FSE

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The vines overhead were disconcerting

It might have been the sheer size of them. There was nothing to compare it to but the Black Citadel itself, and even then, some of these made the thick, iron beams forming the great city's supports look small.

Perhaps it was the thorns that covered their lengths. They were as large as an Iron Legion tank, woefully oversized for doing harm to a single person, but against the once mighty Pact Airships they'd flown in on, they had bent and torn through steel hulls like a legionnaire's sword through foes.

Most likely though, was the fact that they were moving, possessed with a speed and strength that was downright terrifying from the dragon Mordremoth. Even now, they writhed like menacing fencers sizing up their foes. Crisscrossing the orange sky from fire and smoke plumes, they formed a weaving, yet random pattern, lunging and thrusting upwards to bring down any airship that crossed within range.

How many had they lost? Radeena Lightmuzzle couldn't even guess. She didn't want to. Not right now. Where the hell the rest of the Light Warband were was anybody's guess. Right now, she could only be sure of one other besides herself, and she wasn't exactly in good shape either. She was injured, with a sprained or broken foot caught under a tangled, gnarling piece of root, laid out on the ground on her back, the awkward position forcing her to look upwards. Her tail hurt already from the airship ride in. Now it was just painful, twitching occasionally underneath her as if just to remind her it was still there.

The reason behind her predicament was the other member whose location she was sure of. Reddrik Spotlight, who was dangling unconscious off the edge of the cliff, limp as a ragdoll and as heavy as an ox. Her paws were tightly tangled in her spotter's mane and hooked under his right pauldron while he dangled perilously above a drop of hundreds of feet into the tangled depths of darkness below.

She didn't have the strength to haul him back up by herself and didn't have the desperation quite yet to just drop him. He was more than a friend; she wasn't about to let him die on her watch, and certainly not by her hand. He was her Warband mate. This was far from the worst situation they had been in, but all things considered, it was certainly giving its all for that top spot on the list.

The white-pelted Charr grit her teeth, trying to remain as still as possible. The pain came to her in steady throbs from her twisted ankle, the big feline clenching her claws. At the very least, it had prevented her from losing consciousness completely after her dive to catch Spotlight when he'd been blown clear of the wreckage of the Airship they had arrived on.

In truth, it would have been far worse if she hadn't tripped on the vine and gotten her foot tangled. At least this way, she was anchored and not sliding to a quick and messy ending among the seething, crushing mess of vines. She'd seen two Asura and a Norn from their ship meet that fate when they crashed and wasn't keen to join them. It hadn't occurred to her how loudly the smaller races could scream during their demise.

She gritted her teeth as the earth rumbled beneath them, another mighty fissure forming as a new, tangled section of vine exploded outwards across the chasm from the pair of hanging Charr.

"Come on you fat fuck, wake up Spots!" She snarled, trying to carefully and gently shake him awake. For all she knew, the blast from the wreckage may well have killed him from concussive force alone and she could have been clinging desperately to his corpse for the last half hour.

She couldn't explain what happened. Not really. They had begun to bombard the jungle below as a unified fleet, and then, just... the jungle had woken up and decided to bombard them back.

And then there had been the Sylvari! Many of them had suddenly turned, the usually gentle and kind plant folk turning on their comrades in cold blood, twisted by the whisperings of the ever-corrupting Elder Dragon.

She could recall a fire on the deck, someone shouting about them going down. Her Warband had fought valiantly, until the entire ship had been torn in two, tossed away like leaves before a hurricane. It was miraculous that anyone had survived the crash at all. Her head was still throbbing while they had gathered their wits.

And then the Mordrem had come for them, and they had been forced to fight for their lives once more.

This jungle was very much alive, and it hated all of them. That was fine though. She hated it too.

"Spotlight, I swear, if you don't wake up soon..." Radeena swore, resisting the primal, intrusive urge to try and shake him awake. The spotted char below made something approximating a groan.

Yes, yes that's it!

"Reddrik? C'mon buddy, wake up. The world's on fire and you're missing it. We ain't gonna die here!" She almost couldn't contain her smug, sarcastic little laugh even as she said it.

Something by her feet growled.

She strained her neck against gravity to look down her leather armoured chest at the Mordrem wolf growling by her trapped foot. She exhaled a sigh containing her last mortal fuck to give.

