thebastion | Core Event: Day 259 [open]

The pillar of fire was actually a very good idea, as it roasts all but a few of the babies. Some of them were still in the process of hatching, so they had not gotten out of the building yet, and thus were safe. The rest, however, are dead.

But the mama lizard monster, it is roaring in pain and anger and it swirls around in the tornado of fire. It can't escape, and the fire is damaging it, but it isn't dead. In fact, the fire doesn't seem to be doing much damage to it. The same goes for the ice shards, too: some damage is done, but all it does is injure, not kill. This is beefy lizard monster that will take cooperation from several parties to beat.

Edited 2014-12-21 08:47 (UTC)

Sorry Duke falls into the most people and most spells require a verbal component.

"Judging by the noise, 'kill it with fire' isn't working on mom there." Duke really shouldn't be as excited about this as the knight sounds, that was one spell use there.

"Either its got a resistance of some sort, or just thick skin. One is worse than the other... Ideas that don't require too many spells or giving only one target to that mouth?" Zuko said it had been feeding on prisoners, that should get across that this thing can eat them, easy. "I've a few other elements of damage-and-hold, which seems like a good starting place."

"I hate to add more bad news, but the Slow spell doesn't last very long, either!", Megaera noted.

... Damn it, that mouth was enough to kill normal people. Even with her regeneration, something she didn't want to reveal to basically half the Bastion if she could avoid it. But if it was the only way to make sure someone wasn't killed here...

She didn't know how strong this thing's mouth was, either. That certainly didn't help - if it was strong enough, even with the regneration the strike could still kill her. That was, in a word, very bad.

This was what lacking information did to a wizard. She was lucky she'd had Slow prepared. She needed something stronger, though. Her best remaining spell was the counterpart of Slow, Haste, but that only worked for about half a minute - if this thing was tough enough, it wouldn't help much. If they could get it bleeding, though, that'd slow it down enough that... Yes, it was her best bet after all.

"Hold it down if you can. Everyone else... Hand up if you want thirty seconds of everything moving a fair bit slower for you!", Megaera declared, keeping her sword sheathed and raising her hands, quickly looking around. "I can get five people, melee first!"

Hold the cast just long enough for people to process what she said. Then, she'd cast it, and the half-minute would begin.

Wizards were supposed to solve situations, not just provide a useful aid, damn it... But it was her best bet.

Ghaleon clicks his tongue in irritation. He'd hoped that his spell would have caused more damage than that, but clearly this was going to be one of those fights. Relying on physical strikes is not something any mage terribly enjoys, but if it must come to that...

...Well, there's more than one trick left up his metaphorical sleeve before stabbing things himself becomes necessary. The moment he notes Megaera's spell is very time sensitive, the sorcerer chants a quick prayer and releases the spell the five volunteer themselves for the speed boost.

"I have gifted you with temporary regenerative powers. Do try not to necessitate them, and aim for the underbelly if possible."

The Gauntlet's Colin gave me can pierce most things, just make sure not to hit the core, right?

[He gave them a solid tap, letting that familiar noise reach him, letting himself be emboldened by both it and the spell. With a nod, he put his hands up in front of him and darted in towards the creature.

He was aiming to make the most of it's current slowness as he could and attempted to get around to it's side where he'd skid to a stop and swing a powerful right hook towards it's underbelly, though he made sure to arc his shot away from the glowing part.

With his full weight behind the shot, there was no doubt if it connected the lasers would go off along with the bonecrushing force of the blow itself. If it hit that is.]

"And here's to holding it still." Well, talking of some sort seems necessary. Duke's spell is black-purple this time, and a puddle of the same color forms under the lizard. The puddle shoots out long tendrils of the same color, which arc down and stab at the lizard.

.. The sound of something Colin-made that 'can pierce most things' means that Duke doesn't.. entirely want to just charge in when the spell's hold fades. The knight does head closer, but stays a bit behind Ippo. Hopefully the knight will be a more tempting target - or just ready to go for eyes should the lizard turn toward Ippo.

Zuko will take that speed boost. She draws her swords from their sheath and darts in for the monster's other side, letting Ippo have his space. She brings both swords around, one after the other, in an attempt to cut into the lizard's underbelly from her side of the core. It isn't just the steel either, but she firebends through the strikes, the flames following the sweep of her blades. Maybe the earlier fire spell didn't hurt it that much, but it's the element she has.

So, imagine this.

There is a giant lizard, who is still smouldering from the tornado of fire and also cold from the ice. it's slowed, so its reaction times are slow, and now it's being punched and stabbed and there's more fire.

This lizard is very pissed, and this time it seems a lot more bothered by the fire. See, its skin is very thick and resistant to most things, but it is weak against piercing attacks. And as soon as it is pierced by Ippo's amazing punch and Duke's tendrils, that skin has weaknesses in it, weaknesses where the fire can blow in and actually burn the monster more.

