The dwarf with the war hammer is forced on the defensive as he finds pincers leveled at his head. He steps back and begins sending blow after blow in the direction creature, but most of them miss as the ant moves back then charges. The movement isn’t much but it is enough to move the creature in and out of the dwarves range at the wrong time.

The ant pulls itself back preparing for a charge as the dwarf swings again. He extends his reach a little more than usual as the hammer comes down for an overhead smash. It is not enough to reach the ant, but it is enough to overextend the dwarf and as the ant charges the dwarf, the dwarf finds himself face first on the ground.

The ant charges straight over the dwarf and looks around surprised that its attacker vanished. But the crack of a mace on one of its legs turns its attention to the other dwarf attacking it.

The ant turns to face the dwarf and takes another hit in the process.

But before the ant can attack the annoying dwarf a flaming arrow pierces one of its eyes. Using that as a distraction, the dwarf with the mace slams it into the other eye caving it in and the mace sloshes into the shell. The ant jerks its head and the dwarf goes flying through the air.

The blinded ant moves forward a few steps, unsteady on its feet before falling over, its legs twitching in the sky.

The dwarf with the war hammer watches as the ant rolls over off of him and lifts himself up as the human ranger moves closer to the group.
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Meanwhile, The dwarf armed with footman’s pick checks his weapon for damage then moves to help out yet another guard fighting the yet anther in a seemingly endless stream of ants.

"About time", the guard shouts as he is forced back yet another step by the snapping pincers, when the dwarf comes to help him out.

Hearing the noise coming from the other end of the caravan caused by the flying creatures' sudden appearance and exit, the dwarf yells over the din "Keegan! Flint! What the hell is going on behind me?"

Almost as if in answer, Flint, the dwarf with the mace comes flying through the air to land next to the ant. Luckily for him, the ant busy with being attacked on two sides doesn’t notice him on the third.
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He draws his arrow back taking his time with his shot. If he misses this he could hurt one of the defenders, so he doesn’t plan on missing. He holds the arrow for what seems like an eternity before letting it fly. The arrow streaks out of the bow bursting into flames almost immediately. The arrow flies true and slams into the side of the ant just above Flint's feet.

The ranger prepares another arrow as the ant suddenly realizes there is someone behind him and it turns around, still oblivious to the dwarf lying on the ground, now under the ant.

And it is at this moment that Flint comes to his senses and looks up to see the ant above him. He smiles and checks the strap on his helmet. He curls up into a ball just below the ant, waiting as it attacks the others.

Flint waits until the right moment then uncurls springing himself straight up. The spike on his helmet piercing the creatures shell. The ant suddenly jumps upward off of the ground and comes down on the dwarves head forcing both to the ground and forcing the helmet spike further into the ants shell.

The ranger sees an opening and shoots again. Once again his flaming arrow flies true and it slams against the shell of the creature.

This ant's streak of destruction seems to have come to an end. With a dwarf anchoring it, the ranger peppering its side with flaming arrows and the guard and the dwarf with the pick working on its pincer and head, the one of the last of the ants is quickly taken apart.

When the dust settles, the guard and the dwarf help move the ant off of their companion. Flint unfortunately has to abandon his helmet as it is wedged to far into the corpse of the ant to remove easily. The head however comes out with only a few long scrapes caused by the breaking shell.

"Not real scars mind you, but they'll make a funny story nonetheless." Flint laughs.

Keegan, the dwarf with the war hammer, recovers his composure and looks around the battlefield menacingly, in the distance he spots the others taking apart the last ants. He notices the wolf pack moving in on the other side of the caravan and ignores them He turns around and charges the hill. Once up the hill he begins to knock the dirt back in the hole trying to fill it back up.The white haired guard whispers, "Be poisoned and die in pain" as he uses his cover to start shooting at the wolves with his bow. His first shot is off by quite a bit falling well to the east of the wolf pack and gaining only a glance from one of them.
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The mage upon seeing the minstrel, who is on his hands and knees throwing up what he had for breakfast, blunder into his last spell decides to try something a bit different. He pulls his backpack off and starts to search through it.

The rough looking warrior moves over to the last ant and finishes the last of the ants off with a single sword thrust.

