"VICTORY BY FANG AND BLOOD! KILL THEM ALL!"

As I screamed, I noticed Took charge past me and bulldoze into the exposed side of a nearby human on my left, while a different (and injured) looking Silf stumbled on my right. Vefir, looking downright unhinged, supported his brother with a constant magical flow and quick, sharp nips at anything that looked to threaten the pair. Silf had changed, evolved, I was certain, as he now had a large horn sprouting from between his eyes that was caked with dried blood. He also had begun to acquire the mane-like scales around his scruff, just like Took.

A small part of me wanted to continue looking around and evaluating the battlefield, but the rest of me CRAVED action, combat, and bloodshed. I sprinted forward, holding my new spear low and parallel to the ground. My new body was inherently more upright than before, but it wasn't too hard to shift my posture in such a way that I could blend in more with the shifting mass of keelish.

Looking forward, a human was looking at me, amazed and afraid; he began to yell something out while pointing at me, and I, in a motion both natural and foreign to me, reared back and hurled the spear at him, underhanded. It plunged into his chest and drove him from his feet and into the air before he fell heavily onto one of his companions.

I didn't rest on my laurels, but instead rushed forward and pulled the spear from the corpse before brandishing it at the still-standing human in a feint. She, in a practiced motion, parried my feint to my left, but forgot that I was no human and I needed no weapon. In one swift motion, I chomped the head of her spear off while thrusting my right hand, fingers slotted together into their knife-like form, at her inner thigh. My sharp fingers cut deeply into the muscle, and I curled my fingers cruelly into the flesh as she swung what was left of her spear at my head like a club while screaming in rage and agony. In the back of my mind, I noted that she called out, "Marata! It's over here!", but the rest of me went for the kill. Only once was she able to hit me before I pulled her leg forward, jerking her out of her stance. I then dropped my spear and thrust my left hand up, piercing my sharp fingers into the soft flesh under her chin and into her skull.

Crimson blood gushed over my fingers, coating my left arm to the shoulder before I pulled my hand out and grabbed my discarded spear from the ground. Suddenly, accompanied by a rumbling in the earth, a gruff female voice shouted from in front of me, "You Dulvroc begotten worm! I'll kill you!"

The woman, while still in her beralt, was obviously stocky, and I could feel the rolling waves of magic coming off of her as the earth swelled up and covered most of her body in a fluid, flexible armor. Stony spurs decorated her elbows, knees, and fists, letting anyone who saw know: this was a true Speaker, and an accomplished Earthspeaker at that. Getting through her would be key, and I was sure that she was the commander of this force.

I quickly pushed all the remainder of my magic to my throat, preparing a stunning strike for the key moment as I began to push in to the Speaker.

As more of a distraction than anything else, I threw my spear in the weird, underhanded way I had before. Getting through her armor with the spear would be nigh on impossible, since she would harden the dirt to stone wherever the spear made contact. She did just that, and the spear rang out loudly as it made contact with the stony surface without getting any deeper than 1cm.

Instinctively, I wanted to roar my defiance, but I consciously withheld the urge, retaining my magical trump. Instead, I rushed forward with my mouth wide open, trying to crush or twist her knee. When I got close, however, she raised her knee to meet my open jaws and destroy my teeth. I was only just able to turn my head to the side and not extract my own teeth forcibly. I did, however, receive a brain-ringing punch to my jaw, the stone spurs knocking scales from my face. I turned with the momentum and heavily smashed my tail against her ankle. It hurt, and I felt a crack run all the way up my spine, but she grunted lowly in pain in response, so I must have done at least some damage. Whirling, I went to press my advantage, but her guard was up, so I took a step back instead.

After two circling steps, I realized that while her ankle was hurting, it was far from injured, and I didn't know how to press in on her. Then, in a moment of what was either boneheaded stupidity or brilliance, I took two steps forward, stopping just outside of her reach, stood tall and, screamed in her face as loud as I could, abusing my vocal chords with all the sonic magic rushing through them. She, surprised, pulled back and blinked while I, by pushing forward with both my feet and my tail, kicked her heavily in the chest with both my feet. Fortunately for me, she wasn't expecting a kick from a being with three legs/supports, so while she was able to raise her guard, I still was able to knock her back, stumbling. It was then that Took and Brutus rushed in.

They came from both sides, seized her by the shoulders, and forced her to her back on the ground. Both twisted, ripped, and tore as best as they could, but couldn't do much more than rip off loose dirt and small stones. The earth had begun to flow up into their mouths, attempting to choke them when I arrived. I repeatedly smashed my feet into her head, bouncing it off the ground repeatedly, then, when she was slightly stunned, I stabbed my fingers into her eyes. With a sickening pop, they burst, but I didn't stop at blinding her. The earth rushed forward, attempting to arrest my arm's momentum, but it was too late. I put all my weight into my arm and at an almost deliberately slow pace, I felt my sharp nails pushing deeper into her skull, initially piercing the thin bone behind her eyes, then entering the mushy brain. I spread my fingers, and the magic immediately fell apart. My fingers smashed against the unforgiving ground, driven my my entire weight, and Took and Brutus both retched, getting the previously living dirt out of their mouths. Regardless, I looked over at my companions, nodded, and went to begin ripping into the attacking humans, but was interrupted by the sound of rushing bodies coming through the forest.

Then, suddenly, I saw them--the entirety of the swarm, coming out in a perfect pincer movement, trapping the human force between them and my enraged group.