A long patrol.[Open]

[Sheika]

Within moments, Sheika's day shifted from crazy, hysterical, mayhem, and disorganized to a quick paced, chaotic brawl. Such sudden shifts could not be healthy for the mind, but perhaps in this case, shifting into a madman would keep him alive, since if he stayed back and hid, surely Kreesha would have no mercy on him, which was more terrifying of a thought than thousands of this Yukmen. Sheika, watching as Corvo decided to plunge head first into combat, Sheika sighed, praying silently to Myri that she would bless him with some sort of power, more than the mark he already possessed that is. It would surely help, maybe even his mother's remains could contribute. Seconds after Corvo dove into battle, Sheika followed suit. He stayed in the general vicinity of Kreesha for two main reasons. To protect her (a foolish thought, I know) and that she might protect him as well. Her choice of weapon was a good deal more suited for destroying these creatures. Sheika was only armed with a Dagger and a dart gun (and not a single poisoned dart at that). Running towards the attackers, Sheika would leap, covering several feet in air as he threw himself straight into a Yukman that was eying another Myrian of his Fang. His arms and legs would wrap around his thick body clumsily, but to the best of his ability, and with his right hand he would take his dagger, and as quickly as he possibly could manage, would jab that blade into the man-like beast, hoping that at least one hit would down the monster. But there was so much gravel, it almost seemed like a layer of armor for skin.

[Rage]

Kreesha did not have time to offer her thanks when Corvo's attack distracted one of the Yukmen long enough for for her to deliver one of her own. As the creature howled out in pain, a heavy spiked ball it it across the face, silencing it forever. She nodded in approval towards Corvo; the man had the presence of mind to keep near the group as they formed a circle, each one strengthening the other's position. Sheika joined them in the next instant, opportunistically darting in to stab at the press of landspawn with his wicked dagger, retreating immediately to keep himself safe from the beasts' long reach – a reach that ended in sharp claws that could rend the flesh. The warrior with the shield did her best to keep these natural weapons from her fangmates but she could only block so much, and one got through to slash at Sheika's thigh. The man stumbled and fell to his knees. Kreesha's strong arm was there to pull him up and away before the grasping claws of the Tupahi Yukmen could get to him however. The fang leader was holding both the handles of her flails now, whirling them around to keep the beasts at bay. Seeing the shaman recovered, she shoved him towards the shielded warrior. “Work with her!” she shouted over the din of the battle. “I need space with these weapons! Corvo! To me! Back to back!” Her morningstars spun in each hand once again, smashing skulls and shattering limbs of the enemy. “Herd them towards us!” she ordered Sheika and his partner as she moved away. Behind her, Corvo found himself facing the largest Yuman he's seen yet. Even stooped, the creature was easily a head taller than Kreesha, who towered over everyone at six feet and five inches. The archers nearby were peppering it with their arrows but the creature took no notice as it stalked towards the warrior and his fang leader. There seemed to be no end to the number of beasts pressing against Sheika and his shielded partner as well. Everyone had to do so excellent fighting if they were to get out of this one.

[Corvo]

Great. An exceptionally large and,what Corvo could only presume, angry Yukmen. That was exactly what he needed. At least he had the crazy morning star wielding lady to watch his back. Or was he suppose to be watching her back? Did it matter? Either way back watching would occur. He starred at the creature as stalked across the battlefield. It had spotted him. The situation had gone from bad to abysmal. A sudden nervousness shot through Corvo as he gazed upon the creature. The battle high he was experiencing only minutes before had left him. In its place was a sense of dread. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he tried to think of a plan. Nothing. Planning wasn't his strong suit it seemed. He would have to improvise as he went along, sadly only one course of action came to mind. Attacking from a distance was off the chart seeing as the arrows just bounced off the creature. It wasn't as if he had any long range weapons anyway. Unless he counted rocks. If arrows couldn't hurt the Yukmen rocks certainly couldn't. He took a deep breath. "I'm going to take the big one," He said only to reassure himself "If I die, tell the others my last words were Papayas are awesome." Comedy was suppose to be a natural tension reliever. It wasn't working. With a forced chuckle he charged towards the large Yukmen. Hopefully he would think of something or avoid dying. Both worked. As he moved he strafed to the side, he had no idea how mobile or how intelligent the landspawn was but hopefully it wasn't very perceptive. He tried to work his way around to its back, where anything with normal senses blind spot would be. Once he had made it Corvo leapt forward, sinking his blade deep into the creatures upper back while grasping onto its neck for dear life. With each attempt to shake him off Corvo only pulled his blade out and stabbed again. He would not be subdued by such an inferior creature.

