When shit started going down, Eythan flapped noisily into the air - complete with a sucking noise as his talons left the muck. It was hard going, given the several pounds of extra mud-weight clinging to his undercarriage, but his broad wings managed to compensate well enough. He climbed and climbed, dodging motes of fire and keeping fairly out of the forming layer of smoke-mist.

Bright eyes scanned around, watching below for any huddled shapes or anything fleeing the scene. His ears were useless over the roaring flames (and the bellowing matches going on.)

And... there! Huddled in the reeds, watching in wait - a creature with great wings and... fuck, him too?! The beast'd been just a child when he last saw him, and now he stood as a formidable foe. Eythan'd seen what those little baby hands could do to rats - and that was when he'd been a baby.

He'd taken on bigger fish, though - and Eythan was prepared to use his agility to his best ability, keeping this massive thing busy while the others worked.

The gryphon ascended more, sucking in a breath before he dove through the rolling darkness above and swung in a harsh circle. He barely cracked open his eyes as he crashed through open air, sucking in a breath and aiming through watery eyes. Every bit of his posture suggested a full divebomb: talons spread, wings perched in perfect ninety-degree angles, beak slightly ajar. He slowed down just before impact, letting his limbs go slack - so he didn't break his damn bones on that thick skull - to slam straight into Azrael's head, upper half, wherever.

Eythan is getting his ass. (Azrael is his ass.)

She'd considered doing as Aure had asked and stayed behind in Canis - it was smart, after all, she had only just been disinfected and...well, nobody trusted her. How could they, after what she'd done? She could have brought ruin to the entire Bonebound - she hurt Aure! She barely even trusted herself but if there was one thing she wasn't going to do it was stay behind while they were all fighting a mess that she'd had a hand in.

It wasn't like she cared about the consequences. Stay or leave, this was surely her last day as a member of the Bonebound.

She sniffled, a piece of her heart cracking. She'd been with them since the beginning and they'd been a family. She'd had a home, despite her oddities, despite all the weird things she did. Aure had always supported her and she was betraying his trust. Again. She couldn't face him, not anymore. She'd done too much to hurt him now.

It was too late to look back. She ran after the group, some ways behind, making her way through the tunnel that led to Cetus. I know where the Hive is. I'll just go straight there.

Temperantia sucked in a horrified gasp. Seconds after they'd landed the ground had been coated in a oppressive darkness. For a creature with so many eyes, without its sight Temperantia was left vulnerable. The fear they felt was quickly replaced with Mothers love and calm. Yes, they were not alone in the dark. They had their Family. They were aware, through Mothers link, that Azrael had caused it. But they still could not see. Experiences were shared, but nothing that could help them. They were confused. This was even more apparent when something bumped into it, reddish and spotted with a gemstone around its neck. All of its eyes focused on them. They felt an odd pulling sensation from within, but it died down before anything substantial happened. Through its link it could feel all of its siblings fighting to protect Mother. A sort of indignant anger rose within the angel. It fluttered its wings, its eyes narrowed. "You are evil." It spoke, the first time their voice had been heard in cycles. Its voices were cold, monotonous as they spoke this simple truth.

How dare they attack Mother. Their family. They were lost lambs, unseeing. Blindly attacking the true good. These gembound were wrong, they needed to be shown the right of their ways. Through their link they felt a blip of consciousness approach. The first of their family they had met. Howl. They would convert the creature. With a grace and awareness brought only by Mother's link, they ducked beneath the lobbed flesh of Mother.

Those who attacked mother should be executed or converted. But Temperantia could not do that if Mother was gone. If their link to Her was severed. Mother, I am coming. The Lost will not stop us. They reached down, gently scooping up a pebble with their wing. Perhaphs it was their rage, but the stone lit up with a bright, pale light, so strong it made even them wince. They flicked it in the general direction of Serek. Even if they tried to avoid Mothers embrace, the light would give them pause.


Temperantia is attempting to blind serek forgot to post whoops

Daughter
the voice in my head was no longer my own.

The alarm that sweeps through the web of her family reaches her before her brother’s warning words do, jarring Daughter’s thoughts from empty contentment to full panic.

