It felt its’ perception of the world slow.

The Blonde One, the Templar, the human. She leapt, twisting into the air as she tore her way into the fray.
The movements she made, the [AGGRESSION-BATTLECALM-FOCUS] warped it’s ability to see her.

But it saw the fire that was growing to meet her. It saw the shape of [MANA-FAMILIAR-eNtRoPy]. It saw the world smothered in warmth. In heat.
Backlit by it all was this suffused [FORTITUDE-LOCK—]

Pain.
Pain in their legs. In their body. Pain assaulting the flesh— A hole. Heal it. Turn to the aggressor. 
[EnTrOpY-VIOLENCE-FORCE-{[b]ETERNAL[/b]}]. From before. The man. A line of pain sliced through their shoulder, a shallow gash.

He was followed by a suite of wolves. Five new-old wounds. [MANA] seeped away… No. not good. They were beginning to run close to low.

[DOMAIN OF FLAME] prevented easy siphoning from the very air. [MANA] did not draw in as swiftly, as smoothly. The One of Fire was trying to burn them out? No.

A hand lashed out as J-3 burst into motion. They ducked, twisting in a show of flexibility that would make the bendiest of contortionists green with envy.
The Viking passed over them, blade slicing down and cleaving through their throat as they looked up at him.

Their expression was blank. The meat was beyond concern.

Its fingers closed around a wolf as it came too close again. Mana PULSED, pouring into the construct in its hold. Filling it. Filling it. Filling…

It twisted again, [b]LAUNCHING[/b] the wolf at the One of Fire. The mana construct sailed through the air, filled to near bursting with [MANA-FORCE-BANG]. 
A fireball sailed from finger tips.
A wolf vanished.

And those who could [SEE] were treated to a light that shut eyes could not diminish. A flash bang, of sorts, for the initiated.


It shifted, ink swelling by its legs and left arm as it shut off the ability to perceive pain. Perceive anything but pressure.

Then, like a rocket, and with the violent sound of bone shattering like glass, it moved. The muscles in its legs and waist were magnified in size and in efficiency. Bone was nothing before the force of it launching itself forward.

Ink pulsed once more, flesh ballooning to nearly cartoonish size as J-3 found themself suffused in hellish heat. They soared through the air, moving faster than they had ever.

It entered the [DOMAIN OF FLAME]. 
Flesh cracked, hair exploded and vanished into dust, but still. Still. 
J-3 pushed onward. 
Its’ arm split along a single cracking vein, moisture sapped by the very air…

The sound was akin to a gunshot, or perhaps a tire, but it exploded by ID’s face all the same. The form of the shapeshifter rushing by her as they tackled into the form of the Blonde— Of the Ally. They wrapped around her as they went, ink WHIRLING into motion as it’s shape changed again.

They threw her, tossing her forward and into the air as a new skull whipped around. They were a human-serpent-crocodile shape now. Plated bone took up eight feet of serpentine muscle and coil, before meeting with thick scaled flesh of the torso. They still bore two arms, and though the torso was humanoid, it was almost startlingly large.

The skull was crocodilian in form, hairless and covered in scutes and scales. The throat was still cut, though it healed in a blink.

Its hands were clawed, six inches on eight digits each. 

[MANA] pulsed in the air, fading as an area of three meters around its form became [VOID].
[MANA-PAIN] was impossible to ignore, but the chance to deprive further [MANA]-weaving. The One of Fire must be denied further action.

Escape? Escape sounded good. They were dangerously low now. Time? Time. It… No.


They had … Two? Minutes. Before they would shut down and expire. A new source of fuel was needed. 

J-3 stared ID down in silence, before turning away and dashing. They moved north. Calling into the open air as they did, voice still like the first shape they wore in this battle. 

Female.

“[color=Magenta]WE SHOULD GO. NOW. TASK-FOCUS-LEAVE![/color]” They [i][b]screamed[/b][/i] to Maire.