"Bloody..." Gertrude grumbled as a slew of vulture-hags emerged from the trees. Of course it couldn't be that easy. If she focused purely on evasion, she'd be safe, but she wouldn't get anything done. Nothing for it but to deal with them, though she didn't want to waste the spell Gretchen had been chanting on a bunch of crones.

Thankfully, she wasn't required to make that sacrifice. She had backup, which she'd completely forgotten about despite the fact that he was riding with her. Rolan let loose with a curious mixture that caused large plumes of black smoke amidst the hags. Normally this was the sort of non-kill-stuff maneuver that Gertrude scoffed at, but she was learning more and more that abilities that [i]didn't directly kill people[/i] could be useful too.

The crones would need to get out of the smoke, some hanging right and some left, which corralled them into a couple of nice groups. One which Gertrude would blast, and the other which Gertrude would gain distance from.

"Not too bad," she said more to herself than to Rolan, though the meaning was clear. She grabbed the broom which served as her focus tightly.

"Astral Lance!" she called out as her spell shot forth and skewered a few crones in the left line. She could have used something stronger and gotten more of them, but her other spell was nearly complete.

For once, it was not a pure killing spell. Normally Gertrude would have gone for fire, but the environment made that a difficult prospect. She liked explosions too, but with all the trees, she was likely to kick up a good amount of non-discriminatory shrapnel. The melee was large and confused enough that she was likely to kill an ally if she wanted to rain down pure destruction.

She hadn't really [i]razed[/i] anything since having to work with other people. Simple solutions fell to the curse of consideration, and she was left needing to [i]think[/i] about things. Too much thought lead, invariably, to rumination on her personal troubles. That is why it was a blessing to have a certain ancestor, even though he ran off and evidently didn't raise his kids right.

Her solution for this particular conundrum was...

"Crystal Prison!" she shouted as Gretchen completed the chant. In a wave like a stone dropped into a pond, the members of The Hunt surrounding Fanilly slowed to a stop. Crystallized. It had occurred to Gertrude that probably the best thing she could do was ensure freedom of movement for her allies, and Fanilly wasn't reaching her potential just surrounded by small fry.

Even Gertrude understood that mobility was one of Fanilly's strong suits, and if she could maneuver more freely, she could use the judgement she had been honing to be where she was most needed.

"Don't disappoint me, mistress!" Gertrude called down as she rocketed over the captain's head. For once, less a jeer than a call to action.