Beneath the Surface (Adventure, slight Gore)

Except, Arcane wasn't there anymore. Instead, a large rock could be seen shifting over the hole, before he reappeared behind her, knives now killing her subordinates. "Did you really think I left the other corpses behind? I had them moved of course." He smiled as he killed the artillery man.

"That's it." She growls and tackles him physically, surrounding herself in a shield.

"What's it?" He asked, still murdering changelings whilst he held her at an arms length.

"At arm's length..." She bares her teeth in a toothy grin. "How... unwise."

Her horn flashes, and her teleport carries both of them out into the middle of the desert. "And for that..." She unleashes another volley of paralysing lightning.

Arcane grinned, and he moved with such speed that he actually out-ran the lightning, grabbing her and dragging her deep into the forest. He ran into a cave and slammed her head against the wall with just enough force to knock her out. He hog-tied her and placed a ring to cancel her magic around her horn. Sitting down, he snorted and waited for her to wake up.

((Not quite. Plus, her shield spell's still up.))

As soon as Arcane grabbed her, her instincts flared, and the changeling roared as her horn flashed again. A blindingly bright flash spread out, and then Arcane found himself alone.

[Seriously? He was toying with her before. He is moving at full vampiric speed, and she's faster than him?]

Arcane sighed, before walking to the hole and walking to base.

((Well, she's the ONLY PC I have against, like, eight of you on Ician's side. I have to make her more powerful by comparison so it isn't a complete curb-stomp battle.

Plus... there's something else going on, too. But I can't say what yet.))

The hole leading to the catacombs was now patched up, leaving nothing but darkness. The route to the base, however, is still intact.

He sighed and relaxed at the bottom of the hole.

Ician stomps around the camp, thinking. "Hm. I bet this hole leads to the forest. And if... no, he wouldn't do something that stupid." He pauses. "Would he? Would he try to flush out the changelings alone? He wouldn't. Right?" He shakes his head. "I can't help but think that that's exactly what he would do."

Storm pushes through the flaps of the command tent and looks around. Spotting his bags where he left them in a corner he hurries over. Opening them reveals them to be full of bags and a cloak. He pulls one of the bags of cookies opening it to find it full of odd coloured cookies. "Good, just how I left you." He says as he pulls the cloak over himself and grabs a few more. He begins to stuff his face as he returns to Ician and the others at the wall.

Ician glances back at him. "Ah, Storm. I see you're here." He looks away. "Um. Met the new mercenary yet?"

"Mew merfinary?" He asks around a mouthful of cookies before he swallows. "No I haven't met anyone new except for the zebra." He says before stuffing three more cookies into his mouth and chewing furiously.

"Oh." Ician shakes his head. "Well, I'm pretty sure he's gone off and done something stupid. We might have to bump the attack plans up a little bit. We should get to burning the forest as soon as possible."

"Gimme me minute. He said dropping a bag on the floor then stomping on it with his hoof as he swallowed the last of his cookies. He picked the bag up again and poured the dust into his mouth, saving time chewing. "That aught to do it. Not as good as rest but good enough. Make sure that no one enters that forest after me." He said after swallowing. He threw the now empty bags away. Setting off once again for the forest, the flames on his back and shoulders rising and his mane and tail dancing like fire.

"Good... good luck." Ician says quietly. He turns away and marches off to find Eclipse.

Griff silently sat down in shadow, awaiting any orders. He was getting rather sick of this desert and wanted to return to forests of Equestria as soon as possible.

Storm arrived at the edge of the forest a few minutes later. He takes a minute to think of the knights he killed the night before and heads inside. Once the entrance to this strange forest disappeared from view he stopped and took a second to look around. "Well I guess there's no reason to hold back here." He said. He allowed the flames to build. He swung his head low before trusting it straight up in the air, several fireballs launching from his horn. They rain down on the forest around him exploding with a sound that would be clearly heard even in the guard encampment and a shock wave that would be felt almost up to the walls.

'KRA-KABOOM' The anger rises. He launches another volley.

'KRA-KABOOM.' This time he follows it up with a tongue of flame, razing the area around him to the ground. He was now on the verge of loosing control once more.

The fire spreads quickly around the area, engulfing the immediate vicinity of the forest in a fiery inferno.

Eclipse flies up from the encampment, clutching a heavy pair of saddlebags in his hooves. He hovers over an untouched patch of trees, distanced from Storm's position, and empties the entire collection of incendiary potions into the forest.

A tall column of flame shoots up, and with another huge flare the trees catch fire.

Ruby and Divine watch the fire happily, oohing and ahhing at the sparks.

"Impressive." Ician watches the columns. "Give me a moment. I'll need to round up the troops for the final assault." He strides off further into the encampment.

Quimia watches the flames with a twitching right eye. She turns away and hurries off to the nearest tent.

Meanwhile, at Arcane's location, amidst the roaring flames he hears a voice. "Arcane Catastrophe. I have an offer."

He raises an eyebrow and smiles. "An offer? I'm listening."

[Night]

The changeling commander stands behind him. "How much were you paid to fight for Ician?"

((See you.))

Griff watched the fires from the encampment still. "...Yeah, I'm not going in there with flames blazing.."

Ician returns. "Well, the army's getting ready now... Or at least what's left of it. We should be ready by the time that forest's gone."