Closed ~Opportunity Strikes only Once

[Garland]

Garland had taken a liking to this Zhou character, and he did have a point, it would be better if there are more of them. He knows first hand of the dangers of the woods, having fought a Yukman earlier this season, and leaving with a broken nose and over exhausted body. This season would be a harsh one, he could tell. Though, his horse was the cause of several of his injuries. Fighting off dire beasts was not a thrilling idea.

"Yes, it would be much safer to move together. And besides, what good does loot give if you're dead?" He gave a small chuckle, he was hoping to maybe practice his bowmanship, he needed to learn how to properly nook an arrow and how to hold it properly as well.

Catherine on the other hand was not as pleased as her squire, true that moving together would be better, she wanted some alone time with the child she unknowingly orphaned when he was just a baby. She kept quiet about how she felt but she had a hard look on her face, one that betrayed no emotion. She wanted to come clean about what she had done, but now would not be a good time with the others following.

[Lasken Tolstoy]

Lasken had been watching the woman for a good while now and noticed the pained expression on her face, Lasken knew that something about her wasn't right, that look of guilt, that pained expression. Lasken made no attempt to press her on her expression but instead made note of it and continued with his silence, watching the two knights closely being sure to keep a look out for potential threats in the surrounding area.

[Zhou]

(Permission to skip to destination? Will edit if required. <3) Zhou listened to the agreements of his new aquantence, though took to note the sheer neutral look of the woman who seemed to be with him, she did not seem to sit in the affirmative or the negative, which, seemed a little off putting to Zhou, but, being rather fickle, he made nothing of it in the mean time. However, the Inartan was perceptive enough to pick up on Lasken's obvious distaste for the Syliran knighthood, something which might need to be nipped in the bud later if they were going to continue to work together. The tension that was being created between the groups was almost palpable, and it was beginning to effect Zhou's mood in a negative sense. Nudging Lasken with a sharp elbow, he would give the monolithic man a shrug and a look which conveyed something along the lines of 'are you serious, they're helping!?' Insinuating to the knights all the while without so much as uttering a word, but not keeping to hidden about it himself, as it was not within the you man's nature to hide his emotional state. Hours past, and they were bordering the fringes of the forest of Sylira on the very tip of the Syliran knights' reach. Here was where theives and killers were the safest, and where wild beasts became most common. They were all well past the farming fields now, which lay as miniature backdrops to the stage they were about to set foot into. Upon the ground, Zhou could see rather easily the fresh mixed footprints of horses and armoured knights, who had dismounted and obviously regrouped before entering the forest here. Zhou would likely move to track the path of the knights, looking over the directions they were moving, while looking for signs of their passing. He was thankful that the armour of the Syliran knighthood was heavy steel, which allowef the prints and the signs of their passing to be rather distinguishable to him, even as a novice tracker. This was accompanied by the fact few knights passed through here in their routine scout, so there was very little traffic. "Looks like the knights this morning made their way through here, the prints are reasonably new, and they haven't been set fully yet. At least I think not... There seems to be about... ten, fifteen tracks give or take a few. I can't quite tell you their weights or sizes, but they were all armored, and they left their horses behind while the progressed on foot. You should likely do the same, a dire wolf will enjoy a nice meal on that juicy horse of yours if they manage to pounce it." Zhou, as always was open and blunt about everything that usually crossed his mind, apart from his deeper and inner most internalizing and processing. Smiling as he continued, looking back all rather amused at what they decided to do, Zhou had assumed the position as an equal with the squire, becoming more and more familiar the longer he continued. The deeper they moved into the forest, the harder it was to track the footsteps of the knights, but the easier they were to track. The signs of a heavily armored and equipped knight moving through the forest was so readily apparent, they may as well have set their own trail alight, or left a trail of breadcrumbs. Zhou found one after the other, deep scratches on the trees they had moved over, as well as broken or slashed branches they had hewed to make their path easier to make their way through, rather than moving around the branches, the natural instinct of the trained swordsman was to cut a path through his obstacles. It spoke a lot about the human race to Zhou, but it was something he considered to be fascinating. Cutting a branch was the path of most resistance... meaning that to him, humans always took the difficult road, a road that would make them far stronger in the long run. It was at this point that Zhou drew his short bow and knocked an arrow against the bow string while he was moving, ready to aim and fire at a moment's notice, his eyes trained on the smallest of movements, darting from side to side, keeping as alert as possible, the long range arrows which knocked against the bow were military arrows more than hunting arrows, each made to be able to fly much further than a normal arrow. Zhou took no small amount of pride in his archery, they would each see what Zhou was capable of in time. But as they moved deeper and deeper into the woods which became wetter and less hospitable for human life. Zhou could see the footprints of the knights begin to fan out. Perhaps it was at this point that they were able to hear something... And it seemed to duplicate here, as in the distance, there was a very soft scratching that could be heard to those who trained their ears and were listening intently. Zhou signalled to each of them in turn that he could hear something on the horizon, though he could not pinpoint what by the sole scratching and low growl. "Something's ahead... we should be ready for anything..."

