A deafening boom echoed across the grasslands, followed by the sound of smoking tentacles thudding to the ground. A fiery figure stood tall, his orange glow in stark contrast to the sickly red tinge of the plains. The Augur did not move or react. The hood took this as a signal to float towards the Leonid. "You should have stayed quiet, Kitten," the voices from the hood admonished. The earth around them broke apart as various abominations emerged from the ground.

Thin, pallid figures with knobs of bone sticking out of their spines, and serrated claws dripping with noxious ooze appeared. Ten Greystalkers stood in front of the hood, their raptorial legs twitching as they glared at the Xeral, the rattle emanating from their oblong, ridged heads. With no visible eyes and a large, jagged mouth filled with bony teeth, these predators looked like they had been ripped from a nightmare. Behind the stalkers stood two Greater Frost Daemons, larger than their deceased comrade who still stood smoking in the distance. The hood's hands crackled with purple lightning as it floated above its eldritch soldiers.

The Xeral assessed his opposition, then dropped his giant warhammer, which vanished into motes of light. Two shorter, spiked hand-hammers appeared in his hands, already glowing white. Etched scriptwork pulsed along the length of each spike. His armor turned a vibrant orange, and the earth at his feet glowed with incandescent light, waves of heat rolling off his muscular frame.

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

The Xeral burst forward, explosions beneath his feet propelling him like a comet. The stalkers glided forward rapidly, their feet barely 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 avoided a bolt of purple lightning that struck the ground behind him.

"Slippery little Kitten, stay still why don't you," cackled the voices in the hood as it hurled bolt after bolt at the Xeral. The Leonid used his controlled explosions to zigzag towards the icy behemoths. Pillars of dirt exploded behind him as the chaotic energies missed their elusive target. The air hummed with the Xeral's speed.

"The big ones first," he decided, reversing his grip and swinging towards the first daemon. This one was warier than its dead predecessor, stopping just beyond the range of the swing and breathing a cone of crystalline frost over the area. The Xeral swerved to the side at the last moment, catching only a fraction of the blast, his right arm frozen solid. This put him in the way of an empowered kick from the second daemon, which hit him in the chest and sent him flying about fifty feet back.

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With a significant dent in his breastplate and a thin line of blood trailing from his nose, the Xeral stood up, grunting in pain. Without warning, he swerved sharply to the right as a gash opened on his arm, blood staining the grass. A faint rattling surrounded him. Cycling his considerable energy, he struck the ground with both hammers, releasing a blast wave that threw the stalkers back and disrupted their camouflage. Jumping towards the nearest one, he intended to drive a spike through its head. The Xeral's world turned purple as the hood's lightning finally found its target.

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 stubborn ice that immobilized it. He snapped his fingers and his damaged armor disappeared in a flash, leaving him clad in simple clothes. Rex Vitor clasped his hands together as if in prayer, an ornate gold ring on his index finger levitating in front of him. Rex's form vanished behind a pearly glow as the hood looked on. In no time, the glow disappeared, revealing a steel titan clad from head to toe in polished steel etched with powerful scriptwork. The ring fit itself into a slot in the center of his helmet, and an angry red line glowed across the face of the helmet. The armor caught fire, the inferno growing higher and higher until it was difficult to see the armored figure within. It was like looking into a forge.

The hood shifted uneasily. It had been told that the general was at the cusp of bonding with his element, but 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 didn't stand 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 ready to unleash his massive momentum. The Xeral punched.

A blastwave tore apart the mound they were on, carrying forward land and leaving the ground bare and damaged for hundreds of feet. The hood lay 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 with his fist outstretched and caught in the palm of the Augur, which calmly evaluated the threat in front of him. The hand with which it caught the punch glowed red, cracks running up its bone greaves. The Xeral's meteoric glow receded fast.

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