The golem reared back its arm again to strike again, and the great stone fist hurtled forward--only to jitter, slowed, into a motionless cast of ice. Here it paused, appearing for a moment to be baffled.
A hum emitted from it, loud and deep, thrumming through the swamp--almost as if it were debating what to do next. Or perhaps it was another surge of power. For the time being it stood motionless, one frozen rock-arm curled into the air.
@Eythan
Okay, so, listen. Howl wasn't dead, let that be clear. He never had been. Getting burned by a dragon? Hah, what a fluke! The sticky-fingered hybrid had fallen miraculously between two rocks and — in the midst of getting baked alive — gone into his chrysalis. How convenient! Thanks, scapolite pauldron! No thanks to his own stone, though, because he was manic as all get out. Howl's fingers itched to stick to absolutely everything within sight (or smell, at times.) Monoceros wasn't really home anymore, so the thief settled for the next best thing: a swamp. That's right, baby. A swamp. Muck and mire and a little bit of rot.
And today, a little bit of rock. An enormous golem plowed through the shallows of the muddy waters. Normally, Howl would have had enough brain cells to turn tail and run away from the thing. But mania was truly a bitch and he skittered right towards it, hooting and hollering. Just in time to watch a spotted lump fly toward the enormous rock-beast and drop. Some shiny thing fell from its claws, disappearing into the muck. Well, there was a weird hole in the golem's chest.
The golem was made of a bunch of pretty glowing rocks that he could totally steal if it was dead. What was one tiny rock when he could have all of them? Howl, using his last available bit of intellect, focused on making a banana materialize in his fist and throwing it as far as he could across the swamp. Distraction! Instead, the banana exploded within his hand, covering him in icky, glowing goop and sending a migraine shooting through his skull. "Ho' shee-it!" Well-said.
Why was the entire swamp vibrating?
The golem turned sharply at the spike of magic from Howl, ignoring Eythan's proximity entirely. The unfrozen fist raised up, pointed to Howl--and a crackling, blinding surge of blue-white magical electricity shot right for him.
It was enough to sting, to burn, to lock the muscles and temporarily paralyze, should it strike. Even worse if the monkey was in water, grounded.
The golem began to turn toward Howl further, but its movements were still slowed by Asimona's ice.
@Asimona @Eythan @Howl
The mud seeped into everything. Blood seeped out of everything. Earth and red red red--- all melded into one. Eythan tried feebly to lift his wings, to put on one last burst of energy and speed. But he had already done that, hadn't he? Darkness swarmed in on his vision, and he could only distantly feel a tingle of magic. All it took was one blink for his world to fall into blackness. Sweet release.
Beyond his body, mookaite jasper began to swarm around his body, sinking and embedding itself into the roots of the swamp. The banded chrysalis would heal him, provided it wasn't broken or disturbed by the end of all of this.
;exit Eythan via chrysalis lmfao
Not only was he covered in banana goop or had a raging migraine: Howl was also now convulsing from electric shock. It was sheer luck that the howler mongoose wasn't standing in the muddy water. Otherwise, his situation would be more than marginally worse. Speaking of luck, his had turned around. There was mania still, and that forced him past the rising stench of fried skin and hair standing on end. Howl shook himself off, looking the golem dead in its rock-face and hooting: "eat mah ass, ya pile ah shee-it!" With that hardly-adequate insult out of the way, he scampered forth on two legs, snatching up the rune-covered pebble into his right hand. Said pebble immediately went into his mouth, because Howl never learns a lesson about putting rocks in his mouth, and he bolted the opposite way.
The opposite way being towards a tree. Cetus's trees had stone-hard bark, but they weren't impossible to climb. Howl leapt at the foot of a large, sturdy-looking pine, hooking his claws on any cranny possible and clambering up the tree with a surprising amount of grace.
It was something about the chrysalis.
A stone. Shining. Soaked in magicka.
The golem turned, and it was slow enough that one might imagine it would creak as it did so... and again, as it began its shuffling stomp through the thick muck of the marsh.
It was heading straight for Eythan's chrysalis.
@Howl @Asimona