Elara had been among the last to start the climb. It wasn’t that she was afraid to climb up, but rather that she could climb quicker than most. She couldn’t quite deny that she was also a touch afraid of what might be on top. She’d scaled cliff faces in the past, but never while under fire, and not on a world quite like this one. The sheer height of the cliff alone made it stand out, both literally and figuratively. But eventually, after watching the others start climbing and seeing some sort of disturbance after the first two reached the top, she lost all patience. She had no idea what the disturbance was, but knew it couldn’t be good. Taking a few steps to the side to be sure to not risk being in the way of the others, she meditated for a few moments on the Force, then crouched down, only to leap many times her own height straight up, grabbing onto the cliff face. Once sure of her footing, she leapt up once more, leapfrogging up the cliff face until she stood on top, two score paces to the left from everyone else. The ones who had reached the top, at least. Most were still climbing.

She took in the scene quickly. So far as she could determine, there weren’t any mandalorians up here. At least not yet. She did not, however, like how exposed they were up at the top of the cliff. And then there was that [i]creature[/i] Knight Valsil appeared to be dealing with. Even from just a few seconds of observing, Elara saw how his attacks were almost mechanical, as if read from a manual rather than from actual experience. She didn’t know what the creature was, but couldn’t take the chance that it might be a smart and/or trained predator. textbook offenses were decent in mock duels, but not in actual combat. Both her old master and her husband had taught her that bit.

After the knight managed to injure the creature through luck more than anything else, she did not hesitate for a moment to rush toward it. It had drawn back momentarily in shock, but a wounded creature was often even more dangerous than an unharmed one. Once again bolstering her movement with the Force, she half-ran, half-leapt towards the creature, igniting her lightsaber midair. Had the long-tailed creature been facing her, it could quite possibly have appeared as if she came out of nowhere. Since it wasn’t facing her, she really did come out of nowhere. Unfortunately, just before she could land a decapitating blow, the creature shifted position, turning slightly and moving forwards. Elara should’ve predicted that, but had not done so. Instead of killing the creature, her vicious slash instead chopped off most of its tail.

A mere moment later, she was shocked to see that the creature was prevented from turning about to attack her. She didn’t see who did it, but someone used the Force to yank at the creature, throwing it well out from the cliff face, whereupon it discovered that air provides a rather significant lack of support for feet. It then plummeted down and would no doubt die upon impacting the ground below. She deactivated her lightsaber, clipping it onto her belt again. She was a bit tempted to grab the tail as a souvenir, but realized that would be a bit inappropriate. Instead she turned around and walked to the edge of the cliff, intent upon helping Knight Valsil and the others already up top to get the rest up. Unfortunately, just as they started with that again, some mandalorians far below had spotted them, for at that time the laser bolts began striking all around them. “Typical…” she muttered. The bolts weren’t particularly well-aimed, but a stray shot could be just as lethal as a well-aimed one if it were to hit the right, or rather wrong, place.