Dino made his way towards the helipads, cigarette in the mouth and serious expression printed on the face. As the rest of the squad tagged along and spoke, Dino really began to question the motives of everybody involved in this clownery. What could force such a change in heart in the other group? Why would they attack Oz? And if it wasn't them, why wouldn't they stop the attack? So many questions with no answers on the horizon. When Matthew remarked on the origins of the crows, a shiver went down his spine.

"I know. That's what concerns me." he stated authoritatively. The Irish man then glanced back at the murder of crows, taking the last puff of his cigarette.

"May Badb Catha be merciful to us."

Noting Dino's behavior, the cyborg slowed down a bit and put his hands on his hips.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa...wait a sec..." he demanded, making eye contact with the man. "Why does Lilith give you the chills, dude?"

The cyborg marched in front of him, planting himself deliberately in the man's path.

"Isn't this a..." he dropped his tone significantly, "...rescue mission? We are going to save our friends...right?"

When Matthew stepped in front of Dino, his eyes dropped down to the tiny figure. As their eyes met, the Irish man read the concern in them. He simply sighed.

"Not jumping to conclusions, but I'd rather not keep my guard down too much. We don't know what are they up to. And by what I've seen this far, it ain't nothing good." he stated, staring deeply into Matt's eyes. In a moment his head snapped around, facing Anna and Celestial.

"And I expect the same from all of you. Watch your six. But do not allow direct engagements. I wanna talk this through first." he exclaimed, a slight tone of anger leaking out right at the end. He then simply moved Matt out of his way and walked down into the barracks, where the cross was stored.

Celestial followed Anna as they began walking towards Dino. He nodded at their leader, remembering that anything could happen out there. He didn't get a chance to see what his group members were made of during the arena fights thanks to his emotional outbursts, so he had no idea what to expect from the others. But he figured now that he wasn't blind, he could put up a good fight.

Lilith was sitting upright on her bunk, with her hands rested on her knees, and both eyes now closed. The woman had a peaceful expression with her usual light smile on and was humming a barely audible, slow melody. It was unmeant, as her whole attention was fixed on something far away from here anyway. The crows, her feathery emissaries served as her senses. Her body rested under the dank tent's sheets, but her mind was not quite there, it was high above the city of an unknown name.

Lilith could see people, her targets, and group members, could smell the air fouled by factories and vehicles...Familiar view, familiar feel. She could even hear some conversations, but those were too quiet and cut short by howling wind and fluttering of many, many wings. Lilith curled down her fingers, clenching fists for a moment and then relaxed again. She was ready...Hopefully it haven't been too long since the last time.

The murder followed the group, circling high above their heads, cawing constantly putting strain on their ears and nerves. Then suddenly, there was silence, every single bird in the flock has shut its beak for good. They circled for few more seconds, before they all dove down crashing on the pavement around the group, with series of loud crunches and splats. The biggest accumulation was around the captains. As soon as an avian has made contact with the ground, it body exploded, releasing the ash that it was made out of, eventually trapping the individuals inside of a raging dust-storm, containing of ash, small chunks and shards of what mostly seemed like bones.

It was hard to breathe and navigate through, but soon enough anyone trapped in captains' proximity would be released from the torment as ash simply seemed to avoid them. Its as if each one stood in its very own eye of the cyclone, storm warping around them, only few uncontrolled, smaller chunks flying by every now and then. Roy and Kyle however had less luck, as the spell completely engulfed them, intensifying and focusing on their location. The ash was suffocating, trying to force its way to their lungs and ripping any material they would try to cover their faces with, as well as cutting their clothes and skin with wildly flying shards.

Lilith watched from above, with just two, maybe four crows remaining to keep the visual. The process has only begun and she already had her fists clenched again and a little drop of sweat was making its way down her forehead. She remembered this whole thing being much easier in the past...

Once engulfed in the black poisonous ash, Anna clapped her hands excitedly. "This must mean that the game has started!"

