their defense was an aggressive one, using conjured atronachs to disrupt the Daedra’s charge before they could even reach them, and that was enough for Ri’vashi to give the order to charge. Across the plateau, werewolves and other lycans sprinted forth, following right behind the frost atronachs, and Meesi’s pack was, for the most part, at the very front. The Champion’s pack were easily-identified targets for the Daedra, but actually harming them was another matter. A few Skaafin archers not in the path of the frost atronachs shot a small volley of arrows at Meesei, but against the dragonbone plate, they hardly even scratched the armor, and Meesei only barely felt the impacts.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With the combined response of her pack, Meesei did not even come close to being touched by the Daedra surrounding her. Even if the storm of wind had not been enough to keep back the twilights, then the others’ attacks ensured nothing got through, despite the Daedra targeting her as the largest threat to the titan. Chain lightning from Ahnasha’s atronach arced between three of the twilights, and Ahnasha’s own arrows joined Fendros’ in finding whatever targets they could. Even Leaps bellowed forth a roar, followed by a stream of lightning into the air.

Regardless of how terrible Janius’ plan may or may not have been, they did not get a chance to test it. The immense power of Meesei’s spell could not be ignored, and instead of flying in for another pass, the titan behaved in a way that she never would have expected. It started to fly away. She finished charging her spell as quickly as she could and unleashed into the air a persistent, blinding storm of lightning; however, despite her power, her spell still lost strength over distance. The titan raced away from the danger, so instead of a debilitating electrocution, the lightning was only strong enough to wound it as Teroiah had. She could not take it out of the sky, as she had hoped to, and could only watch as it flew far out of range of any attack.

The Daedric titan’s retreat was both surprising and concerning for Meesei. She had never known a Daedra to run away from a fight, regardless of the odds. She had expected it to fight to its body’s destruction to do as much damage as it could, even if it was inevitably overwhelmed. To retreat was a tactical choice, so if even a portion of these Daedra observed tactics more than their own pride, it could make this battle much more difficult.

The winged twilights had managed a few hits from casting lightning into formations of soldiers, but they were ultimately more of a distraction than an actual threat against the strength of forces they had already brought through the portal. They fell quickly when they were the only opponents that remained.

It was tempting to want to catch their breath after that ambush, but while their soldiers had protected themselves admirably, the same could not be said for the fortifications they had been building. Over half of their barricades had crumbled and were burning from either cold-fire or lightning-sparked flames, and they did not have a functional siege weapon remaining. Of course, there were plenty more supplies just waiting for transport back in camp, so all that had been destroyed could easily be replaced. It would just take time that, unfortunately, they may not have.

“More Daedra!” A voice shouted out nearby. As the last of the winged twilights had been finished off, Ri’vashi had moved to the edge of the plateau to get a better look over the battlefield below, and so was the first to spot the mass of Daedra moving up the path towards them. It was, considering the amount of time they would have had to organize their response, a fairly large formation of many kinds of Daedra, primarily led by Skaafin. No doubt the lycan spirits had slowed them down, but disorganized skirmishers could not stop a Daedric army. Certainly, they outnumbered the combined forces they had managed to move through the portal so far. By the looks of things, they had only a few minutes before the Daedra would make their way up the winding path, and with their fortifications in shambles, there was a real danger of being overwhelmed.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I haven't encountered any problems myself, at least for now. It's still probably going to be a long road ahead before this is all over, but thusfar, I don't know anyone personally who has been infected IRL. Online, I am a bit surprised that I only know a single person who has been infected, and he already recovered.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

That's fine. Things been going alright for you?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Teroiah’s strike was a palpable hit against the massive Daedra. The lightning struck at the base of its neck and seemed to send a shock straight through the center of it’s body. It ceased its plume of cold-fire and let out a roar as it tilted its wings to turn off to the side, only barely managing to avoid crashing into the ground. It was a heavy, damaging hit, but Daedric titans lived up to their names. They were notoriously difficult to kill, and it would take many more heavy hits to finally fell the beast.

There were some wards that collapsed from the assault of cold-flames, but due to the experience of the mages present, many were able to hold up against the wide-area attack. Sabine’s ward did not seem to falter at all, and at least some of the magic from the attack could be absorbed back into the Staff. The titan might not have been able to eradicate their well-trained formations of soldiers, but the same protection had not been afforded to the barricades and siege weapons they had been setting up. Although the titan’s magic chilled instead of burned, the cold-flames still spread like fire over their fortifications. The freezing flames caused anything they consumed to crack and crumble, or otherwise become terribly brittle.

