[oh, i love you!]

The maze twists on and on, until at last it just... doesn't, and then— a lagoon, like the one in Pisces but even larger and warmer; which Ryoto would be tempted to dive into, were she not so preoccupied with having to rejoin the rest of the crowd (and thus all of the noise), the bones scattered around a nest of eggs and treasures, and the increasingly brilliant red glow of the statuette in her hand not currently occupied by Yvan's—

Or the massive beast hauling out from the surf, baring glittering and sharp teeth that the crowd grows ever-louder in response to. Yvan leaps to her defense, and her palms strike out to brace on him, pulling herself forward as he stumbles back, trying to get in front of him instead.

"Nno, nono—" Ryoto stutters through her bared tusks. She backpedals into Yvan, then, pushing him back and pointing with a shaking, crooked claw toward the nest. "Look, a mama." Ears pin back. "She just w-w-wwwants to protect— her, her babies. W-we should help her."

Ryoto knows she lacks the voice to cry out over all of this, so instead she tries to chase the horrific Train-thing on its path toward the eggs and nest and whines at it, "D-ddon't take those."

While she's not felt that sort of maternal rage that this creature must be feeling, she understands the want to protect. To lash out at whatever might harm her beloved treasure. For her, that's Yvan. For this creature, it's surely these eggs.

With that, she reaches— (somehow, she doesn't know except by the same feeling as that one obstacle course with the Eyehook—) for the Squallfang, trying to tell it that she'll help her protect its nest any way that she can, if the others won't stop for a moment to just move on past.

Instead, she receives a dizzying, sickening dose of magical backfire, and she crumples into the sand, dry-heaving and talons scrambling to grip onto something to brace herself against the rising hotness in her gut. She finds nothing but sand, at first; then she finds the first set of horns crowning her head, and holds on tight as she plants her sweating forehead in the sand and whimper-growls softly through her rising panic-rage.

@Titivilus @Yvan (for visibility).

Soh-ling eventually meandered its way to where they were all actually supposed to go. The sight of this new area filled with water, shinies, and other incredibly enticing things had its head perking up with an excited "Mrrp?!" as it pushed it way through the crowd, forgoing the ramp in favor of climbing down the wall itself.

It was JUST about to run into the water when the Squallfang emerged, stopping it in its tracks.

Soh-ling had never been to Lacerta itself, but it did frequently swim in the surrounding waters. So it recognized this particular shape of beast. It also recognized that it was really, REALLY freakin' big, managing to dwarf the valkcat, which it decided it REALLY didn't like.

It's chaotic plague would seep into the gigantic beast, and it would watch with nearly-unblinking curiousity as it took effect.

The Squallfang's sudden rage was dampened only a little by initial confusion. Nebula flitting around its head left it flinching and snapping, mercifully missing those bites--for now. Yvan's Bolt shocked it a step back and its answering roar now held a note of pain. A hit!

It utterly ignored Richter's pleas for reasonable discourse, which might've been predictable.

Survivor's attempt to distract the beast at its nest would have been successful--and it was; but the fact that Titivilus was actively DIVING FOR THE NEST simply added to the monster's urgency. It hit the nest the same time the Flesh Train did, slamming into Titivilus with the full speed of its own not-train force. It didn't waste time slowing to aim a bite, merely throwing Titivilus away from its eggs with a powerful fling.

Then it spun to face the group.

Triage's shrill shouting drew its ire, and it leaned down, tail lashing, and roared at the three-headed child, drowning out the voices of all three heads. This is the exact moment Hecate's (small) boulder smashed into it, silencing it abruptly and making it (briefly) reel. Which was also the exact moment that Ryoto's spell clicked into place.

...Ahh. Her mind was in the Squallfang's; and its own, in hers. They linked, a sublime manifestation of universal... unity, and for a moment she knew what it was to be a huge, lazy predator with nothing to fear, except TERROR for her EGGS, and who WERE these people and how had they GOTTEN!? HERE?!

The Squallfang screamed, and for a moment occupied the whole of Ryoto's mind.

Then it rushed them, unaware of Soh-ling's disease coiling through it. This alone would be enough to stop it. And it would slow it... soon. In a moment, dehydration would begin to wither its form, leaving it sick and reeling with hallucinations--but for these precious few seconds, it was charging.

---

Boss Fight!

The Giant Squallfang is attacking! Gembounds may take whatever action they desire, and must roll to do so. Failures will be struck by the beast's body, sent flying, possibly into the lagoon. Critical Failures will be bitten by the massive jaws, inflicting heavy bleeding, but not death.

Ryoto will spend one round thinking that she is a giant Squallfang protecting her eggs against these other Gembounds. Her player may roll anything that suits the situation.

---

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

@Nebula @Richter @Vestyge @Survivor @Triage @Yvan @Ryoto @Hrimfaxi @Titivilus @Soh-Ling @Hecate

Vestyge was close enough to feel hot breath flit down his spine, and he was painfully aware that if the lesser hadn't been distracted by the sheer amount of Gembound attacking it at once, he'd be feeling much worse.

He caught the tail end of the group's barrage, as the rock slammed into his head and the odd, human-saurian doubling over, no doubt the result of a spell gone horribly wrong. The Train soared overhead, and suddenly Vestyge felt as though he was the only real adult in the room. He had to do something.

What he chose was risky, and perhaps influenced by the dust still in his system. He leapt forward, hoping to sink his fore-claws into the massive neck of the beast. They were long enough to maybe hit an artery, he figured. Better to end this quickly and humanely.

Vestyge achieved neither of these things, instead bouncing uselessly off the Squallfang's bulk and back into the Depths From Whence He Came. Or rather, skidding across the sandy shore of the lagoon like some ridiculous pebble, and then into the depths.

