'He will awaken in two weeks' time fully changed, after dreaming of a feast of violent delights.'

Violence.

Violence.

VIOLENCE!!!!!!!

Captain burst from his stone in Draco, eyes wide and wild and glazed with an oily sheen. Violence sang through his newly-corrupted blood, and the phantom smell of smoke lingered in his nostrils. He charged straight out in chase of the violent delights that had been shown to him, and over the course of the day made his destructive way to Eridanus—and to remembering everything that had happened before.

It only served to augment his rage. He had been tricked, he realized, into eating not only a ROCK but a rock that BLEW HIM UP IN AGONY. It was HUMILIATING. All that pent up fury had nowhere to go, except out, and right now Captain didn't particularly care about who or what got in his way, although he didn't notice anyone in the immediate vicinity.

He thundered toward a thick tree trunk with his head lowered and smashed his horns right into it. The vibrations rang through his very bones. He wanted to rip at the earth with magic, but realized with a bellow of anger that he could not reach his element anymore. Saucer-sized hooves stomped at the ground, carving furrows through the soft earth and any fungal life that might grow unnoticed on it. "I'LL CLEAVE YE TO THE BRISKET!!!" he bellowed to no one in particular.

@The Chorus

Unfortunately, the tree that Captain slammed into had already been claimed by the Chorus. They were not large, now, still regrowing after their trip to Polaris, but they grew faster and covered the space of a good few trees wide. And this one, in particular, they had deeply infested already and fed greedily upon. Bright orange caps bloomed merrily at its roots and black rhizomporphs stretched through its trunk.

They were alerted, very suddenly of something going wrong when many of the caps were suddenly squashed and much of their thread-like growths were suddenly cut off as something ripped through them. Attention went straight towards whatever it was and it alerted The Consul immediately. The rat was not far, and immediately slipped under a bush quietly to observe, but it hesitated when it came to stepping out. Something seemed dangerous about this.

So, instead, they looked upon the creature with the rat's eyes and reached out quickly, to correct them.

Many voices echoed in Captain's ear as the Chorus spoke - "Please be careful. We live beneath your feet. Your anger tears us from the ground and your horns have speared through our reaching network. What is it that angers you so?"

@Captain

Captain stiffened as a chorus of voices suddenly sounded inside his head. "WHO BE THERE!?" he demanded with a warning stomp, head held high. Yet as he looked around, he couldn't see anyone. Suspicion wound its way through his thoughts. After his heartiest of hearties had enlisted his help, Captain had taken it upon himself to learn things.

Things about The Hive, for one. Astraea's enemy, and thus his enemy. A puff of air blew from flared nostrils as Captain more carefully examined his surroundings. Nothing indeed, except some fungus growing on the trunk of the tree he'd just smashed into. Now didn't THAT sound familiar and suspicious? And what else could be a chorus—a HIVE, if you will—of voices that could get inside someone's head without their permission?

"YER NOT WELCOME HERE," he snarled, suspicions confirmed. "ARRRR!" With his last exclamation came a shock of chaotic magic, lashing out at his enemy. Rather than the storm of intimidating earth shards he'd been used to and expecting, the ground rippled and shattered, darkening rapidly and revealing glinting purple gems in the cracks. Captain stared down in shock.

Round 1: Attempt: lash out at the invisible enemy with magic
Defense: none
Injuries: none

@The Chorus

The Chorus did not understand exactly what it was it was dealing with until Captain split the ground beneath him. At first, they thought perhaps it was some ordinary magic, but then horror welled in them as the mycelia that had the unfortunate fate to be just underneath where he was casting withered and rapidly began to decay. Horror welled in them as something began to take a hold of them, some dark, horrible force they had never felt.

What is this? they cried to each other. What is happened! Rage seared through them, the reaction happening at lightning speed as the voices turned to Captain - HE HAD DONE THIS. He had ATTACKED them. WITHOUT PROVOCATION.

And he dares to speak that THEY are the ones not welcome here?!

A couple of the caps and the mycelia beneath, growing on the outer-reached of the trees roots, between where Captain stood and where the Consul was hiding, took on energy and prepared. The Chorus spoke to the Consul, then, who hesitated, but then called out from the bushes, still invisible. "I am here. You made a mistake coming here, unwelcome one."

ROUND 1/?

ATTEMPT: prepare gravity trap
DEFENSE: hard to find
INJURIES: lost some mycelia

@Captain

A sudden voice, physical this time, came from the bushes. Captain whirled on it and narrowed his eyes. He still couldn't see anyone. "SHOW YERSELF, YE COWARDLY KNAVE! AND I'LL BE THE ONE SHOWING YA WHO BE MAKIN' THE MISTAKE TODAY!"

If they didn't want to speak to him honorably, face-to-face, Captain would bring them face-to-face for them. He charged forward, horns lowered in preparation to gore the presumed Hive member hiding in the bushes, or to simply step all over them if they were smaller. But suddenly, an invisible force slammed him down. His legs buckled underneath him as he fell heavily. He bellowed in anger as he tried to struggle back to his feet, but was held down by that same force. "COWARD!" he repeated in a rage. "SHOW YERSELF!"

