They were conquering a new land and, in the pursuit of that conquest, deaths were bound to happen. Not Obscuran deaths, but the deaths of those big things in the Nook that thought they owned the place. Newsflash: They didn't.

Scylla led her group of scouts into the redbuds, knowing exactly where she was going. There was a massive grizzly that refused to pack up and leave. She was here to deliver his eviction notice in the form of bloodshed. It seemed as though he knew it too, because the hulking brown bear was waiting for them.

There was no reason to waste time. The bear had refused to leave so it needed to be dealt with. Scylla parted ways from the rest of the group, circling the bear and coming up behind it. The beast lashed out at those in front and kicked dirt at those behind, but it wouldn't make a difference in the end.

They attacked.

"Scylla"

Ciná followed Scylla and the others out into the nearby nook with a simple directive in mind: kill the grizzly bear that had taken up residence there so they could finally claim it as their own. With four of them working together he had no doubt it was going to be easy work. The bear was easy enough to find–grizzlies were massive and smelly to boot. With Scylla parting from the group to move around behind the bear he helped to keep the bear's attention with low growls as he stalked closer and began to shift toward its right side. The fight kicked off all at once with the ursine swinging massive paws with loud roars that splattered him with spittle. He snarled and lunged to bite down on the bear's front, right paw, biting down hard onto the appendage and immediately starting to yank backward and shaking his head to do as much damage as possible before he was forced to let go to avoid the bear's jaws that reached for the top of his head.

"Cináed"

Arcturus was more than happy to join in when Scylla came looking for a group to go after a bear that had taken up residence in the redbud nook. Following behind her with the rest of the boys, they set out and easily found their target. As grizzlies usually were it was a massive bear and it was not pleased to see them. They wasted no time talking or planning and instead Scylla immediately went around to get behind the bear while Ciná moved to the bear's right. Following their lead he started moving toward the left, leaving Nero in front as the largest of them to face off with the bear head on. That got the grizzly surrounded and hopefully would quickly overwhelm it since it wouldn't know where to defend or attack first. While Ciná went for a front leg he went for the back left, sinking his fangs in deep into its thigh. He held on as long as he dared, but as soon as the grizzly started rearing back he let go, jumping back out of the way.

"Arcturus Indarra"

Any day Nero got to bare his fangs and spill some blood was a good day in his book. This was going to be one of those days. As Obscura continued to stake their claim over the Redbud Nook, one of the tasks Scylla had on her checklist was to drive out any competing indigenous predators from the land. This had been fairly easy to do, as many smaller predators simply scampered and fled before the hulking ancient dire brute. But one had not been so clever. A grizzly, large and mean, had chosen to stand and fight. It was a noble and admirable decision in the ancient brute's eyes, but a foolish one nonetheless. The bear had chosen to fight to the death. Nero would oblige its wishes.

The quartet of Obscuran wolves prowled through the cherry blossom forest in the direction of the bear's den, finding the giant ursine waiting for them outside, bellowing and stomping the ground in a threatening display. Nero simply sized the creature up and scoffed. Following Scylla's lead, once the fight had initiated, Nero did what Nero always did—he went right into the thick of it. Being the largest wolf in the land, Nero stood as tall as the grizzly did so long as it stayed on all fours. Marching straight up to the bear with an almost manic grin on his face and primal savagery flaring in his golden eyes, Nero rushed the bear, tanking it to keep its attention away from his smaller comrades. This was going to be fun!

The bear bellowed as Arcturus and Cináed began to harass it from the side, but when those jaws went to snap at Ciná, all they met instead were the powerful jaws of Nero. Nero snarled and clashed his jaws against the bear's, the sharp clack of their teeth snapping against one another's echoing in the still forest while he kept the bear from biting at anyone other than himself, leaving their opponent open to attack.

"Scylla & Nero"

There was something about being surrounded by a bunch of big boys that just tickled the little Sovereign. Little imaginings of a male harem started popping up in the fae's imagination, but she pushed them away to muse over at a later time. Now they needed to focus and get down to business.

Being a tiny thing, grappling wasn't exactly her forte. Instead, while Arc and Cina held the legs and Nero held the... what in the hell was he doing? Biting a biting face. Ugh... he'd better not get ugly.

Scylla padded up behind the bear, it's attention pulled in many different directions, and pulled out one of her blades. Snickety-snack, there went an achilles tendon. Blood sprayed, probably getting all over herself and Arcturus, but who cared? The cobalt fae gave a little titter and pointed at the heel in a very 'see what I did' sort of manner. This was going to be too easy.

"Scylla"

Cina glanced up at the hard clack of teeth on teeth and realized that Nero had intervened to keep the bear's jaws from landing by grappling with the bear jaw to jaw. It was the kind of technique only a brute his size could have pulled off. Regardless, the ursine was currently occupied and he, Arcturus, and Scylla were all free to finish this off quickly. Only a split second later a slightly muffled roar of pain left the beast and its leg buckled a bit as Scylla cut into one of its tendons. At the very least this bear wasn't going to be going anywhere fast any time soon. Cina bit down onto the bear's ankle to try and return the favor to Nero by keeping it from being able to rear up and get its claws into the larger male. It took pretty much all of his strength to keep the bear from pulling away, but it kept it immobile and tore deeper into another one of its legs.

"Cináed"

Nero made quick work of engaging with the bear and locking in with it in a way that kept it from rearing up and looming over them. As if that wasn't enough to keep it occupied so the rest of them could land their attacks, he glanced over just as Scylla was approaching with a blade that with slicing through the bear's tendon, making the heavy limb falter and sending a splatter of blood across his shoulder and face. He blinked and shook the blood away from his eyes, smirking a bit at Scylla's amused reaction to the attack. Quickly lunging in to use his fangs, he bit deep to worsen the wound and effectively cripple its hind leg, doing all but making the bear buckle under its own weight. It likely wouldn't take much more to finish clearing the threat that had proven to not be much of a threat at all to the four of them working together.

