ORIGIN

Piercing orange eyes lingered on the river, scouring it for the source of the voice. They narrowed slightly and his lips drew back in a grimacing snarl, a puff of smoke curling irritatedly from his nostrils. The dragon searched until something else had caught his eye, and his head snapped towards the entrance of the nearby tunnel, now cloaked in a shroud of darkness that had not been there before. Even with the presence of his fire, the shadows persisted, denoting the flagrant defiance of the pests whom he had previously threatened to devour should they dare barge into his new kingdom of fire. All he could do was erupt in a furious bellow, angling his body on the spire to face the shroud. Smoke began to spread from the darkness, creeping up towards the roof, further blinding him to the creatures that moved within. The beast wrenched open his jaws, preparing an attack, when the air above him began to crackle.

Suddenly, a clap of thunder larger than his own roar shook the room, quaking the spire. The dragon was forced to flare out his wings to keep his balance and he snarled in frustration, readying his attack a second time - then, a blinding streak of lightning illuminated the room, briefly dissipating the darkness that the Gembounds had cast. White hot energy electrified the spire, burning his limbs - the dragon launched off of the crystal immediately, roaring and shrieking. Below, the ground continued to shake as though the thunder persisted. The charge of the lightning left the spire to glow vivid white, pulsing with power.

Then, the white glow was dispelled with a deafening blast of magic - a wave of luminous brilliance exploded from the spire, washing over the ground and the Gembounds gathered, climbing the walls and the ceiling, disappearing down the tunnels and vents. The blast disoriented Raheerah who was sent lurching into a wall, the sheer weight of the dragon causing the rock to groan and crumble. The dragon snarled and slid down the wall, but gathered his composure and launched himself off of it, great flapping wings casting a hurricane below an dispelling their cover once and for all. It took him a few more seconds to right himself as he soared around the spire, circling it a couple times - it still crackled with hot energy, unwilling to allow the dragon to return. Instead he stopped before the group, hovering in the air for a moment. "Did you insolent, pathetic rats really think--!"

In a flash of dusty wings, a massive moth the size of Raheerah himself descended from one of the vents in the ceiling above and tackled Raheerah, causing the two of them to crash into the ground in a cloud of dust. Polaris itself quivered, dislodging rocks from the ceiling that would rain down upon the two tousling titans as well as the Gembounds that are already in the room.

You have engaged Raheerah!
The way this battle will work is that Raheerah has a set number of hit points. If your character rolls an attack against him, the roll amount will detract from his hit points. He will also take 20 damage hit points from Moth NPC for every GM post in which it attacks him. Your characters will also receive 100 hit points which will decline with each attack Raheerah makes against your characters. Raheerah's hit points and the characters' hit points will be listed below. Your character will be unable to attack once they reach 10 hit points. Raheerah will post after 3 character posts, or once per day if 3 posts are not made. The battle will end when Raheerah reaches 0 hit points, or all characters are 10 hit points or under.

Moth NPC does 20 damage.
Falling rocks do 10 damage to Raheerah, Black, Leon, Fisher, and Cancer.

Raheerah has 970/1000 hit points.
Moth NPC has 190/200 hit points.
Phoenix NPC has 1000/1000 hit points.
Deer Dad has 500/500 hit points.

Black has 90/100 hit points.
Leon has 90/100 hit points.
Cancer has 90/100 hit points.
Fisher has 90/100 hit points.
Dragon has 100/100 hit points.
Ghanyarah has 100/100 hit points.
Czernobog has 100/100 hit points.
Arkrael has 100/100 hit points.
Louie has 100/100 hit points.
Delphine has 100/100 hit points.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura . edited by banshee and dark }

At the mouth of the tunnel, still quietly sitting in the darkness, sat the owl.

He could hear the others running forward, could hear the bellowing. The beating of massive wings, and then a series of deafening explosions.

For the owl, who relied on super sensitive hearing above all else, it was near literally deafening.

He flapped his wings and stifled a soft cry, falling back against the tunnel wall, gem eyes wide and heart racing. He nearly fled, nearly called for Bevy and ran crying to his mother-bird, but at the last instant, he gathered himself.

It's okay. I've done this before.

He wasn't sure what exactly was happening in the cave beyond, what all the slamming and tumbling of rocks was about, but he knew Raheerah's mind. He'd touched it no less than three times previous: once when the dragon slept, again in the battle in Monoceros, and again only just before, when he'd turned the beast's gaze away from the group, so he hoped.

Now it was time to continue trying; he had to continue trying. Hidden or not, he was part of this fight.

The owl crouched low, squeezing his unseeing eyes shut and reaching out, lashing out, with his mind, touching like a brush of fingers over a dozen others in his hunt for Raheerah. Where was it?

There--THERE! The owl trembled once and then went utterly still as his mind fled, linking to the dragon's, oblivious now to his own body. He wanted to project what he'd since learned: images of nightmare, flashing and disorienting darkness, monsters unnamed and unnameable rising up with gibbering forms and glowing coal eyes. The things from Dark's nightmares, come to life in Raheerah's mind.

