[IC] Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

[EliteCommander]

"As long as we do not fall too far behind, we shouldn't lose their trail." Meesei whispered. "Still, stay on your guard. Something about that ambush does not sit well with me, other than the obvious. I doubt these hunters just sit in that exact spot all day waiting for someone to come along, so someone must have warned them, but we have been following them since before the other pack even learned where to go. How did they manage to get a message to the hunters so quickly? It is not as if they could have sent someone to run all the way to their camp in the time they had. There is something else at play here."

Tracking the hunters proved to be a balancing act between staying far enough away not to be seen, while simultaneously keeping close enough to avoid losing their trail. Meesei and Ahnasha worked together to keep their scent hidden as they moved along, just in case there were Khajiit or Argonians among the hunters who could detect them. They kept a close eye out for traps, but it was doubtful they had traps that did not have to be activated manually in or around their camp. They had to live there, after all, so traps would just end up being more of a risk to their own people. They seemed to rely more on not being found, which, to be fair, they seemed to be doing rather well. Had they not allowed their rival pack to be ambushed, there was scarcely a chance they would be able to find the hunters' camp.

The group had been moving straight west from the ambush site for a while, and eventually, the hunters reached their destination: an unassuming cave hidden between large rocks at the base of a mountain, which was part of a range that separated the grasslands and forests from the ashlands. Meesei caught only a glimpse of the hunters as they entered the cave, it was enough to confirm that it was their camp. The hunters did not seem to have so much as a lookout on the outside, likely to keep from drawing attention to themselves.

"Alright, this is going to be close quarters, so we should plan appropriately. Sabine, perhaps you should give me your satchel of potions and take on your wolf form? There is not going to be too much room to maneuver in there so your normal tactics of evasion may not be as useful. More of us can shift forms as needed, but I definitely believe some of us should remain as we are now. We will need the variance of skills. Does anyone else have suggestions?" Meesei asked.

[Muttonhawk]

Upon Meesei expressing her concerns about the circumstances of the ambush, the approach became that little bit more tense. It got Fendros thinking, though. They couldn't be omniscient, these hunters. They had to get the message across and set up the ambush in advance. Come to think of it, how long did Ahnasha say that the Khajiit was talked in circles? If the madman was simply stalling for time, for nightfall in particular, as well as giving a map location, perhaps the ambush on the rival pack was more premeditated than previously thought. It was a chilling thought for Fendros that if it weren't for the rival pack, his pack may have fallen into the same trap if the system of informants did indeed stretch that far.

Runt silently complied and handed her belongings to Meesei, before stripping down quickly and lowering her chin to her chest. It took a scrunch of her eyes before her posture hunched and her anatomy started to snap and morph into her wolf form. Her wolf's compact build struck Fendros as probably more suited to a confined space than most any other pack member's beast form. Though breathing and holding herself differently, Runt's beady eyes seemed to carry over to this form.

"This looks too easy," Fendros thought aloud, "they wouldn't just let us walk in the front door."

Janius chimed in, "of course, there's going to be traps situated around the entrance, or at least something to alert them if there is someone walking in. We can't just wait around, though."

Fendros looked to one side and crossed his arms, thinking. "Might we..." Fendros raised a finger, paused, then shook his head "no, never mind. Trying to draw them out would be too risky."

"If we sneak up, try to maintain the element of surprise, that'll be our best chance in my opinion." Janius continued, "if at all possible, I don't want to be fighting them on their terms. That's all I have to say."

[EliteCommander]

"It is doubtful they have any deadly traps, at least none that are not manual. This is their home, after all, and they need to be able to come and go safely. Their greatest protection has been how well they have been hidden. You saw how well they covered their tracks; I doubt they expected anyone to be able to follow them here. They likely do have traps that will alert them to our presence, so watch your every step. The element of surprise will be key here." Meesei observe. After a brief moment of concentration, she cast a spell of muffle across the group to quiet their footsteps. She slung Sabine's potion bag over her shoulder and hid the rest of her equipment away under a nearby tree.

"Ahnasha, Fendros, take the lead with your bows. If we're lucky, you may be able to quietly dispatch a few before the fighting begins. Lorag, Janius, Sabine, stay just behind them. If you see that we have been spotted, quickly move ahead of them to take up the front lines. Once the fighting starts, Ahnasha, Fendros, and myself will provide ranged support while you three engage up close." Meesei ordered. As they advanced forward, the pack moved into their positions, entering the cave two by two to avoid crowding each other too greatly. Meesei was in the back just behind Sabine. Although her werewolf form was certainly small compared to other lycans, she was still larger than Meesei. They did not have too much room to maneuver in the tight cave, so Meesei hoped Fendros would quickly be able to exchange positions with Janius, Lorag, and Sabine if they were spotted. The others had experience with such maneuvers, but they had not had a chance to practice such specific maneuvers with Fendros yet.

Moving through the cave was just as Meesei had expected. There were bones on ropes hanging from the roof in easy to miss places that would certainly alert any nearby hunters to their presence, as well as small tripwires that undoubtedly activated more noise making traps. Due to the acoustics of the cave, any small sound would travel far, so they needed to be careful and keep any talking to a minimum. Fortunately, the cave's echoes worked in the opposite direction as well, as they were able to hear the hunters talking ahead well before they saw them.

