thebastion | Core Event: Day 259 [open]

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!

Megaera, for her part, was holding the creatures' mouth open - first with her hand on her sword, then just putting her other gloved hand right on the roof of its mouth and pushing up.

"Airway. There's not going to be fresh air if Colin's any real distance down the gullet, so we need to get a way for him to breathe first. I kind of can't move if what little airway is here will stay open..."

Colin's state is remarkably non-plussed. He's only been in here for less than half a minute, and he can hold his breath for a healthy amount of time.

That doesn't mean he relishes being in here. Or that he can hear particularly well. But one thing he can do is continue to slice away at the neck. The tell-tale sizzle of flash-searing meat should give everyone sufficient warning before a thin jet of laser pierces out of the neck.

It continues to cut around for a short while, before Colin's fist finally pushes through the neck of the creature. He gives a slightly urgent wave of his hand, clutching the small laser cutter tightly, before he resumes blindly swiping at the neck with the beam.

He'd probably appreciate a little help here...

Good. For all their sakes, including the lizard monster's, she's glad that fight didn't last any longer.

Zuko jumps down from atop its head, throwing Duke a look. "I don't think he can answer you from in there." She's not even sure he heard the question, though she understands he has special sensors. But why would anyone encourage cutting the core out from inside something's stomach?

Seeing Colin's hand burst through gives her the estimate she needs of where exactly he is inside of the thing. She plunges one of her swords into the lizard's neck, enough distance from the hole he made to be sure she's not stabbing him, and starts cutting an opening herself.

Rob's mentally kicking himself as he comes over for neither arriving in time to help fight this thing or to be able to jump in and grasp the situation better instead of stopping and trying to analyze things. He can try and help out now at least. He stabs his own sword in where Zuko did and starts cutting diagonally, trying to create a flap that can be pulled down to open a large hole faster.

...This is actually pretty difficult. Zuko makes it look so easy.

Ghaleon doesn't bother with a blade when going in to help Colin. The hole the engineer's fist had emerged from should be sufficient for what he has in mind.

"You may wish to hold still for a moment, Colin. I'd rather not be cut by mistake."

That's about all the warning anyone gets before Ghaleon starts ripping open that puncture as if he were ripping cloth along a tear. It offers about as much resistance as he expected; nothing overly much.

Between everyone's combined efforts, they will be able to cut Colin free and prevent him from suffocating in lizard-throat.

There are four baby lizards left, and they seem to be noticing the party now. They are full of deer, though, so they are not so ravenous that they will attack, but they are clearly not happy about strange people around them, and they are hissing at the group as they back into the building.

[Colin doesn't so much as get cut free... it's more like he does his best impression of a chestburster. With the cuts, he's definitely got enough room to get out, and he doesn't do so calmly. The full force of another punch erupts from the site of the impromptu surgery, and he emerges forth with a vaguely displeased look on his face.]

I hate it when the tertiary plan is the one that works...

[Colin looks in the direction of the hissing lizards.]

All that work... They're not going to live long, I don't think... Ugh, I need a bath... I might be able to do something, but it may not work now.

[Yep, he sure is covered in saliva, blood, and a whole host of other things best left to the imagination.]

The core is safe, for the moment. Once we pull it out, we need to move. Meg, you're good to transport back to the Bastion?

Core Event: Day 259 [open]

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