[DeadPigeonGolem]

((Jumping in with permission from django))

Wre'kesa Sarghress could see that this was getting nowhere fast. He'd been traveling with the group for awhile as one of those background people that nobody noticed, mostly because there hadn't been an opportunity to use his skills until now.

How ever many lions there were, the group was far too exposed at the watering hole. They needed covering fire to drive off the lions. This was something that Wre'kesa could provide with ease.

"Moving to cover!" he shouted to whoever could hear him and ran at full tilt for the nearest building, his light armor allowing him to move much faster than the average Raider. The roof wasn't exactly far off the ground, but lions couldn't climb walls. Maybe. Hopefully.

...Sharess he hoped not.

Being a possessor of highly flexible climbing booties and gloves, he scaled the building rapidly. Unslinging his crossbow, he cocked the string in the firing position and aimed for the skull of the nearest lion.

*sh-CLACK* <--- noise of a crossbow firing.

Damn those were hard skulls! The lion was now furiously looking around for its attacker. Wre'kesa moved to reload.

[django]

Trinita never taken down so hard by an animal in his life, and hes dealt with wolves with tooth aches part time for a living. Landing on the ground with a thud, he lost his sword and dropped it along the way and thankfully not landing on it.

Struggling for his life, he fought back to knock the lioness off of him but she was too heavy and he was at a disadvantage while the cat was on top and Trinita on his belly.

Suddenly Everything around him went in a whirl and he thought it was all over when the cat fell on him. Memories flash before his eyes and he knew then, that his only regret in this life was he wasn't going to have children of his own with Ilnari'se...

Little did Trinita know right away that his fellow raiders where prying the dead cat off of him. "Ilnari'se." he groaned as he regain his senses enough to collected himself to pick his sword and stand up. "I'm ok."

Suddenly a New lioness was bold enough to try her luck against Trinita but all it earned her was cold steel; as Trinita's blade cut deep into her claw, severing Toes and nails alike. Sending the animal back several step.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

*sh-CLACK*

Wre'kesa sent a bolt into the side of Trinita's lioness. The heavy slug of steel ripped through skin and muscle to puncture one lung, tear through several organs, and pop into the other, where the bolt lodged itself. The lioness screamed in fury and convulsed at the new injury, giving Trinita a small opening....

[Dice Warwick]

Warwick, unlike the rest, was the most exposed to any attack, but she kept her blade pointed at any threatening noise, and her back to the group. With all the commotion behind her she had a hard time not looking back, but she knew that they can take car of themselves and she needed to worry more about her own safety, this vigilance quickly paid off with her spotting a loin creeping forward. in attempted to scare off the beast, she forced the hoarse to rear up on it's hine legs, making a horrifying sound as it did so, and with that the lion backed off. "damn beats! their pelts better be worth good ADA for this to be worth the trouble."

[Alric]

((Joining with django's permission))

Vithar quickly dismounted his startled dawmere, letting the beast retreat with the others for now. He didn't quite trust the animal to respond to him whilst surrounded by a pack of hungry carnivores. A quick look around showed that Trinita was currently being assaulted by a lion, the others were either helping him out or holding their own for now.

Charging in with his sword held high, Vithar scattered several lions that were in between him and the other Highland Raiders. A male lion boldly charged in, only to catch Vithar's sword blade mid-swing. The lion fell to the ground in a gory welter, nearly cloven in twain.

[Rilla Treespirit]

There were lions everywhere, A shout from Wre'kesa and shortly afterwards a bolt through a lioness that was threatening Trinita. She couldn't help feeling relieved that he seemed relatively unharmed, or at least capable of swinging a sword for the moment. She prayed that it would stay that way. Vithar came charging towards their group managing to cut a lion in two. She smashed her claymore into a lion skull. "Oh f-" She yelled as another sank its teeth into her arm. She dropped her claymore as it felt like the lion was going to rip her arm off but the worst it really did was dent her armour and bruise her very badly. She dragged her other sword around and finally after some flailing managed to stab it in the neck. There were just so damn many of them. The only thing to do right now was to grit her teeth and ignore the pain. "Damn it." She growled. She glanced around. No one else was crushed, why weren't they moving to the town? Where was the goddess-damned commander when you needed her. There was no sense in staying out here. She tried to shout "Back to town." but ended up choking on a mouthful of sand whipped up by the fight so it came out more as a croak. She really should have been using her visor. After spitting out most of the sand she pushed it over her face.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

"FUCK!" shouted Wre'kesa, seeing Ilnari'se get mauled. Fortunately she was a better fighter than he was; she stabbed the thing in the neck momentarily.

