Shiv was momentarily frozen in place, but the mercenaries jumped into action immediately. Briggs yelled an order, and two of the men summoned stone walls in a crescent shape in front of them, so that they were inside of it. But not before Shiv saw the three deerbucks in the middle launch themselves directly toward the humans, while the two deerbucks on either side of the formation ran in opposite directions to disappear in the woods.
Shiv promptly summoned a wall of earth to finish the half circle, completely surrounding him and the other men.
"Mathers, make me a tower!" Briggs ordered while something white and gorgeous grew in his hands.
'Is that…' Shiv didn't have time to finish his thought before Briggs was shot into the air on a tower of earth. 'Good idea.'
Once up there, Briggs called down, "Make one for Airhead as well!" Causing another of the mercenaries to rise up on a platform similar to Briggs'.
Shiv knelt to scoop up a large handful of mud, then copied them, manipulating the earth below his feet to rise into a pedestal that was slightly taller than their protective wall.
He reached the top just in time to witness the three deerbucks pierce the wall with their wicked antlers. Only the middle one was able to stick its entire head through and almost stab one of the earth mages, who only survived by falling on his backside in the thick mud.
Shiv noticed that their walled-in area was starting to become a pool, or rather, a hot tub, due to the hot rain filling it up.
The other two deerbucks only managed to get a hand's breadth of their antlers into the wall. After making contact, they both gave one more mighty push in an attempt to break through, then jerked their heads back violently to free themselves.
Briggs, meanwhile, finished making his weapon, and threw it smoothly at the deerbuck still attempting to stab his subordinates below. His weapon, a javelin made of ice, pierced the shoulder of the deerbuck. The resulting scream that emanated from the creature sent another shot of pure terror coursing through the human's veins. It ripped its head out of the wall and backed up, its glowing eyes clearly visible through the pouring rain moving around in a frenzy as it seeked the stupid mortal that had dared to attack it.
Its eyes locked onto Shiv, who was the closest.
He tried to look innocent while holding a long flaming pike poised to strike the place it had just vacated. He'd just finished constructing it with the mud he'd grabbed, and hadn't had time to stab the monster before it pulled back. 'I wasn' the one who attacked you, though!' He whined internally as the deerbuck backed up with its eyes locked onto Shiv like a master hunter with his scope centered on his target's heart.
Despite knowing it didn't have any ranged attacks, Shiv felt as if all the deerbuck had to do was pull the trigger, and he'd be dead.
Then, the third man on a pedestal made his presence known by sending invisible blades of air at the center deerbuck.
Ugly gashes appeared on the deerbucks face and torso, making it flinch. It screamed again, then it charged. The two deerbucks on either side of it also threw themselves at the wall again, their jagged antlers reflecting the light of Shiv's fire-engulfed pike.
Suddenly realizing he was in the wrong position, Shiv threw himself down from the pedestal and braced his pike against it with the head pointed at the hole the center deerbuck had made with its first charge.
Through that hole, Shiv made eye contact with the deerbuck as it closed in on him, its nose pointed down to better present its antlers. He watched as the two yellow triangles came closer and closer, then he started yelling, roaring as loud as he possibly could. He braced himself and closed his eyes. The deerbuck screamed a challenge in return, and they collided.
The wall exploded, fragments shooting in every direction, and the deerbuck slammed into the pedestal just above Shiv, who had been thrown onto the ground by the force of his pike snapping in two.
With his ears ringing, he scrambled back to his feet, sloshing water everywhere, and whipped around to face the deerbuck.
What he saw sent shivers down his spine.
The deerbuck was lying unmoving where he had just been, twisted at an odd angle with half of his pike piercing its throat and sticking out of its back. Its eyes were still following him.
Distracted by his downed opponent, he wasn't ready for the antlers swinging at him from behind.
"AAAAGHH!!" He yelled as the knife-like antlers pierced his back and raked across it. Blinding pain engulfed his mind, preventing any conscious thoughts from being entertained.