Fuck it, we're gonna die here.

"Reddrik, need you present soldier..." She half whispered, not that it mattered. The twisted, plant faced deformed wolf was stalking rapidly towards her, vine line tongue lashing in the air.

"Ahhh, fuck... My head... I- OHFUCKFUCK!" She felt claws dig into her arms as her spotter opened his eyes and scrambled for a handhold on anything, and the only anything in reach was her. His claws dug gashes into her forearms. She winced and bit her tongue, hissing her next words as quickly and clearly as possible. The wolf was ten feet away at best.

"Reddrik. Climb up me. Grab my sidearm, and please kill the -thing- that is about to eat both of us."

"Fuck, Rav! What-"

"DO IT NOW OR I SWEAR I'M GOING TO DROP YOU SPOTS!"

"Fuuuck~!" Her spotter snarled but knew better than to doubt her. With feline agility, he curled and kicked his legs upwards, hand over hand hauling himself bodily up Radeena's arms. His head crested the lip of the cliff, and his mouth fell open as the wolf spotted him. It growled menacingly.

"Oh, fuck this. Fuck this!" He threw his body over Radeena's as it lunged at them both, his paw grasping at her hip.

BOOM.

Radeena's revolver barked once, the solid slug projectile vaporizing the Morderm Wolf's face with the powerful charge. It tumbled and rolled, coming to rest beside the pair. Rodrick blinked and quickly hauled himself completely back onto solid ground.

"Nice shot pretty boy. Now..." Finally free of his weight, she sat back up, letting the blood rush out of her head and back into her limbs. She hacked the vine catching her foot away with a knife, and stuffed a piece of the vine into her backpack.

"Curio?" Reddrik asked, tilting his head. His poster-worthy grin reasserted itself upon his features quickly. The cheetah spotted Charr ran a paw through his long, flowing mane, huffing as he took stock of their surroundings.

"Nah. Never leave something that saved your life behind. It's a good luck charm."

Together, they stood, Radeena wincing and hobbling along using Roddrik's shoulder in lieu of a crutch. They limped around the debris, ruble and blasted fragments of their detached portion of the airship, picking through the twisted metal and supply crates that had made it through their rapid deconstruction. It became quickly clear they'd landed atop of small mesa.

The only way to get anywhere would eventually be by descending into the lower reaches of the jungle. The very idea was unappealing in the extreme.

Night fell quickly, bringing with it the distant sounds of fighting and screams of those others cut off as the jungle hunted them, whittling their numbers one by one. He counted out bullets as they sat beside a small fire they had managed to kindle into life, keeping the flames low and concealed in a half-lidded pit.

"Well, we're cut off. Out of contact with the Warband and the Pact. No way to access support or dust off." He muttered, bagging up what usable supplies he could find. A roll of bandage and some Fire Whiskey went into binding Radeena's ankle tightly in a makeshift splint and numbing her pain. She all but purred in delight when he found her precious sniper rifle still locked in its armoury crate on the edge of the cliffside. It had been thrown clear of the crash and very nearly gone over the edge.

"We've got rations for another night, maybe two if we move light and conserve energy. I don't trust foraging in a jungle corrupted by an Elder Dragon. It looks like the pact Commander's airship went down further back to the east. Any survivors would have set up basecamp by that."

"Ammo?" The white-pelted female asked, nursing her foot and wincing every time she pressed on it. For certain it was fractured, if not outright broken. Her foot was swollen and angry where the vine had grabbed and twisted it.

"Sixty-seven rounds for the long gun, but only five magazines, so that'd give you twenty-five and forty-some unless you want to bag it and use single shots. Sidearms are a little better, about a hundred all up, so two dozen for you and the rest for mine, since you... Can't exactly take point like that." He motioned to her ankle. She huffed irritably, her four ears flicking in annoyance, but nodded, conceding the point.

"Aside from that? Two knives, a sword with a chip in it, a crowbar, a machete for clearing trail, some matches, rope, three canteens of water, and enough scrim net to fashion ourselves some camouflage cloaks and double as a lean-to."

She looked up from her injury.

"So fuck all?"

"Yeah, fuck all plus a little bit of Fire whiskey still." He confirmed her blunt assessment, packing it all into a backpack aside from the netting. He pressed up against her and tugged it over them without another word.

