The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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Sen scrabbled up the World Tree's main trunk in gangly leaps as branches ground their way through bark in anticipation of his reaching fingers. The rest of the forest had ceased its mad growth; Sen's directives were consuming the twisted plant's now-dwindling energy. The knowledge of this World Tree's demise came automatically to the Tender; its deceptively complex cognitions, despite being incapable of language or higher thinking, could process all of the data from air and sound and Tree and self, and conclude the monstrous plant's doom. If Sen were capable of disappointment, he would've shown it now. Instead, he gave up whatever portion of the Tree Alexander had set his flames upon and had dashed off to investigate another source of damage - where Vexmagog's arm had scarred the upper branches.

The new branches were green and springy, perfect little springboards as Sen loped up the tree. Unlike the humans making their way along it, for the Tender up was still unnegotiably up. Sen stomped past the main party, noticing Wolf. Around him, and the others, was a bubble of influence that acted upon the trunk, ordering its gravity about. He perched on a branch roughly halfway between the sun and the ground; watched the wolf and the fire mage's fight break out. The Tender shuddered when Wolf howled, the keening sound reverberating through Sen, and by extension, the whole Tree - and flinched again as Alex ignited, his bursts of flame aimed at Wolf but inadvertently scorching bark.

Giving the bark beneath his feet a reassuring squeeze, Sen leapt off the branch, jaws agape, screeching like a neon banshee. Alex looked up at the plummeting beast, which had launched itself at him, head now tucking in to spin, and bring that clubbed, pod-bearing tail down-

The mage readied his blade. The tail-pod thwacked into it with surprising force, and to Alexander's amazement, did not break - in fact, it knocked his sword aside, nearly cleaving off his shoulder. The Tender was still somersaulting during this strike, and followed up by sweeping the pyromancer's feet from underneath him with a slender-fingered hand. The two tumbled, out-of-control, down the trunk; Alex grabbed his weapon with both hands this time and stabbed it as far as he could into the trunk which rushed by him, gouging the Tree with one lengthy scar.

Sen did not need to be touching the World Tree to feel the pain from so brutal an attack. His scream almost put Wolf's sonic howl to shame as the pair crashed through the canopy formed by all the smaller trees (though in saying smaller, they were already full-sized trees in their own right). Through the haze of pain, the Tender sensed the ground approaching and began rolling down the rest of the trunk, the durable pods taking the impact where Sen struck the tree. Alex could not time it so well, and jarred most of the bones in his body upon impact - though his sword had decelerated him enough to survive the hefty drop. It took him quite a few moments to extract his blade from the trunk, which was smoking for once not of his volition. A rush of fire up the length of steel, and the pyromancer pulled the sword from the charcoal.

Alex turned, to see where the Tender had fled to this time, then realised why it had not attacked him while he had his back turned. The saplings had parted or bowed down to Sen's orders and killed themselves off, leaving a clearing at the foot of the main tree. Glancing warily around, Alex noticed firstly the lack of escape routes - the arena was swiftly being walled off by a enmeshed ring of trees, which as well as being straight and leafless had a peculiar sheen to their bark. A jet of fire, launched while Sen directed a similar treatment of the above-ground roots that could not move or die, confirmed these trees would not ignite as easily. Behind the ever-forming wall, Alex recognised the pulverised remains of an iron-bar fence, with a stone base and topped with fleur-de-lyses, for a brief moment, before the view was rapaciously swallowed up by silvery-grey wood.

Sen hissed and glared balefully at Alex as he leapt upon a curved piece of concrete, tail lashing about and knocking over the top of the fountain. The pyromancer looked more nervous, realising this time there was no escape. Nothing left to do but fight to the death. Alex began with several fireballs in the Tender's direction, but it was already sprinting around the arena, its swift, long-legged gait almost too much for the mage to keep up with as he turned and shot. The fireballs struck the steely bark behind Sen and disappeared in a conflagration of embers. The Tender ceased its orbit and strode in with a few wildly jack-knifing leaps in an attempt to confuse Alex. Twisting to rest upon one spidery hand, Sen raked at the boy's face with the sharpened tips of the other. Alex had no time to guard with his sword; instead he darted back and launched a jet of flame in Sen's face.

The Tender screamed again, but this time its agonised cry had a sickly gurgle to it as it clawed at its incinerated face, falling to the ground as it used both hands to fruitlessly attempt to alleviate the pain. Clear, green sap poured from the wounds like cursed blood. Sen had had the brains to shut its eyes at the oncoming flames, but the translucent skin of its eyelids had been pretty much fried off. The surprised pyromancer lowered his arm, which had been stationary in the position it had been after the launch of flames. He couldn't believe it was going to be that easy - well, maybe he should've, considering it was a plant, but still... Alex took one step towards the prone, still creature, then heard its rhythmical, throaty clicking. The sound left him ill at ease, and the sword danced in front of him, pointed at the mess of fingers that was obscuring the reptilian face and the persistent tchlick-click-click-click.

The fingers parted, and the blade fell with a clatter as the talons lashed out and struck Alex's sword hand, marring the back of it with four neat punctures. The ticking crescendoed wildly, tempo outracing Alex's own heartbeat as the almost-mechanical noise mutated into an alien snigger. Sen, standing up with one hand, seized the sword with the other and tossed it aside, still click-chuckling away. The entire portion of its face which had been burned no longer spilled the Tender's essence - now it was caked in the silvery, fire-tolerant bark of the trees around it - and it was spreading across the smirking green face.