For being disoriented, Shai was extremely quick on the uptake. As random stones and sand began to fuse to her body she created a powerful swirl of wind, casting off almost the entirety of the earthen materials that had coated her surface, as well as knocking back yet another rock sand combination from Sirius' Golem. No more then a handful of pebbles and sand had fused to her during that first moment. As many beach dwellers know though, sand was not that easily gotten rid of. The gritty material had a tenacious knack for getting into the folds of clothing, and as Shai spun about in the air getting rid of the surface grime, the sand that had penetrated the folds of her clothing remained trapped by the clothing itself. As Shai's spin ended her clothing returned to rest from it's billowed state, and the sand that remained began the fusing process as well. While no more then several handfuls all together, these fused pieces of earth would be Sirius' ticket to victory.

Shai was not stagnant however. The wind warrior dropped down and to the side, putting her closer to Sirius and in front of the Golem at an angle. This position however was not a great one for Shai to be in. From it she would be unable to keep tabs on the Golem while maintaining direct eye contact on Sirius. As she moved, Sirius focused on the earthen pieces that had fused to Shai's body. Like miniature insects, the earthen patches began to move along Shai's body. Pieces conjoined along the way until they came to a focal point above her heart. Sirius assumed her heart was in the same position as a normal human's and the 6 inch by 6 inch patch rested there, a dire omen of the possibilities to come.

As Shai began to draw in the air, Sirius called out to her, and Sirius' Golem grabbed a rock from the ground similar to the one it had throw at Syl. With force, the Golem let loose another rock in an attempt to knock Shai out of the sky.

"Shai, it's over accept defeat bef..."

Sirius gasped, the already thin air around him grew thinner as Shai's spell completed. Breathing was now a chore, and Sirius couldn't spare the breath needed to complete his warning to the girl. Sirius was unsure how long this would last, but the shortness of the air meant that Shai was doing something to the air around him. If Shai was able to maintain this for another forty seconds, Sirius would pass out unless he managed to develop some plan of avoidance. Fortunately, the bubble Shai had created meant she was draining her energy fast in a battle against mother nature. Nature did not like anomalies, and this was certainly an anomaly. As Shai forced air away from Sirius, mother nature herself tried forcing air back to into the zone of low pressure.

Sirius held up a hand trying to get Shai to stop before he was forced to cause an earthen spike to erupt from the patch over her chest. A spike that Sirius expected would end her life and finally end this battle.

Fortunately for Shai, now that her globe of air, denying Sirius oxygen, was in place, she no longer had to keep an eye on him. The logical next step, from this point, was to keep an eye on the more active threat in the battle. The golem.

Shai turned her head towards the construct in time to see the boulder fly towards her. She dropped, propelling herself downwards forcefully to allow the boulder to sail over her head, and narrowing her eyes. She could feel the sand crawling across her body, and could only assume that was ... well, bad for her health. She knew that she was low on energy, that Sirius had the upper hand, and if she could not win within the next few seconds, she would not win at all. There was no honour in surrender -- especially when you could be revived by a convenient godlike being back at home base if you died trying.

With a powerful jet of air, Shai shot forwards at incredibly high speeds, whistling through the air (literally, her speed causing her to create a rather irritating whistling sound) towards Sirius. The distance was small, and it would only be moments before she had closed the gap between them, abandoning her attempts to deny him oxygen to free up the remains of her power reserves and add a minuscule but possibly vital speed boost as air rushed to fill the gap. Her polearm was thrust forwards, aimed precisely to stab into the elementalist's neck and fully charged with her entire remaining power in the form of pure lightning. If the blade didn't kill him, then the shock almost certainly would.

That being, of course, if she ever made contact. Shai's hope, vague as it was, was that her sudden change of tactic and burst of speed would shock Sirius enough for her attack to catch him off guard.

If the attack missed, and Sirius did not deploy his spike, Shai would shoot past him, only drifting to a halt a good distance away, drained and exhausted. But hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. One way, or another.

Sirius tried to slow his breathing while maintaining eye contact on Shai. The bubble of air around his head was draining him, but his warning had been mostly delivered. Shai choosing to ignore it or accept it would be up to the wind warrior herself. Sirius all to vividly remembered his fight with Gavain where the undead litch merely scoffed at the possibility of death, continuing to fight until Sirius had been forced to turn him into dust. Sirius sincerely hoped Shai would be more reasonable. She had fought well, and Sirius respected a powerful adversary. That did not mean he wouldn't kill them if he was forced to.

As Shai dipped under the boulder, Sirius held up his hands, starting to choke a bit from the lack of air, but held back his spike. Perhaps the woman was landing, she had not yet come so close to the ground. Perhaps this was a gesture of defeat? Of surrender? From his pit the he had not yet moved from Sirius watched Shai intensely.

The rising hope Sirius had that this battle could come to a peaceful conclusion vanished as Shai forcefully propelled herself towards him. With a great whistling sound, Shai shot towards him like a bullet. The bubble of air surrounding his head disappeared, and as new fresh air rushed to fill the void allowing Sirius a chance to breath again, Sirius was forced to deploy his spike. The spike would plunge into Shai's body, if the placement was right, into her heart.

