Team Terragon (STRIKE TEAM THREAD)

[Red Charge]

Team Terragon assembled in the forward command post of the army, only a slight distance from where the Equestrian army was going to face the Diamond Dog Horde in battle. General Heartland and General Bitter were to be leading the final fight, of course, under the Princess of the moon herself. General Gallop and Scimitar Razorwing, unfortunately, could still not participate in the main battle. They stayed with Static, the chief communications officer in the command post. They were not a happy duo, that much was obvious. Team Terragon was unique, consisting of only three ponies, no backup force, they were aware of the general outline of their mission, but not of the specifics. This would be up to Colonel Bitter, the Strike Team Coordinator to explain.

"Team Terragon, I bet you're shaking in your armor now." The heavily armored Colonel Bitter said, "I would be too. You're going behind enemy lines." He said, "The Diamond Dog Horde has grown twice as much as they were when they first attacked Fillydelphia, that's a big number. We don't have the horsepower to split our troops to flank them. That means you, Project Cerberus, will be the ones we send to harass and disrupt the enemy supply lines and rear flank. You are three capable ponies, that much is obvious. You've all seen scraps and fights. One of you's survived the savages, monsters and diseases of the Zebra Lands, the other, lived through the harsh winter of the Northern Barrens and hunted down a rabid frozen wolf all on his own, we have the skull in his storage box to prove it. The third, well, little has to be said about a Slayer, let alone one as accomplished as you Max." Lucky puffed out his chest proudly as the Colonel spoke to him and Max beamed at the Colonel, whom she was obviously on good terms with.

"Rest assured though, you're not the only team who will be operating behind enemy lines. The other team, team Chimera will be operating in your vicinity. I'm sure it won't be long before you hear their uh, work. Team Chimera is made entirely of slayers, each of whom underwent a shortened training with Equestria's most elite units, molded into one unstoppable force. Like you are going to be."

Maxime gasped in surprise, she obviously knew who he was talking about, "I owe my own life to those brave bastards. If your mission goes BUBAR, Fantasy can launch a green signal gem into the sky, Diamond Dogs will recognize it as an "all clear" signal, but Team Chimera was ordered to immediately attack such a signal."

He averted their attention to a map of the area, where the main army and the strike teams were highlighted. The area they were assaulting was the rear supply lines. From the map it was obvious the Diamond Dogs had planned the battle well. The fresh arrivals from the pack would be at the forefront of the fighting and the more weary Silverback Warriors would be in the back, where they were. These were also the most savage of the enemy warriors.

"I would have had you take out their medical supplies, but the Princess does not approve, so we'll be taking out their gem supplies first. You need to constantly stay on the move, strike and retreat, strike and retreat." He pointed a hoof at an area marked with a circle, "You start here, once you've hit this area, you'll move around to the weapon and ammo supply." He pointed at an area closer to the fighting, "Archer squads will constantly move back and fro from this area to deliver arrow crates. Burning a single crate of these means a hundred archers won't have arrows. We've studied the arrows, each of these crates contains a hundred quivers, each containing approximately twenty to thirty arrows. That's three hundred less injured ponies per crate. I trust you to burn the place up and strike down as many archers as you can. After that, there's the most important target. Knockout powder. One of the tactics Diamond Dogs employed against us in Filly was pulling back and launching these projectiles by the thousands. There's no avoiding this, if it gets in your nostrils, you're out. If you take this out, they will not be able to use this against us, if you can find a way to use it against them, all the better."

Bitter breathed in deeply, "It's not going to be easy Terragons. It's more than likely I'm just sending you to your deaths, but I have full confidence in you. Between your potions, enchanting and Max, I'm certain you can get this done, or at the very least get out with your limbs. But hey, do you really want to live forever?"

At that, he sent them to get supplied, gems, tools, rations, potion bases, everything they could ever need and they were teleported, finding their disoriented selves in the thick of the woods. If all went well, they would meet their first target only a little time after the main battle started.

Lucky gulped, "Let's make Equestria proud."

