Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius came through beside Kaleeth shortly after impact, cutting and crushing the skaafin around him in a single swipe of the dragonbone axe blade affixed to his arm. Left and right, the rest of the charge met the lines and bowled over or else viciously assaulted the enemy.

Jumping deftly over the a dying daedroth, Leaps-On-Elves opened his jaw as lightning sparked between his spines. Fendros held onto the saddle as best as he could. In a flash, Fendros saw the daedra in front of them jolted in a long line by a shot of Leaps' lightning. Many fell steaming in heaps. A xivilai struck by the bolt recovered his balance close by. He furiously hefted a huge double-headed axe in one hand and charged to behead Leaps, only to have his head flicked back by a black arrow to the eye, before he collapsed to the ground. Fendros nocked another arrow just as quickly to find the next dangerous target.

As remiss as Sabine was to get up close, there was little way to effectively push with the front line without joining the ranks. Do'rhajul was invaluable. She could strike around his immovable shield, leaving little room for the skaafin ahead to escape. Do'rhajul's boots crunched through a round area of frost that was left behind by the power of Sabine's spells.

The advance was not losing momentum fast, but something running caught the corner of Sabine's eye. "Look out!" Sabine shouted. A clannfear poised to leap at Do'rhajul's side was struck by an invisible force that corporated into Sabine's other packmate Tarna, one of her daggers lodged into the creature's unarmoured neck and her other arm held around its shoulders. The two of them tumbled to the ground.

"Stay down, Tarna!" Sabine redirected her staff to engulf some advancing skaafin with an ice storm spell over Tarna's head.

Fendros shouldered his bow and shouted over the clash of metal all around. "Push! Push all the way through!" He pulled his sword out and pointed it forward. "Take your vengeance!" He kicked Leaps forward to get close and cut into the lines himself. His sword bit into even the otherworldly armour the daedra wore.

Halo: Aegis Team

Yalu 'Suumko

Yalu let out a low roar as the last two plasma bolts shot from his concussion rifle. The rest of the team picked up where his magazine left off, scattering and killing the rebel humans to allow their advance. Yalu stayed put to let the others peel ahead so his shields could recharge. He paced forward down the ramp and dashed behind a crate.

He couldn't quite listen to all of the fight. There were a number of blue and yellow explosions that chained off somewhere around the crate he was crouched behind. He quickly ejected the spent magazine cell from his weapon, replaced it, and stood, weapon level.

The enemy had withdrawn, more or less. The spartan leader was on the ground, being seen to.

Yalu spared a glance to the sangheili pilot while he scanned the area through his helmet optics. "There was another pilot..." He breathed in and trailed off. He could see from the look in the living pilot's eye that he did not need to ask. Instead, he briefly flicked off his comms to mumble something in his home dialect.

Switching weapons, Yalu turned to cover the team's rear. He spoke up in the next gap in conversation. "We have a few points of ingress. Awaiting orders, commander."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

They all had a good view of the battlefield from up on the hillside. Fendros' narrowed eyes panned across the field of tall curled horns rising up like reeds from the skaafin. "I've not felt this excited and uncertain since before our cure to the soul tearing gas."

"I prefer this..." Janius' comment perhaps came more from his beast form, soaked as it was in Daedric ichor. "Today we make them pay for threatening our family, and destroying many others."

Fendros' attention was drawn to their ranks to the left and right. Many had transformed, either to wreak more destruction, to regenerate, or just out of sheer rage. They were not as survivable in a wide plane such as this, but the shock was all they needed. They needed to break their enemy in one blow.

"It's now or never." Fendros reached behind his back to where Ahnasha was on the saddle. She gave her hand a squeeze.

Meesei gave the order. The Daedric titan cut a swathe.

Sabine finished weaving a spell she had been working on with their approach. In a wave of green magic spread from the top of her staff, she invigorated a crowd's worth of allies around her with a boost of energy. Fendros felt it tingle up his back and shoulders.

Janius let out a roar that was joined by roars and shouts of everyone around him. Nothing could be heard but their howling battlecry. Fendros' own contribution was completely drowned out as he kicked Leaps into a running charge.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It'll be another busy week at work this week. Hopefully after this it'll be a better posting rate from me than once a week :)

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros sighed in thought for only a moment. He looked up at the others. "We cannot know either way until we advance. Even if the defences are too hard to break through with soldiers, we still need to break through as a pack and get to Vile."

"Vile is closer than ever," Janius growled, facing ahead. "We gain little by waiting."

Sabine gripped her staff tightly. "I do not know. But...we came this way to avoid being overwhelmed."

Fendros scanned their formations. He could see a lot of blood and a lot of casualties getting healed. The few minutes of respite was a powerful thing. He wondered how much more they could gain.

Halo: Aegis Team

Yalu 'Suumko

Yalu's actions right out of the drop ship was a tacit blend with the ONI human operatives suppressing the emerging enemy. "We're flanked!" He announced by habit, not that anyone failed to realise the situation. Chaos ensued with explosions, gunfire and plasma bolts. The phantom was hit overhead. He was a second away from believing themselves overwhelmed before the infiltrators and Grikgar's improvised explosive gave half a second of respite.

They needed to relocate. Yalu sent a few rounds into the brutes tangled up with Lucas, took a few hits to the shield from the gauntleted humans to the other side, and then he knew he needed to punch a hole for the team.