"ALL RAIDERS, FALL BACK TO THE TOWN!!" he bellowed, seeing Illnari'se try and fail to shout. "FALL BACK!!"

*sh-CLACK* went the crossbow, sending a bolt into the side of another lion, this time one that was threatening Warwick. The lion flailed in agony as Wre'kesa reloaded and took aim again. The rolling ball of fur was an easy shot.

*sh-CLACK*

The bolt punched through the abdoment, tore the lion a new orifice, and planted itself somewhere inside the liver. It took only a few moments for the lion to die from excessive hemorrhaging.

"Hah! Scratch one!" cheered Wre'kesa, before taking aim for another lion.

[Dice Warwick]

Things were getting more dicey as the Lions got more bold. Thrusting to they eyes of a lion that attempted to attack, when the lion recoiled from the attack to it's face, Warwick's hoarse then started to trampled it. The Lion struggled to get away from the angry hoarse, getting away batters and without one of it's eyes.

As the fighting grew, Warwick heard one of the Sarghress call for everyone to fall back, something she had been waiting to hear. Putting her shield away, she then steered the hoarse to run back to town, the hoarse quickly moved out of the fray, leaping over a lion as it fled, along with Warwick just barely holding onto the overly independent hoarse.

[django]

The lioness stumbled and gave a wet growl, as bolt as the bolt pierced its lung. Trinita's took this moment of weakness and hacked into the Lioness's head. Cleaving off a plate sized hole in its head, exposing the brain and skull.

Things were crazy, its was as if nature was fighting back with every thing its had. He didn't have time to think on it as he saw his mate was in grave danger. A lion was mauling her.

Trinita's black sword struck out, cutting clean between the ribs and slicing the heart in two pieces. It was the cleanest kill hes ever done, but it was unnecessary. A spray of blood hit his face as the lions heat fell off to the side.

Bending down over his mate, he hauled the much larger wolf up to her feet and helped her and himself to the fort. "Come on, I got you." His adrenaline was at full power it would seem. The fighting was more organized at the fort, the human soldiers worked in Phalanx formation, stabbing any lions foolish enough to get within range.

To those with keen eyes could see the branding on the lions rump, and could see these lions were no normal lion but battle trained shock troops.

[Alric]

Vithar made his way to the other Highland Raiders, striking down another lion. The beast fell to the earth in red ruin, halting the Am'saag for a moment as he wrenched his sword from the giant feline's steaming corpse. This was insane. No pride of lions would be so desperate to attack a group this numerous unless they were truly starving.

"Where did they come from?" called out Vithar as he regrouped with the others. He looked about. His dawmere was apprehensively looking about from a distance, observing the goings on nervously. Why weren't the lions going after the animals rather than the Raiders? No matter...as they pressed on towards the fort their mounts would follow.

Vithar pressed on to the fortress, reuniting with his mount once behind the protective phalanx of guards. "Check yourselves for injuries!" he called out as he grabbed the reins of his dawmere. "Something was off about those lions. I've never heard about them attacking caravans," growled Vithar, shaking the blood from his sword.

[Rilla Treespirit]

The lion that had been trying to rip off her arm died in a spray of blood when she slashed at its neck. She found, much to her surprise that there was another sword embedded in its chest, being quickly pulled back out. She looked up, Trinita, of course. Just then a shout, telling them to fall back rang across the area. She found herself pulled up to her feet and heading back to the town with the others.

Once behind the guards Ilnari'se took off the dented pieces armour and examined her arm. It was quite colourful, she might have even called it pretty, if it wasn't for the pain. She could move her arm, wrist and fingers without too much trouble. She sighed, relieved, at least that meant it wasn't broken, right. It was starting to swell up and she was glad she'd got the armour off quickly. She heard Vithar's question and pointed to where the lions came from with her good arm. Past the watering hole and further into the badlands. There was just sand, rocks oh and she'd seen what looked to be a dead tree in the far distance when they were watering the horses. It couldn't be seen from here and it didn't seem worth mentioning.

[DeadPigeonGolem]

Wre'kesa was busy shooting more lions.

"Three down," he muttered to himself, reloading and sighting. "Wait, what?"

