[Quest] The Black City - Part III

Carja was about to hiss too, like the rest of the dragons protesting the idea of dissecting their brains, but the very sight of that... thing froze her solid, terror overwhelming her in an instant. She remembered it. Or something like it. This was bigger. Way bigger.

Similar to seeing a spider on the floor of your kitchen, her first urge was to get far away or hide behind something, and then get to destroying it. As she turned to flee, though, she saw Blight, saw Ascent and Attikias, saw that she wasn't alone this time.

Well, like one would naturally react to a spider... time to burn the house down.

It seemed her initial panic wasn't quite done with her, though. As she raised her arms to just impale this damn creature with as much ice as she could muster, her magic went awry, her armor spiking instead. Normally that would be fine, it would impale the mouth of this creature should she be eaten, but it spiked inward instead of outward, denting scales and digging into flesh, blood curling in the water as she thrashed and screamed.

It was a race to take it off, her claws scrabbling at smooth edges, trying to yank it off, to make the pain stop. Of all the times for her spell to fail so horribly, in front of a massive sea creature was the worst possible place. She couldn't stop the shame that flooded her, that made tears flood her vision. So much for being useful.

”Get it off- help!”, she squealed, begging for someone to help get her out of this mess.

Haven looked back at Electrum and nodded gently, ignoring the brains and dissecting in favor of giving her mate a reassuring nuzzle.

"Everything will be fine," she said softly, "We'll beat this Kraken, find Artio, and then go home."

She heard a scream and whipped her head around, gasping as her mind lit up with the image of this creature. There was only a defined shape but it was still utterly terrifying. She nearly balked if it wasn't for her motherly instincts welling up, making her let out a horrible, high-pitched shriek instead of any kind of normal roar.

In the chaos she felt Electrum's hand leave hers, her spell failing as she whirled around, trying to find him. She snatched it right back up and gripped tightly, dragging him along.

"My love, we can't stay together," she said, "If we do then we're just slowing one another down. I will find you, I promise, but you have to use the light to find your way."

They would die if they could not maneuver like they needed to.

Moving, something's moving - fast, so quickly. Esther can't tell what it is before it comes crashing through, undoubtedly hurting some of the gembound that went ahead of them. This is bad If any of them get too hurt, it was going to be too hard for the lot of them to defeat the giant creature. The group needed as much help as they could get. Their eyes searched for the thing - it was hard to see but when they caught it they wondered how any of them were going to take it out.

They don't speak through the link - Esther draws their magic together and tries to use it to help the others. Not the ones who were hurt already, but it might prevent a moment of further damage anyway. If it doesn't work... Then well they don't know what they'll do.

Attikias wasn't prepared. His son followed him, and slowly he held out his hands, prepared to do... something. He wasn't sure what, but, anything would help.

He didn't see, though, the thing coming for them. A flurry of fearful bubbles blubbered from Attikias's mouth as he flung Asteri away, just before whatever it was could hit. 'Burn it with your paws!' He'd cried- would his son be safe? His daughter?

Oh, dear. He couldn't do anything- in the back of his mind, he noticed the panic of others, but right now he needed to save himself.

Cerilaine pulled herself from Indigo's grasp just as they came to the entrance, her own ice-decorated claws latching onto the edge of the rock. Her head ducked back at the attack- she was just out of the way, but what if she'd followed that beast in before all that? Her tongue swiped out to touch the ice-teeth that grew from her own fangs.

Well. She'd have to deal, then.

She was ready to surge in when the shape just... vanished. What? She glanced around briefly- did it teleport? She had no idea, but she could do something with this... Dredging deep into her magic, Cerilaine attempted to plant some form of glacial trap, an orb of spikes where the kraken once was, but nothing came.

Fine. She could still tell them (as she moved to Carja, coming close to her fellow cryomancer)- 'set a trap!' Her gaze flicked from where it was, then to Carja, as she tried to tug out some of the icicles that began to dig into the dragon.

Khavur would abandon any stranger in a heartbeat to protect its siblings. Seeing the labradorite attempt entry, Khavur would leave its defensive stance and follow after.

Just late enough to avoid being hit by a FIFTY FOOT UNDERWATER TRAIN.

Khavur couldn't see it until it was right there, doubted most others were able to as well. Well, the beast wasn't about to wait to do what it did best.

Ignoring the rest of thought, Khavur would attempt to boost itself in the water with its wings and tail, hoping to close the distance with the colossus. Khavur didn't think there would be any objection on the opponent's part, considering it had just bull rushed a party of dozens. Khavur's body would probably be its best weapon; it really wasn't used to fighting in the ocean, and doubted it could use its own body weight or inertia to damage the Kraken. It could try to use the environment, or perhaps find out if it had a gemstone and focus on that, if only it could see a darn thing about this creature or its habitation. At the moment, it seemed they just had to get to know each other.

So Khavur would attempt to plunge every set of claws -- including its killing claws -- into any part of the Kraken it could find, and see how far it could get tearing and ripping the flesh. Weakening the Kraken in any way possible, perhaps even generating a weak spot... maybe that would be a useful start.

Despite not being able to fight, Kaimana would enter the domain of the Kraken, yielding no expectations about what could be inside. The word 'kraken' wouldn't really generate any image in her mind until she could see the creature, which, when she finally did... made her wonder if pets truly were better than, um, this.

She regretted her decision to come in. She had no magic, no real combat prowess, especially not down here; somebody suggested looking for a gemstone, or maybe a weak spot? Kaimana could do that, stay out the action and still contribute. They may need some outside perspective of the battle. So, Kaimana would stay back, hopefully not close or conspicuous enough to be targeted, and scan what was visible of the Kraken from there.

Text. "Speech." Thoughts.

Someone responded to her -- OH HEY SHE KNEW THIS GUY!!! Elf... guy...? Was that a name? He was Carja's companion, right? At the Feast. "Don't, uh... know either of you. Did you volunteer as a fighter, or was that your daughter?" This was awkward. Madhukar was not a fan. Time to abort! "Never mind." Madhukar would swim away.

And... since she couldn't fight, she guessed she would stay outside and listen in. "If anyone needs a healer, say so." She would come in when needed. Perhaps once she was already in, she could try to get her hallucinogenic (or was it poison...? NO--) in the Kraken's maw.

There would be a lot of strategies proposed. 'Burn it with paws'?? What??? Was that for someone specific, or-- There was also 'set a trap', 'use the environment', and 'find a weak spot' (or make one). Madhukar would tack on her own: "Anyone with pouches of hallucinogenic or poison or whatever can use them on the Kraken, if it has a mouth." Madhukar felt like it should. What kind of big scary challenge didn't?