Even from a few dozen yards away, the diplomats jumped at the sound of bronze clashing with iron. The Raptari Honor Guard, tall and lanky in comparison to their opponents, practically threw themselves against their short, squat opponents in an early attempt at shock and awe. In the end, the only people shocked and awed were Linda and Semir, the two humans, who flinched and twitched at the sound of metal striking metal. The trolls swung great polearms with flat heads like weaponized spades, but their shock tactic fell flat against opponents who couldn't be shocked. Even Marinna closed her eyes and turned her head away for a moment, mainly due to the grating sound as the Dark Iron soldiers used their long-handled battle axes to parry the trolls' spades away. The trolls fell back after their initial charge forward.
"This is wrong," Marinna said to the pyromancer, who wasn't even facing her anymore. "Nobody is supposed to be fighting anymore; just give me a moment to grab their attention, and we can avert any loss of life!"
The pyromancer waved a hand for her to stay back, much as one would shoo away a petulant child. "Keep your distance, civilian; I have an obligation to keep you out of harm's way."
"You know that's not…you don't even believe that!" Marinna turned away and then leaned forward toward the mass of iron and bronze. "Overseer! We need to stop, there's a truce being negotiated right now-"
A voice broke over the skirmish, causing the Zandalari to jump and hesitate for a moment in the back-and-forth push of weapon shafts on the frontline. "GRIND THEM DOWN!" came the voice of Darbakh Smokestack, warped in cadence by an effect which was neither tobacco use nor fel corruption.
Linda and Semir cringed in expectation of a surge of violence, but what they saw was different. Rather than rushing forward upon their leader's command, the Dark Iron dwarves closed ranks, stood closer to one another, and began swinging their brutal two-handed axes at a slower pace. Slow, heavy swings rained down at the Zandalari trolls' feet and knees, both of which were unarmored as opposed to their shins and thighs. The leader of the trolls shouted instructions to his troops, who then swung their spades downward at the dwarves who, rather than blocking or absorbing the shots, parried them. A test of skill ensued, one which saw the first trooper fall on the side of the trolls: a member of the Honor Guard collapsed when his leg was severed at the knee, falling to the ground where the dwarves marched over him. Their lower centers of gravity allowed them to push against the legs of the tall trolls, much like a wild ram pushing back a human.
At the sight of the trampled troll, Marinna actually tried to push past the pyromancer. "No, don't kill him!" she yelled at the Dark Iron soldiers, though they'd marched so far down the grassy coast that they likely couldn't hear her anymore. "Get out of my way!"
Unlike her human counterparts, Marinna wasn't intimidated by the pyromancer, and she actually tried to push the Dark Iron magic user aside. The pyromancer didn't push back much - or wasn't able to - but resistance proved unnecessary when the snarling echoed from the top of the hill behind the skirmish.
Atop the sandy hill covered in beachgrass, half a dozen crawgs hopped into view and tore acrosss the ground toward the fray. A blood troll beastmaster wearing a Zandalari tabard swatted the eyeless bipeds with a stick, spurring them erratically toward the flank of the Dark Iron soldiers. Snapping their jaws and bounding forward, the crawgs beat an uneven, roundabout path.
"This is madness!" Linda cried.
"This has to stop!" Semir added while huddling close to the others.
A devilish grin spread across the Flamewaker's scaly face, and it slithered past the group. "Your wish is my command!" it said in a decrepit voice as it hefted its pitchfork.
Poking and proding the flame imps, the Flamewaker sent the burning little creatures toward the crawgs, intercepting them before either pack could interfere in the melee. The crawgs chomped, the imps spat fire, and the central clash was crowned by a round of cheers and jeers around two figures.
A dwarf even stouter than the others, no doubt Overseer Smokestack, stepped out of the ranks, occupying a sandy space between the troops and the squabbling animals. A troll prelate, himself heavier than the others, met the opposing commander's challenge, and the two parried and fenced with their weapons, axe and spade each vying to pin the other sharp edge to the ground. The troops on both sides were as invigorated as the diplomats were dejected, and Marinna puffed up her cheeks angrily, though she didn't intervene.
She turned to look at the pyromancer. "You did this! We could have stopped this from happening if you hadn't blocked us!"
"It was for your own protection," the dark-haired Dark Iron replied.
