faderift | CLOSED: a prayer that will be answered

And from nowhere comes Teren, her vicious, needle-like blades puncturing the lungs of a briefly bewildered genlock before she withdraws again to find a new vantage. She doesn't speak a word, and somehow manages to look prim and mannered as ever while fighting as dirty as Leonard Church's mouth. When she's visible, anyway.

Max circles. He and Herc have gotten a good rhythm of fighting together over the years. Max isn't going to have him all that much longer, though - Max is going to be heading to the surface, and what's more is that there are folks here not immune to the blood the way they are. Without it needing to be said, Max runs, leaps onto the back of darkspawn headed to Lena's flank, tearing it down.

"Ogre coming," he warns, though by now the ones not familiar with darkspawn might have gotten acquainted enough with the sound anyway.

Huh. Well, Lena is grateful for the canine assistance, though she doesn't spoil animals the way Korrin does. She lets the dog take the kill and moves on, eyes taking in the scene to see where the ogre is. Her flask of frost won't freeze it entirely, so she'll use it on the regular darkspawn right here.

It's pretty sad that she now knows all the different kinds of darkspawn too.

Taking the flask from her belt, she smashes it on the ground in front of her before blocking a blade with the hilt of her dagger. The contact causes the darkspawn holding the sword to freeze in place and she easily slits its throat before moving on to the next. She needs to be quick before the elixir wears off. But that ogre is still coming, and they can't be fighting on two fronts. She fights viciously, slicing through enemies and moving on, leaving them frozen for her allies to deal with.

A decade ago, when Teren was still new to all this, she entered a room and was immediately rammed by the ogre waiting on the other side of the door. It is a mistake she has not made since, and she ensures that she is well out of harm's way when the blasted thing comes barreling towards them.
"Pull it!" she barks, slipping out of the way and then crouching behind it, matching it step-for-step and preparing to scale its back with her knives as crampons.

Herc whistles, and Max dashes back to him, crashing through one of Lena's frozen darkspawn as he goes. Lena's doing well, and he'll try make an effort to tell her when this is done, because its easy to forget just how gruesome the Deep Roads are when they're a few thing for you. They're lucky to have the support and the willing.

On the surface he and Teren don't seem to see eye to eye on a lot. Politics, personal things, professional tactics; they operate in different ways. At the end of the day, though, they're both Wardens, they both have a duty, and they get the job done. He respects her, even if he doesn't necessarily like her - liking people isn't part of the job, it's just a side bonus that makes it easier.

Now he moves almost before she commands, Max racing to the ogre's ankles to tear and snap while Herc beats the pommel of his sword against the shield. It kicks up a racket, and the ogre snaps its attention to him, lumbering his way as Herc grits his teeth and moves in to bash it with Rebellion.

Once the darkspawn in the immediate area are brought down, Lena reads the scene in front of her. Teren shadowing the ogre, Max at its ankles, and Herc about to charge in. She quickly slots one of her daggers back into its sheath and takes out a throwing knife, letting it fly in a spin to connect with the ogre's neck. Then she does it again and again -- three small throwing knives lodged in its neck, blood spraying down the front of its body.

Of course it's not like throwing a knife at a regular person, where you sever that big vein or whatever in their neck and they bleed to death. Lena's not a surgeon; she just knows that it's effective. And since this ogre has one head, two arms, and two legs -- basically built the same way as a regular person -- maybe it's vulnerable there too.

With that accomplished, Lena retrieves her dagger and uses the distracting dog as cover to flank the ogre. Teren can have its back, Herc it's front. She'll take its side.

Regardless of her opinion of Herc in general, Teren isn't about to side against him while there's an ogre to kill. She casts him a brief glance when he cedes to her shout, acknowledging and thanking him without words, and then launches onto the creature's back to plunge her needle-like blades into either side of its spine, right where its head meets its neck. It doesn't die, but it stumbles, confused, directly into Herc's shield, opening its limbs to Lena's ministrations.

They're able to take it from all sides, now, Max dragging at its left ankle to stagger it, constant snaps and tearing, ripping the things leg to shreds. Herc is mostly doing is utmost to keep the thing from lashing at Teren or Lena or Max, keeping its anger on him by smashing it in the face.

It stretches forward to try and reach for him, extending its neck and roaring from the pain it causes, and Herc hamstrings it so that between that and Max's efforts on its legs and Teren and Lena's brutal work on its neck the beast stumbles to its knees.

There might be another wave coming, and Herc closes in to strike again when the ogre lashes out and lands a heavy hit against his breastplate, knocking the air out of him for a moment.

Lena's knives make quick work of the ogre's side, its blood coating her heavy leather gloves and causing her to hold the hilts in a tighter grip. Beneath her kerchief, she's grimacing at all this tainted blood around her, and wonders for the hundredth time why she decided to come do this. Once the ogre is down on its knees, she's hoping to have this over and done with, but then it lashes out at Herc and Lena responds with a blind grab for another elixir to coat herself in -- this time fire. With that going for her, she becomes a blur, stabbing the ogre in every vulnerable spot she can.

Having helped in crippling the beast, Teren kicks off from it and steps away to slash at a passing darkspawn, leaving the team as quickly as she entered it. There's no time to revel in the damage they've done.

CLOSED: a prayer that will be answered

hi I'm here too

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