Chal'ac watched over the male she'd once called Lord. The hunter couldn't help but be annoyed at being left out of the battle below. Of course, Lon'thul said he'd chosen her because he considered her second only to himself in skill and greater than him in tenacity, but it still felt like she was being left out for her own good, which irked her.

For his part, B'arthon seemed relatively content to simply wait, though with his hands and feet tied, it's not like he had much choice in the matter. Still, she kept a knife out and ready, just in case.

After a while, the noble finally spoke up. "Aren't you Chal'ac, the daughter of Nala'ac? I would have thought you too pragmatic to join this band of optimists."

Chal'ac didn't like hearing her father's name being used to make conversation, but on the very slight chance his side still managed to win, there wasn't any point in getting too antagonistic. On the other claw, she didn't feel particularly conversational either. "Yeah, well, I didn't have much choice."

B'arthon tilted his head to the side. "What if I could give you that choice now?"

The huntress couldn't help it. This time she actually laughed. "You know, if you would have made me that offer a while back, I would have taken it gladly. However, I don't know if you've noticed, but your side is losing, and I doubt there's anything even you can do to change that anymore."

The noble looked down at his army that had somehow managed to get itself surrounded despite outnumbering the enemy almost two to one and seemed to acknowledge she had a point. "We may lose this battle, but that's not the end. This loose alliance of the hill people and the Dragon's Outpost will only last until the end of this battle. After that, the end of summer will mean they'll have to return to life, as usual, to prepare their tribes for the coming winter, and your army will be no more. However, Lord A'ngles and I will still have the villages and all the garrisons that stayed back while we came out here. We might not be able to chase you around the countryside anymore, but if you wish to return home, it'll pay to be in our good graces..."

Chal'ac shook her head. "Bold to assume you'll both be walking away from here with any semblance of authority intact." She shook her head. "No, I think this is the end of your schemes. For good or bad, those villages will have to learn to get by without you."

B'arthon shrugged. "Fair enough, I suppose. Well, I had to try. Too bad though, I'd hoped to get you on our side instead of, well, what's about to happen."

The huntress gripped her dagger, stood up, and glared down at the arrogant male. "And just what do you think..?" That was when she realized, based on his grin, that the noble had wanted to keep her attention on him. As she whirled around, Chal'ac briefly saw a very familiar large male with bone plates dyed dark swinging a large branch for her head. She started to duck, but the branch stuck her anyway, and the world went dark.

-

As Jack approached Lord A'ngles' position, he was glad to see the village Lord seemed to be waiting rather than being proactive. Stopping short of his position while the guards looked quite worriedly at the wolgen and the large metal woman, Jack spoke out, using Angela's translation speakers for dramatic emphasis. "Hail, Lord A'ngles. We come to negotiate the terms of your surrender."

The old and seemingly frail Lord stepped just past the line of men and responded. "Surrender? I think you presume too much too early!"

Jack indicated the armies battling below. "Your men are surrounded, your son is our captive, and even your position is compromised. Have your men drop their weapons, so we can end this bloodbath and negotiate terms!"

Lord A'ngles looked below. Even if he hadn't realized what was happening before, it was obvious now. His attempt to push through the middle had been foiled by the appearance of the best armed and armored guards on the battlefield led by S'haar, and Lon'thul was leading the hunters to close the final gap for A'ngles' men to escape. The old man thought for a moment before responding. "What you say is almost true. However, that group of hunters attacking the rear numbers less than a hundred, and as for my position, while your wolgen are frightening, they aren't even full grown. As I see it, my guards here should be more than enough to handle you, then go and fend off the hunters, freeing my men in time to finish this battle. But that's why you're here, right? To distract and keep us from ruining your oh-so-clever little trap, correct? If you wish to negotiate, throw down your weapons and surrender to me now, and I'll see to it anyone willing to swear an oath of loyalty to me is allowed to live. Otherwise, the time for talk is past!"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jack sighed. A part of him just wanted to whip out his gun and shoot the old argu'n between the eyes, but he'd come forward to negotiate in good faith, and even if it would be satisfying to end the source of his problems, doing so in front of so many witnesses would only mean every warrior on the field today would fight to the death. Another part of him was agast at how callous he'd become. He'd never been so uncaring about bloodshed before. Years on this planet and months traveling through the wilderness, not to mention all the battles he'd taken part in, had eroded his sense of ethics to a dangerous degree.