He was able to keep its attention only for a little bit, before it turned and rushed at the nest again, clearly agitated and anxious. He panted for a moment, waiting to see what was going to happen. If they wanted to beat this thing, or at least to get it to go away, they would have to work together, and he was determined to help out.

It rushed forward and he did the same, aiming to run around to the back and attack it's heels, hoping to pull its attention, to make it stumble or even just confuse it for a moment. There wasn't much that he could do really, he was still very small and weak when it came to powers and abilities, but there was one thing he was sure about, he was quick and nimble and he would use that to his advantage.

Well. Someone else had dashed for the nest. And so if anything, Survivor had directly endangered the... train. Thing.

But it is not family. Its loss is acceptable, Mother whispers, tugging her little Drone's mind back to the matter at hand. It had to survive.

That was the crux of the issue. And the angry mother dinosaur was charging, rage and fury behind its eyes. There was no time to delay. So Survivor moved, claws digging into the gravel and sand beach. And then it would heave, flinging the earth into the squallfang's face.

Ryoto turned on Yvan, and he startled, faltering away so as to not hit her and yet wheeling into her as she's brought in front of him. She's adamant, panicked, and Yvan doesn't know what to do, heart in his throat as he visibly glanced between her and the beast.

And the train leapt.

"Ryoto!" She's launching away from him, leaving him to scramble after her, grabbing at her mane and tugging her back away from the thing. Her panic makes him panic, and with him panting Yvan tucks her close, tries to drag her away from the flurry of action around them.

Her crumpling out of his arm only lent more fear deep in his core. Did something happen? "Ryoto!" Thin arms gripped around her and he dipped his front half with her. "Ryoto, it—" Was it the attack? The train? Shit, they had to get out of here..!

Inhaling deep, Yvan shouted with the full length of his lungs, cradling Ryoto with the bar of his glaive and covering one of her ears from the noise. "GET AWAY FROM THE NEST!" If they had to get past, they had to not destroy the eggs. Ryoto was right; it was protecting its young. It didn't understand anything else.

Anything he could do would pin a target on them as a whole, whether that be trying to protect the eggs or down the mother. 'Ryoto won't want the eggs to be alone.' Grimacing, Yvan tried anything, struck out with his magic to hold the Squallfang and bring her back to her nest to no avail, the strings of magic too far out of reach.

He's not even sure what's struck his lower half with how concentrated he was. Someone running in the panic, something kicked up by the Squallfang, he didn't know, too lost in his magic and yet wholly thrown out of it as he lost his grip on Ryoto and was sent back towards the shore.

Expecting the Squallfang to simply shrug her mighty shoulders and let bygones be bygones would've been an utter fool's fantasy. Even optimistic as he was, Richter's expectations should the situation be defused would've been the beast lumbering off to stand guard over her eggs while allowing the adventurers to depart with a few nips to warn them off from making any threatening movements toward her babies. Regardless, any hopes of that were purged as soon as the nest was suddenly invaded. Whatever further reassurances he wished to offer died upon his tongue, and he hung his head, disappointed at unlikely diplomacy going up in a final damning puff of smoke.

"Ah, darn," he mumbled to himself. The Squallfang's screams, bellows, and roars were a symphony of fear and rage, deafening in their volume. Paws tugged at the tips of both ears in a fruitless attempt to dampen the noise. "There's always got to be somebody like that, huh?"

Thankfully, the strong possibility of the situation going sideways had prepared him for attack. That and his size compared to the upset giant's granted him some degree of safety amongst the chaos. Keeping to the narrow shoreline, Richter leapt over a swaying muscular tall and ducked well under the dangerous clamp of enormous jaws whenever it swung near. Not the strongest spellcaster and certainly not inclined to fight a protective mother that could devour him in a single gulp, the best he could do in this moment was survive long enough for someone else to pacify her. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much time; endurance had its limits.

[oh, i love you!]

Shaking claws suddenly feel like they aren't right— like they aren't hers. They should be bigger, she should be able to more easily claw and bite at her restraints. An inarticulate snarl places itself between her panting, almost dry-heaving breaths, and she bares her teeth down on the glaive holding her; not the arms, not the arms, she still doesn't want to bite him even if she doesn't quite know who he is (other than an intruder!! who knows about the eggs) for a moment—

He's gone a moment later, and Ryoto jolts toward the nest with renewed vigor and panic. The other Squallfang (her? not her, she's here—) is charging the others, taking care of business. But, what if it's too distracted? Someone could sneak over to the eggs and try to take one again. She's smart enough to try to keep that from happening.

But she's too caught-up in being something that she isn't, and the world spins incoherently. Instead of eating distance with a wind-bound stride, she eats sand once again, snarling and wincing and bristling at anyone that might happen to come check on her.

The huge dinosaur suddenly leaning down and roaring right in their face immediately withered what spirit Buckley had. Unfortunately, it did not wither Gore's and it stood tall, snarling back in the face of a literal monster blocking their path. Ishani, FORTUNATELY, was not going to leave that like that.

"OKAY!" she shrieked as loud as her relatively quiet voice could possibly go. "Playtime is over! Time to go!" And as the dinosaur charged forward, Ishani pushed her influence forward. With all the strength she could, she flooded the body and cast a spell at the same time. Buckley was easy to maneuver, he had immediately given up as soon as the squallfang had roared in their face, but Gore remained steadfast. So she grabbed its ear with a surge of mental energy and tugged as hard as she could, at the same time forcing Buckley to throw himself out of the way.

The combined effort sent the entire body tumbling to the side where they crashed on the ground, limbs flailing and goat bleating angrily. "ISHANI!! I HATE YOU! LET ME BITE IT OR ILL BITE YOU!!"

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