While the titan was gaining altitude for another pass, the swarm of winged twilights descended upon the plateau as well. They preferred lightning magic, or simply eviscerating their targets with their sharp, hooked tails. There were probably two dozen of them swarming above them, making themselves difficult to hit. They cast lightning bolts onto soldiers and structures alike, sparking several, more conventional fires in addition to the cold-flames spreading around.

Ahnasha drew her bow, but before trying her hand at landing shots against such fast-moving targets, she put her focus into a spell to call forth some extra assistance for her. A dark portal opened up before her, from which appeared a vaguely humanoid being of lightning, wind, and rock. Winged twilights were more resistant to magic than many Daedra, but lightning would certainly still harm them, and a storm atronach was the most likely to be able to hit them while they were flying around.

The winged twilights were certainly a threat that could not be ignored, but the titan itself threatened to end this invasion before it began. They had to be able to establish their foothold to give themselves enough time to get enough forces through to keep themselves from being overwhelmed. Meesei took in a deep breath, then started to draw up from her vast well of magicka and focus it into her hands. Meesei had become known for her rediscovery of lost or esoteric forms of magic, so some might have forgotten her original mastery of the simple and destructive force that is lightning. It surged through her, arcing out into the air and onto the ground around her, to the point that it would be dangerous even to approach her. When she poured all of her strength and focus into a single spell, the amount of power a mage like Meesei could achieve was incredible, but the mere act of charging the spell was a signal to her pack. If she was putting all of her effort into an attack, then she could not defend herself.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Falul 'Taham - The Immaculate Aegis

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“Knowledge of this weapon comes from his time.” Falul replied to Eggman while gesturing to Erthos. Falul still had difficulty understanding how Eggman could be as much of a threat to anyone as he claimed to be. Yet, Falul had read his own crew’s reports on his mechanical creations. He knew they were real, and he knew they were dangerous. Eggman could bring forces to bear that would substantially contribute to the fleet, but every conversation with the man seem to just leave Falul…irritated. “This Death Star is a creation of Palpatine’s Empire, not Anubis. Though, he does now control it. But, regardless of its origin, I agree with the Human from the Glasgow. If Anubis decides to use the technology in more practical weapons, it could be a threat to us. We should end that threat quickly and decisively.”

Surprisingly to Falul, the first objection to Sarah’s suggested course of action came not from any of the others, but from Falul’s own advisor. “I don’t know about that, Shipmaster.” The Kig-Yar said as she leaned in to the table. Between her lack of armor and over-abundance of jewelry, she did not seem to fit in at all with any other member of Falul’s crew that the others had seen, but he allowed her to speak all the same. “I read everything you gave me on the big Death laser weapon. They just started building it recently, right? And it took them twenty years to build it. How much progress do you think they’ve really made? If we go blow it up now, then what do we accomplish? Blow up a big metal shell? They’ll just start it again somewhere else. No, what we do is wait. We send in some cloaked ships sometimes to keep an eye on their progress. Let them keep pouring money into it for a while, then we go blow it up once they’ve made something worth destroying. Let them spend some money on it first, and they’ll actually feel that loss. That’s how we should do this whole war. They have a lot more ships than us, but that also means more expenses. Make the Empire spend itself to death. The citizens won’t be worshiping Anubis if they blame him for their troubled bank accounts.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei looked out over the valley below, then tilted her head towards Fendros. “Patience. The lycan spirits may hunt ahead of us, but we still need to wait for our assault forces to come through. We cannot take on the forces guarding those towers ourselves. Or…at least not the reinforcements they will receive, once we start felling them. Once the defenses are established here, it should not be…”

Meesei’s words were suddenly cut off by a deafening roar far above them. By land, the plateau on which their portal was located was difficult to approach, and the lycan spirits rushing out into the surroundings would slow down any forces trying to converge on them. However, none of that would stop an attack from the air. Flying over the mountain behind them was the menacing form of a Daedric Titan, as well as a small swarm of winged twilights accompanying it. The Daedric Titans were originally creations of Molag Bal, though there was evidently one or more in service to Vile.

“Look to the sky! Ward quickly!” Meesei shouted, hoping the warning came quickly enough as the titan dove down breathing a pillar of cold-fire. Vile had certainly noticed their intrusion, and was retaliating with as much power as he could bring to bear quickly.

Upon Meesei’s warning, there were only seconds to react. Meesei herself raised a ward above her as widely as she could to protect those around her. Ahnasha protected herself, demonstrating one of the spells taught to her by Hal-Neesa. It was a conjured ward, formed from the energies of Oblivion instead of Restoration magic, which formed a glowing violet bubble around her. Do’rhajul, as well, raised Spellbreaker above him and tried to stay close to the rest of Sabine’s pack.