[Sheika]

Sheika was not himself as he lunged onto the creature. Somewhere between leaping into the air and to crashing into the beast, Sheika lost his typical self, being lost in some maddened rage with a sort of skilled or purposeful thinking behind it, as if he was awoken by the spirit of blood, sweat, and fear. Sheika found himself stumbling away as the creature was downed, but he didn't get far before he felt immense pain wrack his body. His leg, the thigh to be exact, began to burn violently as if he was literally being tortured via burning steel dug through his body. The pain started there and quickly migrated through him, wracking his brain with a mind-numbing overwhelming. Whatever maddened spirit that possessed the Witch Doctor quickly faded, his victim was defeated, but now he was only slightly better. He was wounded, and soon to be torn to shreds. Perhaps he should have left Corvo to die... Sheika felt a powerful arm grab him and practically lift him from the moist jungle floor and thrown backwards into the back of the shield-wielding woman of the group. Sheika was gasping for air a moment as he recollected his thoughts. What did Kreesha do? She saved his ass, that was one thing, but she was roaring orders now with a voice that uncannily hovered over the chaos of the brawl. It was with extreme clarity that the voice vibrated through his ears. Herd them? Seemed difficult for him to do with a simple dagger, but the woman back-to-back with him, she was fierce, she could probably scare the Yukmen. But there were so many. Sheika bit his bottom lip with such vigor that it started to split and bleed directly into his mouth and drip over the corners of his mouth. He had to think of something. Push them towards Kreesha. To do that, he had to push them back, but they held strength and reach advantage over Shieka. Sure, he had a beast of a woman that would keep all harm from his back, but he was heavily hindered at the bleeding gash in his leg. Sheika wondered then if Yukmen felt fear. Surely not enough to squelch the primitive and foolish desires to feast on Myrians, but if they could be startled, could they be forced to flee? Sheika had to try, he had no other options, save for the blowgun in his bag, which was unlikely to do a damned thing. "Raaah!" Sheika felt his voice pick up to a volume that even he had never experienced from himself. The roar that was expelled from his body was that, in his mind, of a Myrian Tiger. He then charged the nearest Yukman, even though it had several behind it as well. If only it could be startled into a backpeddle, or even a full fledged flee, it would be forced straight back into Kreesha, or at least stumble over the other assailants. If it didn't flee, Sheika would merely continue his roaring screams and charge straight into the Yukman, hoping to use mere momentum to cause the creature to collapse like a tower, thus rendering it open for a good ol' bashing by Kreesha's deadly weapons.

[Rage]

Sheika: Sheika's tactic worked - to an extent. The Tupahi Yukman he rushed up to give pause at the sight of the screaming Myrian charging at it, unleashing a bloodcurdling shriek of its own as it met the shaman head on. It's sudden departure from the throng of other landspawn left its fellows scrambling to fill in the void it left, creating a gap between them. Jakai, the spear-wielding warrior, gave an exasperated sigh as she realized her supposed partner had just suicidally charged at the enemy. It was a good play; at least the number pressing against their leader (who now seemed alone as well) wasn't as many as before as the other Yukmen focused on Sheika, but that also left the man totally exposed. She ran after him, cursing under her breath. It was fortunate that the man's leg wound slowed him down, otherwise she would not have been able to catch up. As such she was just able to get ahead of him to ward off the other Yukmen as he barreled straight into the one that charged at him, the two of them rolling into the ground. By design or accident, Sheika's knife found the creature's chest, though it still struggled weakly against him, entangled as they were on the jungle floor. "Hurry up and deal with that! Kreesha will have our hides for going against the plan!" Jakai hissed as she pushed her large shield against the incoming throng. She put her weight against to and heaved, then suddenly backed off as she spun around to fling her spear in the opposite direction. "Corvo!" she shouted. "Duck!" And then the woman was pushing against the group of Yukmen once more, short sword in hand and stabbing at the enemy, giving Sheika time to dispatch his own enemy, which was clawing against his face and chest. -o- Corvo: To Corvo's surprise the huge Yukman ignored him and continued stalking towards its intended target: the unaware Kreesha. The woman still battled the a number of the beasts, though her spinning weapons were effective against them, crushing any limb that tried to rake at her. Many of the Yukmen that challenged her sported limp arms though they still continued to snap at her with their jaws. In turn, the fierce Myrian would laugh at their faces - just before she smashed them with her morning stars. Still, Kreesha was unaware of the approaching threat behind her. The largest Yukman, likely the leader of the group, had singled her out as its target, intending for a showdown: alpha male versus alpha female. Corvo's sudden attack destroyed its plans, however. His blade sunk in deep into the creature's torso, eliciting a pained howl from the enormous beast. Again and again, the Myrian stabbed, ignoring the Yuman's attempts at dislodging him. It was easy enough to do: the myriad of arrows fired by the archers earlier left him plenty of handholds to grab onto. Despite his attacks, however, the Tupahi landspawn remained standing. It was then he heard Jakai's shout from across the distance. Something was coming he was supposed to avoid, but in the heat of the battle, he just didn't have time to look up and see what it was.

