Going to market

[gale_force]

Gale did not expect it to be raining. Weather proceeds as usual, apparently, even if life does not. Through the wet smack of raindrops, he can barely hear the sea breathing a few blocks away. The dust from the millions of bodies, trees, plants, and animals seeded the clouds and dragged down moisture from the sea. The precipitation has turned the

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[teradyne]

Prithivi gives the an angry snap when she feels the air move. Her upper arms give a slight twitch, and then the lower parts form back from being whips. The knives in her hands are still folded outward, flicking back and forth across the backs of her hands as she stalks forward.

Once she gets close to Vayu, Prithivi hesitates, stalking a few paces forward before scrabbling back. The Atma hates the idea of putting Vayu at her back...But she likes leaving him to make another kill even less. In a moment, she gives up trying to get directly ahead, and kneels down.

There's fresh earth underneath her, newly exposed thanks to the earthquake. It's enough to let her bury her hands...and her arms...And in a moment, the Asura is suddenly gone, sunken underground.

There isn't much of a warning for what happens next; no noises, no disturbance in the ground, save for a few cracks that suddenly branch out from under the Naga still crawling out of the debris. That's the only sign before the ground underneath it explodes in a hail of concrete shards and bricks. Prithivi is trailing a messy collection of ripped up pipes and dirt behind her as she rams into the demon from below, instantly sinking her teeth and hands into the (relatively) unprotected underside.

[gale_force]

Since the Prithivi has claimed her opponent, Vayu sees to the remaining naga. The few bites that made it to his stomach have taken the manic edge off of his hunger, and now he moves a little more slowly, methodically, but still in an unmistakably predatory way.

His stance is low, and he changes the tempo and direction of his advance until he's within striking distance. Vayu vaults forward to land on his palms and scissor-kick his legs with a twist of his spine. The naga is fast, though, and has flexibility to make Vayu jealous; it curls backwards on itself well beneath the arc of his foot-blades. Vayu's posture couldn't be more vulnerable, and with a hiss of armor plates against the ground, his enemy sweeps its tail around to smash into his planted arms.

Vayu finds himself flat on the ground, but immediately rolls from the second blow he knows is coming. The naga's blades only find Vayu's leafy flaps, which rip and crumble away immediately. At this point, the appendages are nothing but dead flesh. The Atma's blades, meanwhile, are firmly buried in the ground.

The wind elemental ends his evasive roll by shoving his feet into the ground and flipping back onto the struggling naga, foot-blades unsheathed. With his weight and the power of his leap behind them, the knives hit the snake's armor with enough force to shatter and penetrate the demon's back.

[teradyne]

Meanwhile, there's a tight, snarling knot writhing about on the ground, slamming into walls, and only occasionally breaking apart a little to show the two demons. Prithivi's armor is showing signs of scratches. The other Atma is showing signs of asphyxiation, as Prithivi has managed to loop one of her arms around it's neck, and is keeping the whip tight and constricted.

The naga is making raspy, choking sounds, which only grow more labored as it tries to jerk and move away. In a moment, it becomes obvious why the demon is trying not to stay still; the earth it keeps rising up as sharpened stakes of stone. The shards also branch out erratically, some of them darting towards Vayu and his opponent. Prithivi only tightens her hold, not aware or not caring over how much her focus is slipping.

There's a sudden amount of heat in the air, which makes her yank away and her arm snap out straight and tight. A moment later the inside of the tunnel glows dull red and orange as a bit of fire explodes between the two demons. Prithivi makes a shrill noise as her arm gets scorched from the fire, and gives it a harsh yank. The naga's neck makes a snapping, popping noise in response...And then she's back on top of it as the body starts to go slack and abruptly cold, ripping and tearing into it with a savage hunger.

[gale_force]

Thrashing has also begun on Vayu's end as he tries to keep his balance with his blades still buried in the now-writhing naga. Clearly, he didn't pierce anything immediately vital, and now he has to deal with the demon at close quarters. Naturally, the Atma swings with his blades, but Vayu grabs his opponent's wrists to stop the arc, and holds on with a ferocious grip.

An extremely awkward, but deadly serious moment follows wherein the two demons use their last immediate weapon -- their respective mouths -- to bite at whatever they can reach. Vayu feels a summoned heat rising, and relinquishes his foothold to free up his legs. He wrestles the naga around, and punches his feet sharply against the demon's torso, thrusting him backwards onto one of Prithivi's spires of rock. He uses the momentum of the kick to flip backwards, landing safely beside Prithivi just in time to observe the impaled naga's last throes and receive a final, hot blast in the face from the incomplete fire spell.

[teradyne]

He might want to think about jumping away again. Prithivi reacts poorly to having the other Atma land so close to her, and pauses long enough to snap at him with both mouths.

That isn't the limit of her display either, as the ceiling above them starts to buckle, before a large chunk of concrete breaks loose and plummets down between the two demons. Prithivi has already yanked herself back, gripping the torso and pulling her kill along with her. Even as the stone crashes into the tunnel floor and sends up clouds of dust, she's back to ripping and tearing out more mouthfuls. It's clear that she hasn't had a meal like this in a long time, and doesn't intend to share or have it cut short by anything.