But the room was in chaos, the dragon's mind shifting from enemy to enemy. Dark knew it'd be extremely difficult to force anything into the beast's mind, right now--the best he could likely do was only a brief distraction.

Still... he had to try.

The little owl shivered and tensed, pushing the images as hard as he could. Even if it wouldn't be enough, damn it, he would try.

________________

Leon couldn't see much of what was happening around him, thanks to the darkness cast by the dog - but it didn't take much to dispel the darkness thanks to the fisher's lightning storm that churned in the air above. As soon as he heard the dragon's monstrous screech, Leon skidded to a halt - the thunder echoed out around them, then a bolt of lightning lit up the room as it zapped the spire. He could feel the air grow heavy with static, biting his skin and tasting like copper before a wave of white magic consumed everyone. Leon scowled and hid his face, and when he looked back again, the darkness and smoke were gone and dragon was flying around them, circling the spire - then hovering. And his face exploded out into the air, snarling, angry. It didn't last long.

A giant flying creature had dropped from the vents, tackling Raheerah to the ground. Leon again protected his face from the dust, but it did nothing against the rocks that were suddenly cracking and falling from the ceiling. He yelped out as they crashed down onto his back and burst forward in a run, but his paws didn't take him towards the dragon. He took the stag's words to heart, running more towards the spire than anything. That was when he saw it. The little Gembound, just breaking out of her chrysalis, probably roused by the shaking earth. He couldn't let her emerge to this. Leon's eyes widened and he quickened, only briefly glancing over his shoulder to shout at his wolf friend, "Arkrael! Help!" then hastily making his way to the newborn.

The alligator charged past him, but the stag wasn't about to let him go in alone. He ran a small arc around the alligator, spawning that very same inky black from his sides and twisting his head, scooping it up with his antler and tossing it at the dragon - only it had caught the moth's furiously beating wings instead.

Raheerah didn't recognize this creature - it looked like a moth, only its mouth was a vicious beak containing rows of razor teeth. He didn't know why it had come to fight him, but that didn't matter. It was dead meat anyways. He snarled; laying on his back, the dragon gripped the moth's head and gave it a sharp kick in the abdomen with his raptorial hind feet, tearing open its soft exoskeleton. The moth screeched and flapped its wings; at that moment, he felt a blast of fire scorch his side, and his mind grew dizzy with images relayed from some unknown source. Raheerah inadvertently released the moth, which took to the air above. He rolled away from the advancing Gembounds, onto his stomach, then rose and erupted in a guttural, deafening roar before the alligator. Heat rolled up from his chest, and exploded forward in a stream of red-hot flame, bathing the alligator and the stag in fire.

Dragon does 14 damage to Raheerah.
Dark does 10 damage to Raheerah.
Raheerah does 30 damage to Moth NPC.
Raheerah does 17 damage to Dragon and Deer Dad.

Raheerah has 946/1000 hit points.
Moth NPC has 160/200 hit points.
Phoenix NPC has 1000/1000 hit points.
Deer Dad has 483/500 hit points.

Black has 90/100 hit points.
Leon has 90/100 hit points.
Cancer has 90/100 hit points.
Fisher has 90/100 hit points.
Dragon has 83/100 hit points.
Ghanyarah has 100/100 hit points.
Czernobog has 100/100 hit points.
Arkrael has 100/100 hit points.
Louie has 100/100 hit points.
Delphine has 100/100 hit points.

The battle had begun, and as Raheerah roared, Fisher stared in wonder. The Spire had come alive once more, glowing and pulsing with life. The whole of Polaris began to shake, and rocks fell-- he hadn't realized he was in danger for a good long moment until a bolder smashed the crystal he was hiding behind. With a yelp he scrambled back, shards of crystal and stone slicing through his fur.

He backed off, slinking away farther from the group, but he always checked to make sure Black was right behind him. His fur was bristling now, blood dripping down his paws and leaving marks of his steps in his wake. He moved out into the open, watching as the dragon tangled not with the yeti like he had hoped-- but a new creature. Did the Spire create new gembounds? Had Fisher come from Spire-magic, somehow? The thought was brief, he tucked it away for consideration later.

For now, he pulled back his lips into a snarl and felt the electricity race through his pelt. He tried to keep his storm going, trying to feed his own magic's energy with that of the Spire's-- a risky venture, but if he was to get the juice he needed to help kill Raheerah, he had to take risks.

Quietly she sat watching, waiting. Others had moved in first and that was fine, but she would wait. It wasn't until Leon jolted from his position did she jump to her paws, legs spread out and ready as hackles instantly rose. He called to her, summoning her off to focus on something else. Heterochromia eyes swung towards him before swinging right back towards teh dragon. Lips peeled back to expose her pearly whites. She may not fight him yet, but she would give him something that would hopefully throw him off course and give the others a better chance. Her gem flickered before humming loudly, vibrating against her chest. Her magic set to work and Arkrael released the energy with a loud, vibrating roar before she turned and sprinted after Leon.

She hurried after him, unsure what he would need of her, but she would assist him best she could. It took no hard task to catch up with the bear and from there they continued on, heading for what she finally spotted as a hatching Chrysalis. Her breath hitched in her throat and she shot a worried glance to Leon before she continued to run beside the massive bear...


