The battle was - over? They'd won, so quickly? Through sheer, overwhelming numbers? Svartis pinwheeled in the air, watching the golem collapse and... everyone run? Against his better judgement, he paid no mind to the Alpha down below - and not to the other beasts it'd come in with. No, he didn't exactly hear the many-handed beast's cries for them to not breathe that white (snow... his thoughts murmured, as he spun through them.)

Bone had set herself aflame, and she was careening through the air. Even knowing that there was no way for him to catch her - she was armored, heavier than his wings could carry - Svartis dove after her. Tucked his wings and gave a frantic cry that filled his mouth with cotton and mold. His magic reached out even as she landed heavily, flames still licking painfully at her body.

His own mind was already lost, and it was a matter of seconds before her honeyed whispers curled through it. Icy eyes burned as he gulped down air, breathing a cloud of smothering ice with a frantic roar, "BONE!"

It came out in sputtering waves, his control on his magic - and anything - slipping far out of his reach with that desire to protect and spread. Svartis lingered close to his sister, whispers curling through his mind, the anguish roiling through him from nearby not at all his own. His snout came down, pressing against his sister's hide, a strange little thought in mind: you're filthy. That wouldn't do.

Why not. It just wouldn't.

Wyvern's call to sound off fell on deaf ears as the dragon just... sat there.

:(

Action. Thought. "Speech."

she had been standing back, watching the other fight after her attempt, trying so desperately to figure things out and try and find something to do because oh god this was stressful and the golem was so big and they needed to help and-

when the golem fell down she let out an audible yelp in shock, looking at the cloud of spores as the guardian shouted for the gembound present to stay away from it, to not breathe it in, she didnt know what it was but it couldnt be good

As the others screamed and shouted in fear as some breathed it in, others sacrificing themselves, she fell into a panicked frenzy. she scrambled away, guilt pooling in her stomach for running away but sliding across the icy floor, ears back, doing some sort of fear dance across the slick surface as she slid desperately away from the clouds of spores and multiple gembound that were falling under to it. she didnt know what it was, but she wasn't going to find out, she scattered to the side of the cave, far enough to avoid it, but not leaving incase people desperately needed help.

Catalyst watched the barrage of gembound attack. She could barely keep up with the sheer number of them. And before she knew it, the golem began to fall apart. She hadn't been able to help, but...it felt good. Fighting with all these gembound against a common enemy. Her muzzle curved into a wicked grin. Catalyst raised her head to the sky, chest filled with pride, and cried out. It ended choked. There was not a moment The calm had been shattered by screams around her. The golem--it was full of white dust. Drifting towards her--no, towards everyone, everything, in a massive cloud.

"What?" Her claws clicked as she toed backwards. "What is that!?" Her words fell on deaf ears. No one was paying attention; no one could pay attention. An entire battalion of gembound, cast into chaos. And from the reactions, even the largest amongst them fleeing, it was nothing good. She cast a fearful glance at the spores, before turning, scrabbling at the ice to get away. It turns out, ice was slippery. Her claws couldn't find purchase, and she fell. She gasped, fear overriding thought.

It was too late to get away--it was in her. She could feel it. Something was crawling beneath her skin. Within her skull. She wanted it out. Away from her. But then it was normal. Why was she running? Why was she afraid? Her beating chest slowed. Her body relaxed. Mother was here, shaping her brain, fixing it. Introducing her to her new family. There were so many new siblings. Mother must have been happy.

Rainstorm didn't understand what was going on, the sounds completely made their mind blank and they tried their hardest to not listen but failed. Their ears hurt, it made their head hurt. They didn't like this, didn't like any of it. This place was a disaster and Rainstorm shouldn't have gone there - they shouldn't have gotten curious about the sounds and the calling. There were sounds everywhere, yelling, crashing. Their ears pulled back.

They could hear the distinct sounds of others telling them to not breathe something in. Rainstorm couldn't see that something but they knew they didn't want to have any of it if the others were so afraid. A hydra champion would not fall to something like this.

Flames licked at its quills and hide as it wrenched a stone from the golem's limb, giving it a strange purple blush. Magicka crackled through the air. The orthoclase stumbled back, dropping the stone between its forelimbs with a heavy smack and a hissing growl. It lunged to take another chunk out, but there was nothing to attack but - it bristled, foolishly inhaling to let out a bellow. A voice swarmed into its conscious, protect your siblings, and it made to smooth down the rising, rattling quills... muffle those familiar voices from home crying for their Master (a Master!) to break free resist.

What knowledge it and the rest of the Sentinels came with burned in its mind - physically burned. It crept through its twitching limbs like wildfire, that fervent need to resist and stay in control They had been warned about this, the signs of infection, they didn't prepare. And, Delta'd done this to it once, taken it, taken it's body. It wasn't going to get forced out again -

It heaved where it stood, quivering with the conflict of rage and its lack of self to protect. Toxic eyes whirled on Ruby-Beta and Khavur, claws sweeping through the spores-laden snow. Vargas was struggling to resist - a master struggling - and didn't give any orders. Alpha squinted, teeth gnashing in a wince as another lancing bolt of pain shot through its head, trying to wrench it into submission. Listen, encourage them. Have them join you and your father... and it roared in response, "get out!"