Her speed however was so great Sirius was left with no other option but to defend from his positioning. Even if the spike did impale her, Shai's momentum and speed would cause her to crash into Sirius anyway. Shai had her polearm outstretched, aiming as if to impale Sirius through the upper chest. For a brief second as Sirius brought his hands up further to defend he smiled. Shai seemed to have forgotten about the very start of this battle. How the polearm's point had been broken by the Golem, rendering thrusting attacks like this one less effective. With his stoneskinned hands open, held out in front of him and crossed palm over palm, Sirius intended to take the brunt of Shai's attack with his hands. His feet however, semi-encased in the sand pit where he landed from his fall, were having a difficult time getting into a defending stance. In all likelihood when Shai impacted Sirius' hands, her overwhelming momentum would knock Sirius onto his back, possibly impaling his right hand even through the veil of stone.

An impaled hand however was better then a pierced heart.

In lumbering footsteps, Granite started to make his way over to where Sirius and Shai would collide. It's speed however could nowhere near Shai's and the construct would only close a small amount of the distance before the inevitable collision.

When the spike was deployed, Shai's eyes jolted wide open. Blood gushed from her chest as her heart was pierced, and she drew a single gasping breath as she shot forwards. Blackness crept into her vision, seeping to encompass her and draw her out of the realm of the living.

Her speed did however mean that she saw the conclusion of her last-ditch attack in the moment before her demise. Her polearm, damaged as it was, struck Sirius full-on. The blade had enough force behind it to completely sever a normal hand, but with the stoneskin effect, it had more chance of embedding itself. Either way, as the impact shook her, Shai would be tossed over Sirius to land hard on the ground behind him, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt as she slid several metres, leaving a trail of red, before coming to a halt. The priestess was dead.

However, there was a possibility that her attack had done more damage than Sirius had expected it to. The powerful electrical charge in the weapon would course into Sirius' body as it struck his palm -- there was a chance that his stoneskin would protect him, but if not, the electrical charge was strong enough to kill.

A draw was not how Shai had wanted to end the battle, but lying on the floor dead, she had little choice in the matter, should the effect prove lethal. Her attack had been meant to kill Sirius before he could react, but she had not held out much hope.

In her final moments, Shai could not help but wonder if revival by god-like beings was an uncomfortable process... She certainly hoped not. Still, rather that than stay dead. Being dead was a rather uneventful state of affairs, and certainly wouldn't help anyone. Except Sirius, of course.

Sirius' spike hit home, but that did not stop the meteor that was Shai. The impact was inevitable, and the stone clad warrior was prepared for what was to come. Shai's polearm impacted Sirius' stone clad hand, the force so great that not only did the weapon embed itself in Sirius' right hand, it penetrated completely through his right and into his left. Sirius pitched backward, the force from Shai's collision easily knocking over the poorly footed warrior.

"Gyaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh" Sirius screamed in pain as the damaged polearm sliced through his durable hide.

Unfortunately for Sirius, the worst had not yet come.

Shai's weapon discharged moments later. Stoneskin provided Sirius resistance against electrical attacks, but only to a degree. Large attacks such as this still hurt, resistance was not immunity. The extremely potent electrical charge coursed through Sirius' body causing Sirius to first twitch violently and uncontrollably. It continued along Sirius' infrastructure, shocking both his heart and brain causing cardiac arrhythmia and wreaking havoc on his synapses. Sirius teetered on the edge of blackness. At the apex of the shock, Sirius' stoneskin shifted off and on, and randomly placed earthen spears ejected from the ground in a fairly wide area.

The shock faded however and Sirius was left barely breathing on the battlefield. His entire body aching, screaming in protest against the shock that had just plagued him. For several minutes despite his best efforts, Sirius couldn't move. His brain desired to find Shai to make sure she had been defeated, but his body was unyielding and sluggish.

As the pain from the shock faded and Sirius recovered functionality of his body he sat up, Shai's polearm still embedded in Sirius' right hand. Grabbing the weapon Sirius extracted it from his hand, grimacing and grunting in pain as it slid through Sirius' flesh, renewing a burning sensation and a fresh flow of blood from the wound that the electricity had cauterized.

Sirius tossed the polearm weakly from the pit he was laying in and took a look around. About thirty feet behind him was large streak of red leading to Shai, a crumpled heap of a person lying in an increasingly large pool of her own blood. Sirius made his way over to her body as Granite greedily eyed the polearm. The large Golem reached down and picked the weapon up, before crushing it into a fine paste.

"DIE POINTY STICK" The golem's gleeful call echoed though Sirius' head as Sirius poked Shai with his left Gauntlet. Shai didn't move, nor did she look like she'd be doing any moving in the near future. Kneeling down outside the puddle Sirius gave Shai a moment of silence. She was a warrior in the truest sense, right down to the end.

Sirius made to stand up, but as he did so, both he and Shai were enveloped in a black light.

Perhaps this was Azir transporting them back to the lobby?