The foolish creature still held onto the gem, sacrificing mobility to do so. If it just had the sense to throw the thing perhaps it would have stood a chance, distracting the golem momentarily enough to run away. Instead it used its wings to right itself on the ground like they were some kinds of pseudo-legs.
The golem wound up for a second punch and threw it forward with great force. With its aim the creature's throat would probably collapse, slowing it down further and becoming unable to defend against further attacks. The golem's strike, however, went clean past its target at the odd flesh creature leapt straight into the air over it.
Unfortunately for it the golem was a creature of reaction, not thought. As soon as it saw the airst attack missed its other limb reached up to grasp at anything it could grab. The magic source would not get away. It would stop moving here and the golem would have a great haul to bring back.
The creature was getting away! Even though its attempts to block its escape had failed the golem was not going to give up. With a single motion of its strong limbs the rock creature soared into the air on top of the stone its target had escaped upon. Too late, however as it saw the winged creature jump off the other side, taking to the air with magic in tow.
This might not be the end though. It couldn't be the end. The golem had chased the gems this far and it wasn't about to give up completely. Curling itself up one more time the stone creature launched itself one more time, flying through the air with enough force and momentum that surely it would be able to grab the flying being and send it crashing to the ground.
If it missed this endeavor was all over and it would have to start again from nothing in its hunt. If it succeeded this would be a great day indeed!
This was it, the final strike. Its jump had been strong and its aim true. The flesh creature was too low to be able to veer out of the way and soon it would be crushed under the golem's weight.
That should have been the case, but this tricky creature in its intense desire to survive pulled off a truly bizarre move. Rather than pull up or to the side where the golem would still be able to grab it it dove straight down, crashing hard into the ground and tumbling into a flurry of flailing limbs. Cuts and bruises were appearing all over it but it still held grip on its stones and the perfect jump the golem had put together was no longer quite so perfect.
In fact from this height it was entirely possible that the golem might have put itself in a bit of a predicament. With its target no longer within reach the golem rolled up, bracing from impact and hoping that the other creature's crash had slowed it down enough that it would be able to catch up again.
After finally rolling to a stop the golem righted itself and looked back. The flesh creature was much further behind it than it had hoped, and much farther in the air than it had been the first time. If there had been any lose rocks around no doubt the golem would have taken a shot, but at this distance it would have been a last-ditch effort anyways.
With the loss of the golem's prey went all its efforts for the outing. It had already expended a lot of energy trying to reclaim what had been stolen, no sense in wasting even ore tracking down an unreachable target.
With nothing else in the immediate area the golem turned around and began to amble toward its original hunting grounds. Perhaps there would be another magic crystal somewhere near where the first one had been.