ORIGIN - ERUPTION

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It positioned itself better this time, making sure that there was no obstruction between itself and the combatants. It could feel the demon's claws in its brother, and it knew that it needed to stop that one while Juggernaut fended off the chaos one.

The hand came up again, spindly fingers opening as it prepared to spray the chitin again, but it didn't come this time, the powerful magic not quite reaching its fingertips, even in this moment of dire need. Distress blared through their link from the Vindicator as it lamented its uselessness, panic rising rapidly as the Juggernaut was hurt more and more and more.

ROUND 4/?

100%

ATTEMPT: hinder Azrael
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: none

He only had a moment to tear into the wings before he was being shoved off, the gigantic body of the drone slamming into him and knocking the demon away. But distance was no big problem for him, who had destructive capabilities close-up and far away.

He snarled as he clambered back to his feet, fire already building in his jaws again as he spat another quick gout of flame at the Juggernaut. It was merely a spray of fire, he was breathing heavily from exertion and couldn't bring the full force of his fury into it, but it would at least sear.

ROUND 5/?

96%

ATTEMPT: burning Juggernaut
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: none

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

The poor valkhound tugged and pulled but that damn stinger was stuck and it could already feel the venom beginning to race through its body. Pain was flaring in its blood quickly and it needed to act before it became disabled.

A surge of strength ripped through its body and it, too, roared as it fought and twisted until it could reach up with its jaw and clamp it on the stinger's tentacle. Claws, too, came up to tug it free, and in a savage, powerful twist of its head, ripped the thing out of its eye and made to rip it straight from the Juggernaut's body as well.

It fell back, glowing orange blood spilling from its eye as it groaned, a fever swiftly settling in its body as its entire face went numb from the pain. It could barely breath all of a sudden, its heart rabbiting in its chest. The energy was quickly dissipating in the wake of its last brutal attack, the surge of corruption tampered and dampened by the agony of both the sting and the broken ribs.

buried under broken bones

ROUND 5/?

76%

ATTEMPT: ripping the stinger out from both of us
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: broken plating, fractured ribs, stabbed eye, stung really really bad

@Juggernaut

Everything was happening all at once. Juggernaut struggled to parse it through the growing pain and exhaustion.

It felt the contact as it shoved Azrael of his feet and away, allowing it momentary relief. It earned one breath free of attack, before the onslaught continued again, and with twice the brutality. A sudden roar of flame seared its hide, the carapace crackling under the fierce burst of heat. Not as bad as it could've been - still stung like hell.

But the source of his concern was still the Gravedigger. Despite the myriad of injuries the Juggernaut had inflicted, he persisted, driven by his corruption no doubt. How horrifying, that his urge to destroy seemed to overpower everything else within him. A disease, truly.

In one swift movement, the Valkhound tore his stinger free and off, the limb ripped free of the Juggernaut's body and flung uselessly to the muddy floor. Another kind of agony rocketed through him. he needed to get better at avoiding this situation. The force of the severance sent him stumbling back towards the Gravedigger.

It felt the Vindicator wavering, watching as their sibling was overtaken bit by bit. It knew this feeling. It knew...

Adrenaline forced the Juggernaut's mind to function with a clarity often inaccessible to him. Perhaps they were not his thoughts at all - a part of him could feel how he was drifting towards sleep. They cannot kill me, sibling. They can only try. If only one of them falls... We will still have won. They will prove to the Forge that their transgressions will not be ignored.

In order to further this purpose, Juggernaut closed the remaining distance between it and the wounded Gravedigger. Following the glow of his underbelly, it lifted a leg and aimed for a strike that would end his part of the battle, hoping to leave him to bleed into his chrysalis as the Juggernaut focused its remaining energy on Azrael.

ROUND 5/?

27%

ATTEMPT: Stab Gravedigger in the soft bits to speed up his chrysalising
DEFENSE: natural defenses
INJURIES: 2/4 tentacles (one separated, one mangled beyond use) deep lacerations on leg wing, Bruised and sore

(OOC: adding a 1.5 multiplier to the hit since rip is high int. for funsies. yyyeeeowch!)

@Vindicator

What it was doing was obviously not working and it began to fear for the Juggernaut. Its consciousness was still there but the pain the Vindicator could feel, from the ripped stingers, the gashes, the exhaustion of the fight, it was going to take its toll on him very soon.

More concerning was the clarity, the words that passed between them, why did they not feel like him? Their brief, intense meeting by the frozen lake some cycles ago had shown to Vindicator that he struggled with things the same way that it struggled, that there could perhaps be some disillusionment with the way of the Hive, although neither of them would speak of it or even think of it.

Brother, it whispered, almost terrified to suggest it. Perhaps we shalt flee. Mine apologies for I cannot help the way thou needs. But I can help spirit you away before... It didn't want to think about its sibling chrysalizing in the battlefield, not where they could tamper with it. Not where they could kill it.

It still did its best to fight, still aiming for Azrael and instead switching tactics. Perhaps physical hindering wouldn't quite work but...it could still mess with his mind. Wrapping up all of the pain Juggernaut was feeling, their shared sensations and thoughts through the Hive's link, and focusing on it, they cast it forward and opened a temporary link to Azrael's mind. It was brief, so that he could not look too long into their minds, but hopefully enough to give him pause.

ROUND 5/?