The lizard screams in pain and stomps its feet, attempting to squish whatever is hurting it from below. As for everyone else, well, this lizard is shooting out its long, sticky tongue.

Try not to get caught by it, because you'll get eaten. No really it's trying to lick up everyone, not unlike how lizards eat ants. And if you get eaten, you're in for an unpleasant trip.

As the first wave of attacks came out, Megaera drew her sword; time to join the melee directly.

As the tongue started to come out, Megaera recognized it as being frog-like, and quickly stepped to the side... Only to stab directly down at the tongue as it, hopefully, passed her, hoping to stick it directly to the ground.

If this missed, then the odds were she would get caught in the creature's tongue... At which point full devil form and slicing at the inside of the beast with her claws would be her only escape. Way too much to explain if that turned out... But better that than dying if this stupid idea failed!

While the others have had their hands full with mama, Colin's taken the time to study his opponent. When he discovered that the attacking monster had a freshly hatched clutch of young, a plan took form in his head.

He wasn't going to attack the children, he didn't see any tactical benefit in that. The tactical benefit would be to use them to distract the mother. The children seemed to have focused on the meat that their mother had brought them, or they'd been freshly hatched. Imprinting the ones that had just hatched upon him would make it easier, but even the ones that wouldn't imprint on him could still be useful.

He returned to the children, his feet moving through the steps of the Forest Suite. The dance could influence the minds of animals to turn them to his side, and while he doubted that mama would be affected, the young would likely be easy. And if he could get mama's attention on someone getting too close to her children, it seemed likely to him that the others would no longer be the target of her ire.

It also meant that he'd become the subject of her aggression, but it wasn't the first time he'd tried to piss off something bigger than him.

Stomping around trying to get the close people? Duke takes a moment to decide between yanking Ippo back and attacking, and Ippo moves pretty damn fast on his own so the knight hopes this is a good idea and tries slicing up at the creatures jaw-neck area. Thick skin, no thick skin, this seemed like a good spot to go for while Megaera ... distracted it back there.

Its tough skin might be resistant to fire, but its insides certainly don't seem to be. Especially with Megaera's spell, it's easy enough to sidestep being stomped on, and so Zuko's not deterred by the lizard creature's attempts to squash her. In fact, she's going to try cutting closer alongside the glow of the core with another fire-augmented slice.

With his hit striking true enough to cut into the lizard, Ippo's spirits were bolstered, especially when he saw that the damage they were doing was making an impact. He let his fist rebound off the lizard's hide from the force of the hit, rolling that momentum back down his arm and through his shoulders with a sway of his hips and a turn of his foot, he slid to the side of one of the stamping feet, watching it land with a scaly leg inches from his nose.

He could feel that tension hold in his core, light a taught rubber band that snapped as he brought his shoulder down in an overhead arc, almost as if he were mimicking a vertical sword swing, the gauntlet on his hand flying down towards where the knee on that leg would be. If he could cripple it, keep it in place, it wouldn't be stomping around much anymore and would be an even more prime target for the others.

Much as he dislikes sitting by, there is one rule Ghaleon knows well: the healer should remain out of direct combat as much as possible. With but one spell left, he's really not about to break that rule. You got this guys; he'll be over here not getting hit.

Edited 2014-12-28 04:11 (UTC)

Tobias, meanwhile, has been held up - partly out of concern for 'what can he do without getting hit', and partly because he's not sure how to approach this delicately. However, cornering the monsters - and more importantly keeping them in one place - looks like it might be an issue. And what better way to assert dominance over lizards than with another lizard?

... Well, sort of.

So he's been quietly morphing a ways back from the rest, and finally a large, very pointy shadow appears over the building. He lands, having morphed Paarthurnax - though those familiar with the dragon can see where the old damaged horns and scales are bright and whole. He stares down at the lizard, growling faintly.

<If we need more precision later I can morph Hork-Bajir to cut into it.>

There sure is a lot going on, and the giant lizard is seriously hurting from all the attacks, but.

But.

Colin just went for the babies. And Momma Lizard does not approve.

After ripping its tongue off from where Meg's knife had it pinned (and leaving a huge, bloody mess as well), the lizard turns and chomps down on Colin, swallowing him whole in one bite.

It is weakening, though, and attacking it while it is distracted is a very good idea and will probably kill it. Just don't kill Colin in the process!

This may or may not the ideal time for Rob to be the first one from his group to emerge from an alley right next to the giant lizard and accidentally make a lot of noise by knocking over a pile of debris as he skids to a stop once he sees the situation.

"Holy shit!"

His eyes flick back and forth as he tries to get a sense of what's happening and if there's anything he can do to help.

