[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/DmHThHw.png[/img][/center]

The group now found itself fighting not just the tree, but the surrounding Unseelie.  If it were one or the other, it'd be manageable, but combating both at the same time was a lofty challenge, and the fairies seemed emboldened by their considerable advantage in numbers.

[color=6ecff6]"I've got one,"[/color] he answered Elnith.  [color=6ecff6]"Keep them off me."[/color]

With the druid dealing with the smaller Unseelie quite effectively, Ethelred saw an opportunity to strike at the tree.  It was still attempting to pry its damaged trunk apart, and while Ethelred wasn't sure why it'd be worsening the damage, it did present an opportunity for the Frozen Knight to do some damage.

Ethelred charged the tree and stabbed his lance into the tree's hole.  There was something very odd about how this arboreal abomination was trying to pull itself apart, along with its strange words- was it perhaps trapped in a wooden prison much as Ethelred was trapped in an icy one?  If it was not an insane, murderous Unseelie, he might even feel sympathy for it.  

In any case, they needed to take this tree out of the battle before they were overwhelmed.  With this in mind- and perhaps because he was both curious about whether this thing might parallel his own curse, and because he believed in looking his foes in the eyes- he used his lance to try and pry the tree's damaged trunk apart.

[color=6ecff6]"Let's see what you are underneath all this, Unseelie!"[/color]

[@BrokenPromise][@Rune_Alchemist]