"I'll have them scattered!" He said, taking out the bulky concussion rifle from his back. "Those pilots can be recovered!"

Green bolts of plasma jolted out and blasted the base of the humans' shield gauntlets with superheated explosions while Yalu advanced on them, step by step. He had to rout them before the crash site was cleared out.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Good hunting, General," Gro-Tagnud offered on Ri'vashi's way out.

As they watched her leave, the two remaining commanders on the bluff found themselves wordless for a moment. Gro-Tagnud, uncharacteristically, said something candid. "Hmph. Between you and I, commander, watching our ally get into the thick of it on a whim...I'm jealous."

Teroiah snorted and laughed darkly. "What's stopping you? Discipline? Rules?"

"Age," Gro-Tagnud responded, stone-faced.

Teroiah's smile disappeared. She sniffed and looked ahead again. She decided to leave the conversation there. There was still a battle to win.

---

Sabine gave Meesei a nod in response to her. They had both been looking at the swooping titan nearby with equal concern. Sabine reflected, impressed and overwhelmed, at Ahnasha's achievement. Her pride was well earned.

Sabine wondered what Ahnasha could do with the Staff of Magnus.

The tactical conversation involved Fendros' interest as well. Janius lurked nearby but was more focussed on sniffing at the wind.

"That's right," Fendros agreed. "Between the titan and the ghost of that woman with the staff, the push through suffered many casualties in the right-most passage. And I don't like their retreat. It suggests they have another layer of surprise defences."

"A ghost of a woman with a staff?" Sabine said, finding her attention drawn. "How do you mean?"

Fendros lowered his brow and sighed. "Just that. She was burnt all over and carried a staff like yours, but it seemed like it worked differently."

Sabine cast her eyes down, worried.

"Do you know something about it?" Fendros asked.

"No," Sabine immediately caught her tongue. "I-I mean to say...I cannot confirm. But I wonder how many others Vile has in reserve. We are not unique in having allied souls from the Hunting Grounds assisting in the battle."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

In response to Ri'vashi, Teroiah gave Gro-Tagnud a sideways look, one eyebrow up. "We both have plenty that are eager to catch up with our bogged down soldiers in those narrow passages." she asked. "Yours or mine, Legate-General?"

"Yours," Gro-Tagnud answered immediately. "Legion cavalry are more effective in the open. I'm reserving them for the front line in case Hal-Neesa's anchors get too greedy. Your cavalry are used to deserts and heavy forest."

"As you say." Teroiah nodded upwards to a nearby messenger to bring them over. "You legionnaires are so adverse to adapting," she continued sarcastically. "But at least we are not acting with any lack of boldness...Messenger? Gather Captain Loren's company, they are under General Ri'vashi's command now." She flicked her head across to line of wordless guards she had kept along the entire time. "Welgren, Titania, I order you to ensure the General's safety. Summon mounts and attach yourselves to the company."

The two guards nodded and spoke in unison. "Yes, commander." They immediately went about casting spells to conjure each an ethereal horse to ride along with the sally.

Teroiah smiled hospitably, though with narrow, smug eyes. "You have my best bodyguard. Now go along and do not think you have any excuse to die or demote yourself from your role here, Ri'vashi."

Halo: Aegis Team

Yalu 'Suumko

The flash of a slipspace portals in the sky drew Yalu's head to twist and look at the phantom hovering its way quickly to their mesa. The IFF and the friendly comms of the pilot prompted him to shuffle to his feet and move back from the edge.

"Affirmative, Prostrate Disciple," Yalu responded, before switching back to their team channel. "Commanders, our dropship has arrived. Preparing to insert."

Yalu snatched Vael's sentinel beam up from the ground along the way to the gravity lift and spoke over his shoulder, over the loud hum of the phantom's engines. "Brothers! Prepare for battle!"

With one more short leap, the grav lift tugged at Yalu's body in its entirety and he floated up into the hatch beneath the phantom. He quickly found a place to hold on in the crew compartment. "Hail, pilots! The south-western side will be clear of anti-ship weaponry on the signal!"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Rossarm sat clutching his broken limb, hoisting himself up to one knee. His reaction upon looking up at Ahnasha's new achievement was at first a hint of fear. But as he looked and saw Fendros relatively safe and the titan taking off to assist the fight, his jaw was slack with disbelief.

He did not respond to Ahnasha immediately. He took the potion with his good hand in a floating way, as if by habit, before biting off the stopper and downing its contents. "Gah...what on Nirn did you do?" he growled. "You do not seriously think you can take control of a Daedric titan so casually. Why did you not kill it?"

"Father," Fendros said with just a touch of warning in his voice. "We can quibble or we can fight the enemy. The others are depending on us."

Rossarm looked as he rolled his wrist. His broken arm took some of his own magical healing to get in shape, but the potion worked better than any he had taken before. He regarded Fendros with a high chin. There was nothing he could say to refute him that would preserve his pride. He sighed. "You thought quickly, both of you. You hold some skills. You saved our lives." He bitterly curled his lips in and turned away. "Let us recover, we advance onwards."

Fendros lifted the visor of his helmet and peered across at Ahnasha. "Looks like that's all we'll get for now," he remarked. "But I must ask as well for pure curiosity, what did you do? Some kind of illusion magic?"