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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 8:47:30 GMT -5
"You wonder. I don't." Archon wasn't nearly as much of a scout as Wolfsbane, but he was a decent officer, and when it came down to fighting, he had a major say on the front line. Some band of ferrets wouldn't even require backup for a mouse like himself, these days, anyway. He'd just smash that squirrel for that paw on his chest later on.
He reloaded his repeater in an unusual maneuver of tactical reloading and then chambered yet another, freshly oiled bolt. "The fort has so many trade lines converging on it that we practically have more traders staying for the day than actual residents. It's a wonder that those with armed escorts are still the minority, now... I'm gonna go kill them. I don't care what you do."
OOC: Doing posts that take up that much time make response difficult.
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 7, 2008 10:47:06 GMT -5
OoC: Wolfsbane did not put his paw on Archon, he put it in front of him. Second, I don't know how you have to be so aggressive. Wolfsbane apologized to Archon... w.e
Wolfsbane was startled... This Archon seemed a lot more aggressive than most woodlanders and warriors he'd met. As Archon disappeared into the foliage, Wolfsbane ran up a tree, to cover Archon's back.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 11:21:34 GMT -5
OOC: If Archon were walking, he wouldn't have noticed it until he made contact. And as far as being aggressive, that's just Archon asserting his power, not me being mean. But I have to ask... Archono?
BIC: As an actual, seasoned fighter and a beast that had become far from the typical, innocent woodlander, Archon considered it nearly mandatory to do what he did. This consisted of utilizing his skill as a mass destroyer and checking to make sure his bayonet was firmly fixed before heading towards where Wolfsbane had directed him. Chances were, he'd be outnumbered at the very least twenty to one, even with this squirrel with him, so he had to be careful. If there were too many, he'd just head back to the fort, which wasn't so far away, and get some backup.
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 7, 2008 13:50:00 GMT -5
Wolfsbane had fought in many different battles on many different terrains. His favorite happened to be guerrilla warfare, which utilized terrain, surprise, and agility, amongst other factors. The flying squirrel decided to get into position before Archon arrived, so that he could provide cover. Wolfsbane used stealth to get into a position above and behind the Flitcheye tribe. When Wolfsbane had been reconnoitering, he had spotted six sentries in groups of twos, each standing guard about ten good oakslength from the main tribe in different directions. There were two to the north, two to the southwest, and two to the southeast. Wolfsbane reached the sentries to the north and quickly unslinged his bow.
The two sentries were arguing with each other about who had killed more woodlanders in the last raid. Wolfsbane looked at them with disgust and notched an arrow to the longbow.
Ssssthunk!
The arrow hit the mark. Between the ears of one of the sentries. The other sentry yelped and looked around in surprise. He turned his head around just in time to recieve an arrow between his eyes. Wolfsbane shouldered his longbow and moved on to the next pair of sentries to the southwest.
"Yoo tink da Bigcheef eetin muchamuch vikkles?"
"Yar... whiles us eetsa dis roots. Hoo he tink he is? Us'ns fight herder and lenger den him."
Suddenly, a shadow appeared behind them, holding two long knives. Without so much as a whisper of a sound, the squirrel sliced their throats from behind. Wolfsbane wiped the blood from his knife on their bodies and hid them in a nearby bush. Wolfsbane's cold eyes betrayed nothing as he moved on to his final targets. His next targets were slightly smarter than their comrades. They had hidden behind a dead log, and disguised their position with bushes. However, they couldn't hide from Wolfsbane's eyes for long. He soon spotted them. He chuckled to himself. By hiding themselves in such a small space, they had inadvertently lined themselves up for him. He finally found a place on the ground where he would have a clear shot. Wolfsbane notched an arrow to his bow and aimed his bow to the side of the ferrets' heads. He inhaled, then released his arrow on exhale. The arrow flew true, going through one ferret's head, and coming out of the other ferret's head. They had already concealed their bodies for him. He silently thanked the ferrets as he headed to a nice spot he had picked out before.
He arrived at a rowan tree that looked down on the Flitcheye camp. The ferrets were going about their business, waiting for their next victims to show up. There were about a score and a half of them. Wolfsbane looked down from his vantage point. He had a clear shot at any of them. He took out ten arrows and spread them around the trees surrounding the camp. He stabbed the arrows into the branches so that he could grab them easily on the go if he had to. Then he returned to his spot and waited for Archon.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 14:13:16 GMT -5
OOC: And you've reached a post length that makes me feel like you're Finnerator. I'm not sure if I should congratulate you or just run away.
