A plume of flames shoot out, singing Astraios as it forces him backwards. They lick at Siduri's tail as she lunges forward, sending a wave of pain through her, the skin beneath the fur singing in a deep, bubbly burn.

Bellatrix briefly catches the worm's attention, but another jet of flames shoot out, burning her underbelly, and licking across Atoll's cheek, causing another deep burn there.

The wolves around the rim of the fiery crater begin to concoct a plan. They all work together to push a boulder into the pit.

Calliope slips on the rocky ground, sending her crashing nearly face-first onto the boulder. A sharp edge catches the side of her neck, lacerating her as blood begins to seep from the deep wound.

Others help push, working together to free the boulder and push it forward. Tarnish helps too, but in the process scrapes the left side of his cheek along the boulder, causing a deep gash there.

Kuroki finally pushes his whole weight into the boulder, and suddenly it gives. It rolls slowly at first- then picks up speed as it nears the edge of the hellish pit.

Outlaw's paw is caught beneath it as it begins to roll, and suddenly he's sent toppling over the edge, trapped beneath the rolling boulder. He hits the bottom of the pit with a sickening crack.

The boulder rolls, teetering near the edge of the pit before it begins to fall. It collides with the base of the monstrous creature, and it shrieks with rage. Its movements are briefly disrupted, obvious in the way it begins to flail. Though hurt, the worm is clearly enraged.

It swivels its head toward Illusion, long tendrils twitching. It begs for more of its attention, and the worm complies.

White-hot pain sears through Illusion's shoulders as those tendrils lash out toward her, slashing down with the precision of a whip toward at her left shoulder. It rises again, looming as though taunting them, ready to once again deliver what rage it still has left in it.

(Astraios finds an item, Snake Oil; Kuroki finds an item, Elixir of Agility, both added to your respective OOC accounts.)

Fire licks at Siduri's tail, but she's felt worse. Back when she was a child, her entire body was consumed by fire and lava. Nothing would ever compare to that pain.... and the pain of waking up to see that some of it had been real. It had been the beginning of her trauma and dislike for fire, but she'd overcome. She was overcoming right. fucking. now.

Seeing Calliope get injured again, a slice to the side of her neck, Sid is distracted , attention pulled from her task for a moment. "Get the fuck back, Calliope!" the pastel fae roars over the roaring of the worm. Her voice carries and a guttural snarl rips hard from her chest, her tone not one to be denied. It was something that she'd learned from their father, that voice of authority. If Cal kept getting hurt, it would distract Sid so much that they'd both end up dead. What kind of fun would that be?

None of the other wolves mattered aside from Raiders. Tarnish takes a slice to the cheek and Sid snarls at him too. Why wouldn't they all just fuck off and let her do this? Go somewhere safe where she didn't have to worry about them? She was Gilgamesh's daughter through and through. Danger be damned, she was going to keep hers safe!

As the rock tumbles into the pit, it strikes the worm and, for a moment, Sid thinks they've landed a blow against it. However, it doesn't seem to phase the worm much and it begins attacking again. There are more boulder and Sid has more strength, so she moves to the next, working to push away at it and send it over the edge and onto the fuckhead within.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

Rot Gut Whiskey's Gonna Ease My Mind

Tarnish slammed into the boulder haphazardly, focused on applying as much force as possible he didn't move his head in time to prevent his left cheek slicing open on a jagged part of the rock as he collided with it. Oh well, shit happened and it wasn't any worse than that northern bastard that tore up the right side of his face. He heard Siduri growl at him after telling Calliope to stand back. He snarled in reply. "We're not going anywhere. Either we all do this or none of us do!"

With the whole of their weight the boulder gave loose and rolled down toward the worm, colliding into the base of the beast. It seemed to have hurt the creature but didn't do the damage that Tarnish had been hoping for. Well fuckity fuck fuck. He saw Siduri race over to another boulder and he raced after her, ignoring the wetness on his cheek from his blood. He barked out to Worc and the crow flew up into the sky to join in. Picking up momentum once more Tarnish aimed to slam his chest into the boulder, not caring about the bruising that might result. Above him Worc circled, watching the progress of the wolves before diving toward the worm and aiming to peck and taunt it in order to lure the head low. If the crow could time it right then perhaps it could lure the worm's head down when the boulder was turned loose.

