Eli received the message from Alyssa and sprang into action gathering his militia. While parts of the message were concerning, he couldn’t deny he was excited to go into action with his people. He had been training them nearly every waking hour of every day since the last siege. His troopers were broken into groups of 7 and sent into the myriad dungeons that were being managed by the three refugee groups.

He looked at the location data that was transmitted with her message and noted that she was out on the edge of a distant mesa. There were no roads or easy paths there and by the tone of the message she needed help an hour ago. It also appeared he would be facing a loosely organized cavalry raiding force. Seems the natives went back to their roots and decided that everyone who wasn’t them needed to go. He thought all this while he formed a plan of getting his forces into play quickly and realized that this was the perfect time to employ his little pet project.

So it was with no small amount of pleasure that he tapped into his mental connection with Felix, his soul bound companion, who happened to be a mountain lion, and requested assistance from the pride. Then he sent messages out to his people that had been training with the large cats to form his fantasy mounted cavalry. The coyotes weren’t willing to be left out of this either. While the cats seemed to have a certain amount of pride in what they were doing, the coyotes revelled in becoming useful to their pack of humans.

He noted that it was more common for a coyote to form a bond with a human than it was for a Mountain Lion to do so, though to date at least one other had formed a bond. Unfortunately that happened to be a ten year old girl that always played with the mountain lions and their cubs. It would be more accurate to say that she had been adopted by one of the mountain lioness’ rather than being bonded the way he and Felix were. It seemed that the bonding process was different among the varying animals that one could bond with. For coyotes and wolves it would be a dominance thing, the animal would have to recognize you as the stronger of the two, and you would also have to recognize and respect its strength in turn. For the cats it seemed to be a bond formed in battle. And he was certain that if this coming battle proved trying that several more bonds would form amongst both the coyote and lion groups.

He examined the satellite image of the location where Alyssa was fighting the Navajo Raiders and determined that only the mounted riders would be able to make it back there quickly. He also decided that he wouldn’t mind some fire support and sent his liaison with the Valkyr, Troels, a request for a hundred of their number to meet his own hundred riders out on the plains. He was pleased to see the request was received and accepted quickly and he rounded the bunkhouses to find nearly a hundred coyotes and mountain lions with riders lined up and waiting, Felix preening in front of the entire group.

The civilian population of the village watched with curiosity as the group had quickly assembled, the coyotes and mountain lions in full barding with riders similarly fully equipped for battle. Eli came to stand in front of them and returned the salutes offered by the individual platoon leaders.

“I’ll make this quick, Alyssa, The First Challenger, has located the last group of refugees. They were besieged by several hundred Navajo Raiders who were either killing or taking them as slaves. She’s requested support and we are it. If any of you have reservations about fighting and killing your own kin, now is the time to step down. I won’t fault you.”

Eli watched for a long tense moment, two men dismounted and offered their apologies. He had his AI make a mental note of the men that backed out and then mounted Felix, I won’t fault you, but I will keep an eye on you, he thought grimly as he waved his men forward. “Move out!” And with that the coyote and mountain lion cavalry charged out of the village and broke into a full run with the coyotes in the middle and the lions keeping pace on the flanks.

*****

When Troels reported to Freya that the Challenger, Alyssa Nightraven, had requested assistance, she nearly leapt in joy. It had been over a week since they had partaken in a decent battle and Freya herself was starting to feel a bit stiff. So she called for a hundred volunteers to fly out to the North where the girl had apparently found both the last elusive group of refugees and, apparently, a significant threat to the village. Within moments a hundred Valkyr women launched into the air and headed for the point that Eli had indicated.

She wasn’t sure how the resourceful man had planned to reach the girl in time, even flying it would take roughly twenty minutes for her people to get there, and as far as she knew none of Eli’s people had the ability to fly. So they would have to navigate the harsh terrain between the village and the Challenger on the ground. She knew the man wasn’t so daft to think that their ‘offroad’ vehicles could make the trip in the time needed, which was why she was only partly surprised when she saw the large cloud of dust rising in a trail across the highway.

“Seems the Armsmaster has solved the problem of getting his people to battle, my Queen.” Hilga commented to her left.

“Indeed, he’s a rather resourceful man, if I hadn’t already vowed to become Karl’s, I might take him to my bed.” She laughed wistfully.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’ll have to see if I can catch his interest!” Hilga exclaimed playfully.

“He could do no better, I say!” Freya pronounced cheerily.

