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[Jon Potter]

Noxin began backing up slowly, trying to keep an eye on both the screaming demiurge and the moving pile of stone and dirt. Thankfully, the former was fading away even as the living mountain reared up.

"Windblade, could you cause a bluster strong enough to push that pile o' dirt?" the half-giant asked the sword in his hand.

"My mastery of wind is enough to force a roc from the skies," the sword sighed, "but this... it is beyond me. It is the work of the Goddess Herself."

The half-giant cursed and looked at Saelus. "You got any ideas there, commander?!" he asked, stepping backward again. His heel collided with Waveblade as he did so.

"Rr- Rr- Right," Saelus managed to say, his lips shivering as if from the cold. "I will gather Stoneblade; maybe the earth heap will recognize it as its link?" He seemed to want to turn but for a moment was unable to look away, but he mastered himself and picked up the fallen greatsword.

"You gather the Water, and if I can, I will pick up Fire as well," the Colonel went on, gathering confidence as he slipped on the familiar mantle of field commander. "Hopefully the Earth Elemental is slower then us. We can outpace it and keep alive that way..." He stooped and picked up Flameblade as well and held both swords high in the air, gripping them at the ricasso just beneath their hilts, so as not to appear battle ready.

"Stoneblade," Saelus commanded, "address this Elemental, please, and show him we mean no harm!"

"ARE YOU MAD, FLESHLING?" the gray sword thundered. "IT ACTS BY THE DEMIURGE'S WILL ALONE. THERE WILL BE NO REASONING WITH IT!"

"These attacks serve only to distract you from your goal," Flameblade added. "If you all fall here, then there will be no resurrection for Dridana and no destruction for the Rot Queen!"

"See if you can distract that pile of dirt!" Noxin said to the Colonel as he stooped and picked up Waveblade in his off-hand. He turned, hunched in a defensive stance with the two Elemental Blades leaning in towards each other, almost crossed in front of him.

"I have not prepared -" Saelus started to bark back and then Noxin touched the two blades against one another. There was a strangely sibilant ripping sound and the two weapons flared with a brilliant aquamarine brilliance.

And suddenly Noxin was holding only one sword; a greatsword of a length that rivaled the one he kept strapped across his back. It was much too big to be wielded by anyone smaller than he was, and would have looked well-suited in an ogre's eager hands. The weapon was surrounded by a luminous haze and dripped moisture onto the already wet ground.

"I AM CLOUDBLADE, SCION OF MIST, MIGHTIEST OF THE ELEMENTAL BLADES!" the enormous greatsword hissed. Noxin looked at the weapon and blinked.

"Oops," he said.



Some 150 feet away, Morier and Huzair collided with the edge of the demi-plane, and though it looked like roiling clouds it was as solid as a brick wall. Morier struck it and rebounded into Huzair, cushioning he latter man's impact somewhat and sending both of them onto the ground, bleeding from scrapes and gashes that leaked, not red blood, but rather the emerald tendrils of some sort of plant that was trying to grow out of their bodies.



Saelus looked at Noxin's mist-cloaked blade and then up at the earth elemental. The monolithic creature would be upon them any second. The Colonel touched Stoneblade and Flameblade to one another decisively and there was that same rending susurration and the two swords pulsed with an angry orange glow for a single heartbeat. When the light died down the wizard held a single sword, a sabre that smoked blackly and glowed as if it had just been pulled from the forge.

"I AM MOLTENBLADE, THE SCION OF MAGMA, GREATEST OF THE ELEMENTAL BLADES!" the sabre roared in a voice like an earthquake.



"What the-?" Huzair cursed, pulling at the bloom of greenery that was forcing itself out of the abrasion in his cheek. It hurt to tug at them, as if they were part of him, somehow. "What is this? What's going on?"

Morier got to his feet. his breath coming in ragged adrenalin-fueled gasps. He too had some leafy shoots protruding from a gash about his right eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it quickly as Shamalin clanked out of the tall grass, nearly collided with him and then slammed bodily into the edge of the pocket dimension with a sound like a struck gong. She rebounded and landed at Morier and Huzair's feet.

She blinked up at them, her eyes still filled with shock and awe. Verdant tendrils were peeking out of a cut at her hairline.

"H-how?" she stammered. "How can we cope with this? So much power. So much pain."



The elemental stepped forward and a fist the size of a cottage swept around, low to the ground and struck Noxin. The half-giant was a big man and he was very adept at standing his ground in a pushing contest, but he may as well have been trying to hold back an avalanche. The gargantuan elemental struck him hard and the awesome blow lifted him off his feet like he was made of straw. The big man flew bodily through the air and slammed into ground beside the Colonel, bounced once and then rolled up against the wizard's legs.