She's already made good progress, and the pinkish-white of several ribs are already poking through as her head jerks back up and around. There's enough edge off her hunger that she's ready to pay attention to a few other things aside from continuing to eat.

[gale_force]

Vayu easily scrambles out of the way, and replies with an irritated shriek, backed up with a gust of wind, ineffective as it is against the concrete barrier. Prithivi's gesture is quickly forgotten, though, to the immediacy of food. Unfortunately, this particular naga-Atma is much like a shellfish, and it takes a few moments of turning, tugging, and cracking to get to the soft, fleshy parts. The rock spire helped this along somewhat, and Vayu works out from there.

And what messy work it is. Messy and fast. The Atma nearly chokes himself several times trying to eat a greater volume than his body can contain at once. Prithivi will find her meal serenaded by hissing, snorting breaths interrupted by hacking, juicy coughs as more-than-mouthfuls come up and go back down Vayu's gullet.

[teradyne]

Maybe it's just that she has two mouths, or that her kill has already been tenderized and lost some plating in the struggle. It could be that listening to Vayu's messy eating encourages her to also eat faster, but for whatever reason Prithivi finishes quickly. (And with little regurgitating, although a few fingers and red bits left on the ground in a mixed pool of saliva and blood show that her meal wasn't very neat, either.)

Bones in the torso and tail are left cracked open with only bits of stringy, unappitizing meat clinging to them. The head is barely distinguishable, along with the arms, and the Asura leaves them all on the ground before stalking towards the first demon the two had brought down.

She does keep close to the walls and ground, not quite ready to engage in a fight for food if she can help it. The scent coming off the first kill is too tempting to ignore, however, and if Prithivi has her way, she'll have picked over it before Vayu ever comes back to claim the rest of it.

[gale_force]

Although Prithivi had the head start, Vayu isn't far behind in finishing his meal. He barely makes an effort to clean up the scraps. At least, he's not as conservative as he would have been if there wasn't the temptation of that second helping.

The concrete barrier blocks his view of Prithivi's progress, and he entertains similar ideas of sneaking around to that first corpse without immediately alerting his (grudging) comrade. Clearing the wall, though, his shriek of dismay ends in a rumbling growl. A swirling wind rips through the tunnel, hurling debris and the last meaty chunks of Prithivi's meal.

This has been the best meal he's had in well over a year, and he's not about to give it up without a fight.

[teradyne]

Prithivi doesn't take well to the wind, as proven by a startled hiss. She breaks off from feeding, and tries to crouch behind the body to lessen the wind; to her, the sudden burst of air is like a sharp punch to the gut, and she's quick to react.

The tunnel is given another harsh shake, causing more bits of fist sized concrete to fall from the ceiling. The floor, however, gets altered the most; a lot of the spires from the fight start to crumble, and reform into what can only be described as barriers of rock; similar to sandbags in function, although very different in appearance.

Prithivi is already darting between them, and with a sharp groan of rock sliding over rock, sends two more shooting at Vayu.

[gale_force]

Vayu, agile as he is, can't dodge all of the raining rubble, so he takes cover instead. He curls in to shield his head against the pummeling, and the stone thuds against his back. The dull pain of the spreading bruises (some of them as deep as his ribs) inspires even more anger in the Atma. He's very ready to turn Prithivi into a third helping, any loose notions of pack loyalty be damned.

His advance is quick and erratic. He dodges the first slab of rock with a leap, but landing it is a little more difficult as the earth beneath him continues to shift. When he does find footing, the second sheet of stone hurdles into his legs, tripping him into a forward roll that lands him flat against one of Prithivi's barriers.

The impact knocks something inside of him ajar. He growls at the niggling sense of the other one waking up. Vayu feels a very primitive sense of injustice and frustration. He shouldn't be a slave to his host; he'll do what he needs to survive! He almost forgot the flavor of his fellow Atmas' blood, but to taste it again reminds him of the depth of his craving. No more animals. No more pills.

He peers over the barrier, getting a bead on Prithivi. He selects a specific point and forces the molecules violently outwards, creating concussions of air like fireless bombs. One after the other to throw her into a panic, if not hit her outright.

[teradyne]

The 'air bombs' go off only a few feet in front of her; too far away to do damage, but close enough to cause panic. Her entire body leaves the ground, twisting and wrenching away from that pocket of air.

When Prithivi lands, she's shaking all over, and gives an enraged shriek. One of her remaining barriers (and one between her and Vayu) seems to respond to this. It wavers, sags...and explodes! It's not just due to a spell fired off at it, but also that Prithivi has just barreled through the rock, lunging at Vayu; the remains of it trail behind her like some sort of odd, shrapnel escort.

If she had her way, Prithivi would have slammed straight into Vayu, and started doing everything she could to make him a none issue...And possibly a second meal. However, things don't quite go as planned.

