Quiet--for a moment--tense silence. Every sound muffled by snow. The soft drop and drip of ice falling from the canyon walls.

And then... a distant rumble. A rumble that grew, shaking the walls, strong enough to be staggering. A rumble that turned into a roar.

The entire width of the canyon darkened, then, an instant before it came into view: the massive worm, so gigantic that it could barely fit between the walls of stone, its bristled, scaly breadth crashing off this side, and then that. Rocks, boulders, fell in its passage, thundering in behind it, crashing off its hide. The great, rounded mouth, filled with a thousand razor teeth, gaped wide: and a screech roared forth, a cry of challenge, or pain, at the gong. A dozen feet tall, at the least. Over a hundred long. It must have weighed a hundred tons, or more. Each tooth a dagger: and the shredded remains of Vinea still visible, a bit of hide, a smear of blood, down its maw.

Onward it came, all-consuming, aiming to swallow down all who stood before it... but it seemed to angle for Hargrave most of all, thrusting that maw for her, and her wretched knife.

____________

Gembound may attempt any attack they wish. They may also roll to attempt to stay hidden, and safe; or in the case of Imp and Kalama, roll to finally catch up with the rest of the group.

A failure on attack will result in critical injury: crashing ice and rocks, or the smashing of the Ice Worm's body. A failure to hide will result in less-serious injury by the same mechanisms, or in the case of those not in the ravine, a failure may result in succumbing at last to the cold and snow. Failures will have further consequences next round; those who fail twice in a row may die. Critical failures will result in further critical injuries.

The remaining rounds will be lightning rounds with three days available to post. Please PM Game Master Dark if you will be unable to post this round.

@Desert Rose Thirty-Five (Null, Quentin)
@Imp (Ivory, Warrior)
@Agate Two-Three-Six (Wynter, Fisher, Mirage)
@Virgil (Hargrave)
@Shida (Palefur, Lyra, Oleander)
@Kalama

The monster that barreled into view, the roar and churn of ice and rocks--it was too big to fight. Warrior froze. Terror deadened his limbs, and he felt, for a moment, like cold lead; blank lead, too heavy and helpless to even move in the path of such a monster.

Then he saw Hargrave and the others--preparing to fight--and past a fleeting thought of they're insane--he woke himself.

There was no distracting this. It was the breadth of the canyon; there was nowhere to distract it to. The best he could do was leap aside, aiming for the little alcove where they'd picked up the knife, hoping to avoid the worst of the smashing body. What little damage could he do-? Grimly, the young stallion called upon his magicka, aiming to thrust the earth itself back at the worm as it passed--the sand, the dirt, the pebbles, slid into razor-sharp points that whirled for the Ice Worm's heavy hide.

It did not escape the horse, even in his fear, that the shards were still nothing compared to the worm's own grinding teeth.

m for fisher's potty mouth

Well, if the first time the worm attacked them Fisher didn't shit his metaphorical pants, then the rumble growing louder and louder certainly was enough to make him smell a bit muskier. The noodle heeded the suggestions the others had made, scrambling up the narrow cliff to reach a good vantage point.

The thing that came barreling down the chasm at them was enough for any man to lose his nerve. He dug his claws in to the stone underfoot, and remembered Raheerah.

If they could defeat Raheerah, they could kill a shitty worm that ate too much fertilizer as a whelp. The air around him was electrified, and as ice and stone began to fling through the air, a glowing ball of electricity began to crackle dangerously around Fisher.

"Eat shit, ugly!" He screeched, throwing the centralized orb of pure energy forward toward the oncoming beast. Maybe it would choke on the electricity. And by the caves, hopefully that would be the only thing the nasty creature got in its maw.

Ivory stared.

With one eye; the other remained squeezed shut, victim of the empty banana peel. (Life was cruel.)

Like Warrior, she froze for a moment--but it was half from indecision. Her ability to create magic was... questionable, at best; and to attack this thing head-on was damn near suicide. Even a side-swipe-... The chicken had tried that, and they hadn't seen her again. (And where, now that she thought about it, were Vinea, and Imp? Was one of them the red stain in the Ice Worm's maw?) These thoughts were stray, brief, and distracted. The rhino-beast leapt aside, and turned, swinging her head for the worm, hoping to catch a brief slash as it passed.

A leap, a turn, a thrust; her nose-horn caught in the worm's hide.