Mother—and by extension, their family—is being attacked.

She senses Solis, but a short distance away from her, bolt through the plant-life, a dim awareness of brush being trampled under his paws making itself evident to her, and her first instinct is to sprint after him but she—hesitates.

Pallas had warned the children to be careful, and she was still young, still growing under Mother. She should stay away from the battle, but—

—fear born out of love and devotion for Mother makes her almost sick with worry. She can’t just stay behind, even if it means getting hurt in the battle ahead of them. She can’t run, can’t leave her family to fight without her. She can’t.

She wants to fight for Mother, too, for better or for worse.

Daughter throws herself to her paws, calling upon her magicka with a panic she’s never felt before. After the incident with her magic beforehand, after learning how harshly it can backfire, she’s been cautious towards it—but now is no time for caution. Instead, she splits her attention between leaping over fallen logs on small paws and trying to call up one of her lights.

She has never fought before, but she knows what her lights can do; already, she is thinking of igniting them in that same explosion that her fur has still not quite grown back from, but against those misguided souls who would dare attack Mother.

She will fight for Mother. Even if her light does not come, she will simply use her teeth and wits instead. That will have to do.

Daughter will be arriving from Eridanus alongside Solis.

The dread ripped through Lamia in an instant and stole her breath away, even from her distant place in Pisces. Fighting? Again? She shuddered, looking at her hands as she tried to imagine what she could do. She...she couldn't do anything. Not in the middle of Cetus, away from the water - she'd only be a liability to them there. IT would take too long to get from the water to the middle of the mud and, even then, she risked herself too much.

No...No, I'm sorry Mother. I can't come. I'll continue to spread you, in case...the worst happens. She lifted herself from the water and crawled onto shore, up next against Mother's hove and opened her mouth. She bite off a large chunk of mother's rot and took it back with her into the water, leaving behind the small cove she'd been calling home for some time, into the main lagoon of Pisces.

She would not be able to defend this one by herself. She had cared for it as best she could, but if they came here next...her best option would be to flee.

Lamia will remain in Pisces.

Azrael crouched and snarled as darkness billowed from his being and fire alighted in the sky. It was a fight after all. The inner demon, shackled down by Mother's influence, was almost overjoyed that it was coming to a fight. A chance to test his strength, to defend something he believed in with pride. But he felt none of this, only anger that his Mother was in danger, fear for her safety and for the safety for the hive, and a thirst for blood for those that threatened them.

He prepared to take a step forward, all four arms poised and ready to grab the first enemy and slam them to the ground when something heavy crashed into his upper half. Even he was having difficulty seeing in the darkness and only realized who it was when he saw the pattern of his fur pushing into his face. "Four-limbs-two-wings," he snarled as he staggered back. He reached out to grab the gryphon, then, heat blazing across his four arms to burn what of Eythan he could touch.

Azrael is attempting to burn Eythan.

Mother was, in their minds, screaming. It wasn't deafening, or even distracting: just an underlying panic, an urge for her children to defend her. There was no message to Lamia, in particular--but there didn't need to be: all she needed to hear was the clamor of combat and the pain, anger, fear of those in the fight.

In the water, behind Phlegethon, Aquarian still lurked. Waiting, shifting uneasily in the black waters' depths.

And at the entrance to Cetus...

Wilder would see not the usual open, dark, damp cave mouth. Instead clusters of fungus were visibly spreading, swelling, a chaotic tangle of fruiting bodies covering the floor, coating the maw of Cetus, spreading up along the walls of Tunnel H, flourishing in the damp of the swamp itself. But they were not clots of white mold, no; instead they were of many colors. Red spotted with white. Black, and oozing. Green-gray, sickly and flaking. And at their center stood Astraea, imperious, his ruby glowing bright as he stared at the black cat's approach.

He sensed nothing of the fungus on her--but where did her loyalties now lie..? The stag barred the path. He could not yet tell if the battle had been joined, but he would not risk allowing this one to alert the Hive. She had been Hive before, and Mother's influence was notoriously... tenacious.

"Turn back," he warned, simply, and there was a thin veil of patience in his tone: he was focusing on his magic, and would brook no argument.

