enjoy this shitty post, tal'at is trying to help, he really is @Ghanyarah

Tal'at fluttered after Yarah, but frankly he really didn't want to get too close. He instead landed on a tree branch, hoping his friend didn't mind. It was just... A bit too dangerous.

And then, abruptly, Tal'at realized-- now that the deer had scattered-- that there was still one too many beasts thriving. Quickly, he focused on the heartbeat that wasn't frantic or familiar-- the third, the one out of place. "WATCH OUT FRIEND! THERE IS ANOTHER! IT IS DIFFERENT! BEHIND YOU GHANYARAH!" He cried out, knowing there was nothing he could do besides warn.

Boy, that sure was a big cave spider behind Yarah, wasn't it?

!!! ...

going out a different path lead by a beating heart

The buck continued to thrash in terror, that is until Ghanyarah's magic took hold. Then it went still, bleating in terror as the lizard bore down on it. It was helpless.

Behind Ghanyarah, on a thick thread of shimmering silk, an ominous shape slowly lowered from a thick tree branch. It stared after the oblivious komodo dragon with far too many glittering red eyes. Spindly legs fully a meter long slowly unfolded, spined with long black hairs, and a drip of ichor slicked down the hooked fangs.

It would be up to Ghanyarah whether he would focus on the deer, or turn his attention to this new threat.

@Ghanyarah

One leap after another, Ghanyarah was closing in on the stag until Tal'at's voice shrieked through the air, making his own blood jump and severing his hold on the stag. Alarm had caused him to skid to a halt, receiving the message loud and clear - something behind him - shit, what was it? Was it going to steal his prize? Ghanyarah's eyes widened and, curse his pudgy reptilian anatomy, he had to turn his entire body to take a quick look at what lurked behind him. From the shadows, he could see massive legs, black hair, a slowly descending body from a mass of spiderwebs that existed beyond his field of vision, and gleaming red eyes. A spider. A fucking spider! No! Not today! "EAT MY ASS!! NO!!!" He scowled, lashing his tail in frustration and charging towards the stag again.

So, he would risk his life for this meal. Slightly. And it wasn't even for him, frick. But imagine how pissed Aquarian would be if he came trudging back without a prize... But if he could just kill the deer, then he could focus on the big hairy fucking god damn spider, what the hell, I mean taking it down with just himself was hard enough, but Ghanyarah smothered those thoughts when he reached the stag.

In one glorious and beautiful leap - like, if it were filmed as a scene in a movie, he would be glistening and his long luxurious tail would be waving in the wind and it would totally be in slow motion - the lizard threw his weight onto the deer, wrassling with it for a few minutes before he had managed to close his paddle jaws over the stag's throat. With a muffled crunch, he closed off the stag's windpipe and repositioned himself, facing the spider with wild pink eyes and a silent threat. Which... became very unsilent once he opened his mouth, now slick with crimson. "WHAT?! WHAT! YOU SEE THAT? I'M HARDCORE! I'LL KICK YOUR ASS! GET LOST YOU EIGHT LEGGED SPIDER BITCH!" The reptile shouted, both furious and driven nearly to his wits end by how many god damn hoops he had to jump through just to have Aquarian not kill him.

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The deer thrashed a few more times, and then lay silent and still behind Ghanyarah. Silent, bar the quiet gurgling as the last of its air escaped its windpipe through a puddle of blood.

Some distance behind, the spider hit the ground.

Now, spiders aren't normally all that aggressive--even cave spiders know their limits. But this particular spider had gotten to such a massive size by simply being completely savage to all the other cave spiders around it. Most spiders would have gotten killed when they challenged something too big, but it just so happened that this spider was also quite deadly in combat.

The end result was a huge, fearless, rather nasty arachnid--which now suddenly skittered over the swamp grass in a blur of black hair that went far too fast. As it ran it raised its fangs, and a splatter of temporarily-blinding venom shot toward the reptile's face.

This lizard and his prize would both make a good meal.

@Ghanyarah

Ghanyarah stood on the offensive, elevating himself high as he perched himself on the carcass of the deer, totally confident that his show of complete and utter brutality might have been enough to dissuade the spider from attacking him. And yet... he was completely wrong. Maybe if the spider was capable of understand Gembound speech it would have been intimidated, but as it stood, the stupid arachnid was just too stupid to realize that tangling with Ghanyarah was going to be bad news, especially since the reptile was already in a pretty crappy mood. He narrowed his eyes, and then the spider darted towards him and Ghanyarah let loose an exasperated groan.

He should have been paying attention, because when he finally decided to ready himself against the spider, it was already upon him, spitting horrible venom into his eyes. It was sudden, stinging, making him recoil back and shake his head with a howl. "AUUGH NOOOO!" He cried and on instinct, he sent his magic to lash out at the spider, hoping to cripple it in some way - maybe freeze its legs, snap them off, solidify and crystallize that nasty body. Freeze its stupid pedipalps together. Something! Anything!

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The black spider felt something twitching over its face, if a spider can even be said to have a face.

