[Quest] The Training Dungeon - Jungle Overgrowth

OOC: Khavur is attempting to help anyone too small or slow escape by riding on him or possibly being flung idk.

The comb Rosary found was unexpected to her, but she found herself attracted to it. The shadow beauty, the ornate form. She reached forward and gently took it in her needle-like teeth. ....Now what? She had it, but she had nowhere to put it. It came to her that she might put it in the scraggly mane over her neck, but as she turned her head to try to place it, she found she couldn't reach. She sobbed softly at her failure, but remembered Howler was nearby.

She turned to him and placed the comb on the ground. Hollow eyes stared at the cloak he was wearing. "That is...nice. Suits youuuu..." She looked down at the comb. "Will you....put it in my mane? I....cannot reach...." A sniffle. She couldn't do anything alone, could she?

Once the group started moving again, Rosary followed behind, feeling nice with her new comb, and the slightest bit of life in her movement now. She was more present, and although she could still feel eyes on her, she could still see movement in the shadows, she kept her gaze on Howler. A light in the darkness.

More present as she was, the Valkhound was able to pick up the sound of approaching something and reacted accordingly - running at fullspeed. "Danger....DANGER." She rasped as she bumped her head against Howler to get him moving forward and then charged fullspeed ahead.

As soon as they reached the room and realized there was no escape, Pickles turned, eyes wild, oil spittle flying from her open mouth. She was panting, she was frenzied with fear, but as the stone statue approached, something within her switched over. From mourning, terrified, pathetic horse, to a proper Valkhound, filled with fury and ready for battle.

A wheezing, angry sound came from her chest as she shot past the larger group and reared back before the statue. "NOOOO," she howled. "YOUUU...WILL NOT....HURT THEMMMM!" She brought her front legs crashing down towards the statue, harnessing that corruption in her to shatter the statue, or at least corrupt and break off chunks of it, to cripple it from moving any further towards the group, as others around kicked into action.

The thudding made him whirl, at first, blinking stupidly at the dark tunnel yawning back behind them. The others bellowing MOVE! and other warnings made him hesitate, fist clamping around his flail (the spear tucked under one arm)--and then he, too, turned and ran.

He was slower than the rest. He could not drop to all fours for speed, not with weapons in hand; as the others piled into the room, Sergei was on their heels. He spun, eyes wide and chest heaving, his instincts telling him to stand his ground--but his tiny brain warning him that this thing was going to kick his ass. This--whatever-it-was. He didn't turn to examine the carvings: instead he was panting, his adrenline spiked, his flail clamped in sweating finger-pads.

The second the ruby eyes became visible, the giant bear-man squeaked, stumbling back a step. "CAREFUL!" he cried, but the Gembounds were already preparing for combat.

Sergei tensed, and as the creature barrelled in, he took a swing for its head with his new flail: putting himself in harm's way, being the big tanky bear, hoping to draw its ire and maybe even do some damage so the others could get their hits in.

Alert ears catch wind of the oncoming tremors before any of them actually feel it, and xe would've turned to face it head-on before they're cornered, had the crowd not scattered forward and had xe not been so determined to keep up with xir father who's clearly freaked out about something more tangible than the things dancing in the shadows when xe isn't looking super hard— and he's usually the calmest of them and that's liable to make xem start to panic—

NO, NO! Plover snarls at the rising terror in xir belly, clutching onto xir axe harder. Hunter's diving straight into the fray, and xe isn't about to let xir big brother go in all alone after what xe did to him, and how nice he's been to xem. If their dad's afraid, then they'll just have to protect him. SIMPLE. AS. THAT!

The green thing hauls forth with all the protective determination in the world, letting the head of xir newly-acquired battle-axe guide xir strike: From xir waist, swinging up from behind them, and overhead to smash into roughly the same spot that Sergei had struck at. The satisfying CRACK! that results is enough to cement xir love for xir new weapon.

