"ENOUGH!"
Fire erupted from the sands around Ka'Volan, and the Fiend stood to its full, intimidating height behind the curtain of flas and let out a roar of anguish and rage from having been so easily pushed back.
"You DARE wound the great Ka'Volan?! You pesky, irritating mortals!"
The reverberating boom of the Fiend's shout filled the basin, and I tilted my head to the side as I looked down upon the fight, taking it all in from a distance and preparing myself to step in should I need to, but...
The curtain of flas crashed back down to the sands and leapt at the Jackalkin, who was staring down the taller, bulkier Fiend unabashedly as she hefted her Kanabo, not taking a step back to retreat even as the fire washed over the ground towards her.
Stamping her foot, Anput unleashed a wave of raw, uncontrolled Earth Mana through the sands in front of her, creating a shield with that as spikes of rock burst from the ground and protected her from the flas.
A wide arc in front of her was now covered in stone spikes, and to further aid her Leone wreathed the Jackalkin in her own flas, combating fire with fire as she controlled a pillar of her mana to protect the warrior, whilst she remained safely behind her and far away from the lee oriented Fiend.
"Gods be damned I despise this desert..."
A soft growl echoed from the Fiend's throat as it shrouded one of its fists in flas again, though this ti it did so to begin healing its lost limb as it placed its palm over the stump, slowly regenerating the lost flesh and bone.
With two of its arms now out of commission, the Fiend was left with only two to fight, but that wasn't exactly as much of an advantage as it should be since it was still more than capable of fighting back efficiently with 'only' two arms, especially since there was only one person fighting it in close combat at the mont.
"Or more accurately, it's people! You damned Caninekin are always so damn tenacious! I cannot WAIT for the day I crown this desert as my throne! I will indulge myself with the screams of your kind as I burn them slowly... from the bottom of their soles to their scalps."
Ka'Volan lunged forwards into the sea of spikes, barreling through them and ignoring the fragnts of stone that embedded into its flesh from that reckless action, all so that it could reach Anput before she reached it.
Pulling back both of its free fists, the Fiend punched down into the earth and channeled its mana into the ground, cracking it further and causing another explosion as the flas burst out of from the sand to try and consu Anput.
Even wreathed in fla she needed to be wary of the Fiend's flas, so she leapt up into the air and swung her Kanabo upwards as well, cracking it against one of the Fiend's arms and snapping the bone inside, but this ti the Fiend didn't even let out a peep as the club forced its arm into an odd, unnatural position.
Landing on the Fiend's shoulders, Anput leapt away instantly and created space between her and the Fiend, whilst also placing it between her and Leone, forcing the Fiend to weigh its options and make a decision that would influence the battle imnsely.
It could go after the mage and try to take her out, but leaving its back exposed to the warrior would spell its demise almost instantly; and yet, turning its back on the mage was a deadly endeavor as well, since she had already shown she had spells in her repertoire that would deal damage to the Fiend.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the Fiend needed to act quick to get out unscathed, and I narrowed my eyes as I wondered how it would do so, only to smile wryly as I watched those leathery wings flap a few tis before the heavy Fiend lifted itself into the air.
Flas coursed over its wings as it rose into the sky, and after a brief second of hesitation Leone sent a storm of blood needles towards the Fiend, trying to bring it back down as she targeted its wings and began to tear through the leathery mbranes.
Growling again, it punched its fists together and sent a shockwave of mana around itself diverting so of the needles and giving it a mont to regenerate the lost mbrane, allowing it to remain in the air as it turned towards Anput and returned its anger to her instead.
Another shockwave blasted out around it before it folded its wings and began to dive towards the Jackalkin, hurtling towards her like a teor and forcing the Jackalkin to leap back again lest she be crushed beneath the weight of the Fiend or be burned by its flas.
The impact of the Fiend slamming into the basin was enough to create a sizable crater right where Anput had been, before a secondary explosion coursed through the sands towards Anput to try and catch her just as she landed, but the smaller Jackalkin was far more agile than the Fiend expected.
Leaping across the sands back towards Ka'Volan, Anput swung the Kanabo hard down towards the Fiend's head, while Leone unleashed another storm of blood needles towards its back, catching it once more between two powerful attacks.
It didn't have enough ti to react to either as it rose from the crater it created, and as soon as Anput's attack landed it was pushed back down into the crater, its entire body shaking wildly as she cracked its skull.
The barrage of needles pierced its back and punctured dozens of holes into its flesh, dealing even more damage to an already wounded Fiend and making it let out another agonized groan.
"All talk, no skill..? How is this thing a Fiend?"
Jahi's murmur made the Sultana chuckle quietly as she said "Because its raw strength outweighs its incompetence. It is nowhere near its full power right now... rember, Ka Fiends have a wide array of emotions and variations of those emotions. What do you think Ka'Volan's premier 'emotion' is?"
We watched as Anput continued to swing her Kanabo over her head and down onto Ka'Volan's head, hamring it down into the crater it had made and not giving it a mont of respite to gather itself, all while Leone continued to utilize the low damage, yet it was a constant buildup of damage across the entire back of the Fiend, opening a myriad of wounds that wept blood to weaken the Fiend even more.
"What emotion..?"
After the fourth blow from Anput, the Fiend let out an agonized and enraged scream as it crossed its arms above its head and caught the weapon on its arms, before another explosion of fire tried to lt the tal and scorch Anput's flesh.
"Anger. More specifically rage, if I had to take a guess. Which ans the current peppering of needles and the heavy, domineering blows from Anput are probably pissing this Fiend off more than anything else in the world..."
"Correct, Katherine. Fire is many things, but one of its constants is how volatile it is, no? Even in a contained environnt, there is the chance that it burns too much or boils the thing you are heating up. Saying you can control fire and its byproducts is only sothing that fools say. So what happens if that fire is smoldering within the center of your mind?"
"You would get a rather volatile person. Our elents already affect us sowhat simply by having them within our Cores, but... are you saying that it's different for Ka'Volan? That the Fiend has its flas consuming more than just its Core?"
"Correct again. Where us mortals are constructs of flesh and bone built around our hearts, minds, and our Cores, Fiends are constructs of mana and emotions primarily that usually just so happen to have flesh and bone attached to them. So if their primary emotion grows to a boiling point... you get that."
As the Sultana was speaking, a loud boom shook the basin and caused Jahi and I to widen our eyes as we watched the Fiend catch Anput's Kanabo again and yank it from her grasp, all four of its arms wrapped around the weapon as it shouted wordlessly at the Jackalkin.
All four of its arms were back, but instead of being only flesh and bone like before, they had beco transparent as the mana flowing within them flared to new heights, and the missing flesh and bone was replaced entirely with mana, creating limbs from nothing and ignoring the Fiend's regeneration altogether.
As soon as she lost her weapon, Anput turned tail and began to run away, giving herself ti and space to create a new weapon while Leone began to solidify her position with defensive wards, all while a spell lood over her head that spat a constant stream of needles at the already irritated and enraged Fiend.
"This is where it gets interesting... but it's still manageable for them, if you must know. There is no need to join in just yet..."
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