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If it were only Iceheart’s interference that he had to worry about, this whole situation might not have been so bad. He was a threat, of course, but a controllable one. The Gargoyle, however, was proving exceedingly obnoxious. As ever.

Her ability to melt into the environment and--quite literally--turn the world against him was something that had never become easier to deal with. Even after all these years, she was still one of the most irksome opponents he’d ever face. And at this point, he may well have fought more battles against her than anyone else in his life. Rarely ever had she managed to wound him, but she always managed to find ways to make things more difficult. Battles of attrition were perhaps her specialty now, and this one certainly qualified as that.

One might have thought that all these rolling seas and howling winds would be causing no end of trouble for her here, but if they were, it wasn’t obvious. Perhaps they were even helping her by masking her movements. Whenever a surge of water lashed against him or a gust threatened to knock him off course, it could have been her doing. Or it could’ve just been the chaos of this fight.

He remembered hearing from Ito that she’d recently begun harnessing lightning, too, and indeed, it seemed to be so. The dark skies cracked and flashed constantly, and while it was thankfully not as controlled as Dozer might’ve expected, it was still quite the hassle, especially for his men. Ito himself was here somewhere, but Dozer kept losing track of him.

Had to stay focused on Kallmakk. The feldeath was still the most pressing concern, of course.

After two days of combat, Dozer still didn’t really know how much of the creature’s power he could withstand, but he was keen to find out, now that it was finally his turn to be its punching bag.

He met its charge head on. Kallmakk plowed into his becalmed sphere of influence like a thrashing bull, covered in seawater and enormous bulbs of dark energy. Lightning sparked across its hulking form as he drew close, and then there was suddenly a massive claw flying toward him from the right.

Dozer swatted it away, just like he did with the beam, but rather than flying away, the claw exploded apart and disintegrated.

That didn’t stop the rest of its body from slamming into him, though.