[Fantasy Script]

Finally, the day had come that they would be on their mission. Script felt as if a swarm of ants was crawling through his body nigh constantly, a strange prickly sensation that made him nervous and twitchy, something entirely alien for him. He was nervous, not just nervous but bordering on outright panic. For the first time he truly realized the terror of the unknown.

Despite this terror though, he began to calm as the Colonel began to detail their mission, his chest swelling and his posture straightening, honored and proud to be praised so. They were strong, they were capable and they would do Equestria proud or, by Tartarus, he would die trying. Listening attentively he tried his very best to get every last detail burned into his brain, making extra sure to note what roles he was supposed to fulfill, making a mental check list for the goals they had been tasked with. There was much to do, much was expected of them and his expression turned to steely determination, his frown for once not of his bad mood but deep concentration.

That they were not to attack the medical supplies… well, there were of course good reasons to give the enemy the chance to treat their wounded and not let them die horribly, on the other hand, a living enemy was an enemy that wanted you dead. Still, the Princess had ordered it; he was not one to go against that. He couldn’t help but feel that it would be a dangerous gamble though. At least the rest was fair game and there was much to do, maybe Lucky could find a way to royally screw with the knock out powder, he certainly had an idea or five what he could do with the rerouted gem supplies… maybe.

He would have to see what the situation allowed.

Bitters pronouncement of their possible deaths, even though the enchanter had realized that they were being sent on something mind bogglingly dangerous, still chilled him to the bone. This was not the frozen tundra; this was not the hunt for a single rabid wolf but a battle of a scale and importance that he had never been part of before. As chilly as Death’s breath was in his neck, the excitement, the pure tension made his blood boil.

This was war, and he was right in the middle of it all.

Saluting he left after the briefing, grabbing everything he thought he would need, essentials, tools, gems, rations, some extra gems and some other things that came to mind that would help. Making sure he wasn’t overloading and painstakingly placing back things he really, really wanted to bring but were utterly useless in his hands and would only weigh him down he stocked his bags. This was important; screw ups meant death, not only his, but also Lucky’s and Max’s, something he Would. Not. Stand for.

Cleansing breaths, Script thought, cleansing breaths. Eye of the storm. You have had worse, you have killed stronger with less. You are armed, prepared and ready with the best Equestria could provide him with. He had a chance. He had a great team, and they were prepared, ready and willing.

Cleansing breaths, he chanted in his mind over and over, careful to not start hyperventilating from the nervousness and pressure. He would not break. Breathing in. He was a northern pony, born in frost and ice. Breathing out. He was ready. Breathing in. He was going to be fine and bring a world of hurt and chaos to the enemy. Breathing out. His eyes focused, clearing, full of purpose and shining with a will as strong as steel, a stubbornness as thick as glacial ice.

The teleport washed over him, confusion was pushed aside as quickly as was possible for him and Lucky’s words washed over him. His answer was smooth and even as his body became like a coiled spring, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.

“We will, Lucky, we will.”

Soon, soon they would. Equestria would be proud.

[Red Charge]

The three unicorns slowly made their way through the woods. It felt very different now than it ever did, for any of them. Max was the only one who seemed to be unaffected by the unusually tense atmosphere, then again, she probably had more than enough combat experience to justify her self control. Lucky ran that thought in his head for a moment, she was in an Everfree Forest unit, ponies who actually went inside Everfree to stop anything from coming out. In the past, doing so was a rare occassion, but ever since the Eclipse Crisis started, it has become more and more frequent. At least, so he learned from his many friends in the army. Everfree soldiers became... different? They were defined as more distant, less emotional, more in control... but then again having to constantly resist the corrupting energies of the forest would definitely require a lot of self control.

Soon they could hear the noises signalling the Diamond Dog advance. The heavy footsteps, the sound of war drums, the dragging of wagons and carts. Terragon's first target was the gem supplies, at this point in time, if they managed to stay on schedule, the supplies would have advanced near them. It was impossible to tell from where they were, so they had to take vantage at a nearby cluster of close trees and bushes. Max was having a particularly hard time doing so. The group looked out into the enemy forces. There were a lot more diamond dogs than they expected near the gems. Most of them were not warriors, but overwhelming forces were no less intimidating. From what they knew, the best gem tenders of the horde belonged to Malachite's unit and were therefore still missing after their failure to capture Hoofington. The gem tenders they were facing were fledgelings at best, which was good.