Ahnasha carefully peered around the corner, making sure to keep herself in the shadows. She saw two hunters, clad in light mixes of fur and leather, sitting at a small, rotted table playing a card game while conversing about their last hunt. Directly beside them was a narrow passage which seemed to serve as a doorway into a larger chamber beyond. If she had to guess, she would say there were many more than just two in the chamber beyond, and these two were meant to be lookouts. If they took out these two quietly, then they would be able to surprise the next group. She nodded to Fendros, then took aim with her bound bow at the Dunmer woman on the right, allowing Fendros to set himself up to shoot the one on the left.

[Muttonhawk]

Taking out his bow and readying an arrow, Fendros crept through the entrance to the cave beside Ahansha. Being aware to look for them, he carefully avoided the various tripwires and other mechanisms set up to alert the occupants of intruders. He was glad for the muffle spell that Meesei had cast over them, because everything down to the smallest loose rock made a sound within the cave. I would have to be a mouse to sneak up on anything, Fendros thought.

By the time they saw their first enemies, they had yet to be spotted. Before joining Ahansha to aim for the lookouts, Fendros quickly took out the marksmanship potion that Runt had prepared and drank it down. It tasted of truffles and juniper, rich, but not the worst concoction he had ever had. Within a moment, he felt a sharpness in his mind, a new sureness. It made his hands steadier and his aim more confident as he pulled back an arrow and directed it to the hunter lookout on the left. He didn't know how long the potion would last, but he would take no chances in this pivotal point.

"3... 2... 1..." Fendros whispered almost silently. The lookouts craned their heads to the small sound ahead, but couldn't discern it before Fendros loosed his arrow straight into the neck of his target. With a shocked look, the hunter choked and slumped off his chair onto the ground. Hopefully the fall did not cause too much sound.

[EliteCommander]

The lookouts had no time to react to Ahnasha and Fendros' arrows. They made a small measure of noise when they slumped over, but it was nothing suspicious. The group move up on the sides of the doorway, keeping up their same formation. Without a word Meesei nodded to Ahnasha and pointed to the room ahead.She returned the nod, then cast invisibility over herself and stepped through the pathway into the next chamber. For about a minute, they heard nothing more than the same movement and chatter from the other room that had existed since they arrived. Ahnasha silently returned shortly afterwards and dispelled her invisibility.

"I count twelve. Seven on the left, five on the right. Eating, talking, drinking. Looks like the same group from the ambush. There are weapons all over, not all are immediately on hand. I saw an Orc woman, but no male. There is a passage on the other side leading deeper in the cave, though." Ahnasha explained quickly at a low whisper.

"Then we shall strike quickly. Sabine, Lorag, Janius, charge in and quickly strike on the group at the right. Take out one group so we don't get surrounded. Ahnasha, Fendros, we will move in behind them and go to the right as well. Be sure to stick to the wall to keep our melee allies between us an them. Be sure to pick off any ranged opponents first." Meesei ordered, having no time to take suggestions. Everyone moved into position, with Janius taking the lead, Lorag behind him, and Sabine behind both. On Meesei's signal, they all charged in. As per the plan, they each picked someone from the group on the right to attack. Lorag rushed toward the closest enemy to the door, while Janius and Sabine ran for two near the back to flank them.

Meesei, Ahnasha, an Fendros came in immediately behind Sabine, sticking to the right wall. Meesei witnessed Lorag meet his foe first, though it could hardly be called a fight. They had ran in so swiftly that a few of the hunters on the other side of the room had not even noticed by the time Lorag's hammer met the Imperial man's head, crushing in his skull immediately. The Nord beside him at the table shot up and scramble for the longsword leaned up against the wall nearby, but Meesei quickly put an end to his resistance. After casting a shield spell on herself, she hit the sword with an exploding fireball to stop him in his tracks, then hit the man with an intense stream of lightning, maintaining it for a few seconds. Once she released it, he fell to the ground either dead or unconscious, so she lit him on fire for good measure.

Ahnasha saw that the others were handling the group on the right well, so she moved to the right with Meesei, then focused to the left. She had made note of where some of the weapons were sitting when she scouted the room, so she knew where to look when looking for an archer. An Argonian male shot up toward a bow on a nearby table, so she fired an arrow which struck him in the hip, sending him to the ground. She nocked another arrow quickly and fired again at his torso while he was on the ground. She could not be certain if he was dead, but he definitely wasn't fighting anymore.

[Muttonhawk]

There was a moment while Ahnasha was scouting ahead where Fendros paused to look over at the man he had shot. For some reason he didn't feel so apprehensive about it this time. He had a lot of time to think about the event with the drug smugglers, and while he still didn't like the prospect of killing, he couldn't help but think that in this case, these people knew the risks they were taking. Dying to a werewolf was probably how they expected to die.

The group ahead sounded large, but with their approach so far, it was still in the pack's favour. They charged, indeed the hunters looked like they were sitting down to dinner when they were fallen upon. Most of them were dressed much the same as the lookouts; furs and leathers. It was reminiscent of bandits. Or another pack, Fendros thought.