"Uh-" There went Colin.

Duke feels a little terrible for thinking it, but better the lizard ate Colin than say, Ippo. Or Rob over there.

And now there's a dragon about to - looks a bit like Paar, but they didn't bring Paar and that voice was Tobias, right? Yeah.

Duke is just going to go for a front elbow. Cripple it, cripple it!

"I want to say put a claw over its mouth, but that might not help Colin any." Because Colin is weird and sturdy and smart enough to plan for that. Duke hopes. "Can you pin it, starting from the tail?"

"The thing you need to remember most about this is that if it gets its teeth into you, it's over. If you're going to take out something from the inside, don't get chewed up first."

His father always did have a way with telling stories. Colin loved hearing the one about the dinosaur that attacked his parents when they were still dating. He'd always thought that only his father would have been insane enough to dive into the jaws of a creature almost ten times his size for the express purpose of killing it.

Then Amber went and did it with that Dracolich. And Jade did it with the Eel. He can only imagine what all Danaree had done...

Still this hadn't been his favorite outcome, he'd have much preferred getting clawed at instead of eaten. But, he knew how to dive into tight quarters and keep his wits about him. With his eyes shut to keep from getting blinded, he had to rely on his sensor suite to tell him where the core was. It wouldn't do to carve apart the core while he was doing some damage.

And carving was his plan. His hand sank down to his pocket as he was being introduced to the lizard's stomach. His pocket held his laser cutter. And his laser cutter just needed a flick of a switch to turn on. And then... Colin could show mama lizard why it was important to chew your food. If you didn't chew it up first, it might take you out from the inside.

With an impossibly hot cutting laser, as it turned out.

Edited 2014-12-28 22:11 (UTC)

Tobias rushes forward, aiming to get one massive foot on the lizard's tail. He bends low to keep his weight centered and not shifting, and prepares to slice -

When he starts to smell something. Is that - but he'd be careful not to cut the core.

<Slice her up, Colin! I'm holding her in place as much as I can. Don't worry about hitting me on the way out. I can take it.>

Probably.

"Colin-!?"

All right, so he can be really annoying sometimes, but is she the only one who's alarmed that he just got eaten?

But then she senses the heat of the laser and jumps back from her position close to the core. Don't tell her getting eaten was part of the plan.

She doesn't want to risk cutting into the lizard now and harming Colin, and he seems to be working on cutting from the inside anyway. With the others working to cripple its movement, Zuko shifts her swords into one hand and jumps up onto the lizard's back. Moving closer to its head, she aims her next fire blast for its eyes. It should be harder for it to swallow anyone else if it can't see.

As the lizard went for Colin, Megaera lept clear - sticking it in the tongue hadn't done as much as she'd hoped, and now it had flat-out eaten one of the group, whole!

If she was correct, Colin had... Maybe a minute to live, what with the stomach acid and such. If they could slay the beast and stop it's stomach muscles...

Then, Zuko was leaping onto the creature's back, angling to strike it directly in the eyes. Megaera, for her part, simply dove right back in front of the beast, raising her sword. As soon as its mouth opened - whether in a scream of pain or to bite wildly at her - she'd try to drive the sword directly into the roof of its mouth.

Insanely risky, but keeping the beast's attention on her was ideal. Especially since the right strike might just give Colin his escape.

Well, that sure happened. Ghaleon can't say he's entirely surprised that someone got eaten, although he's somewhat glad that it was Colin of all people. The man strikes him as being competent enough to carry a blade to cut himself free. Still, best be ready just in case the whole carving his way out doesn't go quite as planned.

...Practical as this approach is, in some ways it's also somewhat dull.

Fortunately for everyone, Colin was still in the thing's throat when he started to laser it to death, so the core was not cut by the laser. And fortunately for Colin, with the combined efforts of being flamethrowered in the eyes, stepped on, and lasered in the throat, it doesn't notice Meg get up there, and when it opens its mouth to attack again, it finds a sharp sword in an uncomfortable place.

Moments later, it slumps to the ground, dead from sword-in-brain.

Of course, everyone still has to deal with the immediate threat of Colin possibly suffocating in the lizard's throat, as well as retrieving the Core and doing whatever they plan to do with the babies, all before the usual wave of monsters arrive to try to claim the Core.

Once it goes down, Duke quickly heads over to the lizard's head. Partially to help Megaera retrieve that sword, and partially to force that jaw to stay open for Colin. Or maybe to talk to Colin-

"How close to the core do you think you are? It might be easier for you to cut the thing open than for us. If you can keep going." Of course, they could always start cutting from the other end of the lizard and look for the core that way-

Also Duke might be looking for any charred scrap of deer left. Gotta catch a baby lizard or two!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject