*except that when he tries, something resists -- a circle of glyphs that burn gold in the air, symbols from a language old before humanity rose, backed by the power of Josh's aura, preventing the great hand from closing*

You sure about that?

He sounds mildly surprised.

So you have some power.

"I can still crush you like a bug," goes unspoken, but his free hand is crashing down to do just that.

More than some.

*and his aura is rising, burning gold around him, as the air surges to lift him clear of that blow. the wind around him begins to howl, and the pressure drops. a storm is coming.*

I'll show you how much, old god. Come and see!

Locaha closes his wings before him, encircling you both in a grey arena, containing and dampening the storm. The temperature drops rapidly.

It matters little. This is my world.

He swats at you again, trying to pin you between his wing and the back of his hand.

Like I haven't heard that one before.

*and used it, not that he remembers; dropping at the last minute, his aura blazing higher to counteract the chill. but this time when he dodges he leaves a gift behind -- an intense burst of flame wrapped in air, ready to explode at the slightest pressure.*

And Locaha's hand smacks right into it, knocking it against his wing and triggering the explosion; the wing seems totally undamaged, and remains, as ever, a featureless grey wall. But he jerks his hand back and roars in pain, a deafening rattle of thunder. He sets the islet down in the sea, leaving both hands free to crush you between. A rush of air precedes each one, two pressure fronts colliding with you in the middle.

*tenses at that; dropping into that icy water isn't appealing, flying out isn't likely with the air pressure, hurting him won't stop the hands with that momentum, but maybe, maybe....

...his aura flares again, but the hands of Locaha close over him.*

They slam together with an enormous crack, two building-sized slabs of darkness colliding, the sound echoing around the enclosure of his wings. The force of it shudders through the air, stirring the sea to whitecaps that batter against the wards on the little islet.

*An incautious observer would assume that was the end of things. But a more careful one would notice that light still leaked between Locaha's palms -- faint, blocked by the vast size of the god, but there and growing brighter, multiplying, building...

A brilliant flash of orange and gold would blind the first observer, a terrible clap of thunder deafen the second. Locaha's hands are forced apart by a wave of terrible pressure and heat, and, limned in gold, a figure remains in their wake.

Josh has changed. His golden armor is gone; instead he wears a black leather cloak, his hood cast back. His left hand is gone, replaced by a scythelike hook. And he smiles as he looks up at the god, though there's nothing of humor in it.*

My turn.

And Locaha... sinks. The dome of his wings descends into the sea, dragging you down with him as he dives.

The islet is left behind, on the surface. This is personal now.

Edited 2012-08-26 09:08 am (UTC)

*which means that even if Josh dies here, he's won -- but he doesn't intend to die. The water doesn't touch him; a globe of air a few yards across falls with him into the depths.

For the first time, he goes on the offensive. Dozens of sparks leap from his aura, growing as they fly, transforming into hummingbirds of golden flame. Symbols of Mars Ultor in his role of Champion of Mankind, they dart at Locaha's face and eyes, each from a different angle.*

You continue to descend swiftly; if nothing else, the increase in pressure of the water against the sides of your globe of air should tell you that.

As the hummingbirds speed toward Locaha, he opens his mouth and blows -- not a gust of air, but ferociously swirling currents to sweep the birds back. Those that reach his skin are... absorbed, and, unless Josh is sustaining them, extinguish. But where they hit, his outline becomes less defined, blurring with the water.

Simultaneously, his right hand gropes through the water to enclose your bubble -- your harriers have damaged his aim, but his hand is so big it probably doesn't matter.

*The hummingbirds aren't sustained, but they do detonate in brilliant flashes of gold, doing that little extra bit of damage before they vanish; Josh doesn't expect such small attacks to win the battle on their own, but every little bit helps. Those blown back curve through the water, leaving trails of searing bubbles as they reorient and attack again.

Josh concentrates, and the water around the bubble superheats; Locaha will have a very painful handful, if he continues, and the walls of it are solid air.*

He doesn't seem to be so much interested in crushing the bubble as scooping it up towards him... and now that jagged mouth is opening again, drinking in the sea, sucking down water and hummingbirds, and, if possible, Josh, into his maw.

*Josh doesn't seem concerned; he's concentrating again, a brilliant shimmer of light and heat growing between his hand and hook. Plumes of steam burst from the walls of the bubble to join it, seething with lightning, and static discharges crawl over his hair and skin. At the same time, the heat of the water around the bubble moves, focusing between it and Locaha's maw, flash-vaporizing seawater to shove the bubble away from the jagged chasm.

Between one eyeblink and the next, the ball of plasma ignites, violet light blazing brighter than even Josh's aura -- and he simply lets it go, allowing it to fall free of the bubble, protected by a dense shell of air. Caught in the backblast of steam, it's shoved towards the open mouth of the god.*

He gulps it down, and for a brief moment it disappears into all-consuming darkness -- the only light left comes from Josh himself.

*and Josh smiles, and raises his hand.

and the pressure holding that ball of nitrogen plasma vanishes, unleashing the power and fury of a tiny star inside Locaha's belly.*

The darkness explodes into sound and brilliant light. The sea boils instantly, erupting from Locaha in torrents of superheated fog, tearing him apart, blasting his wings open, propelling you up and out. It's impossible to see just what becomes of the God of Death; he's lost in the blinding, deafening rush of cloud and white energy as you're thrown toward the surface.

*riding that wave of steam and energy, keeping steady, and clawing for open air as soon as he breaks the surface*

You burst through the surface and the light remains -- through the rising clouds of steam you can see the sun, nearly at its zenith. Waves wash outward from the pleat at the point of your emergence, but nothing else follows you out of the sea... and for the moment, the world is mostly a blur of brightness.

*just going to hover for a moment, breathing hard -- even at the height of his powers in a dream, that was no easy fight.

but damn, that felt good.*

Slowly, as the fog clears, you can make out the islet below you -- it must have been swamped, but your wards held, and the survivors are waving up to you -- and there's a canoe on the horizon, approaching far more quickly than it should under human power.

*landing on the island, then, as the wards fade; he barely manages to stay standing, but you know, whatever*

Daphne runs over to you and slips a hand under your elbow. "Maybe you ought to sit down."

That canoe is still skimming through the water toward you, with Mau in the stern.

*sitting down is only mostly voluntary, but he does, yes, nodding gratefully to Daphne*