Lorag was the first to strike, Janius flung a bolt of fire to another before cutting at the man's arm and neck with an axe. Runt shot past them both straight into the next one, jumping onto him and tearing his neck open with her teeth before he could pull his sword halfway out of its scabbard. Barely a moment had passed and already half of their number had fallen. The rest armed themselves as best as they could.

Fendros picked his target as the one who had scrambled to pick up his crossbow from a table, Fendros loosed an arrow at the Breton man in a rush and landed it in his arm just before he could aim, causing him to shoot wildly up towards the ceiling. His target disabled for now, Fendros pulled out another arrow and tried to aim at an Altmer, who had reciprocated his attention. At the last moment, Fendros ducked as a shard of ice flew over his head and shattered on the wall behind him. Fendros stood and shot properly, but his arrow was slowed to ineffectiveness by a ward that the Altmer mage put up.

There was one left on the right of the room who had managed to pick up his spear, a Redguard man. He was backed against the wall by Sabine and Janius, who could not rush him without risk of being impaled. A few precious seconds passed before Janius decided to cast an arc of fire over the man to confuse and burn him. He then followed through by stepping in shield-first to deflect the spear and winding him by driving the shaft of his axe against the man's stomach, before arcing his axe around and onto the man's head. The Redguard was able to raise his spear shaft at the last moment to block Janius' blow, but Janius was able to hook his axe blade around the spear and pull it down low enough to find the man's neck. A force against his back caused Janius to spin around from his last opponent and hold his shield out in front of him. Someone had shot an arrow that deflected off his cuirass at an angle, and a bow wielding Bosmer across the room appeared responsible.

Sabine scanned around quickly, before running headlong towards a Nord wielding a two-handed battleaxe. The Nord was taken slightly off guard by Sabine's speed, even for a werewolf, but she still had to sidestep from her charge in order to avoid the arc down of the Nord's axe. She bounced back and scratched at the Nord's arm, giving him a flesh wound but evidently not stopping him, before she suffered a searing blow from her side from an Imperial's silver longsword. She jumped back a few paces to try and properly assess the situation before trying to attack again.

[EliteCommander]

Now that some of the hunters had a chance to arm themselves, they were putting up more of a fight. Meesei quickly scanned the room and found the place where her skills were most needed. An Altmer mage had set her sights on Fendros, and for magic, he had little defense other than dodging. The mage charged lighting across her body and unleashed a veritable storm of electricity forward, but it stopped in its tracks just ahead of Fendros as it impacted Meesei's ward. She walked up beside Fendros, her hand held out forward, projecting a barrier over them against her continuing onslaught. If she was experiencing any fatigue from maintaining the barrier, Meesei was not showing it. Her eyes were locked onto those of the Altmer, her expression displaying complete calm and giving off a sense of confidence, of control. At first, the Altmer displayed stereotypical High Elven arrogance by taunting Meesei as she pressed more energy into her spell, but when the additional effort produced no visible results, she became obviously concerned.

Meesei was indeed having to put forth considerable effort to protect herself and Fendros, but she hid any evidence of strain perfectly. In combat, she always made sure to project confidence onto her enemy, regardless of the situation. She displayed a type of confidence that would not be taken as arrogance, as the High Elf had attempted, but rather confidence that represented control over the events around her. Meesei was able to draw in some of the magicka from the Altmer's own attack to mitigate her own magicka loss, then concentrated it into a burst of telekinetic energy that threw the Altmer off balance and interrupted her lightning spell. Meesei retaliated with a stream of fire that the Altmer was only barely able to block in time with another ward. Meesei knew she could break the ward of the already-weakened Altmer, but the Breton Fendros had shot before was not dead and was once again attempting to take aim. For that, Fendros would need to serve as her protector.

Lorag saw Runt start to get surrounded, so he easily found his next target. The Nord was wielding a similar weapon to himself, so he didn't really have an advantage to press there, but the Imperial was looking like a tempting target. He sprinted forward from behind Runt, his hammer already in mid-swing by the time. The Imperial, who was in full steel armor, apart from the helmet, lifted his shield in time to block, but the full force of an attack from a lycan with a warhammer, especially one as strong as Lorag, was not something one could simply block with no issue. The Imperial staggered back and nearly lost his footing, but he was unable to recover before Lorag did, so the next strike accomplished just that. The Imperial still blocked, but he was knocked to his back. Although he could not protect his lower body with his shield from that position, Lorag still decided against going for the legs. Plate armor was almost useless against blunt force weapons like a hammer, so he could very well break them, but they were small targets, and if he missed, the Imperial would probably be able to get up. Instead, he struck the Imperial's dented shield once more, fracturing the bone in his arm underneath. The Nord probably would have been moving to his friend's aid were it not for the fact that Runt was already taking care of that.