The boulder crashes into the pit below, but its not without incident. Tide's eyes go wide, fear coursing through his system as another member of this strangely assembled party falls in the line of fire. Holy shit. It's more serious than he even imagined it could be. Sid, Tarnish, Calliope-- all of them injured. Panic starting to rise in the boy's system. Panic that would only lead to the worst choices. As the tendrils lash out, Tide leaps. An attempt to grab hold, rip and tear. It's a risk. It's a risk, but if he can take hold of the monster, maybe he can drag it closer. Maybe. Tide has to try. The beast is hurting his family, and that was unforgivable. Reckless, yeah, but he doesn't have the time to think things through. Fear mixes with rage, a deadly concoction. So what if it means playing tug of war with a worm that's already felled two wolves before his very eyes?

Gruesome went to stand in front of the pups where he was joined by another likeminded wolf. A small, grateful smile is offered to him even as others appear and snap at him for trying to take care of the younger ones which only has him rolling his eyes but he moves off slightly, taking a few steps away from the other man and the pups just the worm seems to look at the older male. Everything stills as an unnatural silence fills the air, setting the yearling’s teeth on edge while also causing his stomach to lurch with alarm and dread.

All hell breaks loose then as the pale man who had joined him in protecting others bursts into flames and Gru’s eyes widen in horror and he lets out an alarmed shout as he stumbles away from the horrid cries of pain and searing heat. The smell of burning fur and flesh scorch his nostrils, raising bile into the back of his throat as another moves forward, sending the dying wolf tumbling into the lava and to a more merciful end than what he was been forced to endure.

Others attack but the world narrows as he franticly looks around for Terror, trying to make certain that his twin is safe in this chaos. Fire fills the space, burning away fur and blistering flesh as Gruesome stumbles almost drunkenly away, uncertain what he is supposed to do. Vaguely, he is aware of someone’s paw getting caught underneath a tumbling boulder and the sickening crack that echoed through the air as the rock ends their life. The smell of death fills the air and the yearling snaps back to his senses, angry at the beast for harming so many.

With a loud roar of hatred, Gru lunges forward, planting his fat paws onto a loose rock near the edge of the hole and shoves with all his might, taking the lead from the others and trying to bury it beneath the weight of the boulders. With a mighty shove, the huge rock loosens and begins to tumble down toward this blood thirsty worm as he hopes to speed its departure from the realm of the living.


"Gruesome Nightwing"

Art & Code © Skelle/Witchdogtor DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Kaira looks to Lyra, her eyes still stinging with tears left unshed. She nuzzled her back, letting the girl nuzzle her away even if she didn't want to leave her siblings. Her back leg hung meekly off of the ground, the burn hurt so bad she couldn't even apply pressure to the earth. For once her spirits were dimmed, and the overly excited Kaira felt odd. The fear that churned inside her was suffocating any other emotion she had, she was like a deer in headlights. Everything felt further away, more drawn out. Her body shook and racked as the adrenaline coursed through her body, still in shock the poor girl was. And then she witnessed her brother get burned, and that's when the poor scream came. She rushed on three legs over to her brother, moving past Lyra. Her eyes widened at the sight, but she was able to stomach the site better than she knew her brother would. And then she is moving to his side, aiming to push him with her. Her eyes trained on a rock in the distance and her plan came to fruition. She looks at Lyra, pointing her head towards the rock. Right now Kaira was trying to keep her speaking to a minimum, she knew she would either sob if she did, or the pain that laced her voice would make it hard to understand. She wobbled her way over to the bolder, digging out a patch behind it as quickly as she could. Making enough room for her siblings and Lyra to hunker down. And then her eyes are turning towards the beast, she is angry that it hurt her siblings. Mad at the suffering it was causing. Sad at the lives lost. The emotions bubbled inside of her body until she wailed, wailed at nothing and everything in particular. She wanted Sparrow, she needed Recluse. She longed for her and Atoll's fort. She just missed home. She kept digging, they should already be out of the worm's sight. But the sickening thought that maybe it would still see them hung to her, digging and digging until she felt the cove was safe enough. She would usher whoever followed her in, pleading eyes staring them down to trust her. She needed them to trust her. And then she was on the other side of the boulder, pushing it, and once it began to move and she hoped everyone was inside the hole she dug out she jumped in. She left enough dirt to support the boulder so it would not crush any of them. And then she felt the dirt heading in the direction it felt the coldest and began to dig, up and out. Making a hole just big enough to get some fresh air inside. And then she would hunker down, trying her best to calm the breathing that she now realized was ragged. To calm the heart in her chest that was pounding away. She didn't know what to call this. She didn't know she was experiencing her first-ever panic attack. "Talk"

They're doing it. They're doing it! They're going to push the boulder into the crater! Adrenaline surges once more, burying the pain lancing across her eye as she helps her siblings and the other wolves push the boulder forward. As it begins to slip, sliding forward, she trips. Her rear paw catches on something that forces her to lose her balance. Twisting in the air, attempting to catch herself, something sharp slices down her neck. More blood, more pain. A yelp instinctually lets out as she stumbles.