BIC: Archon took a far less stealthy approach. What he really succeeded at was ridiculously outnumbered, close-quarter combat and this was what he was going to do now. He met the two sentries at the north tip of the camp; rather than take them out with a ranged weapon, he marched right up to them, and right when the nearest was going for his sword, the mouse delivered a crushing blow to his skull with the handle of his repeater. Using the body as a makeshift shield, he felt a crossbow thud into the freshly deceased corpse, which stopped it from hitting the mouse with an ironically protecting breastplate. He charged forwards into the other sentry while holding the body by the collar, knocking the remaining ferret onto his back long enough for Archon to stab him under the chin with his bayonet.
Then it was due south to the camp. He didn't bother to hide the bodies or even wipe the blood from his bayonet; it was pointless with him heading into the heart of things like this, and his bayonet would be seeing more action soon. Archon pulled back his repeater's cocking lever and pushed it back to home yet again; he knew it already had a bullet chambered, but the last thing he wanted was to pull the trigger and see nothing happen. With a weapon such as this cradled in his paws and ready to get some killing done, the last thing he'd be was another victim... So long as he could rely on some accurate fire support.
The mouse made his first contact from the actual camp right when he made it to the perimeter of the clearing. He didn't even slow down his quick but mechanical pace as he pulled the trigger and put a bolt in the forehead of a ferret just exiting one of the camp's outer tents. Upon hearing some commotion from inside it, he deftly cocked his repeater and fired again, punching a hole in the canvas and silencing the source of sound inside. The only thing he heard while passing it was a chain mail-bearing body collapsing.
Upon passing the tent, he found about twenty ferrets just milling about. Presumably, the actual number was twice this, once the numbers of those inside the flimsy structures erected throughout the clearing were estimated. Considering that the mouse had fifty bolts already loaded into magazines on him at the time, though, it wasn't as if he lacked the ammunition to dispatch every single one of these on his own.
It looked like a good strategy he could use in this situation would be to bottleneck them; if he got to a point in the camp with only a few entrances, their numbers would be useless. However, Archon had to work around this, since there was no such space in the area and if he retreated into the forest his enemies would gain cover... And he'd lose his support. The only option left was to stroll in like he actually belonged there or something, and then start killing ferrets. Which was what he did.
Not waiting for even one arrow from the camp perimeter to help him out, the mouse set to work like an armed robot, methodically firing and chambering and firing and chambering and watching body after body collapse within feet of himself. They lacked the numbers to organize into a significant circle and so long as they maintained a steady stream of sorts, he wouldn't have any problems. Of course, this couldn't last.
When he assumed his bayonet would be seeing more innards being sheared apart by its edge, Archon was absolutely right. Eventually, there were just too many to keep fighting with bolts, and upon his magazine emptying, he resorted to augmented paw-to-paw combat to hold them off long enough for Wolfsbane to try picking off whoever he could. He seemed to never even have both of his boots on the ground at the same time, he was delivering so many strikes with them, and he had to be; they were so close he was surprised he wasn't hurt yet. Eventually, he noticed a blade crossing over his field of vision and realized that someone was trying to sunder his repeater with a hatchet. Moving aside just in time, he felt its edge travel right over the skin of his paw and take off a small piece of the pistol grip. The ebony grip! Twenty coins for that thing, you slime!
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 8, 2008 14:21:28 GMT -5
OoC: First, I think you just surpassed me. Second, I already took care of the sentries... which I'm pretty sure I described in my post. Let me check real quick. Yeah I did.
Wolfsbane had seen Archon arrive in the camp and kill the first couple of ferrets. Since then, unbeknownst to Archon, he had been stealthily killing ferrets with the lethal longbow of his. He had started out at the fringes of the camp, constantly changing positions. When the real action started, he shot faster, shooting into the mass of ferrets heading toward Archon. When he ran out of arrows,.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 8, 2008 14:36:05 GMT -5
OOC: You didn't say anything about the north sentries. You said they were there, but I don't see anything about you whomping them.
BIC: By the time Wolfsbane had exhausted his arrow supply, Archon was just getting into the swing of things. He noted that the estimates of reinforcements from the tents that he had made appeared to be drastically higher than was the actual case... Most likely the squirrel picking off those closer to the camp's undoubtedly ambiguous perimeter. It did give him a bit more hope as to the fight's outcome, but it still stood that none of the ferrets were paying attention to his faraway support and all of them were staring right at him. Yeah, keep looking, let that guy just... He's not firing.