[Garland]

Garland had noticed his Patron's silence, usually she'd give advice or scold him for something, but he didn't notice Zhou's friend's unease. "I've never been this far, land was becoming harder and harder to navigate. The land was turning softer and wetter. He didn't like fighting here, it would be too difficult for heavier fighters, like himself.

"Zhou, lead the way. You're the tracker. Be ready to run back if things get hairy." Catherine had said before unsheathing her blade, she turned her attention to the silent one. "Do you have a weapon? It would be best to have it ready." She dismounted her horse and tied her to a tree, brushing her mane.

Garland got off his own horse, but was more like bucked off and landing in the mud. "I hate you, you dumb horse." He pushed himself up from the dirt, and dusted himself off. He tied up his own horse and then unsheathed his own sword and shield.

The two of them followed Zhou while Garland took up the rear. There were signs of fighting, sure, but they weren't informed about any fight. Hopefully the first group had already taken care of it.

It was rather quiet in the woods, like something was watching them. Usually there would be more sounds, a bird tweeting or some bugs, but right now there was nothing. It put both the knights on edge.

[Lasken Tolstoy]

Lasken was the first to notice the rustling in the surrounding brush. Lasken quickly drew his Shortsword and raised his palm outwards towards the large figure that was emerging from the brush. If the figure turned out to be a yukman like Lasken suspected then he could easily put it down with his reimancy. Lasken's grip around his sword tightened. Lasken laughed as it turned out to be nothing more then an oversized rabbit. Lasken quickly sheathed his sword and lowered his palm.

[Zhou]

Zhou stalked forward, almost jumping out of his skin in surprise at the fast moving rabbit which came bounding from beyond the bushes, Zhou relaxed his bow, having held it taught and ready to fire for some time. Shaking off his arm and allowing the muscles to relax for a moment, he knocked the arrow again, pulling the bow-string tight and observing his surroundings apart from the rabbit which had managed to increase his heart rats substantially in the time of its short appearance. Zhou looked to the other two, watching Lasken put his blade away, Zhou shook his head for him not to, the time it took to redraw a sword was not worth waiting when it was the difference between life and death. Zhou wished that he was far better at using his bastard sword, but, he was good with his bow. At competent levels he could easily expect himself to hit a moving target one out of two times if it was strafing... So, he should be fine. The halt it had taken from the rabbit scare had proved fruitful, it seemed that heeled boots had tracked through the mud here, riding boots. Zhou held his hand up for the lot of them to halt, as he moved closer to the tracks, there seemed to be only one, and it was moving horizontally across the area, the print was older than those of the knights, Zhou could not tell by sight alone, but, after some poking in the dirt, it was more set than the mud of the others, less sunken as the elements had shaved off the rough edges of the footprints. All things he had to remember from the lessons taught to him by his father and mother's hunting tutors. Zhou tried to think about why someone would be walking this way through the bush, the camp was obviously ahead.. "Perhaps he was scouting the area, or relieving himself, or... something else... There are footprints here, from before the knights, probably one of the highwaymen, but it's not going toward or away from the camp. It's cutting across on the fringes... Why would he do that?" He questioned, only to be cut off shortly after as he heard a sharp snap and a low guttural growl from up ahead. Zhou's eyes moved shaft up, looking to each of the party and beginning to make his way through the last of the woods to the small campsite clearing which lay ahead. Before them was a somewhat grisly sight to behold. Attracted by the smell of the freshly dead, eight wolves in total fed on the corpses of the deceased half dozen highwaymen, and the singular knight they seemed to take with them to the grave, once shining and polished Syliran armour tarnished by blood and dirt as a wolf attempted to gnaw and claw its way through the soldier to the feast which lay on the inside. Zhou was deadly silent, the scent of the day long corpses would mask their scent, while their growling and eating would minimally mask their sound. Zhou found himself looking to the female knight for direction. She was the ranked superior when it came to combat here... and Zhou would gladly listen to what she had to say about these wolves. Eight was a large number to just be a hunting party, though the food present was way more than what they would usually hunt. Wolves very rarely had massive packs unless they needed to crowd for protection or a common threat... As Zhou spoke, he kept his voice very low, lower than the sounds of the eating hounds as they devoured the flesh of their dead victims. The body of the knight needed to be buried, and they sure needed to recover some of the equipment there before it was wrecked any further by the rummaging canines. "We need a plan... with that much food they're not about to back down from their quary without loosing significant numbers... What do we do?" Zhou spoke of course to the senior knight, who had for the most part kept silent. At this point, drawing steel would be impossible without giving away their position. Zhou, not long after he asked the question moved to the back with his bow. He was the apparent weakest of them all, so he was the most likely to be targetted by the packs numbers, hunting animals often gunned for the weakest first in an attempt to secure food while the others distracted the stronger members of groups. Though, if Zhou could find himself a vantage point, be it up a tree or otherwise, he would greatly limit his ability to be dragged down by wolves and devoured, an end which Zhou did not particularly wish to partake in, should Syna deem it worthy. Zhou silently prayed to his patron for the clarity to make his shoots in this instance count, locking into the wolf which was currently well into tearing the inner flesh from the fallen knights' neck hole. Simply charging the wolves as individuals would end in tragedy, as the many numbers of the large wolves would take them down one by one...