It ignored it. It was, as Ghanyarah suspected, savage and dumb. It had no idea the lizard was yelling threats, or what those threats meant, and it would be debatable as to whether "eat my ass" would have even inspired terror in the arachnid, or not.

Either way, it kept bolting straight toward the reptile, except when it tried to bite him, it found that it was slamming frozen-together facial parts against scaly skin.

This did precisely nothing.

A little worried now, the spider skittered back, then switched to plan B, trying to rush at Ghanyarah again in an attempt to get some thread wrapped around him. Of course, this meant getting awfully close to those large chomping komodo-fangs, but the spider probably wouldn't mind losing a leg or two.

@Ghanyarah

To his mild satisfaction (which was comparatively VERY MILD when drawn up against his mostly overwhelming and sudden fear of being eaten by a spider), there was a sharp cracking in the air, and within seconds the spider's mouth parts had frozen shut. Ghanyarah could only hear it happen, blinking as darkness clouded his vision, like sunspots from staring at the light too long. He groaned and cursed and swore under his breath, blinking rapidly, shaking his head, trying to regain his vision. He could hear the subtle shuffling of the spider's legs as it backpedaled away from him, and in his heart he was met with a fleeting hope that maybe he had scared the spider off - but no. It came charging at him again.

Ghanyarah snapped his eyes towards the advancing shadow, and while his vision was ever so slowly coming back to him, all he could do was distinguish its mass in the foreground compared to its blurry surroundings. He knew that its mouth had frozen, which meant it wouldn't be able to bite him, so Ghanyarah lunged wildly at the spider and hoped that he could sink his teeth into some part of it.

His attack made purchase and he could feel the spider's hairy exoskeleton between his jaws. With something in his grasp, he tightened his grip, biting down as hard as his powerful komodo muscles allowed him to, and began to savagely shake his head, hoping to tear apart as much of its cephalothorax as possible. All the while, he could feel its struggling and something told him that it was struggling to release its silk, but Ghanyarah remained mindful of his limbs. He braced himself and put all his strength into his neck and jaws, because he would dismantle this bitch piece by piece if he god damn had to.

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Spine-haired legs flailed, then closed around the komodo dragon as it bit deeply into the spider's front end.

It hissed and chittered, banging its frozen fangs repeatedly against the lizard's hide.

Why wasn't it dying?! The spider didn't comprehend what had happened to its fangs; it seems to assume Ghanyarah was some sort of shell-armored beast. If it just bit harder, surely it would puncture through, and its paralyzing venom would take hold. Not that the toxin lasted all that long, but it would be enough that it could work with its silk again.

But the ice sheathes over the spider's fangs were thick, so snapping them away might be hard.

Meanwhile, Ghanyarah's teeth punched through its carapace with wet crunches, leaving thick spider-ichor leaking all over his jaws. It wasn't poisonous, in fact it might be rather tasty, but it was thick and gooey and cold.

@Ghanyarah

He could feel the spider banging its face against his hide, and a shudder ran through his body, knowing fully well that if his ice failed, the spider would be able to break through and probably land a good bite on him. And who knew what would happen then - it was no doubt poisonous or toxic or something, having been intense enough to be able to blind him. His panic was beginning to mount, and he felt its legs wrap around him, and Ghanyarah's own limbs were displaced - he wriggled, struggled, and wrenched one leg free only to grip the spider's head with one arm, trying to push it away from his hide. With his own mouth gnashing viciously at the spider's carapace, Ghanyarah sent another bolt of cold magic through the air, desperate and angry and just wanting to come out of this in one piece.

The air sizzled and in that instant, it grew crisp, icy, biting. Ghanyarah struggled against the arachnid and finally released his grip on its carapace, reeling his head back while he wrenched his other leg free. He clasped both clawed hands on either side of the spider's head, pushing it back with all the muscle strength he could muster, while his expression twisted into a wild sneer. "NOT THIS TIME, ASSHOLE!" Ghanyarah shouted, and beneath the tangle of reptile and spider, the ice rapidly manifested. It all came together in a sharp spike that grew out of the mud, mounting in a short second; and in that same second, Ghanyarah grabbed a hold of the spider's head and forcefully slammed it down onto the bursting ice spike, a sharp frozen crystal piercing its exoskeleton and ripping through the other side in a wet spray of spider gore.

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Long legs twitched, spasmed, and began to slowly curl in beneath the spider's body, the head impaled by a nasty spike of ice. Ichor dripped down the spine, and the glittering red eyes went dull.

Aside from the loosely-tangled threads of silk dangling over the komodo dragon, and any toxins left if the spider had managed to get a bite in, there was little damage done. In fact, Ghanyarah had now managed to acquire not one, but two offerings for Aquarian; the question was, how was he going to get them both back...?

In any case, though Ghanyarah did not know it, the other creatures of this portion of the swamp would rest a little easier tonight. He had destroyed the one and only, the fearsome and somewhat tasty, Black Terror of South-Westerly-ish Cetus.

@Ghanyarah