[Corvo]

Annoyance had started to permeate Corvo's features as he continued to stab the creature. He was amazed at the amount of damage it could take. Even if it was a land-spawn it still had to have something that could kill it quickly and efficient. A brain? A heart? A spine perhaps? It was maddening. He knew the creature felt pain from its attempts to dislodge him but all it seemed like it did was hinder the beast and slow it down at best. He would have to come up with a new strategy to bring the behemoth of a creature down. After a brief moment of thought Corvo decided he would attempt to decapitate the creature or stab it through the neck. Whatever was quicker and would cause less blood splatter. Did these things even bleed normally? He found it difficult to get out of his armor and usually required a vigorous scrubbing. He disliked scrubbing. Especially vigorous scrubbing. He started to make his way towards the creatures neck, using the marks and holes left by arrows as leg and hand holds. He was engrossed in his self assigned task. The sounds of the raging battle around had began to die down into a dull roar in his mind that is until he heard or at least he thought he did. With his attention gone from his current task the world came back into his mind at full blast. The sounds of battle were once again assaulting him. He had just barely heard the final word, "Duck!" He had no idea were whatever was thrown would land. Was it above or below him now. It didn't matter. He had to move. Now. He would take a leap of faith. He loosened his grip and let himself fall of the creature's back. Hopefully he wouldn't be impaled mid fall.

[Sheika]

"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! DIE!" Sheika was hidden under the larger beast as his knife found itself into the creature's body over and over. Each retraction of the jagged blade poured more sticky red blood over his body, and each thrust sent the blade once again into the body to continue this enraged cycle. Sheika, after nearly half a minute thoroughly making sure the corpse lying over him was truly no more than that, a corpse, he would struggle to push it to the side as stand up. His body was caked in black mud, red blood, making a dark maroon camouflage that would only help him to blend in with a mound of slain bodies. Sheika's breathing was heavy, his eyes staring down at the slain monster, it was by his own hands that the thing was no longer standing. It was by his own hands that his knife found a heart, a chest, and just about every organ that thing possessed. It took several moments, and mostly the female companion of his returning to his side, that woke him up from his trance. Well, partially anyway. Sheika wasn't himself anymore. He wasn't afraid of death, and even though his thigh still burned in agony (and was probably bound for infection due to blood and mud seeping into the wound) and his face and chest was spotted with scratches and small bleeding holes (damn claws), he feared not pain. He felt renewed, psychotic, ferocious. His eyes searched around the battlefield in a dazed manner as he found Kreesha and Corvo in the distance, they had their hands full. "Lead the way." Sheika grunted at last as his idle standing around came to an end, he returned to the back-to-back position with the Shield-carrying soldier woman. He was now watching her back again, giving full confidence that she was more than capable of downing anything that came close.