The wolves howl and charge the group. But their awesome charge is broken up as the amber haired archer shoots. The arrow thunders across the battlefield slamming into the first wolf and taking him back through the air where he slams into another wolf. The arrow pierces both creatures and scattering the rest. The wolves move back into a tighter circle as some of them check out the two wolves. The wolves are wounded badly, but somehow they are still alive.

Another wolf yips as an arrow plunges into its side. The wolves decide to give it another try and spread out this time charging individual targets. The nauseous minstrel attempts to crawl away but he doesn’t get far as the first of the wolves begins to maul his leg.

The mage pulls out a wand of some sort and stands up to look at the wolves. He levels the wand at one of the wolves charging him and there is a bright white flash as one of the runes flares to life. It travels up the tip of the wand and launches a beam of light at the creature. The beam of light slams into the creatures' head causing it to lose its balance and tumble, but it quickly recovers and rises up and charges again.

The rough looking warrior charges to the rescue of the minstrel and slices at the wolf who leaps back to avoid the slash. The wolf is joined by three of its pack as they begin to surround the pair.

Luckily the minstrel seems to have recovered somewhat and rises to his feet. He favors his right leg as it seems the wolf tried to do as much damage as possible to it.

Another wolf yelps as an arrow slams into the ground in front of it and shatters.

Thunder rolls across the battlefield as the amber haired elf shoots again. The arrow misses its target, but the sheer force of the passage of the arrow aggravates the injuries of the two wolves even further.

This forces the rest of the wolves to charge into battle, all except one who moves several feet before weaving unsteadily and falling on its side breathing heavily for several moments before falling still.

The two flying creatures don’t stay where they are for very long before they are airborne again. This time they are headed straight for this battlefield.

One of the soldiers armed with a long sword moves over to his leader and tries to wake him up.

The archers regroup and try and move in for a better shot on the remaining ants.

Zraxin holds onto his sword, while riding the bucking ant, and leans against it trying to pry open the shell. This causes the ant to thrash even harder and eventually the ranger can hold on no longer and is tossed from his mount. Not that it matters as the ant continues to thrash around trying to dislodge the sword.

With one ant no longer attacking him, Pyros laughs and turns his attention to the other ant only to find himself in the pincers of the creature itself. He howls as the pincers close on him, "Taste the power of Enerius!" He thrusts his swords into the eyes of the creature who suddenly begins shooting fire out of nearly every opening and cracks.

Within moments the ant is fried and falls to the ground a near empty shell. But the damage is done and Pyros is fuming.

The pikeman tries valiantly to hold on to the pike as he shoves it deeper into the ant, but finally he looses his grip on his weapon and goes flying away as the ant thrashes yet again.
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Even though it is not in the best of shape, the ant charges Ulqik without any regard for its own life. The elf quickly dodges the attack but the ant surprises him with its speed and its pincers close on his leg. The elf hits the ground hard and the ant pounces on top of him. It proves to be a fatal mistake as the elf rolls to one side his swords flashing briefly. The ant crashes to the ground and part of its head bounces away, the shell cut clean through.

He gets up favoring his injured ankle looks at the soldier with the mace and smiles, "See no problem!"

That soldier quickly comes to his side and braces him as they turn to look at the rest of the battlefield.

The elf woman with the glowing sword moves back to where the unconscious commander and the soldier tending to him are on the ground. "Does anyone have any ideas on how we should deal with our friends out there?" She points to the sky in the west.

The soldier looks up and sees nothing, "What are you talking about?" He looks back down again as his commander recovers and raises himself on one arm. His hand goes to his head and he winces at the large bruise that has appeared there.

She looks again and sees them coming straight toward the battlefield getting larger and larger.

She places the tip of her sword in the dirt and closes her eyes and goes quiet for several moments.

~~~~~

"Mizar! Do you have any ideas on how I can fight those creatures?"

She looks around and finds herself in some kind of library. Mizar sits at a table reading a book.

Asura gets his attention and asks her question again.

The scholarly ogre looks up from his book and looks over her shoulder, she turns and sees the creatures flying through the air up close.

They are unlike anything she has seen before in her life.

Mizar walks up to the image and says, "Hmm, Interesting, it looks like an amalgamation of a species. But if I remember correctly at least one which should be extinct on this plane. However it seems something of its ancestry has survived."

"How can I fight them?" she asks.

Mizar looks at her as if dealing with a petulant child, "You have some training and some intelligence. If you feel you must go out and attack everything that moves trying using them sometime. You’re not ready to learn anymore, you’ve got the desire but you’re still missing..." He taps his skull and shakes his head.

"Don’t you still have a battle to finish little warrior?" He chides.

With a shock Asura breaks the connection and looks around. She finds that nothing has changed.

