>>5343499The situation is more than ideal. Your battle lines are holding, the enemy must assault your position using clear chokepoints and can be assailed by missile weapons without issue. It is unknown just how many werebeasts are lurking in these woods, but so far it seems certain that they cannot commit the manpower to break your ranks. If you can keep up this momentum, the attrition will destroy them. All-in-all, your stratagem has proven incredibly effective.
Good things never last.
A piercing whistle cuts through the mayhem of the conflict, signaling a withdraw. The canids heartlessly abandon their wererat cohorts to their fate without so much as a thought, choosing to make a mad dash for the trees until they vanish into the woods. Without the pressure that their erstwhile allies provided, the rodents are immediately killed down to the last, leaving only you and yours standing.
Your eyes scour the environment for the one who issued the order to retreat. Willow places a hand on your shoulder, pointing off into the distance. "Ye see 'im?" She asks, highlighting a moss-covered outcrop, atop which stands a musclebound human adorned in a selection of feathers and bones meant to look ornate. Regarding you with a nod, he wanders off. "That's our priest." She spits.
"Ha, they're running! We got 'em good!" Affirms one of the foresters confidently.
No, that is not it. The priest tempers their bloodlust with his wisdom. The black-bloods are in their element when attacking from stealth or pursuing in a chase. He understands that they will lose a sustained fight against a coordinated force, and pulled his subordinates away from the skirmish so that they could attack again under conditions better suited to their strengths. You mustn't think of this as a hunt, but a war, and fight accordingly.