Counting the enemy heads quickly, Max formed a strategy. She saw about half a dozen gemtenders, about three or four warriors and a dozen or so workers and loaders.

"We need to strike suddenly, take out the gem tenders first, there's only about half a dozen of them. Once we do that, we'll need to find a way to destroy the rest. A shame we don't have a gemtender of our own, they could rig the gems in the carts to explode."

"Hey Fantasy," Lucky said, "If you can enchant a couple of the gems to be y'know, like explosive arrowheads? I know they use those in the north? I think I might be able to create a chain reaction with them, might not get all of them but it'll definitely scatter them all over the forest and leave a crater here."

"I like your thinking." Max said, "Is that possible Script?"

[Fantasy Script]

Watching the Diamond Dogs pass by felt strange. Knowing that any moment they could be spotted and start a skirmish that might very well end them, especially with the overwhelming odds against them, left Script with a strange nervousness and not a little excess adrenalin pumping through him. Despite it he tried to remain calm. Always be calm, collected. It was a mantra that had been drilled into him. Be calm; know what you are doing as you are doing it. It was dangerous for an enchanter to twitch or panic under stress. Things tended to go boom if one twitched or panicked.

As Max detailed their plan he was wondering how she planned to strike suddenly and take out at least six targets… of course a nice wide cleave of his blade might very well do the job in its own if he was lucky and the dogs particularly close, but in the confusion of them appearing and without hitting his companions it became another matter entirely.

He might be over thinking things, admittedly.

Rig the gems…?

Lucky spoke up before he could, whispering a very enticing, not to mention effective, plan that might very well save them all a lot of trouble.

Script contemplated the proposal for a moment. Explosive arrowheads were used indeed since things in the north tended to be either big, overly armoured – be it fat or fur – or just plain tough… or any of the three really. It was always nice to have something explode and take out a big chunk of the stupidly tough thing you’re trying to stop from maiming you.

The actual process of enchanting shouldn’t be too difficult, it was an order he had filled out a few times when demand was higher than usual and the menial tasks fell to him. To rig a gem to explode upon impact wasn’t exactly a piece of art.

“Should be possible…” he muttered.

“Be ready to act once I’m done; make sure to tell me when they notice I need to concentrate on that. I’ll get on to it right away if you don’t mind.”

Retreating further into the bush while trying to get at least a line of sight to hide the glow of his horn he sought at the ether in the gems, touching it and slowly tried to twist it to do as he wanted to. While it was easy, or should be at least, with this many gems it would take a moment to enchant a sufficient batch of them for their plan to work properly.

[Red Charge]

Fantasy finished channeling his energies, he wasn't able to enchant as many gems as much as he wanted, not even close from this distance, hopefully what he did manage to do would be enough for Lucky to use for whatever plan he wanted to perform. The exertion certainly took its toll on him, he felt his very essence shaking with the effort. He'd need a a while to recover before he could try and pull something like this again.

The potion-maker, while Fantasy was enchanting, was busy with his alchemy, trying to make a concoction that would react violently with the gem magic. However they forgot one thing, Diamond Dogs had a dog's sense of smell. They were discovered.

Max Force immediately sprung into action, conjuring up a shield while throwing two concussion blasts at the nearest dogs. The warriors and gem tenders moved in, forcing Max to telekinetically toss a cart at them. The supplies scattered on the ground, causing the incoming warriors to hesitate just a second before charging. A second they desperately needed. The gem tenders were running over to the enchanted cart, lifting up gems magically. They were running out of time.

"Lucky?" Max asked, bucking a couple of workers away.

"Almost done!" Lucky called, furiously brewing.

Fantasy saw Max was casting some sort of complicated spell, he couldn't understand the formula, as force spells were not his specialty, but when she unleashed it, it floored a group of four diamond dogs in a heap. Literally as though a giant hand had squashed them on the ground.

