Máire’s boots kicked up dust as she and the dragon woman danced around each other, her blades slicing through the air past the masked figure in repetition. Close, closer but still not close enough. This woman wasn’t just skilled, she was [i]experienced -[/i] but still ever on the defensive, her initial aggression seeming to fall away now that she had to split her focus between two opponents. 

No, more; a pack of wolves descended on the battle as if from nowhere, fangs sinking quickly into the shapeshifter’s mass and the dragon woman’s leg. Máire made to seize the opportunity, but the sound of hooves beating against the earth forced her to jump back out of the path of a charging stag. There was a crack like thunder and a sudden burning shock hit the side of Máire’s face and chest, and she recognized the sensation of plasma rounds before her surviving eye marked the man astride the glowing deer. 

Her hood was singed and melted in places, the visible parts of her face painted iron as a swarm of silver dust rushed to repair the damage. A blue-white flash filled the air a moment later, and Máire’s right eye flashed the same color to compensate for her shocked retina. 

The man was on the ground, and the dragon woman had her back to her. Six blades formed by her hand in an instant, not willing to let the opportunity go to waste a second time. They shot forward, only to explode into dust as some great hulking flesh barreled into her, lifting her off her feet and enveloping her in its mass. She was ejected a moment later, catapulted into the air away from the battle. The silver dust lingering in the area instantly swarmed to meet her, sinking through her skin and back into her blood before her feet touched the ground. 

She saw the shapeshifter linger for a moment, gazing at the masked figure, before it turned and dashed northward, screaming out to Máire to retreat in a new, feminine voice. She grit her teeth, staring down the warriors they were leaving behind, bitterness filling her mouth. Then she shot one of her blades into the air, grabbing an invisible link only she could feel and using it to pull her after the shapeshifter.

Máire flew swiftly across the Graves, generating a new blade each time the last started to lose momentum. She spotted Rat down below, and switched to using her current blade as a pendulum, swinging in a wide arc toward the messenger. Her hand reached out as she got close, and in the next instant he was squirming in her arm as they flew onward, following the shapeshifter.