"Huh. Good week so far." Radeena muttered, rolling her eyes as she felt the male press himself carefully in behind her.

"Another day in the Warband, just like that time in Fireheart Rise. Get some rest. I've got the first watch."

Radeena closed her eyes, sighing, though her ears would twitch with every gunshot in the darkness. Restful sleep was not for this place. The screams and crashes would chase her through her dreams.

---

When morning came, the first rays of sunlight roused her from her dreams, though the nightmare remained long after waking.

Together, Radeena and Roddrik ate a light meal of dried crackers and jerky, before tackling their next problem. How the hell they were going to get down from the mesa.

The rope they had was only fifty feet long perhaps and looked like it had been a thread snapped from the thicker mooring ropes from the airship. A few tests verified it was at least sturdy enough to hold their weight without fraying or snapping, but even so, they still carefully lowered a steel crate on it first to the closest ledge that looked like it could support their weight. Then down went Radeena.

"You sure you're not gonna drop me, Spots?"

"If you keep calling me that, maybe. Bon Voyage!" He taunted her as he lowered her over the edge, descending slowly. She stopped every few feet, chipping handholds out of the rock for him to follow down on. Once she was safely on the ledge, she called back and watched in envy as her more abled second scurried down the rack face behind her. She waited quietly, scanning the ground below through the scope of her rifle.

"There's a stream flowing along the cliff path just to the east. A drink would be nice."

"You think it's safe?" Reddrik asked as he slid in beside her, raising a small spyglass from his belt to see what she did. Radeena tapped the empty canteen on her belt with a hollow knocking noise.

"Think we have a choice?"

"Fair point..." He grumbled.

The splint around the white Charr's ankle was holding for now, though they were quick to fashion Radeena a crutch from branches and vines while threading the native plant life into their netting cloaks once they reached the ground. Their pace might not have been stellar, or even fast enough to pass a basic legion maneuvering test, but both of them had trained with Ash Legion. Between dawn and sundown, they evaded more enemy patrols than it felt should have been possible, often simply by laying still, covering up, and waiting until the threat had passed.

The worst was watching Pact soldiers bound in chains or unconscious being dragged away to a fate unknown, and being unable to intervene. The Mordrem were simply too many, and it seemed like more showed up each hour that passed, attempting to prevent their comrades from gaining a foothold.

"We can't save them all. Come on. We'll make a nest on the cliffside up there and dig in. By the sounds of the fighting, the front line will reach us soon enough."

Even Gladiums knew there was no honour to be found dying pointlessly. It was the only thing that stayed Radeena's trigger finger. They would come back for them, and there would be plenty of retribution to be had when they came for the Elder Dragon's head.

They made it up the side of the next Mesa in far better time than they had to get down the last one. Both of them looked like they had trawled their way through a swap to get to the outcropping, placing their belongings just within the mouth of a cave that backed onto it. It only extended a few feet in, and perhaps once had been used by the native wyverns as a nest. A fine coating of dust over everything inside told them that nothing had lived here for a long time.

Night crept in on them, a slow chill that threatened to creep into their bones. Here on the side of the rocky hill, they didn't dare light a fire. Sustenance was provided by a canteen of water and a few dried cubes of meat. It wasn't gourmet, but it quelled the rumbling of their stomachs and fought back the gnawing edge of hunger. They'd had worse. As long as the water they'd collected on their way was clean, they could last a week, perhaps more. It wouldn't be comfortable, but they'd heard tales of humans in the deserts east of the brand scar lasting weeks without food.

It would be poor form for them to not even outlast the descendants of Ascalon.

Radeena snuggled up against the stock of her rifle, the barrel resting on a pile of rocks overlooking the valley. Her tail flicked behind her as she hunted down the sight of her rifle, the low light scope bringing everything into focus like she was shooting at the range in the midday sun.

Observe everything, admire nothing.

Her gaze never lingered on a single point, constantly shifting and shuffling her sights around.

Footsteps approached from behind her.

"Rav, you're gonna tear your barrels up like that." Reddrik whispered in her ears as he slid in beside her. Without a word, he tore a strip of fabric from the bottom of his cloak and tied it neatly around her rifle's barrel. She nestled the rifle back into position, the softer contact surface helping stabilize her sight. She made a few motions, sweeping her aim around before nodding, satisfied.