He could tell one of the gem tenders had caught on to their plan, having lifted one of the affected gems. He was going to warn everyone, they had no more time left.

"Lucky?!" Max asked.

"DONE!" Lucky said, teleporting the concoction right above the cart. It exploded brilliantly, engulfing the whole cart in flames. Both they and the diamond dogs stared at it for a few tense moments before a second, massive blast erupted, engulfing the remaining attackers in a brilliant ball of fire and then ANOTHER.

"Oh shoot, I got the amounts wrong." Lucky said, "Run!" He turned and bolted, Max did not have to be told twice.

[Fantasy Script]

Panting from the effort and straining against the adrenalin as the dogs suddenly caught wind of their plan, quite literally, he was too slow to do much more than watch Max cast and kill dogs left and right. He really wondered what exactly the Slayer had done to get those results though. They would have been comical if the situation hadn’t been quite this dire. Indeed he found the thought of a giant hand smashing his enemies strangely amusing. Like a huge God that just answered the call of his minions and squashed their enemies with his limbs.

What a strange concept to be thinking about mid battle.

Finally catching his breath and getting on his legs he was about to draw his blade and bring bloody death upon his enemies when Lucky announced his success. He was a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t get to bloody his sword, but then, that wasn’t their mission and there would most likely be enough fighting to come. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to pull something like this stunt in the near future thought. He felt like he was a gem himself right now and his insides felt decidedly brittle after the exertion. Not exactly a nice feeling.

The concoction described a perfect arc and hit its target beautifully with a brilliantly timed explosion.

He felt as if everything stilled as dogs and ponies alike stared at the flames that had once been a cart full of gems. Then it exploded again, loudly and massively, engulfing the remaining dogs and leaving behind charred nothings. Or so he expected as another explosion cracked the air and rent it in a ball of flame.

Script barely registered what exactly it was that Lucky said, he only heard “Oh shoot” and was already well on his way to panicking and turning. The scream to ‘run’ seemed almost redundant to him. Admittedly, when an Alchemist began a sentence with “Oh shoot” or something similar he tended to get the Hay out of dodge. Things just didn’t work out when an Alchemist noticed that something went off-script.

Running it was then, trying to keep up with the Slayer and keeping an eye out for Lucky and any other enemies he hoped dearly that this wouldn’t come to bite them in the behind. He really didn’t fancy the thought of suddenly being surrounded by primed and ready to explode gem shards or something. Or maybe mutated gem monsters… or whatever it was that this concoction may or may not produce. An idle part of his brain wondered if he might be a bit too harsh, that even if Lucky had mixed it with the wrong amounts that it would hardly become an incident.

Script kindly told that part of himself to shut up and keep running and get away from the explosions.

[Red Charge]

Lucky was lighter on his feet than Fantasy and very soon, the larger unicorn felt Lucky's smaller frame pushing against his rear, trying to get him out of harm's way. The three were able to dodge into a natural trench, they all had their hooves covering the ears in anticipation of whatever was going to happen.... but nothing did.

"Lucky I think yo..." Max started but was quickly silenced as a massive explosion roared over their heads, a shockwave of magical energy ripped above them, spreading in every direction. They all remained flat on their stomachs, hooves on ears for a few moments after it passed, still afraid to get up. Eventually Lucky peeked his head over the edge of the trench.

The entire area was now a crater, almost as though a nuclear explosion had just went off. Trees, boulders, bushes, nothing survived the mini-cataclysm. The entire gem supply of the diamond dogs has been completely eradicated and let's face it - no one missed the giant explosion and the mushroom cloud.

"Lucky that was the most awesome thing I've ever seen." Max said, staring at the devastation around her. Diamond Dogs began pouring into the scene from all directions, trying to figure out what in blazes happened.

"I think this is our cue to get out of Dodge..." Lucky said sheepishly.

[Fantasy Script]

With a hearty jump, much helped by Lucky’s pushing, the bigger unicorn landed face first in the dirt deep in the trench. Hoofs akimbo – but somewhat covering his head to protect it from the debris that would surely come – silence reigned supreme for a while. Nothing was happening. Script had an uneasy itch at his neck, he just knew, he KNEW something was going to happen. This couldn’t have been all.