Anna moved closer to Dino, Roy, and Kyle. Smiling cheerfully at Dino, she exclaimed "This is going to be fun!" Without much thought or effort, she simply stopped concealing her aura. Every living creature within a couple of meters from Anna would soon begin to feel slightly stronger and quicker. The cuts from the shards would completely heal in seconds after being inflicted, and the muscles in their bodies would have a much easier time breathing within the ash, except for a bit of mild discomfort. With a pat on the back, she told Dino, "I just know that my champion is going to bring us victory this day. Even if we lose, just do your best!" She offered a sincere smile to her comrade.

((OOC: To clarify, the aura is like a minor healing aura that also buffs physical abilities a bit. It works for everyone, friend or foe))

As the crowstorm began, Dino stood there watching. He did not care about the faiths of the two men, but at the same time he had to. As Anna unleashed her powers, the Irish man immediately felt the effects of her aura, feeling better with each second that passed. He glanced to her after the pat on the back, and smiled back.

"Thanks! It's nice to receive some encouragement every now and then." he stated with a smile. Then, just as the flip of a coin, his expression went blank. As the man turned his head, his Anaconda got pulled out of its holster. The barrel of the gun quickly moved towards the sky, where a couple of crows were still flying. He had no idea what would happen to Lilith in that case, but frankly he didn't give a damn. In the matter of moments, the crows exploded, pierced by chirurgical shots. After they were disposed of, Dino scanned the surroundings. His eyes stopped on a water tank not too far from them, just across the strip.

"Matt! Get that water and protect them from the storm. Anna, is there a way you can make them breathe underwater?" he queried softly right after barking the order to his other crew member.

"Nope, I don't have any fancy powers or abilities! These guys look tough, though. I'm sure they will manage to hold their breath long enough!" She looked around, not really sure where exactly they would be swimming.

Matthew stopped short, realizing the crows were starting to drop only seconds late. The next moment found him tumbling, scratched from every side by sharp bits and visibility-hampering ash. He scrambled to his feet, arms in front of his face, but then the ash stopped and began to whirl around him, as if it was a little hurricane and he was in the eye. Matthew turned around, picking out the locations of his comrades. They also seemed 'protected' by the ash now, but the commandude and his second-in-command were completely engulfed in their individual ash storms.

Matthew narrowed his eyes. Okay...Lilith think we not okay. Lilith destroy enemies.

The cyborg glanced at Dino, giving him a quick nod after the order.

"Yes sir! And they don't have to breathe underwater...I'll just tell the water not to form around their heads and they should be fine."

Matthew pointed his palm towards the water tank and beckoned to it. The screech of stressed metal rose above the sound of the ash storm, and the tank exploded. The freed torrent surged towards Matthew, forming into a massive water serpent. The serpent existed only briefly, before breaking apart into smaller serpents; one for each individual he had to protect. The cyborg pointed at the targets, and the serpents surged towards them, whirling around them to eliminate the ash. Once this was done, the serpents broke apart, covering the soldier's bodies like a suit.

Matthew had nothing to fear from the ash; he didn't exactly have nostrils or lungs. However, the periodic bone shard thingies were annoying. The cyborg turned to Dino.

"What should I do about the commandudes, Dino?" he asked.

"Nothing. Keep them well shut inside their bubbles until further notice." he said, making his way out in the open. Thanks to Anna's presence, Dino felt like he was at peak physical condition. It was both an amazing and terrifying feeling. One could only imagine what it felt like having that aura exponentially amplified. But for now, the Irish man was happy that Anna was on his side.

He stepped out in the open of the field and began taking care of any other ash crow flying around. With the captain and Roy safely trapped in their respective bubbles, he was free to dictate the pace of this encounter. Although he never truly questioned Lilith's entire arsenal of moves, Dino was not to turn down a challenge.

Nocturn busied himself watching the guard of their tent, noting his movements.

