It hadn't been long since the human force had begun their assault on the den, but it was obvious that the humans were more used to working together. Vefir had run all over, healing whatever he could, but it was coming to the point that he needed to prioritize those that he knew could survive and would reenter the fight.

The attack had begun shortly after the rising of the sun, and it had been quite different from what the keelish were used to. It had been quite a while since Vefir had accompanied a pack on the hunt, but he remembered the aggression, the unhinged ferocity, and the absolute focus on the complete eradication of the foe above all. The humans didn't work that way. They stayed clumped together, and focused on moving forward while preserving their own lives. They didn't focus on ravaging the keelish, but on moving towards a goal, and their "Speakers" as Ashlani called them were continuously summoning up new and powerful magic that stopped the keelish offensive from truly engaging.

Vefir was frustrated by the keelish's inability to do anything to really counter the human's ranged destructive potential, by Redael's command to keep any of the Alqat or the couple of others who could cast magic out of the fray, and mostly by his own inability to make a real difference.

Again and again, the weaker adults ran forward, snapping and tearing, but again and again, their attacks were thwarted. There had been a couple of the humans felled, but Vefir wasn't sure if any had actually been killed, since their fellows stepped forward and pulled any inert bodies back into the throng. The keelish, however, had dozens of bodies littering the ground, and that was without counting the seriously wounded that had survived any oncoming blasts of magic. Those that were felled were not allowed to rise up, with at least two of the humans stabbing them to the ground whenever possible.

The panic began to bubble in Vefir's chest. He was sure that if the elites of the swarm came up, the humans would be quickly driven back, so he didn't know why they weren't. Had they simply decided to flee, leaving the weakest to slow the assault, so they could make a clean getaway into the forest? Were they only going to engage once those who had secretly planned to overthrow the current regime were all killed? What was holding them back?

Before he could begin to truly panic, the fight got close. Vefir initially stepped back again and again as the humans pressed forward, but before too long, the battle shrieks filling the air all around him began to get to him, then, with an unhinged scream, he pressed the attack. One of the humans lunged forward with its long, pointy stick, attempting to skewer Greel, who stood to Vefir's side, and Vefir rushed in, jaws snapping. It had been a long time since he had attacked anything living, but even with the amount of time that it had been, Vefir knew that humans were foes, not prey. His teeth got close to eviscerating the human, but it hurriedly shifted its weight to the side and dodged his gnashing teeth. Vefir lanced his hand out in an attempt to use them like Ashlani did... and squealed in pain as, with a sickening series of cracking noises, his extended fingers bent in every direction they shouldn't.

The human didn't delay drew a short, thick stick from its waist and lashed out, dashing Vefir's head to the ground, stunning him. While he couldn't move, it was in slow motion that he saw the club descending again, to spray his brains across the ground... and it was in slow motion that he saw his brother slam his lowered, horn-spiked head into the base of the human's spine with a wet crunch. With a weak cry, the threatening human bent backwards unnaturally and crumpled to the ground.

Silf was immediately hunched over, protecting Vefir's limp body. "GET UP YOU MORON!" Vefir dazedly looked up at his little brother, trying to remember why he needed to get up so quickly. "YOU FANGLESS FISH!!! GET BACK NOW!" Silf screamed as he somehow scooped his tail under the prone Vefir and bodily hurled him back and away from the battle lines. Vefir was happy... until he saw the human about to blindside Silf with one of their long sticks.

It was in slow motion that Vefir saw the attack make contact, and it was with disbelieving horror that he saw his brother PUSH IT DEEPER into his torso, so he could continue twisting his body and slam his thick tail against the neck of his attacker. The human's head snapped to the side, lolled over, and then the rest of its body followed, crumpling into a heap.

Vefir sprinted to his brother, who screamed his defiance to the air. The humans around the dead assailant took a step back in surprise, and, to Vefir's surprise, Silf ran forward, pressing the advantage, seemingly without feeling the 2m staff buried in his body.

The humans began to rally each other, but the swarm picked up on the momentary weakness and rallied forward under Silf's undying and unfaltering leadership. A couple of times, something jostled the wounded Silf, and he cried out in pain, but he didn't mind it, and kept pressing forward maniacally. Finally, Vefir was able to get close and begin to pull his brother back.

As he was pulled from the fray, Silf sagged in what must have been exhaustion. Vefir quickly snapped his teeth through the shaft of the weapon in his brother, then pulled it out from the other side as he gathered his mostly spent magic in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

"We're... doing something... now..." Silf panted out. "I... changed it..."

Vefir pushed his magic hurriedly into his brother and saw the wound close partially, but not completely.

"I-I-I-I'm s-s-sorry. I-I-I-I just want-t-ted to help-p-p." In a moment like this, Vefir couldn't restrain the stutter.

"You're... not... a fighter..." Silf grinned up at his brother as he spoke. "But... maybe now... you can... be..." Silf sagged to the ground as he spoke, his eyes almost involuntarily closing. "Victory... by fang... and blood."

After that, Vefir couldn't remember much, but in his blind rage, he rushed into the weakened flank of these human bastards, and ripped, tore, killed, and ate everything that he could. Whenever he was wounded, he could feel his magic surge through him, healing his insides enough to keep fighting. It was only through the insistent, then forceful tugs of other keelish that he began to calm himself even a little bit, enough to pull out of the fight before the rallying humans were able to bury him under the press of their counterattack.

The surviving keelish fled the battlefront and made their way back to the hiding groups in the nearby forest. Vefir was about to collapse in sorrow and exhaustion when he heard a slow, familiar voice.

"See? I knew... you could... do it."