[Rulac POV]

“OLDER MEMBERS OF THE SWARM, WITH ME! WE’LL GUT THESE HUMANS LIKE THE SCALELESS WEAKLINGS THEY ARE! I’M NOT GONNA LET THESE WHELPS STILL WET FROM THE EGG DIE BEFORE ME, ARE YOU?!”

“FORGED IN WAR AND TEMPERED IN BLOOD, I FOLLOW!” Wisterl replied, and Rulac continued giving commands to the keelish that followed him.

“WITH CHIPPED FANG AND BLOODIED SCALE, I KILL! ONLY DEATH! ONLY DEATH! ONLY DEATH FOR THE FOES OF THE SWARM!”

“DEATH FOR THE FOES OF THE SWARM!”

He didn’t usually like engaging in the dramatics of speeches, but Rulac realized he was pretty good at ‘em. The entirety of the swarm, even those continuing in flight, screamed in response as over two hundred keelish went to meet seven humans.

It had been too long since Rulac had conquered something. The days of his youth with Redael, forcing every member of the swarm to bend the knee, and then conquering two nearby swarms… Those had been good days. If only that feral Took had been receptive to his advances, then perhaps… but there was no time to think of rutting, only the splitting of skulls and the spilling of blood. Much of it would be his own, as it should be, but there were still some tricks Ashlani hadn’t seen from the old guard. His fierce grin widened, the anticipation of battle swelling his heart.

At his left rushed forward Wisterl, and the right was Histy.

“Wisterl, you know what to do. Histy, we focus on the one that’s controlling the water, but keep an eye out on fire, will you?”

It wasn’t a question, and these old companions of his wouldn’t have questioned his command anyway. It was good to be working with the professionals once again. The grin spread even wider across his face as the sound of hundreds of splashing steps filled in behind him.

This was what he had for so long missed. A true forging in blood.

The swarm fell in behind the rushing khatif members of the swarm, and the screaming cacophony of raging keelish caused Rulac’s blood to swell excitedly within. He continued rushing forward… and was met by a massive wave of flame washing onwards.

No command was necessary as Histy blasted an opening in the center of the flaming wall and Rulac rushed through. Most of the swarm behind him followed suit, but a couple of pained screams sounded out behind him. There was nothing to do for them, and Rulac shut out the extraneous information. There were only 80 feet separating him from his prey, seven humans and one little deer.

Onward Rulac sprinted, and a second wave of flame came to greet him. Again, Histy reached out her will to divide the flames, but this time the enemy was prepared, and the fires merely dimmed in the center. Rulac pressed through… Only to be smashed by a large wave of water.

It nearly lifted him from his feet, but Rulac dug his claws into the stone underfoot as the wave passed and continued forward over the keelish that had followed him. At the rear of the wave was a wide blade of wind that cut shallowly into his thighs, but Rulac recognized this as the greatest threat of the massive attacks so far as his blood trickled into the water inhabited by the ferocious fish. Their frenzy had begun to die down without any additional blood filling the water, and immediately the water began frothing wildly as the fish descended once more into their bloodlust.

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“Can’t eat me if they can’t catch me.” Rulac couldn’t help but laugh as he spoke, almost believing he would escape this confrontation alive. Onward he sprinted, ever faster, finally within reach of the hulking brute covered with what looked to be living stone. He’d heard about the thing that Ashlani had killed, but he’d struggled to believe the tales he’d heard. Again, he refocused on the battle at hand.

“EVADE! FOCUS ON THE OTHERS!” Rulac called out as he feinted in and circled around the massive figure. There were six other humans behind him, strategically spread out just enough to support each other, but also not so close as to be felled by an unlucky blow from a companion. Rulac could hear the clattering of scales, fang, and claw against stone behind himself, but trusted in the swarm to continue to follow his commands.

“WISTERL, ON ME!” Rulac rushed towards the nearest human and finally realized that the water from the river had begun to flow up his body to fill his nostrils and throat. He took as deep a breath he could as the first droplets began to force their way in. Finally, he’d entered combat with the humans.

His target began to calmly flow backwards, the water carrying him as Rulac and Wisterl attempted to press the attack. The water already gathered around his body shifted from merely suffocating him, now blunting his claws to clubs and jaws to a mere trunk. With a cracking strain, the water pressed in, crushing his bones, and Rulac suppressed a grunt of pain, trying to conserve air. Through the water, Rulac could dimly see the murky form of the human before him. He could dimly hear the human speaking, repeating something, but only thoughts of slaughter and survival mattered.

He rushed forward, against the water pulling his face back, against the pressing current, against everything, and was able to approach the human. Rulac feinted right, left, bite, then, his opponent foolishly confident, he suddenly whirled in a circle and smashed his heavy tail against the human’s knees. There was a pained scream as the knee bent backwards, but an answering sharp pain shot up Rulac’s spine as he made contact. The water surrounding his hands almost unwillingly fell off, and Rulac rushed forward, looking to grab the human and maybe deal with them permanently before his vision tunneled completely to black. In the back of his mind he noted the pain of sharp jaws beginning to chew into his flank.

He caught hold of fabric and the wearer began to thrash in a panic. His grin fixed in a rictus as Rulac began to haul the human back towards him. He saw the flashing of fire rushing towards him, but he couldn’t be bothered to worry about it–he would die to the water filling his lungs just as quickly. First, he merely needed to slaughter this human. His first of these scaleless that he would slay in his pursuit to protect his swarm. His Alpha.

Before Rulac could do anything though, the struggling in his hands ceased and the water quickly fell from his face and dribbled from his throat. Looking forward, he could see Wisterl whip her head back with the majority of the human’s neck in her jaws. She screamed her challenge, her joy at her success, and Rulac himself grinned as he looked on to the rest of his soldiers as they continued the melee.

He was sorely disappointed.

Wisterl had lost most of one leg and the toothy fish were working at her other. Behind him Rulac could see the bodies of Histy and Berk, both being gnawed on by the fish while the vast majority of the keelish that had followed were waterlogged, scorched, or some mixture of the two. The behemoth stood surrounded by the pulped flesh of several dozen keelish corpses, the blood and viscera splattered all around and on his armored body. The keelish still standing numbered in just a couple of dozen, and none were unharmed.

The humans had only lost two of their squad–the water one Wisterl had slain, and one of the two fire ones. The other fire human was hunched over the immobile body of their companion, repeating some human gibberish. The rock human was closing in on the keelish survivors, and another stood, gathering some wind magic.

Rulac looked to Wisterl.

“I’ll be forgotten by Nievtala if I die before taking one more of them down.”

She grinned in response. “You better. The great Rulac, unable to kill a single human.”

He scoffed as the humans continued preparing their attack on the remaining keelish. The surviving tenth of the attacking swarm rushed onwards to their inevitable demise as another human voice began to shout something. Rulac almost wished he’d tried to learn the human tongue, but instead, he’d see if he couldn’t learn the taste of one. Maybe it'd end up being a delicacy worthy dying for.