The adults didn't even make a dent. It just oozed and the petals just shielded the inner... whatever that was. Xina's pupils had started to widen as the ineffectual adults were rammed and thwarted. Xina could almost see herself standing stalk still watching the others around her, a statue of observation, inaction, a pathetic child watching the horrors unfold before her unmoved and numb.

She watched as the doe dropped her flare, picked it up, and then launched herself valiantly at the monstrosity. The doe's shouts reverberating over the sandstone walls woke something up in the young Praetor-Inferos. Her paws were moving and her jaws opening. With a snarl and glazed look, she launched into the fray, digging at the place where the worm met the soil. Her claws dug and scraped to find purchase through the slippery guck. She was attempting to peel away the carapace of the shielded sticky gooey worm and dig and dig and dig into its flesh with a numb madness. If these stupid adults had just done their job instead of playing fucking hero they could have come up with a plan! Her claws would scrape at the soil and slip in the goo as she made to ravage the worm one frantic thrashing bite and digging paws at a time.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

The worm didn't flinch at her torch like she'd hoped... but Fable tried to stay brave. She tried to remember everything she had ever been afraid of - that hooded creature from the long night, telling her that her cooking was terrible; the first night she had been alone after being exiled, when she went to bed hungry for the first time in memory; that sick twist in her gut, when she'd seen Noor again after so long. Noor. That was something to fight for, wasn't it? Her jaws tightened on the torch and she steeled her resolve.

She was a hunter. If even prey could fight back, so could she. Fable's eyes glittered as Lumi launched herself at the worm, and she followed after shortly. Gripping the torch, Fable pressed the burning end of it into the worm's soft underbelly until the flames guttered and hissed. Hopefully that viscous liquid wouldn't snuff it out immediately and allow the torch to do some kind of real damage.

"Speech"

Levi scrambled to hold on as his talons dug in, his head thumping with a fierce pressure behind his eyes. A viscous liquid pooled around his paws, drowning out the gold of his markings, nearly had him reeling back in disgust, but he was stubborn and even more resolute before. If it bled-assuming this was blood-then they could kill it. Surely.

At least now the others were putting a bit more gumption into their attempts to help. Except the deer, Levi would have thought her efforts were noble if he wasn't such…a dick.

"Bit fucking late for that!" Cause even if he let go, he doubted he'd be able to trot off scot-free.

He dug his claws in deeper, attempting to reach up for the flowering shelf of what he assumed to the worm's head. But once he got there, he had no idea what he really ought to do, if he could even do anything.

Gilgamesh's launching attack is only met with thick, protective tendrils that cover up the worm's now revealed mouth. Bouncing off that shield and back onto the dirt floor, he skids back a foot or so. Shoulders hunched, paws splayed, ears flat, eyes glaring upward at the monstrosity that looms over them. Enraged spittle flies through the air, covering his face and back in a shower that felt warm and sticky. Absolutely disgusting. Truly gross, but as he stared, he felt no fear. Even with the others yelling and continuing to try and pummel the beast, Gilgamesh wasn't afraid.

Maybe it was the rock that had collided with the back of his head. Or maybe it was the fact that he was growing older. He wasn't really sure. Possibly it was a combination of things. But standing there, facing the thing of nightmares, all he felt was a fierce protectiveness. If he could kill this thing, it wouldn't be able to go after his family. They could be safe. It had nothing to do with the wolves around him. They could sacrifice themselves all they wanted, but he had to be sure that he did everything to keep those he loved safe. Every moment this fucking thing was alive was another moment they weren't.

He watches for a moment as the doe head butts the worm's exposed belly. The pup clambers away at the dirt at the base of the worm. Fable even presses her fire stick into the soft underbelly of the worm, but he can't see what damage it does in the now even dimmer light. Even the little guy was digging his long talons even deeper into the worm's skin, but that still left one part. Its mouth. That flowery ugly head that still zoned in straight for him. There had to be a weak spot. What if he... pulled a Hercules?

You know. The part in the Disney movie Hercules? Where he fights the hydra, gets swallowed, and then slices the neck open to finally slay it and save the day? Yeah, what if Gilgamesh did that? There would be only one way to find out.

Inhaling deeply, letting it rush out in a whoosh, Gilgamesh surges forward. His heart thunders in his chest, his mouth goes try, his stomach tightens. Everything in him is tensing for what happens next. He would either live or die, there was no turning back. Gil barely registers what's happening around him as he leaps through the air. As he's airborne, he brings up a memory of Modesty. Of the day they met when she fell from the tree atop of him. Seeing her perfect, beautiful, smiling face for the fist time and knowing that she had to be his. The day they had their first litter. How happy and then how torn they had been to lose Jett. The day he was crowned Raid King and formed the Raiders. And every other day since that has led him to this moment. It was safe to say, he would die happy.

