[Quest] The Training Dungeon - Natural Caves

Hecate flew higher, struggling to stay out of the way of the rampaging Squallfang. All she could do--and she felt so small now, so pathetic--was fling more rocks. But she'd never practiced with this. With flying, evading attack, focusing on maneuvering past danger with her half-blind eyes, while at the same time casting magic.

And magic needed focus on its own.

Urgency drove her, and adrenaline sharpened her senses, enough that she managed. Wings sailed her up and out of danger, over the beast's head, and her magic found a stone large enough to fling for its eyes. Maybe--at the very least--she could make it flinch.

Someone was biting at its feet.

The beast spun, distracted, but too slow to grab Nebula. It was just then that Survivor's flung earth slapped into the Squallfang's face. It flinched, its roar choked into silence--and then it sneezed. It began to shake its head, roaring again in a frustrated manner, forelimbs flailing for its eyes but unable to quite reach.

A few rocks were pelting it, but otherwise the attacks on it had done little damage.

But now it was... slowing. While its attacks had knocked a couple Gembounds flying, it was--for the most part--weakening. Sickening. Water was dripping from its nostrils, its mouth and eyes, dehydration beginning to take hold. Its cries became pained, quieter, yet it was still several tons of violent mass thrashing (now blindly, and wildly) through the cave.

Perhaps now the Gembounds could finish it off--or drive it off, somehow.

BLINDED BEAST

The Giant Squallfang is temporarily Blinded. Its rampage is wild and indirected. Gembounds can roll to attack or take other actions.

It is also sickening. The plague that has been inflicted is affecting it. Failures and Critical Failures both will only take bruises from its unfocused thrashing.

The next post will take place on July 15th in the afternoon/evening GMT.

Those who did not post this round (Hrimfaxi, Titivilus) should post for last round before posting for this one.

It was on a rampage, blinded but still alive, but it was something at least.

He had been consistent in trying to keep it off balance, trying to keep it guessing, but now he decided to change it up a bit more.

Rushing forward, he would aim to leap at its side, trying to body slam it, hoping to shove it to the ground and maybe give the others an opening to end this swiftly.

Yvan scrambled to his feet in a panic the moment he could get them under himself. Ryoto was still pained, crouched on the floor, panicked, and Yvan didn't know what to do. She'd bristled and snarled when he rushed back to her side. That wasn't an option then, and Yvan was left lost, stumbling away and staring at the mother's blind rush.

They were going to kill it. Yvan didn't mind, but Ryoto would. He couldn't stop the others from attacking the Squallfang, but he could keep her eggs safe.

Surging forward in a mad dash, Yvan kept his weapon tight to his side while scrambling into the nest, nicking his scales with the sharp weapons that made up its edges. "Gah!" While thin beads of pink blood trickled down his forelegs, Yvan situated himself between the rest of the Gembound (and particularly Titivilus) and the eggs, one side of his wings flaring to their full lengths to shield them from grazing blows. His upper half twisted, held the glaive with both hands like a bar, ready to strike any who came close.

Unless it was the mother, in which case he'd book it as fast as he could. He didn't need her eating him.

Vestyge found himself back where he started, but not alone this time. Shortly after he'd splashed into the lagoon, again, there was a thunk on his carapace as something - someone - fairly large collided with his back. He found himself dragging the weight of two Valkhounds out of the water as he huffed and puffed back to shore.

Whatever Soh-ling did after this - stay onboard, go off and do it's own thing - wasn't of interest to Vestyge at this moment. The second his nostrils met air, he caught the smell of disease rolling off of the Squallfang. It made him a little hungry, to be honest.

But it was clear that the beast had been infected somehow, with something quite severe. It'd affect the quality of the meat, unfortunately - but it still could be good enough to sell. And if it had a stone he could pocket... Well, that'd be lucky.

And it was probably going to die from the disease anyways, right? This was the humane answer.

Vestyge moved quickly, aiming for the neck as he'd done before. With the Squallfang already weakened, he found it much easier to get close - but even with this advantage, he found himself struggling on where and how to cut. Would he even be able to reach an artery?

It didn't help that he could swear that it was looking at him with... Something horrid in its eyes.

For a while, Ryoto lies there in the sand, shaking like a leaf and finding no comfort in clawing at the earth beneath her. The ~~other~~ Squallfang is going to die, and she couldn't do anything to help her. She couldn't. No voice that she has is loud enough, no legs on her are steady enough.

And her worry-stone— she's dropped it somewhere, and she harbors no hope of finding it anywhere in the scuffle and holding on to her horns and ears (with the same intensity that she would hold that stone with) instead hurts.

She isn't exactly sure when or how she manages to get her feet back underneath herself, but she does, and she shambles toward the nest; eyes unfocused, until she sees Yvan again and in a better light than just a few minutes ago.

Trembling and failing to get even a single noise out of her clogged-up throat— or to even get a single sign out with her shaking, empty hands— she settles into a useless lump next to him, sitting with her tail clutched tightly between both her hands, hard enough that her claws start to leave divots in the scales.

The chimera struggled for a bit against each other, fighting back to their feet, as chaos continued to erupt around them. They weren't really concerning themselves with anyone else at the moment, just trying to figure out what they were supposed to be doing at the moment.

Gore was the first to glare back at the Squallfang, who was...laughing at them. The t-rex was ignoring all the other combatants at the moment to point and giggle and bat its eyes. The goat was...bewildered, to say the least. And that bewilderment very very quickly shifted to rage. "How...HOW DARE YOU!! MOCK ME, BLOODGORE, THE SCOURGE OF THE CAVES??!! YOU WILL DIE FOR THIS SLIGHT!!!" So great and sudden was its rage that the other two buckled under its willpower. Buckley, who was still reeling, gave up control without much of a fuss. Ishani was too exhausted from her brief control to fight back.

Grabbing the power that Ishani had displayed earlier, he turned it into his own, lifting a large, pointed rock from nearby with nothing but its mind and hurled it straight towards the Squallfang's eye.

"Buckley is speaking!" "GORE IS SPEAKING!!!" "Ishani is speaking..."