Black stood silent and quivering for a long moment, pale eyes wide. His hackles stood on end, so that he appeared to have a bristling brush extending up from his back.

Fisher was speaking, and he quickly jerked over toward the mustelid, running his wet nose briefly over Fisher's fur--receiving a slight static shock for his effort. He looked up, ignoring it, growling fiercely toward the... skeletons? Things. His wrinkled muzzle lifted and curled, fangs bared past pink gums. The rumble that emanated from him seemed to come directly from his chest, deep and reverberating.

His egg. No. He waited, tense, but the moment the things drew closer he abruptly charged, barreling toward one with a sharp, deep bark that echoed over the rocks.

He leapt, heavy body tensing and sailing rather majestically toward one of the things, legs tucking up beneath him. For a brief moment he appeared almost athletic, all muscle and black fury. But he wasn't athletic, he was heavy, and he was certainly not agile. He missed, the thing easily avoiding his blundering charge, and he crashed into the rocks with a growling "oof."

His rage only increased as he started to stagger up and turn, but until he got back onto his feet, he was vulnerable.

________________

@Fisher

Dragon watched, wary fear still gripping him, as first the three-headed white dog, and then the now-familiar, smaller black one, charged into the bones. Neither seemed to notice the other, both lost in headstrong canine aggression. As for him, he was reluctant, but he supposed that if he were going to attack, now would be the time--before the other two were torn to bits, and he was left alone with these things.

They let out howls and barks, filling the air with their canine war cries, but Dragon was more wary. He eyed the things; his fire had barely blackened one. Maybe if he could... Melt one?

He felt the familiar ferocity well up in him as he summoned up the heat that boiled in his belly, pumping it up, searing along his throat like the burning bile that it was. Cold reptilian eyes flicked between targets, and he chose the closest that staggered toward them, inhaling a deep gasp of cool air to fuel his fire.

The bile, like lava, was thick and sticky and agonizingly hot. It ripped along his throat as it came, and splattered out toward one of the strange creatures, cutting the distance and hitting its mark. Dragon tossed his head in both pain and trumph, snapping his jaws with loud claps in the air, as if biting some invisible foe.

He'd hit, at last; he waited, now, to see what effect his magic would have, though his tail now lashed to and fro--catlike--in impatience.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura . edited by banshee and dark }

The farthest skeleton was slowly crawling towards the group, moving mostly by its strange skeletal hands as it dragged the rest of its body along. It's legs were hardly functional as uneven and choppy connections of calcified remains clung together by invisible strings. Its teeth chattered ominously, and as it reached out one more time, it was suddenly blasted apart - spikes of ice collected beneath and exploded through its bones, effectively dismantling it.

Another skeleton had somehow been agile enough to miss the advance of the great black dog, but his approach and subsequent miss didn't seem to effect the skeleton at all. It didn't hesitate or falter. Instead, when the black dog missed, the skeleton paused. It's body seemed to grind to a halt, and while the dog was finding its feet, its oblong shaped skull slowly... slowly... turned towards the dog. The empty hollows of its eyes fixed on nothing. Its jaw unhinged, opening - a sliver, and then at full height, and then wider than natural. Suddenly, it cracked, and hung ajar. The skeleton turned towards Black, shambling ever so slowly towards him.

The skeleton before Dragon didn't slow its pace when it was met with the burning, melting bile. But the heat was definitely beginning to wear on it. The bones began to sizzle, some of them ruptured and cracked, blackening; others simply grew fragile as they turned to ash beneath the lava-like bile. Eventually, it simply broke down, unable to advance any further.

Another earthquake begins to creep through the ground, but its epicenter seems to be further away, shaking out from what appears to be a newly opened crevice in the ground.

Two skeletons remain. The skeleton Kerberos is attacking requires one more Barely Successful.

@Fisher @Kerberos @Fallah @Teyouma II @Dragon @Ghost @Eve @Black

Black didn't stay behind her shield. He didn't stay behind her protection! Fallah's blue eyes dashed to follow his movement. He missed his target and the skeleton was going to attack him. Not if Fallah could help it. The lynx launched herself from her shield. Her legs reached out, clawing at the ground viciously. Her eyes focused only on the skeleton as he slowly turned to face Black. Good, he wouldn't even see her coming. Her teeth bared, Fallah summoned her magic once more, coaxing the water take the form of her charging body. She aimed to shoot this form faster and harder than she could run with hopes of the water lynx being able to smash into the skeleton and break him apart before he could harm her friend. The magic took focus to form. Fallah's eyes squinted and her teeth gritted in the effort to cast her spell correctly.

There was something strange going on. She could hear the battle going on further into Polaris and she just hoped she would be there on time. Paws raced over the cavern floor, claws clacking loudly as she hurried on her way. It wasn't long before others came into view, as well as things she had never set her eyes on before. A snarl curled her upper lip, exposing her fangs as she made to lunge at the closest bone cluster to her. Her fangs snapped and attempted to grasp at the bones of the creature. Her gem hummed to live and she could hear things snapping just barely thanks to the help of her dislodge, but it didn't do as she had first intended.