He vaguely felt himself being tackled to the ground, then an extreme heat made itself known. Then, the extreme heat came into direct contact with his back, and searing pain exploded, making the pain of the antlers feel like an inconvenience in comparison.
He screamed in agony, and the pain stopped. He collapsed back into the water, unaware that he'd ever pushed himself back up. Acrid, bloody water went up his nose and filled his mouth. 'I'm done. There's no point in continuing on.' He thought as his consciousness faded, then suddenly, "No!" His voice was garbled under the water, but clear in his mind. 'I can't die in a disgusting world like this!'
Fear gripped him. Pure fear of death. He wasn't ready to die. He had to get home. Even if nobody there remembered him, he had to get home.
'Why wouldn't they remember me…?' A thought passed through his mind, making him feel oddly suspicious.
But the next second, pure determination and a rush of… power… filled him, and the thought was gone. He shoved himself out of the water with his newfound strength, coughing and choking. "No!" He repeated, this time with a voice as clear as his mind.
He wiped the water from his eyes and pushed through the pain till he was on his feet.
"How are you still- no, focus. Stab it! Now!" A faint yell pierced through Shiv's consciousness, and he slowly followed the sound of the voice to find Briggs and two other men restraining the last of the three deerbucks.
The two earth mages had grown stone cases around its two front legs, and were barely managing to maintain the restraints while Briggs had frozen its antlers into a solid block that the small man was currently pulling down on with everything he had, exposing the creature's neck.
The deerbucks' back legs were kicking wildly every which way, trying desperately to get out of the trap. Shiv stared for a long second, trying to comprehend what was happening, then shook his head and just acted. He stepped forward and tried to lift his arms, but they weren't working. So instead, he kicked the mud at the monster and solidified it as he did so, forming it into several uneven spikes that impaled the creature. Its struggling intensified for several seconds, then abruptly died down.
The men fell to the ground with a splash, completely worn out.
Shiv turned around to see the deerbuck that had mauled his back slumped in the hole in the wall with a javelin of ice slowly melting in its eye.
'It's over?' A conscious thought formed in his head, but somehow… It seemed wrong. It wasn't over.
"The other two… where are the other two?" He suddenly yelled aloud.
"What?" Briggs looked up, still breathing heavily from his wrestling match with the deerbuck's head.
"The other two deerbucks! They went around to flank us, right?" Shiv stomped on the ground and ascended on a platform of muddy earth. He looked around, searching warily through blurry eyes for the enemies that he knew were coming.
A chill made its way down Shiv's spine, and he whipped around to find two pairs of glowing yellow eyes charging full-tilt toward the wall behind the air mage, who was standing on his platform with his hands on his knees, and his eyes closed.
Previously, the deerbucks had only been able to break the front wall after two charges, but these two were big. Quite a bit bigger than the original three.
Finally realizing that he didn't have time to yell a warning, Shiv simply jumped and slammed into Airhead. They ended up in a tangled, wet, swearing mess in the water just as a metric ton of muscle mass, screaming hatred, and wickedly sharp antlers exploded through the wall and ran over them to run through the pillar the air mage had just been knocked off of.
Shiv shakily got to his feet, arms limp, honestly not sure how much longer he could stay up. The two deerbucks divided their attention between the group of men with Briggs guarding the unconscious Burnface, and Shiv guarding the downed air mage.
The one facing Shiv was bigger. It threw its head around wildly in a fearsome display, but froze suddenly with its eyes on the deerbuck that Shiv had skewered. Then, the most terrifying, pained noise any of the humans present had ever heard emanated from the monster's mouth. It threw its head back and howled at the sky.
Frozen, everyone stared at it as time seemed to slow down for Shiv.
'This is the perfect opportunity, body, so move! Stab the sucker!' Slowly, reluctantly, his arms regained some feeling and moved at his command. His feet took step after staggering step forward. He reached down, grabbed a handful of mud, and stabbed it into the terror's exposed neck, and dragged it violently across it. He stumbled with the momentum of the dagger and fell to the ground as his sight slowly dimmed.
The last thing he saw was the last of the deerbucks whipping around and fixating its gaze upon him.