The howling sound of Mossie's screech grates across his ears the same way the golem's grinding stones does. Spinnaker wheels around the stones, feathers scattering.

He's too caught in the moment to notice Mossie or Manticore's attempts to attack the golem, and only barely catches sight of its rising "arm." With a tuck of his wings he attempts to dive away. It's too late though, and the stones catch him, knocking him off balance and sending him spiraling for the floor.

Owww, that's going to hurt in the morning.

@Mossie

Still reeling with fear from her failed attempt, Mossie stops dead as she sees Spinnaker injured. Rage sears in her belly, outweighing the blind terror that'd gripped her mind in icy claws. The anger burns hot, but it gives her clarity, too.

She and her friends are under attack by some form of creature, stone come to life. This might be normal, it might not, all that matters is it is Big and wants to Hurt. But she wants to hurt it, too.

There is magic within her, magic racing along every corner of her limbs. The magic within her hungers, reaching towards the golem; as it catches itself after its swing she unsheathes a claw and lashes out, making contact and trying to draw whatever animates it into herself...

And doesn't.

She feels a brief spark of something, but then it stops. She snarled with frustration.

The creature--if an amalgamation of rocks could truly be called a 'creature' at all--ground to a halt as it was bathed in black flames. Some part of it clearly weakened--smaller pebbles scorching and falling away--but for the most part, all Manticore seemed to do was to draw its attention onto himself.

Perhaps that was for the best: surely his larger body could weather its strikes better than the smaller creatures?

Blackened rock lurched into motion again, the gleam of a magic long thought lost drawing it in. Foreign. Corrupted. But magic, nonetheless, and the golem juttered forward in uneven strides, rocks rolling it toward Manticore.

The creature, in the end, had no real hands. No legs to propel it, no fingers with which to grasp the Oilstone it could sense somewhere in the living body ahead, the one that had lashed for it. -At the base of the tail. The rest of Manticore was in the way, but without hands to grip the Valkhound, the golem instead attempted to churn straight through him, as though he were not there.

Should his body or limbs get caught and ground between its boulders in the process-? That was not of concern.

A golem had no concerns.

It didn't occur to Manticore to warn his smaller companions to run. This was the first time he'd ever seen combat, even if some vague ancestral thought instigated the desire for such in his heart: he didn't know when it was smart to strike or retreat, or that 'retreat' was even an option.

Still, dodging was an option. Not only an option--but, as the churning mass of stones rumbled toward him--a necessity, and an obvious one at that.

"NO!" he snarled, fangs bared, and leapt back and to one side. It was a clumsy leap--the rocks still struck him, knocking his hindquarters out from under him and spinning him to face the golem. But a moment later he'd scrambled back, safely out of range--and no part of him, at least, had been caught in the moving meat-grinder.

"Be careful!" he barked at the others, still backing away. The golem was coming for him: surely that'd give them time to act? "KILL IT!" he clarified, in case they didn't know.

Not that he had any idea of the combat capabilities of a tiny cat and a newly-hatched bird. He'd be learning soon enough, one way or another.

@Spinnaker

Spinnaker staggers back to standing, very sore from being knocked aside. His mind races, as he tries to think of something he can do against the amalgamation of rock in front of him. He unfortunately comes up with nothing.

He's hesitant to throw himself at the golem again, but he doesn't have many other ideas. So he jumps into the air again, attempting to kick at it and wheel around it's upper half.

However, the moment he opens his wings, pain sparks through them, and he instant flops back down to the floor, unhelpful.

@Mossie

Mossie prays.

She doesn't know to whom, but she prays. Prays that she'll be able to focus her magic at last. Prays her friends will not be slain for her idiocy. Nervous energy lights her up from nose to tailtip, an amplification of the normal excitement of Polaris, as she pauses to recall what she knows about the situation.

Right. Angry(?) Rock monster. Feels like it might be magic. She can nom on magic (maybe). Seems resistant to physical attack. Spinnaker is hurt, Manticore (seemingly) is not.

She'll try one more time to siphon its magic; failing that she'll create a diversion so her BFFs, at least, can get the hell out of here. Mossie'll have to figure the details out herself later.

She closes her eyes, focusing on the ebb and flow of energy, and grabs towards the knot of it tangled in the Golem and pulls ...

@Manticore

And finally, firmly is able to grasp it, siphoning rapidly. Energy lights up her body and her eyes gleam with barely contained magic. She glances towards the golem to see if it does anything...

The surge of power entering Mossie's body might take her by surprise.

The golem--animated by magic--staggered as the very force that sustained it drained away, leaking in invisible wisps of power to Mossie's gem. This, in turn, rejuvenated her. The flare of energy it offered was refreshing, empowering, yet the stone amalgamation very nearly ground to a halt.

Slowed, weakened--barely animate, now--it turned for Mossie.

One more strong strike should kill it.

The rocks slowed--he didn't know what had happened, but it looked... hurt.

Was that his doing? He didn't have time to bask in (misplaced) pride; instead he shot upward, wings beating for the first time, hovering on instinct. He didn't even realize he was doing it; he just reared up, lifted off by a very small amount--a foot or two above his own shadow--and inhaled.

Another blast of black flame took it, guttering violet at its rippling edges; then his claws found earth again, scrabbling there. The cold fire seared his jaws but adrenaline threaded through his veins, dampening the pain--instead, sharp eyes studied the movement of the stones.

With luck, it was weak enough that the others could finish it off--or maybe it would die, now, shrouded in black fire.

@Spinnaker

The chaos around the three of them spun around Spinnaker's head as he stood up again. He needed to do something, but what he couldn't figure out. His kicks and wings hardly did anything to solid stone.

An actual rock and a hard place, he muses, before launching into the air again. He wheels around the golem, pecking at the stones with his beak. It doesn't go much, but the attempt is there.

@Mossie

Mossie watched in awe as in a spine-tingling heartbeat, the tide of the battle shifted with a triumphant roar. The leviathan unhinged his jaw and bathed the stone in wicked hot green flames, and Spinnaker...well. He was trying, and that was the important part! She had to be supportive of her BFFs!

And in the end, Spinnaker's final strike fells the foul beast, sending it crumbling into a heap of rubble.

"WOOHOO!" She yowls, zipping energized laps around the corpse. "We did it! And we're like, cool now! I figured out that I can eat magic, and that's how I got it weak enough to kick its ass, and then Manticore went all 'RAOURGH FIRE AND DOOM,' and Spinnaker made it go kerpow!"
@Manticore