He had only a couple seconds to consider what the peryton had said to him, and then the fire came down upon them. All the stag could do was bow his head and turn away in an attempt to minimize damage against his skin from the searing flames, but even that didn't work; tongues of red licked his sides and back, scorching his brown fur and turning the skin red with pain. Even his antlers sustained considerable damage, and the mushrooms so often growing along his back and sides instantly curled and blackened in the heat. The stag gritted his teeth, swinging his head back towards the dragon - and the group of Gembounds now fighting amongst themselves, while the demon lurked above them.

A thousand things all happened at once - a vivid, blinding pink light erupted from the furry white dragon, aimed at the rhino and the piebald deer, knocking them both away. Deep, vicious wounds opened up along the surface of the rhino and the deer; the sight of blood, an injury inflicted by the very Gembounds he was seeking to destroy, caused the dragon to crack his jaws open in another thunderous laugh, streams of fire pouring from his wicked jaws. A snarl twisted on his face as his swung his head around, taking note of the peryton and his attempts to diminish his fire. The flames of the dragon were still far too hot, but he had at soothed the flames on the ground into ash. No matter; they would have turned to ash regardless. Raheerah lunged at the peryton, snapping his massive jaws at the creature before he found another distraction.

Something grew inside of him. A feeling. A sensation. It was just barely there in the back of his mind, and he almost didn't recognize the emotion. One he'd never felt before. A brief panic, a fleeting fear burning inside of him. The dragon paused for a moment, eyes widening before he realized from where it was coming. This sensation was a familiar one, as was the voice, quietly begging for mercy - the creature that had spoken to him before, a voice that pierced his dreams. The dragon's head snapped in the direction of the owl and he blocked out the message the bird attempted to send him. Raheerah uttered a roar, spewing another stream of fire through the gorge.

Before long a voice rose up, calling for him, the dragon. The beast. The monster. Raheerah turned, settling his eyes on another familiar form. This was the black leopard that had awoken Dawa. The one that stole her pristine form, stole her health and turned his wounds upon her. Anger burned inside of him as he stomped towards the cat. Somewhere below, the piebald deer had sent a shock of white hot electricity that sizzled on his tough scales, unfelt by the massive creature, and the rhino had gotten back to her feet, charging blindly - in Raheerah's advance, all he had to do was swing that thick tail of his into the rhino, knocking her aside. His attention was on Cancer now. Thrusting his weight towards the leopard, he cracked open his jaws, preparing to spit up a mouthful of molten bile.

Post-Roll Edit:
The heat rose up in his throat and exploded from his jaws, shooting just past Cancer as red hot gunk dripped from his mouth. Though the attack would have missed Cancer, he would still be able to feel the painful heat of the attack; the molten bile is hot enough to create a smouldering crater where it lands.

Witnessing the scene unfold, the stag uttered a frustrated cry and charged forward. The peryton's words lingered in the back of his mind - he was willing to sacrifice himself for these Gembounds, foolish as they were. But there was something else in his mind. What was it, a feeling, a voice - a quiet urge to survive. He wouldn't sacrifice himself. He had greater plans.

As the stag ran, long, black frills suddenly emerged from his skin. They folded and gracefully enveloped his torso, glistening and stinking of death. He ran towards Raheerah from a different angle, galloping swiftly towards the beast. "RAHEERAH!" The stag cried - a name long ago lodged in his brain, its origin unknown. The smouldering dragon snapped his head towards the stag, just in time to see him reach behind and use his antlers to tear the frills from his body, flinging them up at the dragon's face. A pile of rapidly decomposing black flesh landed itself square in the dragon's face, causing him to snarl and squeeze his eyes shut to prevent any further damage from the sticky black residue.

Raheerah is temporarily blinded.

There are 4 posts remaining before the end of the battle.

Raheerah currently has 441/500 health.

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Dark felt the link with the creature, felt its rage as it lashed out at--at something. He wasn't sure what was happening, only that he could hear vicious, violent combat, and feel the blaze of heat and the surge of magic down below. He ruffled his feathers, fear gripping him, fear not for himself but for his fellow Gembound.

He hesitated, that fear briefly holding him paralyzed, mentally and physically. What could he do? He was only a tiny owl, with very little grasp over his magic. What could he possibly do to help?