Shaking his head, Jack shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. This was neither the time nor the place for such introspection. He sighed. "I'm afraid I can't do that. Though I should warn you, these wolgen only one of several very dangerous threats we present to you now. Should you attack, I will not hold back any longer!"

Lord A'ngles squinted. "Only a fool would have held back this long. You're bluffing." Then turning to the warriors behind him, "Attack!"

As the warriors surged forward, Jack pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it deep into the enemy formation.

-

Lon'thul led the hunters toward the final gap through which the warriors were just starting to pull back. They stopped long enough to throw a barrage of spears while Lon'thul fired two arrows into the retreating enemy and forced them back before charging in.

Using their momentum to its fullest advantage, they pushed the warriors back onto each other. They were so tightly packed they couldn't properly raise swords or spears to defend themselves as their flailing limbs simply got in each other's way. At first, bloodlust carried the hunters into this fight, but now a grim resolve kept them going. This was no longer a battle. It was a slaughter...

-

Angela watched with horror as Jack tossed the grenade. She knew why he'd done it. Even if she'd been at one hundred percent, and with the might of the wolgen, they'd never stand a chance against over a hundred warriors. Back at the outpost, they'd made the grenades for just such an emergency, but she'd hoped then that she'd never see them used. This wasn't your garden-variety fragmentation grenade. This was a thermobaric grenade.

The resulting fireball and the enemy's screams were everything she feared, but they had the desired effect. One grenade had permanently taken at least a dozen warriors out of the fight, injured a dozen more, and shaken the rest. Given their natural aggression, the argu'n warriors charged anyway, but there was a desperation to their assault that made their attacks clumsy and their movements predictable. As the wolgen surged forward, Angela followed suit, glad that Em'brel had opted to remain hidden rather than join the assault.

As the wolgen tore into the enemy, Angela estimated their strength still wasn't enough to win this fight, and apparently, Jack agreed. During one of the few pauses in the fighting, he grabbed another grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it. This one was thrown wide of the battle to ensure he and the wolgen weren't caught in the blast, but it still resulted in nearly half a dozen casualties, with as many injuries as well. To many of the argu'n, it must seem like the gods themselves had joined the battle, and it seemed to fuel their desperation.

Angela was trying to be more merciful. Conscious that her left arm was severely weakened, she used it mostly defensively to redirect blows meant for her body while lashing out with her right at any target that presented itself. After a backhand that sent two warriors flying, Angela noticed ten warriors outside the melee readying throwing spears they probably intended to hit Jack and the wolgen with.

Angela grabbed the warrior before her, tossed him to the side with ease, and charged into the warriors in question. A few of them threw their spears at her, quite ineffectively, before she plowed into them.

Angela came in low and bowled over the first warrior sending him flying with a shoulder check. Rising up, she clocked another cross the chin with an upward palm strike, knocking him out cold. Then turning, she hit a third with a roundhouse kick before spinning around and hitting a fourth with a reverse elbow. The rest seemed weary to approach again, but Angela didn't have time to waste. She needed to get back to her brother's side. So again, she charged.

This time they tried to fend her off with readied spears, jabbed toward her joints. She carefully deflected the one aimed at her weak shoulder, letting another harmlessly scrape across her armored torso as she twisted her momentum into a spin kick that sent her opponent flying. Unfortunately, that's when one of the argu'n did something she hadn't expected. Perhaps in blind panic, the warrior had dropped his spear and latched onto her arm, twisting and pulling with all his might.

With his claws digging in, Angela could not shake him free, so she headbutted him hard enough to daze him and make him lose his grip, but several of the other warriors had taken advantage of her distraction to drive their spears home. Three bounced off her armor ineffectively, but the last one pierced her chassis. Not having time to run a diagnosis, Angela lashed out, palm striking one in the chest hard enough to break ribs, then turned and backhanded another while performing a sweeping kick to the other side that would have been impossible for an organic, breaking a shin. When the last argu'n turned to run, she bodily threw one of the others at him, sending them both flying in a pile of limbs that likely resulted in a few injuries.

Turning back to the main brawl, she noticed Jack readying his third and final grenade, the slight rise in temperature in her torso indicating that her coolant system had been at least somewhat compromised.

With grim resolve, she charged back into the battle as another fireball erupted.