"How close are we to the fight?" He muttered to himself. The virus inside him began to shake in anticipation and he could feel the tug of the mask in its carnal desires.

Lilith frowned.

"Of course they wouldn't cooperate...What was I thinking... Im doing this for your own good you...ugh..."

And with that thought the 'safezones' created to not harm her allies closed on them, again obscuring vision and making movement that much more difficult. Of course, the storm wasn't even close as intense as around the captains, but it was still a major inconvenience. When Dino began to shoot, two crows fell on the pavement and turned into ash joining the storm, while the other ones; the bullet either seemed to miss or just went right through their bodies. The creatures were made out of ash after all...yet still something made some of them fall. After a moment two lumps were thrown out of the storm, transforming into the crows soon after making their number in the air unchanged.

Lilith wasn't quite able to see what is happening to the captains in the very center, but noticed the storm was doing close to no harm to her allies, all wounds closing immediately. She didn't know the source but could only assume that her targets were also affected. Good, whatever it was, it made close to no obstacle for her plans while keeping her group members relatively safe from collateral damage.

When the water serpent came down, all ash moved out of the way like an animal scared of the fire and the storm seized in a blink, instead forming a shapeless cloud of dust above their heads. Lilith slowly opened one of her eyes and slowly moved around her numb muscles. "Well...It was a good effort..." She murmured to herself and sighed, smiling. "...But I'm done anyway..."

It was a ruthless technique, one Lilith came up with when she still tried to impress her father, prove her worth. It was quick, effective, could be performed at great distances and put both the killer and bystanders' life at minimal risk, while being almost sure death sentence for the target. Should be there a way to have no witnesses; perfect assassination plan. The storm and sharp shards were not supposed to kill anybody, they were there to make the task easier, a fancy distraction and mean to keep everyone in their place. The real lethal factor was much simpler. The ash that captains were forced to breathe in throughout this whole time, it remained in their lungs making breathing and speech almost impossible even after they got released from the storm. She could probably leave them like that to die, but there was still no certainty. They were save from the outside, but the real threat has been planted inside them already. All what was left to complete Lilith's bidding was to transform the ash and rip their bodies to pieces from the inside; an order that was already given.

One of the bubbles turned red, a deep crimson that spread like ink until the entire thing was opaque. However the other stayed transluscient and the poor victim stayed floating inside, only able to watch the other die. A scream sent a white stream of bubbles breaking through the water prison and when it melted to the floor, Kyle collapsed onto his hands and knees and threw up water so that he could scream more. Lilith stared at the result confused, why wasn't he dead as well?

"My my wasn't that flashy." Abra whistled. He stood next to Dino and another one of him sat next to Tim, looking at the scene unfold from the box between his fingers. Both of them talked at the same time. "How brutal, killing two leaders." He sighed.





Abra smiled, "Well I have good reason to be here. And it comes with the simple conclusion that Lilith's party would have won the event if I had let this go." Abra shrugged, "However, it'd be boring if we end on that note yea? So I "balanced" the outcome a bit. Now both of you have one leader left. Now you gentlemen and ladies may wonder, what other reason could I possibly have to prolong this battle. Well the answer is simple, you guys don't know what's at cost if you lose. And I'm here to tell you." Abra snapped his fingers and everyone could see it in their head, something they hold dear and close to their heart. "That's the cost. If you lose, that's what you lose. So then," he clapped his hands. "Let's see some hustle out there!"

A blink as she stared at the dead man, "that's cheating." Anna was about to call a time-out until Abra appeared to clear up the confusion. She didn't like to lose, which made her consider going on the offensive for a fleeting moment. If she were to do that, however, there would likely be too many questions, and she would risk losing a lot more than whatever it was Abra was threatening them with. The vision appeared in her head and surprised her more than it probably should have. She looked puzzled for a moment before shrugging the thought off. She cheered to the rest of her team, "You guys heard him, let's stop holding back!" Everyone except for her, that is.