~~~~~

Starting to feel slightly drained, Feldemann takes a few seconds to let his body normalize after being taxed so. Before today, the mage had only cast offensive spells one time outside of practice sessions. And that was only a couple of the easier spells. The barrage he has recently launched has worked his body in a way that he is unfamiliar with.

A sigh of relief escapes his lips as he hears Ulqik call out to him and he quickly assesses the situation. Seeing things more or less under control, he decides that it is not necessary to try to adopt one of his non-combat spells to this situation.

With the immediacy of the conflict past, Feldemaan's curiosity begins to become more and more dominant. "I'm sure I must've heard of those things somewhere..." he mumbles to himself regarding the two winged creatures fast approaching.

The last two archers move into position and let their arrows fly at the thrashing ants whose movements are getting slower with time. After the second batch of arrows left fly, the ant with the two swords stuck in its back, falls giving up its life. The other ant requires a little more attention as the soldier charges and forces his pike in a little further. For his trouble he is again knocked away, but the damage is done as the ant falls forward now silent.

Gusts of wind blast across the battlefield as the two flying creatures come in for a ground-shaking landing about a hundred yards away from the group.

Seven feet at the shoulder, the creatures are intimidating to say the least. They look at the battlefield with their twin black eyes, set in what looks to be a giant shield of bone and scale. Between its eyes runs a barbed ridge of bone that splits the shield top to bottom.

They move on four legs and their bodies roughly 15ft in length seem to be covered in scale armor from head to toe. But, even through the armor, it’s easy to see their muscles ripple. Their tails extend another seven feet and end in a spiked ball.

One of them spreads its leathery wings and shows its enormous wingspan as it stretches.

*****

"Damn, we missed this battle too", he growls.

"I told you we should have split up", his companion whines.

"Oh just shut up and see if he’s here", he snaps.

The two creatures separate and walk apart looking over the battlefield. They now have the undivided attention of every living person on it.

"Hey!" the companion shouts, "I think I might have found him!" She turns her eyes on Feldemann as the other charges across the battlefield to meet him.

Feldemann instinctively goes on the defensive, moving his staff in front of him.

"Are you sure?" he says,

"Of course I’m not sure you idiot! We don’t even know what he looks like!" the companion snaps back.

He looks at the mage considering for a moment, "Well he’s definitely a mage and he’s got style."

"Didn’t his apprentice have a staff. I don’t remember anyone saying anything about him using a weapon."

He growls at her, "He doesn’t have an apprentice remember! Didn’t you pay attention at the briefing! That was his idea of a JOKE!!!" He turns back to looking at Feldemann, "Besides no one has really survived a direct encounter with him before, that’s why we don’t know what he looks like."

She sniffs, "The stench of runic magic has been used quite a bit." She looks across the battlefield, "I see a few traces of his handy work. And he seems to be the only one that is untouched."

He looks at the mage as his eyes narrow, "The case against your boy is building."

The companion smiles at him revealing a mouth filled with clean, sharp sparklingly white teeth, "So are you feeling lucky?"

This gives him a start, "I didn’t get to be your superior by being an idiot!" He aims a tail shot at the companion, which he easily dodges.

The creature turns back to Feldemaan and shouts loud enough for all to hear, "Some friends of yours are one league to the north and are in desperate need of your help. If you don’t reach them by sunset they will die. And then others will die as well. Many others"

With that he launches himself into the air and they fly away from Pyros who was walking up behind them. They soar into the air heading northwest.

One of the elves looks back the way they came to see someone bringing a wagon up while trying to keep an eye on the two flying creatures.

With a heavy heart, the leader of the soldiers orders the remaining men to gather the dead soldiers. "We must bury our dead so that their spirits may pass on to greater glory." His men begin to recover their dead comrades.

