[center][h3]* * *[/h3][/center]

Auricolor slammed into volcanic earth, scattering shards of brittle glass stone over the magi. Laughing a scream that Jvan alone would call musical, the slick change-eating shapeshifter leapt from the dirt and twirled as she flew.

A'a groaned deep fury as his alien quarry escaped him. The volcano shuddered and spat more stone into the sky, but Tauga did not fear the scything ash.

Planting her feet in stone as it exploded beneath her, she propelled herself heavenwards on the cords of the grand ophanim, their lesser cousins whipping around her skull, shattering every pebble that dared face her, tiny fists of a foreign god.

Tauga leapt from hunks of steaming magma as they fell around her, and as Auricolor again savaged the elemental lord with her Stance of the Threefold Ferret, the Blowfly descended upon him-

And smote the fiery giant's skull.

[i]TCAKK[/i] of splitting stone.

Auricolor cackled. Glass smoke streamed from A'a's head. The change-eater pierced him with six claws and split her face nine ways, and her other three hands kicked and jittered as the golden creature gorged.

Tauga settled on the Djinni's nose.

[color=dimgray][b]"THIS IS NOT OVER,"[/b][/color] spoke the spirit elder, betraying not his pain as the alien fed. [color=dimgray][b]"MY BROTHERS WILL HEAR OF THIS. THEY MAY HAVE ACCEPTED YOUR SACRIFICES, STONE-CUTTER, BUT THEY WILL NOT SUFFER THIS. YOUR FIELDS WILL BE ASH. THE MOUNTAINS WILL AVENGE ME."[/b][/color]

[color=antiquewhite]"Then they will die,"[/color] said the Blowfly. She leapt to one side as an elder Bludgeon crashed into the crater, striking A'a's head from his body. Her invisible tongues crawled over his corpse like a wind. She tasted his Flicker dying with tendrils that were only now learning how to feel.

The mass of tentacles seized a young lava swaying with psychic distress. It floundered for lack of a lord, and was easy prey for Tauga. She flexed and gripped it as she did the ophanim. Her grasp was growing stronger. [color=antiquewhite]"You. Tell the magma lords of Xiloxoch and Axotal what you saw here. Tell them that I am a God, and this is my proof. They chose the right side to play on."[/color]

The invisible monstrosity lifted the djinni, and tossed it down into the waves.

Tauga felt something move behind her. It had a different taste to elementals and the cords, and yet was of the same Flickering substance.

[color=antiquewhite]"Not now, Auri. I fucking hurt."[/color]

Disappointed chatter.

Tauga turned and pointed her hammer high into the face of the Diaphane. [color=antiquewhite]"You're like a moulted kid, you know that? You think you're so... So, fuckin'... Fresh. God, do you ever, ever get tired?"[/color]

Sheepish eldritch mumbles.

[color=antiquewhite]"Whatever. Just get the hell out of here and let me sleep."[/color] Heartworm's vessel stepped lightly onto a nearby stone from nowhere. The draconic three-tiered ferret giggled and teased at it as it busied itself with Tauga's suit, addressed her myriad wounds.

If Tauga could ever feel glad for anything, it would have been that Heartworm wasn't smug.