Aria, wide-eyed at both the destructive scene and Kass's revelation about what would happen when a balor was slain, reacted defensively at the sudden scene just ahead, triggering the magics to make her own body phase and blur.<br/><br/>The two fiends seemed at first passively aware of her and Kass in the corners of their eyes, curious that the two weren't immediately fleeing and shrieking in terror like most local denizens might - but their tactical focus remained on one another until Kass spoke up and began to approach. The creature's horned brows lifted with especial curiosity as soon as Kass referred to Aria as erinyes-grandmothered.<br/><br/>"Oh ho?" the devil let out a deep purr which suggested whirring thoughts and plans and devices in that horned red head. "<em>You</em>shall ensure<em>I</em>remain unharmed - I'll make thee a deal: help me gain that bauble the stinking demon stole," a clawed finger indicated the orb clutched by the balor, swirling with reddish-orange light, "...and I'll need not tear apart city block after precious, innocent-filled city block fighting for it!...Only to have yet another block blasted to ruins when I rip off Dariospersias's head and his body explodes!"<br/><br/>He gestured more assertively toward the demon, pushing the palm outward, likely working some sort of magical attack with no visible effect. The devil then leaped off his powerful, claw-toed legs, the great bat-winged flapping surely to take him up into the air above the street; he flashed Kass a knowing look at that moment, possibly acknowledging her concerns about leading the balor into the sky for any death throes.<br/><br/>The demon bellowed throatily, shaking its horn-sided head violently as it struggled for a moment against the devil's compulsion magic. "Only your own bitter flesh, Alskandermakedon, shall remain to rest in this prissy pansy plane! I shall shred it as far and wide as<em>if</em>it had exploded!"<br/><br/>It arced a beefy arm through the air to emphasize the threat, and probably to hurl back some unseen magic; it snarled as the pit fiend took flight, probably concerned about it attempting to use the altitude for some sequent dive attack. Its winged twitched, probably as it thought about taking flight as well - but then it shot Kass a glance and gave out a demented deep laugh; she would be able to read its underworldly face well enough to guess that its thinking was that, hearing Kass's concerns, she and Aria would be less willing to slay if if it stood on the ground.<br/><br/>Aria herself had began to take flight, swerving her head around and shouting at the top of her lungs, alternately in Celestial and Common, "Anyone about, anyone who can hear this voice- flee, flee far away from my voice, fiends engage in a most destructive battle here!"<br/><br/>"Fiends?" the also-flying pit fiend laughed towards Aria. "Think not to lump myself and pig-faced Darios together....for you, you of<em>all</em>mortals, little daughter, must surely appreciate the difference, if your companion spoke true!"<br/><br/>He laughed, eyes casting down again to see Kass race up preternaturally fast across the cobblestones, and tag the balor which yet seemed scarcely aware a mortal woman would dare to approach such as he.<br/><br/>Then the balor leaped high into the air - not taking flight, but merely slapping its palms together aboce its own horned head, making a thunderous sound. At first Aria feared some other spell, but hen the balor clapped several more times, and began laughing insanely, gaily, suddenly bereft if the fearsome gravitas she had felt when witnessing its pit-fiend-throwing feat a moment before. The beast of a demon was jumping up and down, cobblestones cracking and crunching under its girth, in fact it seemed to delight in thrusting its legs down as it landed to smash and crush the stone as much as possible. It threw careless arms and wings out to each side, bashing away the nearest remaining bits of masonry from the bakery. Aria realized it was<em>dancing</em>, in its own destructive and demonic way, like an insane vandal. She realized Kass's spellcast just now must've doen this, and was truly impressed to see such a notorious beast of a demon so robbed of dignity and danger for the time being.<br/><br/>She swooped down, strafing by the balor and snatching the orb up in both hands, then tucking it under one arm, not unlike a Waterdeep rugby player.<br/><br/>The pit fiend chortled at his nemesis's indignity, seizing the moment to swoop down but a few moments after Aria. He hooked his clawed hands under the armpits of the dancing balor - which began to laugh ludicrously and hurl vile Abyssal taunts and insults at the devil, but made no resisting struggle against the grab beyond the natural difficulties of the chaotic moments from its destructive dance. The fiend scowled somewhat at Aria, probably because she'd gotten to the balor first and snatched the orb....then its eyes flared brightly, and it grinned at her, "Oh ho, little daughter, perhaps the sure archer's hands of an erinyes<em>are</em>yet yours..."<br/><br/>Aria shouted over her shoulder, "Would you like to see for yourself, truly? - If you can carry the dancing demon up into the air, I'll happily fill it with arrows for you!"<br/><br/>The devil, looking between her and Kass, grinned and purred, "Very well...in fact I've bathed in balor-blasts before and can easily survive one! And so I shall....<em>if</em>the orb is then returned to my own grasp by thee!<em>Otherwise</em>, I shall find a more...interesting...place to drop it, a spectacle with more close-up spectators, whence I shall blow Darios's body apart with a hellstorm of meteor magic!! Do we have a deal!?" Its eyes flashed brightly.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Initiative<br/>Aria 35<br/>Pit Fiend 25<br/>Balor 20<br/>Kass 10<br/><br/><br/>Aria - activate blurring armor (swift) and blink (std), then single move (45' flying with blink) 30' south + 15' aerially + 5' east (45' is 30' and 30' but upspeed is halved)<br/>Pit Fiend - spa (spell-like ability) Mass Hold Monster at Balor; Balor saves<br/>Balor - spa Insanity at Pit Fiend, which saves<br/>Kass - last post (successfully affects the balor) (LOL awesome....dancing balor)<br/>Round 2<br/>Aria - fly 30' south + 25' east + 5' down (hovering just above and nw of balor)<br/>Sleight of Hand check to grab the orb: 17m + 9r<br/>Pit Fiend - fly to and grab balor<br/><br/>It's male (since bipedal monsters are usually depicted nekkid but not fully anatomically correct, I always figured they were, erm, retractable / sheathable, like some animals...)<br/>