Janius was being threatened by an archer, so it was only natural that Ahnasha would come to his aid. Before the Bosmer could fire another shot, Ahnasha loosed one of her Daedric bound arrows, which impacted his shoulder. He shouted in pain, but overall handled it much better than the Breton Fendros had shot. He kicked over a nearby table and crouched behind it for cover while he tried to deal with the arrow. She was just about to nock another arrow when she spotted a glimmer out of the corner of her eye to her left. On instinct, she ducked just in time to avoid a silver blade separating her from her head. Her attacker dispelled her chameleon spell, revealing her to be the Orc woman Ahnasha had spotted before. The Orc's blade had missed, but her other hand was still had plenty of momentum. The woman delivered an impressively strong punch which landed square in the middle of Ahnasha's face, bloodying her nose and knocking her onto her back. Fortunately, Janius intervened before the Orc was able to follow through. As much as Ahnasha wanted to help finish her off, she had to trust that Janius would be able to handle it, as the Bosmer across the room was still a threat. She grabbed her bow before it disappeared, brought herself up to one knee, and quickly fired off an arrow in the Bosmer's direction. It of course missed, but it caused him to duck back behind his table long enough for Ahnasha to recover more completely.

[Muttonhawk]

The tides had turned for the moment as the hunters were now fully engaged. Each pack member had their own opponent now, but there was still a crossfire between them.

Fendros reeled before he was able to take another shot at the Altmer. He opened his eyes to see Meesei's ward covering him. Her face was so unfazed it was unsettling, despite holding a ward against a sustained lightning spell. Getting his wits back, he noticed the crossbowman leveling a shot at Meesei. All Fendros could do in time was to reach over his left shoulder with his right hand and wrench his shield to cover himself while he stood between Meesei and the archer. The bolt pierced through Fendros' shield and stopped an inch away from his face, much to his own shock, but it was enough. he let go of the shield, letting the side of the bolt rest on his shoulder rather than the shield falling back onto his back, and drew and arrow to shoot the man before he could reload. The marksmanship potion was apparently still in effect, as this time the arrow hit the man directly in the chest, piercing through his hardened leather cuirass and causing him to stumble to the floor.

Elsewhere, Sabine didn't waste any time with the opportunity Lorag presented. She swiped at the Nord again, this time her claws being deflected by the haft of his weapon. The Nord tried to follow through by thrusting the top of his axe at Sabine to try and knock her off balance, but Sabine braced and caught the head of the weapon in her hands, her knees bending to absorb the Nord's momentum. Once the Nord ground to halt, Sabine threw the axe to one side, causing the Nord to readjust to try and stay balanced and opening him up to a bite to the neck from Sabine. The Nord wasn't going to die so easily, it seemed. He managed to hold his axe haft between Sabine and his neck, gritting his teeth while straining to keep the beast at bay. They both stood locked in a contest of strength, pushing against each other.

Janius tried to keep his eyes up with everything. Ahnasha was pinning down the Bosmer who was assailing him, but a shimmer appeared nearby Ahnasha that formed into an Orc that nearly took his packmate's head off had she not dodged. Janius ran and reached out in time to catch the sword hand of the orc woman mid swing in the hook of his axe. Furious, the orc spun and pulled her blade free, quickly flowing into a a flurry of blows that pushed Janius back as he shifted his shield to block them. The orc was so ferocious that Janius had a hard time finding an opening. To give himself space, he lunged forward shield first and tried to bash the woman back. The orc didn't expect the move, but recovered quickly, forcing Janius to pull back again so he wouldn't be vulnerable. Placing his shield and axe into a stance that intentionally left one side open, Janius tempted the orc to swing in that particular direction. She took the bait, allowing Janius to parry the blow with his shield, raising it up and displacing the woman's sword arm to a spot where she could not immediately defend Janius' push cut to her throat. She clutched at her neck with her free hand, trying somehow to stem the bleeding, but she still stood. For good measure, Janius brought his axe back and swung down on her shoulder. Without the strength to defend herself, the orc was slain.

Back with Sabine's fight, the Nord was powerful, but Sabine proved that even though she was a small lycan, she was still a lycan. Sweeping her claws upwards at the Nord, she raked her claws across his armoured torso to little effect, but slammed him with enough force to knock his feet out of place and cause the contest to break in her favour. The Nord tried to regain his footing, but was pushed back by Sabine until he fell to the ground and was silenced. Not stopping to feed, Sabine spotted the Bosmer crouching behind a table and jumped for her. A panicked arrow flew wide before Sabine ravaged the hunter, letting blood fly with the scene obscured by the turned table that had served as her cover.

With the desperate scene around them, the Imperial fighting Lorag turned tail and bolted for the next chamber, limping as he went. There was a moment where he was within sight of Ahnasha and Fendros, prompting Fendros to take a shot and miss. Ahnasha still had a shot, but it would mean more information getting to the enemy if he was to escape.

The mage, in full concentration against Meesei, held her ground knowing that her ward would not hold if she were to move.

[EliteCommander]

The Altmer held for as long as she could, but with her allies dying around her, her demise was a foregone conclusion. Meesei kept up the stream of fire with one hand, then charged a more concentrated fireball in another. When the fireball impacted the ward, it overloaded and broke the protective barrier, allowing the stream of fire to envelop the mer. She screamed in pain, but was quickly silenced when Meesei hit her in the chest with an ice spike, ending her immediately.

The Imperial managed to scramble away towards the exit of the chamber, but Lorag wasn't giving up so easily. Arrows wouldn't do much against steel plate armor, but his hammer would still work just fine. He ran after the Human, following him a few feet into the next passageway before he managed to hit him in the back with his hammer. The Imperial fell face-first onto the ground, but before Lorag caved in his skull, he managed to shout the word "Intruders" down the passageway, the echoes carrying it deep into the cave. Lorag might have killed him, but the damage was done. If they had missed the sounds of combat, they had certainly heard that.