Her fangs had just barely grasped at the closest bones, but she only managed to break off what she would assume a hand of the strange creatures that were attacking the others. She backed off from the skeleton, searching the crowd and checking out the gembounds that were lingering around and fighting. Her gaze saw Fisher and she had half the mind to go over to him, but she shook it off and focused back on the skeleton that was near her. She bristled her fur, lowering her head down as she contemplated her next move.

"Speech"
'Thoughts'

---

Words:217
Tags:
OoC:

δεξιά . κέντρο . αριστερά

The bones were incredibly hard to keep still long enough to chew on, and as he tried to catch up with the body of bones he was trying to eat, his other heads noticed that there were more skeletal monsters trying to attack innocent gembound. Not only were these tasty things to much on, but they were trying to hurt other creatures! That wasn't right at all.

Setting his teeth in a snarl, he tried to summon a blast that would be the definitive end of the moving skeletons so he could chew on their bones in peace. Yet as he went to summon his magic, he caught sight of Arkrael and with one of his heads distracted, the magic refused to become more than a burning pain in his chest. He coughed, backing up, and whined towards the alpha.

"Careful!"

i'm ready to start
the conquest of spaces

The gator went still, watching the skeleton he'd struck crumble and falter. The sizzle of fire still seared his maw with pain, but he ignored it, ignored the hissing of burned flesh and pop of saliva that always accompanied his magic.

He was used to it, now.

This reminded him of something: of the battle against Raheerah, he thought. And against Aquarian, long ago: a group of Gembound, strangers, gathering together to fight off a threat. His thick, ridged tail lashed slowly, sliding over the stone.

Then he went still.

For a few moments he simply lay there, wholly motionless, waiting for one of the skeleton-things to draw close. He was an ambush predator, and he didn't think about this--he just lay there, waiting.

Patient.

One staggering step. Then another. It drew closer. With a sudden burst of motion, blinding-quick, the alligator's jaws sprang open and he lunged, twisting to grip, to grab, to bite, to shake, to tear and rend and to destroy. If he got his way, his sheer bulk and power would break the thing apart, the immense bite force of his jaws crushing into the minerals. He'd lose some teeth, but he didn't care--those would grow back.

There were no words, and there was no sound--only the violence of a one-thousand-pound reptile surging upward and crashing into his prey, trying to drag it down, down, to its death.

Destroy.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura . edited by banshee and dark }

"I will be," Arkrael barked out in answer to Kerberos. A snarl curled across her features as she instantly tried to call upon her magic once again. Her gem hummed and vibrated and soon there was a noticeeable crack or two, but it still did not do what she wished and so with a low snarl she lunged at the boned creature, attempting to take another bite out of it.

"Speech"
'Thoughts'

---

Words:Words
Tags:
OoC: extremely small post oh well..

Fisher stared as chaos erupted. It was them versus the skeletons, and while some of them were going down with ease, others kept coming no matter what happened. The ground shook again as Fisher built up an electric charged bile shot in his jaws. It felt like chewing on tin foil, which was basically the worst.

The noodle hissed and spat out the electric ball towards the skeletons before fleeing towards the new hole. Would more skeletons come out, or was there something else down there?

Through the combined efforts of the Gembounds, the remaining two skeletons are torn asunder. The amalgamate of bones that had once comprised them lay scattered, charred from electricity, cracked and splintered from the force of snapping jaws. What pieces had once made up the skeletons quaked, as though tempted to pull themselves together again, but they didn't. They only lay on the ground, shuddering.

Something echoed within the depth of the new hole. It was first the sound of scratching, as though long claws scraped along the wall of the fissure. Then grunting - only it wasn't really... natural. It wasn't the sound of an animal, at least. It was a sound like air escaping an organ, and squelching, and the creaking of snapping bones. Some great being lurched down there in the fissure, vying for escape, pushing itself closer and closer to the surface -

Five long, curved, bone-white claws gripped the edge of the hole.

The beast hauled itself up out of the hole.

It's body gleamed in the light. Slick red musculature connected bones of all different sizes and make, belonging to a million different creatures. There were pieces of bodies stuck out between its muscles, shiny, black organs that pulsed and throbbed, superficial veins criss-crossing one another, blue and red. White tendons pulled, stressed, elasticized, as six limbs clambered from the crevice and splayed itself on the ground. Only it's body wasn't long enough to accommodate all six limbs - they were bunched together, lacking an even space between their protrusion. Its neck was weak and thin, but its head was bulbous, thick, too heavy for it to hold aloft. It had a pair of extensive jaws with rows and rows of jagged, snapping teeth. A sound like a pained squeal and a snarl ripped from its throat. The beast lurched towards the Gembounds, finally free of its prison, and hungry.

You have engaged The Organ Monster!
The way this battle will work is that The Organ Monster will have a set number of hit points. If your characters are rolling to attack it, your roll will detract from its hit points. The Organ Monster will also be rolling to attack someone every post it makes. Here's the catch: only the next 15 posts will count for this battle (NOT including GM posts). Use your rolls and posts wisely!

The Organ Monster currently has 100 hit points.

@Fisher @Kerberos @Fallah @Teyouma II @Dragon @Ghost @Eve @Black