A hostile snarl erupted from your maw, and you tensed back up, bristling your pelt out, making you appear 3× your size. "You will not harm a hair on them!" The advancing gem beast stopped, fixing you with a pitiful glare. "It will be quick. And once they're gone, You'll feel much better!" She starts approaching again, looking almost determined. "Jusr move and I'll be quick about this-!"

"I SAID NO!" You roared, your voice echoing off the walls, and shaking the area subtly, making her pause and stare at you with a furrowed brow. "I am friends with these humans by my own terms!" You proclaimed, lifting your head proudly. "They care about me and I care about them! And they can care about you to, if you give them a chance!" You growled, feeling sad but frustrated with the corrupt gem's denial. "If you come quietly, we can figure this situation out together! This could be so easy!" The transparent gem lifted a mud covered brow slightly before grunting, hardening her glower in annoyance. "Those things really have their hooks in you, don't they?" She growled with indignance. "Look, we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way, easy way, you just snap out of it move or the hard way, I could destabilize you and take care of these things myself." She snarled flatly, regarding Lars, who trembled and curled up tighter, with disgust. She started coming again, lifting her hand suddenly. "Just make the smart decision and just-"

"Whoa!" You dimly heard everyone, even the 3 younger figures yelp in shock, scurrying back slightly as you slugged the mud beast in the face, sending her staggering back a few steps with a cry of surprise and pain. She groans, putting a hand over the place your fist connected, looking at you in incredulous anger. You snarled in a challenging manner, bowing your head and crouching, ready to charge. The gem narrowed her eyes, slamming her hand into the ground angrily. "You sure you want to do this, fluffy? Destabilizing for those squishy pests?"

You snorted out another thick cloud of steam, feeling a rush of heated anger fill your body.

How dare she keep speaking this way about my friends... she doesn't even know about them!

How dare she assume their worth... let alone threaten them...

...to try and bring harm to young organics...

The heat started to rise, and you felt yourself start to growl lowly in your throat.

...To harm children...

The heat was was burning, giving you a painful surge of adrenaline, namely a prominent burn in your muzzle and head. You weren't even aware of the brief glow that temporarily encased your head.

"For the last time... they... are not. Pests. You are not to touch them." Your voice was laced in venom, as your eyes begin to glow, nearly as bright as the lightning flashes above you two. "And since you refuse to leave this island in full form..."

You snap your head up, your face scrunched into a nasty scowl, baring your now jagged edged mouth at her threateningly, unaware of the flash on your head, as your horns suddenly changing position and sharpening to a point.

"YOU'LL BE LEAVING IN A BUBBLE!"

A hideous snarl bellowed out of your opponent's mouth in response, as she slammed her fists into the ground, before running at you, full speed. You growled, crouching into the ground, lashing your tail in feral rage. So be it.

You launch at the advancing mud beast, rising onto your hind legs like a bear, the two of you colliding into each other with brute force, starting a brutal round of mauling.

Everything around you suddenly became distant, from the pounding raindrops to the cold thick mud that started to coat your bodies, matting down your fur, making it weigh 4× its normal weight. Even the slick, slippery mud beneath you became a blurr, as your focus was solely on subduing the threat before you.

Massive hands failed through the air, seeking targets to strike, jaws snapped at each other's faces, and mud covered blows were struck. Nothing but the soundtrack of growling, roaring, yelps and howls filled the your senses, blocking out the distant cheers of the group behind you. Including Lars.

"Go, (name) go!"

"Give em the old 1, 2!"

"You got this big fella!"

"T-Take em down!"

At some point, you reared up as high as you could, raising all four arms up into the air looming over her like a mighty oak. With a roar, you came down at her, knocking her onto her back with a nasty wet SPLASH into the mud. Standing atop her bulky abdomen, you had your forepaws pressed into her massive shoulders and midpaws planted firmly in the thick mud, pinning the gem to the ground. "It is over, mud gem!" With a snarl, you lurched forward and bit her in the place her neck would be, aiming for a quick poof of the gem, trying to ignore the mildly bitter taste of mud tongue filling your mouth. "Have you had enough yet?" There was a roar of pain, and the gem struggled viciously beneath you, throwing hard blows into your flanks and abdomen, but you held tight. "Are you ready to face reality and just submit?"