Lorag returned to the others as Meesei was starting to look over everyone for injuries. "Is anyone hurt? We need to move quickly before they have time to prepare." She said.

Ahnasha lightly applied pressure to her nose, judging on if it was broken by the amount of pain she received. "My nose is possibly broken, but I'll live."

Sabine approached Meesei and presented her wound. As it was created by silver, it would not heal at the rate lycans were so accustomed to, and even healing it with magic would take more effort. Meesei quickly put enough healing into it to stop the bleeding, but there was little more she could do for the moment. Fortunately, it was a mere flesh wound and not something that was particularly threatening, so they were able to push on.

They moved down the passageway in almost the same formation as their assault on the previous chamber, except Meesei was now directly behind Lorag and Janius to provide defense against incoming magic attacks. The passageway itself was unguarded, but that was only because they had prepared a defense in the next chamber. The room was decently large, with the entrance being on one level, and the exit on the far side being elevated on a ledge with wooden ramps leading up to it. Most of the room was filled with stalagmites and stalactites, some of which were thick enough to provide cover. When the pack entered the room, they each moved for the closest free cover, as the hunters were set up on the far side. On their level beneath the ledge were four warriors of various races, each with a lance and a spiked steel shield. Their armor consisted of thick leather with light metal plates over important areas. Smart, considering heavy armor was generally more of a burden than an asset in a fight with a werewolf. On top of the ledge behind a few crates was a Dunmer mage and two archers, one on each side. The last hunter was standing behind them all, however, was the most threatening. Like the ones beneath, he had a silver spear in one hand and a spiked shield on the other. He wore the skinned head of a werewolf as a hood, with another part of its hide hanging down his back as a mantle. His armor was thick, but light, and appeared to be made of werecrocodile hide. He had seemingly dozens of silver knives and daggers strapped to various belts across his body, along with a longsword sheathed on his hip. On the left side of his face, he had distinctive black tribal tattoos, and a large scar on the right side under his eye. It was the Orc.

"Hold them here." The Orc ordered before walking calmly out of the exit of the chamber deeper into the cave. Those on the ledge readied spells and arrows, while the warriors beneath remained in a defensive posture, blocking the ramp to the top.

[Muttonhawk]

The room was now a stinking mess of bodies strewn around the former living space. It was fortunate that it had taken this long for the alarm to be raised. It was equally fortunate that none of them had become seriously injured, given the number of close calls during that last fight. Runt's injuries gave Fendros pause, however. The cut isn't closing up on its own. No wonder these hunters use silver, Fendros thought. Ahnasha thankfully wasn't struck by a silver fist, but it looked painful with the lines of blood streaking down her nose.

The scurry into the next chamber was certainly more disheartening. Fendros counted seven well prepared, well entrenched, and certainly well equipped hunters, in addition to an orc bristling with silver weaponry and lycan pelts. Their target. The first and only thing they could do was to duck behind whatever cave formations provided cover from the archers and the mage higher up. Fendros exposed himself for a moment and took a potshot at one of the archers, but he had aimed wide and had to immediately duck back behind his stalagmite to avoid the reciprocal attacks from them. A couple of wooden clacks against the walls behind where he was a second ago justified not sticking his head out for any longer. At least he caused the mage to hesitate with the arrow.

Janius was nearby, Fendros caught his eye with a expression of doubt. "They're in a blasted shieldwall, how to we deal with them?" Fendros hissed to Janius.

Without immediately responding, Janius peeked his head out to get a better look for but a second. "There's only four of them, we might be able to flank them, open them up."

"Don't be stupid, you'll be shot to pieces." Fendros reminded him.

Janius just grinned back at him, "Not if you and Ahnasha keep them pinned. Lorag, you wanna take the left?"

Sabine kept back near Janius, out of the firing arc of the archers, but she was getting restless. It was her that exposed herself first, virtually forcing Fendros to take another shot at the hunters on the raised platform. The shot was on target this time, but was slowed by the mage's ward before it could do any damage.

[EliteCommander]

As Sabine, Janius, and Lorag started to move up, Ahnasha and Fendros tried to keep the archers pinned. Since the Dunmer mage was able to use a ward to protect himself, however, he saw the plan unfold and readied himself to retaliate. Meesei ran in front of Ahnasha and Fendros, holding up a ward to protect them from spellfire. Unfortunately, the Dunmer was repeating the same tactic, so neither of them could affect the other. This was a stalemate that needed to be broken, quickly. In a bit of a risky maneuver, Meesei abandoned the ward and quickly fired an explosive fireball, not at the mage or the archers, but at the ceiling above them. The force of the blast damaged a stalactite enough to cause it to fall down to the ground below. The Dunmer was able to back up in time to avoid getting hit, but dropped his ward in the process. Meesei, Ahnasha, and Fendros followed through immediately with a barrage of arrows and fireballs. The trio on the ledge ducked down behind rocks and burning crates, unable to return fire. For Meesei, it was a magically draining assault, and Fendros only had so many arrows, but they needed to only keep them pinned for a short time.