[Rage]

Corvo: Corvo acted not a moment too soon. Just as his feet hit the ground and was beginning to back up, the tip of Jakai's spear exploded out from the Yukman's lower back, having entered its body at an angle. To the Myrian's surprise, he found that the creature still did not drop from such a grievous wound. Instead it clawed away at the wooden shaft that was sticking out of its chest. It was distracted and surely weak now from the devastating hit. Should he choose to, Corvo could attempt to finish it off or rejoin his fang leader, who was surely hard pressed now keeping the rest of the beasts at bay. -o- Sheika: With the Yukman dead at his feet, Sheika was able to rejoin Jakai and cover her from behind. With limited reach of her short sword, the woman employed a different tactic now other than the stab and parry that proved so efficient earlier with her long spear. As the pair inched their way towards Kreesha, the woman would bash her massive shield against every other Yukman as she engaged the one immediately next to, leaving the first to the mercy of Sheika's dagger. The bone shaman was given the option of disabling or outright killing the creature at the expense of lagging behind for a couple of steps, or completely leaving it there, stunned, as they rushed closer to their fang leader. A few meters away, Kreesha was a in a spinning frenzy, the spiked heads of her dual morningstars finding targets easily. Several of the beasts lay on the ground around her already, skulls crushed and limbs shattered, but it would not take long before she was overwhelmed by the Yukmen's numbers. In the distance, the archers had climbed trees to keep away from the fight and were picking off targets of opportunity. They dared not fire too close to Kreesha however, for fear of hitting the wildly erratic warrior. It was undeniable the woman needed support, and soon.

[Corvo]

Corvo's left eye twitched. It wasn't dead yet? Why wasn't it dead? It had a god damn spear lodged into it. It had been stabbed and shot with arrows multiple times. The thing was still standing. Corvo was starting to take its incredible resilience personally. Things were suppose to die when they got stabbed. Maybe it needed to be decapitated. Its heart ripped out? Did it have heart? So many anatomical questions. He believed a dissection would have to be done once the bloody thing was dead. It was weak and distracted. This was the moment to strike. He stole a few quick glances in the direction of his fellow Myrians. Sheika and the female weren't dead yet and making their way towards the fang leader it seemed. Kreesha was another story completely. She was demolishing the enemy. Despite her impressive combat prowess she wasn't tireless. She would grow weary. She would make a mistake. She would die if this skirmish didn't end soon. Sheika and the woman were making their way towards her though, but would they be there in time? Despite their speedy progress he was anxious. His eyes landed back onto the Yukman. It would be easy to end it now. He could probably do it quickly and be able to help Kreesha before she was overwhelmed. The key-word there was probably. He wasn't entirely certain. If the creature wasn't down from a spear through the back it probably would still take some amount of effort to kill it. He made his decision. Sheika and the female would get there in time if neither of them did anything stupid. It was time he finally killed the thing. He didn't feel like climbing up the creatures back again, mainly because the thing reeked and he wouldn't be able to get the smell of disgusting Yukman off of him for a week at the very least. He would strike hard and heavy from bellow and bring the Yukman down to its knees. He took a few steps back from the creature before lurching forward and driving his blade into the back of its knee and then quickly ripping it out. He then proceeded to move around to the front of the creatures body and jumped forward lodging his blade into the Yukman's neck. The creatures death satisfied left him greatly satisfied. Sadly, he couldn't take the time to enjoy the spoils of victory.( A battle still raged and his fellow Myrians probably needed his help. He ran off in Kreesha's direction. Hopefully it wasn't to late.

[Sheika]

Sheika was very surprised at just how well he and the Shield-Maiden Myrian did as a team, and though it was almost entirely her that was dropping the Yukmen like flies, stunned them, and left them at the mercy of Sheika's unnatural panicky rage, he himself was racking up quite the kill count. With one Yukmen, not even one of average size really, was easily tossed to the ground, Sheika seized the moment and threw himself on top of the creature, placing several quick jabs through the chest and neck of the creature. Sheika knew of no better places to strike for a quick and ensured kill. A few jabs later, Sheika would dash back to Jakai with the best of his ability, yet the gash in his thigh was beginning to become more and more of a problem. The adrenaline rush that had mostly nullified the pain was beginning to lessen, the pain increased inversely. The hindrance it offered was growing. Moments later, and just about the time he returned to Jakai's back, she had cut down two others, and once again sent a Yukmen sprawled to the ground, defenseless for only a few valuable moments. With a groan of pain, the Witch Doctor threw himself again on the downed monster, doing his best to use both weight and strength to keep the stunned thing from moving or resisting. Again he would quickly jab the steel dagger into the chest various times, and a quick swipe across the throat once more to ensure it would not stand up. Sheika again limped as hastily as possible back to Jakai, hoping that they would reach Kreesha soon enough, and hoping even more that in her crazed violence she wouldn't mistake them as Yukmen.