Rush and Crush the Dwarfs; Hypnotize the Goblins

[ AN: Can't help but feel I might've biased the poll a bit lol. I'll have to work on avoiding that in replies. Note - the means of dispatch James has at his disposal are quite primal. This fight scene is distinctly un-sexy (I would hope). ]

Do I intervene? What kind of question is that? How can I not? What's the use in asking for a body this stacked if I'm never going to use it? Besides, it's just a handful of goblins and some dwarfs. Given the rep goblins have and how scrub-coded these five are, I probably don't need to 'fight' them at all.

That makes the dwarfs the problem.

Without time to loose, my tail flexes, and then I surge forward with speed that surprises even myself. Rather than 'constrict' the first dwarf, I end up bowling him over entirely and pressing him into the cave-loam beneath my bulk. It's the second dwarf that I latch onto and wrap, barely, as I grab him with all four limbs and then we swing about while rolling to the far end of the clearing.

My tail tries to tighten around the dwarf I'm bear-hugging, and instead there's a set of 'pops' followed by an intense scream. Somehow, for some reason, it doesn't make my flinch. Instead, my gaze scans the clearing and finds the goblins. One of them is being stabbed by the Princess.

The other four?

My eyes flare with light and a little whisper passes from me to them: *'The goblin beside you is about to stab you then leave you for dead.'* The core idea is the joke about pushing a friend down to escape a charging bear, but made real in their minds.

It's not surprising, but I'm still relieved as the goblin's eyes flare with reciprocal light for a moment before they just... turn on each other and start proactively shanking their compatriots to avoid getting struck themselves. Each one's plan is to strike and then run, but because they all have that plan now we get a situation much like crabs in a bucket as they all strive to be the first to escape and sabotage each other.

Then the third dwarf reminds me he exists by embedding a hand-axe hard into my side. I thrash, further ruining his compatriot in my grip, but the pain is... muted? It's more like I stepped on a thorn than anything resembling the sensation I've always felt getting stabbed would be like.

My motion jerks the axe - still stuck deep within my tail - from the dwarf's grip and batters him to one side, but not down... then, after a glance to the axe in my tail, state of his fellows, and the paranoid murder-ball that has become of his goblin lackeys, the guy spins and books away - keeping the frenzied goblins between him and the Princess as he vacates the clearing.

As I release the dwarf in my grip - when did he stop screaming? The sounds he (barely) makes now are disquieting, and before I know it I've put him out of his misery.

With a glance to the goblins - another two have been stabbed by the Princess, and the remaining two have scattered into the dark - even I'm surprised by how cold-blooded I was this entire exchange. A consequence of turning from a human into a Dracaena, I guess? There's an abstract pity, but... these guys were slavers, and happily, so fuck them.

Amidst the ruined clearing, my eyes meet the Princess and I realize there's now nothing between me and the local apex organism in the room...

[ AN: Calling it here for now. I'll work on the conversational aspect of this encounter next time. In the meantime - what do you guys think of how I handled this? I did actually roll for James, and he did... very poorly. However, I am handling rolls like that 'loosely' - if the plan should logically succeed and there aren't outside factors, then it will succeed; I'm rolling mostly for fluff. But if things are more swingy then a poor roll suddenly matters a lot more.

Also, what's the general opinion of - and plan for - Princess Inverita here? ]