Muttonhawk

ParaCom: Adversary Inside

The loyalty bonus doesn't really relate to me, but what's PST in terms of UTC? I'm kind of not on the same continent as you.

The Depths of Deception

For a while, Shiva thought the hostage was faking it. The screams, playing dumb, everything. Being as close as she was, however, she noticed the sclera of his eyes begin to fog red. Looking closer, his capillaries were all bursting at an alarming rate. Before Shiva knew it, he was bleeding from all his facial orifices and became still. The silence that followed had Shiva check the human's neck for a pulse with her disproportionate fingers. Dead. Shiva put one hand to the top of the human's head for a moment and closed her eyes, channelling enough neutrium to try and take a quick glimpse of his physiology.

After a few seconds, Shiva opened her eyes and lowered her hand with a sigh. She was dumbstruck, "I don't get it, his blood pressure just...spiked beyond anything I could think to cause it. Not even inhaling some gas and taking a stimulant would cause this as far as I'm aware." Shiva stood up and let the human's body fall forward, retrieving her weapon and readying it. "'Not normal' is an understatement. We need someone to take a closer look at this body before we disembark."

For all Shiva's worries, it remained that they had a rough idea of where the data centre was. She turned to the others with pursed lips, ready to move out. "First, though, primary objective."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Yep, it was easier than I thought it would be. Now just two more exams left over the next couple of weeks.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth neither stopped nor showed any signs of slowing down her killing spree. She hadn't got near anyone who wasn't a mercenary yet, but they were giving her a wound for every life she took. Her regeneration would take care of most of it, but Janius hoped she wouldn't push herself too hard.

"Kaleeth! Lookout!" Janius shouted. Kaleeth's strike upon the rotted building came as surprisingly as the rest of her strikes, but Janius was powerless to help against the collapsing building save for shouting in warning. By her movements, it appeared that Kaleeth had survived the rubble falling on her, but she was now vulnerable. With all the attention she had been gathering up to that point, there was little time before a trio of mercenaries moved in to assail her.

Filled with his own frantic rage, Janius shouted as he charged forth between the mercenaries and Kaleeth, distracting them away from her to focus on defending themselves. Janius ended his charge by slamming his shield against the first mercenary, pushing him stumbling to the ground. The other two closed in, one of which Janius feinted towards with his axe and the other Janius hurled a fireball towards. The spell impacted against the mercenary's raised shield, but stopped his advance. Janius pressed the advantage afforded by the space and stepped up to engage the one he feinted, swinging in a combo that was faster than he could keep up with carrying his mace and shield. Janius finished him by stepping in, hooking his axe behind the maceman's knee, pulling up until he fell to the ground, then bringing his axe down brutally against his helmet. The axe chopped through and left him with a few twitches of life left before Janius pulled his weapon out and faced the other two.

Janius had an unnerving and determined madness in his eyes and was clearly fighting recklessly. The remaining mercenaries may not make the same mistake of underestimating him.

---

Sabine neared the large building and was undisturbed once enough distance was put between her and the main melee. The few people she spotted either didn't notice her or quickly ran away in fear. This suited her just fine. She raised her nose to the air again and caught some traces of Ahnasha and Fendros, which was instantly heartening, but what really perked up her ears was the howl that suddenly sounded from within the keep. It was Ahnasha, Sabine knew it. To give Ahnasha hope, Sabine responded by pointing her head to the sky and letting out her own howl.

Now her lead was solid. Sabine traversed the settlement to the very edge of the keep and hid behind a nearby wall to inspect the situation. The large double doors were shut fast with a couple of bowmen watching from above, but they were distracted by the crowd of desperate and fearful people banging on the door, pleading for use of the keep's safety. The distraction was enough for Sabine to quickly pad over to a side wall and begin to scale it. It took her a little while, but her beast spirit hauled up the masonry and pallsade walls without much effort. It took some sneaking and climbing along the outside of the walls to find a spot to slip indoors undetected, but she managed it.

It was at the bottom of the spiral staircase that led up to the walls that Sabine was spotted and half a cry of alarm was raise before Sabine pounced upon the guard and tore out his throat. She could only hope that no one would investigate as she tried to regain the scent of her friends. She started by skirting along one wall. Sniff, sniff, sniff, exhale...dust blew up from the skirting. Only traces still. She moved forward, sniff, sniff, sniff, exhale...