_________

Round 2 begins. Gembound should respond to any attacks against their characters last round, whether to defend against them or to take damage and launch an attack instead. Remember: only one critical action is allowed per post. Post order does not matter.

Gembound coming from Pisces, Polaris, or Eridanus may arrive at Cetus' entrance in one round.
Gembound in Orion, Monoceros, Canis, and Hydra may arrive at Cetus' entrance in two rounds.
Gembound coming from Fornax may arrive in three rounds if by land, or one round if by water.

@Dragon (Pride, Dread, Giggle, Sergei, Legion)
@Aure (Phlegethon, Eythan, Howl, Nassir, Orthoclase-Alpha)
@Aries (Septiezal, Opal Three-Seven-Six)
@Selenite-Gamma (Serek, Pallas)
@Zyros (Aquamarine, Zelk, Tethys)
@Lamia (Azrael, Shoko)
@Hera (Ischium)
@Temperantia

The battle went pitched very quickly. All around him was chaos, and Dragon felt more alive than he had in many, many cycles.

Temperantia's light flared, driving back the darkness (is that a fucking wheel?!) as Dragon lowered himself to land. Others were launching against each other: Hera up in the air, Eythan driving claws for the heavy demon-thing, smaller allies leaping onto the bear.

Dragon considered only briefly. He wanted to fling himself headlong into battle. His first instinct was to latch onto one of Azrael's thick legs, and roll; with smaller prey, that'd break a limb or tear it right off. But the beast was heavily-built, and thick-boned. Dragon doubted that, even with his weight, he could actually cause much damage that way. But this was one of the two largest, and it was coming at Eythan with smoldering limbs.

The alligator braced himself, having just touched down, and poured his focus back into those chaos-wings, those haunted, twisting horns. On staying airborne, just a moment longer. He started to lift off, and then went vaguely sideways, losing his balance midair only a foot or so off the ground. With a grunt Dragon dropped himself back into the mud, before he went careening into an ally, instead.

The dragon shook himself, eyes squeezing shut, banking sharply away from the battle. Something... many somethings... were swarming him, pouring into nostrils, into his eyes, and when he opened his mouth and let out an earth-shaking, screeching roar of protest, even swarming into his jaws. He was blinded, choking, and he swept back and arched his neck, boiling flame igniting deeper in his chest.

He was unaware of Hera, unable to see her; his jaws snapped open, flames pouring forward in a crackling torrent. The heat, the light--and the swarm was gone. Dread opened his eyes, and circled higher, coughing the ash that had been mouthfuls of mites out into the air.

He angled back toward the battle, the flashes of magicka and battle-cries down below; Legion had distracted him momentarily, but had only stoked to truly ignite Dread's rage.

The black dragon spotted Hera briefly, and eyed her sidelong as his wings pumped. He thought she must have been helping, but he was already inhaling for another guttering blast of flame: no time to stop and chat.

Parts of the swarm fled back, pouring this way and that, urged on by the violently-defensive queen. Hera was there, snapping beak and flapping into the middle of them, here and gone in a swift flash of feathers. This distracted Legion just long enough that when Dread's fires came, there wasn't enough time to move: the drones in his jaws, between teeth and tongue and biting ineffectually at his lips, saw the flameglow and screamed warnings along their Hive mind only an instant before the fires consumed them.

This, of course, broadcast along the hive. The shadow-winged monstrosity, the black dragon: its fangs, its horrifying scales, all seen from Legion's myriad too-close eyes, refracted and gleaming in firelight. Legion's terror, shared through all the swarm, and agonizing heat-pain, and their sorrow:

"We are sorry. We tried-"

In a flash of flame, the vast majority of the swarm was consumed and turned to drifting ash. One by one, in rapid succession, their links to the Hive blinked out. Then the Queen was falling, the heat encasing her in the tiny, tiny chrysalis, which plummeted for the mud below.

Without their Queen, the remaining mites died midair, the magic sustaining them fading. They tumbled and slowly plummeted to earth, each tiny body glinting in the firelight, drifting dead down through the mist.

Legion's link with the Hive winked wholly out; whether they were dead, or resting in the chrysalis, would be wholly unknown to their brethren.