100%

ATTEMPT: still trying to hinder azrael, maybe a short brain blast will work
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: none

Azrael, still relatively unharmed, still with all of his energy, saw the ferocity of the Gravedigger and its own injuries and knew they needed to push hard against this thing. The fight between the two of them could end at any second, with a stab into the glowing guts of the Gravedigger potentially being fatal. And Master Vargas might actually kill Azrael if he let his precious soldier die right before it was to be taken from the nest.

He stepped forward, intending on throwing himself into the fight as well, to either take some of the Juggernaut's hits or start brutalizing him with claws and fangs when something hit him. It wasn't a physical spell or attack, but rather something brushed against his mind and suddenly he was overtaken by agony. He faltered for a moment, surprised, distracted, and whipped his head around, trying to find the source. There was something in the trees - he didn't have perfect dark vision and so it was hard to understand what it was, but he assumed that was the Juggernaut's backup that had summoned the deer. Although what else it had done, Azrael wasn't sure.

He snarled. This fight was INFURIATING. He had been held at bay time and again but this time - THIS TIME - the Juggernaut would burn. Momentarily paralyzed by the phantom pain, distracted from his charge, but still overwhelmed by the red flare of battle, he opened his jaws and this time released a proper torrent of fire. The Gravedigger would have to survive on his own for a little longer.

ROUND 6/?

79%

ATTEMPT: fire blast. FOUR
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: none

All your dreams are down below

the gravedigger

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

The Gravedigger was stunned for a moment as it tried to get a handle on itself, get a grip against the pain that was throwing him quickly out of the fight. It blinked rapidly with the eyes it still had, trying to clear its vision, but all it could see were blurry shapes. No...no wait no! It was, oddly enough, thinking more clearly now then it had moments ago. It couldn't die here, it couldn't fall, not when it was so close to the goal that it had been working towards for its entire life!

But as the Juggernaut speared down with its leg, he couldn't bring itself to try and block the blow. He tried, oh he tried to shift enough so that it would simply break more plates instead of hit his body's very obvious weak-point but alas, the sting had made him slow, the pain dulled his reflexes. He roared with agony as the leg struck against him and instantly broke open a hole straight through the thin flesh of his abdomen to his soft organs, acidic blood immediately bursting from where it hit. His vision flickered out for a moment from the pain - he would definitely be chrysalizing in the near future, but fear pulled him forward and away from the rapidly approaching edge. Vargas had warned him about this - if he chrysalized away from a source of corruption it would be bad. There was no sources of corruption here.

I can't I can't I can't I can't was what he kept repeating to himself. Can't go to sleep yet, can't die, can't disappoint Vargas, can't fail. What if he decided he wasn't good enough what if he decided to keep him here what if never saw the sky, never fulfilled his purpose, never was given one again?

buried under broken bones

ROUND 6/?

59%

ATTEMPT: mitigate some of that attack damage
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: broken plating, fractured ribs, stabbed eye, stung really really bad, stabbed in the gut and bleeding out

@Juggernaut

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

Flee?

The Juggernaut felt the Gravedigger's flesh and soft tissue tearing under its leg, the sudden shock of acidic blood beginning to sear the carapace around it - it retracted, feeling the sharp hooks of the limb catch on the Valkhound's meat, damaging it further.

The query hung in the air, whatever follow-up he'd planned blasted away by the sudden wall of fire engulfing him, as it'd done to the deer moments before. He pulled himself inward, pressing every limb to his core as third of his vision was enveloped in burning flame.

The smell of burning feathers filled the air, but the Juggernaut stood against the fiery onslaught, defiant - silently goading Azrael to close the distance.

ROUND 6/?

21%

ATTEMPT: attack? hell naur we're DEFENDING
DEFENSE: natural defenses
INJURIES: 2/4 tentacles (one separated, one mangled beyond use) deep lacerations on 1 leg wing, burnt, Bruised and sore

@Vindicator

It was worried because Juggernaut was not backing down. The onslaught of fire was fierce and brutal and he could waver at any moment and be consumed but he stayed. He stayed because....because of what? Vindicator would have run long ago. It could feel his pain, the wounds. He may have taken the Valkhound out (did he? It couldn't tell) but the demon was still standing and strong and and

It had to help. It wouldn't flee. Even if their enemies turned on it too it wouldn't abandon its brother. But still, its magic was so weak, as it tried to fling it forward to do something, anything...nothing happened. Despair and panic built rapidly and it clawed at the Juggernaut's mind now, almost fiercely as it begged and pleaded, Run, please, brother. Run! I cannot help I am useless it was a mistake to bring me

ROUND 6/?

100%

ATTEMPT: clamp Azrael's mouth closed
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: none

He knew the Gravedigger was out of the fight. There wasn't much more it could do and he quietly begged it to either stay down or flee so that he didn't go back to Draco with empty hands and no valkhound. What a pain this was, and still the Juggernaut would not go down despite all the first blasted its way, despite all the damage the Gravedigger had done. Die already. FALL. He did not relent with the fire, holding his ground. The drone could not defend forever against his flames and he had a lot more to free from the confines of his body.

There was no break in the stream of flame, not for breath, not for the scalding of his throat that he had more then grown used to at this point. Just a continuous stream of fire towards the drone and all of his hate and ferocity that came with it.

ROUND 7/?

79%

ATTEMPT: just keep blasting
DEFENSE: none
INJURIES: none

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