Before she can fully rise, Siduri is snarling fiercely at her. Demanding her to get back, and go away. No. Her own ferocity flares across her damaged face as she rises from the dirt. Fur bristling, teeth snarling, ears forced forward as Tarnish too yells at Siduri. Their brother is right. It was all or none. They were Raiders, thick as thieves and in it together until the end. A firm nod to Tarnish, even a whisper of a smile as she gathers more strength.

"Together," she rasps, throat dry and sore from the pain and dry air around them. It's as if the worm was soaking up all the moisture with the intense heat that radiated from its lava tendrils.

Following Siduri's lead, Calliope goes behind the boulder with her siblings. Once more lifting her paws upward, she pushes against the boulder. Heaving and shoving, using whatever strength she can muster to get this damn boulder into the crater. Digging in her hind paws, and gritting her teeth, she knew it would work. They just needed to believe.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

She dared, and the worm delivered.

Illusion staggered back, the fiery lash of the creature's tendrils scorching her flesh and sending a blistering agony coursing through her left shoulder. As if her chest was not bad enough. The pain was bad enough to blur her vision for a heartbeat, her lips pulled back fully to reveal her fangs as she cursed, a snarling sound teetering on the edge of a laugh escaping her as she stared down the monstrous thing.

Her silvery eyes burned as they locked onto the worm, manic gleam glittering all the while. Blood oozed sluggishly from the wound on her shoulder, its warmth trailing down her leg, but she paid it no mind.

Her gaze flicked momentarily to the chaos around her—the bloodied and burnt, the wounded and scrambling—but she barely registered their efforts. The boulder’s impact, the worm’s shriek, a death.

Her voice dropped to a near-whisper, intimate yet seething. "I'll give you something to rage about."Then she surged forward—not to attack but to close the distance, reckless intent a taunt in itself, daring the beast to meet her in its fury. A game, maybe.


"Illusion Nightwing"

The burst of flames and liquid tendrils shoot out! As soon as the boulder was loosed Ultyr was hot on its track, intending to use the distraction to dive in behind its molten lava extended petals. He leaps up and attempts to cling onto its long and slithering black neck, just under its massive petals. His maw is aimed at driving and hooking his teeth between the obsidian shell's hard sections. His front dull claws attempt to hold him to the thrashing worm and his hind claws aim to brace themselves on the same ridges. He wanted a piece! Maybe one of its legs to take home but having a part of its shell was just fine for him!

Boggy moved over to get a better view even as the adults tried to protect them or whatever. He wanted to see!

And he did.

The worm shot out flames, singing fur and burning flesh. Fear quickly took over as Bog screamed and tumbled to the ground, but his eyes stayed locked on the worm. Fire engulfed one of the women's faces, then the worm turned.

It paused.

When it moved, it was almost too fast to see, grabbing onto one of the splotchy wolves.

Hikaru screamed.

He screamed he screamed he screamed he screamed. Bog screamed along with him.

More wolves moved, the roaring flames falling to the backdrop over Bog's own screams. He didn't move, his body numb to all around him, eyes fixated as Hikaru's body drops into the lava. Kuroki pushed him. Why did he push him? He could have saved him! He should have helped! He should have pulled the other one away! He let him die!

Everyone was yelling. His siblings bundled together. He couldn't stop looking from the worm to the man who had pushed the other TOWARDS the worm. He screamed at him, "You killed him!" the rawness of fear and grief directing towards Kuroki. "He was hurt and you pushed him! You KILLED him!"

The adults are moving a boulder, rolling it into the worm. They push, the one murderer wolf also pushing. Another wolf falls in. It was his fault, that one wolf. Boggy barks insults at him. "It's your fault! You keep killing them!" He was indignant. Inconsolable. Needing to blame something more manageable.

The others pushed another boulder. He couldn't breathe. Which one of them was going to die next? He picks up a rock, warm and solid, and launches it at Kuroki. Then another at the worm for good measure. Each rock he threw with a scream before scrambling to find the next one, blindly throwing them in the direction of the chaos.

