Fjell slowly stomped out of his mountain cave, each step a reverberating thunderclap that shook the very core of the mountain. Looking across his domain, he felt at peace with the sprawling woodland below. Looking further across the plains, he noticed a slash of blue across the greenery of the valleys below, which did not correspond to the skies above. 'Neredia' he growled, shale sliding loose and crashing down the mountain with the deep bass of his voice. He walked to the edge of his rocky ledge, and roared a challenge across his land, great stalacmites of stone bursting from the ground with his cry. Neredia was his enemy, as sure as night follows day, and Fjell was loathed to lose land to her watery domain. He charged forwards, merging with the ground to the point where fists of earth punched out of the ground with each running step. Fjell roared again, and once more, until the very earth opened up, and still he charged, hurtling towards the ocean as she came closer. Fjell had fought this battle before, and this would not be the last time either. But this was his land, his domain, and he was ready.

Neredia's clawed hands gripped her staff hard and she swung it fiercly around her torso, - the wind whipped up around her and caught her robes and hair and her eyes flashed black as she bared her fangs and snarled, tiger-like, at the thunderous presence of Fjell. She mocked his roar with a sharp flourish of her staff, and her glorious oceans crashed over her head and with all the might of the wind they engufled his valleys and drenched his sordid land.

The cascades swarmed over his hills and such was Neredia's delight at her destruction that - as Fjell roared in angst and hastened his pace - she threw back her pretty head and laughed.

Her ribcage shook in her cruelty and her sodden hair slapped against her skin as the ocean's torrents stirred the winds and great fat raindrops plummeted from the darkened skies.

The games had begun.

Fjell felt the anguish of his land as it drowned, his very core felt the shock of water rush across his land, destroying everything he had worked for. His primal rage began to course throughout his frame as he continued to rune underground, the water that soaked his ground above simply making the ground in fron tof him easier to move, using less energy so that he could fight all the more harder. Whilst crashing through the earth, Fjell used his senses to see and smell Neredia from below the ground. When he had gauged he was close enough to be safe from counter-attack, Fjell angled himself upwards and burst from the ground, encased in a jet black stalagmite of obsidian, rushing towards Neredia, seeking to dispose of her. He hurtled through the ground and into the air, his brute strength of the earth that flowed within him powering his mighty lunge, and the deadly spike of rock crashed towards her.

Neredia's defences slipped momentarily and she allowed herself to look alarmed - Fjell's eyes seemed to catch fire at her reaction, and he was so angry, and so hungry for a fight...

Neredia swung her staff across her body and a dense stream of water from the oceans below shot into the sky and surrounded her, where as it brushed the staff turned instantly to ice and and the sky-rising torrent, suddenly hard as diamond, splintered the obsidian that held the Rhinoceros - for a split second, Neredia was saved-

Fjell's horn and hulking mass collided with the shield with such a force that the tower of ice protecting Neredia cracked at its base and fell back, into the currents of her own creation and the God of the Earth, thrown back into shallower waters, tossed his great head to shake off the blow and the heat of victory pounded in his blood, and in his firey eyes he saw the ice merge into the seas.

Neredia's bones were rattled by the impact and she took a crucial few moments to regain herself - his blow had wounded her but his attack had not gone to plan and below the water she breathed better, and the energy found its way into her, and the ocean, at her command, rose, pushing her up into the sky, to tower far above him with all the seas on the earth waiting for her orders.

Fjell began to feel fear. He was in the water, where Neredia could finish him off with ease, even toy with him before bringing about his downfall. Then his feet touched the shallow sands of the shore, and he was calmed. He stared upwards at Neredia as his body megred again with the land, sinking downwards and inwards, going further and deeper than he had ever dared. Would she, nay, could she follow? He sunk, faster and faster, gathering power and speed. His plan would have to work, but it would depend on how Neredia acted next. He could feel the tremors within the earth and knew where she was. But would she follow?

Neredia cursed, and slammed her staff down into the crest of the wave that carried her, punishing herself for her lapse of thought. She hated it when the tables turned and games were played on her, and now that she'd lost sight of the Rhino, her temper was quick to turn; it started to hail heavily, and the churning waves began to raise higher and sink deeper in the flooded valley; like the rise and fall of breath in her chest that gasped as it turned cold, and Neredia merged herself into the water.

She bottled her annoyance and arched her back below the waves, stretching... the nagging scream of the beast knawed within her, but she didn't give in to it.