This turned out to be unwise. She doubted she'd do any damage to it whatsoever; instead it lurched along, tossing and tumbling her, throwing her body bouncing along the stone.

Ivory scrambled up--mostly unharmed... by some miracle. She turned to watch the worm churn past--and saw the faintest spot of blood upon her horn.

Holy shit- she thought, and glanced to the others to see how they were faring.

Gatto's speech had been a big success, and all, but actually fighting the worm was another bucket of...worms. The cockatrice sure as hell didn't want to get anywhere near it-- they had fought Vargas and done well with hit and run, but this... Was a whole 'nother ball game.

They didn't really know how to distract something so big. They were like ants, insignificant bugs, compared to the worm. And immediately, it seemed to sense the dagger and hone in on it, which meant that their key was in grave danger.

Well, they could do something. The cockatrice swooped toward the worm, wishing there were eyes they could claw at like an eyehook, or anything. Second best plan then. They reached their talons forward as they dove, and swept down toward the dangerous spines that tore through snow and stone alike.

Talons hit their mark. Gatto's grip tightened around one of the nasty spines, and began to bat their wings and smack their tail against the creature's tough hide. They couldn't hurt it like this, but maybe they would draw some attention.

Mirage flew ahead of the group as Quentin led them up the narrow pass toward what would hopefully be safety. "There's some cracks just ahead!" She cried over the rising sound of the ground being torn asunder by the worm's path. "Get them in quick, the larger ones in first, everyone else can squeeze into place." She hoped, anyway.

It was going to be fine. The worm was getting closer. She continued to direct the others into hiding holes, along with Quentin. Snow and ice was falling around her, occasionally a drift would clip her wing and she'd have to flap furiously to stay aflight.

She didn't dare look back at the others. Before long she couldn't hear anything but the roaring sound and the falling of snow and ice, and she lunged into the nearest crack and tried to press herself in. Her magic flared as she tried to hide, tried to become invisible so the terrible beast would not find her and end her life as quickly as it had started.

The world crashed in around her. Everything went dark. She scarcely dare breathe, as the ground shook and her beak chattered violently.

She couldn't hear the screams of the others to know if they had survived or not. Silence did not descend yet-- it was just an endless torrent of sound and vibration. It felt like it was lasting hours, days, years. She didn't know where Quentin was, and worse, she didn't know if everyone else had survived.

As the iceworm erupted from the ground, Lyra cowered against the wall of the ravine, trying to find a good place to slip in and seek shelter. She found a crack in the side of the cliffs that she slipped into, breathing heavily but trying to be quiet and inconspicuous. The others would fight it off, right? They could do it without her help. What good could she even offer, anyways?

Palefur watched the ravine with narrowed eyes, slowly inching towards the edge of the ravine. If they were all going to stay down here and get rammed by that huge thing, then that was their problem. She, however, was going to get some distance - some elevation.

As soon as it revealed itself, however, she realized that that it might not matter. Still, anything was better then staying on the ground. With a hiss she turned, racing towards the canyon walls to begin climbing - find a good elevation, with a safe spot where she can watch the fight. Tiny claws like hers wouldn't do anything good.

She scrambled up the side of the stone, keeping her balance despite the rumbling earth, and clwed her way to a small hollow - hopefully deep enough that if the iceworm went towards her, the walls would stop if before it could get to her. She positioned herself in there and leaned out to observe the fighting.

M for language

Shida stood by Ivory, looking out at the canyon as well, hesitating as the beast came into view and deafened them all with a roaring challenge. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a number of the injured escaping to the walls. Ivory stayed - and that meant she was staying too.

But, unlike Ivory, she didn't have a big horn to ram at the thing. She had hooves and teeth, but that wasn't going to do any good against something as big as the ice worm. Which meant she would only be a burden down here right now - whatever she did would probably prove to be worthless. Why risk it?

So she tried to maneuver to the side - it was difficult, considering that it barely fit in the canyon, but maybe it would give Hargrave the chance to get a hit in. She went to opposite direction of the group and started shouting as loud as she could despite the loud roaring of the iceworm. "HEY!! BIG UGLY PIECE OF SHIT!! COME AT ME, FUCKWORM I'M OVER HERE!!"

Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

As the iceworm erupted from the ground, Oleander's ears flicked back and she sped up her pace to get to the safe spot that the other injured were hiding. She saw the crevice where Lyra had hidden and slipped in as well, looking out and hoping that Warrior and the others would be safe.