Reddrik leaned in and placed a kiss on the edge of one of her horns, his whiskers tickling her ear pair.

"You know, I never thanked you for not dropping me." His voice was quiet and serious, but timid. Life debts were never a small thing to owe another. He knew full well that he owed her his own several times over, though this time was by far the most direct. If she hadn't caught him when she did, there was zero doubt he'd be just another name to remember on the role of heroes who didn't make it back.

"Never thought you had to. If you hadn't woken up, we'd have both been jungle-chow." Radeena shrugged, her eye still glued to her scope. Her tail batted back and forth as he gave a quiet nod in contemplation. That she was so casual about it was reassuring. She had no interest or intent of holding it over him after all. Still, it nagged at him like a Lashtail's sting, lingering still after several long moments of quiet with nothing but the rustling of the jungle to break it.

"I owe you." He started, but Radeena silenced him with a look, turning her head sharply away from her scope. Her pretty blue eyes which had been shaded by years of fighting stood out like crystal ponds upon the sheet of fresh snow white that coloured her pelt and muzzle.

"No, you don't. If you want to thank me though, Take your watch when it's your time, and when the fighting does start, keep my magazines full. You watch my back, and I'll watch yours. That's how we've always been."

"You know that's not what I meant." He mumbled.

With a soft laugh, she grabbed the male by the horns and pulled his muzzle down to meet her own in a shared kiss.

"If you die here, I'll kill you." She threatened him, but her tail's playful flick betrayed her fierce and serious expression.

"Consider me warned." Reddrik growled, before pushing her over into the dirt so he could kiss her again. They tussled in the dirt like a pair of teens in the Farah, tumbling away from her sniping nest. She bit his nose, and quickly darted her muzzle to the side of his head, grabbing a pair of his twitching, tuft-topped ears.

"You remember the first time we did this?" Reddrik gave a breathy sigh between kisses, their horns bumping against each other with quiet clicks. Radeena pushed her forehead against his, purring loudly in her chest. Then, with the practised ease of a fighter, she rolled him onto his back, pinning his shoulders to the dirt.

"You did this, you mean? I was being good and watching my sector. You were the one who couldn't keep your eyes off my tail!" Her laugh was infectious, and it wasn't long until they were both giggling like a pair of lovestruck cubs again, snickering at some secret joke between themselves.

"Couldn't help myself. Besides, you were wriggling like a cat about to pounce. What was I meant to do? Not smack it?"

"If you were a better soldier, Spots, yes. You're not supposed to be infatuated by your fellow Warband members while you're on patrol..." She teased him, but already, her paws were roaming his body like his own were hers. The two Charr were already well past the point of infatuation and were rapidly moving further still.

"Aren't you supposed to be on watch?" He retorted smartly, giving her a coy grin.

She shrugged, the white-pelted female purring still as she crawled off of his lap, and rolled over onto her belly, snuggling up against her prized Blood-legion sniper rifle where it rested in her nest. She glanced back over her shoulder once and once only, meeting her fellow Charr's gaze. Her eyes were hawkish, sharp and gold, scanning over every last part of his laying form like she was scrutinizing him for the perfect shot. The sharp, filmstar-like angles of his face were pulled into a grin. She licked her lips, giving her tail a single, mischievous swish.

"Better get to it if you want anything, poster boy. It's gonna be dark soon, and you're going to be busy." Her playful taunt was a bare whisper on the wind, before with a playful flickering of her four ears, she chuffed and turned back to her scope, propped up on her knees with her white, fluffy tipped tail flagged across her back.

Roddrik didn't need to be told twice. He all but pounced on her back, rumbling loudly to match her affectionate purring. The distraction from their predicament was much needed by both of them.

A line of kisses was laid upon the nape of her back, trailing first from one side by her ears to the other, before he elegantly moved them down between her shoulder blades. He slowly shuffled backwards, careful always of her bound foot while he doted affections upon her. His paws worked with the clasps of her armour, lazily sliding around his partner's waist as they dipped beneath her leathers.

Both of them kept quiet, knowing full well the precariousness of their situation that any noise above a hushed voice might bring down upon them.

