With screamed curses and frustrated pointing, Sybil was finally able to get a couple keelish to pull the enraged Vefir out of the melee. After he was pulled back and held down, he finally learned that Silf wasn't, in fact, dead, and Vefir's ministrations could very well ensure that he lived, Vefir went to heal his brother.

A small part of Sybil sighed at the hysterics, but she immediately settled back into her position of attempting to slow the advance of the humans. Rulac had told her basically that the younger, weaker keelish's (and the older keelish that were losing their utility) assignment in this fight was to use whatever means they had available to them to slow the humans' advance, then, eventually, the elites of the swarm would swoop in and save the day.

From Redael's of view, the move was clever. It would ensure that the swarm stayed strong, weeding out the weak adults and forcing the weaker young to grow, and on the other hand, it would weaken the stance of Ashlani, who was garnering quite a bit of support within the swarm, by killing many of his followers. Finally, it would strengthen Redael's position as the greatest, most trustworthy power in the swarm, showing that he and his immediate subordinates were the only one's that could offer safety from potential competitors and those who would prey on the keelish. A part of Sybil wondered if it was, in fact, Redael who came up with the plan, and she was nearly certain that he had, but who was responsible for the ideas was immaterial.

That realization had finally quieted the cold, logical part of her mind. Most of her had already fully thrown in with Ashlani, but that quiet 5% of her brain couldn't stop whispering about how there may be steadier, more reliable returns on defecting to Redael's side. However, once she had seen that she would have no place in serving Redael if she were to defect, her stance in staying completely loyal to Ashlani was perfected. Sybil wasn't quite sure what was wrong with her, never able to turn off that calculating, unfeeling part of her brain, always evaluating values and returns, never seeing keelish as anything other than a number among dozens.

Octavi stood nearby, waiting to relay any message or order Sybil had to communicate to the rest of the struggling keelish. The detatched part of Sybil noted the 6 additional keelish corpses littering the ground, acknowledged that none of them were named members of Ashlani's swarm, and stopped caring about them. Another, not unfeeling part of her mind was disturbed by her callousness and lack of care, but she couldn't let herself focus on anything other than keeping herself and as many of her subordinates alive as possible.

Suddenly, Octavi stepped forward, "The far side seems to be buckling under pressure. They may soon abandon their posts." Sybil had no idea how Octavi had seen that turn of events so early, but it wasn't the first time she had noticed, and she hadn't been wrong before, so Sybil, leapt into action. Initially, she was going to send a messenger over, then she thought better of it. Her magic stockpile was still completely full, so she decided to test its efficacy in the fields of battle.

Running forward, Sybil pushed the normally comforting energy within her to a roiling boil, and felt the effects of the magic on herself immediately. Her vision went red, and her entire being was suffused with the total need to ACT, to DO, to CLAW, to BITE. Her previously well-thought command was washed away by the pounding of her heart in her ears, and she simply screamed out, "RALLY! KILL!! VICTORY!!!"

Dimly, in the back of her mind, she noted that the keelish around her truly did rally, truly did rush forward with her, but the rest of her decided to reject her own inexperience, to forget her inability to fight, and to ignore her strengths. The surging emotion in her demanded that she act, and act she did. She threw herself into the now pitched battle with aplomb, and heard a familiar voice booming from behind her...

"VICTORY BY FANG AND BLOOD!!! I AM WITH YOU, MY SWARM!!!"