Havoc miraculously pulls it off, landing on the worm over the lava for a moment, teeth slashing, then pushes off, twisting so she lands on her feet, sliding, until her dull claws bring her to a stop. Through the chaos around her - wolves screaming, the stench of burning flesh and blood - Havoc laughs madly, manically, rising to a howl of exhilaration. "Fuck yeah, get it!" she half-screams, half-laughs at the scene. Her gold eyes are bright, almost feverishly bright as she preps to leap again - only to need to dodge a rock someone had thrown at her head. Well, not at her head specifically, apparently, but just chucking rocks at all and sundry. "Knock it off, you little shit, or I'll throw you in next," she snarled at Boggy. Not that she didn't like kids. They were ok. But not when they were on their way to hitting her with rocks. Even she drew the line somewhere.

With a growl at being thrown off balance, she threw herself back into the fray, trying again for the same move since it had proven so survivable the last time, and if it wasn't broke why fix it?

Yeah. Oki was having a bad, bad day. The first one had been a mercy kill, there was no helping him but this- He'd thrown his entire weight behind the shove and it had worked, sent the bolder tumbling only to catch on someone's paw and drag them under too. An accident, a cruel twist of fate and that somehow made it so much worse. He stared wide-eyed; only flinching when something hit him, both rocks and accusations of murder-

And yeah, sorry he didn't have the bandwidth to deal with two things at once right now. Cause all of that emotional luggage was just too heavy in general, least of all right now with the giant flame throwing worm, and all. He shook his head, didn't even really consider this was anywhere any kid ought to be, or anyone in general now he thought about it.

Not that he had much time, because he was on the move again, shoving his shoulder against yet another boulder with the others.

"Stay fuckin' clear of this one." he hissed, very uncharacteristically hostile.

The burn of fur and flesh on her stomach made her hiss, but she couldn't let it stop her. The pain wasn't like any she had known but the worm wasn't done. She couldn't let it kill more! A snarl and she was forcing herself forward more. They needed an advantage! Its eyes! They needed to get rid of its eyes.

A look up and a shout had her commanding the raven, Charlie. "Charlie! Take out its eyes! We need to make it unable to see where it is fighting!" a chorus of croaks had her knowing the bird had heard her. He was quick with diving for the eye of the worm. The intent to take out its eye there.

Frank was already moving with the others to other boulders. His bulk pushing at another. Her paw splayed and she moved then towards its front again. This time she grasped another rock and aimed for the eye Charlie wasn't.

"Do Not Enter" is written on the doorway Why can't everyone just go away? Adrenaline and fear spiked through his system again like a shot, eyes wide as he felt the rock begin to shift and topple forward dangerously. Paws scrambled to pull himself out from in front of the boulder as it finally came down, barely making it himself. However, when he turned to look back he noticed two things very quickly that he hadn't been expecting, the first being the body of another wolf falling with the boulder and the harsh crack from him hitting the ground. The second thing was Ultyr launching himself back at the worm like an absolute fucking moron. If they survived this, he was going to beat his ass. The smell of burnt skin and fur reached his nose, telling him that the worm had lashed out and burned others again but the real question was if anyone else had fallen, burnt to death like the last one. A glance around showed him no, more burns of course, but no one lit up like a funeral pyre. Taking that into stock and looking at the bird now diving at the beast from above, Ganymede decided to go low. Lunging forward, he skittered down the rocks’ hot surface towards the beast below with intent. He was gonna do his best to keep this thing focused on him down here so the others above could attempt to drop more stones on it. They had to stop it from leaving this area and decimating any other areas or killing more. Walk, "Talk", Think, ’Others Speaking’ Except you, you can stay.

Everything was happening so fast. Grue didn't seem to hear him when he yelled, focusing on attacking the monster that erupted from the pits of hell. Terror was small, tiny even, and found it difficult to get around the other larger wolves. Every time he caught sight of his brother between the others legs, he seemed further away. They needed to get out of here. It wasn't safe. What was he going to do if he lost his brother? Grue was more than just his brother- he was his twin, they were connected in ways other siblings weren't. He knew that he couldn't live without him, so Terror cared more about getting him away from the fray than taking care of the monster.

In his panic, he felt his ankle roll and he was sent to the ground quickly. It wasn't painful, at least not yet, but getting up proved to be more difficult than it should have been given everything that was going on. Not that he was keeping count, but the amount of times he had to duck and pray that he wouldn't be trampled was astounding. And still, every time he caught sight of his brother he just seemed so far away. Too close to the monster and it's gaping maw. He wanted to yell for him again but everything was too loud- he couldn't even hear himself think.