---

The chaos outside caught Fendros' attention. He kept his head pointed towards the door expecting the pack to break it down at any moment. They were going to get out of here. Ahnasha was still distraught, so much so that she eventually transformed. Fendros was about to try and discourage her from struggling too much in light of the shackles they had placed, but was interrupted by the door opening. His heart sank as the exact opposite of what he desired to pass through the door made himself apparent.

The noble's comment about Rhazii renewed anger in Fendros, causing him to clench his teeth and glare, but they were still at his mercy. "How do you plan to escape, torturer?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Killed the first exam. Killed it dead.

I'll get a post up soon.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Enough study for tonight. First exam is tomorrow, won't be back until late in your time :I

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius' focus was so absolute that he didn't notice Sabine running off. He put all effort into staying with Kaleeth, though attempting to keep just out of range of her claws. It was a difficult task, as she had wasted no time in wading into enemy forces and wreaking havoc. It turned out that, so far, those who tried to strike at Kaleeth were met with a swift and painful death. This made defending her less of an issue than making sure she didn't wander into any residences or any other places where she might find innocents. Janius' thoughts were vouching for the outcome where Kaleeth would quickly feed on the mercenaries she had just killed, then either turn back, or have enough lucidity to defend herself until they could move on to find Fendros and Ahnasha. Janius didn't know whether werecrocodiles were prone to bouts of pure rage beyond hunger, but if that happened, then there would be trouble.

As if Kaleeth's rampage wasn't enough to break the mercenaries' spirits, Hal-Neesa unleashed her own hidden power. The sight of the swarming black flecks of biting bats around the horrific floating winged silhouette that was Hal-Neesa served to even unnerve Janius, distracting him for a while. He couldn't have imagined it if he tried. Her power was such that the commander didn't stand a chance.

On the nearby rooftop, Sabine didn't have any luck finding her packmates' scent in all the chaos, but she did see something of a large structure off to one side of the settlement. Assuming it was a keep, Sabine leapt from rooftop to rooftop until she was clear of most of the fighting, then climbed down to ground level to gallop off towards the keep through the streets and alleyways. They might have dungeons there, that was the best lead she had. She just had to avoid staying out in the open for too long else she might be pursued.

The Depths of Deception

Kyelin, get yer scary face on, dermit.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Upon seeing the impression Hal-Neesa had made, it was clear to Janius that the mercenaries' lines were not going to last long. With only the thralls and mercenaries engaged in the melee, this was probably the best chance Kaleeth had of feeding. It was not optimal, Janius had expected the mercenaries to be more organised and numerous, but if he could pray for an optimal situation, it would have Kaleeth sated in much more controlled conditions. Janius looked at Kaleeth with wide eyes and shouted, "Kaleeth, now! Turn!"

Behind the frontlines, but still nearby the pack, Sabine found that her opportunity presented itself faster than she had predicted. Without an order to do so, she curled her body down and transformed as quickly as she could. Her efforts to make it quick were not met with success, but she was fairly safe behind friendly lines. Sabine had loosened the strap on her potion bag beforehand to try and carry it with her in this form, but her beast spirit was too uncomfortable with it and tore it off, leaving it on the ground. When she opened her eyes, her beast spirit growled and let out a whimpering bark at the sensory overload of the battle, lowering her head and flattening her ears. However, her human mind drove on with an objective. She didn't have time for this slaughter, she wanted to find her packmates.

Sabine looked around and found a climbable one-story building not far from the other side of the mercendaries' crumbling fighting line. As soon as there was a big enough lapse, Sabine surged forward, shoving aside and thralls in her way and dodging any conflict from the mercenaries. With the runup she was able to quickly scale the building and clamber over to the covered side of its slanted roof. With some cover and space, she sniffed at the air to try and get Ahnasha and Fendros' scent and looked for any fortified buildings that they might be held in. It was difficult; there was already so much fear, blood and death in the air.

ParaCom: Adversary Inside

You might have better luck with those images if you uploaded to imgur or something else, Annalyne. Dropbox doesn't always play nice.

Edit: Nevermind, you beat me to it!