Even so, that first touch of his questing paw made Radeena bite her lip, her entire body going tense as his fingers slipped below her waistband and found her body wanting and wet. She pushed her hips into his touch insistently and tucked her chin against her chest as his rough fingers found purchase, pushing inside and past the petals of her eager and ready womanhood.

He wasn't a gentle lover, nor had she ever known him as one. They were Charr. Roughness came with the territory, and anything worth having was worth fighting for. That philosophy extended to the bedroom as well for a good majority of their kind.

She didn't want gentleness. Certainly not here and certainly not from him. She loved him for his dedication, his strength, and his willingness to throw himself into the fire wherever she led. Together, they were a team. It was how they had trained, how they fought, and how they loved.

He showed his passion for her in every heated little kiss he lay upon her back, one paw manhandling her how he wanted her to move by her hips while the other hand plunged two of his thick fingers deep into her. Her loud chuffs of pleasure were all the confirmation in the world he needed to know she liked the rough treatment. She led on the battlefield, but when she wanted him in charge of her body, she was unashamedly direct about it.

She did her best to keep her eyes on her rifle's sights, scanning the twisting animal trails along the sides of rocky mountains below for movement while her hips danced in luxurious rolls and gyrations on his fingers, her inner walls tightening and squeezing around his furry digits, clinging to him like she didn't ever want him to pull away.

She thrust back against his rocking paw, fingers delving and stroking her passage with leathery, calloused pads, gathering her body's moisture and spreading it throughout her. The Charr female's body reacted to the pleasure by trying to crush his fingers in her hot, velvety grip. Her breath escaped her in huffs, timed perfectly to when his fingers bottomed out inside of her, curling and stroking her most sensitive spots within her depths.

Reddick gave a soft growl, twisting his paw within her trousers while his thumb brushed her budding clit in firm, smooth glides, smearing her sweet nectar across the hypersensitive flesh with a passion-filled bite against the back of her neck as he hunched over her, his paw on her hips clenching tightly.

Radeena went rigid beneath him, but he could feel her body fluttering around his fingers as she came, and came HARD at his mating bite. Her breath hitched as for just a moment, her eyes lost all focus, and in that instant, his paw went from her hips to her horns, yanking her head around so he could press their lips together and all but force his tongue down her throat.

She gasped in a breath after what felt like an age had passed, as if suddenly remembering herself. She forced Reddrik's tongue back and pushed forwards into his muzzle with a growl, reaching up with one hand to yank his head down into the kiss. She bit his lip, hard enough to draw blood as they parted, tugging him along for just a moment. She growled, meeting his lovestruck gaze fiercely.

"Don't pull my eyes from the sight again, Spots." She warned, giving his head a shake by the horns. He thumbed her clit again, making the white-faced Charr mewl like a kitten as her hips instinctively rocked back against his touch.

"Only when I want to get a rise out of you." He teased but didn't argue as she snuggled back into her spot, sighing in contentment as he slipped his paw free from her snatch, loosening her belt as he did. Her pants bunched around her wonderfully fluffy thighs, and in a moment, he shifted between her legs, loosening his own leathers to bunch around his knees like a randy teen about to get lucky.

They'd long since mastered each other's own silent languages and could damn near hold a conversation without so much as a sound between them.

The subtle arch of her back as she played their game, a soft, inviting flick of her tail and presenting raise of her hips told him she was ready.

His claws dug into her hips, his bulk covering her back as he pushed her tail to the side. He spotted his target and made his shot.

His barbed tip parted her moist, glistening folds with surprising delicacy. Beneath him, he could hear her claws as Radeena scratched at the earth to mute her pleasured sounds, shifting pebbles between her toes. Her body was tense but relaxed more with each inch of her spotters cock that sank into her hot passage, claiming her, mating her. His precum coated her insides as his length twitched, and she had to bite her lip to stop from yowling as his barbs raked along her sensitive passageway. She pushed back to let him sink into her again, and quickly, they started fucking at a bestial tempo.

Radeena panted as quietly as she could manage as the wet slaps of their hips colliding as he bottomed out within her rang out from their little hide on the mountainside. Reddrik's good looks might have made him look soft, but when it came to the way he took her, her mate was anything but. He fucked her with purpose and urgency, his wet, growly breaths loud right beside her ears as he nipped at them and her throat in equal measure.

