The golem is spreading itself thinner and thinner, Hargrave notices. The war of attrition— however uncoordinated it is on the part of the Gembound— is working, leaving the construct smaller and duller with every sluggish step.

Ears pin back at the noise of metal shattering, but the dog perks forward in their stead, patently curious. Without a bracer, its arm collapses. Was it coincidence, or the very thing holding the beast together after all? Were they binding chains in more ways than just confinement?

Hargrave bares her teeth in anticipation for reaching for her Iceblade, putting it between her teeth and then flinging it through the air. Determined, she reaches for her magic again, letting it guide— and speed along— the impromptu arrow's arc for the remaining bracer and wrist.

The Bauxite was finally figuring out that this golem would not listen to reason. The problem was that aside from reason, there was not much he had to prov-

Oh wait. There's an axe in his hand. And money to repair it, should it see damage.

He dipped past the Gembound in his way, ducking and weaving gracefully through the scattered lava. There was less of it now, making an already easy task almost effortless. The Bauxite, despite his inexperience and lack of adequate training, brought the axe down on the remaining shackle with good momentum.

Thalassa was painfully aware of how little she could do to help. She didn't magick, or an axe. She had a pair of broken goggles, coins, and teeth. None of these were applicable, unless she wanted to get set on fire for... Enrichment, I guess.

Her wings stung within many small, aching burns. Perhaps that was what weakened her judgement - that pain, and the hardwired sympathy that came with it. She was considering saving someone from their fate. Anything to keep herself an active participant, at this point.

She ran past the droplets, just fast enough to avoid being injured further, to give the Agate a crudely delivered boost. Thalassa shoved them forward roughly, out of the way of the fire and fury that threatened their own hide.

@V-Agate-One get rescued buffoon

Other people were fighting it.

Here Surgis was, cowering behind a rock and the others were fighting it. Shouldn't it be gone by now? No, it was flinging now, spinning again and lobbing more lava everywhere. It didn't have another move? Surgis wanted to be looting, not doing this.

If they weren't going to finish the job, she'd... well, she'd do something. Popping her head around the edge of her hiding rock, Surgis glanced around for something to throw, some big enough rock she could hold—

Distraction was her downfall, because in a moment that lava pelted her on the shoulder, driving her to flinch back with a yelp and to stub her burnt fur into the nearby rock. Like an indignant teenager, Surgis growled out a single, simple: "Ow?!"

With the wind as you fly away
Give a smile from your lips and say
"I am free! Yes, I'm free!"

The tide of the battle seemed to shift. The golem was slowing and the gembound were on the attack. September had managed to toss away the worst of the globs of lava that had come his way and now he saw his opening.

He rushed forward, to carry the winds with him and push back against the golem, to stop any more of the lava from flying in the way of the gembound, but the spell began to falter and failed, leaving him right in the way to receive a very very hot magma bullet searing across his side. "Fuck," he hissed as he stumbled back, the burn already setting in and stinging.

september

The beam had intensified the longer he'd maintained it upon the golem's bracers. Now its light faded away, and behind the blinding illumination, Fahl's triumphant face was revealed, his mouth curved into a satisfied grin. He'd heard the shatter, seen its fantastic results, and therefore knew how correct he'd been when selecting a target amongst the molten mass composing their antagonist.

"Fuck yeah." Censorship be damned in this moment. Throat too ravaged by previous failure to shout, he settled for a murmur, echoing what he believed his mentor would've said if he'd witnessed the impressive shot as well.

The others weren't slow on the uptake. They noticed what damage he'd managed to inflict and were swiftly following suit in targeting the remaining bracer. Much as he itched to unleash another blast and put their far less flashy efforts to shame, stealing the opportunity to bask a second time in the spotlight seemed impractical. Better for him to divide their enemy's attention so its retaliation didn't become more focused than the spin and burn routine it was intent on following.

He fully pulled his bulk behind the wall, but anyone still sheltering behind it could see his magic in progress. To any observer, his silhouette vibrated in place before splitting into twin iguanas, the real one distinguishable by the touch and sound his counterpart lacked. Hopefully he could make up for the second by staying well out of sight.

Unlike those attacking the golem's intact arm, the fake Fahl that charged into view went for the vulnerable side whose appendage had disappeared. "Let's see you handle this, flameface!"

Naturally he devolved into a coughing fit immediately after delivering this bluff. Fuck, it ached to yell like that. Once this was all over, he wasn't going to speak for a whole cycle if he could help it.

Tourmaline hadn't zero'd in on Fahl's true strike. No, she was watching the golem struggle to pull itself past the ice - ice she'd thought originally would just flash to steam on getting close. But it's a pleasant surprise, as it means that's something she could use.

She takes a deep breath. Then she's peering around the edge of the wall. The golem is close. Now or never.

Her mouth opens wide with a hiss, and she sprays a freezing fog, aimed right for the center of the magma golem.

Tyrin is enjoying the progress- really, he is! Maybe a bit too much, hunkering down in the heat and coughing to try and pull in more air, he has to squint for a moment into the brightness of the magma to see if he could spot the other gauntlet. Or anything else metal to hit? Let's stick with the other gauntlet.

Fahl's cheer makes him bare his teeth further in a grin, and he ducks out to the far side- hopefully only long enough to throw his rock. With less melodrama than him winding up and spinning, instead he tries to spin laterally- winding up like a softball pitcher to try and strike true.

Letting the stone fly, he's able to dodge the flying globs of pain and suffering and throw himself behind the wreckage of the collapsing pillar, not... liking the smattering of dust and pebbles from the ceiling. This could be a very, very bad place to be.

Watching the magma, he decides it's better than out there. For now.

At the last moment it found itself rather unceremoniously shoved out of harm's way. However, it's only response was a rather snappy "Hey! Watch it!" as it stumbled to regain it's balance. It didn't bother correcting itself or apologizing when it did, belatedly, realize that Thalassa had saved its hide. They bother had better things to worry about. Like even more lava.

Several of the others- presumably those also without magic- were hurling rocks at the lava beast, and the agate figured that was as good of a plan as any. It beats running around like a scared little rat or freezing like a fool.

But unfortunately- and perhaps even infuriating to the one who'd just saved its hide- it felt searing drops of lava graze it's pelt before it could even spot a suitable throwing rock.

@Thalassa

"FUCK yeah!" Wyrm echoed, bounding past Fahl. She was copying his language, which was great because his words were cool as hell. And she saw what he was doing, too.

It was a lot more effective than her throwing rocks--which she was starting to realize might actually be a bad idea. If this thing was losing mass, chucking MORE rock into it was probably a bad idea. Maybe she could distract it, too? Taunt it to run back over the ice-?

"HEY UGLY! OVER HERE!" she shouted, bounding right past its front. Her bioluminescent hide flashed, flared--and then flared brighter as spatters of magma impacted it. She yelped, scrambling away--and she was pretty sure the golem had ignored her anyway. What a stupid waste! Agggh! Wyrm dove for the remaining ice patch herself, rolling frantically to try and put out the embers clinging to her skin.