Battle Is Joined

The beasts joined battle, with their wicked talons, teeth and armoured, stinger-equipped tails. Death took on Sweetness and Despair faced Light. Whenever Death or Despair came in contact with their adversaries, they temporarily felt a numbing cold, whilst Sweetness and Light felt a burning heat.

Meanwhile, Shiva and the necromancer hidden within the grey cloud were using their projected thoughts not only to goad on their own carnage beasts to ever greater unthinking ferocity, but also in trying to wrest control of their opponent's creatures. Success in this would enable their use against the enemy or, failing that, would leave the beasts as easy meat for their own creatures. A delicate balance needed to be struck; too much attention on one aspect could lead to failure in the other. The safest tactic might have been to concentrate solely on their own creatures, and to forget about influencing the enemy's, but both magic users had too much self-confidence (one might say arrogance) to do that.

1. Despair manages to plunge her stinger into the (comparatively) soft under-belly of Light, who staggers a moment and then collapses. Now Despair comes to Death's aid against Sweetness.
2. Sweetness's stinger just misses her target, but the armoured tail connects with Death's right foreleg with such force that it breaks with an audible snap.
3. Whilst Siva's attention is focussed on the four carnage beasts, she has let her own guard slip a little. The necromancer senses this, and unleashes a devastating mental blow at her.
4. Soon all four creatures have suffered terrible injuries, but they continue fighting with undiminished ferocity though diminished effectiveness.

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