Since Janius had the shield, it made the most sense for him to attack the middle of the hunters' formation, while Lorag moved to the left. The hunters were having to split their attention in three directions, but that did not mean it was going to be easy. Lorag stared down the hunter in front of him, keeping himself just out of range of the spear. The hunter was a pretty strong looking Redguard man, but both of them knew that Lorag had the raw strength advantage. The Redguard stabbed his spear forward periodically to keep Lorag back, but never did anything more aggressive than that. It was clear they were purely focusing on defense. After a few lunges, Lorag managed to break the stalemate by using the haft of his warhammer to deflect the spear to the side, then grabbed onto it and tried to pull it from the man's grasp. The Redguard was outmatched in terms of strength, so thinking quickly, he grabbed a knife from his belt with his other hand and stabbed towards Lorag. It was a rather awkward motion with his shield attached to that arm, but it was successful enough. Lorag's armor, while it did protect well, was not a complete full body suit. There were small gaps in unimportant areas, one of which the Redguard managed to exploit. He stabbed his silver dagger into Lorag's hip, just above his left leg. The stab wound, coupled with the burning sensation of the metal, caused Lorag to stumble back slightly and lose his grip on the spear. The Redguard attempted to capitalize on the opportunity by lunging his spear toward Lorag's head. Fortunately, not only was Lorag able to bring his arm up and deflect the attack with his iron gauntlet, but the Redguard was now perfectly open to a strike from Janius, as long as he could pull himself away from the two in the middle safely.

[Muttonhawk]

The approach to the veritable phalanx that the hunters had set up was not something that Janius could immediately rush. His approach was suppressed by keeping two of the spearmen at bay, but at least he was distracting them. Jarring thrusts were deflected by his shield, but he couldn't quite follow through to one without exposing himself to the other.

Meesei's audacious shot at the stalactite above the mage was one that heralded an ebb in the fight for their enemy. Not only could Fendros take the required shots to keep the archers and mage at bay, he managed to land a hit on one of the archers' arms. It didn't outright kill the Khajiit male that had been hit, but it put him out of action, and distracted the mage for a moment as he tried to heal the man.

Runt stalked around her prey to the right of the formation on all fours. Keeping out of his range and eying him down with a growl and a snarl, her ears flat and her teeth glistening. The hunter stood his ground, prepared mentally and physically. Sabine was in a disadvantage in this situation, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. A feinted lunge at the bulky Argonian hunter caused him to try a thrust, one that was swatted to one side by Runt. A sharp pain ran across Runt's palm as her parry was ill timed and caused a scratch from the spearhead, but it was just a scratch. While the spear was displaced, Runt was about to pounce, but was discouraged the one of the hunters facing down Janius sensed the need to assist his comrade and brought his spear around to ward her off. Runt snapped and growled, frustrated.

Janius now only had one opponent, and was quick to take advantage. The next thrust by the Nord spearwoman in front of him was one he could parry and trap with his axe. Twisting the spear up and out of the way, Janius rushed the woman and slammed the full weight of his body into her shield. Knocking her out of balance and behind the formation. Now was the time to take advantage. Before the Redguard to his right could react, Janius swung his axe and buried it into the man's back, before yanking it out of the leather it had cut through and letting Lorag finish him off. Janius took a swing at the two other spearmen, but their formation contracted onto the ramp. There were now only three spearmen, the enemy advantage was diminishing further.

Fendros had tried his best to keep the enemies up on the mezzanine busy. Keeping count, he had about ten arrows left. Most of his shots were on their mark, but if they weren't stopped by that damned mage's ward, then they just ducked behind the crates and barrels that had been set up. He loosed another shot. It caused one of them to duck again, but the arrow stuck into the wood of a crate in front of him. With how slow this was in comparison to their opening assault, Fendros hoped that their target wouldn't slip away, or worse have something deadly prepared for them by the time they reached him.

With more space to move, Runt sniffed the air and scanned the chamber while Lorag and Janius faced off against the now recovered spear formation that had pulled back onto the ramp. The raised area was too high to outright jump up to, but she tried to look for handholds to climb on. If there was a route up to the top, she could deal with the archers and the mage with impunity.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei had been unleashing a relentless assault on the mage and archers above since the beginning of the fight, but it was taking its toll. Magically, she was exhausting herself, and she could not keep it up such ferocity any longer. She needed to relent. "Get to cover!" She said to Ahnasha and Fendros beside her as she moved behind a stalagmite. Reaching into her satchel, she pulled out the magicka potion Sabine had given her and downed it as quickly as possible. She could begin to feel its effects immediately, but it would take a few moments for her to recover completely.

Ahnasha saw that Lorag managed to finish one off with some help from Janius. He had been stabbed in the process, but he was still up and fighting, and now there were only three defenders on the ramp. A bit of space had opened up on the left side, which gave her an idea. She ducked behind cover as Meesei advised, then glanced over to the other two. "Try to keep them pinned." She said before dispelling her bow and replacing it with two bound daggers. Once again, she cloaked herself in invisibility, then ran forward straight toward the shield wall. Ahnasha sprinted toward the left side of the ramp, ran around Lorag, then pushed through the small space between the edge of the ramp and the Nord spearwoman on the far left. Invisibility was not absolutely perfect, especially at close range, so the woman saw her shimmer run by, but was too late to stop it. Suddenly, the entire situation had changed. Janius and Lorag were assaulting from the front, while Ahnasha was readying her daggers behind them. The spearwoman tried to turn to face her and let her ally beside her deal with Lorag, but her ally was too slow to protect her. As soon as she tried to turn, Lorag smashed her in the back with his hammer, causing her to stumble forward practically straight onto Ahnasha's dagger. Ahnasha grabbed the woman as she was following and stabbed her three times in the chest before letting her collapse to the ground. As long as the archers and mage above were unable to focus on them, the two remaining hunters defending the ramp would fall quickly.

