With her prey so close Lucretia was fairly upset when she arrived at the intersection of the map to find that not only did it go deeper but she even found a sign with a scrawled note on it. Scowling as she read it over; it was just a simple line that was meant to make her irritated. Which definitely was working to a degree.

Do you think it’d be that easy?

She could see that they had collapsed one of the tunnels and if she was a betting woman that was where her adversary lay. But she didn’t have the tools or time to really dig through this and would have to figure out  away to go around. Though this primary intersection was one of the only few this deep. Meaning that to get around she’d probably have to dig or find another entry. Which meant more fighting and more time wasted.

Snarling to herself the woman turned on her heel to find that she wasn’t alone. In fact there were a few more than what she was used to dealing with at once. Two or three was fine but… Five? Six? With one clearly stronger than the rest grinning toothy ear from toothy ear to ear. Her hand went to her sword pommel and she’d squint up at the largest one.

He was blissfully lacking scars which meant he likely was alpha just cause he was stronger. Not skilled. The rest of them looked like they had seen their fair share of combat or at least had been the reason why the other lacked scars...

...But that information didn’t seem to matter when all five of the damn things rushed her at once. The largest hanging back with a smug look on it’s face. Which was immediately brought to surprise when Lucretia not only survived the intial bout of slashes and bites. But she took some pounds of flesh of her own. The first wolf to fall to her blade was that of the one showing the most scars. Likely weakened from some previous fight or scuffle it wasn’t a surprise to her.

It’s lifeless corpse was left behind as the other’s continued to push her back, trying to get her to go a certain direction. Which the woman staunchly fought with every step; making them have to work with it. Having to overextend them. She felt a claw dig past her rusted armor and bite into the muscle underneath. Snarling in agitation she’d bring her sword around in a brutal arc, not only catching one by surprise with the motion but two. Her lucky blow didn’t have consequences though, It got stuck halfway in the second lycan; leaving her wide open for the two others to pounce on her.

Her overt motions for her spells meant that she was forced to do one of two things, tank the blows or move out of the way. She was nowhere near speedy enough to avoid two attacks at once and trusting in her armor was out of the question. So she did what she had to and instead took the attacks head on. Even so much as headbutting one of them hard enough to where the both of them were seeing stars.

But that’s where she created enough of an opening to put a boot to the convulsing lycan’s body and yank her sword out of it with a grimace. She could tell the alpha was enjoying the fight with the way he was leaning up against the wall. A dumb grin on his face as he watched his people fight her. It was possible that this pack wasn’t a proper one and that his prior pack was one that he cared for, or that he was put in charge of this one for some reason.

Regardless of that Lucretia slid back when one of them directly attacked her sword, forcing her to assess her weapon’s condition. Though it’s blows weren’t without some damage of it’s own; it’s claws looked worse for wear and they were now being cautious…

She was slowly wearing them down, with their packmates being brutally killed on after the other they stopped treating the hunter like she wasn’t something to be wary of. Rushing her all at once had just yielded death so the two started to work together a little more properly. This entire encounter felt disjointed; like they were all unsure about one another. Or that the fact the alpha felt like he was from a different pack also seemed ot line up in some strange way or another.

The first one to fall was a wolf missing a good chunk of an ear, he overstepped and was left wide open. Letting Lucretia put her sword down through his collarbone. The snapping didn’t bring her any semblance of joy; just the sort of begrudging acknowledgement that her work was preceding. Her eyes darted to the other wolf which had taken a hesitant step back. Yanking her sword clear and stepping forward was all that lycan needed to want to run away.

But Lucretia didn’t let him, instead she’d bound forward and spike the sword clean through it’s throat. Sweeping out one way to nearly decapitate them. Watching it fall to the ground both her and the alpha shared a moment as he slowly pushed off the wall.

”Now I see why all the others were so underprepared. Ruthless is what I’d call you. You just don’t give up at all. Weathering all those attacks. It’s a wonder you’re not howling with the rest of us.”

”If I had claws like yours I’d put them to use killing your ilk instead.”

Lucretia spat out practically with a charge of venom. The alpha gave a small shrug of his shoulders, figuring that hunters would change if brought to heel in this sort of way. He’d let his claws do the talking rather than his mouth after making an offer.

”Look hunter, I have two offers for you. One is join us, let me make you into one of us. And the other is simply just put down the sword and make my job easi-”

Lucretia didn’t even hesitate; stepping forward to close the distance she’d swing her sword in a brutal arc again. Taking the alpha by surprise; though he’d hop back out of the swords reach and looked a little out of sorts she didn’t even let him finish speaking. Snarling it would be a battle of fang and claw versus blade...

One of which that felt like it dragged on and on.

She felt his fangs bite into her armor, past that and deeper into the flesh underneath. Making her snarl in pain. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of just giving into it. Punching him in the face to get him off of her. He was working his way under her guard, slicing off pieces oof her armor; making it less effective.

While all that she was able to do was get a few cuts here or there. But in comparison she wasn’t bleeding as badly as he was. A lucky hit to one of his legs made it so he wouldn’t be able to move as fast. But he responded in kind by breaking one of her arms. Grimacing from the pain she’d adjust slightly and hold the sword up with the limb dangling loosely to one side.

”Geez you just don’t give up do you?”

Wordlessly Lucretia sprang forward, bringing her sword around in a vicious arc; nearly gouging into his chest. But instead she shifted it about halfway through, looking to stab forward instead. It caught him off guard and she was finally able to strike him deep in the chest. He’d cough and some of that blood got on her, making her grimace a bit. It stank like death.

She’d grimace and pull back as she could see the light quickly fading from the alpha’s eyes. Though with him sputtering like that, she knew that it was going to be a dangerous couple of minutes. The body would fight her still and it’d be rough. A few dazed swipes before the stumble and she could see that maybe she hit something a little more vital than just a lung.

A moment later that cough again and the alpha stilled, checking it over Lucretia was surprised to see that it had bled out rather rapidly. Did she maybe penetrate the heart? With all the blood oozing from the chest she couldn’t be sure. So she’d take her dues and limp her way back to town….