"Spare me your dishonesty; you wanted this! You-"
A warhorn sounded from the side of the trolls, silencing the argument before it could truly heat up. A Zandalari dinomancer on the hill had blown the horn, causing the ground to rumble beneath everyone's feet as the jungle trees and overgrowth shook. From the treeline emerged a Brutosaur, enormous to an absurd degree and swinging its long neck from side to side. The dinosaur couldn't turn well, and when walking in a wide arc to sweep toward the dwarven rear, its trajectory put it on a course to walk directly over the diplomats. Linda and Semir clung to each other, and even Marinna, so stalwart for a noncombatant, took a few steps back uneasily.
"It's going to trample us!" Marinna cried. She subconsciously grabbed the pyromancer and tried to pull the woman away, unable to resist the urge to help even a person she didn't like.
The pyromancer shook her off, however, and began waggling her fingers and drawing patterns in the air. "I got this," she said not only with confidence but almost disinterest. She then waved her arms, forming more elaborate symbols in the air and chanted a few words in Kalimag. "Rise!"
She tossed a few coals on the ground as the Brutosaur drew dangerously close, its footsteps kicking up sandy clouds and drowning out the sound of the skirmish. The coals burned into the sand, sinking slightly before an explosion of muddy water burst upward. A huge, dark figure rose above the diplomats, rising until it towered as high as the dinosaur itself. An entire Molten Giant climbed out of the ground, standing just in time to wrap its burning hot arms around the Brutosaur's neck. The dinosaur wheezed and screeched, but its long windpipe was constricted as the giant grappled with it, hugging its searing, rocky body to the dinosaur's flesh. Even more sand was kicked up as the giant held firm, refusing to budge and lifting the Brutosaur's forelegs off the ground a few feet. The long tail lashed behind it, but the giant had seized it too suddenly for it to pull away. The Molten Giant rolled the long-necked dinosaur onto its side and crushed its throat, leaving the huge body to thrash on the sand and puke blood all over Semir. Linda tried to wipe his eyes clean with a handkerchief, but both of them dove to the ground when the Zandalari Prelate and Overseer Smokestack tumbled in a ball of fists and blades right through their group.
"Oh my stars!" Linda whined while covering her head with her hands.
The Prelate leapt to his feet first, sweeping his spade in such a wide arc that he almost cut Marinna. Smokestack stood next, wielding his axe much as his soldiers still were, parrying and pounding away behind them. The troll poked with the spade contently from a distance, but in a flash, the dwarf sprang forward on his thick legs, leaping a short distance but at shocking speed and stabbing the troll in the foot with the head spike of his axe. The troll Prelate hissed and counterstruck, but with one foot limp and off-balance, the strike lacked momentum and bounced off Smokestack's thorium armor. Holding on to the axe haft like a lever, Smokestack pulled the troll's leg until the Prelate tripped. Both men dropped their primary weapons at the same time and reached for their swords, striking sparks as they dueled, though the Prelate rapidly gave up ground while limping backward with the axe spike still stuck in his foot.
No longer focused on peacemaking, Marinna ran to her colleagues and helped Linda lift Semir by the arms, for the man could no longer see due to the dinosaur blood on his face. The Raptari Honor Guard held their line longer than typical troops would have, barring the dwarves by holding their polearms horizontally and pushing as if they were lacrosse sticks, but eventually too many of their ranks fell, too much ground had been given up, and too little hope held out of stopping the inevitable slow grind of the Dark Irons. The Zandalari broke, routing toward the jungle until the pyromancer conjured a wall of flames to bar their path.
Marinna looked up hopelessly as the Zandalari were magically walled in and systematically slaughtered. "Let them go! Your side already won!" she cried out to the pyromancer, though she was being completely ignored at that point.
The diplomats were surrounded by misery. On one side, the Dark Iron dwarves caught up to the Zandalari trolls and butchered the survivors; on another, the dead Brutosaur thrashed next to the remains of the Molten Giant, whose temporary body had disintegrated after its mission was over; still penning them in on another side, the pyromancer burned the Zandalari dinomancer alive, punishing the enemy mage for having - apparently - delivered the Flamewaker a terrible thrashing in the fray. As if to punctuate the finality of it all, the Prelate's head hit the ground as Smokestack hooked the troll's leg in a wrestling hold and took him down. The Overseer stomped the Prelate flat, not granting the troll leader to get back up again. Severed feet and shins of the Zandalari littered the whole area, and along with the crackling of the flames, all the diplomats could do was cling to one another until the Dark Iron soldiers had finished their gruesome duty.
