middaeg | . life and strength and breath

[There's a jolt of something in his chest - but Dimitri cannot identify it as anything other than frenzied energy. Roused by hunger and quickened by the voice that he understands but does not know.

It is fear.

And that recognition leaves Dimitri emboldened, prey pinned between his body and the wall. His chest heaves into Allura, flattening them both against brick. Nostrils flare and he stills, only for a moment...

No blood.

The hand already holding her remains gripped harshly, and his other raises. Slashes across shoulder and neck with every intent of dragging claws through skin and flesh to drag forth magic laden blood. He needs it. He feels weak at the thought of tearing it from her.]

Dimitri, you need to- [Her words are cut off with a scream as she feels the bite of claws pierce her shoulder, tearing flesh. Red blood stains the white blouse of her DiplomaTea uniform, and her voice catches when his claws starts to drag-

It's a gut reaction, magic surging under the full moons, a surge of power and a booming shockwave blasts from her, colliding with Dimitri with enough force to knock him into the opposing wall.

Hand gripping at her shoulder, she spins, back to the wall, wide eyed and hoping to the Ancients that it was enough to knock him out of it.]

Dimitri, I don't want to hurt you.

[It is not a death howl - Dimitri knows the sound of a final breath too well, too intimately - but her scream courses through him all the same. His nose scrunches, and were he not so immediately distracted by the blossoms of blood, he'd have shaken his head and clawed at his ears.

Too loud.

Dangerous-

But witches possess a danger of their own; Dimitri is punished for forgetting that as he's thrown into the wall. His back hits the brick with a crack, and when he falls to the ground shards of the facing follow.

He groans. Growls. Pulls himself to his feet while his breath still heaves to catch up.

She's still bleeding.

Dimitri lurches forward, leading with his jaws - spread open and hungry.]

[The window of a nearby house lights - someone alerted to her scream? Or just a happenstance. And there's the bond too. There's no way Keith isn't feeling a big dose of her fear right now. And she's torn. Caught between wanting help, and the fear of someone else being pulled into this. It's not safe.

She doesn't have time to worry about hypothetical strangers before Dimitri is lunging again, but this time she has her focus. Channeling her magic, she thinks back to her confrontation with Steak when he was like this. There are vines that are poking through the cobblestone street, ones that rise up and wind around Dimitri's legs when he lunges forward.

But they're not enough - barely enough to slow him down, especially once he takes his claws to them. She uses the time to make some more space between them, backing further down the alleyway, to lead him away from innocent onlookers, and she tries one last time to appeal to his humanity.]

Dimitri, it's Allura. It's... it's the bond. I don't know how to help you, but you must fight it! This isn't who you are!

[Having his attack hampered even for a moment is enough to make Dimitri growl. Desperate, he claws through vine and cloth and skin at once. Marring himself to escape, he resumes the chase-

Allura kites him into the alley easily, the scent of her blood strong enough to overwhelm everything else.

He stops abruptly when spoken to. Dimitri can't bring himself to speak, his jaw trembling as he feels her plea. Her faith in his humanity.

But he isn't a man, he never was. This is who he has always been. His scream breaks, pitching juvenile, and he charges forward once again. A frontal attack, aimed to tackle and break his prey.]

[She sees him pause, hopes that her words got through to him. But it’s lost in an instant. He tears through her vines, coming after her again with the fervor of a rabid animal. And she can’t help him like this, she can’t bond with him now, and even if she had a potion on her, what could she do? Force it down his throat.

He comes after her and she stands her ground. Ignoring the pain from the wound still seeping blood down her back. Pupils blown wide and her magic centers in front of her, sparks to life in a blast of fire – not aimed at Dimitri’s person, but attacking magic isn’t something she’s practiced as much as healing, and the effect is messy, sparks flying wide and she has to back up as heat seers the alleyway, wide enough that she can't tell if she hit Dimitri or not.]

[The smell of magic gathering in the air only entices Dimitri farther - it maddens him. He craves the taste, the feeling, the wholeness that being imbued with magic brings. So instantly granted by just a taste of blood, by how charged the space between them has become.

He barrels into the flame as it builds, and only once he's enveloped does he stop.

Swat at the spell, then crouch, hiding his face from the main heat of it. He can feel the fire lick over his back and it burns. When the brunt of the attack dissipates, he remains low.

Groans, but shifts so one eye - wide and wild - can track the witch's movement.]

[The spell went bigger than she anticipated, and there's the guilt of hurting her friend as she sees him curled over, fur and flesh and clothes smoldering from the flames. But kindness and compassion are clearly not winning out over here.

Low to the ground as he is, she tries once more, manipulating the plant life - bidding it to grow from the scorched earth. Wrapping up and around him, trying to envelope him in a cocoon of vines and branches. To protect her from him, and him from himself. But not just that, she focuses on her own magical energy, trying to push some of that into him. She's never done it with anyone that she wasn't bonded with, but if it could help placate him, even for a moment, maybe that would be enough.]

. life and strength and breath

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he no like fire

;3; also he's free to break out of the plant trick again!