This complicated matters slightly. He could hold off a mob of ferrets surrounding him with surprising ease, but making killing blows was harder to do. Even when he gave his bayonet as much of a workout as he could, considering all of the blades he had to dodge, it was only possible to fell one every ten seconds or so. His endurance was only starting to wane but there had to be a less risky way to continue. Improvised shield again?
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 9, 2008 13:19:34 GMT -5
OoC: Wolfsbane reached the sentries to the north and quickly unslinged his bow. The two sentries were arguing with each other about who had killed more woodlanders in the last raid. Wolfsbane looked at them with disgust and notched an arrow to the longbow. Ssssthunk!The arrow hit the mark. Between the ears of one of the sentries. The other sentry yelped and looked around in surprise. He turned his head around just in time to recieve an arrow between his eyes. Wolfsbane shouldered his longbow and moved on to the next pair of sentries to the southwest. Oh, and by the way, my last post was not completely finished yet, I was in a hurry and I forgot to write "incomplete". But I guess it worked out anyway. IC: Being an experienced warrior, Wolfsbane knew the exact amount of arrows he had, and had counted every single one he used. When he knew he was running out, he had been heading toward a smaller tree while picking off the perimeter. By the time he was out of arrows, he had reached the tree. He unsheathed his long knives and jumped from the tree. The knives were of identical size and weight, made by his father for Wolfsbane's graduation at the Treeflyer's Military Academey. They did not hinder him as he glided down toward Archon. As he glided down, he flew straight over the heads of the vermin, and started slicing at any vermin who came into reach. He landed on the ground next to the thinnest group of vermins surrounding Archon. The vermin had seen Wolfsbane as he glided down toward him, and a group of Flitcheyes turned around to meet the new threat. As they ran toward him with an assortment of weapons, Wolfsbane shouted his battlecry. "Treeeeflyerrrrrr! Otter's Foooort!" He added the latter one at the last second on an impulse. Wolfsbane ran toward the group who had ran to meet him as he shouted his battlecries. Two of the primitive ferrets, wielding swords, ran faster than the others, each hoping to get a promotion by killing this weird looking squirrel. Wolfsbane anticipated their movements based on their waist and shoulder movements. He ducked under the swings, then swung his knives backwards, catching them both in their backs. He quickly pulled out his knives from their flesh and used one of the knives to block another ferret's spear, then twirled under him and stabbed him with the other knife. As he battled the other ferrets, he concluded that the best chance for both Archon and himself would be to stay together. "Cap'n Archon! Back to back?", he shouted as he blocked another ferret's axe swing.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 9, 2008 13:38:40 GMT -5
OOC: Could've sworn that was to the southeast, but we're just a tad late to retcon.
BIC: "Do we..." Archon forcibly parted a ferret from his cutlass and used it to shear through his newest victim's neck nearly down to the bone. "Do we have that many left to even contend with?" Not that it was a bad idea; he quickly maneuvered himself to directly behind Wolfsbane. It looked like there were only a dozen or so remaining, but only one had to remain standing for the both of them to lose their lives.
Having detached his bayonet after it stuck in an opponent's ribs and shouldered his repeater some time before, Archon was now fighting with his paw-to-paw sidearm; namely, his rake sword. Seeing as it more roughly hacked through flesh than made clean cuts– this being an intended design trait– the mouse found himself making a lot of bold moves which were difficult to keep up the pace on. However, his single– or perhaps it would be better described as many– -edged blade proved an excellent tool for making all the fatal strikes he had to.
As soon as he moved to behind Wolfsbane, Archon found himself under attack. Two ferrets simultaneously charged him at nearly opposite sides, but not quite close enough to use one's force against the other. Their jaw-dropping serrated sabers apparently made it clear that they weren't fooling around, but the pair of forward, reckless gaits striking the ground so roughly belied these weapons and gave the mouse a picture of inexperience. It was enough to lead him to the assumption that they would actually be meaning every single move they threw out, so when the first one met him with a close-up stab to the abdominal region, he trapped it with his sword's innermost cutout.
Since the weapon he was immobilizing was serrated, it was impossible for the ferret to actually free it; this bought Archon enough time to deliver a crushing kick with his steel-plated boot to the other one's floating ribs as he so wondrously exposed them in bringing his weapon above his head. The mouse didn't even bother paying attention to the resulting collapse on his target's part as he resumed focus on the attacker with whom he had become so closely locked. Judging by the general lack of struggle and more of a will to stay still, it was clear that this ferret was fine with not going anywhere.
