[center][h2]Geralt & Blazermate[/h2]
Frozen Highlands- Inside Tom’s Belly
Words: 1,381 [/center]

When blazermate yanked Geralt out of the water and caught him, the Witcher breathed a cold sigh of relief. “Thanks.” He grunted, looking around to try to find a good place for the Medabot to set him down. Unfortunately, between his fairly large frame and metal armor weighing them down, Blazermate’s maneuverability was not quite as good as it would be had she been flying solo, and that allowed the gigantic alligator to catch up with them and swallow them whole. 

Luckily since it was so huge and they were small comparatively, there was no injury going inside the creature. And considering how inside the alligator seemed to be even bigger than the outside things were essentially really weird. [color=0072bc]”So… Things usually don’t want to eat robots. Can’t say I’ve ever experienced this. You ok?”[/color] Blazermate said, not needing to breathe and immune to the toxic environment they found themselves in.

Groaning as he pushed himself to his feet after being eaten whole, Geralted shook his head. “Never been better.” he grunted in frustration. “Just nearly got us both killed by a giant aquatic reptile.” His nose wrinkled from the stench, which bordered on overwhelming to his enhanced senses. “Ugh. Fuck, feels like I’m about to vomit.” He said, covering his nose and taking a deep breath. Taking a look around to get a good idea of what exactly they were dealing with, he took particular notice of the thorny vines that blanketed the inside of Tom’s stomach, as well as the sloshing stomach acid that threatened to melt them both if they made a wrong move.

“Getting around’ll be a lot easier in here for you than it will for me. Can you scout out a good path for me to take to get to that?” He asked, pointing at the coalesced mass of thorns across the stomach from them.

Blazermate looked around and while on the outside she really couldn’t find a weak point, on the inside, there was a massive, massive one in the core of the thorny vines that were all around the stomach.  [color=0072bc]”Well, I found the weak point of the creature, I think. It's that knot core of these weird vines. ”[/color] Blazermate said. [color=0072bc]”As for crossing…. Uh…. I don’t really know how far you can jump or anything. I can uber you through a quick swim but thats only a few seconds. But yeah, we’ve gotta make it to and destroy that thing. ”[/color] 

“Can jump pretty far now that I've gotten used to the Orphan's strength. I'd say around a twelve-foot standing leap. If I get room to make speed, easily thirty or forty feet.” He responded, looking around. “Though given how cramped this place is, we'll say no more than ten on a standing jump and maybe twenty-five with a good run up to build speed. Can't afford to go too far and overshoot.” He corrected, not relishing the idea of an overshot directly into roiling stomach acid.

[color=0072bc]”Well, all we need to do is get to that knot over there and beat it up. Maybe we’ll kill it from the inside or something.”[/color] Blazermate said, making sure Geralt was fully healed before they continued.

Rolling his shoulders, Geralt nodded and took a deep breath, nearly gagging from the stench of Tom's insides. Staring at his target, a large piece of concrete that the alligator had swallowed, he made a running leap, easily clearing the gap and landing on the makeshift platform. It rocked under the impulse of his landing,  forcing Geralt to adjust his position lest he be thrown to his death in the acid bath below. “Ugh. Like I'm on a boat in a storm.” He complained, looking ahead to the knot across the stomach from him. He could try Quen, but even if the shield actually protected him from the acid, he doubted it would last long. If he could find a stable enough spot, he could cast Holy Lance on the knot of vines and likely be done with it, but his current position wasn't stable enough to maintain concentration long enough to channel it.

Seeing Geralt having a problem, Blazermate had an idea, although it’d be risky. But it’d get them over there right away and there was a nearby car they could swim to. Well, Geralt could swim too. [color=0072bc]”Hey Geralt, I’ve got a crazy idea, but it’ll get us over there really quick. Just get ready to swim to that floating car there.”[/color] Blazermate said, pointing out the ‘stationary’ platform. She made sure her healing beam was attached onto Geralt before summoning Armstrong to punt Geralt across the stomach to the knot, Armstrong making the concrete even more unstable especially as his eruption caused an explosion within Tom’s stomach as his kick launched Geralt over to the vine knot and Blazermate with him. And much like she had the idea for, she grabbed Geralt midair and slowed down his descent as she ubered the two making them immune to the acid for a bit as she helped him get to solid ground next to the knot so they could do something about it.

Geralt gave Blazermate a somewhat confused nod when she told him to be ready to swim. He assumed she would be using her invincibility spell on him, so he braced himself for a jump as soon as he felt it on him, only to be punted in the back by an overly-muscular former congressman and launched halfway across Tom's stomach. He barely had time to react before Blazermate ubered him and caught him out of the air. Once they were settled on safe ground, he let out a frustrated sigh. “A little warning might've been nice, but frankly I'm not sure I'd have agreed with the plan anyway, so at least it worked out.” Turning to the knot of vines, Geralt narrowed his eyes. “So, what do you think? Fire? I've got plenty of that.” 

[color=0072bc]”Sure. I’ll blast it with holy light and my projectile shield too. That shield should make it sizzle nice and quick. Uh… just don’t fall in the acid now. ”[/color] Blazermate said, zooming up to the knot and deploying her shield. As the shield made contact with the knot, an audible electric hissing sound could be heard as the plasma shield started to do its work on the knot. While not having much else in the way of damage herself, she could throw out those healing divine stars from time to time, as the initial projectile did do some damage.

Transforming into Ardor Blossom, Geralt got to work as well, charging up fireballs to launch barrages of flame at the knotted vines, individual sections slowly catching and beginning to burn.

As the flames spread and Blazermate's shield and projectiles slowly carved away chunks of the thorny vines within Tom's core, smoke slowly began to fill Tom's stomach, rising to the top of the space the pair were trapped in and filtering out towards the alligator's esophagus. A sharp exhale pulled a long plume of black, acrid smoke out of the colossal beast's nostrils as a signal to those outside that something was happening. 

When the tangled knot of cursed vines was finally consumed by flames, Tom's stomach began to rebel. Muscles contracted along the walls of Geralt and Blazermate's fleshy prison, sloshing around burning acid before they were carried up and out on a wave of bile and debris, upchucked by the magical beast into the freezing water once more, much to Geralt's chagrin and Blazermate’s…. Disgust? Her expression was hard to read as she only had eyes to emote with. 

Naturally, the two had every right to be worried about Tom simply snapping them up again, but after a few moments it became apparent that Geralt and Blazermate were no longer under attack. Blinded, badly injured, weakened, and now drained of his will to fight by the destruction of the malevolent Tangle inside his guts, the giant albino alligator could struggle no more. With a pained rumble, Tom sank down beneath the icy water to the bottom of the flooded safari zone, even the trees on his back submerged. The stagecoach would find no further opposition on its course toward the tunnel to the next area.