@The Chorus not sure if we'll reach 5 rounds but posting the fight formatting just in case
Round 2
Attempt: trample the Consul
Defenses: none
Injuries: sprained/strained legs, bruised up

The Consul squeaked in fear as the bull began to charge, but there was no need to run, as the trap worked, slamming him to the ground. Still, he screamed and squealed and The Chorus was confused why he was so angry. They had done nothing, yet he had reacted so ferociously...

It felt the frayed, corrupted ends of its network and rage surged through it again.

They called for the tree he had slammed into to assist in this scuffle. The roots began to pull themselves out of the ground, the black fungal strands burrowed into every inch, and reached to begin wrapping themselves around Captain's limbs, to hold him to the ground.

The Consul didn't emerge from the bushes, but continued to pass on the message of the Chorus. "CALM YOURSELF, BEAST. You have no enemies here! Cease this violence or I will remove you from this cave myself!"

ROUND 2/?

ATTEMPT: grabbing with roots
DEFENSE: hard to find
INJURIES: lost some mycelia

@Captain

The enemy wasted no time in pouncing while he was down. Captain struggled and failed to break free as a tree began stretching its roots and winding them around his limbs. This was UNNATURAL and clearly EVIL magic! He gave a derisive snort, still struggling, as the still-invisible voice called out. He would not fall for its trap. The Hive had shown nothing but trickery since the first moment, so why should he trust anything they said now? If their enmity was not sealed when it had provoked Astraea, it was for sure now that it'd attacked Captain, too.

"I'm the beast that will CLEAVE YOU TO THE BRISKET!" he announced. "WHO DO YOU THINK Y'ARRRRRE? I am CAPTAIN, and I'M the captain 'round here!" Since he couldn't manage to break the woody roots physically, he'd try the new magic that had crept its way into his stone. Just like in the visions.

VIOLENCE! It came easily this time, ripping open a fissure beneath the tree that had reached for him. Its other roots tore and ripped in the shattered earth, while wood crunched and branches snapped as the trunk tilted and fell downward. A dark, iridescent gleam of delight flashed in Captain's eyes.

@The Chorus
Round 3/?
Attempt: shatter the earth beneath the tree
Defense: none
Injuries: sprained legs, bruised up, tied up

More of its network ripped and tore and many voices were cut off, darkened, as swatches of the strands were shredded beneath the corruption. Abdicus lamented their loss - they had been new, young, part of them! And now, a single creature had cut its roots off from the tree originally disputed. And fury consumed them.

They didn't need to see the buffalo, they knew where he was. Losing control of themselves, the Chorus lashed out with its magic and ripped him right out of the ground. For a moment, they remembered a time when they had met another network, a benign, unintelligent one, and it had dared to consume them. And they had punished it in a similar manner. Ah, how things have changed.

The Chorus tossed the buffalo around furiously, swinging him right and left, not caring what tree he did or didn't swing into as the Consul continued to speak their messages - although, if they had their way, they would roar the words directly into his head instead of out of the mouth of a terrified echoing gray. "YOU the captain? These are MY woods!! Scourge, I will RIP you from these lands, how dare you DEFILE me, defile my earth, shatter the bones upon which I grow?!"

ROUND 3/?

ATTEMPT: shaking you around. like a chew toy
DEFENSE: hard to find
INJURIES: lost some mycelia, gettin a bit corrupted

@Captain

The relief from the enemy's grip was brief. The next moment the cowardly being had somehow picked him up and started swinging him around the air as if he weighed nothing. CAPTAIN WEIGHED OVER TWO THOUSAND POUNDS!!! This was outrageous. The world spun past in a blur as Captain slammed head first into a tree, carving deep gouges into its trunk. Before his head could finish ringing from the impact, something else hit him in the side and knocked the air from his lungs. A third hit and he swore he could hear something cracking in his ribcage. He writhed and twisted in the phantom hold for the next swings, trying to meet whatever would come crashing next horns first.

The Consul's outraged messages were almost noise to Captain's ears, but a true Pirate of Hydra who had survived the Trials once, he managed to keep enough focus to hone in on one thing. It was angry he had defiled the earth with his magic. That meant the magic was working. "ARRRR, THE LANDLUBBER BE MAD!" Captain taunted even as he kept spinning through the air, and wrenched open another fissure in the earth—just in time to slam right into the corrupted ground he'd just shattered and filled with tainted stones. Head first. Black blood streamed down his face where rough rock had torn at the skin and sheer force of impact had ruptured vessels.

Round 4 @The Chorus
Attempt: keep defiling the earth
Defense: trying to meet obstacles horns first
Injuries: sprained legs, smashed up, at least a few broken ribs, ate a faceful of defiled earth

He continued to taunt, he continued to struggle and fight back, and thinking about how this creature, even when confronting the faceless enemy that was The Chorus, even though he had never understood what it was he fought, made the network simmer with rage. So much so that they lost concentration on the taxing spell and dropped the beast into the hole he'd made.

They felt out of control, but at the same time they had never felt more powerful. Something like dizziness had overtaken the network, to exert this much control over another, to have their fate so deeply in their nonexistent hands, even if they didn't know it...it was intoxicating.

Was this why they wanted to grow and spread? No, no it wasn't all that. They didn't want to be like this all the time. They weren't this. But to protect its home, they would have no mercy.

ROUND 4/?

ATTEMPT: just kinda smashing him into his own crystals
DEFENSE: hard to find
INJURIES: lost some mycelia, gettin a bit corrupted

@Captain