Elias the Gatekeeper could feel them before he saw them - an unbearable cold and a weight of spirit he had not experienced in some years.

As he turned towards the north, blackness enveloped his senses as he fell to the earth, dead.

Axil and Ogwin carved a red streak through the Village of Eleusis, slaughtering anyone and anything in their path. Their target was the Rowan, and they could allow nothing to stand in their way.

The guards they encountered relied on numbers, but Axil and Ogwin were specifically equipped to deal with this threat. Utilising Axil's famed thornspray and Ogwin's fulmination spheres, they made quick work of anyone they encountered. Still, they had difficulty staving off the lone attacks of Ipomoea, her darting teeth and claws nipping at them from behind before quickly disappearing. Luckily, she was alone, and safe to ignore for now. There was little time to waste.

Arriving before the Rowan, they unleashed a barrage at its base. The tree rang under the assault, as all of Eleusis shivered, and a small crack forming at its base. Their victory was almost certain once they were able to overwhelm the feeble defenses within the Heartwood Estate proper.

Just then, a contingent of Eleusians and their allies descended upon them. Ogwin roared in delight and rage, for his fellow Headhunters would envy the tales of this slaughter, and yet the opposing force just would not stay dead. Score after score fell to Axil and Ogwin. But there were always more.

The carnage from their foes' deaths proved to be a disastrous disadvantage for the Raven Tribe, as their thorns and spheres had difficulty navigating the strewn flesh and viscera left in their wake.

Finally, Faedwyn Winterhart landed a glancing blow into Axil's side. She could barely feel the pain, before she realised she had lost a hold of her spear. This is what bound her existence, and as it clattered to the floor so too did the shattered remnants of Axil, Alpha Headhunter, her body exploding into shards of bloodied ice.

Alone, Ogwin was quickly overwhelmed by the vastly superior numbers, his spheres weakened by exhaustion and numerous wounds, and he too eventually fell by the hand of Ipomoea.

A roar of triumph resounded throughout the thawing trees of the Eastern Ithmia as the Heartwood Estate was made safe from invasion.

~

Summary: Axil and Ogwin descended upon Eleusis, slaying countless people in their trek towards the Heartwood Estate. After attacking the Estate itself, both were eventually overwhelmed by the assembled Eleusian force, and the Estate was saved.

Penned by My hand on the 19th of Aeguary, in the year 862 AF.