Cursing the numbing poison that blurred his vision the white-maned stallion blinked and shook his head in an attempt to clear it as he followed the progress of the battle. Appreciating the brief chance to catch his breath, gilded eyes took in the efforts of the other fighters and continued to scour the giant for weak points. His heart lurched in horror as he saw the blow off limb begin to regenerate, lips biting off curses as he leaned forward with the intent of hurrying over there to launch (or at least try to launch) another exploding orb. But almost as sudden as it had begun, the mending of the limb stopped and Lace breathed a sigh of relief. Curiously he looked at the others to try and see what had caused the effect, but saw nothing except the futile pounding the unicorns gave the solid leg. It must be something done around the back or the head - areas the equine was incapable of reaching.
With teeth gritted against the pain of his injured body the grullo started forward, sparing a worried glance towards the mare that had been unfortunate enough to get the dislodged eye in her head. This was decidedly not the best place to be knocked out; the reach of the monster must be incredible, to be honest he wasn't sure that he himself was even out of it despite having removed himself from the closest proximity.
Even as the thought passed through his mind a movement from the earth beast forced the attention of the stallion to snap back to it. Seeing the giant come lunging towards him and the unconscious mare, reflexes made Lace heave himself towards the right, so that he would end up between the two outstretched limbs. In the same breath, without even thinking about it, his mind reached towards the roots of the sparse trees that crossed through the earth, a task made simple from months of practice during his voluntary isolation. He met more resistance than usual as he tried to bend the wood to his will, due both to the chill of winter and that same slickness he'd experienced while handling the fire. Was something wrong with the magic of the world? Even so the stallion persisted, and just as the giant hand of soil and wood shadowed the fallen lady Lace forced the roots to obey him, making them penetrate the earth and curl around the hind legs of the girl. With a harsh tug the wooden ropes pulled her in the direction of Lace, hopefully just in time to spare her from the fate of being unceremoniously flattened by the massive force of the giants hand.
Breathing hard as the strain on body and mind was beginning to catch up with him, Lace then turned towards the monster and flattened the ears against the poll, burned and bleeding body rising into a defiant rear right in the face of the beast. Placing himself between the monster and the mare, he reached for the third time towards the searing heat in his blood and forced it out, grimacing as the heat of quickly forming flames scorched his already seared skin. Quickly, since he was beginning to grow accustomed to the erratic nature of the flaring orb, he pushed it as close to the giants face as he could get it and then let go, hoping that the explosion would do some serious damage this time. Much like before the white-hot orb grew and shrank, threatened to go out, but at the last second, just as the tiny blinding dot seemed to be about to disappear, it exploded - this time making a deafening sound that took out the hearing of the gold-backed stallion, knocked him off his feet and enveloped him in blazing fire that incinerated the hair on his body, scorched the white silk of the mane and tail and would have utterly destroyed his eyes had he not closed them. Screaming from the pain of his own magic the stallion stumbled back and fell to his knees before the sprawled out mare, unconsciously trying to protect her from the flames even as they licked his own body.
What did species or alliances matter now? He had seen the horn on her head, noticed the familiarity with which she gazed at Deimos and the glass-horned bay and his wolf-like companion; there was no doubt that she belonged to the same herd as them. And yet Lace wanted to save her life, because it seemed to him that a death by this twisted insult to the Earth would be a tainted and unclean one indeed, and he wished for no one to experience it. No, not even the Reaper or his comrades deserved that.
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