Somewhere in the distance, Emuh's laughter--short, sharp and crowing, in baleful cackles--echoed.

The grey beast came swiftly back to its feet--and then rocked back, roaring as the fungus crawled up over its form. It was a horrific screeching sound, not the pain of it but how alien it was: the ripping sound of claws on metal, yet emanating from its chest.

Fungus bloomed up, splitting flesh as it sprouted, sending the creature into a frenzied rage; it turned, snapping at its own flanks, snarling.

It then whipped back around to face Aure--and charged for him.

2/3

@Aure

Aure remembered a bit too late that he had two legs, and found that they were too weak to stand on without immediately buckling or causing him to stumble this way and that.

The sight of splitting flesh was too familiar and too nauseating, and the Bone King nearly threw up then and there. He panted, ears pinning back at the awful noise and the monstrosity barrelling right for him. Aure was slicked over with slippery mucus and carrion-scent, but that didn't seem to stop those massive jaws from finding home.

But, it could... stop this beast from getting to him. Even in a panic, he was doubtful a wall of fungus wouldn't just be brutally torn through; but a carpet of slippery, inky fungus? That could work. It had to work. Aure worked to send it across the floor, in the monster's way, and fell backwards — bracing for impact.

@Game Master Dark

The beast's size and momentum took it over the slightly slick fungus that managed to sprout--no wall to stop this monster--and it crashed into Aure an instant later.

Gnashing jaws and sheer weight would inflict further Moderate Damage.

@Aure

Another impact, and another gasping breath while his vision lanced through with a confusing miasma of white and black and monochrome — Caves, this hurt.

Aure almost wanted to just... retreat. His stone was begging him to find that reprieve and hide away for a while but Damask... kept him going. He needed to at least walk out of here and assure her that he would he fine.

It was this monster or himself.

The Bone King tapped into what was once natural to his stone, a desperate grab at the past to make a swirling vortex and sweep the beast away from behind.

@Game Master Dark

something sniffing — striding footsteps, ever louder — auré, shrieking.

damask's breath came shallower and shallower, eyes wide, head craning this way and that as she strained to see through the shadows half-obscuring the scene. silhouettes clashed in the distance, and her father's was alarmingly still, fallen from midair, crumbling to his knees. the obvious: he's not okay. she gulped, shifted, shook with the tension of pinning herself in place. behind the threshold. where she belonged.

this is his, can't interfere — he's got to do it himself, and even if you could, it's just like emuh said, you're weak, unworthy, you'd be torn apart, so stay where you are and watch, that's all you can do — but maybe, maybe ...

with effort, she forced down a deeper respiration and stirred at her stone. it sparked bright between her murmuring heart and fluttering lungs, and the horror came to life in pulsing, gushing red. auré was hurt. worse off than the beast that ravaged him. less blood, but far less mobility; exhaustion was dragging him down. no, no, it wasn't supposed to be like this — ! panic began to swell in her chest. "dad, please," she hissed under her breath. "fight. fight. fight." a shudder died in her spine, held back with everything she had. keep it together — be strong — he needs you.

The beast was thrashed by wind, shoved away and back, scrambling and then bracing itself on the slippery, porous rock. It struggled to turn itself back, like a dog on a hardwood floor, scrabbling to face back toward Aure.

To finish, no doubt, its kill.

@Aure

The wind made an opening, nearly tearing himself off of the floor with the fungi swirling up into it. His chance, he couldn't hesitate, his Bonebound needed him, his mother needed him, his daughter needed him.

In the blindness caused by pain, Aure thought of a stag brutally twisting the creatures of Cetus inside out to remove the fungus within them. It'd choked them and made them bleed and die. Guilt and anxiety thrummed in him even preparing to send that crashing down on the beast.

But, it was it or him. He had to choose himself.

He just hoped the monster choked quickly on the fungus and didn't... draw it out.

@Game Master Dark

As the beast leapt, the fungus took root.

Gray hide glinted as it twisted midair, aborting its predatory leap mid-stride and instead crashing down atop the fungal floor. Another pained screech, like two voices in one, erupted from it; and then the beast turned tail and ran, fungus blooming up along its hide.

...And then, everything faded. The room grew light; the catacombs retreated, the very ground contorting beneath Aure's feet. In an instant the Lessers were nowhere to be seen, and there was no sign of where the predator might have even gone.

Instead, Emuh thudded down heavily, wings spread, talons scraping over now-bare, brown rock. "GOOD. SLOPPY--BUT YOU ARE ALIVE. YOUR MAGIC IS STRONG. ARE YOU READY?" it then demanded, without explaining what Aure ought to be ready for. Without asking after his wounds, or whether he'd even survive.

It seemed to just... assume.

3/3

@Aure

Wince, wince — and shivering as he curled in on himself and awaited that final retribution of wicked teeth and impossible weight. His ears pinned back at the shrieking, and then...

Change. In the light, in the earth, the smells, it wasn't so cloying. It was... almost like a breath of fresh air. He took it in raggedly, a large swell of his chest sending jolts of pain through his bruised and bleeding form. Emuh was there suddenly, speaking but not being understood through his mind-fog. Dull eyes drifted up at the last statement.

He started, rasping quietly, "there's... more?"

@Game Master Dark

"MORE? YES. WHY ELSE WOULD YOU BE HERE?" Emuh cackled, an unpleasant, grating sound. The black owl-beast rocked back, spreading its wings, engulfing Aure in its shadow. And then came a surge of magicka so powerful as to be searing: a burning sensation, swelling Aure's chest, body, roaring through him and filling him until it felt as though he must burst.

The pressure was intense, almost too much to bear, and when the rush of his own heartbeat in his ears at last dimmed down, he would feel... drained. As though his magicka had been taken from him.

And yet...

...And yet there was something new, now. New... knowledge, granted to him, lurking at the edge of his consciousness and waiting to be grasped. And new potential, a perfect unity with his element ready to be unlocked, requiring nothing but practice and exploration--and time--to achieve.

Aure had Transcended.

"NOW GET OUT," Emuh barked at them both, folding his wings back against his sides.

@Aure