For one thing, she has a lot of air and distance to go through, and for another, she has something in her mind that throws off her aim. Prithivi has already gorged enough that her hunger isn't completely drowning Argilla out, making the sniper try to get her bearings before the Asura mentally pushes her back down. Keeping control over herself makes the demon lose the control of her leap; she's already having to dig her claws and feet into the ground, whirling to face Vayu after missing him.

[gale_force]

Vayu doesn't exactly trust Prithivi to miss him by any margin, and so bounds out of the way. He doesn't stop though; he keeps circling, his panting breath whistling between his parted teeth.

It's that sound that gives him an idea, helped by the urgent need to end this before a certain someone can intervene. The Atma plants his feet and stretches his arms forward in a seemingly harmless gesture. There is very rarely anything harmless about Vayu, though, and his element can work in near-imperceptible ways.

If Vayu had eyebrows, they'd be furrowed in concentration, but he's just stock still. No posturing, no obvious plans to attack.

In another moment, Prithivi might find it very difficult to breathe. Vayu is halting the air inside her lungs, blocking fresh oxygen from entering, or the spent contents to leave. He's quite satisfied with himself: she'll suffocate in a few moments, and he doesn't so much as have to move or jostle Gale into awakening any faster.

[teradyne]

The inside of Prithivi's head is chaos right now. Argilla is panicked and struggling, both to get control and to breathe. Her terror is mixing into Prithivi's confusion, creating a roiling storm that leaves the demon frozen as it tries to to inhale...Or exhale, even.

Both of her mouths are gaping open and making a dry choking sound, while the demon jerks and wobbles on her feet. She doesn't crumble to the ground though, and tries to keep her feet even as she struggles for air.

This is made a little harder when her feet start to slip on the floor. There's something wet and gritty underneath her toes...And in a moment the part of her that's Argilla realizes that she can also feel it on her arms, her legs, and seeping down parts of her back. Prithivi is more occupied with trying to get air, and having something run into her mouth; she can taste sand sliding between her teeth, and feels still more of it weeping out from the folds and spines in her armor.

She doesn't shriek as she tries to shake it off; the sound that comes out is just a strangled, gasping whine. The sheets of earth that she does manage to fling off don't stay that way for long, and hiss through the air; in fact, they've managed to grow a lot longer, and sharper. Vayu might want to move, after all, now that there's a virtual volly of sharp quills made out of sand shooting towards him.

[gale_force]

The entirety of Vayu's concentration is keeping that stranglehold on Prithivi's air supply. It takes a lot of energy to stop even a lungful of molecules from moving; it's like trying to hold water in cupped palms and not spill a single drop. Easier by far to invoke violent gales with a simple push.

Just a little longer, and she'll be down. He can see the spears of sand like rays of light on the corner of his air-based perception. Risk serious injury, or destroy Prithivi? Only a millisecond to decide.

. . . Half a millisecond's hesitation, and he breaks his hold with a snarl. A concentrated slice of air eliminates half of the quills, thereby saving his head and trunk; the rest continue their trajectory to rip against and into his sides and limbs.

Between the bites, bruises, and cuts, the collective damage is enough to inform Gale that something is terribly and certainly amiss. He feels his control come jarring back into the screaming nerves and aching muscles. His senses swim in the most nauseating way, and this combined with the pervading panic -- the fear that he's just allowed himself to do something unforgivable -- forces an eerily human moan from the Atma as he slumps against a wall.

[teradyne]

Prithivi doesn't seem to realize that any of her hits connected. She's too busy sucking in air, once Vayu releases his hold on her lungs. After all of that, the demon half finally sinks away from Argilla, too battered to offer much of a resistance.

The change of minds is obvious, as Prithivi wavers before crashing to the ground in a spray of dust, mud, and more sand. One can hear Argilla's tone underneath the gasps, if they strain to listen. Her voice becomes a lot more obvious as the demon twitches in the ground, and lets out a pained whimper as a collection of lines spreads over her. Her legs and arms spasm as the pink light reaches them, and it feels like someone is rubbing grit into the raw and bleeding parts of her skin.

After a moment, Argilla is aware of a dull throbbing in her left arm. She blinks when she realizes she can clearly see it...And a long stretch of dark tan hexagons that have climbed from her collarbone and onto it.

[gale_force]

Vayu's lead lolls in a few last shivering attempts at resistance before he sinks to the ground completely; the agony of the transformation makes it almost impossible to keep his feet. His now-human body is beset with the pins-and-needles sensation of his nerves reorganizing and his limbs are heavy, numb, and almost entirely unresponsive. Vayu's injuries are a deep ache beneath it all.

Back hunched against the wall, Gale takes in his surroundings. It goes without saying that the tunnel looks drastically different with Prithivi's modifications. He coughs raggedly as the smoke from the still-smoldering wreckage drifts over.

His eyes wander over to his sniper comrade, reassuring himself that she's still alive and moving. "Argilla?"