There was a strange symbol branded on the hips of one of the lions. He couldn't make out the details from this distance, but it was definitely there. He fired and switched targets, looking for the symbol on a different lion. There, that one had it too! And that one!

"Holy shit, they're not wild," gasped Wre'kesa, shipping his crossbow and preparing to move. The lions were breaking upon the phalanx like waves against stone. Maybe in a few years, the phalanx would fall, but it was basically a fixed position for now.

With a running leap, Wre'kesa jumped from his building to another and keeping up the momentum until he was scrabbling from building to building, using his gloves and booties to get a good grip into the stone. Soon he reached the fort, although it had been quite exhausting getting there. He took a break, sipping from his canteen and unshipping his crossbow.

"Where did they come from?" called out Vithar as he regrouped with the others. He looked about. His dawmere was apprehensively looking about from a distance, observing the goings on nervously. Why weren't the lions going after the animals rather than the Raiders? No matter...as they pressed on towards the fort their mounts would follow.

Ilnari'se heard Vithar's question and pointed to where the lions came from with her good arm. Past the watering hole and further into the badlands. There was just sand, rocks oh and she'd seen what looked to be a dead tree in the far distance when they were watering the horses. It couldn't be seen from here and it didn't seem worth mentioning.

Wre'kesa looked out where Ilnari'se had been pointing. He couldn't see much either, but it looked like classic 'almost impassable natural barrier to weaken my enemies' territory.

Vithar pressed on to the fortress, reuniting with his mount once behind the protective phalanx of guards. "Check yourselves for injuries!" he called out as he grabbed the reins of his dawmere. "Something was off about those lions. I've never heard about them attacking caravans," growled Vithar, shaking the blood from his sword.

"Ho, Vithar!" shouted Wre'kesa, standing and putting away his canteen. Breaktime over. "I spotted a weird symbol on their hips! You think maybe they're trained? If they are, it seems like we should expect further hostilities, not just these guys."

[django]

"It is too stange sir." Trinita agreed. He closest thing hes ever been attacked by wild animals was that large pack of Feral a few years ago. He still has nightmares about that.

Looking over to Ilnari'se, he was planning on checking her arm and she seemed to have the same idea. Now that they were behinds the fortress wall he had a chance to look. But she was pointing at something, and he saw it too... it looked like a tree in the distance but it was so distorted from the waves of heat it could have been anything. He could have sworn it moved as the surviving lions left in the same direction.

"Come here dear. Let me check your arm." and when Ilnari'se let him, he check her arm out and found it was only battered and not broken thanks to her armor.

The humans were clearing the lions out and mostly the peasants suffered the most damaged. and ontop of that, they were all spooked and are now demanding the soldiers to let them live in the fort. Word of mouth from the soldiers, that the tattoos on the lions are the mark of the rebel armies. Clearly the civil war was spilling into the badlands.

It was around this time Jemilla showed back up. Shes the packs leading commander whos second in command was Vithar. "What the hell just happened out there. Whats all this about lions?" Clearly not sharing the same experience the other had while she and Sloth was in the fort.

[Dice Warwick]

(seriously, nobody else has anything to add...)

Warwick had found a place to sit, her clock off and folded on her lap, with her wight silk cloths bright in the sunlight. Her face was in a bit of a daze, her left pigtail undone buy a claw-strike from a lion she barely managed to doge, sweat beaded from her face. The horse she rode was near her, blood covered its legs, and none of it belonged the the horse. The horse would periodically nuzzle Warwick, and she would pet it;s nose in kind. "For a Male you are quite powerful, if I did not know better I would think you a Sarghress grate wolf, and not a goblin horse. Thanks to you I even live, if you were a drow I would how you a drink. or two." Warwick pets the horse one the nose once more, and looked at the ground, her white hair covering her left side, nearly touching the ground.

[Alric]

Vithar looked over to where Wre'kesa stood. "You sure about that?" he spoke, sheathing his now clean sword. The dead lions were too far away for him to check. Who would go so far as to train lions as war animals?

Jemilla showed up at that moment, demanding to know what was going on. "We got attacked by a large pride of lions...I think all the Raiders made it out alive." Vithar took a moment to look about to confirm if his statement was correct. Maybe more were arriving at the moment; it was hard to tell in the current confusion. Vithar silently admitted that couldn't really tell the humans apart from one another, anyways. "You know if anyone trains them around here?" he asked.