Plover is carried by the sheer force and inertia of the strike, and falls flat before the stone statue, dropping xir axe with a growling wince— not because of the impact, but because xe had been in the middle of preparing to gloat at the statue and bit down on xir tongue.

"GO FOR THE EYES" took on a new and mildly horrifying meaning as Relic latched on to the statue's face. Claws, jaws--whatever was needed--would cling to it. It swung wildly, missing her. And then the singular ruby fell free.

The creation stumbled, stone STOMPING and THUNDERING against the floor, one glowing eye... gone.

Its seemingly unstoppable rampage didn't go off without a hitch, either. Flower's scythe CLANGED off it and while it did no damage, the statue still paused and tried to turn to face her. Too slow. Attikias would find a few shields lying about. A couple were shattered, but two were intact. Spitfire--courtesy of Renasci--splashed into the statue's face. The remaining ruby began to smoke, and the thing turned, SMASHING into one of the room's stone support pillars... which began to crumble. The whole dungeon trembled.

It went for Naskarra, then. As sand began to trickle ominously from above, it stumbled for her. And yes--had Hunter's trip not thrown it off-balance (despite the size and weight), it would have crushed the Valkhound completely. As it was, she was hit a glancing blow and flung across the room. Broken bones? Maybe. Bruising? Absolutely.

It tried for Khavur and quickly gave up: too fast. Too airborne.

The next attacks were brutal; before the statue could really do damage, its very feet were shattered, cracked and blackened by Rosary's magic. And its head--part was chipped clean off by the impact of a large bear's metal flail, before the same head was hit from the other side with an axe swing.

Battered, jarred, the thing stuttered in its movements for a moment as though... malfunctioning. This was too much for it. It would not last. So it did what any giant, murderous dungeon statue would do: it went on a final rampage, swinging wildly and violently for anything within its grasp.

Any tactics had gone right out the window about the time someone had sheared its feet off.

STONE RAMPAGE!

The Stone Statue is pummeling wildly with its fists. One room pillar is collapsing.

Gembounds should roll to take any action they wish. Failures will be hit glancing blows by falling debris. Critical Failures will receive direct impacts from the giant statue's stone fists.

One glowing eye remains, singed. It is missing part of its head, and both feet, and is moving on the stumps of its legs. (This makes it significantly shorter.)

Howler should be posted twice to include last round; placeholder posts should be filled out before this round is posted for.

The next post will take place on July 10th in the afternoon/evening GMT.

She felt an arm swipe through the air past her, even through the layers of steel - it hadn't hit her yet, but she knew it was going to suck major ass if it did.

But Relic felt the ruby coming away in her teeth, and she knew she'd succeeded. One down, one more to go. She considered clinging to its head for a while longer, just long enough to get the other stone, but it seemed like everyone was aiming for the same spot. She kicked away as everyone else started whaling on the poor thing.

By the time the group was done, the statue been reduced to a flailing, legless mass of stone. Still dangerous, though - Relic braced for impact.

As the stones bounced off her armour, she tried to yell over the top of the chaos. "GET THE GEM! THE OTHER ONE!"

After all that, the statue's still standing— struggling to even function, yes— but it's STILL STANDING, AND IT SHOULDN'T BE!!!

Forgetting the axe for a moment, because even xir untrained wit knows that it'd be stupid to try to wind up that thing while so close to being trampled by the statue, Plover licks the (new) blood from xir lip (and winces at the stinging pain of flexing xir maimed tongue) and hauls to xir feet.

Plover doesn't wait for the statue to come over and start trying to swing at xem too. Instead, xe takes a running start, leaping for it with bared teeth and hands scrambling for its shattered visage, but especially the other gem as specified by the previous creature to be plastered onto the statue's face.

Celebrating an early victory regardless of how successful xir assault is or was, Plover crows: "SHOULD'VE STAYED SITTING, DUMBASS!!"