He is a large imposing figure, well over six feet tall and well muscled. He has a massive two-handed sword strapped to his back. His scars show he is the veteran of many battle the most obvious of which is a livid purple scar running vertically down his left cheek. His most distinguishing feature, however, are his long flaming orange hair and his brilliant green eyes.

He turns to the newcomers and says, "I am Captain Stamm Hammerfist. Were it not for your intervention, I fear that none of my men would have survived the attack. For that I am grateful."

He looks back at the men retrieving the dead and sighs. "They were fresh recruits, all of them young and inexperienced."

One of the elves steps forward, "My name is Gwydeon." He is slim and wiry with a green hair with a bluish tinge and a youthful face, but something in his hazel eyes and in his manner says that he not new to battle.

Gwydeon turns to his companion, a rather well to do looking elf. Not the sort one would find wandering the countryside looking for battle. Wearing a light blue shirt and matching breeches and sporting a short sword strapped to his back, Gwydeon introduces him as "Gedai."

Gwydeon gestures to the human in blue armor who has a holy symbol of a blue waterspout over a green sea hanging from his neck. His most distinguished feature is a large handlebar mustache, which he is constantly smoothing with his left hand. "He is Stash and here comes Crow driving the wagon." He gestures to the other human closing on the group with a horse drawn wagon. "We can give a ride to the injured soldiers in the wagon. We should probably head north to investigate what the monsters said" Gwydeon offers.

The talkative human to the old man, "Damn! What are these birds doing here? Xedel, what do they want? And why are you being stubborn?"

The old man, Xedel, merely smiles and ignores the youngster as he uses his gem wand to watch the creatures fly away.

Trying a different tact the youngster says, "Xedel, you are old and wise well beyond my years. Tell me? Do you plan on taking on the entire orc horde at Torana’s Tower yourself..."

The beautiful woman deliberately ignores them as she says, "My name is Sindel." As she smiles, more than one heart skips a beat. Most have a hard time looking at anything else. "The talkative one is Tristan and this is Pheras." She gestures to the other human warrior with her. She turns to the old man and with a regretful look as if she could find some way to avoid saying what she feels she must says, "And this old funny smelling man is Xedel, my oldest brother. Don’t judge him badly, he normally isn’t this stubborn."

Tristan glares at Xedel after being ignored yet again by the old man, "I am getting a little tired of his games!" He looks over at Sindel and says, "You understand him better than us. What is his game?"

Sindel shakes her head, "I don’t know."

Shaking off his amazement at the beauty of the women and the strangeness of her companions Stamm says, "I do not know what friends the beast referred to. But if they are yours, my men and I will help in any way we are able." Glancing to the sky he guesses it would be mid-afternoon, Stamm continues, "We can make the distance easily enough before sunset." He calls to his men to gather up whatever they can carry and then orders them to attention and tell them they will be moving out shortly then dismisses them, "Stamm Hammerfist and the Red Feather Company at your service!"

The horse drawn wagon pulls up next to the group and reveals Crow, a fairly large well muscled human, as tall as Stamm, and taller Stash, it would be hard to tell who would win in a battle between the three of them.

As the soldiers finish gathering up the bodies they begin to dig graves for the men.

Tristan suddenly declares "I for one am heading east!"

Xedel finally pays attention to him as he looks at the youngster and says, "What for?"

"North", Sindel says quietly.

"We are going east to the battle and the birds...", Tristan states.

"You mean those birds." Xedel points and the creatures that had landed somewhere to the east have taken off again heading north west.

Sindel says, "I am not sure who the monsters may have been talking about when they said friends of ours. I assume perhaps they meant yours?" She looks at Gwydeon who says, "I have no idea I thought they might be friends of yours."

Sindel, Stamm and Gwydeon frown in puzzlement at the words of the flying creatures.

Xedel says, "In any case as soon as we finish burying the dead we should be heading north."

Pheras, Tristan and Sindel suddenly look at the old man.

Pheras says, "Did my ears deceive me or did he just volunteer to fight?"

Before anyone can answer, there is the sound of hoofbeats thundering across the ground. From the north comes what looks like a merchant caravan, except the merchant is on top of one of the carriages screaming his lungs out and the driver is trying desperately to regain control. As they near the group he actually seems to manage to slow them down.

When they stop the merchant falls gracelessly off of the carriage and kisses the ground.