Azrael was right there. He saw it all. He reached forward to stop her, before her jaws could crush down on Reji's head. But he was too late. He missed. And Reji fell to the ground, limp, as the link between the family, with her, was suddenly cut off with a flash of pain.
He was silent for a moment, staring at the scene with horror before he let out an earsplitting roar. He was hurting so bad. Because he'd promised to protect Reji, promised to protect ALL of the family, but now she was dead. Their leader, beneath Mother. His sister. His ward.
OOC Note: Tethys is crushing his foreleg, not his back
@Lamia
Reji's head was decimated next to him.
Azrael's rage flooded through his body.
Tethys's jaws had begun to crack through Lamia's ice.
And Pallas screamed. It was feral, one shrill and high and not unlike a war cry one would unleash in the face of death. Whipping out his leg just mere seconds before the seal's teeth slammed where it was, tears dotted the edges of his eyes as he pushed off with the paw he had against her face.
He had no time to comprehend what was happening behind him as he made to dart to Orlaith, the piece of Mother he'd pulled out for her still in his jaws. Tethys had taken in her's; she just had to bear the brunt of her full force, now.
Lamia screeched when Reji fell. She scrambled forward, trying to catch the fox, but she was too far away and there was nothing she could do. Eyes were nearly popping out of her head and she sucked in a breath to scream incoherently at the one she'd once called her friend, using up the rest of her water reserves.
If fish could cry, she'd be weeping. But her eyes could not blink and, therefore, could not create tears. So, instead, she moaned, a horrible, high-pitched sound like blunt nails over stone or metal.
She needed to breathe. She was out of water. The moisture in the air pulled in close and wreathed around her, pressing against her gills and sending oxygen to her brain. She started pulling herself away from the fighting - she needed to get to water.
@Legion
"When this is done... bring my child to me," she whispered to their minds, and it would be understood that it was Reji that she meant--Reji, lying broken and bloodied; Reji, loyal to the Hive to the end.
"Force the tiger to eat... and do not kill them," she added, her thoughts a calming caress, numbing, through their minds. Anger, grief-... these held no place here. Reji would be remembered. Reji would be honored. And their new brethren would serve them well.
"Is very foolish to be fight," he rumbled, a mere murmur, to Orlaith. His huge paws were carefully pressed down for her forepaws, his jaws for her head, in an attempt to keep her pinned firmly in the muck--until someone else could figure out how to force-feed fungus to a tiger.
@Azrael
He was furious. He was in so much pain. But Mother's soft caresses through the inferno of his mind slowly cooled the raging flames into a simmer. They could not put them out, though - it was ingrained in his very being to have anger. He was wrathful and that would only be taken when his soul was ripped from his chest.
But it was soothing enough to pull him away from Tethys. She didn't matter anymore. She would be one of them, her mind taken by the spores. They just had to deal with the tiger, who was currently spitting curses at them all.
Azrael snorted.