The pair chatted casually as if they were headed to the beach. And to the Valkyr, heading to battle was the most joyous thing they could do. They watched the mounted men and women below them ride hard across the desert. The coyotes and mountain lions bounding deftly across the rough terrain, not slowing for anything in their path. The wild creatures and monsters that dotted the landscape hurried to get out of their path of travel and avoid simply getting trampled into the ground.

Soon they flew into view of a massive battle. Mounted shirtless men swirled around a large group of what appeared to be beastmen. The assumed refugees took on all shapes and forms, some were fully transformed into their beast while others remained largely human looking. From her vantage, Freya could see another large group of mounted men charging out from a camp almost a mile away and attacking a small group of people on the edge of a wide mesa.

“There, the Challenger wages war at the edge of that mesa!” Hilga exclaimed as the excitement of battle began to overtake her.

Freya was about to give the order to attack when she received a communication request from Eli. “I was just about to order the attack, Armsmaster, what can I do for you?”

“Oh, I need to see what you see, can you show me?” He asked straight to the point.

Freya authorized his access to her visual recordings immediately, “Of course, Commander. What do you plan?”

Eli glanced through the recordings quickly and began passing out orders. Freya again found the man to be incredibly competent and hoped that Hilga would be able to sway his affection when this was over. “I’m going to smash into the flank of the force attacking Alyssa, can you provide fire support from the air?”

“We can, and we will! Valkyr, prepare to support the mounted attack!” She yelled to her assembled warriors. Then she watched as Eli rounded a short butte and rotated his cavalry efficiently to orient on the seemingly endless stream of mounted attackers that were single-mindedly focused on the Challenger. Her party were giving far more than they were getting, if the piles of horse and man flesh spread in a rough circle around them were any indication of the truth to the situation.

Eli rode between the coyotes and mountain lions on the right of his fast moving command. The lions spread out to widen their front, while the coyotes formed five rough lines spaced several meters apart. The coyotes would be the force that smashed through the enemy formation while the lions pulled down stragglers and strays and generally fomented chaos amongst the ranks of the horse riders.

Freya directed her fighters to prepare their ranged attacks as Eli’s riders closed on the still oblivious enemy formation. If the enemy commanders were paying attention they would have halted their charge to face Eli’s cavalry. However they were too focused on the Challenger to notice until it was too late.

The first of Eli’s riders leapt over the charging horses, and the coyote snatched the enemy rider off his mount, bit him in half, and tossed his parts back down the line of horsemen. Then the coyote’s rider swung a shotgun around and blasted another man off his mount. The rider Freya had been watching disappeared behind the never ending wave of charging enemies and appeared on the other side of the column a few seconds later. He guided his mount to put distance between him and his opponents while the other riders similarly smashed into the raider’s flanks to devastating effect. In groups of five the coyote cavalry smashed through the enemy column and pushed past it to wheel around and do it again.

The horse raiders charge collapsed as the mountain lions joined the fight. They didn’t charge straight through as the coyotes had, opting to attack the disabled and disoriented victims of the lead attack. One group turned to face the enemy charge head on while the other group tore into the backs of the enemy raiders that had made it past the initial assault. The enemy horses were large and heavy, but they weren’t agile, and they didn’t have sharp teeth or claws. They fell one after the other, unable to form an organized resistance. The blood of man and beast mixed on the ground as fighters and mounts died violently to the coyotes, mountain lions and their riders.

Then Freya ordered her people to attack as she reached back and a large golden lance of light formed in her hand. She threw the magical creation with all of her might and smiled as it crashed into the middle of the formation that was still fighting the Challenger and exploded with a brilliant cascade of light and energy. Man and horse both were tossed in the air at the sudden attack and the others circled around only to be peppered with a deluge of multicolored magical projectiles. The line of attackers evaporated at the sudden attack and the Challenger waved her weapon at Freya then slipped back into the shadows to stalk the field unseen. The sudden ranged attack from the air was enough to break the will of the enemy raiders and they wheeled their horses around to the North and fled, leaving their fellow warriors to fight the beastmen in the valley below the mesa.

Eli’s cavalry proceeded to mop up the stragglers while he linked up with Alyssa and surveyed the battle below them. “Freya, Alyssa tells me there’s a camp a mile back with prisoners, I’m sending the coyote troop to handle that, my lions will wrap up the flanks here if you want to take the point on this next one.”

“We would be glad to, Valkyr, TO THE GROUND!” She bellowed and every woman drew a melee weapon of some flavor and proceeded to dive bomb as one into the mass of Navajo Raiders that were engaged with the shape shifting beastmen.