-EXIT RAE FOR NOW-

"Speech"
'Thoughts'

---

Tags:
OoC: beh

His first instinct was to rush in to the attack. To charge in, to meet their attacker head-on.

He realized at once how foolish this would be, and he was loathe to leave Fisher. He was better here, spreading his shadows among those gathered, hiding them...

Yet those same primeval instincts took him over. He was a dog; he was meant to be harrying his prey, distracting the opponent, worrying it with bites and wrestling and turning its attention to himself. Fisher had the magic under control--Black could feel the earth shaking, hear the rattle of thunder.

He'd staggered when the rocks had fallen, his shadows dispersing, exposing them. Boulders had rained around them, cracking and splitting and sending plumes of dust into the air.

Black suddenly bolted between them as if unleashed, stumbling as one struck him in the side. He was silent as he scrambled back into a full-speed run. The dragon was turning, and something else was blowing flame--and the dragon was roaring, throwing it right back.

The stag was being torched, as was his strange comrade, and their new fluff-drifting moth-like ally was already torn down its abdomen. Black darted in grimly, aiming instinctively for Raheerah's hamstring, aiming to sink his jaws into the flesh above the ankle. To bite down, to grind his teeth in, and to rip.

He was trying to cripple the dragon, but of course, he hadn't fought a dragon before. He didn't know of scales like armor, and spines like swords. Chances were, he wouldn't cripple Raheerah.

Chances were, he'd hardly do anything at all.

________________

Suddenly immersed in flame, the stag cried out and shook his head, turning and fleeing from the pain. He didn't know if the alligator could withstand it better, but there was nothing he could do to save him. Instead, the deer merely ran as far from the fire as he could, though flame licked at his back and burned the short hair from his spine.

Lingering above them, the moth flapped and rotated its body, clinging to the wall above the dragon. It vibrated its wings, but it couldn't dislodge the sticky gunk that the deer had thrown at it.

As soon as his breath ran out, Raheerah realized that the alligator and the stag were not alone in their affront. Shortly after, two more came running at them. He very briefly noticed out of the corner of his eye that two more were running in a different direction - a wolf and the bear he'd seen before - but they were headed away from him and, for now, none of his concern. The earth groaned as magic rippled through it, its source unknown - only that it suddenly broke into large, pointed fragments, as if his girth was too much for the ground to carry. He sunk in as the ground shattered beneath him, temporarily incapacitated as he struggled to regain his balance.

The very same electrical magic surged from the fisher, but the spire remembered. High energy ions buzzed all around him and suddenly exchanged a charge with the spire, and Fisher's spell dramatically backfired as an arc of electricity jumped from the spire to the mustelid, giving him a nasty shock.

At the same time, the black dog had run around Raheerah, and he felt something akin to a pinch - a pair of jaws closing quick around his hind leg. The dragon snarled, and jerked his leg, kicking the dog away before untangling his limbs and launching up above the ground. His expansive wings unfurled from his side and he spun up and up, body heat exploding from within until the dragon was entirely consumed in a raging twister of fire. The heat expelled from his form and cloaked all those around him, including the moth who, at the heat, screeched and plunged down at the dragon. Its clawed feet grasped Raheerah's head and it flapped in a desperate attempt to both mar his face and escape his twisting flames.

Fisher does 0 damage to Raheerah and takes 10 damage.
Arkrael does 20 damage to Raheerah.
Black does 12 damage to Raheerah.
Raheerah does 18 damage to Fisher, Black, Deer Dad, Dragon, and Moth NPC.
Moth NPC does 20 damage to Raheerah.

Raheerah has 914/1000 hit points.
Moth NPC has 142/200 hit points.
Phoenix NPC has 1000/1000 hit points.
Deer Dad has 465/500 hit points.

Black has 82/100 hit points.
Leon has 90/100 hit points.
Cancer has 90/100 hit points.
Fisher has 52/100 hit points.
Dragon has 65/100 hit points.
Ghanyarah has 100/100 hit points.
Czernobog has 100/100 hit points.
Arkrael has 100/100 hit points.
Louie has 100/100 hit points.
Delphine has 100/100 hit points.

Ghanyarah couldn't deny the inherent apprehension he felt as everything and everyone converged all at once. The group started to charge into Polaris under the cover of darkness and smoke, but it was quickly blown away by the dragon's massive wings. The komodo shrunk under the shriek of the dragon, but his alligator brethren had already run in to do as much damage as he could. Ghanyarah nearly froze, staring wide-eyed as Dragon bolted towards the dragon, and then... promptly got eaten up in Raheerah's flames. His heart dropped. "NO!" Ghanyarah hissed, and though he feared the pain of the dragon's fire, he feared for the loss of his brother more. He charged in, loping awkwardly across the ground towards their target.

The beast rose up above them in a swirling fire tornado, but that didn't deter him. He skidded to a halt, sucked in a breath, and drew all the excess water from his body as he could before pouring forward a blast of water at the dragon in a futile attempt to douse his flames. Considering how absolutely massive the dragon was, his chances at success were slim - but a little water always hurt fire, didn't it?