There was a pained, but defiant growl, as she brought her massive hands onto your back, clutching your back fur into her fist tightly, making you wince, and with effort, wrenches you off of her, sitting up and onto her feet, holding your by your chest fur, glaring daggers into your face. She reeled back a large muddy fist and struck you hard across the face, the blow carrying enough force to throw you back into the pit's wall. While the thick layers of mud somewhat cushioned the impact, the force of it knocked the wind out of you nonetheless.

As you tried to fight through the dizziness and stand back up, the monstrous gem suddenly came up slammed herself into you, further pressing you into the thick mud.

You didn't need air, but the sudden weight that slammed into your belly had you seeing stars.

Now you were the one pinned to the ground, staring up at the mud monster, who wore a twisted flare of triumph on her mud soaked face. With a feral snarl, she reeled her fist back again, and slammed it into your face over and over again, further worsening your dizziness, leaving you quite rather disoriented. Trying to ignore your pain, you pressed your paws and hooves into her abdomen, scrambling to push her off, but this only throws her off balance a bit, her fingers grazing your bicep as she fought for balance. As you clenched your fist, she slammed her hand into your wrist, pinning it to the ground. She snarled, lifting her fist back up to for a finishing blow.

However, before she could move, a blonde blur suddenly slammed into your opponent, knocking her off you and sent her staggering back in shock. You lifted your head and peered at the small figure with wide, surprised eyes.

"Sadie...!" You coughed, scrunching your muzzle at the bitter taste that was gradually filling your mouth. As you slowly rolled onto your belly, you shook your head, trying to fight off your nausea. "Get back... to the warp pad!" She guiltily watches as you tried to pick yourself up, struggling under the weight of your own head, before returning her attention to the corrupt gem, who was recovering their wits.

The monstrous gem growled and shaking off her dizziness, glaring at you both in a newfound fury. She rears onto her legs, lashing her arm at Sadie, flinging her as easily as a rag doll across the clearing, but luckily, you moved quick enough and she hit your back rather than the wall.

In a matter of seconds, however she recovered, clutching hewith persistence, picking herself back up and again and ran at the gem, this time lifting her spear over her head and impaling it into the foe's back, causing her to flail around the small enclosed space, throwing herself around like an untamed boar, roaring in confused rage.

In an attempt to scrape the human off her back, she tried to grind her off against the wall. While the gem did succeed in injuring her, Sadie used the wall as an advantage and pushed off with her feet, forcing the gem face first into the ground.

"Go Sadie!" You barely heard steven call, watching as Sadie forced the spear deeper into the gems back, eliciting a chilling cry of agony from the gem, until-

POOF!

Just like that, the unique cone shaped gem plopped into the ground, alongside Sadie.

Ignoring your soreness, you finally got to your hands and hooves, lumbering over to Sadie's side, dimly aware of Steven's approach. "Oh, oh, I got this!" He excitedly knelt down and bubbled the gem, as you assisted in helping Sadie to her feet, letting her lean against your muzzle to steady herself. "The gems are gonna be so impressed," he mused holding bubbled gem triumphantly. "We caught a gem all by ourselves!"

You grumbled, plucking the boy off the ground with an air of tired indignance and held him under your forearm, and walked your way back up the slope, guiding Sadie along, letting her balance herself against your tail. You walk past Lars, to whom you nod to, in which he nodded back. He tried to offer Sadie a high five, but she didn't acknowledge him.

When you made your way to the warp pad, you were greeted with a teary-eyed spinel, whimpering softly as she wrapped her arms around your flank. "Thank the stars... are you okay?" She looks up at you, and a lets out a small gasp. "(Name)... you... got somethin' on your-!" You gave a little half-smile, sitting into the warp pad, you simply plucked spinel up, holding her under your arm, nuzzling her head with her cheek. "(Name)'s fine." You tiredly reassure, letting her wrap her arms around your dirty bicep with a whimper. Steven looked up at you, his smile faltering slightly, taking notice of your exhaustion. "(Name).. you and Sadie were amazing!" Sadie smiled tiredly at the boy's praise, but you just grinned half-heartedly.

"Yeah..." Lars wearily smiled at you both gratefully. "That was really great, how you both, uh... s-saved me."

Sadie didn't even look at the teen. "Don't read into it."

Then there was a pause.

"...We should do this again sometime." Steven mused softly.

Spinel glared at steven in unamusement.

Smack!

"Ow!"
~~~~~~~~~~~

Probably dragged this scene out a bit too long, but I didn't want to carry this episode on too many pages.

Anyhoot;

Unlocked new ability: horn manipulation and mouth upgrading.

New trait: (to be explored next chapter)