A deafening boom sounded out across the grasslands. Clumps of smoking tentacle fell with a wet thud. A fiery figure stood tall, his orange glow, vibrant and at odds with the sickly red that tinged the plains. The Augur did not move or react. The hood took that as its cue to float gently toward the Leonid. " Should have stayed quiet Kitten" admonished the voices from the hood. The earth in front breaking in clumps as varied abominations pulled their way up to the surface.

Thin figures pallid and sickly, hunched with knobs of bone sticking out of their spine. Serrated claws foot long and dripping with noxious ooze. Ten Greystalkers stood in front of the hood, raptorial legs twitching as they eyed the Xeral, their signature rattle emanating from their oblong ridged heads. No apparent eyes and a large jagged mouth filled with bony teeth made these predators look like theyve been ripped from a ightmare. Behind the stalkers stood two Greater Frost Daemons, larger than their deceased comrade who still stood smoking some ways off. The hood's hands crackling with purple lightning as it floated above its eldritch soldiers.

The Xeral eyed his opposition, he dropped his giant war-hammer as it disappeared into motes of light, two shorter spiked hand-hammers appearing in his hands, already glowing an angry white. Etched script work pulsing beautifully along the length of each of its spikes. His armor growing a vibrant orange, the earth at his feet ebbing with incandescent light, waves of heat rolling off of his muscular frame.

An uneasy lull fell over the stand-off, the ever-present stalkers rattling a morbid beat.

The Xeral burst forward, explosions beneath his feet propelling him like an angry comet. The stalkers gliding forward rapidly, their feet hardly touching the ground. The retinue of stalkers parted like a wave in front of the Xeral, doubling back towards him as he headed towards the Daemons, hammers held at his side.

Swerving sharply he barely evaded a bolt of purple lightning as it struck the ground behind him.

" Slippery little Kitten, stay still why don't you" cackled the voices in the hood, madness apparent in their mirth as the hood hurled bolt after bolt at the Xeral. The Leonid using his controlled explosions to zig-zag his way towards the icy behemoths. Pillars of dirt exploding behind him as the chaotic energies missed their evasive target. The air hummed with the sheer speed the Leonid was flying.

" The big ones first" he decided. Reversing his grip, he swung toward the first Daemon, this one warier than its dead predecessor. Stopped just beyond the range of the swing and Breathed. A cone of crystalline frost enveloped the area. The Xeral swerving sideways at the last moment catching but a fraction of the blast, his right arm frozen solid. Unfortunately, this put him in the way of an empowered kick from the second one which took him in his chest and deposited him a good fifty feet back.

With a significant dent on his breastplate, the Xeral stood up grunting in pain. A thin line of blood trailing from his nose. Without any warning he swerved sharply to the right as a gash opened on his arm, blood painting the grass. A faint rattling surrounding him. Cycling his considerable energy, he struck the ground with both his hammers releasing a blast wave that threw the stalkers back, in the process disrupting its camouflage. Jumping towards the nearest one intent on driving a spike through his head. The Xeral's world turned purple as the hood's lighting found their target at last. He fell with a heavy thud, half of his breastplate charred. The armor seemed to have taken the worst of the hit. Still, burned fur snaked up his neck.

" Here, Kitty, Kitty", mocked the hood.

Expressionless, the stoic Leonid stood up. Sighing, he flexed his arm shattering the recalcitrant ice that immoblized his arm. He snapped his fingers, his damaged armor disapparing in a flash. garbed in simple coth, Rex Vitor clasped his hands together as though in prayer. An ornate gold ring on his index finger levitated up and in front of him. Rex's form vanished behind a pearly glow as the Hood looked on . In hardly any time, the glow disappeared revealing a a steel titan, clad from head to to in polished steel etched with powerful script-work. The ring fit itself into a slot in the center of his helmet. A angry red line glowed across the face of the helmet. The armor caught fire. Higher and higher the inferno grew until you could barely see the armored figure within. It was like looking into a forge.

The hood shifted uneasily, he was told that the general was at the cusp of bonding with his element. It seemed like they had faulty information.

Without warning, the tall furnace compressed into a glowing humanoid figure in a runner's stance.

The air screamed as the figure rocketed towards the hood, leaving a molten furrow on the plains as it tore forward. The daemons didnt have a chance as the molten figure punched a hole through one and tore off the other's head in passing. In the time it took to blink, the glowing warrior was in front of the hood his fist cocked and readyto unleash his massive momentum. The Xeral punched.

A blastwave tore apart the mound they were on carrying forward land leaving the ground bare and damaged for hundreds of feet. The hood prone at the edge of the blastwave, heaving and convulsing, missing an arm as black blood spilled from its wound.

At the site of the explosion. The Xeral stood his fist outstretched and caught in the palm of the Augur, as it calmly evaluated the threat in front of him. The hand with which it caught the punch glowing red, cracks running up his bone greaves. The Xeral's meteoric glow receding fast.

The Augur punched and the Xeral's world went black.