[Garland]

Garland looked at the other three, the wolves would definitely cause a lot of trouble, but what he was really worried about is where was the alpha wolf? It could make it easier or harder if it was here, but Garland couldn't tell if it was here with the rest of the wolves.

Catherine looked around the area, the trees would be a good vantage for their archer, which would be Zhou. Even with his support it'll be a tough fight, they needed an edge. She kept her voice low enough for the wolves won't hear, but the others could. "Zhou, think you can climb that tree, and give us an advantage? Quiet one, do you know any magic? preferably fire. Garland, You'll be the bait the wolves, if you see anyone in trouble try to take out the attackers and if you can't then try to lure them away. I'll attack the bigger ones and do the damage, remember to aim for the heads and necks." Catherine pointed to a tree and looked at the pack of wolves in the clearing. "Zhou, think you can climb up there without alerting the wolves. Hopefully the smell of blood will mask our scent, but remember to stay in the shrub and don't move too much, they can still see branches and leaves move. Ouiet guy, you stay behind and try to not get eaten, use range to your advantage, if one of them comes at you, just run or call for help. I'll give the signal when we're all in position."

Garland nodded. "I'm ready, are you guys ready?" He said looking at the other two.

[Lasken Tolstoy]

Lasken couldn't help but grin when she asked if he knew magic. Lasken quickly put both his palms up and began to draw upon his djed Lasken drew upon much more power then he normally would and as a result he began to experience a head splitting migraine as well as bleeding from the nose. Lasken then formed a large ball of res in each palm one imbued with fire and one imbued with wind, he then brought both palms together combining the two balls into one giant ball of lightning which he threw at the wolves hoping to kill most of them before retreating towards the tree Zhou was supposed to climb to regain his energy.

[Zhou]