Instead, in a flash of ghostly white, she turned and plunged into the icy depths below, her sharp movement causing the seas to sway and turn, and she felt her whirlpool above tug at her robes as the goddess dived, unafraid, into the black.

Fjell hurtled towards the centre, gathering the blackened, sooty stone that surrounded him all the while. As he hurtled downwards more and more, he steeled himself for what was to come. He finally reached what he was looking for: the core. The molten lava encased his rock caccoon, fusing and melting the rock together. He quickly spun around, and using his momentum, began to hurtle upwards once more, the lava melting the earth around him and adding yet more molten rock to the exterior. 'This shall leave a scar so terrible upon the earth' Fjell thought. He sensed Neredia venturing downwards, and could the God of the mountains have smiled then he would have. He erupted out of the earth, smashing directly into her. Fjell continued into the sea, and back towards the land before shaking free of his rocky exterior. 'Your move' he thought.

If the bones in her body could be broken, they would have crumbled from the impact. Neredia was tearing through the air, limp, and her staff tumbled from her grip, hit the churning waters and sank.

There was black in her eyes, and her lungs felt filled with sand, her muscles clogged with dirt, and she couldn't breathe, or move, and it was all his fault.

Her deadened body smacked the surface of the water, her neck snapped forward as she broke through the waves and she desperately clung to consciousness, though she was fading, and her head was filling with dry, grey smoke, and her heart was racing, pushing her out of her head.

The water rushed into her throat and melted into her skin and chilled her bones and Neredia now felt the blades on her flesh and the splitting of her skull and she screamed in agony, so sharpy that her throat tore and blood danced out of her mouth into the water, and so fiercly that the skin in her cheeks ripped up to her ears as she screamed and screamed and her pointed teeth glimmered and grew longer, and in her pain she arched her back and the nodes of her backbone ruptured through her fragile flesh and grew into spines that dragged the thin flesh with them, causing it to stretch and tear; she writhed and tossed in the darkness and her eyes turned white as two great, spiralling horns burst from her ears and tendrils sprouted from her temples - and all of it hurt, and all of it was gruesome, and all inspired by wrath, and all of it felt good.

Fjell knew what he had done. The foundations of the Earth were shaking.

Neredia thrashed her tail, a shimmering mass of monster under the new ocean, greater than the God of Earth, and so much more angry.





*ahem - win*

Fjell stood, just within the edge of the forest, looking across at the monstosity born from Neredia's anger. Her enraged form was streamlined, perfected, a killing machine. She had unleashed hell, and it was due to him. Fjell roared his challenge, the ground beneath him shaking in reply, threatening to split open. With a loud crackthat rent the air, the earth began to shake apart beneath the serpent, sucking the water down into the abyss. He knew she was not defeated, but by reducing the water, perhaps he could stem her power. As she avoided the pull of the water escaping, he began to draw upon the power of the earth, absorbing the ground around him, incorporating it into a new frame. The rhino began to enlarge, with rocky outcrops jutting from his spine. Now he was larger, and stronger, and ready.

Neredia thrashed below the water, trying to evade its grip, and her muscles spasmed in outrage at Fjell's attack - how dare he use the power of the ocean against her - she slammed her serpent jaws together, and struck her tail furiously against the current, willing herself to move-

The serpents body pushed through the waters with intense control and stealth, and with her muzzle straight on, she became a ghost through the blue; her steady, pounding rhythm at her sides gave her power and her speed increased as she thrashed through the sinking waters; faster and faster, propelled by the force of her collosal muscles and, as the hunter approached the steadfast, snorting Rhino, the Goddess was transformed fully into a creature of the wild and the demon monster lauched herself out of the water.

The ocean exploded and the beast was spewed into the open, snarling her rage as she hurtled through the skies.

Her jaws snapped open and she collided head on with Fjell's neck, white eyes blazing, and sank her deadly fangs into the rock of his skin. Fjell roared in anguish as the sea serpent's bulk hurled them both back and smacked their skulls against the rocky terrain - Neredia writhed and the pressure on her jaws made them spasm and ache as she tried to rip the Earth God's throat out.

Fjell felt the life force begin to seep and ooze out of his newest form. He began to struggle, albeit weakly, as his throat was slowly torn out from his body. Helpless, Fjell could do nothing more than watch as the great serpent of the depths gorged itself opon his lifeforce.

How dare she!

The form of the rhino began to crystallise, the hardened shell encasing the rhino born of rock. Within the diamond encompassing him, Fjell began to reform and create a new image for himself. When he was done, Fjell animated his newest creation and smiled. The war had just begun.