His mind reached out to the dragon's again, almost instinctively. All else aside, he just wanted the fighting to stop--for the violence to end; and he knew that this creature was likely its source. He attempted to gather as many of the fearful, strange and wonderful images and thoughts and sounds of his past as he could, to gather them in his mind and send them in a confused, rushing chorus to fill the dragon's mind.

The first image that came to him was Tal'at, the fruit bat--eating a fruit, nestled in the green of Eridanus. He managed to send perhaps the tiniest fragment of this to the dragon, hardly enough to confuse it, before the memory took hold of Dark.

The owl sat uselessly, blinking blind, unable to focus on his spell due to his own memories taking hold of his thoughts. Even so, he simply wasn't powerful enough for such a thing, it would seem. The others would have to dispatch the dragon on their own.

________________

He stood there, waiting for the other dragon to retaliate after his goading but it never happened. Instead, the other dragon's attention was caught by something else as was his own. Where the rhino crashed next to him... He smelled it. Not the burning flesh which there was plenty of but he smelled the metallic scent of blood. Baratheon turned, eyes focusing intently on the rhino, on her oozing wounds. Some had been cauterized but not enough to keep his eyes from starting to turn crimson. A low growl started to bubble in his throat as he turned slowly, tail lashing as he stared at her. Normally he would have tried to fight it but with all of the action and the outside influence he had no want to. This rhino had started it and he would finish it.

Baratheon opened his mouth and from it was released a full-throated hiss as he charged towards the gray beast. Her horn gashed his side but it didn't throw him off. If anything that wound made him more infuriated as he attempted to rip into her flesh but another thrash and he was thrown away without inflicting any real wounds. The other creatures around him didn't matter, all he wanted was this rhino and he would have her. He didn't charge in again, instead he simply watched her with his red predatory gaze as he began to circle her. His mouth was half open in a snarl that exposed his needle-like fangs.

The rhino charged, not aiming in any particular direction. Baratheon roared, a high-pitched roar when compared to that of the black dragon, in a sound filled with rage and hunger. He dodged out of the way but nimbly turned and threw himself at her in an attempt to get his teeth onto her in any way that he could.

---

It worked. The dragon turned his attention to him completely, and the cat flashed his teeth in a twisted, almost perverse grimace. Come and get me, you great ugly-- Fire built at the beast's maw and Cancer slid down just in time for molten spit to soar past his head. He didn't waste time anymore. The cat moved back upwards, climbing back towards the top of the ledges, stopping as he heard a cry from another- a stag- holy hell that thing looked ancient- it screeched a name- Raheerah. The dragon. He watched the stag fling some black crap at the dragon's face- Raheerah's face- and suddenly, the snarling beast was blinded. Perfect.

Cancer turned and willed his magic to cast, prayed to any gods that might exist that this would work...

...but it was no use. Before he could even focus on his target, the dragon moved again, shifting that massive body around and wrenching free of Cancer's grasp before he could get a proper hold of him. The red glow around his eyes and horns fizzled out and pain lanced through the front of his head in return. It's just like before. I can't cast! I can't-- Oh, but there was something. Something he'd managed before, when every other attempt had failed. The cat steeled himself as panic welled up in his chest- he'd have to get closer. He'd have to be physically holding on somehow. The thought of going near that thing, the heat from his scales alone...

But there was little time to think it over. Cancer ducked down and bunched those hind legs. From his place on high, he could do it. He could manage. The beast was blinded. He'd never see it coming. With that leopard grace and power, he did the unthinkable- Carcino launched himself from the ledge, towards the beast, with an impressive leap. He aimed those hooked claws for the beast's scales and with a grimace of anticipated pain, reached out to find purchase on the dragon's scaled skin...

"Speech"

---

Attempt: Bloodhold failed (AGAIN D<) so HE LEAPS to try and jump and hold onto Raheerah's body somewhere- whatever's closer.
Defense: Leather and Steel Plated Armor
Injuries: Healing scratch marks (4) across left cheek.
Other: gdi failed rolls here we go AGAIN D< Left it open ended for Mads to decide where / if he lands.