I'll always love you. He thinks to himself with tears brimming his eyes. This was it. His front paws land upon the worm's sticky tendrils that are even more frightening up close. Gil aims to be eaten intentionally. If the worm will swallow him whole, he would have a chance to use his fangs to slice through the interior of the worms neck toward the outside and lop off its head. It could work, right?

"speech"

The chaos of the scene only grew with each passing moment, the cavern trembling with the worm's fury. Luminosa skittered forward, adrenaline numbing the trembling of her limbs. The torch she sends flying forward misses its mark, falling and extinguishing as it slides down and into the sticky fluids that pool around the monstrous thing.

Luminosa hopes and prays that her bravery might help save the others.

But she didn't quite make it.

The worm's spiky tendrils lash out at her, faster than she can react, striking Luminosa across the chest with brutal force. The impact knocks her backwards, sending her sprawling. Blood trickles down the right side of her chest where the tendril had struck, sending searing pain across her body.

Even worse, though, was the sense of helplessness that suddenly flooded her.

Gilgamesh surges forward, his movements purposeful. His massive form cuts through the dim light of the cave, charging straight into the worm's twitching maw.

For a moment, everything is frozen and still- the worm's grotesque petals fold inward, and Gilgamesh disappears suddenly inside the parting mouth. Abruptly the slit clamps shut, the worm's body convulsing with the effort required to consume him, its body bulging and writhing against the pressure of his attacks from within.

Gilgamesh is gone.

Fable's mouth dropped open and a strangled, gurgling scream came out as Luminosa is thrown back violently. The sound, in fact, continues to pour of her as her torch fizzles out uselessly against the strange slime sluicing down the worm's body. By the time Gilgamesh's paws hit the ground running, she's run out of air and the noise has become a jagged, breathless keening. It sounds almost like she's choking when he's swallowed whole before her very eyes. She stops making noise, all of the air gone from her lungs. They burn. With a violent, gasping sound, she snaps her jaws closed and then open again to inhale a massive breath.

With a lurch back to give her some extra momentum, Fable holds the breath she'd just taken and attempts to rip a hole straight through the body of the worm. She's frenzied and thoughtless now in the face of the violence she had just witnessed. Survive, survive, survive. Her hunter's instincts had taken over, every analytical part of her brain scattered like helpless prey in the face of an apex predator. Fable snarled, and gnawed, and chewed, and wrenched her head back and forth like a rabid dog as she tried to rip straight through the worm's body.
"Speech"

Seemingly undetected Xina continues to burrow into the side of the worm. Claws attempting to scrape at the gooey flesh, her teeth gnashing at the gummy sides. The soil is mounding behind her as she claws and bites and pulls the flesh away like a leech blind with rage. The goop is covering her but she doesn't care. She doesn't see how it knocks off Levi, she's blind to how it swallows Gil. Though if she burrows further maybe she could reach its digestive tract and assist him in tearing it from the inside out. Her mind is numb to the noises and the smell and how it's difficult to breathe! She just wants to kill it! Kill it Kill it Kill it! Like the polar bear! Her fur was soaked in the viscous fluid. Survival of the fittest and she will survive!

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

Luminosa gave it her all, she truly and sincerely did. The chaos, the wolves, the worm, all of it in a balance she didn't understand her place in. She tried anyway. She can't even process it as the wind is knocked out of her, a tendril smashing against her chest and sending her clattering to the ground. Blood lets itself loose across her chest and onto the cold ground where she lay, legs sprawled and wobbly as she tries in vain to orient herself.

It hit her suddenly- she couldn't do this. They couldn't do this. She thought... wolves were so strong. With them, she wasn't sure how they could lose. One of the wolves gives up, diving into the creature's mouth like a prey too eager to end the hunt. She doesn't scream this time. She watches, frozen on the ground, unblinking. If she stayed still, her instincts screamed, maybe it couldn't see her, couldn't hear the panicked pounding of her heart, the ragged, tired breaths.

The wolves move in a frenzy, still trying, but Luminosa just stills.

Levi couldn't really see what was happening from his position, clinging on with ripping talons. But he felt the movement, the shifting of muscle and-did it just swallow? He tried to peer around the side but couldn't see a thing, didn't know who had died, maybe the deer? He wouldn't have been terribly torn up about that, she didn't have teeth and couldn't fight, what use was she?

Still, it wasn't like he wanted anyone to die. No one deserved to be worm food.

Losing his grip, instead of jumping off as was probably the wise thing to do, Levi hooked in his talons and dragged down to slow the descent, hoping to rip up sharp, gaping divots on his way down. He leapt off once he was low enough, his gaze flitting to the others. Oh- it was the Raider, no sight of him.