With what little emotional strength he could find, he forced himself to his paws and tried one more time to reach his brother. Wait, was that Illusion? Having been struck by the fiery tendril of the worm, he suddenly felt torn. He hadn't seen Illusion in months and here she was, getting hurt right before his eyes. He couldn't focus on her though, even if he wanted to, every part of him ached for Grue and himself. Grue was his, and he'd be destroyed if the monster took him from him.

"Grue! Get out of there!" he attempted to yell over the cacophony of monster sounds and attacking wolves as he attempted an approach again, hoping that Grue could hear him this time.

"Speech!"

Art & Code © Skelle/Witchdogtor DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

The worm writhed and lashed out as the others continued their assaults. He was far too focused on his own shit to be worried much about who was dying, dead, and gone. The worm lashed out, striking those around and he would take his opportunity. The Crimson Demon snarled a guttural snarl as he briefly looked about to see what was where and who was where. It would do him no good for someone to get in his way and fuck him up, now, would it? The Insomnians he knew that went by the name of Havoc launched an assault, while Illusion remained on her feet after getting struck, He had to hand it to that strange ass pack, they had guts. Stupid, but they didn't give up. A relentless bunch regardless of the odds stacked against them from what he'd seen. Much like the Raiders. His gaze flicked back up toward the kids he recognized as they sought to push yet another boulder. As they did that, he returned his attention to the flailing worm, leaping for a tendril that had struck one of them earlier. His goal was to grab on with his teeth, and use everything he had to rip it free from its body.

"Speech"

Chaos. He could hardly make heads or tails of all that was going on. Herding the kids was like herding cats and finally something within him snapped. Sure they were his blood, but they weren't his fucking responsibility, and if he didn't get over there and help the other Raider's deal with the fucking monster, then there wouldn't be anyone left to patch up when they were done. Tide and Ignis were looking to grab onto fiery tendrils while Sid, Cal and others tried to push another boulder down on it.

Narrow leg like appendages seemed to hang from its underside. They looked as hard as any other insect hide, and he could only imagine the density of them had a direct correlation to its size, but it seemed like a safer target than a tendril of fire, and if he could rip it off, then maybe he'd give into the urge to beat it with its own fucking leg. If nothing else, it might distract the worm for just long enough for the others to push the next boulder down on it. He'd have to be ready to leap out of the way when it came.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

Everything was happening so quickly. The worm drew the attention of wolves from all around, and she saw them out of her peripheral, quickly rushing in. Kaija's teeth found some purchase on the molten worm's flesh, but a moment later and she was reeling backwards, trying to avoid a lash of hot flame that shot out and singed her fur. Fuck. A snarl ripped from her chest as she tried to steady herself, overwhelmed by sights and sounds. The smell of Raiders was strong here, some familiar, others not, though she pushed those thoughts from her mind for now.

Not like she had time to do much thinking before the worm sends out another rush of flame, white-hot even from a distance. Suddenly someone is screaming, ignited instantaneously, and Kaija finds herself frozen. She watches the action, sees a wolf charging toward the stranger and shoving him down into the pit with a sickening crack, ending his suffering. More flames, more screams. There were children here, and more wolves barreling forward to try to stop this monstrous thing.

Could it leave this place, unleash its terror on the rest of the lands? For a moment she remembers the strange place she'd been last year. The lava... but hadn't that been a dream?

Its tendrils lash about, and she ducks and dodges to avoid them. Panting hard as she swerves to the side, narrowing avoiding one of those whip-like tendrils, catching sight of the group pushing into a boulder... and a wolf trapped beneath it, bones crunching. Kaija felt bile rising in her throat. Violence didn't bother her, but this? This was something otherworldly. A threat like nothing she'd ever experienced.

Another snarl rips violently from her throat as she lunges, aiming to grab hold of one of those tendrils, hoping to rip and tear before falling back on solid ground.

Some kid was screaming, calling the guy who'd put the man on fire out of his misery. "Shut the fuck up, kid, you don't know shit," she growled as she pushed past Boggy. He was just a kid. Oblivious to the horrors of the world. He needed to mind his business. Hikaru's screams echoed in her head, horrifying even though she hadn't known the man. Putting him out of his misery had been a kindness she hoped someone would show to her if she ended up in such a predicament.