The roar of wind, flame, and the snap-booming of lightning exploding into existence was not a quiet act, from the beginning of the spell-casting the wolves were immediately attuned to their location, several advancing on their location while others receded further backwards with some of their prey, to ensure the livelihood of the pack. Zhou, after listening intently to the advice of the knight, bounded for a sturdier looking tree, slinging his bow over his shoulder for a moment as he began to climb, looking back only to see an explosion of light from their mage compatriot. Zhou's eyes gazed in wonder for a moment as the spell baked, the power of the djed could almost be felt pulsating from the orb, though Zhou did not recognize the feeling, nor did he attribute it to anything other than the radiating power of the orb. In this instance, he was exposed to magic for the very first time, and the first magic he gazed upon was the power of lightning building up in a sphere of great influence before it was released upon the nearby wolves! The wolves during the casting time of the ball lightning spread out, but just a moment before the orb was released, Zhou felt how strong the ball of lightning was, ducking behind the tree he was hiding in, he would wait until the spell was over before coming out and attacking. The lightning sphere crashed into the center of the canines and detonated with the power of Lasken's djed, coiling strings of natural lightning electrocuted several of the nearby wolves, though, as they had more than spread out, two wolves were struck dead instantly by the blast, stopping their hearts and burning them through, a third and a fourth were lightly wounded and shaken by the edge of the discharge. As the technique fizzled, Zhou came out once again from behind the tree with his bow, taking aim at one of the three foot high wolves and releasing his first arrow. Aimed directly for the chest of the animal, the military flight arrow cascaded brilliantly into the chest of one of the two wounded wolves, striking it down, and dying, though not dead yet. Redrawing his bow, Zhou took aim at the wolves once again, with five remaining, the odds had turned in the favour of the humans, but now, there was fresh blood on the noses of the wolves. They could smell the weakness of the reimancer who had discharged the lethal orb which had killed two of them, one wolf, seeming to flee from the group, in a display of animal craft and borderline intelligence, began to circle around the group and flank the mage from the side, creeping up slowly in an attempt to not be seen, and take its prey off guard. The final four, paired off against the two knights, barking and gnashing their teeth, drooling blood-soaked saliva as they attempted to ward the humans from their quarry. From behind them all, a final wolf emerged, larger than the others, but not by a fantastic sum, a deep grey aged wolf began to slowly stalk into the area, its muscles tight and strong, its teeth long and almost glimmering like ivory when it came into view. The creature was unmistakably the alpha, and perhaps was a mutt from a half dire stock, though the analysis was difficult to discern. Seeing the new entrant, Zhou whistled loudly to the others in an attempt to get their attention and insinuate toward the newcomer wolf, increasing their numbers to 6, although one of them was stunned by Lasken's attack, making it useless until it regained its composure. From his vantage point, Zhou knew that wounding the pack leader would definitely lead to the rest of the pack dispersing. Pack mentality was cowardly when they held the disadvantage... But that would also mean less pelts to be taken back for sale, as well as wolf meat, bone, teeth and various other minerals which could be used by the people of Sylira... And so Zhou found his aim moving from the Alpha to one of the other wolves, pulling his bowstring tight and firing. The singing arrow stung one of the wolves which would have been barking at Garland, puncturing it in the torso and causing the wolf to let out a surprised yelp as blood spluttered from its mouth not moments afterwards, knowing that he had struck an organ connecting to its digestive tract or perhaps a lung. From Zhou's top down look on the battlefield, he noticed the wolves all here amongst the hunting pack were male, which could entail that they were in the midst or the beginning of their mating season, if the females were not available to hunt... or perhaps the wolf structure of the packs in Syliras had male hunting groups rather than mixed. The observation served no consequence, though it was an observation none the less which was made. At this point, Zhou was finding it hard to determine his next target, wolves were moving, and they were too small a target to hit accurately while they were moving with speed... Hopefully this fight was not going to get any more bloody... It didn't seem as though it would, but they had yet to see.

[Garland]

Catherine saw the large lighting ball hit right in the center of the wolves, sadly it didn't taken them all out, a few of them were left, all looking rather feral, ready to kill them in a heartbeat. She held her ground and slammed her shield into one of the wolves. "Garland! Get close to the mage, keep him safe. Zhou, take out the slowest and weakest. Mage, attack again but warn us next time, we don't want to get caught in the crossfire." Catherine thrust her sword at one of the wolves and it jumped back to avoid it. The alpha was going for her squire and the mage. She knew Garland could take it, but since he was protecting someone, and with another wolf circling the two, it would be difficult to fight the two while the mage was casting.

Garland nodded a thanks to Zhou. Hopefully he was being a good distraction, he drummed his sword against his shield, making noise and attracting the alpha. "Come here you big dumb grey mutt thing! I'll show you who's boss!" He didn't notice the smaller wolf go behind him, it would be easy to overpower him from behind.

Catherine quickly dodged out of the wolf's attack, then countering with a quick stab between the eyes, killing it instantly, it get out a few involuntary spasms and grunts before slumping down on the ground in a pool of its own blood. The other wolf that was focusing on Catherine gave a snarl. Catherine looked up to Zhou, trying not to be obvious. She gave a signal to Zhou to take out the one that was circling Garland.