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros felt that he was suddenly put under pressure when Ahnasha broke off. With only Meesei and himself occupying the above assailants, this final push would have to be decisive. Loosing more arrows at the archers and the mage, Fendros did his best as the pack fell in on the spearmen.

Ahnasha wasn't the only one with a plan. After plotting her route up the wall, Runt ran up and scaled the rock face underneath the raised area, pulling herself onto the platform effortlessly. The first archer to spot her did so with surprise and leveled a shot at her chest. Runt was fast, though, faster than most lycans, she ducked just before the shot was released and sprung from her position towards the archer. Raking across with her claws, Runt cut the archer down and turned her attention to the next in line. The mage and the second archer.

Down on the Ramp, all Janius had to do was force the Argonian spearman to keep facing him while Ahnasha fought the other. It was as simple as keeping close and keeping his spear at bay, occasionally lashing out with his axe to little effect but to distract. The Argonian, his head darting either side, knew he could not survive where he was. In a desperate attempt, he dropped his spear and pulled out a silver short sword, before rushing into Janius to push him back. Janius, not expecting such a move, fell back enough for the Argonian to jump off the ramp and position himself where he was not surrounded. Janius moved forward to clash with the Argonian, but halted to defend against the Argonian's own flurry of attacks. Janius was on the back foot for a while, but was relieved when the Argonian stopped with a pained look and slumped to the ground with an arrow in his side.

Silently congratulating himself for hitting his target while Runt had the others' attention, Fendros shifted from behind his cover to get a better look at the remaining enemies. One archer had been killed, the other was aiming for Runt. Fendros took a potshot at the archer and succeeded an having him duck back behind his cover, giving Runt another moment. Four arrows left, Fendros counted. These last four would be to keep the archer occupied a little longer.

[EliteCommander]

After the Argonian broke off, the final spearman's fate was sealed. He knew he stood little chance, so he wanted to at least kill one before dying himself. He tried to shield bash Lorag, then turn to attack the unarmored Khajiit behind him. He was able to successfully bash Lorag, though the spikes on his shield did nothing against his armor. Unfortunately for him, however, Ahnasha could move much more quickly than he could hope to match. She easily stabbed a dagger into his back, then kicked him to the ground, at which point Lorag was able to quickly finish him off with a blow from his hammer.

While the others were finishing off the spearmen, Meesei saw an opportunity to help Sabine. She had managed to climb up the ledge and had already mauled one of the archers. Fendros prevented one from shooting her, but the mage was still charging a fireball. The potion had restored most of Meesei's magicka by this point, so she was ready to assist. With intense concentration, alteration energy swelled up within her, which she released in the form of a burst of telekinetic energy which threw both them off their feet, making them easy targets for the lycan before them. The Dunmer was still able to release his fireball, but it exploded far enough away to only give Sabine minor burns.

[Muttonhawk]

Shifting in his stance, Janius brought his attention to the last remaining spearman in the final moments of the hunter's life. With nothing more in their way, Janius ran up the ramp to support Runt's tactic.

Sabine herself tried to cover her face with her arms as she perceived the mage's fireball spell. She recoiled at the pain, but opened her arms to find that the fireball had detonated wide from her, only so much as singeing her fur. Both of her adversaries had been knocked down. She didn't see why, but she didn't need to. The mage's throat was first. She lunged and pinned the mage's shoulders before biting at the neck. There was more resistance than usual to her bite, causing her to need to pull and jerk at the mage's body for a moment. It was likely because of a shield spell that Sabine was having difficulties, but eventually the taste of blood served as proof of its failure.

Fendros couldn't see much from where he was, he kept the aim of his second to last arrow drawn in the direction of the final archer, but it looked like he would be dealt with soon. It was a concern then, that Runt took longer than warranted to kill the mage, as he spotted the archer take aim at her while she was distracted. Janius noticed as well on his way up the ramp, and attempted to run to cover her with his shield. Janius made it just in time, but in the position he was in, his shield was not properly placed. There was a cry of pain and Janius stumbled to the ground. Fendros could see an arrow sticking out from Janius' upper-leg.

Sabine, finally managing to finish off the mage through the choked shouts of panic, jerked up her blood-soaked face at the new noise and wasted no time in leaping onto the archer before he could even reach back for another arrow. The archer's death was similar, though much quicker, than the mage's.

"Janius!" Fendros got up quickly from his cover with wide eyes. Relaxed his bow, before jogging up to the ramp to assess the situation. Janius' face was expressing a lot of pain, his teeth were bared and his breathing was fast. The arrow was silver-headed. Dropping his axe and pulling his arm from his shield, he retrieved the healing potion given to him by Runt and tried to empty its contents into the wound to at least relieve the pain, but the silver would not let it heal. "Get it out!" Janius shouted between pained breaths, "Get it out, now!"