"Arcturus Indarra"

Nero was completely unaware of what was happening around him. Being locked in a close quarters biting match with a literal grizzly bear tended to hold your attention pretty firmly. He trusted the others in the group were at least half-witted enough to be doing something effective while he kept the bear from harming any of them, and his faith had not been misplaced as he heard Cináed fighting with the bear's paws to prevent it from slashing out at him or rearing up. He couldn't see what Arcturus was doing, but hoped it was something effective. Scylla was... well, she was so small he had no idea where she was. At least not until he heard the bear bellow in agony and watched as its hind legs gave out under it. Ah, the little fae was cutting heels, it seemed. Clever.

Now knowing the bear wouldn't be running or rearing up on its hind legs anymore, Nero switched his attention to the next effective means of disabling the predator—crippling its front legs. While Ciná tussled with its mighty paws, Nero took the opening to disengage from the bear's jaws and placed his own large paws on the bear's shoulders, vaulting up over the bear to land on its back. The bear bellowed in rage and pain, but with two of its legs disabled all it could do was squirm and thrash. Not enough to dislodge the ancient dire brute, and certainly not enough to save it. Golden eyes targeting the exposed back of the bear's neck, Nero leveraged his lifetime of hunting and fighting knowledge from his tribe and lunged down, latching powerful jaws around the bear's neck. The fat around the ursine would have been enough to keep it safe from a normal wolf's jaws, but Nero was no normal wolf. Sharp fangs sank through the fat and fur like a hot knife through butter, sinking deeper until he felt the hard press of bone against his teeth. Then Nero bit down with all his might.

Crack! The sickening sound of bone crunching and splitting was heard for a brief moment before it was drowned out by the bear's wail of pain. Another bite and twist and Nero ripped apart the bear's spinal column right at its shoulders. The grizzly's front legs suddenly went dead weight as it lost all control of its legs, collapsing to a heap on the ground. Still alive, still breathing and making noise, and still snapping its jaws futilely at the wolves, but its legs had been rendered inert. Nero had crippled the bear. Standing tall atop the fallen predator, the giant arctic brute waved to the rest of his allies, gesturing for them to finish the bear off while his chest heaved and muscles rippled, reveling in the victory they were assured to achieve.

"Scylla & Nero"

Everyone played their part and soon the bear was down, but not quite out. Nero, in a show of... very attractive strength... disabled the bear from above, using his unmatched size and strength the pummel the ursine. Blood flew like drifting petals from the surrounding trees and Scylla couldn't help but step back and take in the beautiful moment.

The life was slowly leaving the bear and mismatched eyes watched its sides heave as it fought for breath. It was no use. The bear was dead and didn't even know it. The bloodied fae looked around the group, her gaze settling on each of their faces. "Together, there's nothing that we can't accomplish," a bit of a pep talk was always nice. "I'd say that this land is ours, boys. Wouldn't you?" Pristine whites flashed in the bloodied fae's face as she grinned at them. Any other large predators in the area would be dealt with in the same way. Scylla couldn't wait to turn this big ass bear into some sort of warning totem.

"Scylla"

The bear certainly didn't stand a chance with the four skilled fighters going after it at once, but Nero's spine cracking move that sent the ursine crumpling to the ground sealed the deal. He dropped the now limp leg with a thump and took a step back, panting a bit from the exertion and thrill of the fight. It had been a little bit since he had a good tussle with anything so this was a fun excursion with a few of his pack mates. As Scylla declared the land theirs with the murder of this large predator he chuckled and nodded in agreement. If a grizzly bear couldn't dissuade them from calling the land theirs then he didn't know what could. In the time that they were discussing their victory the bear eventually gave in to its wounds and the struggling, labored breathing stopped. Not his cleanest kill by any means, but he had fun.

"Cináed"

In what was admittedly a pretty impressive move, Nero made what was essentially the killing move on this grizzly, rendering it completely paralyzed and sending it crumpling to the ground. Arc stepped back with a sigh as he licked away the blood that covered his muzzle and fangs. There was always a little bit of extra satisfaction whenever he was able to be part of taking down a bear–a little piece of the revenge that he never really got to have for his father, he supposed. As the bear faded and eventually perished while they celebrated their victory, Scylla gave them a short sort of speech and said decidedly that this land was now theirs. He grinned and nodded, his tail wagging gently. It had been a good bit of work to be able to call this place part of their home, but he felt like they had more than made their mark here now and it was sure to be clear to anyone that came near here that Obscura had laid claim to this land.

"Arcturus Indarra"

As he stood above the paralyzed and dying grizzly bear, Nero peered down at little Scylla, their fearless leader, as she addressed the group. After her little pep talk, Nero gave an approving huff and a nod. He would fight with Arcturus and Cináed again, and he was sure he would get the chance to in due time. As the bear struggled and died, the giant brute realized none of his comrades were going to finish off the bear, so he would take the pleasure himself. Just as the bear's strength was slipping away with each beat of its failing heart, Nero decided to expedite that process by reaching down and wrapping his jaws around the bear's exposed neck again. Then, with a strong bite and a sharp twist of his head, he snapped the bear's neck in several places, ending its life in a sudden violent burst. The bear spasmed, twitched, and died without another sound, its last gasp leaving its lungs in its death throes. He sorely wanted to decapitate the bear as a show of his strength, but he was sure Scylla probably wanted the corpse intact for one of her bizarre taxidermy projects.

"Scylla & Nero"