He watched, safe, as the serpent finished devouring his organs. Then he burst forth from the crystal warding, his new form roaring with a bountiful rage, shaking through the earth. The obsidian bear, with serrated claws of marble and eyes that gleamed with amethyst threw itself recklessly at the serpent, gouging at the eyes and snout of the great beast, hoping to incapacitate Her.

Neredia tossed her great head to shake off the Bear, her jaws dripping with the bloody remains of the rhino, and the tendrils and spines around her head and neck grazed against the bears body, though with little impact on his obsidian form.

The Earth God struck a good blow and sliced the flesh just below her left eye - in her indignation at his marring to her impeccable form she reared up, throwing him back and up onto his hind legs and they raised together, far above the trees...

They were eye to eye but of course Neredia was not challenging him. The serpents lower half remained on the ground, poised like a cobra and the bear, unstable on two limbs and unaware of her balanced composure, was the perfect prey.

For a moment they held their steady ground, God and Goddess, with all the power in the world at their will, equal and opposite. Perfect.

Neredia reeled back.

In less than a second, the serpent had aimed, twisted, lunged and pierced the Bear's side, hammering his mass into the ground, and blood burst up her fangs and the Bear could only bellow and scramble as the weight of the serpent crushed him into the ground. The air was forced out of him as his nemesis pounded her muzzle into him, over and over, clenching her jaw not to bite again but to continue to ram him into the grounds of his own creation.

The Bear could do very little as Neredia released her grip with her jaws - he lashed out in the moment he had and sliced down her throat, carving his mark into her muscles, black blood oozing out as he did so - but in his attack he'd failed to see the serpent's body surrounding him, and curling in, and when he felt the thickset torso of the snake against his flanks he moved to escape but Neredia's eyes were blazing and as the solid muscle engulfed his form and pushed more breath from him he snarled, recognising, again, the Sea Goddess's cunning.

Like the python, she could kill him by constriction. The Bear writhed in her tightening grip as the life began to leave him...

And, as suddenly as she had grasped him, great spires of crystal amethyst burst from his form, piercing Her sides as she constricted him. Neither side was going to relent their onslaught upon each others form, neither taking account of the pain as the great bear was slowly crushed, and the serpent was pierced in more and more places.

But Fjell knew he could fight on. He was earth, where all things started, and all things ended. He could cast aside this form with ease, creating yet more with which he could wreak havoc upon her serpentine frame. For now, though, he was content in the struggle between the cataclysmic powers. Neither would back down.

The serpent slowly constricted further, and the shining eyes of the bear began to dim. The crystal shards that had erupted from his form, however, began to infect the form of the serpent, slowly trickling up the form and hardening, holding the great coils in place. She would soon become nothing more than a great crystal statue, with a large bear held in it's grips.

Neredia could feel the life draining from Fjell, but it was draining from her also.

The ocean was at her command. If she could not release herself from the poison of the amethyst within her, she could react with poison of her own.

Neredia found it hard to move - her muscles were constricted, tight - and the bear was her captive, her Godly prisoner - the near victory and near death battled within her head.

Neither would ever win, not for thousands and thousands of eras.

So the floods came. Fjell felt the soaking of the pads of his paws and tried to move but could not. The water was cool, and comforting to Neredia, and she felt it healing her wounds, curing her vicious mind - she remembered she was a Goddess, and not about to be defeated. The seas were the breath of life she needed and they caressed her tired form. But the seas could be other things too.

Neredia's poison began to drown the Earth God as he remained held in Neredia's embrace. The water slipped down his dry throat and into his lungs, where Neredia's stare turned it to ice - now the ocean was not a healer but a killer, and Fjell choked upon it.

He struggled and broke free of the spires that shattered into bloody fragments as they slid out of Neredia, and she coiled quickly away, thrashing back into the torrents that were soaking into Fjell's precious land, and Fjell's precious form, and killing him.

Fjell was dying. Again. But this time his lifeforce was clouding his vision, and he could not see.

He couldn't watch as the earth opened up, like the hellish Maw of a creature of an unimaginable size.

Nor could he see when both Neredia and Himself were swallowed by the sheer size of the abyss, and they plummeted towards destruction.

And he still couldn't see as plumes of lave burst upwards, evapourating the cascade of water into little more than vapourous fumes, that drifted upwards upon the heat waves.

If one God was to lose, then they both must.