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Liliel's eyes opened slightly as she finally understood why they'd all been gathering random soquili recently. It hadn't quite made sense to here since they hadn't been permitted to kill any of them at the time of capture. She looked to her grandsire and grinned, this was going to be fun. Silently she went to work making a list of all the ones she wanted to kill with her own talons. The black and white angeni and her sniveling blonde friend made the top of her list naturally. They had foiled her once but back in the jungle where she had been raised she had the advantage.

Aside from those two there were a lot weak looking soquili, a pair of regular soquili with spikes in their legs that looked quite a bit alike, a mare with a red butterfly on her chest that didn't seem to know anything, a fish, and a smattering of others. There was a second angeni with tattered feathers that looked rather appealing. She wore armor and seemed more composed than the others. That would be the real mark to get. Angeni were the mortal enemies of the mazoku and this one seemed to be the tougher of the two present. Whoever brought the green one down would make the biggest impression on their lords and of course Liliel wanted to be that victor.

The voice of the black and purple kalona managed to break through the walls in Camilla's mind and her eyes widened. They were to be hunted down. Camilla looked around slowly at the others as though seeing them for the first time. This might be the last time she saw any of them, or worse, it might be the last time anyone saw her.

Xelloss noticed a rather interesting spread of emotional response among the lesser mazoku members. Some of them were excited, others seemed almost scared. He could understand why they might fear, given the apparent strength of some of their captives, but that did not make him respect the emotion. They were mazoku. Fear was weak.

"Now, before we get started." Continuing in his unofficial role as master of ceremonies, he looked over to where two of the wolf familiars of the mazoku clan stood. "Brid, Gort." The mother-daughter pair stood in the shadow of Beastmaster, watching with glowing red eyes. "Go out and start a perimeter, as we discussed earlier." The wolves made small growls of assent before dashing off. It was their job to herd any wayward captives back to the main event.

"And now, to pick our first 'participant." By participant, he meant victim. He looked over to Rezo for this part. "If Lord Ruby Eyes would do the honors?"

Xelloss nodded at that choice. "And the first one of you unleashed," he directed this at his descendants. "Will be Tythoss. Though Tythoss has been involved in some of the unfortunate failures that seem to plague our little group, he has proven himself worthy." He said this knowing it would incite jealousy. A bit of competitive spirit would do them good, and they really did have a long way to go to redeem themselves in his eyes.

"Tythoss brought back a captive in fine condition from the Padmapani herd." Tythoss had been the one to capture Megaera, and Xelloss couldn't help but be a little proud of that. The Padmapani had driven off Tythoss and the others after Lorenna's network had forewarned them. Bringing back a Padmapani member to the slaughter was an exceptionally beautiful bit of revenge. The fact that he had done this without any assistance made it all the more impressive.

"As a reward for his cleverness, he'll be making the first kill today." Eerily cheerful for such a horrifying topic, he chuckled. "I would hope you don't find her too challenging."

At Tythoss' confident smirk, Xelloss made his way over to where Scarlet Wing was bound. "All right, now. You go and run away," he told her as he unbound her from the others. "You'll live longer if you run faster."

Tythoss' eyebrows raised incredulously as he watched the mare start her departure. He glanced sideways to his father, but Xelloss only shrugged. If she didn't want to fight for her life, that was her own problem... and a problem that Tythoss was going to enjoy.

He was still for long enough to give her a head start. When she was starting to disappear into the dense foliage, that was when he went after her. "Run!" he shouted, bounding over and snapping at her flanks. His eerie slit mouth broke open into an even eerier wide grin. This was the honor given to him, and it was more delightful than any praise could have been. "Run, run!" he cackled, trying to whip her into flight with his tail.

The sight of the mare dashing away from him awoke Tythoss' predatory instinct. His conscious thoughts ceased, his mouth still frozen in a horrifying rictus of a grin. He chased after her but his body was stronger and swifter. It didn't take long for him to reach her, and it didn't take long after that for him to fall upon her. With sharp teeth and thrashing tail, he could have been truly been mistaken for a blood-splattered demon. His elated and vicious snarls echoed off the trees, a horrible prayer to start their dark games.

A shiver ran through Zamiel. He too was among the captives, his wings also bound tightly to his sides. The burbling yowling of the kalona could only mean one thing, the first of them had met their end. It was a surreal place for Zamiel to be. Here was the greatest hunt of all, but he was the target, not the hunter. It had always been the other way around for him. He even had hunted soquili before, and ended their lives in similarly violent manners. He hadn't done it often, but he had done it. Was this his cosmic retribution for such violence?

The snarls died down in volume, but that only made him more chilled. He couldn't fight off so many kalona alone and without his wings. Was he doomed to die in a mockery of how he had lived?

Megaera couldn't help but let out a choked sob as she was untied from the others. She looked desperately into their faces, wanting to find something to give her even a glimmer of hope. Her eyes fell upon the armored angeni. "Please," she whispered, as the last ropes around her legs began to fall. "Please," she repeated, as Xelloss gave her a push away from the others. She didn't know what she asked the angeni mare for, she only knew that whatever it was, it was not received.

Maybe the angeni whispered back at her, but the words she mouthed did not reach Megaera's ears. All that she heard was the kalona.

"Run."

Unlike Scarlet Wing, Megaera didn't need any more coaxing than that. Tears were flung from her eyes as she spun and sprinted away. Maybe, she hoped... maybe if she ran far enough fast enough, she could escape. Maybe she could run all the way back to the distant Padmapani herd. Maybe she could make it home.

Zelcion snarled as he was beckoned forward. Tythoss was "clever" for bringing that captive back but he had been part of the same failure that their father was mocking him for now. He didn't even grace Xelloss with a reply. He simply snorted and vanished into the jungle.

This mare at least at the sense to run unlike Tythoss's kill. She was no jungle native though. She didn't know the paths like Zelcion did and Zelcion picked his carefully. He didn't make a sound racing down the path, not until he was closer to the mare.

"You want to go home?" He called softly, almost sweetly as he closed the gap between them. He was a much larger creature than this little mare could ever hope to be. If this little event was meant to be teaching them something then their sire should have picked better targets. More likely it was just making them look foolish in front of their lords.