[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/RQaJfun.png[/img][h1][b][color=B22222]C L A R A[/color][/b][/h1][hr][b][color=gray]IFRISE FOREST — SOVEREIGNTY OF DRYADLIS[/color][/b][/center][hr]
When the earth burst to life with an overflow of malum, Clara blacked out on the spot. Not that the group would notice, because as soon as she did, a large vine swung forward and smacked her into the bushes. Just the rush of wind alone had startled her awake.

The shrubbery cushioned Clara's fall, but her stomach was not so fortunate; that vine had hit her hard. Her throat burned with acid as she flipped to her side and hurled up onto the grass, Clara couldn't keep it down anymore. At least there was no blood and nothing strange to be found, she noted with relief.

Coughing up the last drops of nausea, Clara heard something move as her consciousness slowly returned. Many things, actually. Were the trees… moving? She gawked at the way their trunks broke and twisted into the most horrifying shapes, blighted by malicious energies. Clara could only shudder at the spectacle. The trees appeared even more ravenous than the krovar from earlier!

Still trying to catch her breath, Clara looked towards the group and then to Etoile. The two of them were meant to watch the group's back, if she recalled correctly. Now the swordswoman was on her lonesome, and surrounded like the rest. Clara's muscles ached with a fiery numbness as she scrambled to her feet and tried calling out to the woman.

[b]"[color=B22222]Etoile, watch your–![/color]"[/b]

Then a rushing sound came above Clara's head. It was another tree vine, much larger and more ferocious than the one before. Still barely on her knees, Clara did the first thing, the [i]only[/i] thing that came to mind in that instant.

She crossed her arms over her head and muttered the old words.

Crystalised ether sprouted from her skin, but the vine was even quicker. A raspy scream erupted from Clara's lungs as she was slammed into the soil, the hastily formed crystal on her left arm shattering.