The black gunk splattered across his face, and the dragon scowled, eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to avoid damage to his eyes. But this couldn't be good - with his vision lost, his most honed sense, Raheerah couldn't fend off the Gembounds before him. His jaws cracked open with a furious cry as he thrashed, swinging his head left and right - the owl's transmission invoked only fleeting images of a memory he never had before, but it was very soon overwhelmed by fury, his mind reeling. The dragon lunged, he snapped his jaws blindly at everything in front of him. Somehow, Raheerah managed to shove his head between Baratheon and Nemesis, bowling them both over before they could collide again - his gaping jaws scooped up Nemesis, and once he had purchase on a body, the massive dragon reached his head back and tossed her up in the air before catching her again. Sharp teeth scraped against her armor hide, cracking bones; the heat crawling up his throat would be enough to scorch her. The rhino would've not been long for this world, had another force come at him.

Raheerah felt a blast of air near his face, the fluttering of wings; a swell of frustration prompted him to spit out the rhino, tossing her against a wall before he snapped his jaws at the peryton without realizing that he had already turned and fled. His massive smoking snout snapped in the direction of his voice as he questioned about the lamb - Dawa - he ate the lamb? What foolishness was this? Raheerah merely uttered a grunt before he felt a sudden weight climb his side. Without warning, the black leopard - the one that had woken him - had lunged and was trying to cling to him. The dragon's head whirled around as he snapped at the air, but without his vision, he couldn't see where the leopard was.

That was it. The dragon erupted in a volcanic roar, and heat began to coalesce just under his skin. It rapidly increased; the spaces between his scales glowed with furious red and the air all around them, everywhere, began to shimmer. Tongues of flame suddenly exploded out from his hide, engulfing the dragon in a fireball of flickering red and orange. Clouds of smoke billowed off of him as the dragon consumed himself in his own fire. Cancer will have only sustained minor burns if he detached himself from the dragon before the fire, the heat allowing him to tear a large scale off (approximately three inches in radius) with him; if he lingered, the fire will surely consume him, too. It was hot enough that anybody within the vicinity would feel the burning, sizzling; the black gunk crinkled and turned to ash, falling away from his face. With his eyes able to see again, the dragon blinked them open wide, turning his lenses towards the first thing he could see - the stag.

Still blazing, the dragon sneered and lurched towards him. His vision for a moment was blurred as he struggled to recover, peering through haze and heat. But as the image cleared, he could see the stag's details, the black broken frills that still lined his body, the residue on his antlers - the ruby, clear and shining on his forehead. Raheerah's sneer slowly shifted into a wicked smile as he dropped down lower, as close as he could get to the stag, fire still rolling from his body. "Why have you taken such a weak form, Astraea? Has it made your heart weak as well?" He rumbled.

In the face of the advancing dragon, the stag narrowed his eyes and shook his head, trying to dispel the heat - but it came with the beast, closing in on him, hot and choking. He stepped back, struggling to keep his eyes on the beast that lurched closer, until he had spoken. It was an insidious baritone utterance that shook him to his bones, and a revelation, long undiscovered until now. "I-I can't let you do this!" He stammered, stepping backwards.

Raheerah snorted, another cloud of smoke curling up from his nostrils. "I do as I please." The dragon answered dismissively and cackled. "Where is your Pisces, has his absence turned you sentimental?"

The stag's eyes widened. "My..."

But the dragon snarled and roared, lunging forward with his snapping jaws. "You were always weak, saccharine fools, both of you!" He growled and withdrew, tumultuous laughter rising up through the cave. "This bastille is MINE!" It rose and rose until his voice was louder than even the twister, amounting to all the fury, the destruction and chaos, the sheer malice that comprised the fiery monster. Wide jaws agape as a blast of fire poured forth, cascading up and crawling along the roof of the cave. Raheerah turned away from them all, spreading his massive wings - they reached endless from his sides and flapped, a great wind that could send even the most imposing Gembound tumbling away. His body rose up from the gorge, up over the trenches and the twister, up to the ceiling. The scraping of claws against rock grated through the air as he thrusted himself into the open ducts in the roof of the cave, bursting through rock and stone, leaving a deep hole where the vents once were. He disappeared into the darkness, leaving behind only the sound of groaning rocks.

The heat slowly faded away, but the twister in the heart of the room, too, was beginning to filter and die down. The stag trembled, staring up at where the dragon had vanished.

Raheerah has 416/500 health. The fight has ended following Raheerah's exit from Monoceros.

________________

The young owl huddled in the darkness of his ledge as the sounds of combat filled the cavern.

Roars. Howls. Thrashing. Pounding. The sound of flaming breath ripping through the air, and heavy bodies flung like sticks.