[EliteCommander]

Meesei rushed up the ramp to the top of the ledge once she saw that Janius was injured. The arrow had hit in a similar position as the dagger had to Lorag, in a gap in his armor. Lorag downed his healing potion, then ran up the ramp as well.

"Fendros, restock your arrows. Lorag, Sabine, guard the exit, I'll take care of this." Meesei said, kneeling down next to Janius. Usually with arrow wounds, it was best to leave the arrow be until it could be removed properly and carefully, but with silver arrows, that was not the case. Pulling it out quickly would cause less damage than leaving it in. Reaching into her satchel, she quickly pulled the health potion Sabine had given her and handed it to him.

"Here, drink this. It will serve as a painkiller." Meesei said as she grabbed the arrow. Without wasting a moment, she yanked the arrow from his flesh to prevent him from dreading the pain. He could not help but to yell out from the sudden burst of pain, but Meesei worked quickly to numb the area. Silver wounds were inherently more difficult to heal for lycans than any other, and since the wound was a bit deeper than Sabine's, it would take a bit longer for her to stop the bleeding.

[Muttonhawk]

Snapping back to his senses with Meesei's command, Fendros nodded and strode around retrieving as many intact arrows as he could find.

Sabine, looking up from her last kill, followed Lorag into position, glancing at Janius but trusting in Meesei to deal with the situation.

Janius didn't have to be told twice to drink the potion Meesei handed him. It relieved some of the pain as promised, but removing the arrow was still a long moment of torture, followed by instant relief. "Why on earth didn't I drink that agility potion before this bout," he mumbled. Meesei's work on his leg was prolonged relief as he caught his breath. "Thanks alpha," He strained to say, "I'm not out, but I don't think I'll be sprinting anywhere else today."

Fendros managed to find about fourteen arrows before he looked over to Janius and Meesei again. "Is he going to be alright?"

Janius grinned as if it was nothing. "I'll be fine, he didn't kill me."

[EliteCommander]

"I will need to take a closer look at it later, but for now, we need to get moving." Meesei said, glancing over to the exit. "We do not need to give that Orc any more time to prepare. We also cannot discount the possibility that he has an alternative exit to escape through. If you do not think you can fight effectively in this state, then stay in the back and use spells, or take on your wolf form." She advised Shifting into his lycan form would not rid him of his injury, but their regenerative properties were more pronounced in their wolf forms.

Without another moment of hesitation, Meesei led on deeper into the caves. Lorag and Sabine took the lead along with her, though it was not long before the relatively narrow passage widened into one they could all potentially stand side by side in. After a short distance, the group turned a corner and was surprised to see the Orc himself standing just down the corridor. It seemed too easy, which, unfortunately, meant it was. They started to rush forward, but just as Meesei began charging a fireball, the Orc scowled at her, then swiped his spear to the side against a nearby wall, severing a rope that activated a mechanism in the ceiling. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling and what appeared to be a wooden section of roof between a few support columns broke away as large rocks came cascading down between them. Meesei's fireball harmlessly exploded on the falling rocks, and they all had to scramble back in order to avoid being crushed. After the dust settled, Meesei saw that the pile of large rocks extended all the way to the roof and filled the width of the corridor, blocking their path.

Meesei walked up to the newly formed wall of rock and looked it over for any gaps they could exploit, but sadly finding none. She turned back to the others, realizing that their situation had become more desperate. "We need to get through these rocks, and quickly. There have been no alternative paths so far, so the only way he would barricade himself in like this is if he has another escape."

Not moments after Meesei finished speaking, Sabine approached the rock wall, let out a low growl, and began to pull away the rocks one by one. It would take far too long for her to make a gap alone, but alone she was not.

"Sabine has the right idea. If we all work together on this, we should be able to create a gap large enough to squeeze through quick enough that he won't be able to escape. Let us show this Orc why it is unwise to challenge a pack of lycans to a test of strength." Meesei said. She tossed her pouches and clothing aside, then began her own transformation. When she was finished, she joined Sabine in tearing down the wall of rock. One after another, the others joined, further speeding up the process. Each individual stone was rather sizable and heavy, but for a lycan, it was like throwing pebbles.

[Muttonhawk]

After Meesei had done what she could about his leg, Janius agreed with her, but decided to wait until the situation demanded either form.

The next passage allowed them another glimpse of their quarry. The next series of events got Fendros wondering. He was waiting for them all, why was he just standing there? He couldn't have set up the cave in in the time it took to deal with his hunters. The whole situation made Fendros uneasy about transforming, as if doing so played into the orc's hands, but there was no other way. He shifted his form without taking the time to remove his chitin armour properly, causing some pieces to crack. They couldn't spare a single moment.

Janius decided to down his agility potion before transforming for the effect to carry over to his beast form, and it showed with the pace he set.

Working together, the pack burrowed and displaced as much of the rocks and dirt as their limbs could shift. Fendros found himself in sync with his beast form almost completely at this point, both fractions of his consciousness vying to pursue the orc on the other side of the rubble.