Just as Max started speaking and Script was about to relax it finally happened.

The explosion was far greater than anything he had anticipated. Magic pushed past them in an almost visible wave that pushed anything aside that was smaller than a big sturdy tree. Stones and other miniscule parts, a morbid part of Script wondered if there were any bone splinters there too, rained down on them and peppered the ground with a steady staccato sound of impacts.

Eventually silence returned, though there was a rather persistent ringing in Script’s ears that he had some trouble getting rid of. Rubbing them roughly he finally regained some of his hearing though all was a bit muffled still, something that would hopefully fade.

“I’ll have to agree with Miss Force, that was rather impressive.”

The mass of diamond dogs swarming the new soon-to-be-lake were a rather telling signal and Script nodded along with Lucky.

“We better… too many to tangle with.”

He couldn’t help though but suspect that someone was going to find them. Cosmic Irony dictated that after this much chaos and Lucky’s observation, someone had to come out of the underbrush and stop their tactical retreat. He somewhat hoped he was wrong.

Looking around the devastated area he surveyed the amount of coverage they could use to retreat.

“Should we use a smokescreen? Less chance of getting spotted directly, though of course it will draw attention.”

Script’s magic already slowly trickled towards the hilt of his sword, just in case. This was going rather smoothly despite the somewhat botched explosion. Things would soon turn south, they always did.

[Red Charge]

The wind was now blowing through their manes, entering the newly made crater from all directions, almost rushing in. The smell of burnt chemicals and minerals was definitely evident and if it was to them, it must have been a thousand times more for the Diamond Dogs. They knew there was someone there, in fact, Fantasy could already see they've been spotted. But they took out the gems and created a big distraction. So far, it was going better than planned.

"Ugh, can you not call me Miss?" Max asked, adjusting her armor and taking off, Lucky in tow. She was leading the group back into the forest, they needed to get out of sight and begin to head towards the ammunition and weapon supplies, although this giant crater had already caused a sizeable delay in the dog's ability to move supplies in and of itself, as well as biting a chunk out of the Diamond Dog reinforcements.

"Good enchanting Script, I can see the headlines now, potion-maker and enchanter teaching diamond dogs no-excess deviation." He laughed, he began digging into his pouch mid run, splashing Max and Lucky with some potion, it sizzled on their faces, but wasn't very painful. The ringing in their ears stopped. "Temporary fix, should hold you until we get to safety."

Now Script could hear the many Diamond Dog feet crunching their way into the crater in pursuit. All they had to do is get into the treeline to escape, but the Diamond Dogs were drawing their bows. Lucky and Max haven't seen the archers aiming at them.

[Fantasy Script]

“Sorry ma’am. Won’t happen again.”

Taking off after Max and Lucky he searched the premiter, as he used to in the tundra, spying through the settling dust and smoke trying to spy what the enemy was doing. After such a hit surely someone would take offence and incidentally start the offence. Cursing under his breath he spotted the damned dogs ringing one side of the crater. A quick look to the front told him all he needed to know. They wouldn’t make it to the tree line in time.

Script hadn’t much time to think about what to do next, with the strings slowly drawing taut and the arrows pointing in their direction there wasn’t much he could do. His blade wasn’t wide enough to be a useful guard; something else had to be found. Forcing his legs to move his stocky body as fast as they could he searched frantically for something that he could grip with his telekinesis, be it stone, trunk or even a decent shred of bark.

Whatever it was it would have to do as a makeshift shield with which he could guard Lucky and Max from the arrows.

“Archers!”

He bellowed, magic reaching for things and discarding them in the hopes of finding something useful, anything useful that might save their lives. Looking forward the tree line neared, but would they make it? He pushed his body on; forcing it to do more than it was able to, forcing it to go beyond limits. Sometimes he wished he could force his magic to strengthen his body like he could enchanted objects, something he would have to look into at some point.

