[center][h3]The Chalk Prince, the Fallen Child, the Prisoner, and the Skullgirl[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Frozen Highlands - Dragonspine
Linkle’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Frisk’s [@Majoras End], Prisoner’s [@XoXKieroBombXoX] [/center]

Three Draugr, no mere shambling, infirm cadavers, but warped warriors rekindled by foul sorcery and alight with malicious intent. One raider wielded mismatched hatchets, another a heavy, two-handed [url=https://i.imgur.com/kPzC7i9.png]Dane axe[/url] blotched with rust, and the third a [url=https://thenerdstash.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/elden-ring-scavengers-curved-sword.jpg]curved sword[/url] sword plus buckler. Two Hel-walkers, icy pale blue in color with eyes that smoldered with the uncanny green-tingue flame of seior magic. Neither held a weapon, but that same strange fire crackled in their hands. With cold, indifferent eyes Albedo took what stock of these new foes that he could, but with how quickly the undead marauders emerged to assail his group, there was no time for strategy. Only action.

He leaped for the nearest Hel-walker as it began to gather power to cast his way. With its hands occupied, the alchemist had a clear shot for the neck, but rather than even raise his sword to slice at the once-human monster he lashed out with a kick to the chest. Under his blunt force a web of cracks appeared from the impact point, and the Hel-walker staggered. Albedo wasted no time as he then slammed his hilt into his enemy's head, setting it up perfectly for a bash that knocked it back over an shin-high rock and into the snow. He couldn't capitalize on the knockdown, however, as his next enemy was already upon him. The Draugr raider swung its hatchets with vicious, reckless abandon, discarding any notion of safety as it sought to carve the alchemist into his constituent components. Albedo found himself on the defense and forced backward to the rocky face of the cliff behind him as he searched for a way to counterattack.

Meanwhile, Frisk had their own problems. The Draugr warrior met the kid's charge with a brutal axe swing, dealing such a powerful blow that it stopped Frisk in their tracks and jarred their arm to the bone. If not for their shield, it was easy to imagine the child split like a log for kindling. With just one interaction the power gap between the two combatants became clear, but in the heat of the moment, Frisk wasn't about to back down. Not when they had someone to protect. Seeking to end the clash as fast as humanly possible, Frisk aimed for a critical blow at the Draugr's head, but the monster was attacking, too. Whatever trace amount of intelligence that remained in the warrior allowed it to recognize a defense that needed to be broken, and without delay it shoved its weapon forward, striking and pushing Frisk's shield with the cold-stiffened wooden handle of its axe in a big to knock them off their feet. It was then that the second Hel-walker struck, unleashing a high-pressure, almost concussive blast of icy mist to blow away whatever hope Frisk might have had of staying upright. As if smelling blood, the warrior moved in, its axe rising to descend like a guillotine upon the fallen child.

With two enemies each attacking Frisk and Albedo, and the Prisoner still too far away from the others on account of his curious wandering, that left one Draugr unaccounted for. The shieldbearer charged straight down the middle between both fights, fixated on the defenseless woman behind them. Melony's breath caught in her throat as the monster bore down on her, paralyzed by a raw, primal fear, the likes of which she'd never felt in all her life. She screamed, but as she did her fighting spirit rallied inside her. Unfreezing, she dodged to the side, and that split-second decision turned what would have been a deadly cut into a glancing, albeit bloody, blow. Shock from the pain and the cold flooded through her, but Melony fought back. Albedo and Frisk had both been pushed back toward the rock wall, which left her boxed in and unable to escape. The only path to survival lay directly ahead of her, and it meant confronting the Draugr whose decrepit blade now ran red with her blood. Another scream ripped out of her, still full of terror, but bolstered by her furious will to live.

She went low as she threw herself at the Draugr, her arms held up to protect her head, swaddled in the thick, puffy sleeves of her winter coat that just might serve as armor against a sword in such terrible condition. The monster's weapon came around in a horizontal slash that could have easily ripped her throat, but against her sleeves the chipped, dull blade couldn't do more than tear out the stuffing. Then she slammed into the undead in a full-body tackle, managing to bring it to the ground thanks to her own not-insignificant weight. In a final act of desperation Melony tried to pin down its sword arm, but the Draugr punched her with its offhand shield, striking again and again at her head as it kneed her in the middle. The cruel assault took its toll in a matter of seconds, and Melony went limp, rolling off the undead and onto her back. With her nose broken, her eye blackened, and several skull fractures, she could only wait in feeble agony as the Draugr stood to finish her off.