This was enough to tell Archon that he wouldn't be getting a thing from doing what he was doing; a kill would be impossible from here, considering how busy Wolfsbane must have been. He relinquished his right paw from his sword's hilt and, as he felt his weapon beginning to give, drew a palm dagger out of his sleeve and thrust it into the ferret's eye with the heel of his paw. Eyes and throat. How perfect.
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 14, 2008 13:52:18 GMT -5
With his back to Archon, Wolfsbane now only had to worry about his front and sides. Three ferrets fell upon Wolfsbane, trying to bring him down. The Warrior of the Treeflyer clan ducked and dodged a swing from an axe and used the ferrets momentum against him. He swung his dagger into the side of the ferret. The ferret fell down, dispatched. A smaller ferret tried to use his agility to get into hitting range of the flying squirrel. The ferret ducked under one of Wolfsbane's swings. The ferret swung to the side and swung at Wolfsbane's unguarded paw. Luckily, Wolfsbane had been dodging another swing from the other ferret, and thus recieved a lighter wound. Wolfsbane used this to his advantage. He fell to his knee, pretending it was a bigger wound. The small ferret came at him, and swung his scimitar vertically. Wolfsbane rolled past the ferret's leg and swung both of his knives into the back of the ferret. The third ferret, saw the opportunity and swung his sword handle into the squirrel's shoulder. Wolfsbane jumped back and avoided the second swing. He pulled one of his knives out of the dead ferret's body and threw it as hard as he could at the ferret. The knife seemed to grow out of the ferret's back.
Wolfsbane looked over to see Archon dispatching a couple of ferrets. Besides, the two that Archon was dealing with at the moment, all the other ferrets had fled or were lying dead on the ground.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 14, 2008 14:01:42 GMT -5
Archon grabbed onto the base of his dagger and used his sword-holding paw to push the body off of it, promptly throwing it into a ferret he thought was still able to fight. As it turned out, it was just a carcass that was propped up by another behind it. Not bothering to retrieve his small steel asset, Archon wiped his blade off on the side of the corpse he'd just taken the life from with shocking meticulousness before sheathing it and turning to look back at Wolfsbane.
It appeared that any further resistance was long gone. At this point, the mouse turned to the bodies strewn about the camp and crouched down by the nearest one. "Spoils," Archon muttered with a hint of guilty satisfaction as he searched the deceased ferret for any items of value, finding nothing but several coins which he pocketed. "The one thing the fort doesn't have a tax on..."
The surprise nature of their attack meant that the defeated defenders likely had had little time to secure any valuables. Archon found something of interest nearly everywhere he looked; it wasn't immoral if you were stealing from those who were too dead to need any of what they had, after all. He didn't seem to mind that all of the items he found were probably taken by force from some woodlanders in the first place. They were likely dead or impossible to find and return items to now, anyway, and it would be a waste to leave good work out on the battlefield.
Before moving to the next body, Archon noted an excessively engraved dagger thrust through the ferret's belt. Slowly edging it out and examining it, he noted that it appeared to be made with a well-worn oaken handle and had a few areas covered with gold leaf on it. The design was obviously from the far south and it looked like it used to be possessed by royalty. I could get fifty coins on this thing!
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 15, 2008 16:20:43 GMT -5
Wolfsbane was well used to enjoying himself with spoils of war. He had gotten his belt from a rat he had killed in his travels. He looked around the dead ferrets and looked for any items of interest. Most of the Flitcheyes had been wearing worn out primitive clothing and had old weaponry. As he walked through the corpses, a glint caused by something shiny caught his eye. It was a ruby amulet with emerald sycamore leaf engraved in it. Wolfsbane guessed that it had belonged to a squirrel who had fallen victim to the Flitcheye. Squirrels were known to make jewelry engraved with different leaves of trees on it. Wolfsbane pocketed it. Wearing the necklace would be a hazard during battle, but maybe he could imbue the amulet onto something more stable.
"Cap'n, are we done here? What should we do with the bodies? T'would be a shame if some good creatures came upon this."