Every word was a struggle, "go find Astraea or -" it growled, "get the ones in Cani -" Alpha grunted again, turning away stiffly. GET OUT. It trudged away from the fallen rocks, dry-heaving against the nausea crawling (thisiswrongthisiswrongthisiswrong it isn't chaos it's order it's love it isn't normalthisisn'twhatiwasmadefor -) through it and that unspeakable pain that wasn't dampened like every attempt it made to rail against this.

strong language

"Ha!" Kalama cried. "I did it--I won!" The golem crashed down in front of her. Kalama couldnt help but feel she'd done the majority of the work. But the golem was...white inside? Was that normal? The white...white somethings spread in a mass plume of spores. She had barely a thought, nor the time to, before she was enveloped by. Her first reaction was shock, then anger. And a gentle hand was there. Soft. Kind. Emotions drowned, replaced by...something. Something warm. Clean. Something that embraced her. And most of all, there was love. The feeling was strong.

Some were ignoring the feeling. Fighting against her. And Kalama wanted to kick their ass. But the gentle hand--Mother. Her name was mother. Mother told her not to. They were new. They needed time to adjust. Kalama's eyes glazed. Her feathers went slack. Her wings held loosely. A soft giggle left the chicken at the surrounding screams. Kalama agreed with Mother. Yes, they were all overreacting. They didn't know Mother. "Chill out!" She called. "It-It's not that bad!"

Man, Kalama could just sit here. And she did. She sat down. The rest of her family could handle this. She wanted to chill out. Take a nap with Mother.

think "speak"

Effluvium could smell suffering. Hear screams. Was drawn by the scent of blood. The tunnel was strange and cold beneath its' feet, but the texture and temperature barely registered in the creatures brain. All Effluvium knew, was that there was a lot going on out there. And that meant there was a good chance of food. The screams especially--food that was dying made sounds like that. It drooled, watching from its snow bank. There was bright burning out there.

It hissed, watching. It did not like. A giant pale thing that had been attacked by the bright burning. Was it on purpose? Would it catch fire again? It was big. It fell to the ground. Effluvium hoped it was dead, or would be soon. It wasn't moving. A dark winged creatured landed next to the big pale one. It looked too much like a bat for Effluvium's liking.

An instinctual growl left it. The dark flier pressed its face to the pale one. Effluvium realized, then. It was eating it. And that was Effluvium's food. Effluvium's food only. Effluvium roared, angry, high pitched, and all stupid.

It charged, ignoring the gembound fleeing the other way. "Effluvium food!" Its' voice screeched. "Mine!" Effluvium's jaws clamped on a limb of Bone's, attempting to drag her away. And then, it paused. This was not food, something told it. Something nice. Its flesh shifted in miniscule ways, as it stood there. Leaking mucus.

This was ally/friend. To protect. Share. But Effluvium did not want to share. Effluvium wanted to eat. Only Effluvium. Those traitorous thoughts were smothered. A sheer tidal wave of emotional dulling swept through it. Something was in it, probing at its emotions. And then it felt an emotion it couldn't place. It reminded Effluvium of how it felt after eating. But nicer. Nicer than anything it'd felt before. It wanted to revel in the emotion.

Effluvium did not need to eat anymore. The idea nagged at it somehow. The leg dropped from Effluvium's mouth at some point. It did not know when, only felt the bump of the limb against it. It turned to eye the gembound around it. Effluvium(Mother) was supposed to consume--no. Mother wanted to consume. To add to family. It was all easily understandable.

"When I speak."

When I think.(Will never be used)

(((Can i get a fucking uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh))

Cryogen

The tidal wave of magic is astounding, and Cryogen had to take a second to appreciate the sheer magical prowess of the caves united, and they take an even deeper satisfaction noticing the chunk of rock their magic had cleaved away.

A pause, then, from the golem, and then it locked up, it's glow faded... and then it collapsed into what looked like more snow, except-

Warnings, snarled and roared from multiple mouths, panic, and then the deep seated instinct to fleet the threat that had people falling into some sort of stupor-

His stone flares with the sharp alarm coursing through his mind, mirroring his thought process s the light of his magic flares, stutters, and finally kicks up a small maelstrom of shard of stone from under the layer of snow, and he feels dizzy in fear thinking that not may not be enough...

But it is. Barely.

All was said and done no sooner than she'd arrived, and she bore a wide-eyed witness to the chaos that ensued as the bear-golem ground out its last roar. It was pandemonium - not unlike when a mischief was spooked off a corpse. They tumbled over one another, snapping briefly at what assault was coming; these combatants flung magic, raced away, did anything they could against those cottony puffs swirling through the air.

Hargrave did the same.

Her magic swarmed beneath her skin, rippling like wildfire through flesh and sinew. It grew hotter and hotter until every organ was lit-up in glimmering white incandescence. Heat rolled through her nostrils and mouth in waves. Surely, what she breathed in would have to burn up before it could take.

For extra security, she bolted away from the flow of wind and away from the spore-laden snow. She could help in any way from a distance; fire did not require closeness to be made manifest. It was a matter of keeping herself safe, first.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

Aristotle growled at his failed spell. However he spared a glance at James and Comet. Then his attention was brought back around to the battle. He watched the white hot plasma wipe out two gembound. His heart broke for them. Their lives had been cut short. Then the massive creature of stone shuddered from the onslaught of attacks. He had managed to help only hold the thing still, somehow.

Then the massive armed creature roared out a warning, as he tried to beat something back with his wings. Then Aristotle closed his mouth tight and Dropped to the ground covering his muzzle with his paws. He somehow managed to avoid breathing in whatever it was that had begun to invade the cavern at the warning of the massive creature. The lion clenched his jaw glancing up from his place in the snow to look at James. He begged with his eyes for him to be alright. Then he dared look at Comet who had managed a bubble around her nose. He thanked whatever being it was that watched over them that she could actually do magic.