[Red Charge]

"I got just the fix!" Lucky called, throwing his head into his pouch even as he ran, surprisingly not kicking himself in the face. A mere moment later he tossed some shiny flask in the air. "Eyes forwards lads!" He called, turning Script's head forwards. "Count with me, 1,2,3!" A loud THWOK sound is heard and the world before the trio suddenly becomes much brighter for just a moment.

The three could hear the wind whistling in the arrow foils as the arrows landed all around them in a wide scatter. "Flash Flask. Useful if you're running away from a rival mob, a nosy detective or a very angry mare."

The three reached the edge of the crater, only to find it was higher than they thought and too steep to climb.

"Keep running!" Max cried, sprinting forwards to get ahead of the other two. "Don't stop!" Surely enough, when Script was just a few feet from a head on collision with the crater wall, he found himself strangely soaring through the air, as Max literally tossed him up, with Lucky landing in tow. She quickly jumped after them, landing before them again (and giving them a great view of her underside) and running off.

"Never get married young, Fantasy." Lucky says dreamily, bouncing after her.

[Fantasy Script]

His search for some sort of makeshift shield was interrupted as his head was rather forcefully turned forwards. As the light washed over him he was certainly glad he hadn’t been looking into that direction. The Diamond Dogs’ more sensitive eyes would probably be hurting very much right now. Absently Script wondered what Lucky didn’t have with him. That guy was basically prepared for anything.

The more pessimistic side of himself contemplated when the most critical moment would be for Lucky to be out of ideas and options. It would most likely be in a very uncomfortable situation and involve Script in some way.

“Mostly against mares eh?” Script rumbled, a smirk tugging at his lips.

The tentative smile was soon wiped off his face though as they approached the cliff of the crater, which was a lot steeper than he had expected. His steps were faltering as he slowed to a stop, wondering what to do now. Max’s scream startled him to no end, though it at least spurred him on to keep his speed up.

Next thing he knew, he was flying. In a sudden bout of madness he wondered whether he had managed to transform into a Pegasus, or Luna-forbid, an Alicorn. His rational side kicked in and informed him that he had just been thrown.

Thrown.

By a mare.

For the love of the mother of magic what did they feed these guys? Max just managed to throw him and he was reasonably certain that he was rather heavy set und muscular as well as clad in a heavy set of armour with a huge Flank sword on his back… seriously, could that mare lift a house?!

‘She can certainly lift my spirits…’ a stray thought added as he appreciated the view he was treated to. That mare was fit. To compare himself to that sort of perfection was kind of a moot point, still he felt somewhat inadequate.

“Too late for that, Lucky.”

[Red Charge]

Max led them towards the front, aiming to get to the ammo and weapons supplies. They ran through the woods for what seemed like quite a while. Unfortunately, while Max and Fantasy Script were built for endurance, Lucky wasn't exactly keeping pace.

"Wait... wait... I gotta stop, hold on!" He called, stumbling over his own hooves before face-planting right into the soft dirt.
"Come on Lucky! Now's not the time!" Max said, running back to try and help lift the unicorn to his feet.
"Go on without me," He said dramatically, "The mission's too important!" He leaned on Max's neck, huffing in the most academy-awards way possible.
"We ... CAN'T..." Max said through gritting teeth, "You have the EXPLOSIVES!" She shouted the last word right in his ear.
"Oh..." He said, the phony acting dropping as though it were never there, "Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well I can't keep up with you, you'll need to carry me." He said, batting his eyelashes at her.

Moments later Lucky was groaning atop Fantasy's back. "Can you not bounce so much? I swear it's like riding a bronco, and not in the good way either!" His potion flasks click clacked with each other atop of Fantasy's back, further increasing the chances of there being another catastrophic explosion taking place... with Fantasy being at ground zero.

Ahead of them was complete chaos. They couldn't even tell what was going on, the fighting was so intense it almost looked like the Diamond Dogs were fighting themselves. There was no way to break past this battle line and get to the supplies.