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 15, 2008 16:45:16 GMT -5
"Pity we don't have a Battlefield Sanitation team waiting on us... Once we're done here, go pyro, I guess. I can't dig a pit big enough for all these bodies, end of story." Archon found that save plain old cash, which he pocketed wherever he found it, there was little to take from all the bodies. He eventually left Wolfsbane to scavenge whatever he could from the corpses, and headed off to explore the myriad tents around the site.
The first one he entered was the one that had his fourth kill inside. A female ferret who couldn't have been more than twenty lay on her chest on the ground, eyes wide open and blood still oozing from a gaping hole his repeater had punched in her neck, ironically just above where her chainmail shirt might have protected... It was useless anyway. Archon felt the slightest hint of remorse as he checked her for anything of value and found nothing. The only furniture in the tent, a low, wooden collapsible table, had a piece of blood-spattered parchment on it, which Archon picked up to read.
It looked like an already-opened envelope. There was a smaller, folded piece of parchment inside, which the mouse took out into the daylight to read. The print was small and poorly scrawled, so there was no way he could have read it with a layer of canvas between him and the sun. If it weren't for the possibility of strategic value, he wouldn't have been messing around with just one letter, but it was worth doing. He unfolded the parchment and started to scan it.
Dear Mawdart,
I'm so sorry I couldn't make it up to Mossflower to celebrate this with you. You're like me now, little sister, a real member of the family. The kind of pain I feel from knowing that I'll be too busy in the lodge with Graniter isn't a kind I can truly describe to you.
But this is no time to feel remorse. You've got a life to live, after all, and this is a point of it that you should be celebrating. I heard you finally got to be with Nogano– Is that true? If it is, well, I'm impressed. The fact that you're in a relationship with such a powerful figure is a little daunting, though, isn't it?
I hope I can see you soon. Mother is doing well and I might be able to stop tending to her and come see you if her improvement keeps up. If that's the case, I'll send you another letter so it's not a big shock. Please reply soon.
Oh, and if you're so intimate with Nogano, can you tell him that I want my dagger back?
-Dutoth
The seed of regret the mouse had been feeling wasn't improved when he made to return the letter to its envelope, noticed some writing on the back that he hadn't seen before, and read it. Don't open this while you're still 17!
He absently put the envelope in his left inner coat pocket, not wanting to get rid of such a striking item. The image of this Mawdart's unarmed, innocent corpse, laying on the floor of her modest tent with a fatal wound below her right jawbone, had burned into his head and didn't seem to be going anywhere fast. Killing armed, opposing combatants was one thing. Killing a beast that had only a shirt of chainmail to protect herself was another. It took the wind out of his internal pirate's sails.
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Post by wolfsbane on Apr 24, 2008 14:15:52 GMT -5
Wolfsbane saw Archon enter the tents.
'Probably for information.', Wolfsbane thought to himself.
Wolfsbane quickly pilfered the rest of the bodies for anything valuable, then started lugging the bodies to a pile. Soon, with the help of Archon, the bodies were piled up. Wolfsbane looked around for the tallest tree in the area. He spotted a large oak tree that had withstood the trials of time and nature. He quickly climbed the tree and looked around the area for a pine tree. He was looking for flammable pine resin.
Suddenly, a thought passed through his mind. He climbed back down and walked over to Archon.
"Sir, wouldn't a fire be dangerous? It would be hard to control the fire with just us two. What if the wind picks up some embers? It could start a forest fire."
Images of his past flashed through his head again. He could hear the screams of squirrels trapped in the trees, burning alive. He could smell the burning of flesh. He felt naucious for a few moments. Then, he was back in control of his thoughts and quickly shook the thoughts out of his head.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 24, 2008 14:21:59 GMT -5
"If the wind picks up some embers?..." Archon had to thank Wolfsbane for getting the subject of his having just killed an innocent girl. Then again, maybe he didn't. It might have been better if he just didn't bring up what he'd just found, but if he told himself that, chances were he would end up saying something anyway. "In this clearing? What? No, once we get all of them into the center, get all the tents away... It'd have to be a pretty huge wind to pick up any embers and send them into the trees. It's not that high a pile of bodies, anyway, not like the wind can hit it that hard."
He hadn't actually trained for battle sanitation, but unofficial experience with those who had was nearly as good. Immediately heading towards the pile they'd just created, he surveyed it, as well as the wind, to see if they had to move anything. "We might have to take down that tent over there," Archon pointed out while pointing to the tent in question. It was empty at the time of attack, or at least devoid of signs of life. "It's a bit risky to leave it standing when it's so close, it could be a pyric springboard."
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