She kept at least some of her focus on her weapon, her sights jumping just slightly with each messy thrust as he fucked her like a veteran sand lion mounting a queen. Her body thrummed with pleasure, flashes of light on the edges of her vision

It took all of his will to keep his paws on her curvy hips rather than giving into the feral urge to shove her head down and dominate her properly, but there was a time and a place for that. Moving upright, he gripped her tail base like a handle, using it to pull himself forward with each thrust, colliding with a loud smack as he bottomed out at her cervix.

Removing her paw from the front of her weapon, she reached back, digging her claws into his hips as his thrusts grew desperate and shaky like an uncoordinated pouding. His barbs were flaring, the stinging pleasure overwhelming her senses as she gave a muted cry, twisting her head to bury her mouth against her shoulder. She let him know in no uncertain terms just where she wanted him, and signed the message with the scratches left on his waist. If anything came from him not pulling out, then so be it. She wasn't about to die with her lusts unsated.

Shuddering waves of bliss passed over her as her sex spasmed, gushing hotly around the deeply hilted cock, throbbing and pulsing within her. Reddrik was damned close, but she was already there and going for broke! He held his hips against her own, refusing to let him pull back as he erupted inside of her and staked his claim on her body anew, growling as he seeded the sniper beneath him with a virile promise of the next generation of Charr. He collapsed over her back, panting and rasping along the nape of her neck with strokes of his broad tongue while they both basked in an afterglow of bliss.

He pulled himself from her with a trickle of off-white cum that dripped into the dirt between her knees, evidence of their quick tryst. His barbed shaft plucked at her lips, leaving her body cold against the night and clenching around the air until she shuffled about and pulled her trousers up again. The second she was done, she wrapped a paw around the back of Reddrik's head and yanked him down to her level, kissing her spotter deeply with a long, satisfied sigh as they parted.

"Mmhhmm... Lucky you're such a good lay. You were about to miss all the action. Fetch my spare mags. There's movement on the opposite side of the canyon." She rumbled and let him go, snuggling back into her sniper's perch as she rolled the bolt of her rifle, loading a round with deadly intent.

"I'm pretty sure I just got more action than anyone else in Maguuma for the last two days..." He chuckled, but at once, his serious face was back on. He slid into the back and fetched his ghillie cloak, tossing it over his shoulders as he pulled their bag across. The loaded magazines went down in a neat row beside Radeena's shooting perch, and Reddrik lay prone beside her, lifting his spyglass to his eye.

"Your belt is still undone Spots. There. 12 o'clock low, along the ridgeline." She called out her targets with drilled, mechanical precision.

Cursing, Reddrik fumbled with his belt before following the lay of her rifle with his spotting scope.

"Seen. I count fourteen. Looks like they're making a barricade of some kind. Pact you think?"

"Mordrem use vines for all that crap. It must be. Plus they have watch fires lit." She concluded, frowning.

"No point giving ourselves away. We wouldn't be able to reach them by nightfall. Those guys on the other paw..." Radeena gestured with a brief flick of her barrel to a cliff face near the improvised camp that the survivors were cobbling together. The cliffside rippled with motion, of bodies moving up silently along the sheer rock wall.

"Oh, fucking burn me." Reddrik growled, laying his pistol down by his head for quick access. He shifted slightly and tossed the cloak of foliage and camouflage across both of them. Up here, there was nowhere better to relocate to anyway. Their best bet was to remain unseen.

"Have they noticed yet?" He asked. The hoard of dragon-corrupted foes was getting closer to the still blissfully unaware band of survivors.

"Not yet, but they're about to. See the big one coming up on the ledge?" Radeena shifted her rifle slightly, snuggling in cozily against her favoured weapon, her finger twitching inside the trigger guard.

"Seen. Three hundred long. No wind. Send it."

The jungle seemed to quiet for that single instant. Night fell proper as the last of the sun's warmth and rays disappeared beyond a distant horizon.

Then the silence split with a mighty CRACK as the bulky weapon that could stagger a charging Dolyak bucked against her shoulder, kicking up a small cloud of dust by the muzzle break at the end of the barrel. Her aim was true though.

