[color=a187be][i][b][center]Annabeth Gultch[/center][/b][/i][/color]

Annabeth thought she's seen a lot of strange things at the college, but this horse wasn't like anything she's ever dealt with before. Right as her arrow was going to hit the creature right in the eye, it vanished into shadows and only managed to land in it's rump before disappearing. And while she didn't know what the creature was, Annabeth could recognize the power of the Nox when she saw it. It was one of the mage bloods she could have accessed, but she chose Psychomancy instead. [color=a187be]"A nox monster... What's it doing here?"[/color] Annabeth was planning her attack when Alaira put Lyn into Annabeth's saddle and slapped Samon on the rear, which made him dash forward. [color=a187be]"Hawa!? Alaira!"[/color]

This was not as planned, but Annabeth needed to act fast. At least Alaira's action allowed Annabeth to get away from the Nightmare as it reemerged and did battle with Alaira. Taking Samson, and by proxy Lyn, at least sixty feet away Annabeth took out two arrows. She knew that trying to shoot both her arrows at the nitemare as it fought Alaira wasn't going to be easy, since despite Annabeth's skill two arrows were just going to cut down her power, accuracy, and range. But she wasn't aiming for the monster. Annabeth's two arrows were a smoke arrow and a whistling arrow. She was going to fire them off into the air to alert the other hunters, but as she had the arrows notched she heard screaming from harpies. She definitely knew about them, and had heard their screams before after an incident with trying to use psychomancy on monsters. 

Worse still, the screaming came in the direction that Mar and Athalus was, at least last time Annabeth saw them. Considering the rumors and controversy they stirred up just for being together, Annabeth feared they were getting hit the worse. She was originally going to use her arrows to call for back up, but those two may need it more. [color=a187be]"Lyn, cover your ears!"[/color] Aiming in their general direction, Annabeth let loose her two arrows. ALmost immediately the whistling arrow emitted a high pitch screech across the skies, loud enough for everyone in the area to hear them. Shortly after the smoke arrow started to emit a thick black smoke, which while not hot enough to actually burn anything, would continue to burn for a good ten minutes or so. If anyone was around, they could spot the smoke from a mile away, and hopefully come to help Mar and Athalus.

Annabeth would have gone, but she couldn't leave Alaira alone here, even if she had Lyn with her. If anything, Annabeth would be much more helpful to Mar and Athalus if Alaira came with her then if Annabeth went alone. So she was going to help her fight the Nightmare. But how was what Annabeth needed to think fast on. If she stuck with her arrows, she might end up hitting Alaira if the Nightmare did it's shadow dodging maneuver again. Annabeth was thinking of using her spear instead, relying on the combined speed and strength of Samson and a couched spear to do massive damage to the nightmare. But that still didn't mean that the creature couldn't dodge using it's shadow attack. She debated using her invisibility spell over herself, Samson, and Lyn, but that may make things even riskier since then Alaira couldn't see Annabeth, and she may end up in the way.

Annabeth decided to stick with her bow for now. Fortunately for Annabeth she was in a position perpendicular to the horse: she can take shots at the Nightmare and not worry about hitting Alaira, assuming that she doesn't jump in front of her shots. She was shooting the beast from behind, aiming for it's flank and legs. If she could cripple at least one of them, then Alaira should have no problems chopping down the rest of it. Taking out three Broadhead arrow, Annabeth drew the string on her bow and got one arrow ready for a shot, the other two gripped in her hand so she can follow up with a flurry of arrows. When the Nightmare tries to rear it's legs up again for a kick, she'd shoot it right in it's flank

[i][b][center]Tyrael Marchosias[/center][/b][/i]

Meanwhile down below, Tyrael figured Ssarak did something to the Ridge Hounds when they slid to a halt. The front line seemed stunned for one reason or another, and another few started attacking the Ridge Hounds. Beast they may be, they tend to work well enough together that they wouldn't attack each other, certainly not while they were hunting... Unless they found easier prey. But this only distracted a handful of the Ridge Hounds; the rest behind did not care to wait for the front line to continue moving, and tried to crawl over them. Tried, as it was then that Tyrael let loose one of his mighty arrows. A well placed shot was able to take out three Ridge Hounds at once, slamming them into the wall as the javelin-sized arrows impaled the monsters. Another shot killed two more, pinning them to the wall. That was five out of the twenty ridge hounds dead, with six underneath the pile confused and eating each other. That left the other 9 to make a mad dash towards Ssarak and Tyrael. Seeing that he didn't have time to make another shot before the ridge hounds would get them Tyrael let go of his bow and took out his large knife. It was going to be a melee.

Five ridge hounds pounced at Tyrael, leaving four to Ssarak. In a show of agility and speed, one was able to climb the holes on the wall to go above Ssarak, aiming to land it's full body into his face. Two more worked in tandem to try and slam the Eysire into the wall, while another tried to get behind the eysire and bite his tail or trip his legs. When one of the Ridge Hounds lunged at Tyrael he simply put his blade in the path of it's lunge, letting it run face first into his blade. When his blade sunk partly into it's neck, he ripped it out with enough force to finish severing the head. Tyrael then dodged aside as the other ridge hounds narrowly managed to latch onto him. As he was about to get ready for their second attack, he noticed something down in the distance. It was dim in the fairy fire, but he could barely make out the figures of... Nagas. [b]"Dyreackthanose, down the tunnel! What do you detect!?"[/b] Tyrael would have tried to get a better look, but the ridge hounds had quickly turned to attack him again, forcing his attention back towards them.

Meanwhile the ten ridge hounds attacked relentlessly, despite their lost in numbers. Darius's wind motes were enough to keep them confused and allowing him and Myrn to score an easy kill, but once they smelled the blood of their own they knew they were being attacked, and pressed forward. A few went after Myrn thinking her an easy foe, even as they failed to catch her. Though one climbed up onto the coffins and was in an ample position to attack her from above while she was distracted trying to lure the other ridge hounds away. One Ridge Hound who ignored Myrn attempted to lunge at Darius, but was killed in midair by Aramir's arrow. Baulder and John's fancy display allowed them to take out a majority of them, but there was not time for celebrations. Coming down the hall was a horde of 40 Ridge Hounds, many of them much bigger than the runts the students have been fighting with up to this point. There were previous few seconds left to spar. Additionally, another 20 ridge hounds were coming from the opposite side, where Lari was trying to escape towards. They smelled blood, which for the ridge hounds meant food and violence. As soon as they killed whatever was killing their kin, they could feast.