"No, no," Max said, "No they can't do anything like this anyway, we'll go back, get that knockout powder and if we can we'll hit this before we rejoin the main force." She instructed, turning back around, barely dodging a flying axe whizzing past her (and close enough to Fantasy Script to clip his nose hairs) and embedding itself in a nearby tree.

And thus Fantasy found himself again sprinting after the inexhaustable Max, carrying Lucky on his back.

[Fantasy Script]

Running, it was something he was at least good at, going through the long solitude of the tundra had given him a rather large amount of endurance. Not quite as much as their officer seemed to have, the mare seemed truly inexhaustible.

‘And doesn’t that inspire some thoughts…’ Script thought wryly. Lucky was a horrible influence on him, he was sure.

Said pony was suddenly lagging behind and finally stopping, forcing Script and Max to slow down as well and turn around. The other pony was breathing heavily and quite obviously no longer able to keep pace with them. Script fervently hoped the alchemist would magic some vial into being that would restore his stamina, because else somebody would have to carry him.

Script groaned lowly as he watched the mad mixer try his best to get Max to carry him. His act was… not very convincing to say the least. Max didn’t seem to find his antics overly amusing and is if Script had bucking known it the heavy body of his friend was lugged on his back without much aplomb. Giving him little time to get used to the new weight wriggling on his back Max ran off again, keeping the gruelling pace up she had kept them on so far. Script had little choice but to follow suit, lugging around the walking glassware shop through the underbrush.

Lucky’s comment sure didn’t help.

“You’re not exactly light you know?!”

The clanking and clinking of the vials in Lucky’s bag worried him somewhat though. Trying his best not to shake their alchemist too much he kept pace with Max, if barely. He really didn’t want to be part of whatever disaster would happen if the chemicals in the ponies back mixed together. They would probably explode. And instead of dying he would most likely end up as some sort of ooze creature that could only bubble and gurgle… or something. Ahead of them the sound of battle grew steadily louder until they came almost face to face with absolute chaos and carnage.

The smell of blood was heavy in the air as Diamond Dogs ripped into each other in a mad frenzy. Whatever had happened here certainly had stopped them quite effectively. Script only half understood what Max was mumbling but the axe almost clipping him certainly gave him enough reason to follow her shapely behind as they, once again, took to the underbrush with much vigour.

That mare… seriously.

The steady clink of phials on his back making him increasingly nervous did not help.

[Red Charge]

Lucky draped his hooves across Script's neck as Max's light running became a full on gallop as they skirted the crater they left earlier. "Come on, the knockout powder should be a few clicks this..." But her voice cut out suddenly by a loud grunt as she quickly pulled herself to a stop, leaving a small trail of dirt as her momentum dragged her forwards slightly.

This, was where her soldiering and training really showed. Not in her vigor, her strength or her calm-under-pressure attitude. But in this - the alertness and attentiveness. Both Script and Lucky had no idea why she stopped, not until hey too stopped and looked where she was looking. To their right, not even a dozen feet away, there was something in the treeline.

"How come I didn't..." Lucky muttered under his breath, shocked at his own lack of attention just as much as what he was actually looking at. An explosion some distance away was almost like thunder and lightning, illuminating the trees for just one moment, one terrifying moment.

The commotion, either of the battle or of Lucky's explosion had woken something up. Something that did not want to be woken up. Drawn to the magical power of the gem-pile's explosion, the creature came. They could see the tree leaves flutter as it breathed through rows of sharp teeth.

Of course, Lucky and Max had both heard of such creatures, but neither have ever encountered a Behemoth before.

A low growl began shaking the ground as the creature started to move forwards, towards them, its eyes glinting with rage and hunger.

"Run!" Max once again heard herself call.

"But you're a slayer, killing things like this is what you do!" Lucky called, hanging on to Script's neck for dear life.

"Not like this, not alone." She said. The creature continued its chase, tearing down anything that got in its path, be it tree, boulder, hill or dale, it was catching up. Each of its steps brought it closer and closer to the group.

"Ohmystarswhatthebuckwhatdowedodratsdratsdrats!" Lucky muttered,obviously unable to reach his flasks while running.

Max was quiet, formulating a plan, or just focused on escaping the behemoth?