The glowing back of the round shot across the yawning gap between their vantage point and the camp in a second, leaving a faint orange streak in its wake before it cracked with a report that was audible from even their position into the corrupted troll's elbow as it reached up to haul itself over the ledge. When its entire arm came free instead, it shrieked once and lost its hold, toppling backwards and collecting a thrashing collection of their foes that had been climbing below it on its way back down into the depths.

A loud ringing bell from across the way reached their ears as the survivors noticed the imminent peril they were in, and rallied themselves behind their makeshift walls and suppressing fire from pre-constructed turrets filled the night.

"Beautiful. Next target. Another troll, left five, down ten-"

---

The night seemed to last an eternity in Maguma, and through it, nightmares crept into waking dreams, of vines, tendrils, and mutated, corrupted beasts throughout. And every time the nightmares crept forward from the shadows, the bark of Radeena's rifle helped drive them back.

Without direct communication with the survivors within the barricade, they were unable to coordinate anything, but after the first wave had fallen back, Reddrik had seen many of the Pact soldiers gesturing to the cliff face or giving enthusiastic waves to their unseen guardian angels.

"You think they'll be back after that last attack?" He asked quietly, packing their remaining equipment back into his backpack. The lull in the fighting had given them a chance to catch their breath, but after three waves of the Mordrem through the night, Radeena was already down to three magazines total. She'd saved her rounds for the biggest, baddest looking monsters among their foes. Every shot she took had been followed by scratching as her claws etched another mark into her rifle's stock.

She had long since lost track of just how many there were.

"This is their home turf. I don't see why they wouldn't be. We should move. There were a few taking potshots at us. We can make for the barricades once sunrise comes." Radeena sighed, at last pulling her eye back from her rifle's scope. The white of her usually lustrous golden eyes were red and bloodshot. She looked exhausted, but her spotter was right. Staying here for another attack wave would be inviting disaster. The Mordrem had caught their scent during the last attack, and she didn't doubt that they would be sending troops to remove them before long.

Hobbling along on her crutch behind Reddrik, they made haste away from their location, moving further along the cliffside, climbing and sneaking between the shadows in the moonlight.

A glowing grow appeared down the path ahead of them, and for a moment, Radeena thought perhaps it was the first traces of sunlight, but it was too small, and closing towards them too fast.

With a near-silent whistle, she and Reddrik both disappeared to the path's edge, their cloaks thrown across their bodies, weapons raised as they waited, tension mounting.

Voices echoed off the walls with a hiss of pressure being released.

"...don't care what the damned Pact Commander says! If I have to burn the entire damn jungle down to find them, I'm going to!"

There came another loud hiss of gas that quickly turned into a roar of flame she recognized. A relieved sigh escaped her as she raised two fingers to her lips and blew out a trio of sharp whistles, imitating the wildlife in the Plains of Ashford.

There was a sudden silence for a few moments before a matching whistle sounded down the path.

"That's not Spots is it?! Radee~? Movie Star? You two alive out there?"

Radeena and Reddrik peeled off the wall as their Warband came into view, to be met by a round of relieved words and hugs, and the occasional roughhousing shove. Aldrnari and Tannivar were at the head of the column, their Warband's leader wiping smoke soot from the end of his flamethrower with a rag. His grey fur was covered in the stuff. Beside him, the shorter, ginger ranger smiled and embraced Radeena tightly.

"How did you find us?"

"Some Pact soldiers we bumped into across the way said a mystery sharpshooter had been helping them protect their barricades. We've been ordered to shore up defences all across the front to secure the foothold before we push further into the jungle. The Pact Commander already went on ahead with Dragon's Watch."

"Ahh, so... No rest for this then?" Radeena gestured to her bound ankle, wincing as she put weight back on it.

"We can take a day or two on the rear, but not much longer. The fight is moving forward, and while it might not look like it from how we started, we've got the Elder Dragon on the back foot. Fall in. We'll get you back to a medical station, and you can fill us in on what you've been up to since the crash." Aldrnari nodded, motioning for them to move out back the way they came.

As one, their Warband turned about, Reddrik sliding in beside Radeena to help her limp her way along more comfortably.

Behind them, one of the other Warband members, Kharn, their necromancer, chuffed, snorting as he sniffed the air. The tiger-pelted male scrunched his nose. Radeena just flickered her tail, smirking. They all knew exactly what the smell was.

"Well, I can tell you one thing they've been up to..."