Ettamri’s roar did not echo, the sound muted against the snowy hills that rose all around them. It was a blessing for the party to have been on flat ground when they all sensed the incoming danger, but they didn’t have the high ground either, unable to see what, if anything, was behind the hills surrounding them. The horses began to neigh now as well and Katya, realizing that something crazy was about to happen, hopped off the tarps too, brandishing her staff as she stood beside Renauld. Small as she was, priests were trained in quarterstaff combat, and their duty, in lieu of a supportive Thief or Ranger, was to smack away people who approached a casting Mage. Her robes, thankfully, were long enough to hide her shaking legs.

[b]“UOLOLOLOLOOO!”[/b]

A roar resounded behind the hills, followed by the beating of many drums. All around, that undulating warcry resounded; without the element of surprise, intimidation was used instead. In unison, five shadows broke out from the encircling hills, each of them of irregular size. Fists, attached to bulging, elongated arms, slammed against barreled chests, as a maw full of oversized incisors opened outwards to bite at the sky. Two beady eyes, wholly black, looked down upon the mismatched adventurers while white breath blew out of a flat nose. The creatures, black-skinned with white fur covering their chests, head, forearms, and calves, were eerily humanoid, yet many times more savage than goblins and orcs. A bushy, muscled tail, as thick as their leg, whipped around behind them, and after a pause, relishing the ability to look down upon the furless midgets below, they rushed in at once, bearing primitive arms.

The fastest of them practically bodyslammed Argen, a flurry of unarmed blows raining down against the Phalanx’s shield. Animal ferocity seemed to be the calling of the beast, and even with Argen’s height, the monster towered above him, a whole two meters tall. It was also the [i]smallest[/i] of the creatures present.

Indeed, the largest were the ones that fell upon Ettamri, two three-meter hulks rising to the challenge of the armored warrior. With impressive brawn and small trees as clubs of their own, they continually swatted at her, hoots and howls communicating and coordinating attacks. They danced and flanked, the reach of their weapons greater than Ettamri’s own.

Muu too found herself pressed, put to the test against a creature that smashed at her with axe and snow, its bushy tail constantly blowing up waves of white in her direction, obscuring her vision before cutting down with a two-handed swing that could very well snap her sword in half if she was forced to block it head on.

And as for the fifth? That one had a rock. A big rock. A rock that it raised over its head, a rock that triggered all of Siwon’s fight-or-flight instincts at once.

It was a rock that flew, tumbling through the air with force that would [i]kill[/i] and [i]break[/i] anything in its path.

A rock that flew right towards Renauld and Katya.