******

Brondwyn staggered back and pulled the spear of the rider he just killed from his side. He had taken several wounds yet still stood and fought next to his brother, who had still taken quite a few wounds himself, despite carrying a shield. Even Alyssa and Lulu were not unscathed in the fight, despite spending most of their time hidden in the shadows. It seemed some of Tracey’s men had high enough Perception to spot her just before she attacked. Which is rather rude, I think. Even Dany had taken a few wounds. She became a priority target when she halted the first wave of horse raiders with the judicious and liberal use of an overcharged chain lightning spell. As well, Choox’il had to demonstrate more than once that her beautifully decorated nails were not just for display.

It was with no small amount of relief that Alyssa noted the Valkyr in the sky to the rest of her party. What did surprise her was when she realized that aid had also come bearing fang and claw. The Native Raiders had circled her group so completely that she didn’t notice Eli and probably every coyote and mountain lion that resided in the village had also come with riders. It wasn’t until Freya’s magical lance crashed into the rear of her attackers that she caught a glimpse of Eli on the back of Felix swinging his cavalry sabre at his enemies' backs. Felix similarly tore through the ranks of the horsemen, clawing and biting at the horses' flanks as they advanced, occasionally wrenching riders from their mounts.

She was further pleased when the raiders broke and ran to the north. Now the only fight to wrap up was the bigger one below them that raged between the beastmen and the rest of the horse raiders. At least now the beastmen were fighting back in full force, rather than trying to thread the rules placed on them by the System for being refugees.

“Alyssa! Good to see you alive. We came as fast as we could, what’s the situation!?” Eli said quickly as he dismounted and joined her on the edge of the mesa.

“I’ve confirmed through my talk with the leader of the Navajo that these are in fact the refugees. He has a camp a mile back where he’s keeping as many as he can subdue as slaves.”

“Right, where these assholes came from. Jared! Take the coyotes where the Challenger has indicated and liberate those people.” Eli turned to a man still mounted on a coyote. The man looked in the direction indicated and nodded in the affirmative, then began gathering his troop and was gone.

Then Eli got a hold of Freya and asked her to tank point on the next attack, to which she answered by diving with her command straight into the middle of the melee. Horse and rider were thrown through the air as the Valkyr struck with explosive power as one. Eli quickly mounted Felix and directed his lion cavalry to wrap up the flanks and force them back into the Valkyr. Which left Alyssa and her team alone again at the top of the mesa.

“So, what should we do, Challenger?” Feodr asked, holding his brother up.

“Did anyone see where that fucker Tracey went? She asked, intent on chasing the arrogant and cowardly man down.

“I saw him flee the battle long before the reinforcements arrived. He headed North, do we want to chase?” Choox’il supplied looking out to where she had seen the man running.

“If you can patch us up, Choox’il, we can join the fight below if it’s still raging after we have recovered some. That weasel will have to wait.”

“Of course, Challenger.” The spider woman intoned and went to work restoring the party to fighting shape, starting with Brondwyn, who was the worst of all them.

Alyssa watched the fight rage and smiled as the raiders were slowly ground down on three sides by the beastmen, Eli’s cavalry from either flank, and the Valkyr in the middle. She stared in awe as horse and rider were torn to pieces and soon the remaining riders attempted to flee the battle. He didn’t really have enough forces to pin them in place so he did the next best thing and gave them a path escape that flowed along the steep mesa walls. The only direction they could go was north, and that was fine as it didn't lead back to Winslow. The majority of the riders fled just before the fight finished.

Eli and Freya met amongst the dead and dying and conferred with each other then turned to face a trio of large beastmen and one petite beastwoman. They talked for a moment before motioning up the mesa to Alyssa and her team, then they all marched in her direction. She decided it would be rude to make them climb the mesa and proceeded to leap off the ledge as she had done earlier in the day from the butte. The mesa wall was shorter and she landed with grace, then slid down the still steep incline to meet the gathering of beings at the bottom.

She stared in awe at the absolutely ginormous werewolf man that stood in front of her. Holy shit! He has to be 9 feet tall! He had fur the color of dusk and deep yellow eyes stared down at her barely five foot frame. The others in his party were largely human looking. The woman that followed them up looked like she was barely into her teens and also sported a long striped tail as well as cat ears. She had shimmering green eyes and cat shaped pupils. She smiled at Alyssa and a pointy incisor poked out from behind her pink lips.

“Hi! I’m Anna! And these are my people! We’re extremely grateful for your assistance, Challenger!”