By the time they had reached the forest, the snow had all but stopped having been reduced to a few fluttering flakes. Moving this slow was becoming tedious for Izaya to say the least but it was giving the girl time to put distance between herself and the human hunters. If she managed to get away then he could dump the soldiers and locate her on his own later and if they did happen to find her then he would just slaughter the soldiers and do what he could to gain her trust. For the moment as they neared the forest, Izaya scanned the treetops just in case of an ambush. He knew she had switched to some sort of flying beast right before he had lost her trail and he had taken the most direct route towards the mountains and forest. That would have been the route someone that was airborne would have taken. Now he stood about a hundred feet before entering the forest looking for any signs of her passing.<br/><br/>“You and your meen wait here commander. We will seek a higher vantage point and look ahead.” The commander grimaced obviously not used to taking orders from anybody in the field. “You do realize that I outrank you freak. I am your superior. You take orders from me.” Izaya’s smile could not be seen on the other side of his mask but his amusement shown prominently in his eyes and in his tone. “Then by all means commander, do as you wish. Just so you know though, you are definitely not superior to us and you do not sign our check so we do not take orders from you. You either follow our lead or carry on without us. Now if you'll excuse us.” Izaya left him standing there without waiting on a reply and in a literal blink of an eye was peering from one of the highest treetops.<br/><br/>Visibility was better but not perfect but it was enough to see a large clearing ahead. Izaya assumed it would be a lake and probably frozen. He looked back down behind him and saw that the commander had chosen to wait on his word. Seemed the human did have a bit of smarts from time to time. Izaya dropped from the treetops and landed lightly in the snow. "There is a clearing up ahead, maybe a hundred and fifty yards. We're going to make our way there. Spread out but stay within eyesight of the next man, and stay alert. Sound off if you see or hear anything. Let's move out."<br/><br/>They made pretty good time up to the clearing and just as Izaya thought, it was a frozen lake. Izaya moved out into the clearing first and then the rest followed several yards behind. He could sense her close by but couldn’t pinpoint exactly where she was at. He could feel her watching them. He immediately noticed where she had landed or rather crashed. He also saw her prints where she had transformed back into a human form. He knew she was getting tired. He remembered those days when his abilities took a toll on him, now he was less human than anything else and didn’t have that issue any more. His regenerative abilities gave him resolve for days on end. A piece of him broke away and erased her human tracks before he called out to the commander. “She landed here briefly and then must have taken flight again when she sensed us close by. She is definitely headed towards the mountains.”<br/><br/>The piece of him that had broken off to erase the female’s tracks had found when she had left the ground once again to climb the tree. Izaya looked up in that direction while he waited to be reunited with himself. He could sense her more than see her. He knew she was fatigued. He also had a feeling that her traps for them would be here. Just about that time one of the mercenaries called out. “What do you think these are commander?” The commander yelled a warning to the man just in time to see him pick up the pretty object from the snow. He was instantly impaled in more places than anyone would care to count. Izaya simply watched with interest. The man didn’t have time to scream before he died. He fell over and his blood quickly stained the virgin snow scarlet. The commander cursed and barked at the rest of his unit. “Gawd Dammit!! Nobody else touch a fucking thing!! Holy shit, what are you guys, children?? Mother fucker!!”<br/><br/>Izaya grinned beneath his mask at the commander as much as the stupidity of his trained mercenary. He composed himself but the voice inside his mind continued laugh which made remaining composed that much harder. Izaya called the unit in closer. “You see that mountain peak? That’s your compass. Thats where we’re going. It's the highest peak and the most likely spot for her to set down and watch us. It's only common sense to assume that if she can fly like a bird then she has the eyesight of one as well, if not better. It’s likely that she is watching us now. If  you see anything out of  the ordinary, try to fight the urge to touch it if at all possible.” He slapped one of the guys on his chest. “You take point. We’ll keep a loose formation and we’ll bring up the rear.” They all looked to their commander simultaneously for confirmation. “Just do as he says.”<br/><br/>As the mercenaries struck out in front of him, Izaya looked up at where he had speculated the girl’s position and winked at her. The point man came to a stop almost immediately as he entered the forest. He tried to turn back towards the rest of the unit but his feet remained facing forward  of him swiveled at the waist. Parts of him began falling away from his body in a spray of crimson and then he just plopped to the ground in a pile of bloody chunks. The pool of blood around the pile of flesh, bone and fabrics spread out quickly. “What The Fuck!!” Everybody halt!! Son of a bitch, what the hell?? We are undermanned and under equipped to deal with shit like this. We aren’t moving another inch without some air support and some sort of sensors to locate shit like that. Collins get over here with that radio.”<br/><br/>“Collins, belay that order.” A tendril snaked out from Izaya’s rib cage just below his arm and impaled Collins and the radio. Collins was then tossed in the direction of the pieces of flesh that used to be their point man. Collins hit the ground in a spray of blood and his body looked like it had exploded when bits of him flew in several directions. Two more of their number met the same fate before that commander realised that they had been betrayed. Izaya yelled out knowing that the female could hear him. “Do you believe us now? We are not here to harm you, on the contrary, quite the opposite.” Izaya sent a tendril down the throat of one mercenary who attempted to scream but his throat was blocked. His eyes showed his pain and terror just fine right before he exploded in a spray of blood and guts. The remainder of the team was coated in with pieces of flesh and bone that used to be their comrade.<br/><br/>“We’ve saved the rest for you Xerxes. Consider it an olive branch, a peace offering of sorts. There is much that we could accomplish if we were to work together.”