He cowered, trembling back. He flinched as heat blasted over him, as powerful winds buffeted him back and sent him tumbling along his ledge, even this far away. A crashing, an explosion. The crack and shattering of stone.

It was only after several long moments that Dark stood, dazed and deafened.

Sound only gradually came back. Vision, of course did not; all he could hear was the rush of wind. The rush of wind howling and whistling upward, where it hadn't before.

The owl was blind, and he was also naive enough not to understand what he was doing when impulse took him--not courage, but stupidity. He launched off the ledge, unsteadily catching the air with his wings, and drifted with swift grace toward the ceiling.

Toward where the dragon had fled. Never mind the carnage below; he was blind to it all. He was drawn by curiosity, and curiosity alone, and guided only by the sound of rushing air, which he arrowed for.

What's up there...?

Unless something stopped him, the little owl would sweep right up after the dragon, flying up to find out what lay above the cave.

________________

[I LOST MY ORIGINAL POST SO HAVE THIS SHORT UGLY ONE INSTEAD]

Cancer flung himself from Raheerah as the dragon set himself ablaze. He landed hard and rolled across the ground, bruised and burned but not all that injured. He watched the scale land beside him, dislodged from its host. A second later, the dragon burst through the ceiling and was gone. Taking his chance, Cancer grabbed the scale and took off back into Monoceros proper and out of the pit. After a brief and speedy climb - not overly graceful in his haste- Cancer took his trophy scale and fled back towards Orion, leaving the aftermath behind him.

"Speech"

---

Attempt: FLEE with LOOT
Defense: Leather and Steel Plated Armor
Injuries: Healing scratch marks (4) across left cheek, Minor burns on his paw pads, Bruises from landing.
Other: Exit to Orion

It was her first true failure. She hadn't many successes: the one mark of pride, perhaps the thing that had led her to act so rashly, was her success in taking down the snowmen that insulted her family. Besides that, she only had one small heist and a lost battle against a lioness much older than her. This, compared to all of that, had made everything irrelevant.

Her body was molten, burning with the fierceness of her heart, as she charged blindly forward. She was hit, and her flaming body stumbled to the earth. For a great moment, it was just smoldering charcoal... And then the teeth came. Whatever flames Nemesis was made of were nothing compared to the intense breath of the dragon as he snatched her up. By now she couldn't tell one pain from another... It was all the same, endless, torturous rage. She was a Fire who had grown too greedy, and for a moment, she felt like she might just be smothered by the larger wildfire.

Then she was airborne.

The dragon had tossed her up, though she could hardly sense it as such. To her, it was as though the wind of Monoceros had come to life, wrapping around her, protecting her. She was carried up and away from the danger, unable to struggle but also, for a brief moment finding peace. She wondered what the cave looked like from up in the air, but couldn't open her eyes; perhaps they had been burned away already.

Well, at least now she knew how Magdalena felt. Blind, practically helpless. It was almost reassuring: perhaps had she been there, she could have described the way the wind felt, swirling around them, the ash and dust in their lungs. Nemesis couldn't if she tried, all she knew was endless, overwhelming pain. It made her numb to every sense but her thoughts in the moment. She wondered, if perhaps, Magdalena would worry where she went.

The teeth found her again. She hardly noticed-- because in that moment, something sickening loud snapped. Ribs, perhaps? Her skull? It didn't matter. She was gone, out like a light. It was perhaps only thanks to her strong, sturdy body that she didn't just turn into dust right then and there.

Her body fell to the floor. Nemesis, for all it was worth, was out like the brilliant light she had been. Her gem worked furiously, desperately, to try and save its host. Would it succeed? Did she really have the strength?

For now, the orange gemstone didn't seem to care if it was possible or not. It simply spread like a mold, crystallizing over the rhino, slowly-- like paint drying.


nemesis will return on august 13th

Just before he made it to that blasted rhino something shoved its way in between them.That something was large and black even through the red haze of his vision. He was thrown backwards and roughly landed with his head against a sharp rock. He was dazed and could hardly find his footing anymore. Shapes, turned red with his vision danced around, doing this and that. However, he could make nothing out against it and couldn't think. All he knew was that his kill had been robbed from him and that he wanted it back.

He tried to stand and just managed to raise up on his forefeet. However, after a particularly loud roar from the black dragon that seemed to shake him him to his very core he could do no more. the young dragon collapsed, his vision swimming and eyes gradually closing as the red world turned to black around him.

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