d’Artagnan scowled as their feeble attempt to try disrupt the brute’s movement did very little to hinder the beast. He was fast running out of ideas with his magic useless and a fly against a mountain. Desperately he looked to Aramis and uttered the words fire in his mind knowing the hound would understand and yet his bonded looked downcast, whimpering under his breath as the shade cursed. Even Aramis couldn’t use his new found powers. Mismatched gaze fell upon the beast who now seemed to almost stumble and he felt a mixture of triumph and wonder as he traced the source of the monsters adversity back to the horn of Deimos, smiling knowingly. Nothing was too big for the Reaper. The Mender motioned to Aramis and together they galloped away from the beast with the aim of moving around to it’s head, cloven hooves and inky paws hungrily eating up the ground until diseased eyes widened in surprise when he saw the form of a unicorn mare littering the floor. Her body seemed motionless and the Nightshade grimaced, gaze catching the familiar grulla hornless as he dived in front of her and set some strange fire orb towards the monster.

The orb shrank, d’Artagnan watched it with curiosity and fear before finally it exploded with an almighty noise that the Nightshade winced visibly and slowed his movement, his face recoiling. Apparently it wasn’t just his own magic that was deciding to have a mind of it’s own as the flames enveloped its user and d’Artagnan cursed, not knowing if it had been enough to stop the monster and his mind blanching at the thought of helping the hornless. He sent his mind deep into his stores of magic, feeling his body almost shy away from using the technique that took up so much of his power, but the moment was dire and he felt he had no other choice. Hastily he threw up his time shield around Lace and drew the flames that burnt his body into it, thinking it would send them into another dimension. "Get up!" He snapped when the last of the flames disappeared, feeling angry with himself for helping such a worthless four legged and yet he knew they needed everyone to help fight against the demon. There was nothing, however, he could do right now about the mare who had passed out upon the floor and he had no time to wonder as his time shield disintegrated and flames fell upon him from the sky. The Nightshade gave a look of despair as he realized all too soon that he’d simply moved the flames from Lace to himself. His magic wasn’t working. In fact, it was out to get him it seemed.

d’Artagnan veered violently to his left, almost falling over his own hooves as he tried to dodge both the flames and the poison that littered the earth, grunting loudly when a couple burnt his rump and down one side of his shoulder. His own tangled tail singed at the ends where it had been dragged through poison puddles which in turn left small burn marks on the back of his legs where his tail had slapped against him. All he’d managed to do so far was save a hornless which convinced the shade that his hallucination was fast turning into a nightmare.