Amidst the noise and confusion of fleeing soldiers, Marge anxiously searched the fortress’ Great Hall for her transformation rock. A loud argument caught the Amazon’s attention, and she turned to find an angry acolyte yelling at the barbarian who had knocked her out earlier. Abruptly, the acolyte raised the transformation rock, and the group of effeminate, leather-thong clad men surrounding the barbarian were turned into stocky peasant women and immediately scattered for the exits. Ah ha! Marge thought, as she crept over to a balcony landing just above the acolyte and leapt at her from behind.
Unfortunately for the Amazon, Lyra had seen her approach thru the reflection in her shield, and just as she pounced, the acolyte whirled around and pointed the stone at her. Marge’s eyes widened as she felt her muscles retract, her body shrink and her armor vaporize in mid-air. Instead of smashing into the acolyte with a mighty punch, she found her attack blocked effortlessly with a single hand, and then found herself being thrown casually over to a corner like a rag doll.
“I ran into one of your men that you transformed earlier.” Lyra smirked. “Apparently you have a thing for naked little stable boys? Well, now you can discover for yourself what it’s like to be one…” Marge looked with shock at her puny new body and whimpered with panic.
A sling bullet whirled thru the air and slammed hard into Lyra’s shoulder, causing her to drop the rock, which skittered away across the floor. “Help me!” Marge squeaked to her squire Robin, who was racing in the direction of the rock.
“Oh no you don’t…” Lyra shouted as she sprinted forward.
++++++++++++++++++
Even with her six demonic arms bristling with fearsome weaponry, Atelia found that she could still barely keep up with the twin Tobis’ relentless assault. She tried firing streams of poison barbs simultaneously from her tongue and tail, but they seemed to have no effect whatsoever on her foe. If I let this go on for too long, they’re just going to wear me down, she thought.
In a fluid motion, she dropped one of her swords, seized the family heirloom from her daughter Amber and slipped it on over her hand. As she channeled her magical energy to the glove, the rune circle in its center glowed, opening a black hole in the middle of her palm. Pointing it at the unsuspecting evil Tobi who had ventured too close, she was immediately sucked in, shrieking with horror, together with a trail of barrels, loose bricks and a pair of unfortunate soldiers who happened to be in the black hole’s path. Atelia then turned her palm towards the remaining Tobi, who managed to dodge and then anchor herself firmly against a stone tower. However, as Atelia channeled more energy to the glove, the entire tower started to tremble and slowly disintegrate as Tobi held on desperately for her life.
“Mum, stop this! She’s my friend!” Amber screamed, and unconsciously focused the full strength of her beastmaster abilities on Atelia. To the demoness’ surprise, she found herself unable to move, and the energy to her glove started to ebb, weakening the black hole. Seizing the opportunity, Mika dashed forward, grabbed hold of Tobi and pulled her to safety.
Realizing the source of the interference, Atelia concentrated her physical strength and managed to flick her poisoned tail at Amber, who gasped with pain and crumpled to the floor. Unfortunately for Atelia, the sudden release of Amber’s restraint caused all her pent up magical energy to surge into the glove, and the black hole expanded out of control. The entire stone tower broke off and was sucked into her palm, followed by a hefty chunk of surrounding parapets. As the black hole continued to expand, it started to feed on itself, and Atelia screamed as it began consuming her body. Mika and Tobi watched with morbid fascination as Atelia, in the midst of a swirling cloud of debris, was gradually sucked into her own black hole, until finally, devoid of its energy source, it winked out, leaving behind a landscape of destruction. “Amber!” Tobi cried out as she rushed towards her unconscious friend.