[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] 
Once Clara had halted Etoile's bleeding and let the woman charge forward, chaos resumed.

With terrifying speed the maleficarum lashed out, weaving through wisps of malum left in the wake of her attacks. But just as fast, if not even faster, was the young Pythia, ripping through the dark haze with tempestuous force. Her combined assaults with Zestasia and Etoile spiralled into a wild torrent of ether that would tear Clara apart if she were foolish enough to meddle as she was now. 

Instead she skeetered around the edges of their skirmish and kept a watchful eye, hoping for something, [i]anything[/i] to turn the fight over in their favour, however trivial. Looking over her shoulder to Lazulin and Pagonia, it seemed the last treeant was as good as dead. Now, if only the pain in her injured arm would wither away along with it. Just thinking about it forced another wince through Clara's lips. The thought of beating the last breath out of that stupid tree had never sounded so enticing as it did now.

The next explosion shook her out of it.

Pythia was on the floor now, out of reach of the others, smoke clinging to her coat where she'd been hit. The little maleficarum cackled as darkness coiled around her fingertips, preparing for slaughter.

There it was again, that tugging in her chest. [i][color=B22222]Not again. Not this time.[/color][/i] Clara could already feel a spring in her step as her breathing hastened and her muscles prepared to—

[i][color=B22222]Oh.[/color][/i]

It was coming for her.

Clara pivoted. Then looked away. Then ran. [i]Ran[/i], ran away as fast and as far as she could. What else could she possibly do, against that, like this? Not even a few paces away from where Clara had just been standing and the humming of malum claws had come so close it drowned out the sound of her own racing heart. If only her legs could race just as fast, just as ferociously.

[i][color=B22222]And even after I said I'd help...![/color][/i]

There was no reason for Clara to look back. She knew what was coming. It would get closer and closer until it was close enough to slash at her, slash through her skin deep, down deep to the bone, and then—

[i][color=B22222]Ah, wait... maybe if I could—[/color][/i]

The dark magi swung down and tore into Clara's back, ripping through her woolen shawl and straight past the innermost layers of her clothing. Scraps of red flew into the air as she fell to the ground with a heavy thud, unmoving.

There was the shortest moment of silence as the maleficarum stood above Clara's limp body, how fortunate that she had finally landed her first serious blow. But it took an even shorter time to notice that something wasn't quite right. A split second in which the the sunlight caught a stone's type of glimmer peeking through the layers of shredded fabric. A split second that would not go unused.

Clara burst into motion, swinging her torso off the ground and to the side, letting a crystalised arm swoop low through the momentum. Whatever the outcome of her attack, she hoped it would buy some time for someone, [i]anyone[/i], to do [i]something[/i].